Finishing Flight School and Some Thoughts

After finishing up the UH60 course, there was one more thing that had to be finished before we graduated.  WOBC Phase II.  It includes some academics followed by a multi day practical exercise.  To be honest, I don't remember what was included in the academics, but for the practical exercise it was planning and executing an Air Assault using the 72 hour Air Assault Planning Process.  It includes everyone who is in your graduating class across all airframes.  So, the first few days included getting the OPORD and threat brief, and then planning our air assault.  After planning we went into the AVCATT (simulators) and executed our plan.  The AVCATT was actually pretty cool.  It is basically a bunch of simulators linked together so that you can do multi aircraft training.  We got to see how the different airframes all work and coordinate together. It was actually very educational and I learned a lot.

Getting my Graduation/DHG Plaque

Once we finished that up, we were ready to graduate and get our wings!  The OML continues to be tracked throughout your advanced airframe course, and that determines who the Distinguished Honor Graduate (DHG) is and the Honor Graduates.  The DHG is the student with the highest grade, and Honor Grads are a top percentage of the class (I don't remember if it's 10% or 20%).  As it turns out, I was the DHG for our class, so that was pretty awesome.  My parents came to visit from Washington State for my graduation, and I had my wife pin on my wings at the ceremony.

Orders
At some point while you are in the advanced course, you will get an RFO (Request For Orders).  This will tell you where they want you to be going next.  It's generally going to be where you go, but don't get your hopes up, as it could change anytime before you actually get you orders.  My stick buddy got an RFO for one place, then they changed it, and then his final orders had him going somewhere else.  I never even got an RFO.  This happened to a couple of people in my class.  Somehow we slipped through the cracks.  Usually your official orders will come a few weeks before you graduate, however at times, they get behind.  I didn't get my orders until a few weeks AFTER graduation.  A few months after I graduated, whole classes didn't have their orders until after graduation.  It's a shitty situation, but you just have to be patient with it, because in all actuality there is nothing much you can do.  Whatever you do, DO NOT contact HRC yourself on this one.  The Student Management Office gets very angry when you try to bypass them, and there will probably be repercussions if/when they find out. 

Almost nobody got a duty station that was on their list at selection.  Like I said before, I think the list is just a way to make people feel good if by chance they get a duty station that is on their list.  There was a guy in my class that requested Korea and got Alaska, and another guy that was the opposite.  Why didn't they just stick those two at the duty stations they had on their list?  I guess when it comes down to it there are hundreds of students a year that graduate and need a duty station, and from my understanding, there is one person that processes all of the assignments for flight school.

A Look Back
After graduating, I was so ready to be done with flight school and get on to my first assignment and start doing some real flying.  However, looking back I wish I would have spent a little more time just enjoying flight school.  So, if you are reading this getting ready to go to flight school, remember that.  It is the only time in your career that all you have to do is fly and study.  You don't have to worry about additional duties, OERs, whether or not you're going to be getting flight time, deployments, RL Progression, making PC, APARTs, or anything else.  Just fly and study.  Go to the beach and enjoy your family.  Enterprise and Dothan really aren't that bad, especially when compared to some of the other "Army towns" out there. 

As far as selecting an aircraft goes, I think I thought about selecting every available aircraft at some point before selection.  I went to WOCS wanting to select Apaches.  During flight school I realized that I liked the mission of the Blackhawk.  However, before selection I entertained the thought of selecting Chinooks, and after BWS I really thought I would select Kiowas.  My advice would be to select the aircraft that you want based on their mission.  Ask around and start to understand what the mission really is and whether or not that is something that you would enjoy. 

That's about all I can think about right now.  I'll continue to update this blog with my experience as a street to seat Army Aviator post flight school.