ritdawg
07-04-13, 01:49 AM
Greetings Marines,
Found out that I made the cutting score for Sgt and will be picking that up for my July drill. So that now opens the door for opportunities for me to reenlist. I originally had plans on going 7257, ATC, however, found out that the school was to long and that there was no way my schooling would be paid for (either by headquarters or by the unit that I would be joining). Another opportunity that came up was to become a navigator on C130's. However, that job is being fazed out by the new C130J's that will be entering service.
This leaves me two other options, of either going UAV operator (7314) or going to be a crew chief (6276). Been leaning towards the crew chief side with the opportunity in the future to go to flight engineer training for the new c130's since I heard that they will also be doing the navigator's role as well. I have an aviation background, went to school for ATC, have a degree as well in flight operations and flight management (pilot's license for private, commercial, and instrument) so aviation is something that I am familiar with, even coming from a grunt side.
My questions are how hard is it to move from a crew chief to a flight engineer spot, how long of a time frame am I looking at? What are deployments like for a C130 squadron on the reserve side? My PSR says that crew chiefs/flight engineers are in high demand, is going active duty or active reserves a possibility? And how mechanically savy do I need to be to be proficient at my job?
Thank you for your input
Found out that I made the cutting score for Sgt and will be picking that up for my July drill. So that now opens the door for opportunities for me to reenlist. I originally had plans on going 7257, ATC, however, found out that the school was to long and that there was no way my schooling would be paid for (either by headquarters or by the unit that I would be joining). Another opportunity that came up was to become a navigator on C130's. However, that job is being fazed out by the new C130J's that will be entering service.
This leaves me two other options, of either going UAV operator (7314) or going to be a crew chief (6276). Been leaning towards the crew chief side with the opportunity in the future to go to flight engineer training for the new c130's since I heard that they will also be doing the navigator's role as well. I have an aviation background, went to school for ATC, have a degree as well in flight operations and flight management (pilot's license for private, commercial, and instrument) so aviation is something that I am familiar with, even coming from a grunt side.
My questions are how hard is it to move from a crew chief to a flight engineer spot, how long of a time frame am I looking at? What are deployments like for a C130 squadron on the reserve side? My PSR says that crew chiefs/flight engineers are in high demand, is going active duty or active reserves a possibility? And how mechanically savy do I need to be to be proficient at my job?
Thank you for your input