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Life Choice: RCMP or Air Force/Military
Comahawk
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, right now I am in a situation of making a choice as to what I should do with the rest of my life. To give you the situation, I'm a 21 year old (soon to be 22) male living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Renting, but living with family, working as a team leader in a restaurant. I am about to complete my Journeyman Cooking program, I have a Diploma in Culinary Arts from NAIT and I fucking hate cooking.
So, onto the fun part, as of a year ago I decided I would join the RCMP and failing that, the military. The year has passed, I've read almost everything I could on joining the RCMP, however recently I've been having second thought. I've learned that if I apply to the military and go the officer training route, they will pay for my degree effectively and I could get the job of being a pilot.
Effectively, what I want is others opinions about either option, if anyone has some personal experience with one of these jobs. The idea of being a pilot appeals greatly to me, especially a fighter pilot... I consider it to be possibly the "coolest" job you could do, however I have no real experience with the reality of the job.
So, enlighten me, give me your opinions (so long as they aren't "I don't like war!" I could really care less about that) and your experiences please!
So, onto the fun part, as of a year ago I decided I would join the RCMP and failing that, the military. The year has passed, I've read almost everything I could on joining the RCMP, however recently I've been having second thought. I've learned that if I apply to the military and go the officer training route, they will pay for my degree effectively and I could get the job of being a pilot.
Effectively, what I want is others opinions about either option, if anyone has some personal experience with one of these jobs. The idea of being a pilot appeals greatly to me, especially a fighter pilot... I consider it to be possibly the "coolest" job you could do, however I have no real experience with the reality of the job.
So, enlighten me, give me your opinions (so long as they aren't "I don't like war!" I could really care less about that) and your experiences please!
Comahawk on
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a) Do you have the perfect vision to be a fighter pilot?
b) I would expect that everyone who joins the Air Force wants to be the guy that flies the plane, but only a few will ever be the absolute best of physical and mental ability that is necessary to be that guy. What happens to the rest?
c) Do you know how to fly a plane? Do they pay for you to learn how? What happens if you can't fly?
d) Can you face being a long way from home a lot of the time, or moving from air base to air base? Would you be able to make a relationship last through that?
Honestly, you did the research for the mounties, you should do it for the air force too.
That is part of the reason for this thread...
a: Yes, I am told my vision is better than 20/20
b: This I am uncertain of. As far as I can tell, I go to a recruiter, tell them I want to fly and after some arguing/ bartering with the recruiter I head off to uni, but during my summer months will be doing officer training, ect.
c: I can not fly a plane. Getting a license on my own would cost around $8000. Something I don't exactly have laying around. Howver, according to the job profile on the DND website, they will train me to fly from scratch. I'm sure having the license would be greatly helpful, but $8000 is a lot of money.
d: Relationship... I'm not to sure if I could make one last, but I also have to consider that any women who can not respect the job I do, if that she would be worth having a relationship with. Either way, the relationship part of the question is uncertain. As far as moving base to base, it doesn't bother me at all, in the RCMP I would likely end up in the territories for a year or two anyways and getting shifted around constantly after that.
Thanks for the questions, this is what I'm looking for... Things to consider before jumping into a military contract.
Also, I do not know about the first, but USAF has -veryfuckingstrict- regulations on your size you have to be to fly a plane. You have to weight between x-y and be between x-y inches tall.
While being a pilot would be badass, you may wantto think of getting into more of a tradeskill. If I end up not wanting to do accounting, I am going to join USAF and become an electrician, Then if I do not want to go 20 years in the service for retirement, I can get on a job as a supervisor or something.
Just think about it.
I think if you do become a fighter pilot you will be able to get into a relationship. Allow me to illustrate how I always pictured it going:
girl - What do you do?
other dude - I sit at a desk and type out financial reports.
girl - What do you do?
you - I'm a fucking fighter pilot. I fly a jet that goes faster than the speed of sound and shoot missiles and drop bombs and blow shit up
girl - do me
B.net: Kusanku
this is terrible, the girl will say "take me to bed or lose me forever"
don't you know anything?
Joining the military, at least in the USA - not sure about Canada, but I'm assuming it's similar - is not like getting a regular job. As Lewisham pointed out, many, many people will want to be pilots, but few will have the opportunity. Worse, if you aren't selected (for reasons that may or may not be out of your control) you'll likely be stuck doing something else you like doing far less, and you can't quit. A friend of mine, who is now an attorney, was well into training to be an Air Force pilot here in the USA (he was at the Air Force academy, even). Then, they had a force reduction and, in the process, changed the rules for who was and wasn't allowed to be a pilot. Suddenly, although he had done everything right and met all the original requirements, his opportunity evaporated. And worse for him, he was stuck.
