Need some guidance for my Ol'lady's son who is a soph in corps army contract and wants to go aviation.

He is looking for someone to talk with to hear about what life looks like that in that part of the Army and what steps he should be taking now to be most qualified.

His dad is retired Air Force and this is not his world so they are looking for direction.

Any help would be appreciated. Email me at jgeorge.hamc@gmail.com

Tell him to look up COL(R) Pete Velesky over at Hollingsworth. Career Army aviator and quality human.

Isn't there a Bull in Aviation Branch? How about in the Vet Center? I know there's a few on here, including me but I retired an eon ago. 20 year retired.

There's a long-time poster here -I believe his handle's flyarmy97- whom I remember posting about his experiences through the entirety of his flight school & early career. If he's the same guy I think, he'd probably be able to shed some light on flying for the C-Team.

Happy to help...I'll shoot a note.

To try to ensure, and there is never a guarantee, that he gets branched Aviation, he needs to be as close to a 4.0 grade point as possible, be a member of a couple of clubs and be a leader in said club, be ranked highly by his PMS amongst his class year peers, and EXCEL at Advance Camp after his junior year. These above are just a few of the things that will get him ranked high enough to branch Aviation, as it is one of the top three requested by Army cadets.

Even then, Cadet Command has funky ways of branching its cadets after Advance camp completion. The top three things in my opinion, and its been awhile since I was in the know, are grades point average, PMS ranking and Advance camp score. Top 10% are generally guaranteed their first choice, but not always. Good luck to him.

EDIT: The absolute best advice he could get is from his instructors and his PMS. They will know what Cadet Command is looking for when ranking cadets after Advance camp. If he is already a sophomore, he doesn't have a lot of time left to build a great resume, so he needs to talk to his instructors, the MSIII one specifically, and get cracking.

Not certain of grades but suspect they are pretty good. Just got selected as group sgm, so trigon thinks highly of him. I believe also on rudder's and or ranger challenge.

Joseph in Cypress said:

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Not certain of grades but suspect they are pretty good. Just got selected as group sgm, so trigon thinks highly of him. I believe also on rudder's and or ranger challenge.

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Those are exactly the things he needs to be doing. The Trigon has nothing to do with anything, but holding that high of a position is a GOOD thing. Best of luck to him.

EDIT: The summer between his sophomore and junior year is PRIME time to go to an Army school, study abroad, spend time with an active duty unit......all things that are offered that will help separate him from his peers. If he hasn't, he needs to be beating up his instructors for a slot in one or more of these opportunities. Taking a summer off and drinking will have a negative impact on his ranking.

Never realized trigon had little to no say. I guess it does make sense though. He's in wing so I don't know how he measures with peers

Joseph in Cypress said:

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Never realized trigon had little to no say. I guess it does make sense though. He's in wing so I don't know how he measures with peers

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What he does with the Corps does matter, but not NEAR as much as what he does with the Army department. Being in a Corps leadership position counts as being in a club and a leader in said club, but he is already getting the Senior Military College bump, so he needs to impress the Army department since their input means everything for branch ranking.

Thanks for all the responses. I have passed on all the contact info, so he should be reaching out. We got a lot of replies from us older guys, if yall know of anyone from A&M within the past five or so years I think it would be helpful also. Y'all did great and we are very appreciative for your input!

Gig'em
Joseph

Something I haven't seen mentioned: if what he's really interested in is spending as much time FLYING helicopters for the Army as possible, he might look into the flight warrant officer track.

CWOs don't have to spend time doing all of that annoying, non-flying staff officer stuff. They just fly.

Smeghead4761 said:

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Something I haven't seen mentioned: if what he's really interested in is spending as much time FLYING helicopters for the Army as possible, he might look into the flight warrant officer track.

CWOs don't have to spend time doing all of that annoying, non-flying staff officer stuff. They just fly.

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Little known fact...2 consecutive battalion XO's from the 160th came out of the O-5 list, meaning they were promoted out of a job and a slot in the 160th. Both resigned their commissions and reverted to Warrant in order to stay assigned. I started as a Warrant, retired commissioned and that bit about flying less as the promotions came is absolutely true.

Smeghead4761 said:

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Something I haven't seen mentioned: if what he's really interested in is spending as much time FLYING helicopters for the Army as possible, he might look into the flight warrant officer track.

CWOs don't have to spend time doing all of that annoying, non-flying staff officer stuff. They just fly.

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As a current staff Warrant I disagree. I get to fly about once a week. This is for two reasons: the people doing scheduling at the companies are friends and Im an instructor pilot. I did get to spend about 14 years at the company level before moving to battalion staff.

There is a myth that Warrants just fly, that might have been true once, but no longer. Our junior Warrants get buried in additional duties and taskings. Ever seen a Warrant pull gate guard? I have.

Ive seen the Army gut the ranks of junior Warrants twice now. Im afraid it will happen again.

My son is a highschool junior. He's not even applying to Army ROTC, just Navy and Air Force to fly. I think he can get selected there, if not then he can look at Army Aviation. The latest pilot purge and the seeming move toward unmanned aviation makes me think we will go from having aviation brigades at each division to having re-enforced aviation battalions.