*catchy title to get people curious about my situation*

[Nickladz]

Hope that worked and I have some eyes on this post. I’m applying for the active duty July board. I’ve thought about guard/reserve and it isn’t ruled out, but with 7 years in I’m chasing my 20. I’m building what I think is a strong packet...but with one huge red flag.

 

ill start with the bad and end with the good. I attended the navy flight school program. Graduated IFS with no problem....graduated api (for those who don’t know its aviation preflight indoctrination. Basically six classes of aviation like topics done at a rapid pace. Not exactly ground school but it’s similar) but with poor grades and got attrited regardless. The schools director, who attrited me, told me it was due to a force reduction but I do take responsibility for it. I got the grades I earned. No other red flags such as waivers or anything.

as for my packet itself...I have LORs from a General I worked for, an assemblyman I interned with, A retired airline pilot, the navy flight school schools director (the guy who attrited me) basically stating yes it was due to a force reduction, I am capable of better, and attesting to my leadership abilities. After attriting I was placed in charge of a division of rescue swimmers that he observed. I’ve also been trying to get a LOR from a defense contractor like Lockheed Martin, boeing or Raytheon with no luck so far but I knew that would be tough. In addition, I’m also working on my PPL, and maybe will try to get my multi engine if there is time, all strictly for the sole purpose of this board. Just as a side gig, I’m currently in the process of standing up an aviation club at my old high school which I hope will show the board my dedication to flight and leadership abilities. I did take the afoqt and didn’t do well (59 pilot score) but I took it with zero prep. After attriting from navy flight I wanted to see where I stand in other programs so just took it right away. I’ve been studying my a$$ off and am confident I can bump that score up pretty high.

 

all I’ve ever wanted to do was fly and lead in the military. My biggest regret is that I wasn’t exposed to this career path earlier, which is why I got motivated to reach out to local high schools to get kids familiar with this option (in New York City, private flight isn’t too much of a thing). I want to apply just to Pilot, but if the board were to come back to me with an offer to be a cso, I would very disappointingly, be ecstatic to accept. I’m not being ironic btw with that. I’ll be crushed I can’t be a pilot, but I’d be so happy to have the opportunity to enter this community. Pensacola is pretty cool too btw.

 

anyways...what do you think. What are my chances? If you were on the board what would you think and say to an applicant like me? What can I do to increase my chances even further?

 

[Duck]

We had a similar situation years ago at my ANG unit. A guy who was essentially in your same situation. From what I recall, it will all depend on how your attrition was classified. This guy essentially washed out of the ground school and there was no way to bring him in the unit. On the other side, I have been trying to help one of my old UPT students get picked up by the NOAA to fly after he was washed out of B-1 ground school and then told he couldn’t cross flow into a mobility asset (ridiculous). The latter guy had everyone from his flight commanders to the wing commander vouching for his ability when Gen Rand decided to overturn the recommendations and just FEB him completely.

Maybe things have changed but my guess is that you have a really big uphill battle to fight here. Hopefully someone who has more recent intel can chime in, but bottom line I think it’s going to fall with how you were classified at the termination of training. Force shaping=ok; performance based=probably SOL...


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[Nickladz]

6 minutes ago, Duck said:

We had a similar situation years ago at my ANG unit. A guy who was essentially in your same situation. From what I recall, it will all depend on how your attrition was classified. This guy essentially washed out of the ground school and there was no way to bring him in the unit. On the other side, I have been trying to help one of my old UPT students get picked up by the NOAA to fly after he was washed out of B-1 ground school and then told he couldn’t cross flow into a mobility asset (ridiculous). The latter guy had everyone from his flight commanders to the wing commander vouching for his ability when Gen Rand decided to overturn the recommendations and just FEB him completely.

Maybe things have changed but my guess is that you have a really big uphill battle to fight here. Hopefully someone who has more recent intel can chime in, but bottom line I think it’s going to fall with how you were classified at the termination of training. Force shaping=ok; performance based=probably SOL...


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Thanks for the quick response. When was this? I have tried looking through AFIs to find policies about this kind of stuff but no luck. You’re not aware of any I should look deeper through are you?

[LNGH]

AFMAN 36-2032 section 5.4.8.3, also check the general DoD documents

[Nickladz]

I knew it had to be somewhere. Thank you for the reference. Heart dropped reading that but at least I have a clearer idea of what I’m up against. 
 

im still going to push for this.