Respect for the job is a necessary but not sufficient condition for maintaining a relationship. Keeping a relationship going when you're physically present is tough enough. Although it's nearly impossible to find real statistics, anecdotal reports of infidelity in military situations are so rampant that it's become a kind of folk wisdom. I'm not saying that it can't work, or it never works, but if you're away a substantial portion of the time, any relationship you have is going to be...well, less than a relationship. I'm a big believer that sometimes going after one thing you want often means giving up something else, and you should consider this carefully. If you want it bad enough, though, then at least you can justify the sacrifice to yourself.
Yeah, if I can't become a pilot (hell, I'd be happy to fly a Herc), I'm also quite interested in becoming an Artillery Officer. However, as I was told by a honorably discharged member of PPCLI, when dealing with the recruiters, be stubborn and only ask for what you want, as if they know you can be bent to another option, they will try.
So, being deferred from the job wouldn't be so bad. Kind of disappointing, but not too devastating.
Shut up.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I can say without a doubt that flying is one of the funnest jobs EVER!!! However. Military flight training is also one of the HARDEST jobs on the planet. From selection through years of training to finally getting into your active duty squadron You will literally bust your ass for 60 hour weeks for years at a time. And then when you are finally done you get to go get shot at.
I will also say that your chance of getting into an actual fighter jet are not very good. They generally only take the Number 1 guy out of flight school and that is if there is even a spot available. When It came time for me to select platform I was in a group of 12. The number one guy selected jets and everyone else in the class was told they got helicopters. The number 1 guy was a commercial pilot prior to joining. He had over 2000 hours of flight time and was a certified flight instructor. In other words He pretty much walked through the program and got perfects on everything while the rest of us who had never flown before busted our ass for 12 hours a day.
Do not let this discourage you however. It is very possible that you will still love what ever you fly. Jets are not for everyone. A lot of people do fine in other aircraft but when they start pulling 8gs get violently ill. Or clousterphobic those jet cockpits are TINY!!! I personally have done some ACM out in lemoore california and IT was fun as hell. I didnt get sick and had a freaking blast. But I would not want to do that on a daily basis. The stress level and ease of killing yourself is a bit too high.
In the end my best advice is if you want to be a pilot Go for it. I get paid right now to fly around florida in a chopper everyday and it freaking rocks. Just dont have your heart set on any one thing and take what ever you can get. But also be prepared to be uncomfortable and crappy at first. Everyone is. Just stick it out and you will do fine. And also dont go in with your heart set on the pointy nose jets. They arnt that cool anyway.
However. Just being a pilot is usually sufficient. While on a cross country to Austin Texas. Me and my copilot walked into the Marriott downtown just coming from the airport still in our flight suits. We checked in and walked to the hotel bar to get a drink. While ordering a corona two gorgeous UT coeds wanted to know everything in the world about flying and hung out with us all night. The job definitely has intangible perks.
But like all things it also has down sides. While flying over corpus christi bay on a training flight My engine in the single engine t 34 caught on fire and I had to shut it down and do a power off emergency landing. That was to say the least Un-fun. It was a nice day and I was miraculously close to a large airfield with a crash crew so the story ended happily but It could have easily ended in me parachuting out of the damn plane or dying.
People do get hurt in this line of work. Every single aircraft carrier deployment I have been on (2) someone has died. In the pacific an S3 crashed into an uncharted low level island. And In the med an 18 had a cold cat shot and literally went plook over the deck and into the water. The pilot for whatever reason didnt make it out. Of course its still safer than say driving a car on the highway. But it does have risks.
As for the physical requirements. Expect to undergo the most thorough exam in your life. Everything on you will be tested. Eyes ears heart size shape physical endurance ability to tolerate extreams everything. If you pass you go to some ground school. ITs hard. its designed to be hard. If you pass again they let you get in a plane and sink or swim on your own. You either adapt and fly. Or suck and fail. 90 percent of people that make it that far do fine. The rest usually either lose motivation or just actually suck at flying. (think bad drivers)
if you have any more questions just let me know.
Oh one last thing in the navy at least you have to be an officer and the contract is quite long. 8 Years from when you finish flight training. which takes 2-3 years. (the jet training is a bit longer than anything else because of the year of weapons training. fun but school is the worst) so about 10 years total. Also they did pay for all of my college and I did 4 years of ROTC at a big ten school in the states.
I am going to assume most of this is very similar to how canada operates. Aviation is pretty universal. your training might be a little shorter and not as intense but it will I imagine be pretty similar.
Otherwise, IMHO Military > RCMP for you at this time because of the education and life experience. Also, you can easily go RCMP after the military if you like. There is a program in place between the military and the RCMP currently.
AIM: Yarrfooey
And today during work I flopped back to joining the RCMP. I am being wishy-washy and it pisses me off. As far as the positioning thing, it doesn't bother me if I get sent up north really... As long as I have the internet I would likely be fine, considering I don't party anymore and don't mind being my own company.
