Wannabe1305,

If you have your heart set on helicopters, the military is the way to go. At current, the gulf-coast operators won't even take an SIC without 1000 hours of RW (at least those who are even remotely looking to hire). Try something like 2500 RW if you want to fly civilian medical air-evac.

I did the Army route. Back in 2004/2005 when I was at Ft Rucker, once you finished with the instrument phase, you could do a one day program at The Hangar or another place in Daleville or the surrounding area to take your FAA tests (it included a class in civilian/military differences) and get your paperwork for a commercial helicopter with instrument helicopter. Then when you graduated from flight school, send it in to the DPE (mine was a retired AF COL) and he, in turn, will send it in to the FAA.

I know guys who went on to gulf flying out of Louisiana - most got their minimum hours from deploying. One I know got a air-evac job after doing a gulf gig for over a year. Another I know bought a whole bunch of time in a cheap piston RW to get over that 1000 hours (after Rucker) - he got on just in time (2007) with that amount of time.

Like any flying job, it's about having the right times while being at the right place at the right time.

Good luck - and don't go paying $600/hr for an R-44!