The risk with signing up as an enlisted member is that you may be stuck being a loadmaster for far longer than it would take you to become a pilot. I know a guy who went that route. He completed flight school under the GI bill while being a loadmaster in the guard and then was stuck with that job for four more years after completing school.

Is he a Pilot now tho ?

Did the unit hire many others from outside the unit while this guy was applying for the program from the inside?

Just like an airline interview...it's just business. If you get offered a job that you prefer later, as long as you haven't signed anything, you can go with the their unit. If they ask if you are applying anywhere else, be honest. If they ask if both offer a job, who will you take, say the one at which you are interviewing at the time! Just realize that if you accept one job, then jump to another one two weeks later, while they understand, you could burn that bridge a little.

This is exactly what I was planning on doing. Thanks!

I can't speak for Guard and Reserve life, where I assume units tend to be more close-knit and family like, but in the active duty world it seems like the worst things someone can do who CAN potentially be competitive for a UPT slot is enlist. Like it or not, there was, is and always will be two different worlds for officers and enlisted. I've known people who've gone every route to go in military aviation. Once you're active duty enlisted, they are not likely to ever let you become a pilot. You can become a maintenance or logistics officer or something else quite easily, but you're just not the same as someone on the outside looking in.

One is a civilian pilot applicant, the other is an enlisted dude who wishes he could be a pilot. The latter sums up a substantial portion of the United States Air Force.

Again, I don't know the guard world. I'm just offering a differential opinion as I've seen it go down.

It is different in the Guard. Each unit is different, but I haven't seen an "external" hire in our unit in 12 years.

My experience is the same.

This isn't really the case, we do see prior enlisted at UPT. Though, I don't know what the percentage is of those that actually apply from the enlisted ranks, but it does happen.

I'm actually in charge of the hiring board at our unit this year. We're interviewing next week. Just some thoughts off the top of my head. We hire both from within & off the street at the same hiring board. We go out of our way to make it as fair as possible so no one group (prior enlisted folks within the unit) have an advantage over enlisted applicants outside the unit or civilians applying with no prior military experience.
As far as applying to multiple units goes we encourage it. It shows that the applicant has the drive to really serve/fly in the military somewhere and we explain to them that the culture is different in the units throughout the country and the fit may or may not be good at one particular unit or another.
I will caution you about the way to get to the airlines comment. If discovered during the interview that that was the premise for applying to the unit then that would most likely result in non-selection. We need people willing to serve with the understanding that they may be called upon to give their life for their country. The Guard is way different then in the past and we just cannot afford to hire people whining when asked to deploy for up to six months at a time in some of the armpits of the world. I get it. I'm a major airline guy as well but still deploy when called upon without complaint. ( OK without complaining much!). Our unit's philosophy is your family comes first, civilian job comes second, and the Guard comes third UNLESS we get activated then those priorities need to change. Sorry so long winded. Hope this helps someone.