Flying for my home unit

[Jmac]

        I’ve been lurking for a while And the site has been extremely useful so I thought I’d role the dice and ask a question. 

         First I’ll give a little background I’m 23 years old with a bachelors degree in business with a 3.65 gpa. I’ve been married a little over a year into an Air Force family and I decided about six months ago that I wanted to join the Air Force. After talking with my father in law I decided to pursue the Air Guard and try to fly. I’ve been talking with a recruiter for my home (nearest) unit for about a month now and I’m getting dates together to take all my tests. I have no flying experience but I’m willing to put in the work I need to to make my self competetive  which leads me to my question. 

     Would it be better for me to enlist and get to know the unit, since I’m really trying to join the unit closest to me due to wife/ family concerns, or to bust it on my own dime to get some flight hours and join as an officer? I do have time on my side being that I’m only 23 but I would like to serve regardless of flying or no flying so I’m leaning more towards enlisting and getting my foot in the door but I figured I would ask the all knowing forum for some advice before I made a decision. 

      Also if I did enlist what would be the best job to help my chances of getting tapped for a pilot slot?

[nunya]

Enlist or not depends on the unit.  No reason to delay your UPT path if you're competitive for UPT off the street.  You gotta go talk to them.  

[pilot]

Take a flight lesson at the local airport, take the AFOQT/TBAS, rush the unit, keep flying and try to get a PPL, keep rushing every drill weekend and get to know them. Enlisting could slow your UPT path down significantly. Nothing wrong with enlisting if that’s what you want to do, but if you want to fly them instead of fixing them, then I’d focus on that. Enlisting will likely add time to that path. 

Edited October 4, 2018 by FlyArmy

[elvis]

Enlist if you have to, it does help, but only really if you have to, to get into a unit that only hires from within. Fly as much as you can to make SURE you would want to do this for the next 10-12 years. If you do enlist, crew chief (Tactical Aircraft Maintenance), Aircrew Flight Equipment, etc. Basically any job you're dealing with the jet or the pilots. You've got your bachelors and you're young, do well on the AFOQT and TBAS and you have a good shot.