Weekend leave during MOS school

[JacobB]

Thank you for taking the time to read this. February 14th is my ship date to PI on a AF contract, then after MCT I will be in Pensacola for MOS school. I live in Panama City, so my MOS school will only be a few hours from home. I am wondering if I will be able to come home on the weekends to be able to see my family and girlfriend or if I would even be able to come home just for the day and drive back at night. Also, I would love to hear any experiences any of you have had as an Aviation Mechanic. I would love to get to work Helos and eventually land a spot as Crew Chief. Thank you.
-Poole Bancroft

[MontezumaCpl]

You will find the weekend limits on how far you can travel off duty are pretty strict. I've been out a long time, but as I recall its tough to get more than 50 or so miles from base. Out of Bounds, seems it was 50 miles iirc regulations. The reasons are obvious, they dont want you getting stranded far away and also to keep you from getting into situations that can get you in trouble. Once you are in your MOS or A school, you cannot miss any instruction, the number of hours of instruction you need are strict and must be adhered to.

I worked in Aviation Maintenance and I liked it a lot. Interesting work and its fun to watch all those planes and helos as well. Learn as much as you can about what ever bird you are working on it will pay off.

[josephd]

Different school houses do it differently but you should get liberty on the weekends (Friday evening through Sunday evening). If your house is beyond the normal liberty limits then you will probably need to get a special liberty chit and your parents/family will have to come pick you up and sign you out.

[Devil1087]

GET AN AG CONTRACT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!

All crew chiefs are coming straight from boot now, you're not going to be a crew chief as a mech! You can always get DQ'd from NACCS, and become a mech or avionics guy.

[JacobB]

Would it be worth it? I would like to be a mechanic and it was my first choice. I already switched from an AE contract to AF and I have read that Helicopter mechanics fly every mission. The main reason that got me interested in becoming a crew chief was the opportunity to be an aerial gunner. But other than that I don't know too much about them.

[Devil1087]

You're getting screwed dude, go to your recruiter and request an AG contract. Keep in mind your vision must be no worse than 20/100 and correctable. Anything worse puts you on KC-130's which is actually pretty bad ass.

Basically anything is wrong with you and you're out of the aircrew program, no injuries that would hold you back, drug problems, mental problems, etc. I know a dude who was DQ'd because the docs thought he was a sleep walker! No sh*t. Aircrew MUST be good swimmers, it's part of NACCS, you should look it up. Crew chiefs must know everything about their bird because they make sure eveything is good to go while flying, if you're not flying you're going to be working as a mech anyways. They also act as the eyes and ears of the bird, because the pilots only have a certain field of view, they also man crew served weapons.

If you got grounded lets say, you're just be doing mech work like you signed up for. But you're not gonna fly unless you're aircrew, you have to go to NACCS for that.

So tl;dr if you can pass a flight physical go for it. If not stay with your current job because it appears that you want it.

This is the job I wanted but my vision screwed me over, I'm apparently just colorblind enough for a DQ, which is what happened to me. But I did a lot of research into it when I was enlisting.

I might want to note that even though my recruiter WAS a hydrolics guy in the f*cking wing himself he never mentioned the AG contract to me. I found out on my own.

Also apprently you can be in a Cobra as well, I thought the gunner was an officer until I talked to a kid out of my state who was one. I called shens until I saw lcpl dunno's name on the side of the bird.

[JacobB]

I should revise, AF was my first choice. I just came across crew chief when I was researching and liked some of the stuff it had to do with. But I don't have good vision nor am I a good swimmer, although I could learn. Out of curiosity, what job did you end up with after getting DQ'd?

[Devil1087]

Well I was DQ'd for it before I ever got to sign it, I'm ground side I still really wish I could lat move to the wing for it though. It's not really worth a re-enlistment to show up and be DQ'd.

I really dunno what would happen if you were dropped. I'm assuming that you're sent to either avionics or something wing related. It's going to depend on what MOS schools are open at the time of your drop from the program.

How bad is your vision? Mine is pretty bad, like 20/50 and that wasn't my problem glasses can correct to 20/20, I'm colorblind, that was my issue.

Here's some information about NACCS, I'll try to dig up a site I found that had the swimming program detailed

Overview:

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/navytrng/a/naccs.htm

Requirements for NAVY enlistees, ignore the 6 year contract thing, I don't know if that applies to the Marine Corps

http://www.navycs.com/blogs/2009/08/...rewman-program


Also, all of the information I'm giving you is stuff I found when I was researching the AG contract as well. I have no experience in the airwing, I'm passing along what I've found and heard to you. It is your choice on whether or not the AG contract is for you. I recommend finding someone in aircrew to talk with first. I know some guys on terminal lance for sure are aircrew and can help you out. You might want to do some digging there. There's also a fantastic 10 page thread here on leatherneck with plenty of information on aircrew, you'll have to search both website's forums to find that.