This is a bit of a follow-up to my WAMC thread from almost 3 years ago. I have a strong package, but I'm old (turn 30 soon).
Pros
99/99/99/99/99 AFOQT and 94 PCSM (soon to be 96)
PPL with ~70 hours
8 years of professional leadership experience at a company that I founded with 2 partners and was acquired, as well as leadership experience at the acquiring company
extensive experience performing as an individual and as a leader in a fast-paced, high-stress, team-based environment
Engineering degree from a highly-ranked university, 3.6 GPA
LORs attesting to my leadership skills, grace under pressure, and work ethic from business partners
LOR attesting to my natural flying ability and good ADM from my CFI
Cons
I turn 30 soon
Experimented with marijuana many years ago (I used it ~5 times)
Like most here, my dream has always been to fly fighters, but I understand that ship has effectively sailed as far as the ANG is concerned due to my age. Turns out starting a business is a big commitment and forced me to put that dream off for a long time, who knew! Now that the company is no longer in my hands, I feel that I can depart it without screwing over the rest of my team– that was why I wasn't able to pursue this earlier.
I'm currently weighing two options:
1. Apply for every ANG squadron I'm interested in (long-shot squadrons like fighters, but also 130s and HH-60s)
2. Take my chances with AD
I'd lean towards option 2 if there's a possibility of getting into fighters, but if my chances are similar (read: minuscule) of getting a fighter going either route, I'd lean towards the ANG due to the stability/predictability of the lifestyle. I know what they say– "make them tell you no", but I'm also running into the age limit here pretty quickly so I probably can't afford to delay my AD application for a year applying for ANG squadrons that will toss my application in the round file as soon as they see my age.
If I could boil this all down to two questions, they are:
1. Would my age affect my chances at selecting T-38s out of UPT, or is that entirely based on performance and needs of the AF?
2. How bad could AD *really* be? If I have a chance of getting fighters (and maybe maybe someday going to TPS and maybe maybe maybe applying for an astronaut slot) I'm willing to suffer quite a bit for that dream.
Thanks in advance!