Hello all. I will try and make this as short as possible. I am 21 years old, and I have wanted to be a fighter pilot for some time now. Everytime I see a jet of some sort...I get goosebumps because of how awesome I think they are.

I went to my local AF recruiting advisor (I live in PA) and she basically told me that I cannot become a pilot, blah blah blah. She gave me a number to a Staff Sgt. in Philadelphia. I called her and she told me that the local recruiter is full of shit and I can do what I want. She asked me if I had and pervious flying time and I said no, but I plan on taking flying lessons. She told me to call her back when I have some flying time under my belt.

Fast-forward to present (3 months later). I am still taking flying lessons and I almost have my private pilots license. Obviously I am not flying a jet right now but I assume I have something that will help me so far.

I dont know what to do right now, because both recruiters failed to tell me that I had to have a 4 year degree before I can even think about coming a pilot.

Should I join the AF, and have them pay the portion of college and stay in for 4 years until I get a degree, then become an officer, or should I get my 4 year degree before joining the AF, pay for it myself, then go in as an officer? I dont know all the technical stuff about the different options I have, but my one friend who is in the Marines told me to pay for college myself then go in as an office or else I will be the bitch for 4 years until I become an officer.

Any advice woudl be greatly appreciated!

There are several paths to take in order to reach your goal as outlined by your Marine friend.

One can join as enlisted and use the enlisted education benefits to obtain a college degree while serving as enlisted. You can obtain a college degree during your enlistment. Many have done just that. That would be a major step in the right direction in attaining your goal.

You can enlist to serve in the aviation community and work closely with jet aircraft on engines, avionics etc. That track will be an education in and of itself. This would be a second major step in the right direction.

Once the above is accomplished, then you could apply for consideration for pilot training with additional service commitments that would entail upon being made a pilot.

Or as your friend indicated, you can go ahead and pay for your degree yourself and go from there.

And as usual there are plenty of negative things that go along with certain choices one makes.
Remember this, taking out student loans to get the degree, will leave you with a substantial debt that only goes away when you pay off that debt completely. Just having a degree is no guarentee of high dollar employment anymore. Degree without experiences to go along with it results in no attractive job offers. I hire folks all the time, and those with only a degree to present, while they are considered, are generally not offered the job. I look for past performance and documented experiences.

Or you could open up a dialog with rppearso on this subject.....

correct me if I am wrong but doesn't the Army and Navy have more planes and pilot slots open than the AF? Maybe you should look into another branch.

You are not wrong on this. He posted in the Air Force section so I assumed he wanted to play with them primarily.

You will have to have a 4 year degree in preferably hard science (physics, chemistry, etc) or hard engineering (chemical, electrical, etc) just make sure to stay away from hokey engineering technology degrees or science technology degrees. Then you want your private pilots licence. Once you have done both of thoes you will have to take an AFOQT (if the recruiter has you take an ASVAB there full of it and walk away) Thoes are the major requrirements. Remember you have until you are 25 or 26 to be competitve for a pilot slot so if you enlist dont count on flying because an engineering degree program does not allow time for playing army man if you want to get your degree in 4 yrs. Once you have the requirements you will have to talk to an AF officer recruiter, not just any shopping mall recruiter, if the shopping mall recruiter is doing his job he will give you the officer recruiters buissnes card otherwise its a pain to track them down sometimes. He will have a ton of paper work for you to fill out over the course of months and after all of that it is still a crap shoot, the active duty AF may not have any slots open when you get done checking all the boxes. So get your private ASAP and get yourself enrolled in an engineering or science program at your local university. Even if you dont get in you will still have a 4 yr engineering degree and a pilots licence then you can get a job as an engineer and buy a plane, thats what im doing as the AF did not have any slots open when I was shopping for a pilot slot. So good luck and shoot for the moon, if you miss at least you are amongst the stars (and off the ground, lol)

If you have a science or engineering degree from a good school you will be able to get a good job. Granted its hard to get your first job, but not that hard (at least in engineering) then once your foot is in the door push to get your PE licence, that will give you tons of credibility. If someone wont hire you as a PE then they dont do engineering (or there not looking). The route I am taking is I have my undergrad in engineering I am working on my PE and later on I will get a masters or PhD in science, engineering is easier to get a job in at the undergraduate level. Scientists typicly have PhD's or at least a masters. Unless you go out of state for your education your student loans should not be too bad.

Wow no takers to throw in a snide poop head remark. Where was Sammy at on this one.

Personaly, I would aim to go to the academy.

The facts are that you HAVE to be an officer and you HAVE to have a degree that the Air Force wants. They are not going to let someone with a degree in underwater basket weaving fly a multi million dollar jet.

The Academy is free, it is a great education and there is so much to do while your there.

I am enlisted at the moment and to be honest, I thought I was gonna get my degree while enlisted but the fact of the matter is, is its difficult to be a full time military member (which you have to be) and a full time student. So in reality, it will probably take you a lot longer to get a 4 year degree done than 4 years. You have to factor in deployments, additional training, exercises, normal duties, PCSing etc. I am not trying to say its not possible because it is but I know of a lot of people who thought they would do this and they never took into real consideration what being in the military means.


Whatever your choice is good luck.

ALSO, you can get your private pilots license while at the Academy. They know you have to have it and they offer it there.