I want to become a fighter pilot, but I can't decide between the navy, af, or usmc, any advice?

Question

I have a 3.9 GPA, and an incoming junior taking a couple of honors classes.

Answer 1

Contrary to popular belief, the Marines have a **** ton of pilots, roughly 32 percent of Marine Corps officers are pilots and they actually have more pilots than the Air Force(the Air Force does A LOT more than flying planes).  You can get a guaranteed flight contract through the Marines if you get accepted for OCS-Air.

Answer 2

It would be much, much easier to get the position in the Navy or Air Force. The Corps doesn't have many planes.

Answer 3

depends on what you want to fly.

Different services use different planes.

Here are some navy planes and their missions:

http://navysite.de/planes.htm

Couldn't find any of the air forces.

But they are developing a plane that is cross branch so they all drive the same ones, in each branch.

Do you know how to fly? Are you licensed? If not get a pilots license, that will make it much easier.(there are no age restrictions on getting a pilots license)

Answer 4

If you want to fly the best planes join the Air Force.

Answer 5

What's the difference? In war you will bomb and kill, and get killed. Hope you "enjoy" it. 'War is h**l', Gen Sherman

P.D.: Thanks for the demerits. I hate wars. But it is not the mlitary who makes them, but the idiot politicians who create them and let other idiots fight for them.

Answer 6

its true about the usmc not having many planes

Answer 7

Hi! I would try the Air Force as they are the fliers. Navy is pretty good. too. The Marines is a most definitely not the place for you if you want to fly. My best wishes and maybe you could go to each armed force website and check out what the advantages of each branch are. Again, good luck and thank you for wanting to serve our country!

Answer 8

there is no guarantee that you would get to be a "fighter pilot" even if you got selected for a pilot training track.  As a retired AF officer, I can tell you it happens like this:

First, you have to get a commission (ROTC, OTS).  You are behind the curve for ROTC, as the AF requires you complete at least 2 years of ROTC (The jr and sr years).  this leaves OTS.  You would compete for an OTS slot and then you would compete for a pilot training slot.

Lets say you cross these hurdles, and get a commission through OTS AND you get a pilot slot.  Once you get to UPT (undergraduate Pilot Training) you begin your classes and start to fly.  you are evaluated from day one.  The students with the best skills are tracked "fighter"; the remainder track "TTB" (tanker transport bomber).  This limits the type of aircraft you will be trained to fly.  Then, lets say you track fighter, they rank order you and only the best get their choices.  The bottom of the class can even get "banked" which means that you get sent to a non-flying assignment somewhere in the AF where they need bodies, with a promise that you'll get into a cockpit in 2-3 years.

I think you'd be better off if you wanted to be a pilot, period.  Then if you had the drive and innate flying ability you could bust your butt and work hard to get fighter tracked, then maybe you'd get a fighter, or some sort of bomb-dropper, but be just as happy if you got a C-17, as long as you were flying.  Since you are an incoming Junior, you need to start busting hump to get the ducks in a row.  Call the AF recruiter, AND ASK TO SPEAK TO AN OFFICER RECRUITER, not a recruiter who is an officer, but a recruiter who deals with getting people in the AF as an officer.  Any other putz is going to try to fill a quota and tell you to join up and then they'll send you to become an officer, or anything to get you to join.  An officer recruiter can tell you about the accession process and what things need to happen to go to OTS.

Good luck. Just my $0.02