Want

Alright.

Tuesday night, before I left Ohio, I hung out with several friends, including an Air Force pilot I know. He's in the OH national guard. He was in army ROTC during college, then traveled around, then decided that he wanted to be a pilot, and applied via Air National Guard. In one of my first posts, I mentioned that there are 4 ways to become a pilot:

1) Go to Air Force Academy in Colorado for college and apply for a UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) slot from there

2) Participate in Air Force ROTC when getting an undergraduate degree somewhere apart from Air Force Academy

3) Apply through the National Guard

4) Apply for active duty (This is what I'm doing)

Air Force Pilot (I'll call him A), brought up many pros for applying via National Guard:

1) You work part time
2) You apply for a UPT spot based on the plane flown at that base. So if I want to fly a fighter, all I need to do is apply to a National Guard base that has fighters.
3) It's much more casual than active duty (which is a full time position)

He doesn't think that I should bother applying for active duty...he thinks that I should apply to National Guard. I personally disagree. I think if I worked part time, I'd go a little stir crazy. He said though, that he gets asked all the time to do "extra" assignments. Which, I find to be a bit strange, because it's super competitive to be a pilot. One would think that the Air Force would just hire more active duty pilots and cut back on National Guard Pilots. However, A recommended that I apply to National Guard stations as well as applying active duty. He said: "If you want to fly, don't wait. Apply to everything you can to get a UPT slot". He said that once I have a UPT slot, I can switch around (to active duty) but...I kind of doubt that.

A is also very negative about active duty. He says that National Guard flies more than Active Duty. He says that Active Duty pilots get mired in paperwork. He says that active duty pilots don't get to travel as much. He says that since states have less money, the time from acceptance to OTS is quicker than active duty (states don't want you sitting around and wasting their money).

Either way, I think I will take his advice and I will apply to National Guard stations at the same time I'm applying for active duty. I just need to wait until I take my TBAS and get my Pilot Candidate Selection Method Score before I send in an application packet.

I know I don't write this blog every day, but this past weekend made me realize just how badly I want this. I re-wrote my personal statement to be more flying centric. I'm considering posting it here so that I can get feedback from all of you. I started stressing out about my recommendations...every single recommendation is so kind and wonderful. I seriously teared up after reading each one (there are 5). However, I'm wondering if I should have recommendations that are more flying specific...A had 4 out of 5 recommendations that were flying centric. I'm also kind of kicking myself because had I taken the AFOQT later (like, now) I would have a MUCH better pilot score. I know WAY more about airplanes and flying now than I did when I took the test. I literally learned all the aeronautical information for the AFOQT 2 weeks before I took it. Oops.

Apart from that, my workouts, my free time, my conversations...almost everything is focused on this singular goal of becoming a pilot. I want it SO very badly. I don't know why, but it really just hit me hard this past weekend for some reason.

One more thing that gave me tentative hope about my candidacy...I saw A's AFOQT scores. His verbal, quant, and academic were all low 60's. His pilot score was a 94 (not quite sure how that happened). He would totally kill me if he knew I just wrote that..So anyway, I think that I am a slightly stronger candidate at this point...I just need to keep flying, working out, studying hard, etc.