Furthermore, the Army should implement quality of life and quality of service surveys for every pilot who remains. Fiscal Yr 2021 starts Oct 1, 2020. Stan was worried about his Active Duty career path (Option #2) because it would ensure several years of moves and deployments. "Army Aviators don't want to stay in the Army even though we pay them less, deploy them more, and treat them worse than their peers in other branches and civilian careers, so we will just force them to stay in longer. People tend to forget, aportion of street to seat WOFT applicants areprior service. Air defense branch offering $60,000 bonus for warrant officers, New aviators to incur 10-year service obligation, New Aviators to incur 10-year service obligation. If you want to fly the U-2, you must start on Active Duty. You get to the airlines sooner, and you spend more years at a major airline. I would be inclined to say that your contract is still 6 year ADSO. However, I dont think its worth passing up a nearly guaranteed Active Duty. Time will tell. With a 10 year ADSO and an 8 year max time in service requirementit significantly reduces the in house pool as well. You can review the rules in AR 600-3 if memory serves. Though I agree that there is a retention problem, especially within aviation, I'm not sure the Army is focused on the right issue here. Our young NCOs want to become warrant officers and get out and fly. Ive also called this the, Stans idea (Do 5 years as an engineer, then fly for the Guard or Reserve), Looking at these side by side, its clear why #1 is the Ultimate option. Another disparity is the pay inequality between the militarys pilots. What are a few of the issues which the Army could resolve for aviators? For more information, please see our Moving to a random Air Force Base for less than 1 year while Awaiting Pilot Training (APT), Moving to a base for 6-10 months for initial aircraft qualification. 10 is a big commitment either way. You are likely going to be on Active Duty Status for about 7 years once you finish command as most officers command a company around their 6th year of service. Below are the commissioning ADSOs by source of commission: ROTC Non-Scholars have a 3-year commissioning ADSO. He is the author of thejumo brief, a free weekly newsletter for Army leaders. By collecting data and then improving quality of life and quality of service with targeted retention initiatives, the Army will not just increase retentionthe positive changes will increase the appeal of serving as a pilot in the Army, and recruiting will increase as well. If you, the seasoned army aviator, were still a senior in college and told that to become an aviator you had to sign for a 10-year + flight school ADSO, would you do it? I dont hold back when people ask me the best way to become a military pilot. Lets assume though that Stan can get hired by a unit, and is scheduled to start UPT as soon as his regular ADSC is up. Very true. BrADSO - I signed for one, but then I know for a fact that it wasnt required/taken but its still on my iPERMS. During this time, Stan would at least need to obtain his Private Pilot Certificate. You're losing highly skilled aviators that took millions of dollars and 5-10 years to train. If the civilians don't want to join, not a problem. That will solve our retention problem!" More than likely, the aviations slots will be filled by personnel lower on the OML. I'm retiring in two years and it's not even to go to the airlines! With survey data in hand, the Army will likely find that it needs to continue to invest in its aircraft fleet to ensure pilots receive adequate flight hours to remain proficient. In the end, it's the Army getting a good return on the investments.. Flying helicopters looks pretty dope though. These could range from 6 months to two years, depending on the type of aircraft hes flying. This can exceed a 6 year obligation. ADSO stands for Active Duty Service Obligation. Change flight school where primary flight training is done by civilian contractors via fixed wing. The earlier you can Palace Chase, the less difference there is between a regular Active Duty pilot and someone following Stans plan. The pilot shortage is not in applicants it is in mid career. All of military aviation is what you make of it. There is no down time, no time to build family and relationships and the team. Instead of giving bonuses of several hundred thousand dollars to keep pilots like our Air Force brethren get, the Army decides the best course of action is to just make it mandatory 10 years like them but not receive the pay. Armed Forces REGARDLESS of the provisions of this enlistment/ The DoD report to Congress included a description of Air Force efforts to assess the problem: The Air Force gathered data on what drives separations from an October 2015 Fighter Pilot Retention Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st century event, the 2015 Air Force Exit and Retention surveys, the August 2017 Dedicated Aircrew Retention Teaming Summit, and a series of three aircrew retention crowdsourcing surveys sent to 9,000 aircrew members that culminated in March 2018. That's the Army's ace in the hole. Whether you elect the Branch of Choice or Graduate School Program, there are slight differences to your commitment for those who branch Aviation. 