Military Families
hoping4sticky
member
Warrant Officer?
hoping4sticky
member
Anyone have any insight into the Warrant Officer program? DH is considering putting in a package for Army WO aviation program. He is currently a Marine crew chief, and I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Biggest concern right now, is that I don't want to do 12 month deployments. If I had to do two 12 month deployments, I would not be happy. Especially because we could likely make it to retirement in the Marine Corps without another deployment. I also do not know anything about the Army. Currenly, I know exactly where we could be stationed, and what the options are. The unknown is scary.
TIA for any information anyone has!
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Re: Warrant Officer?
My husband just finished the flight school portion after about 2 years from start of WO candidate school and all the actual learning to fly part. He went from enlisted with about 12 years in to the Warrant Officer program. We had a few friends that went from being Marines to WO as well.
Now, if he wants to do the aviation program, you can pretty much plan on being at Ft. Rucker for about a year and a half to 2 years, depending on the wait times between courses and what he ends up flying. Then it depends on which aircraft and which place you would be PCS'd to. I know that we just were sent to Ft. Lewis and there isn't a deployment for his unit on the books until at least 2-3 years and then we'll kinda see where it goes from there. But he's got about 6 years or so until he can retire as well. But our old roommate who was Reserves, finished at the same time and just went home after being away from his wife (and instead being with us the last 2 years for his WO training) and his Reserve unit is already talking about a deployment but he's in a different aircraft.
Hopefully, this makes sense, but it seems to be really dependent on the aircraft he picks. I know it's a lot of work and time but my husband loves it. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them. I've only been an Army wife for about 2 years, but I got all of the WO and flight school part of it.
Thank you very much. We would be in a very similar situation. DH has been in 11 years right now and I think he has to do WO before 13 years. I'm not sure how much input you would have, but if he has any choice, I know he would want to fly 60s (blackhawks) because that is what he is on right now.
Good to know about being in Alabama for 2 years...yuck. I guess I need to be a good sport, it is just very difficult for me because I would like to do msg duty (embassy duty) and then come back to our cushy post here in DC. Problem is that he has already achieved pretty much everything he can in his current position and really wants to fly.
The good news is that DH asks my opinion, just need to figure out what to do....
Well, I'm from Alabama, but not the kind of Alabama that Ft. Rucker is in. It's a nice enough place, but it is very rural. And it was a culture shock for me. From what I've seen with our other friends, 60s have a shorter wait time between courses but I believe (may be wrong but what I've seen) that they get deployed a little more often. But it seems that it's more of a timing thing, and where you would be sent afterwards. But the training is pretty intense. WOC school (the warrant officer part) is about 2 months I believe, but he'd have to live in the barracks. But then there's some other training before flight school even starts and maybe a long wait. DH had to wait about 6 months in between and he was on some kind of boring detail in the mean time. But then primary flight school lasts about 6months-ish and it is constant studying for them.
On the positive side, if you are expecting a baby/trying/or just had one, at least for that 2 years, DH would be around at night and on weekends. Aside from that first 2 months of WOC school, he was home, which was pretty nice when I first got pregnant myself. And it's probably just as much of a sacrafice for the wives, but at least the company realizes it. When DH graduated, they did a little ceremony for the wives thanking us for helping them get through it and presented us with little aviator wing necklaces.
Ditto what the PP has said. It can take 6months-1 year to go from start to acceptance. He won't be guaranteed 60's, at the end of primary the list goes by grades, the board has aircraft listed such as, 8-60's 9-64's 2-58's, person #1 picks their aircraft and on down the list, so he needs to be prepared to not get the aircraft that he wants, it happens alot.
I can't give you any insight to deployments other than the new rumor is a longer time between them, however it is the Army and until it happens, don't believe it.
My advice, have him submit a packet, you never know what can happen. I wouldn't worry about it until you have to, because there are alot of people that want to be an Army Aviator and not a lot of spots. I don't say this to discourage you or him, but to be prepared that it can be a long process.
There are alot of pilots here that come from other services, mostly Marines, but a few Navy and most are prior enlisted.
Just wanted to say that we were at Ft. Lewis and lived in Lacey : ) I miss it now!
Thank you both for the info. Having been with DH for the entire 11 years he has been in, I'm very aware that there are no guarantees in the military. DH is going to go ahead and put a package in, it will likely take about 6 months for him to get everything ready. After that, I guess we will see what happens.
I'm having a hard time with the deployment thing. I've always done well through them, but I always say that it is easy on me because we didn't have kids. Well as of december, that is going to change. Gotta love the uncertainty of military life.
I think it's much more dependent on the aircraft chosen. My DH just finished about 2-3 months ago and out of all our friends, the only ones that know they'll be deployed soon, are blackhawk pilots. But then again, that's the aircraft that the majority of people in flight school get and they are the most heavily staffed basically.