Marine Pilot

Got on my treadmill and Fortunate Son by CCR came on my music mix. Love that song.

Most fortunate sons and daughters I've known or known of neither want or expect pull from their parents. My son, not a fortunate son, introduced me to the second most influential Marine general in the Corps last Christmas. Many feel he will be the next commandant. We were in the base gym and immediately hit it off and swapped sea stories for several minutes. He said his son is a Marine logistics officer. I asked if that was his first choice and he said no but that's what he got. No favors from dad apparently.

On the USS Bowen we had an HT3 whose dad was the MCPON, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, while he was in boot camp. Brian was a great guy and hard worker. I asked him one day if people treated him differently because of who his dad was. He said, yep, everybody tried kissing up and he just wanted to do boot camp like everybody else. I looked him up awhile back. He retired as an HTC. His dad came to eat with us in the Mess on a Wednesday when we had Bowen Battle Burgers. He was a great guy as well.
 
I guess i should have said....Unless you father and grandfather are admirals.
Today I don't think it would fly. Not to say people don't occasionally hit the jackpot. I even had assignments that were just luck of the draw but people said "Wait... what??? How did you do that?" But if someone were to select out of order today it would cause a huge stink.
 
Helos ain't bad. Flying backwards is fun.

Most people wind up loving what they fly, so don't sweat it if your first choice isn't available.
 
My DS is at NAS Pensacola right now, and somehow he's hanging/studying with students that are Marines (he's CG). They're telling him the majority of Marines will end up with rotary, which none of them want. Most of the CG at NAS Pensacola I talk to want rotary, except my DS, he's been golfing with a retired Navy Captain who seems to have influenced him to go fixed wing. Anyhow, I guess when picking your service consider the mission.

Not to insult your son, but if he's still at NAS Pensacola, that means he hasn't even started flying yet beyond possibly IFS. He doesn't know the first thing about selection and neither do any of the Marines he may be hanging out with.

Now that that's out of the way, I'll give you my (admittedly biased) perspective.

CG usually does lean towards helos. All of them have watched The Guardian, which is the CG version of Top Gun. The occasional one thinks about how they could market themselves with multi-engine fixed wing time however.

Marines are largely divided into two camps - meat eaters and leaf eaters. Meat eaters being jets and skids (they shoot stuff) and leaf eaters being C-130s, Ospreys, and CH-53s. Each of these communities has its stereotypes. For example...

C-130s have the stereotype of being chill laid-back guys who are the furthest removed from the rest of the Marine Corps and enjoy a relatively cushy life. On dets, they stay in hotels (usually nice ones) with plenty of per diem.

Skids (Cobras and Hueys) have the reputation for being very in your face, aggressive, and nit picky with the details. The saying "Cobras eat their young" isn't for nothing.

I could go on. There can be a lot of truth in these sort of stereotypes, but that doesn't mean its all gospel. One of the most disliked instructors in my primary squadron was a C-130 dude. Some of the coolest most chill instructors were Cobra pilots.

When Student Naval Aviators (SNAs) put down their preferences at the end of primary, they really are using several things to guide their decision. In no particular order, here are several of the things they consider.
1) Stereotypes of community culture. If they have a spouse/children, they often are assessing family life in that community.
2) Do they have a burning desire to shoot stuff. If they're Navy, that pretty much narrows it down to jets. In the Marine Corps, that means jets or helos.
3) What were their instructors like in Primary? SNAs are exposed to a limited number of instructors. Often, one or two really good or really bad IPs will make all the difference in how an SNA perceives a community. This obviously depends on the primary squadron.
4) How much flight time will they have? My roommate who went jets spent many months not flying while I was flying 4 times or more a week in advanced.
5) Do they think pulling G's is cool or would they rather fly slower but be at 20 feet zipping through a canyon?
6) Do they want to get out and go airlines or is that not high on their list of priorities?

One big factor for Marines is that skids aren't actively killing today. 10 years ago, a lot of Marines had helos at #1 because they knew Cobras and Hueys were very active in Afghanistan still. Those Marines coming out of Primary 10 years ago who put helos first were largely disappointed as Afghan deployments dried up. That kind of thing is part of the normal ebb and flow. Alright, I'm rambling now - time to quit.
 
Back
Top