My main concern with the RCMP is just having to go through the interrogation process, ect to join... The idea of that kind of scares the crap out of me.
If only being a cook wasn't such a shit show of a job... :P
Also, I dont want to be a dick here, but it is insanely hard, and competitive for pilot positions in the Canadian Air Force. We do not have the kind of resources military wise like the USA does in that every reserve member has thier own fight jet. etc. I dont know if that still holds true, but it once did. The process of getting into the Military in Canada is a few months, then basic and then they streamline you for your chosen path, however they can and do have the ability to put you somewhere in the Air Force that you might not want to be. With that said however, there is a lot of new Helicopter and Transport aircraft positions opening up.
It really all depends on how much you want something. Do you want to be a cop? or do you want to be a pilot (of any aircraft not just fighters)?
Depending on what you want, you have to commit 100% to that goal otherwise you wont get it. Both of these professions you're interested in are very competative, very militaristic organizational wise and are very unforgiving if you aren't up to par.
AIM: Yarrfooey
Ha, that's if he's lucky. RCMP specifically uses the north as their training ground for rookie officers. Almost all will start their career up here somewhere. And frankly, getting within 50km, or actually within a place like Yellowknife or Whitehorse would be a godsend. He should be more worried about getting sent to a small hamlet of 100 people, over a thousand km from anywhere. It'll be him, and one other Officer, in a town filled with folks who don't want you there and drink all day (though to be fair, there are a lot of folks who are grateful for your presence too).
Anyway Comahawk , if you want more detailed advice, feel free to PM me. I've been living in the far north for a little while now, and spent weeks at a time in some of the crazy-small villages you'd be sent to if you joined the RCMP. I also spent some time in our military, albeit as infantry not a pilot, but I can certainly offer some greater insight and detail for you of the military life. It's one thing I wish I did more before I joined up - talk to all sorts of people about what the life was like.
But right off the bat, I'll echo the sentiments of people already. Getting in as a pilot is extremely tough; AFAIK, the Air Force is still pretty desperate for pilots, but they much prefer to hire experienced pilots, as their training program is backlogged big-time. And the odds of you getting to fly anything, even after going through the training, is still slim. The odds of you getting to fly one of our few CF-18's is almost as likely as someone joining the Army and expecting to end up in JTF-2.
Both the RCMP and the military are quite honorable goals, and I wish you luck either way, but they're both very serious commitments; the military even more so. Especially if you join to be a pilot, you can't just "Get out" if it's not at all what you expected after a year (which happens quite often).
Anyway, fire me a PM if you want a bit more info. I'm not going to clog up the forum with a huge post no one will read.
I joined Air Cadets (I was 14 at the time) since I figured this would help my entrance to RMC. I spent 3 years there and eventually was the top rank cadet commander of my squadron. I learned something very valuable there... that I hate military beaurocracy/politics. When I left there, I changed my tune and went to a regular university for engineering and went that route, which I'm very happy with.
One thing I reflected on recently was - when I was 14, Canada was only involved in a few peace keeping missions.. it was basically peace time, and when I pictured myself being a fighter pilot, I imagined it always as practice maneuvers over North America. I never pictured actual combat. I figured I'd be mostly safe, being in a friggin fighter jet so I wasn't exactly concerned for my own life. But.. I never actually thought that I might be required to TAKE A LIFE. Let me reiterate: KILL PEOPLE. This is something you would be agreeing to do when you join. I don't want to be preechy or push my values on you or anyone else.. its just something you would need to be comfortable with if you were to join (any military organization). Canada is engaged in active combat right now, and who knows what might happen in the future.
Also - yeah, as people said, the number of wannabe pilots vs the number of actual fighter jets Canada has does not bode well for those people. Not that its impossible - just.. improbable.
BTW, nice Eve sig
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that in the UK, and pretty sure it's the same in Canada, the return of service for pilots is extraordinarily long. Pilot training takes much longer than training other officers, and costs a lot more. Thus you have to serve for a longer period - in the UK, I seem to remember it's something like 9 years instead of 3 years. That's a lot if you decide at any point that the life isn't for you.
Also, to repeat, seriously check out what happens to you if you don't make the grade for pilot. Other Air Force jobs tend to be pretty fecking dull in my opinion.
Fcuk me, what is it with everyone wanting to become gunners? Well, I hope you don't value your hearing, are very good at trigonometry, and like naked bars. Not the kind with women.
Regardless, officer in the military is a pretty sweet gig and looks great on a resume.
As for location and living, if you make it as a pilot there are only two places where the Forces have jets (to my knowledge): Coldlake AB and Trenton ON.
I know the Army side of things has a recruiter you can chat to online, I'll try and look it up for you.