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.  

Aircraft Selection

After BWS, there is only one thing standing in your way of determining the aircraft that you will fly for the rest of your military career....a PT test!  When I went through, the PT test was worth 100 points (1/6th) of your overall OML (I'll talk more about that in a second).  As of July 2015 it is now only worth 16 points, so it has a much smaller impact on your overall OML.  Also, keep in mind that if you fail the PT test for any reason, you will automatically be placed at the bottom of the OML, and you probably won't even be at the same selection as your regular class.  You will probably retake the PT test with the next class and be in their selection at the bottom of their OML. 

If you've read my previous posts, you've probably realized that flight school is very, very time consuming.  

Finding time or energy to go work out is very hard.  For me, the little free time that I had was spent with my family or just relaxing.  Needless to say, I didn't do too well on my PT test.  It ended up dropping me from #2 on the OML to #5 or #6.  In the end though, it didn't really matter because I still selected what I wanted.  However, I was worried from the time I took the PT test until we actually selected, because you don't know what aircraft (or how many) will be available at your selection until you actually get there.  And you don't actually know your standing in the OML until selection day either.

The OML is really important when it comes to aircraft selection.  For selection, the OML is split up between Warrants and Lieutenants.  So, even though you are flying with the LTs and in class with them, you are actually only "competing" with the warrants.  And on top of that, it's only the active duty warrants, since the National Guard guys already know what they are flying.  Keep in mind, however, that the OML does continue into advanced airframe to determine the Distinguished Honor Graduate and other Honor Graduates, and that OML includes everybody.

Everybody's selection is different.  You can't even look at the last couple of selections before yours to get an idea of what yours will be like.  The aircraft that are needed change all the time.  When I selected, every class ahead of me for a month and a half was pretty much the same.  Almost all LTs got Blackhawks, and almost all Warrants got Apaches.  That kind of scared me a little bit since I really wanted to fly Blackhawks.

This is how my selection went.  We all went into the classroom and they gave us brief on what was going to happen, and told us that we would have a break between aircraft selection and filling out our "dream sheet" for duty stations so that we could call our spouses and talk it over with them.  At this point, nobody knew where they stood on the OML, or what aircraft were available.  So, the OIC (Officer In Charge) went up to the whiteboard and wrote out all the different aircraft that were available under two columns (LT and Warrant).  For Warrants, there were 4 Chinooks, 8 Blackhawks, and 8 Apaches.  That was a huge surprise to everybody because of how past selections went.

After that, they called off the top Warrant and top LT to select their aircraft and erase aircraft off the board when they were selected.  For Warrants, the Chinook went first.  After that, they read off the next person's name in OML order for the remaining selection.  So, that's how you find out where you stand....as they call off your name to select!  Anyway, all of the Chinooks went first, then an Apache, and then it was my turn.  Of course I selected Blackhawk.  The rest of the slots pretty much went back and forth between Apache and Blackhawk.

Fortunately for my class, almost everybody got what they wanted except the bottom person who was "forced" into Apaches.  Depending on what's available and what happens, selection can be pretty tense.  Many times there are people that are upset with what they get stuck with.  Generally though, people tend to like whatever they end up flying regardless of whether they chose it or it was chosen for them.

After aircraft selection, they put up a slide that shows what duty stations are supposed to be available at graduation.  Everybody turns in a "dream sheet" with their top 3 selections on it, and apparently they use it to try and match it up for your first duty station.  However, it seems that this is rarely the case.  I don't think they even use it at all.  I think it's just there to make you feel good if you get a duty station assignment and it happens to be on your list.  Most of the duty stations that they gave us to select from weren't even where most of us ended up going anyway.

So after we all selected, there was a 15 minute break and I called my wife to let her know that I was able to select Blackhawks.  She was excited that I got my first choice.  Then we went over duty station assignments, and decided on Fort Lewis (Washington State), Fort Carson (Colorado), and Hawaii.  I went inside and filled out my dream sheet, and that was it.  Selection was over.  I was relieved to have been able to select my top choice for aircraft, and excited to get started....until I was issued my 1000 page, 2 inch thick -10 (Operator's Manual)!

If you have a chance to take a break before starting advanced airframe, I would suggest doing it.  You won't have another chance until you PCS.  I took a week of leave.  I didn't do anything special except not have to go to work for a week!  It was a much needed break.  However, make sure you give yourself time to study before going to your advanced airframe.  You will have a 5 and 9 test on day one, and you do NOT want to fail!  I'll talk more about that in the next post.