This Former EWO's regrets
K,
I went on active duty with a nav slot then found my self pilot qual on my last physical. The ROTC det said there was nothing they could do for me and to go be a good officer and nav and that I should get my shot. During the Reagan buildup before the budget cuts and peace dividend, about 80 navs a year were getting to UPT. Following Desert Storm, the first selection board that I would have been eligible for only took 10 navs. I had already lucked into a slot with my hometown ANG unit.
Unless you can find a reserve component UPT slot before you are too far down the road to being an AD officer, I would say go to Nav trng, and fight to be the best and get the F-15E back-seat, 2nd choice B-1, 3rd choice probably C-130s, and go EWO only if it gives you the chance to get the 15E or the B-1.
Thanks to the pilot shortage (self created by the McPeak era) lots of Navs are getting the shot at UPT these days. It seems like an average of 1.5 per class right now at our base, and we run 15 classes per year. If you do the math on that counting the 3 AF bases, excluding ENJJPT, and counting P-cola, it works out to conservative estimate of @ 75 per year. It seems like Navs are getting selected for UPT about 2 years out of Nav school and getting their pilot wings about 4 yrs after finishing Nav training. Service commitments get superseded they don't add up. So if you get to UPT, you are committed to about the 15 year point.
Just so you know, the so called experts say the 15 year point is the break even point on airlines vs 20 yr retirement. If you separate at 15 years and forego your pension, and if it takes you almost a year to get a major airline job, you will have earned at age 60, the same $$ as a person who stayed for a 20 retirement, then got out and took a year to get the same major airline job. This factors in the first 3 years of low pay that it takes you to reach what you were earning as 15 year major, and includes taking the current bonus as 10 year captains to stay until 20 years. This doesn't include going to the Guard/Reserve and the $$ you earn while you are a regular participant and the retirment check that you start drawing at age 60. So if you get an active duty slot to UPT after Nav training, you are breaking even on lifetime earnings if you get out at the 15 year point, and may be a little ahead if you can get a reserve job and an airline job right when you get out.
A little clarification on the Reserve assignment system. You can be assigned to a reserve unit as a member of the active air force. You still belong to active duty, they pay you, and you get another assignment at the end of your 3-4 years, unless you are separating from that assignment. Right now the 130 pilot system is a little over on new pilots, so guys from Corpus T-44 track are getting this good deal as their first assignment. You can go to the reserves early, but it comes at a price. This process is called Palace Chase. You agree to extend your commitment by some multiple, but serve it in the reserves. This is because you are no longer considered a full time servant and they want to get something close to the same amount of productivity out of you. Right now, if pilots can get released, the commitment is tripled. (It might be double for Navs) So if a pilot gets out 3 yrs early, he/she now must serve 9 more years in the reserves.
There are three types of slots in the ANG/Reserve: AGR, ART, and Traditional Reserve. AGRs are on active duty orders and are basically the same as regular air force. They are just getting paid by the reserves, and almost never get PCS'd and earn retirement the same as the active duty. ART (Air Reserve Technicians) are civil servants on the GS pay scale. Both of these don't come easy to someone walking into the unit just off active duty or straight out of flight school. Usually they go to people who have been around a while. These people are there everyday; and run the unit, take care of training requirements, and get airline guys recurrent when they have been away on vacation or at their real jobs for long periods of time. Everyone else is called a traditional reservist. These are the often mislabeled "weekend warriors." You only get paid when you work. I won't go into the pay system because that alone is a separate novel. I will say as an aircrew in this busy world where the reserve component makes up over 40% of the airlift/tanker force, you can make plenty of $$ doing this and not have another job. This is called "bumming" in the guard and "troughing" in the reserves. Budget plan for 50% of what an active duty person at your paygrade earns, and expect to earn 75%.
If you ever have to choose, try to get into an Air Guard Unit over the Reserves. The pay systems are identical, but it just seems like the ANG is a little easier to squeeze for $$ as a bum and is a lot more laid back.
If you don't get to UPT for the active duty, here is a way to keep your dream alive.
Between deployments and on leave, fly all you can. Get your CFI, II, and MEI so that you stop renting planes (If it flies, f---s, or floats, it is cheaper to rent). It is better when people pay you to fly.
Try to make your second assignment someplace with good flying weather and a strong civilian market, so that you can build hours and if you are really good, make it close to several ANG/Reserve units that you would like to visit for post AF employment. Nav school teaching jobs at P-cola, or Randolph give you lots of free time with no deployments.
Try to Palace Chase or get out at end of your Nav commitment and go to the ANG/AFRES as a Nav. Try to get a UPT slot from the ANG/Reserve if you still meet the age requirements. If you don't get a UPT slot, the $$ you earn as guard bum/reserve trougher will continue to support your flying habit. C-130 units are your best bet for continued employment as a nav. Most ANG units fly the newer H models and will likely require navs for at least 15 more yrs. If you are over the age limit when getting out and still want a shot a being a military pilot, when shopping for 130 units, look for units with the older 1978-86 model 130s and keep your ear to wall about potential upgrades to the so called "X model" or converting to the J-model. These units that go thru this conversion get age waivers to send Navs to UPT up to age 36. I have seen guys make Major at UPT and one guy going back to pin on Lt Col after graduation at their ANG units. One guy showed up that graduated Nav school from Mather after I did and I finished UPT 9 years ago. The 141 is dead, and the 135s are going thru that avionics upgrade that eliminates the nav position. Yes, they will take a 15E/B-1 WSO to a 130 reserve sqdn. As a 5 year captain, I made about 30K/yr after tax and counting per diem from TDYs that I managed to save as a bum.
Go to someplace like ComAir Academy to get a shoe in the door with the regionals while trying for UPT with the reserve component. You might get lucky and go to UPT as a regional pilot and go back to your employer after two years of mil leave at a much higher seniority number and be an AF pilot to boot.
I missed the hiring market for lack of PIC time. I thought being a mil pilot was enough. Thanks to a backlog of pilots at my ANG unit, the upgrade line was a little slow. If I had it to do over, I would have gotten my CFI ASAP after UPT and gone to ComAir to teach and hopefully would at least be an RJ Captain now. I know 3 Navs who got out when I did in 92 and did not go to UPT, one did ComAir, two did some flight instructing and various other things, but they all still have jobs at big companies today (not UAL, or AA) and are not in any danger of furlough unless something else bad happens to the economy. They still fly as Navs for the guard because of the camaraderie and to keep their mil pensions alive and to have second income potential for strike/furlough insurance.
To not sound bitter, I must say, that I love my current flying job. Flight Instructing for the military has its own set of rewards. I'd much rather be doing this than handing out sacks of flour to starving refugees in a 3rd world craphole who will rob/shoot you and burn an effigy of the president when they get their strength back. Helping people realize their dreams of becoming pilots in the AF is a very rewarding job.
Good Luck, hope this helps you.
