I have been looking into the Air National Guard in the past few days and I was curious if anyone here had a perspective on the topic.

A short background on myself: I am a 24 year old FO with Mesaba. Bachelors degree in.....flight ops. (Blah) Oh, and with significant college debt.


I am trying to gather as much information as I can before I go to a recruiter to ask questions... I know how used car salesmen...I mean...military recruiters can be...

A few questions:
-I am thinking that I could use this opportunity to train on another career field... IE I might look into pilot positions, which i hear are impossible to get unless you are connected, but I think it would be worthwhile to diversify myself a bit. Is this smart or foolish?

-I hear that officer positions are hit and miss with the Air Guard too...would it be worth enlisting? Or is it best or even possibly to only shoot for an officer position of some sort?

Thanks in advance!

 

You don't need connections, I had none...they do help, so shake some trees, maybe your uncle knows someone who flies in an ANG unit...don't forget about the AF Reserves...I highly recommend NOT enlisting unless you are serious about getting on in another career field but even then, I don't think it's worth it, no offense to any enlisted personnel out there. Do some searching on this board and you'll find plenty of info...

 

DO NOT, repeat DO NOT enlist. Go to baseops.net and there is a link to ANG units having UPT boards, there are a ton of them out there. Great opportunity for networking when you get one with an ANG units.

 

I have to agree. If you want to fly and already have your degree there's no reason to enlist. There's a ton of info out there these days including this site, baseops.net, wantscheck.com, aptap.org...

Recruiters do not hire pilots in the guard. For any unit you are interested in you need to find the officer/pilot in ops that is in charge of that. Recruiters will end up organizing your paperwork if you are selected to meet the hiring board at most units.

If there was really a career field you were interested in that only enlisted do, I don't see anything wrong with serving in that capacity. But as a pilot, the clock is ticking. You have less than 6 years to start UPT without a waiver. Most units hire 1-2 years prior to your UPT start date. Add that to how long it may or may not take you to get an offer and you'll see why it's better to go for a pilot slot now as opposed to later.

 

In addition to baseops.net and wantscheck.com, contact some units directly and ask to get on a contact list about UPT boards, because some units don't post on baseops.net/wantscheck.com .

 

Purchase a book called, "The Pilots Guide to Flying in the Guard and Reserve." The authors last name is Black. It is your one-stop-shop for all the answers to your questions. It even contains phone #s, addresses, points of contact, airframes, missions ect. for every ANG, AFRES, USN/USMC Reserve and Army National Guard flying unit in the country.

http://www.jet-jobs.com/publications/guard.html

This was my bible while applying to Guard units. Definitely worth the $$ in my opinion.

 

Along those lines, when you do call the recruiter, you need to be very specific that you want to speak with an officer recruiter. The Guard and Reserve have specific recruiters who deal with off-the-street officer accessions (recruiting). You want to talk to one of those folks first (actually going to base ops and finding a few units that interest you and talking to them would probably be an even better first step). If you just call the local recruiting office, the person is most likely going to come up with some great line to try to talk you into enlisting (nothing wrong with that if that's what you want, but if you want to be an officer/fly, that's not who you need to be speaking with).