congrats on your selection! are you saying you get your "rated" slot when you get selected for field training? my son has a non technical major and is wanting to fly (like his dad and brother). any idea about the background check?
Time for some clarity.
No, any AS 200 that got SFT and stated they would go rated upon commissioning, RECEIVED a rated slot. In their 300 year they will meet the RATED board and will know in March if they go Pilot, CSO, RPA or ABM...or NADA. They are not guaranteed any rated position like it was back in your husbands day.
~ What they do now is force cadets to acknowledge if they plan to go rated when they are sophomores. That is it.
There is no rated guarantee. They are going to SFT....should be congratulated for that selection, BUT. it has nothing to do with what it was back in your DHs day or even 3 years ago.
~ Again, it is just them declaring to HQ AFROTC that they are willing to go rated.
~~ No offense WilB...just saying I think the OP believes you have a rated slot which is not true. Next year you will know if you do, but not today.
After graduating from SFT, they will return to school as a POC. They will take the TBAS. Flight hours matter more than you can know. The cadets going for rated will get points for how many flight hours (PCSM). Even as little as 10 hours can bump up their score. PPL, and they can get waived from attending IFS (initial Flight Screening) at Pueblo.
Their ranking out of SFT will matter too for their OML.
Their rising senior year after being selected for a rated spot will include the TS clearance. Background check.
~ TS clearance may require some working for you since you inferred your husband was also military via ROTC
~~ They go all the way back since birth, and will interview at least 2 or 3 people. They show up at their homes and it takes @30-45 minutes.
~~~ Your child will submit the references. They will ask them a ton of questions.
If he is selected rated, especially pilot, than they will fly him out to WPAFB for the FAA FC1 flight physical. It is 3 days. This is not a DoDMERB exam. This is everything from a dental check up for wisdom teeth to an EKG that every cadet will do. Think from cranium to toes will be looked at. It ends with a DoDMERB type exam with a flight surgeon.
You than wait 4-6 weeks for the results.
Getting an SFT slot is something to rejoice in, but it is not rated, and I would not like any cadet to believe that is the case. Sheer numbers state it can't be, they need Intel, Cyber, Comm, etc.
I would also plead with every AFROTC cadet that wants to fly, please read Raimius UPT blog.
SFT board is a cake walk. Rated a little more pressure. Real world is IFS with a 15-20% bust rate...no UPT. UPT with a washout rate of 25% phase 1, and another 25% in phase 2.
Here is Debbie Downer now... DS is only 1 of 4 out of 13 at his commissioning actually winged. His unit had 100% rated selection. If you do the math using his unit, they were right on par with the AF's stats.
~ 13 Pilots....3 busted IFS
~~ 10 left to start UPT phase 1
~ 3 busted phase 1 (T6s) @30%
~~ 7 left
~ 3 busted phase 2.
~~ 4 left to wing as an AF pilor.
All of them, like our DS, and us thought as a scholarship recipient that desired to fly, especially fighters that the scholarship was the hardest part.
This is coming from a wife that spent 20+ years following her AFROTC commissioned F15E WSO how I learned when my DS walked down this path, it is going to be years of riding the emotional rollercoaster. Luckily with hindsight I look back and laugh now1