DickBandit wrote:Not a warrant officer, just a lowly grunt, but I can tell you one thing: don't stress over the ASVAB. If you did well in high school... no scratch that, if you did well in middle school you'll be fine. The ASVAB is a joke. I walked out of there with a 93 and a GT score of 128. I gave it all my effort, but I never studied for it.

I hear the best way to get on the path to becoming a pilot is by being a helicopter mechanic.

When I first showed up to the eighty deuce one of the guys had taken the AFAST, passed with flying colors and now he's in Fort Rucker learning how to fly helicopters and not break them (he was notorious for breaking weapons, poor guy). He studied his ass off for the AFAST. So find as many learning aids as you can.

Don't worry if you fail the AFAST the first time, you can keep on going back and retaking it as long as your commander OKs it.

OH! And one last thing! Don't believe the BS people say about Basic Training. Like you I went into the Army in great shape and I breezed through that mess, actually enjoyed it. And mine was 14 weeks long versus the usual 9 weeks.

Sorry I'm not a pilot, but I can give you advice on what to look out for and what not to listen to about the army, so feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

dogma wrote:I'm by no means an expert on the AFAST, but from what I've heard from friends who have taken it, and what I've seen in the course of a quick Google search, if you have basic spatial perception skills you should do fine.

whitedragon wrote:I think you mean HMX-1, the Marine squadron tasked with transporting the president/etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMX-1

Amaya wrote:It'll take a couple of years and a lot of hard work to even get into the program, let alone through it.

Grabzak Dirtyfighter wrote:Even on the fast track program it wouldn't surprise me if they made you pick an MOS in case you wash out, so find a job you like, just in case. Nothing sounds worse than getting stuck in for 4 years as something like a mailroom clerk after trying to be a pilot.

I could be wrong though, I just know that is what the Navy does to people trying to get into BUDS (SEAL training)

chaos0xomega wrote:Hardly. The Army needs to lose 20,000+ personnel by 2015-2016, they are seeing a 16 year high in retention rates, and something like a 9 year high in recruitment rates. They are not pressed for people at all. I don't know about the Army, but I know the Air Force isn't recycling people anymore. If you mess up at flight school or other job related training, you're pretty much done. Likewise, the Navy is kicking people out that fail flight school (in the past they would be dropped to backseater training).

Grabzak Dirtyfighter wrote:I would imagine the army is really hurting for recruits atm so why not lead some in with a carrot on a stick and maybe find a few good pilots along the way

R3con wrote:Just make sure whatever you want is in writing..twice. Maybe even three times.

Signed,
The guy who just wanted to be a tank gunner and ended up NBC because my ASVAB score was too "high" and had to join 2nd Force Recon to get away from Gas Masks.

As a interesting side note the Marine's have no Commissioned Officers in the NBC(nuclear biological chemical warfare) field, only WO's I got to see the most rare of beasts WO5's plenty of times.

Amaya wrote:That's bull. They just can't switch you from the MOS you contract into to another unless you wash out of the training or something along those lines. I knew a guy with a 99 ASVAB who went in as a rifleman, 0311 if I remember correctly.

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:

The longest training session in the army takes a little less then a year and the Warrant Officer program isn't it.

Amaya wrote:That's bull. They just can't switch you from the MOS you contract into to another unless you wash out of the training or something along those lines. I knew a guy with a 99 ASVAB who went in as a rifleman, 0311 if I remember correctly.

f.