Originally Posted by
hypnotika
Gee, I thought paying for flight training and having some debt is how most civilians get into aviation. I find it absurd to join the the military for the primary and specific reason of having the government cover flight training. Become an officer to have nice things, then maybe.... hopefully fly as a pilot? I prefer someone actually interested in leading/managing troops to fill that O slot. Besides this does not directly get him to his goal. And you can be certain Uncle Sam is doing talent management by selecting the best and brightest to be a pilot these days and in this environment. So, he better be WELL QUALIFIED and prepared to step up. BTW, its an honor and privilege to serve in the military.
If you are not interested in leading/managing, you have no business in a cockpit, because airlines hire potential captains. The military is a volunteer service. True, you need to be willing to serve your country, but having a bunch of debt is not how most civilians get into aviation. It may be how many civilians were conned into getting into aviation, but borrowing a huge chunk of money you will be paying interest on is stupid. It's much better to fund it over 4 years and come out with no debt than do it in 6 months and be paying back for 10 or more years. You also seem to have pretty limited view of what the benefits are, there's a lot more to it than just having them cover flight training costs, although if you can get that, that is huge. There's also taking courses while you are in the military and extremely reduced rates, getting your Master's, being able to fund things like flight training or additional ratings, because you don't have to take out huge chunks of money and "not work" for a few months, and then pay back a bunch of interest for the "privilege", and so on.