Sunday, October 23, 2005
The Lone Star State
Let me start by saying that after months of waiting here in Pensacola I finally have a start date: 2 December! That means that I will take the physical fitness test on 2 December and start API (Aviation Pre-Flight Indoctrination) the following Monday on the 5th.
Now for the complications. To start this early I had to take a Primary seat in Corpus Christi, Texas. I don't really care whether I do Primary (six months of flying T-34s) here or there, I just didn't want to do it with the Air Force at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma.
Besides the obvious reason of not wanting to live in Oklahoma, the Air Force treats their junior officers like kids. They have mandatory study periods, they must live in the barracks, the relationship between their instructors and their students is very different, it is a very different culture. The Navy treats us like big boys. If we don't want to put in the work we'll fail and the Navy is going to let us do that. You might as well learn that way in Primary because you will do Advanced with the Navy and I think someone who was spoon fed Primary by the Air Force would be likely to struggle.
That said, here's how it went down.
I have been doing a martial arts class every morning for the last two weeks and excused from the normal Monday and Friday MATSG formations, so it was a little unusual when I was told after class on Friday that we all had to go to the MATSG formation. There was a "Corpus Draft" is all I was told.
Everyone here wants to do Primary at Whiting field in Pensacola because they don't want to move again. If you want to fly helicopters you really want to stay here for Primary because Helo Advanced is taught here in Pensacola. I want jets, which are taught in Meridian, MS so I don't mind the move.
As a result of everyone wanting to stay at Whiting there was a huge group of people waiting for Whiting seats and no one to fill the Corpus and Vance seats. There was an open Corpus seat for the class starting this Friday and one to two empty seats for the next six weeks. Captain Kyte told us that no one from Alpha Company (my TBS company) was leaving until every one of us had our name under a class number. This meant that people had to volunteer for the open Corpus and Vance spots or they would be placed in them. We have a lot more control over our preferences than the enlisted do but they Marine Corps is not going to screw around and waste seats in flight school because you want to stay in Pensacola and work on your tan.
I have learned that in the military it is often better to step up and take charge of your destiny than hope to hide in the background and hope that things fall in place for you. Sometimes you will get exactly what you want but sometimes the alternatives are just too bad to risk.
With this in mind I stepped up and told Captain Kyte that I was willing to take one of the Corpus seats if I could start on or after the 23rd of November. He asked why and I told him about my diving trip from the 16th through the 20th. He agreed that mine was a good reason to wait and put me in the 2 December class.
I had to laugh a little about the exchange afterwards. I could just imagine myself as a PFC just out of boot camp telling the XO that I didn't want to start MOS school for another month because I had a SCUBA diving vacation planned. "Well holy shit Private, we'll just hold up the freakin war so you can go look at some fishes, don't you worry about a thing!" "Really sir? Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!" "NO! Get your ass down to Camp Johnson and start training!" Or something like that.
So I've angered some friends who thought I'd be here for some time to come and really pissed off my roommate who was counting on me paying a part of the rent for another eight months or so, but I feel good about the decision. My roommate will be able to get out of her lease when I leave and any of my friends who haven't gotten used to the fact that we will all go our separate ways eventually haven't fully grasped what line of work they are in.
I feel good that I finally have a solid date for starting flight school; I'm that much closer to actually flying.
Now for the complications. To start this early I had to take a Primary seat in Corpus Christi, Texas. I don't really care whether I do Primary (six months of flying T-34s) here or there, I just didn't want to do it with the Air Force at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma.
Besides the obvious reason of not wanting to live in Oklahoma, the Air Force treats their junior officers like kids. They have mandatory study periods, they must live in the barracks, the relationship between their instructors and their students is very different, it is a very different culture. The Navy treats us like big boys. If we don't want to put in the work we'll fail and the Navy is going to let us do that. You might as well learn that way in Primary because you will do Advanced with the Navy and I think someone who was spoon fed Primary by the Air Force would be likely to struggle.
That said, here's how it went down.
I have been doing a martial arts class every morning for the last two weeks and excused from the normal Monday and Friday MATSG formations, so it was a little unusual when I was told after class on Friday that we all had to go to the MATSG formation. There was a "Corpus Draft" is all I was told.
Everyone here wants to do Primary at Whiting field in Pensacola because they don't want to move again. If you want to fly helicopters you really want to stay here for Primary because Helo Advanced is taught here in Pensacola. I want jets, which are taught in Meridian, MS so I don't mind the move.
As a result of everyone wanting to stay at Whiting there was a huge group of people waiting for Whiting seats and no one to fill the Corpus and Vance seats. There was an open Corpus seat for the class starting this Friday and one to two empty seats for the next six weeks. Captain Kyte told us that no one from Alpha Company (my TBS company) was leaving until every one of us had our name under a class number. This meant that people had to volunteer for the open Corpus and Vance spots or they would be placed in them. We have a lot more control over our preferences than the enlisted do but they Marine Corps is not going to screw around and waste seats in flight school because you want to stay in Pensacola and work on your tan.
I have learned that in the military it is often better to step up and take charge of your destiny than hope to hide in the background and hope that things fall in place for you. Sometimes you will get exactly what you want but sometimes the alternatives are just too bad to risk.
With this in mind I stepped up and told Captain Kyte that I was willing to take one of the Corpus seats if I could start on or after the 23rd of November. He asked why and I told him about my diving trip from the 16th through the 20th. He agreed that mine was a good reason to wait and put me in the 2 December class.
I had to laugh a little about the exchange afterwards. I could just imagine myself as a PFC just out of boot camp telling the XO that I didn't want to start MOS school for another month because I had a SCUBA diving vacation planned. "Well holy shit Private, we'll just hold up the freakin war so you can go look at some fishes, don't you worry about a thing!" "Really sir? Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!" "NO! Get your ass down to Camp Johnson and start training!" Or something like that.
So I've angered some friends who thought I'd be here for some time to come and really pissed off my roommate who was counting on me paying a part of the rent for another eight months or so, but I feel good about the decision. My roommate will be able to get out of her lease when I leave and any of my friends who haven't gotten used to the fact that we will all go our separate ways eventually haven't fully grasped what line of work they are in.
I feel good that I finally have a solid date for starting flight school; I'm that much closer to actually flying.
// posted by Josh @ 10/23/2005 08:27:00 PM 
