Marine Aviation Question

[SIG600]

I will throw this out there, and I may regret it later. I was just telling my finacee tonight....

You realize that this statement alone, means the next time we meet in the Whiskey area for a BFM engagement... you're gonna get savaged. Right?

 

[Right Side Up]

To add to Bert's rundown, here is an average breakdown on selections out of primary for Marines the last few years:

50 - Helos
35 - Jets
10 - C-130s
0-5 - MV-22

While timing is everything for the needs of the service, there are some consistent attitudes I see from Marines. About half of all the Marine students want helos based on their experience at The Basic School (keeping close to the ground pounders, blowing stuff up.) The other half want fixed wing. The good news is that your son doesn't have to be the number one guy his week to end up selecting fastmovers. The bad news is that if he is exclusively aiming for fixed wing, USMC aviation has relatively fewer slots than USN and as SIG mentioned, if you attrite, you'll be out of the cockpit completely.

Navy selection percentages FYI

40 - Helos
30 - Jets
20 - P-3s
10 - E-6, E2C2

I'm currently a T-34 IP - if you have anymore specific questions about the training, PM me.

 

[AVDAD]

Thank for the info guys, I have emailed my son a link to this thread. I would love to see him in the F-35 but we'll see, it's his decision. He already knows that we will support him completely no matter what his decision might be, but it would be cool to have another person flying their hands at family get togethers.

Have a great day and thanks again,

Proud AvDad

 

[trolleydriver]

One thing to consider is if he goes Marine, that he get a aviation guarantee, otherwise your MOS selection as a Marine officer goes by class ranking in TBS.

However, it's not first in class gets first choice.

They break out the class into thirds, top third, middle third, and bottom third.

Then they break out each third into thirds, top of the top third, middle of the top third, and bottom of the top third.

And the billets are allocated so that there are a "fair" proportion of billets available to each third of the class.

You don't want to be in the bottom third of the respective third - all the combat arms and aviation slots for the group are gone by then.

So it leads to some creative strategizing during TBS, where some officers finding themselves in the bottom of the top third, might decide to do "poorly" during a graded event so that they'd fall into the top of the middle third... (and thus have first dibs at the combat arms/aviation billets set aside for the middle third or bottom third of the class)

At least that's how it was in TBS fifteen years ago, I have no idea if that's they way it works now. The theory was that you wouldn't have all your top performers in combat arms and aviation, and all the bottom feeders in combat service support.

Not that the bottom feeders were any worse than the top performers.

But my opinion - if he goes Marine, that he goes arty. nothing more satisfying than dealing death and destruction with DPICM.

 

[Falconjet]

Whoa guys... this pendulum swings both ways. When I went through flight training there was a 6 month period when the Navy couldn't get enough jet guys and the Marines cut off the pipeline. Then all of a sudden the Navy completely cut off jet selection and the Marines were sending anyone with the grades to jets regardless of what they wanted. There was a time that the Marines were so hard up for jet guys, they were taking Navy guys in other training pipelines, letting them lat txfr to the Marines, with the guarantee they could fly Hornets (or Harriers, whatever they wanted).

It goes both ways, and all of the time. There is no way to know when he gets to that point in his training, which service is gonna be where in teh pendulum swing. Based on my experience from what I saw in the training commands, the Marine guys have a much better chance of flying grey jets than the Navy guys... but in the end it's all about timing and performance in Primary. There ARE times (and there's no way to know when) that there just arn't any jet slots graduating from Primary, regardless of service.

Something else he should thing about, in the Navy if you attrite from a harder pipeline (like jet training) you've got a chance to go to another community, P-3's, Helo's, etc. The Marines view it as a warfare attrite, and you're done flying period.

Man, I thought that guys that bombed out of P3 training got sent to FA-18s.

FJ

 

[SIG600]

Man, I thought that guys that bombed out of P3 training got sent to FA-18s.

FJ

Is there a joke here I'm not getting?

Didn't mean for it to sound condecending, but it's the reality of the training command.

 

[zippy]

Marine Aviation =
F-18
AV8B harrier
T-34 for instruction
T2 Texan for instruction
T44 twin for instruction
C-130 Legacy as well as New J model
V-22 Osprey (helo transitions to Fixed wing)

Bell jet ranger helo trainer
CH-46
CH-53
Cobra
Huey

What did I miss?

Fly Marine!

EA-6B Prowler, and T-45 replacing the T-2 (for pilot training)

The Tiltrotor guys fly the TC-12 for intermediate and then got to helo advanced.

 

[AVDAD]

Thanks to all for the PMs, I have sent the information a long to my son. Some of this stuff is golden and I appreciate you all taking the time to pass it along.
FYI, yesterday was service selection day at the Naval Academy and the parent board was a buzz with messages on who got first choice and who did not. Lots of excitement. I guess this time next year I'll be one of the buzzers.

Some of these birds I'm not familar with, is the T-2 the turboprop Beach? The T-44 I'm going to have to look up.

Have a great holiday season and God bless,

Avdad

 

[FlyingSkip]

With civilian tiltrotors showing up on the horizon, I don't see many of the Marines (and AF types too with the MVs online soon) worrying about logging it as fixed-wing time---that "tilt rotor" column is going to be pretty valuable come interview time for one of those type jobs!

This said by a Phrog guy that never wanted to fly one of the darn things, but can accept the realities of job hunting down the road.

As a note---I went to Canoe U looking to be a Navy jet guy and graduated committed to being a Marine helo bubba. The reason? The impressive face that our Marine instructors put on in front of us, the esprit de corps, and the desire to be part of a real team rather than just being a glamour guy doing my solo thing. I ended up with a few flights in an 18, but I'm most proud of the support I could give the riflemen from a helo. Sounds like this kid has his sights set right---your airframe doesn't define you, the desire to be the best you can be does! Semper Fi to him, and tell him he still has one he** of a ride in front of him---enjoy every minute of it!

 

[Falconjet]

Sig: yes, it was just a bit of a joke, hence the little smiley guy at the beginning of the post. Guess it wasn't too funny.

FJ