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Questions about a carear in the NAVY
TimberWolf
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California, United States
Member Since: July 15, 2002
entire network: 225 Posts
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Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 - 01:44 PM UTC
I am wondering what it will take to be a US NAVY helicoper pilot.
It's a dream I had ever since I was 10 years old (now 16) and want to join the great US NAVY and see the world too :-)
What corses should I study in collage?
Any special collage I should go to?
After collage were should I go and what should I ask for?
Any other things I need to know?

I cant wait
Whiskey
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Texas, United States
Member Since: May 30, 2002
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Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 - 05:59 PM UTC
Study Aerospace in college and take Navy ROTC if you want.
Honestly it doesnt matter what college you go to because you end up with the same result.
If you want more answers for more questions go down to your local Navy recruiter and ask him about Navy College Scholarships, NROTC, and what the requirements are for a Helicopter pilot. Or go here to learn about being a pilot and an officer in the Navy.
http://www.navy.com/jsp/career/career_details.jsp?cid=2&pid=1

Good Luck my friend.I mean it too, from one aspiring pilot to the next.
Sabot
Member Since: December 18, 2001
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Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 - 11:42 PM UTC
The Army has a program "high school to flight school" where a graduate goes to warrant officer school and then to flight school. At least in the Army the CWOs get to fly a lot longer than the commissioned officers.
Whiskey
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Posted: Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 07:44 AM UTC
Yep, Rob is right.I even looked into that program and if I end up screwing up in college that will be my back up plan.

Its called Warrant Officer Flight Training and you must be 18 years old, a high school graduate, or have a general equivalency diploma (GED) plus a minimum of 15 semester hours of college credit.

Additionally, you must be a U.S. citizen, score 90 or higher on the revised Flight Aptitude Selection Test and achieve a General Technical score of at least 110.

You must undergo a Class 1A Flight Physical Examination approved by Fort Rucker within 18 months of Board Selection by USAREC and must never have been eliminated from any military flight-training program.

You must be willing to incur a six-year service obligation from date of appointment as a Warrant Officer. Once accepted into the program, you will recieve pay at the rank of Sergeant while attending Warrant Officer training. Candidates will be appointed to Warrant Officer One, upon completion of a high-stress six week course of instruction at Fort Rucker and will attend flight school as a Warrant Officer.
Tin_Can
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Member Since: January 26, 2002
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Posted: Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 08:35 AM UTC
The Navy does not have a program similiar to what their describing for the Army. The biggest thing for the Navy is getting into Flight School. There are only two ways to do so:

1. Laterally transfer from another Officer community into the flight community. I've never heard of anyone doing this.

2. Be in a position to be able to choose Flight School during service selection at your commissioning source. The commissioning sources for the Navy would be ROTC units, Naval Academy, Officer Candidate School and STA-21 (only available to enlisted personnel trying to get a commission as an Officer). I am unsure what the process is for entering Officer Candidate School but you do have to be a college graduate. The ROTC units and Naval Academy are four-year programs with service selection (this is when you choose what kind of Officer you want to be-Pilot, Seal, EOD, SWO, etc.) occuring in the 4th year (I think). Service Selection is a competetive process that is based on many items the least of which is grade point average, class standing among your peers, military grades and so on. The higher you are with respect to your peers the better chance you get at selecting what kind of job you want to do. It is certainly not guaranteed that you will be able to goto flight school. Once at flight school it becomes fuzzy for me (because I've never been) but I do beleve airframe selection is based on grades and ranking as well. I think the top students do get to choose the airframe they want and they generally choose the pointy nose planes. As you go down the list you move from jets, to props and then to helos.

I'm not 100% on the above with regards to flight school but can find out as I work with several pilots who fly jets (Hornets, Tomcats, S-3 and EA-6B), props (C2 and E-2C) and helos (H-3's, H-53's and H-60's).

My brother-in-law is an Apache pilot in the Army so I could squeeze the specifics for the Army from him as well.

***on soap box***
The path isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination but very rewarding (in my opinion) for the committed. That goes for service in the military in general as well.
***off soap box***