[gt350mike]

Seahawk, Do you know how many pilots (either wo or officers) the Army trains each year? The reason I ask is the number of aviator slots may be fixed while the Army increases the number of commissioned officers, which would make getting branched aviation more difficult.

I have been told by an ROTC instructor that the Army plans to commission about 5k Lieutenants in 2013. With that many O-1's running around, I think it will be extremely competitive for anyone to get into flight school. My son is will be on a 4-year scholarship this fall (in addition to a wrestling scholarship) and I told him that if he had any aspirations of flying in the Army, he better be the best (or one of the best) cadets in the program. In the past a good rule of thumb at each college ROTC program has been one or two cadets are branched aviation......a lot of variables come into play (school size and the quality of cadets that are commission at that school).

I don't know much about the current WO program but I think it may be easier for Tom's granddaughter to pursue the WO avenue.....she should be able to determine within a relatively short time period if the Army will accept her into the program vs. going the commissioned route.

Getting into the program is the first difficult step, the other two will be surviving WOC (Warrant Officer Candidate) school then finishing flight school. Based on Tom's comments on his granddaughter, I think she would make a fine flying WO or Lieutenant!

Just like someone mentioned earlier......going the military route to fly is great but it does have its downfall; some people like to shoot at our A/C!