Posted: 3/18/2008 8:50:36 PM EDT
| Doesn't the Army have pilots? I was talking to a recuriter today and he wants me to be an apache pilot. but then I was talking to a guy I work with that was a ranger and a recruiter and said he had no idea what the other guy was talking about. |
You sure your coworker isn't a poser? Anybody who's spent two minutes in the Army knows that the U.S. Army has a very large aviation fleet. Who does your buddy think flies those aircraft? (By the way, the Army has fixed-wing aircraft, in addition to their many helicopters.) Heck, Ft. Campbell, KY has so many Army helicopters on post, that if it were it's own country, it'd have one of the largest Air Forces in the world. The recruiter probably told you about WOFT, Warrant Officer Flight Training. I can't believe your co-worker / former-Ranger/Recruiter buddy isn't familiar with the program. It's how the Army gets many, if not most, of its pilots. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that your co-worker was an 11B1V (Ranger-qualified Private E-1 through Specialist), who did a very short tour as a Hometown Recruiter in between AIT and Airborne School. Those tours are something like 14 days. It'd be about the only way a "recruiter" couldn't be aware of WOFT. |
| Yes the army does indeed have Pilots. Apache, Chinook, Kiowa, Blackhawk etc. Either the guy you work with was messing with you or he isn't who he says he is. In order to be a helicopter pilot in the Army you do have to have a Warrant Officer or regular Commission pay grade. |
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im not sure what he was, I believe him though. hes not the one to be lying about stuff. He said recruting was the hardest thing he ever did. oh well. I told the recuriter I was about to graduate with my degree in biology, so that kinda got him excited and then I told him how I scored for the nucular program for the ASVAB and I thought he creamed himself. it was kinda funny. He said I could do military intel. or whatever I wanted. I told him it would be cool to fly an A-10 or a specter gun ship. and he said I was to tall but I could fly an apache. That doesn't make sense to me. on a side note do they perfer certain degress over others? |
If you want to fly jets or an AC-130, the person to talk to would be an Air Force recruiter, they'll get you hooked right up. Apaches would be pretty cool man, you wouldn't lack in the fun department at all I'm guessing. |
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Yes, we have pilots; but you won't be flying anything unless you're a Warrant Officer or a Commissioned Officer. Essentially, he's full of shit if he's promising you a four year enlistment of flying AH-64 helicopters. Also, the Army doesn't fly A-10's, the Air Force does. |
After talking to pilots the Kiowa sounds way more fun. And yeah Ft. Campbell has a shit-ton of helos. I'd love to go back there. |
| thanks for the info guys. That one of the big deals. im not real big on a multi year commitment. I wish it was like cable, a month to month kinda deal. lol. Im actually going to go talk to him more about reserves though. because I still want to be a Game warden. |
If the school was accredited the degree subject matter has no relevance from what I've gathered... |
Enlisting with a four year degree will make you a SPC. (Specialist). It's a step above a Private. If you have completed at least 90 college units/hours, you can apply for OCS (Officer Candidate School). If you haven't started college yet, or aren't too far into it, I recommend checking out Army ROTC. You get a college degree (paid for by Army) and a commission as an Officer (2nd Lt.) upon graduation. You will be an Officer and can then actually get to fly rotary wing aircraft (the Army flies very, very few fixed wing aircraft, and none of them are attack aircraft as far as I know). |
The general rule is armed fixed wing belong to the Air Force. Unarmed fixed wing can belong to either... Helicopters are mostly an Army's area, but the Air Force has some, armed and unarmed, as well. |
  The recruiter doesn't want you to be anything... What the recruiter wants is your signature on his piece of paper. ~Dg84 |
That's what I thought, but Belmont31R's statement made me think there were fixed wing attack aircraft I was forgetting about or something. |
YES The Army has LOTS of pilots... 90+% are helo pilots... They are also the only service that does NOT require you to be a commissioned officer to get in the cockpit, as they allow warrant officers to fly... And the requirements to be a flying warrant are basically graduate from HS, convince them you're smart enough, and pass WOCS... You CAN get contracted for flight school straight off the street, with or without a college degree... However, as with all military flight schools, your choice of airframe is based on your class rank in flight training... All your contract gives you is a ticket to WOCS and (if you graduate) flight school... Almost NO ONE goes to regular OCS for Aviation, unless they were a warrant first, so don't bother with that... Besides.. Aviation LTs fly desks more than helos... P.S. They really, really need helo pilots... |
The army used to have some recon fixed wing aircraft that looked an awful lot like attack aircraft, I think... I don't know if they still have such things, the reference I remember was Vietnam era. |
No, he wants you to be: 1. Medically qualified 2. Able to pass the ASVAB 3. Willing to sign.   After that, he really doesn't care where you go or what you do. You know how many guys out there left for basic thinking they were just a few months from being Special Forces or flying attack helicopters? |
Key West 1948: Army may have NO - ZE-RO - armed fixed-wing... They have ALMOST NO fixed wing of any kind - just a few light-twins (generally flown by the Army Reserve), and a few recon birds based on King-Air turboprops... And a goofy looking small transport called the Sherpa.... Every major fixed wing platform that works with the Army - C-130, C-5, C-17, A-10, etc... ALL of those are Air Force... |
Yup... Not to mention they get to do really, really cool shit. Risky in urban warfare... But not all that much more than a typical combat role right now. But if we get into another "shooting war" with a powderful nation, helos can have very short lives in those environments... Just something to consider. |
OV-1 Mohawks... They were unarmed... The MARINES had the OV-10 Bronco, which WAS armed - but the Marines are allowed to have organic fixed-wing air... |
I'm an airframe mechanic... For an OH-58 unit... We are VERY lucky that Hadji generally fails basic rifle marksmanship... There have been some VERY close calls involving PKM & AK fire & our birds... And yes, 'armored' helo is a misnomer - they have ballistic plates over critical areas (think trauma plates from body armor), but actual armor just weighs too much.... |
Not all OV-1 Mohawks were unarmed:  They were supposed to be unarmed, because of the Key West Agreement (document which outlined the roles of each service's airpower), but Key West was frequently ignored in Vietnam. (At least by Mohawk drivers. They used the excuse of needing 2.75" WP FFAR's to mark targets for CAS. That quickly evolved into MG pods, bombs, and rockets other than WP.) |