I want to preface this by saying that in an ideal world, I would like to make the military my career so please look at this in that context.
I've been offered a Type 7 scholarship from the AF as well as the 4 year from the Army. I would be using either of these at Purdue University under OOS tuition (so the Type 7 would be transferred to a Type 2). I am trying to discern which one I would like to accept. I have a couple of pros and cons for each branch and I am in contact with a good amount of people in both services, but I'm writing this post just as an effort to gain additional insight into the programs and opportunities after commissioning.
Very quickly I’d like to lay out what my thoughts/impressions are right now about the two. This might get a little naive/idealistic (especially because I want to be a pilot) so please excuse that.
Army: The impression I get about the Army is that much more leadership responsibility is given to Soldiers than Airman of similar rank. That impression largely comes from the fact that Army Captains are trained to be company commanders of 100 or more people, while the AF calls 100 people a squadron and puts a Lt. Colonel in charge of it. Army Lt. Colonels command battalions 5 times that size. While the increased leadership opportunities are attractive in the Army, the fact that Aviation slots are extremely limited means that actually getting to fly isn’t very likely. On top of this, I get the impression that Army Aviation officers very quickly rise to a supervisory role where they no longer fly as they have Warrant Officers to act as career pilots. Despite all this, I still tend to lean Army as the jobs you can get outside of flying are still very interesting to me whereas in the AF, it's seems to be much less varied. The potential for going to schools such as Air Assault and Airborne while in college is also very attractive. Finally, on an idealistic level, I think that as an Army officer you have much more of an impact on the lives of troops on the ground actually doing the fighting.
Air Force: AF pilots are pilots, first and foremost. For the first ten years of your career, your job will be to fly. From what I’ve gathered, the long term economic benefit of being an AF pilot is also fairly substantial due to flight pay and retention bonuses to keep you from going to the airlines. However, the AF seems like a high-risk, high-reward situation. If you get a pilot slot, awesome, you're golden. But if you don’t, well there just doesn’t seem like a whole lot else you can do that's anywhere near as interesting (please correct me on this).
So while the Air Force more aligns with my passions (or what I think they are, I’m pretty young, they could change), the Army seems to offer a more wholesome experience with a greater variety of jobs and opportunities for progression throughout a career.
I've been offered a Type 7 scholarship from the AF as well as the 4 year from the Army. I would be using either of these at Purdue University under OOS tuition (so the Type 7 would be transferred to a Type 2). I am trying to discern which one I would like to accept. I have a couple of pros and cons for each branch and I am in contact with a good amount of people in both services, but I'm writing this post just as an effort to gain additional insight into the programs and opportunities after commissioning.
Very quickly I’d like to lay out what my thoughts/impressions are right now about the two. This might get a little naive/idealistic (especially because I want to be a pilot) so please excuse that.
Army: The impression I get about the Army is that much more leadership responsibility is given to Soldiers than Airman of similar rank. That impression largely comes from the fact that Army Captains are trained to be company commanders of 100 or more people, while the AF calls 100 people a squadron and puts a Lt. Colonel in charge of it. Army Lt. Colonels command battalions 5 times that size. While the increased leadership opportunities are attractive in the Army, the fact that Aviation slots are extremely limited means that actually getting to fly isn’t very likely. On top of this, I get the impression that Army Aviation officers very quickly rise to a supervisory role where they no longer fly as they have Warrant Officers to act as career pilots. Despite all this, I still tend to lean Army as the jobs you can get outside of flying are still very interesting to me whereas in the AF, it's seems to be much less varied. The potential for going to schools such as Air Assault and Airborne while in college is also very attractive. Finally, on an idealistic level, I think that as an Army officer you have much more of an impact on the lives of troops on the ground actually doing the fighting.
Air Force: AF pilots are pilots, first and foremost. For the first ten years of your career, your job will be to fly. From what I’ve gathered, the long term economic benefit of being an AF pilot is also fairly substantial due to flight pay and retention bonuses to keep you from going to the airlines. However, the AF seems like a high-risk, high-reward situation. If you get a pilot slot, awesome, you're golden. But if you don’t, well there just doesn’t seem like a whole lot else you can do that's anywhere near as interesting (please correct me on this).
So while the Air Force more aligns with my passions (or what I think they are, I’m pretty young, they could change), the Army seems to offer a more wholesome experience with a greater variety of jobs and opportunities for progression throughout a career.
