CH47-D/FE

Hey guy's and gal's.

I am prior service Army. I recently heard that the Navy and the Airforce are starting a Warrant Officer Flight program. I heard this information from an unreliable source and am wondering if any one else knows anything about it. Thanks.

D/FE

Kikuchiyo

Just had an article sent to me that the Navy is running a Warrant Officer flight crew program. I have not heard that the AF is doing anything of the kind; in fact we're shedding pilots.

Here's part of the article:

"Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola commissioned its newest Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Dec. 1.
Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 1st Class Robert Reyes, along with 13 other Sailors Navywide, received his CWO bars as part of the Flying Chief Warrant Officer Pilot program. Ten pilots and four naval flight officers (NFO) were selected for the 2006 trial run of the program, and 10 pilots and six NFOs will be chosen in 2007."

Check www.navy.mil for the rest.

HSLD

I posted this about a year ago, it may or may not be current:

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...arrant+Officer

Velocipede

Its about time. The Navy should have had CWO pilots since the '70's.

Spongebob

No direct-entry warrants like the army...gotta be an E-5 already and apply. And it's props/helo's only.

Personally, I think it sucks. It will be like the army where you have guys in the squadron suck up all the flying because they can't/won't do the other officer jobs and the Junior Officer's are going to have to pick up the slack and will fly even less than they do now. Not too mention that flying jobs on shore duty are going to get even harder to come by.

Strictly a money deal. Warrants are cheaper than O's.

Velocipede

Just like the Army: You want to be a pilot, be a CWO. You want to be an officer, be an officer.

HuronIP

I agree with Spongebob. We've got plenty of junior officer's that would be more than willing to fly, but instead they're getting sent to Iraq or Afghanistan for a year in the middle of their flying shore tours on IA billets. I personally hope the program fails. The navy has tried this in the past with the Seaman to Admiral program. This was a direct commissioning program that allowed prior enlisted personnel to get commissioned without a bachelor’s degree. Historically the highest attrition rate in navy pilot training comes from prior enlisted personnel. Approximately 35% attrite from the program where the normal attrition rate is 12-15%. The navy finally got smart and came up with the STA-21 program which requires you complete your degree prior to commissioning and flight training. I'm all for enlisted personnel transitioning to the officer side of the house, I did it myself. Just my $.02.

rickair7777

I agree with this. There are numerous benefits for an E who transitions to O, and I'm all for it, but no shortcuts...the requirements and standards should be the same for any naval officer (4 year and ROTC/OCS).

I am not too excited about the whole flying CWO thing. There are college grads lined up around the block for military flight slots...why give them to folks who didn't quite get around to that degree?

I can guess exactly why the warrants don't get to fly fast-movers...they want to preserve the traditional breeding ground for naval aviation's senior leaders. If they are sending that message anyway...why bother?

rickair7777

Since this is an airline forum... the navy CWO program will likely put you in a helicopter for ten years...which will do you very little good as far as an airline career is concerned.

If you get P-3's/E2C2, you would be in good shape (still need to get that BS/BA for the majors though).

Spongebob

No tailhook slots, so no E-2/C-2. But, CWO's will suck up the IP slots on shore duty so they'll be fine for leaving...that said, since they have to be an E-5 to start, they'll probably be at 20yrs by the time their commitment is up.

No tailhook slots because that is where your strike leads, etc. come from.