4 years closer to RTAG if they're hiring. If hed gone to UPT right after college, its more likely that hed get a lot of his deploying done before his kids were that old, or even before they were all born. (Yes, they say ADSO instead of ADSC because the Army and the Air Force refuse to do anything the same since they divorced back in 47.) The increased ADSO only harms this effort further. The Army has more career Enlisted willing to cross over for the opportunity in being an Officer and increasein pay for the family, with or without a degree. I ended up discovering that Stan was most worried about frequent moves and long deployments stressing his family during an Active Duty flying career. They can surely find that amount in the Enlisted ranks if WARRANTED. Also if you have any time in the army at all, youll probably stay until 20 at that point. So Army. 1 Sacknuts93 3 yr. ago Probably not. This is doubly applicable for aviation formations. There are more than enough fully qualified CAREER ENLISTED personnel from the 5 services, waiting in the wings, so to speak, to apply for the WOFT program. Deployments are great flying, but terrible on a family. New ADSO order goes into effect 03JUN saying: "Hey, buddy, you wanna fly? I don't know how common my situation is, but I'm sure there are plenty of people like me who barely flew, while there are others flying until they drop. Of the two, retention is the variable that should be targeted. And yet, theres a certain logic to questioning that 10-year commitment. The change comes as the cost and requirements for aircraft have increased across the board, Kearns said. Heres some humor about the topic too https://thefrontlines.com/comics/army-pilots-beware/. Suddenly, Active Duty isnt looking that bad, right? junglerekon 2 yr. ago The TIG start isn't official yet. Welcome back, fellow aviators! Then 10 year service obligation put me right at 20 so Im not too worried about that. 2-4 more moves for assignments during his Active Duty career. This call to action comes amid challenging times, with many civilian airlines running on reduced flight schedules, said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jon Koziol, the Armys command chief warrant officer to the aviation branch, during a Facebook livestream in June. SUPERSEDED AR 600-8-29, 02/25/2005; SUPERSEDED ARMY DIR 2019-30, 10/01/2019: Footnotes: https://armypubs.army.mil 03-APPLICABLE TO ARNG UNITS: Security Classification : UNCLASSIFIED: Dist Restriction Code : A APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED: Changes The consensus seems to be that if you graduate flight school inFY 2021, you accrue the 10 year ADSO. Currently in common core here and we still don't know if it applies or not. Proponents of the new ADSO have suggested that the Army is catching up with the Air Force and the Navy by matching its pilot obligation with theirs. He was thinking about turning down an Active Duty UPT slot and fulfilling the alternative 5-year USAFA non-pilot ADSC as an engineer or something, then pursuing a UPT slot with a Guard or Reserve unit. That is not a good thing. So why are aviators getting out? My family got to live in England for three years and it was fantastic! for a discussion of these options and their advantages.) I know this is an old article but as a graduating senior this policy is stupid. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. You get to the airlines sooner, and you spend more years at a major airline. We dont have good measurements out there right now to tell us why an aviator is getting out of the force. Without useful data, the Army cannot implement targeted retention solutions. Branch of Choice: Your BRADSO obligation runs consecutively with your flight school ADSO and your commitment will run out to about the 10 year point. Theres no debating that the military has a near monopoly on the most exciting aviation available to humankind. The same goes for great deals like going to Test Pilot School, flying the E-11A BACN, and much more. If people don't want to serve, you are actually harming readiness, not helping it. COVID has taken care of the airline hiring problem for the next three to five years, making the issueance of an increased ADSO redundant. Today were going to compare the more common Active Duty career path with the Ultimate one that Ive recommended so heavily. If you receive the Grad School option, the option costs you nothing because GrADSO runs concurrent with your flight school ADSO. Im would bank on that being the flight school start date officially. Back then the Army had a hard-on for pilots. The future of Army aviation depends on retaining the pilots in whom it invests so much. The US Army is missing the boat by not letting seasoned professionals into flight school. Lasting solutions must come in the form of quality of life and quality of service improvements. The Department of Defense released a report in July 2019 that laid out the challenges the military faces with pilot retention and included plans of action from each branch. Expand The 10 year ADSO will actually prevent all but the youngest street-to-seaters from making the jump, I graduated flight school right after turning 24 and the AF won't take you after 33 without a waiver. Rather, the Modern War Institute provides a forum for professionals to share opinions and cultivate ideas. Once Stan finally gets qualified in his aircraft, hed get seasoning orders with his Guard or Reserve unit. An ADSO twice as long as other branches (for academy grads) or 6+ years longer than ROTC counterparts is only going to deter quality officers that view an additional obligation as a loss of opportunity for careers beyond the service. And finally, the Army will likely find that it should increase flight pay beyond what has already been offered. NO WOFT POSTS. The U-2 and B-2 are both single-location aircraft, and they go through so much trouble getting their pilots that youd have to try to leave. That seems like a lifetime to an 18 year old. Actually, the option to revert to Warrant Officer does exist. Branch of Choice: Your BRADSO obligation runs consecutively with your flight school ADSO and your commitment will run out to about the 10 year point. If you graduate after 1 Oct 2020 expect a 10 year service obligation. A 10 year ADSO on a guy that already is a senior E6/E7 probably didn't make a lot of sense at the time as well. The disparity grows as pilots continue service, with a difference of $1,560.80 per month in favor of a major with fourteen years of service compared to a chief warrant officer 4 with fourteen years of service.