An aircraft usually has a variety of missions capabilities. So the two seat hornet is slightly more mission capable than the single seat (I can't remember exactly how). So basically the single seat guys are just more task saturated as they do a lot of the navigating that a Flight Officer would be able to help out with in a dual seat. In the EA18 Growler, however, the only option is dual seat as that jet is designed to jam radar and the FO is the main one doing that.
If I was younger and fitter...This would be a cool, grueling, but ultimately fun job for me. Tracking the submarines, then dropping the airborne torpedoes in Poseidon.
Pre-Flight Class 30-64 . I made the program as NAO , later changed to NFO . I know stone age LOL. EXETREMELY PROUD to have flown rightseat in EA1F's ! Who knows what that is LOL or where the Gulf of Tonkin is ? ?
I was graduated as SNA in the early 80's but wound up in the NFO pipeline following a 3rd eye exam...still a lot of fun but being an Officer is a lot of responsibility and you have to be the example/leader...I was not always the boy scout of the bunch ;)
It's pretty close. You take the same test and the medical requirements are very similar. A lot of people DQ'd for Pilot because of vision and go on to be NFOs.
It certainly is hard. Very hard! Probably more so, in many instances, than pilot. The NFO ultimate becomes the Mission Commander/Co-ordinator. NFO’s require a different array of aviator aptitude skill-sets. At the end of the day, both the pilot/s and NFO/s, work as a cohesive team to achieve the mission.
That’s the story, really. It’s true that NFO to NA transitions are rare. The Marine Corps selects one or two a year despite a pilot shortage and an over abundance of WSOs while two seat squadrons are decommissioning. I applied twice and the Marine Corps decided to keep me as a WSO. My obligated service time was up after 6 years, so I applied to Air Force UPT and got selected, then did an inter-service transfer. That process was complete one year ago today. Now I’m flying T-38s as a student pilot.
@@BobbyBleacher I think you were an instructor when I was going through VT-86! Do you mind sending me a PM on the process you took for the inter service transfer? I have just over 2 years left of my obligated service and am always looking at different options.
Reverb2005 You have to either go to university at the USNA, and graduate which you can then pathway to become a NFO, and get your training. Or you can get a bachelors degree (at least, and I’m not really sure in what) at a university and then apply to OCS. Not really sure how OCS works, but you can do some research. It just takes a couple minutes search on google. Don’t take everything I say for word though, I’m only in HS so I’m learning about all of this too haha.
Nobody wants to be an NFO. They are either ROTC or Academy guys who got their second choice, or OCS guys didn't have the eyesight or ASTB score to be a pilot.
@@adindaningtyas9600 Yeah same thing happened to me in 2019. It's been that way for a few years. But you'll love it. Lots of cool missions here, nothing to be disappointed about.
Bruh as long as you get a college degree that's all you need. So many ppl apply with degrees like music or history, nothing math related. It depends more on your ASTB scores and if you pass medical.