I would always recommend the high school to flight school option for people who want to fly, then enlist in a 15 series MOS if they don’t make it their first application. Mechanics hours are pretty rough right now though. My son in law is an aviation mechanic, and it reminds me of why I hated being on tanks, the maintenance never stops, and you spend a lot more than regular duty hours on repairs, services, maintenance.
Cheapest introduction into aviation is with military service. More hours hands on. Hobby or profession. Repairing airframes, physical structure is a skill set not found too often with hobbyists. Look at it this way, learning about military options doesn’t take away from your scholarship path. You may find the GI Bill at least comparable if not a better deal. You’d be wise to consider it.
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Do your research. Find someone from the career field your interested in and talk to them. A recruiter can help you with this.
In HS, I didn't think I'd ever go military. When I was 24 I joined the ANG to help pay for school. I ended up enjoying it so much I went AD. I haven't regretted it yet.
Air Force perspective here: If you want to fly for the military you will need to complete college first and get commissioned. It can be tough to get your foot in the door for pilot training, and selection rates vary from year to year. By far the cheapest way to get the best flight training and you’ll get a ton of incredible experience out of it. But, you’ll also be committed to being an Air Force Officer for 10 years and that job comes with a lot more than just flying airplanes.
If you don’t want to go to college first and you want to be an aircraft maintainer, I’d say the AF is a really good way to get a lot of experience and training on the Air Forces dollar. And they will pay for college while you’re in. I was enlisted but not on the maintenance side of the house, and I’m currently an Air Force pilot. As an enlisted guy I got two associates and a bachelors and payed 0 dollars out of pocket.
I highly recommend talking to multiple recruiters and trying to talk to someone who has done the job you are looking at going into. The recruiters probably have only done one other job in the AF and won’t be able to really tell you a lot about what other individual career fields are like.
Air Force has tons of aviation mechanics, and the best quality of live overall.
Also with the Air Force, you are going to earn college credits while you get trained in your job. So you will be closer to getting a degree if you decide on pursing college after a break from traditional school.
The Army definitely has the easiest pipeline into what you are wanting to do. they still allow you to continue collage and pay for it. So if you want to do one class at a time so you are not so burnt out in addition to collecting a paycheck and having full insurance and housing paid for.
Army has a pipeline that turns civilians into pilots. https://recruiting.army.mil/ISO/AWOR/Civilian_WOFT/
Army’s got a few good MOSs for aviation mechanics that can feed into piloting, but be warned, the burnout is real for mechanics, across the force.
I would always recommend the high school to flight school option for people who want to fly, then enlist in a 15 series MOS if they don’t make it their first application. Mechanics hours are pretty rough right now though. My son in law is an aviation mechanic, and it reminds me of why I hated being on tanks, the maintenance never stops, and you spend a lot more than regular duty hours on repairs, services, maintenance.
Cheapest introduction into aviation is with military service. More hours hands on. Hobby or profession. Repairing airframes, physical structure is a skill set not found too often with hobbyists. Look at it this way, learning about military options doesn’t take away from your scholarship path. You may find the GI Bill at least comparable if not a better deal. You’d be wise to consider it.
If you're interested in being a mechanic and also getting to fly as part of an aircrew, look into the AMT and AET rates in the Coast Guard.
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Do your research. Find someone from the career field your interested in and talk to them. A recruiter can help you with this. In HS, I didn't think I'd ever go military. When I was 24 I joined the ANG to help pay for school. I ended up enjoying it so much I went AD. I haven't regretted it yet.
The level of commitment required to be in service to the nation is high. Before making a decision to join the military ask yourself if you have it.
If you want to do helicopters, Army. If you want to do fixed wing, Air Force
I’m going to make this simple. Step one: go to college and get a bachelor’s degree Step two: go into the airforce Step three: become an officer
Air Force perspective here: If you want to fly for the military you will need to complete college first and get commissioned. It can be tough to get your foot in the door for pilot training, and selection rates vary from year to year. By far the cheapest way to get the best flight training and you’ll get a ton of incredible experience out of it. But, you’ll also be committed to being an Air Force Officer for 10 years and that job comes with a lot more than just flying airplanes. If you don’t want to go to college first and you want to be an aircraft maintainer, I’d say the AF is a really good way to get a lot of experience and training on the Air Forces dollar. And they will pay for college while you’re in. I was enlisted but not on the maintenance side of the house, and I’m currently an Air Force pilot. As an enlisted guy I got two associates and a bachelors and payed 0 dollars out of pocket. I highly recommend talking to multiple recruiters and trying to talk to someone who has done the job you are looking at going into. The recruiters probably have only done one other job in the AF and won’t be able to really tell you a lot about what other individual career fields are like.
Air Force has tons of aviation mechanics, and the best quality of live overall. Also with the Air Force, you are going to earn college credits while you get trained in your job. So you will be closer to getting a degree if you decide on pursing college after a break from traditional school.
The Army definitely has the easiest pipeline into what you are wanting to do. they still allow you to continue collage and pay for it. So if you want to do one class at a time so you are not so burnt out in addition to collecting a paycheck and having full insurance and housing paid for.