Best decision I made in my life! 11B3V SSG Airborne Ranger to a Wobbly One W-1. OH-58s, UH-1s, T-42, C-12, and RC-12. Retired as a CW5. 22 follow on years with the FAA as a second career. Now enjoying retirement. Triple dipping.
Less than 8,500 views and this is life changing information. I was a Huey crew chief but really wanted to be a pilot but in the 1980's information was very limited. Thanks for informing the people that want to be informed.
I'm a retired CW3, and I applied for Warrant Officer flight starting in my 7th year (25 years old) from 1990 - 1994 when I was an enlisted soldier. It's the only thing I ever wanted to do. I had a stellar career up to the point when I started applying for flight school. When I first applied in 1990 I had a 130 GT score, multiple 300 PT test scores, Excellent NCOER'S, Pass my flight physical with flying colors, the flight test scores were different back then, but I scored a 123 (which I was always told was a very good score), I was interviewed by senior aviation warrant officers for my recommendation letter, and I felt very confident that I would be selected. But unfortunately for 4 consecutive years, I was fully qualified "not selected", a total of 4 times. For the life of me I could not understand why I was passed over and never selected?? Still to this day some 30+ years later, I still don't know. I remember being hurt and so disappointed every time the board results came out and I was passed over. I ended up applying for warrant officer in my military intelligence field and got selected my first board. I remember being at Ft Rucker going through training and talking to some of the individuals who were going to flight school after the warrant basic course and I just couldn't believe some of the people that were selected to go to flight school. That made my multiple times applying even worse mentally, but at the end of the day I still became a Warrant and did very well for the Army and my country, but it still stings every time I see a UH-60 flying overhead, and I often say, that should have been me.
I attended Army Flight School in July1969. Graduated May 1970. Assigned to 159th Med Detachment, Cu Chi VNM. Most rewarding job I ever had. Retired December 1985. Think of my aviation brothers often.
The bit about finding a way to get the checklist done really got things in motion for me. Initially I was that person that looked at the list and just sighed, this video gave me that last little push to persevere. Low and behold I just got selected for WOFT. Keep doing what you do, this stuff truly is life changing.
How high was your ASVAB GT and SIFT score? How many recommendations did you use? How did the medical go? How did the selection go down? I have less than 20 hours fixed student PPL wing flight time. Been studying and plan to take the civilian WOFT route. I am absolutely terrified about the success rate I've seen, and what happens if I don't get selected: they got my ass for ten years regardless. I'm OK with the 10+ year commitment as long as I'm selected. Just looking to see if you and/or anyone has any insight on any and/or all the above and better. Especially on the timing with your packet, selection, and what your options are if you don't get selected.
this is exactly what I needed to know! I'm a Flight Instructor on civilian side, hoping to fly helicopters for SAR in the Coast Guard in the future! thank you!
If you are a Staff SGT with 13 years service, You are guaranteed to finish as a Warrant Officer before being passed over. That is the reason. It is not fair to others who need to promote to stay in. I was from Class 87-15. Many became W-5s with over 30 years warrant service. Many in my class were passed over for W-3 because of the draw down after Desert Storm. I was assigned to Medevac at Ft Stewart, GA 3/498 Platoon. Company HQ was located at Ft Benning, GA. I was in the old system where we did not become warrant officers until after graduating from Flight School. The black Hawk is one of the most aerodynamically and fuel inefficient aircraft in the world.
When I was in Desert Storm, the attack helicopter battalion commander wanted to pull the trigger on the fist kill. It wound up being friendly fire. OOPS! I feel for the families of those lost during the incident.
Getting tracked into Instructor Pilot or Safety is essential for getting promoted. Line pilots get rated on additional duties. IPs and Safety Officers get rated on their aviation jobs.
Getting passed over for promotion to W3 is a good possibility if the manning numbers go down. The airlines are hungry for good pilots. The army is doing everything they can to retain pilots.
I'm currently in process of going WOFT and am just waiting to be able to do the flight physical. It's taking a while to get scheduled as it's backed up at the only two locations close to me where I can get it done. Hopefully I'll get it done soon so I can go to the boards this coming January.
Hated medevac, 498th at Benning 84-85, on duty for months at a time, rarely flew. I had to pull a sneaky fast one to escape and not let the command try to block my PCS to Rucker for IP duty. A nice old lady at Benning officer records agreed to sit on my orders until I returned from TDY. I had 3 days left to clear and move. I retired in 1998, CW4 IP/SP/MP/ME, did 22 more years DoD contractor doing FW logistics. Overall, a good ride!
@@ExtremeRecluse The WO management system really sucked back then. My only praise is for getting me out of medevac/benning. They forced me to go maintenance after tracking IP, then pulled me back to Rucker as a NVG IP for gulf war 1 in 1991. Then emergency PCS'd to Korea in 94 as a maintenance officer, only to learn after arrival that the unit was shutting down! DA did not know despite DA message. I had to pcs one more time in Korea to retire. Luckily, it was to a MI unit and that introduced me to the MI mission and FW programs that were always funded.
