Originally Posted by
Sputnik
As a brand spanking new airline guy I will attest to the fact that despite the similarities inherent in flying planes, there's a world of difference between airline and military flying.
Yaz,
Never forget that flying the airplane is secondary to accomplishing the mission. Getting the bombs on the target on time, working the BARCAP or covering the Alpha strike is what you're signing up for.
And if there's no jet pipeline seats the week you happen to finish Navy Primary, you could just find yourself flying P-8s or even helicopters.
Navy flying is all based on mission accomplishment and, above all, "Needs of the Navy." I wish I had a buck for every time I heard that phrase. I know a guy who ended up flying helos even though he was the number one guy the week he graduated Primary.
No jet slots, 5 multi slots and 1 helo slot. The other 5 guys got the multi slots. Why? 3 were married and 2 were ex-enlisted P-3 aircrewmen. He was the only single guy and it was cheaper to move him from Corpus Christi to Pensacola for helo training and it was the end of the fiscal year and moving money was tight.
That is how Navy selection works, like it or not. I've also see weeks where there were ONLY jet slots and some pretty weak sticks ended up going to TACAIR. Granted those guys either washed out or ended up in S-3s.
That said, if I had it to do all over again, I'd check out ANG squadrons that fly the airplane you want to fly. If you get picked up there, you're pretty much guaranteed to get what you want not suffer the vagaries of the "Needs of the Navy."