2loud

NEEDS OF UNCLE SAM, period! Uncle Sam's contract is only binding for you and not the uncle. Look at every drawdown (post Vietnam, post Desert Storm, and now). The good news is that the pendulum eventually swings the other way, to the extreme, where Stan cannot keep the blue side up and still makes it through the program! Timing is everything.
I've witnessed dudes getting UAVs out of 38s when I was in AETC. My advice: don't suck, better yet, don't go active duty; get a slot through the ANG or AFRes.

FXDX

And all of that is why its called military SERVICE.

F4E Mx

Also known as career suicide? Better off skipping the whole thing and just starting a career in your college major. The years you spend as a drone operator are wasted from a pilot's point of view and your college major skills will be useless as well after a certain time. The Guard or Reserve idea seems to have merit. Got to be a two-way street or screw it.

Yoda2

It's beyond me why this would even be considered. Even thinking about using folks who have signed on figuring to be pilots, especially UPT Grads, is absolutely not the way to go! It should be an emergency option and way down on the list. I recently read an article in the mainstream media concerning drone pilot staffing issues. The biggest takeaway was that the USAF was having great difficulty in recruiting to this program, coupled with a very high washout rate. I think both these issues, if true, are absurd and completely unnecessary. What the heck is going on? The military has even made use of civilian pilots on numerous occasions throughout history when it suited them. They could easily fill drone pilot positions with competent, capable, reliable and trustworthy folks and in short order. The absolute last thing in the world I would want to see is someone in the military lose a job they wanted to a civilian, though that is apparently not the case here. A USAF Colonel once remarked to me, "There is a lot of talent in the civilian world." If that is the case, which it is, why doesn't the USAF avail themselves of it? Maybe a lack of creativity is the real issue. The USAF might take the "Air America" approach; say by contacting current flight instructors. That list would be pretty easy and quick to go through, and probably yield some very good results. IMO, the USAF should not let the possibility of a UPT Grad be an option, or even leak out. If one were to expect to fly manned aircraft and then received drones, I think that would also affect pilot recruiting, morale and probably a host of other issues. In short, there is absolutely no reason for this issue; there are plenty of folks, civilians, who could be trained for the drones, function effectively and would be satisfied doing it. Although first choice should absolutely go to military personnel.

PRS Guitars

OP, are you asking about this because your kid wants to join? This is old news and currently I don't think they are even giving RPA's out to UPT students. if they do start giving them to UPT students again, it's like a polar bear chasing a group of kayaker's...you don't have to be the fastest kayaker but you have to out paddle the slowest one.

I had to give out 3 of these when I was a UPT flight commander. Aside from truly bad things like losing friends in crashes, it was the worst thing I had to do in my career. I literally had trouble sleeping for two weeks leading up to assignment night every time. It somewhat lead to a decrease in the number of students wanting T38's because they typically dropped one to each T38 class and one to each T1 class, and pith the T1 classes often 3 times larger it was a lower PK for them. With that said, I certainly wouldn't have let it stop me from joining.

By the way, there are civilian opportunities to fly these and it pays quite well. There will be more and more. If I got one, I'd do the best job possible and try to parlay it into an opportunity.

F4E Mx

Yes, they are giving out A LOT of drone slots to recent and upcoming UPT graduates as reported today in the WSJ journal (July 15, 2015). That was the whole point of my post. The USAF is losing more drone pilots on an annual basis than they are training.

Yoda2

True or not, the articles we read could sure double as propaganda pieces designed to fill up emerging civilian drone classes... Are "they" now manufacturing a drone pilot shortage, like the perennial pilot shortage! Hmmm...

rickair7777

This. Navy has never guaranteed anyone any particular job, particular airframe, or even a job at all. In the past there may have been clauses allowing the candidate to opt out of a service obligation if not winged.

I'm sure if you got winged, they could send you to UAVs for life. Nowhere in the contract does it say you get to actually ride in the airplane that you're flying, or even that get to fly an airplane at all. They *could* take a newly winged aviator and assign him to mop floors for eight years...of course due to cost of training candidates can safely *assume* they'll be assigned flight duty once winged. Except my college buddy (post cold-war drawdown era) ...he got assigned to ship's company on a CVN for three years after flight school. Sucked but he ultimately tracked hornets and that shipboard experience helped him to eventually screen for command of said CVN. Silver lining.

Yoda2

Maybe they are also attempting to get everyone onboard with the concept that they are planning to eventually get rid of manned aircraft altogether. Maybe OSHA is behind this...

PRS Guitars

For what it's worth, I'm a UPT IP and haven't seen them given out in quite a while. I don't have access to my WSJ right now to read the story. There is a rumor on baseops.net about them being assigned to UPT students again, but it's just a rumor. Tell your kid to go reserves or Gaurd. If he goes AD, tell him to work his ass off and have a good attitude. When they did give them out it was typically 2 per class, 1 T38 & 1 T1 and sometimes only every few classes even had one. It will go to the last place guy in each respective track. Feel free to PM me with questions.