jsfBoat

I just want to know if there are any seals out there who are commercial pilots. I'm 25, and am an E-5 in the Army and since I was a kid wanted to be a seal, and want to make this a reality. I'm thinking of taking some time and try to be one. After I transfer for the spring semester, am wanting to get into Navy ROTC and select the special warfare option. I'd be willing to be enlisted. Any thoughts?

rickair7777

There are a few that I know. Plenty of frogs get pilot licenses, but their military skills are so marketable right now that flying doesn't make economic sense for most.

If you REALLY want to do this...from you position (age, prior mil, no degree) I would STRONGLY recommend that you enlist in the navy direct-entry SEAL program. Get in shape first, then do it immediately.

- You're getting old...you're not too old, but you will need as much physical resilience as you can bring.

- Officer slots out of any source (ROTC, USNA, OCS) are extremely competetive. Also you're held to a somewhat higher standard in BUDS.

- Once you are on the teams, you can basically go get a degree at your convenience and then they will happily commission you if you want. This way you can have as many platoon tours as you can stand, and then upgrade to officer...after which you'll get maybe two more platoons and then it's off to desk jobs.

Most of the info you need is here:

http://www.seal.navy.mil/

HSLD

I'd suggest that you pick one: Pilot or SEAL and go for it.

To answer your question, I've met the rare pilot that was a SEAL but flying really doesn't fit into the job description on active duty. As Rick mentioned, if this is something you want - do it now.

http://www.seal.navy.mil/seal/osvetoverview.aspx

Sputnik

I don't want to be a naysayer but it deserves saying: make sure you want to be in the Navy, not just a SEAL. An awful lot of people don't make it through BUDS and if you don't....be prepared to swab decks. You can be the badest ass of them all, but if your knees/shins/whatever blow up, you're still in the Navy. You can be physically qualifed to remain in the Navy without being BUDS qualified. Plan A is great, but make sure there's a plan B you can live with.

Spartan07

Man I feel sorry for the Officers in BUDS. They expect perfection out of every single person in BUDS, they expect more than perfection out of the Officers. From what I've seen of it and the SEALs that I've operated with, BUDS is absolute hell on Earth. You have my utmost respect for even attempting such insanity!

P.S - I don't know your disposition and I'm not 100% on the details but see if it is possible for you to get a Corpsman guaranteed SEAL contract. My old corpsman was a SEAL contract enlistee but I don't know exactly how it works. The reason I say this is that if you fail out of BUDS (And realize now that failing is a probability!) you will still be able to go 'Green side' and operate with the good ole' USMC. The SEALs we ain't, but operating with us (And the opportunity to get on our Recon teams) will probably beat the hell out of being at the whim of the Navy and ending up behind a desk.

***DISCLAIMER*** Not that being behind a desk is a bad thing or makes your service any less important than anyone else in the military but if you are wanting to be a SEAL you are probably of the midset that you want to shoot things, blow stuff up, see some combat, and generally partake in other non-sane activities.

rickair7777

True statement. If you enlist as a corpsman, then you have some other options if BUDS doesn't work out.

But the Special Operations Corpsman training program is a whole nother extreme exercise. It is actually the Army's program for the SF medics, it is at least 18 months long IIRC. It is all-encompassing, and you learn to deal with combat injuries by repairing goats which have been shot (I can't remember if they make you shoot your own goats). Depending on what the current philosophy is over at WARCOM they may have you do the special medical training before BUDS, or maybe after. I think it might be after BUDS these days. Anyway it take still more time out of your life for training before you can get on a platoon.

Neosporin

with respect to the question and being about SEALS. I was a hard hat diver and personally know three of us as airline pilots. Also I want to ask about the corpsman comment. I know teams from Hawaii, and while operating in Korea and the PI.

The two corpsman I knew regarding this conversation, they were both Dive Med Techs. One was with SDV's and wore cammies but wore his Med tech dive pin.
What is the real progression for them, I never was concerned then.

I heard there is one at Delta.

this one is just for the frogs out there to laugh about. We had a corpsman/frog turn up at Polaris point Guam as our new dive corpsman. He wore the Trident and had all the geedunk from survival training and knew all about BUDS, etc.

Well one day in Guam the Sam Houston pulled in and my Med tech buddy with the SDV team says, " Hey I know that guy, he dropped out of BUDS back whenever, he's not a frog."
Turns out he dropped out of BUDS, rang the bell. Rigged his service record to show that he was NEC 8*** whatever and then had an assignment at 29 Palms with some Marine battalion, then was assigned to us. this true med tech questioned him, the bogus guy had just put on E6. The busted him down to E4 took away his Med tech NEC and fake Frog NEC.

crazy

please remember TWA in Lebonan. PO2 Stethem, Hoo ya Deep sea.

Spartan07

I always did see a lot of seamen(and women) playing the device and awards shuffle. There was a female corpsman at the 29 Palms base hospital that I swear had on a different device every time I went to see one of my reformed (Green to Blue side) corpsman buddies... From what I hear the Blue side can be one of the most frustrating areas of the military if you are a former Green side corpsman.

JetJocF14

It pays to be a winner.

The only easy day...............was yesterday.

LAfrequentflyer

USAF Special Operations is where you want to be. Don't waste time on the Navy. The AF is a better service all around.


AIM HIGH!!!