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I'm currently a junior and high school and I've had the eagerness to become a fighter pilot since I can remember. A little bit about me: weighted 4.5 GPA, soccer for all 3 years so far including have been captain of my team, involved in student body leadership, top 10% of my class, and plenty of community service. My question is what is the best way for me to become a fighter pilot? I know currently there is a shortage of fighter pilots in the air force, but a navy pilot has told me that if I took the navy route I'd have a higher chance at fighters because that's mainly what the navy flies. Is that true? Should I go OCS, ROTC, or try to go to an Academy? If I got a ROTC scholarship should I take that route? Would having a PPL be something I should do or should I wait because the military has their way of training pilots? If I went ANG I know I'd be guaranteed fighters and a base, but I'd imagine the competition for a spot at a base would be hard coming from civilian life, no? Would it be better to go ANG or active? I know there is a difference between the lifestyle of an air force pilot and navy pilot but I would do either. Any response is greatly appreciated.

I'm in the process of putting my packet together to submit for the next board. I'm 28.5 right now. Was planning on submitting for the OTS 18OT03 board but got held up because of medical records at MEPS and had to submit an appeal to the SG. SG's office has FINALLY approved me for a physical so I'm knocking that out this week. Everything else is pretty much done. I took the AFOQT and TBAS in March (scores below), and I have 4 solid LOR. 2 are from O-5s and 2 are from O-6s. 2 pilots and 2 doctors, and 1 of the pilots is a NASA astronaut. If all goes well at MEPS all I'll have left is an officer interview. I've been doing a ton of research but there is seemingly NO information on age waivers for a civilian applying for a pilot slot (I know that it says they don't do age waivers for pilot slots, but every officer I've talked to has said "there is a waiver for everything"). I'm curious if anyone has experience with being close to the cut off age and submitting a packet. As of now it's looking like the next board I'll be able to submit to is March '19, which will make me 29 and a couple months old. I've read a little about ETP...would that be the only possible way to have a shot at going active duty AF as a pilot? New to these forums so please let me know if there is a better thread for this question or if I've left out any info that would be helpful for you to know. P.S. My recruiter told me they added another board in Sept. of 2017 that wasn't originally planned and said there could be a possibility of that happening again this fall or winter. Does anyone know if that is a common occurrence or a long shot or just total BS? Thanks. Cheers. Education Degree: B.S. Business Marketing College: University of Montana GPA: 3.51 Military Service Prior Service: No Application Info AFOQT Scores: 92/81/75/75/70 Test Date: 200318 PCSM Score: 59 (with 5 flying hours), should be able to raise score to 63 or above with another couple hours