Roy, back in early 1980's i got so close to enlisting in the Navy...i actually had the physical and everything.
I was promised a spot as a navigator in the flight program when i started the process while finishing up my BS degree in college.
...
Had a position all set up at OTS. Then they dropped the shoe... no nav positions open. I would have to go in as a surface warfare officer .
WTF. After 6 months of running all the hoops, they pulled this.
...
Something similar happened to me...
One day at school I had a few hours between classes and two Marine officers where on campus recruiting. I ALWAYS wanted to be a pilot but bad eyes were a slight problem.
Since I had time, I stopped to talk to the Captains.
What I found out was danged interesting. :laughing: The Marines had a PLC(Platoon Leaders Course) that was held over the summer for 10 weeks. If you went in during your first two years of college, you had to go two summers.
If you went your Junior or Senior years you only had to do one summer of fun at Quantico. :laughing: You got paid as a E4 or an E5 and IF YOU DID NOT TAKE ANY SCHOLARSHIP money you owned the USMC nothing at the end of the summer. If you got through PLC and graduated you would be commissioned as a 2nd Lt if YOU wanted too. You could also just walk away...
Given my family background and interest in history, how could I resist? I would get in better shape at Quantico, :laughing::laughing::laughing: earn some money with danged little chance to spend it, and have a different career path if wanted. :thumbsup:
So I went through the process. My eyes were so bad I had to drive up to Orlando to get a Navy Doc to check my eyes. I was 20/200 so I just barely could get in and certainly not as a pilot. Unless I was 1/8 part American Indian in which case my eyesight would NOT prevent me from being a pilot.
Since I am at best 1/16 Indian I could still fly but only in the back seat. Now, the idea of flying at night, on or off a carrier does not bother me. As long as I am the PILOT. No way am I going to sit in the back while the crazy dude up front lands me in the water or crashed my a...s on the deck.
Nope. No flying for me! :laughing:
I did the paperwork, background checks, tests, physicals, physical fitness tests, etc. After one fitness test I drove back to the motel that Captains where staying at and signed the contract. The USMC had my fanny. :laughing: The hardest danged thing I had ever done.
A few months later one of the Captains called me and said Congress had cut funding and the PLC class I was in was canceled. I asked if there was anything I could do to stay in? Call Senators, house members, etc. He said no.
I found a summer job and decided to get engaged.
The Captain's secretary calls back a couple of months later and tells me that funding is back!
I told them I could not do it now. I would have to quit the job. No idea what I would do with the getting married thingy. Getting married and being a young officer in the USMC is not a good idea as far as I was concerned. Since I had proposed already the USMC was out.
If I had survived PLC, gone into the USMC and stayed in I would have over 20 years in at this point. Things would have been different that is for sure.
Later,
Dan
