Primary Flight Training

Upon completion of Aeromed, the next stop for flight students is Primary, the first actual flying of IERW. After months of basic officer and preparatory courses, the flight training truly begins. The first few weeks of Primary are some of the busiest and most overwhelming of flight school. Instructors often talk about drinking out of a fire hose; they say that for a reason. The schedule involves either morning class followed by afternoon flightline or morning flightline followed by afternoon academics. Academics begin with  systems classes which start a few days before the first day at the flightline. This allows students to gain a basic knowledge of the TH-67 before they begin to fly. Once both academics and flightline are in full swing, things start coming hot and heavy. With morning flightline the day will begin with a bus ride to the airfield at 0500 and academics will end somewhere between 1400 and 1600. Afternoon flightline starts with academics at 0730 in the morning and ends around 1730. Evenings will be filled with lots of studying. A word of wisdom to the wise, get a 5&9 study guide as early as you can and start memorizing. Students must know all limitations from chapter 5 and all underlined steps from chapter 9 verbatim. The rest of the information in chapters 5, 8, and 9 does not need to be verbatim but the basic concepts need to be nearly memorized as well. Students who wait till they being flying to try to learn all of this will be swamped. By having it all memorized ahead of time, Primary will be much less hectic and a lot more fun. There are two checkrides during Primary, P1 and P2. The P1 is just to make sure students are progressing as they should. Some weak students get set back a class for more time, a very few get eliminated if they just can not fly. The P2 checkride is much more intense and is likely to be the hardest checkride of IERW. Upon completion of the P2, students move on to Instruments.

In-Processing

You finally made it. You worked hard all through ROTC, you were selected for Aviation, you got your orders, and you are enroute to Fort Rucker, the home of Army Aviation. Now what! First and foremost, you need to know the Army authorizes you up to ten days of pay for a hotel room while you are searching for a place to stay. When it comes to housing, you will have the option of either living on base or receiving BHA pay to rent a place in one of the surrounding towns of Enterprise, Daleville, Ozark, or even further away if you are willing to drive. If you come down a few days before your report date you can use your ten authorized days of time in a motel to do some home hunting. On the day you actually report show up early. If you are lucky, you can get everything done the first day and then have a couple more days to relax and get your life in order. All the main places you need to in-process are located in building 5700, the Soldier's Service Center. Once you are finished there, stop by the few locations that are not housed in 5700 and you are done with your central in-processing. The next stop is the 1-145 Aviation Training Regiment HQ. You only have a couple offices to stop by here, one welcome brief, and then you head over to B Co. HQ to fill out some paperwork for them. Once all your in-processing is completed, most Soldiers have a few days off before their classes begin. This can be a good time to complete additional requirements such as a flight physical, a dental exam and, if those are both completed, the swim test and dunker training. There will also be times set aside to do these in the future so don't get too concerned if they are not completed before the beginning of class. As long as there are no hiccups the entire in-processing should be relatively painless and you will be ready to begin the first stop of flight school - BOLC.

Sophomore (MS2) Year

Sophomore year in ROTC is somewhat a continuation of the freshman year. Again, the primary focus is on grades and physical fitness. While LDAC is still a ways off, many cadets get an opportunity to go to an Army School such as Airborne or Air Assault. Going to these schools provides additional points on the order of merit list (OML) that will be used to determine if you get into Aviation or not. Of course, getting a school slot is usually based on the OML to begin with so the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Make sure your GPA and PT scores already put you in the rich category and you will be fine. The sophomore year is also a time to get some extra preparation in for the upcoming critical MS3 year. While it is possible to learn everything you need to know your MS3 year, the information will be more deeply ingrained and second nature if it is really committed to memory this year. This is the last year of "freedom" before the constant evaluation of the MS3 year. Prepare well cadet!

Freshman (MSI) Year

The first year of the AROTC program is the experimental cakewalk year. The only obligations are regular academics, PT three mornings a week, and participation in occasional activities. The biggest things for the MSI cadet to pay attention to is grades. Aviation is one of the most competitive branches and academics currently count for 40% of the accessions packet. Thankfully, I was a studious freshman and maintained a 4.0 throughout the first year. It is far easier to keep a good GPA than to try to get one later. A GPA below 3.5 is getting kind of iffy for branching Aviation and a GPA under a 3.0 means your chances are slim indeed. Start the first year off right and the rest of the route to aviator wings will be that much easier. Also, the MSI year is the time to get physically fit if you did not enter the ROTC program in peak physical shape. Physical fitness test scores count for 15% of the overall ranking system. PT scores are not as influential as academics but physical fitness is nothing to blow off either.

Army Aviation Via ROTC

There are a number of paths into Army Aviation. Because of life goals, the path I chose was the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. The ROTC  program is designed to train college students to commission as officers in the United States Army following graduation. Participation in the program adds an additional time obligation of 5-10 hours a week throughout the school year. Following graduation, cadets are commissioned and serve at least four years of time on Active Duty , or in the Army Reserves or National Guard. Cadets branching into Aviation have a six year obligation due to the extra time involved in flight school. While it is easier to branch Aviation in the Guard or Reserves I chose Active Duty in order to avoid juggling a civilian job and military duties. I began my Army career in Fall 2007 at Maranatha, a small school with a satellite ROTC program out of UW-Madison.