Being a Nav will most likely help your SA and airmanship as the others have said. It may not be a skill that is directly transferable on a resume or that can be quantitatively measured but it is there. I was a B-52 EWO from the SUNT days at Mather so I only did basic DR and Radar Nav then sat backward in the dark for two years with RWR gear and jammers. I went to UPT with that experience and my private. I had pretty good SA all through Tweets, but hated formation. I felt behind the 38 all the way until graduation. 15E WSOs usually do very well at UPT because of their constant exposure to the tactical environment, and I don’t recall any of them not getting T-38s at track select or not getting a -15C/E, -16, or A-10 at assignment night . Guys who come in with CFIs and possibly Regional Jobs from the ANG/Reserve as well as Nav wings do quite well also. Every now and then we get Navs who struggle. I know of a 130 Nav from about 9 years ago who got an FEB after graduating UPT and could not complete 130 training at Little Rock and this was after being a 2000 hour 130 Nav.

I went on active duty with a nav slot then found my self pilot qual on my last physical. The ROTC det said there was nothing they could do for me and to go be a good officer and nav and that I should get my shot. During the Reagan buildup before the budget cuts and peace dividend, about 80 navs a year were getting to UPT. Following Desert Storm, the first selection board that I would have been eligible for only took 10 navs. I had already lucked into a slot with my hometown ANG unit.

Unless you can find a reserve component UPT slot before you are too far down the road to being an AD officer, I would say go to Nav trng, and fight to be the best and get the F-15E back-seat, 2nd choice B-1, 3rd choice probably C-130s, and go EWO only if it gives you the chance to get the 15E or the B-1.

Thanks to the pilot shortage (self created by paying guys to get out, plus the buildup to MC-12 Liberty and UAVs) several Navs are getting the shot at UPT these days. It seems like an average of 1.0 per class right now at our base, and we run 15 classes per year. If you do the math on that counting the 3 AF bases, excluding ENJJPT, and counting P-cola, it works out to conservative estimate of @ 50 per year. It seems like Navs are getting selected for UPT about 2 years out of Nav school and getting their pilot wings about 4 yrs after finishing Nav training. Service commitments get superseded they don't add up. So if you get to UPT, you are committed to about the 15 year point.

If you don't get to UPT for the active duty, here is a way to move your dream forward.

Between deployments and on leave, fly all you can. Get your CFI, II, and MEI so that you stop renting planes (If it flies, [fornicates], or floats, it is cheaper to rent). It is better when people pay you to fly.

Try to make your second assignment someplace with good flying weather and a strong civilian market, so that you can build hours and if you are really good, make it close to several ANG/Reserve units that you would like to visit for post AF employment. Nav school teaching jobs at P-cola should give you lots of free time while minimizing deployments.

Try to Palace Chase or get out at end of your Nav commitment and go to the ANG/AFRES as a Nav. Try to get a UPT slot from the ANG/Reserve if you still meet the age requirements. If you don't get a UPT slot, the $$ you earn as guard bum/reserve trougher will continue to support your flying habit. C-130 units are your best bet for continued employment as a nav. Most ANG units fly the newer H models and will likely require navs for at least 10+ more yrs depending on the C-130 AMP really getting of the ground. If you are over the age limit when getting out and still want a shot a being a military pilot, when shopping for 130 units, look for units with the older 1978-86 model 130s and keep your ear to wall about potential upgrades to the so called "X model or AMP" or converting to the J-model. These units that go thru this conversion should get age waivers to send Navs to UPT up to age 36. I have seen guys make Major at UPT and one guy going back to pin on Lt Col after graduation at their ANG units. One guy showed up that graduated Nav school from Mather after I did Yes, they will take a 15E/B-1 WSO to a 130 reserve sqdn.

Go to someplace to teach like AllATPs who feed ab inito candidates private to ATP to the regionals to hopefully get a shoe in the door with the regionals while trying for UPT with the reserve component. You might get lucky and go to UPT as a regional pilot and go back to your employer after two years of mil leave at a much higher seniority number and be an AF pilot to boot.

I missed the hiring market of the late 90s for lack of PIC time. I thought being a mil pilot was enough. Thanks to a backlog of pilots at my ANG unit, the upgrade line was a little slow. If I had it to do over, I would have gotten my CFI ASAP after UPT and gone to one of the regional feeder flight schools to teach and maybe would have been an RJ Captain in time to get hired and furloughed prior to 9/11. Thanks to 9/11 and the resultant turmoil on the industry, I did not get hired by an airline until 2004, and that was at a regional before I got my current gig. I know 2 Navs who got out when I did in 92 and did not go to UPT, one got hired by ComAir in 97 after doing quit a bit of CFI work, one was a Chief CFI at a part 61 FBO/School, went on to do various other things to include on demand 135 Charter and contract freight work, but they all still have jobs at big companies today and are not in any danger of furlough unless something else bad happens to the economy. The ComAir guy left them and is now a Captain at a Fractional and doing quite well, the other is a Captain at my current employer about 8 years ahead of me on the seniority list. They still fly as Navs for the guard because of the camaraderie and to keep their mil pensions alive and to have second income potential for strike/furlough insurance.

Good Luck, hope this helps you.