I got a thoughtful letter from a young architect a few months back, a fellow pondering a career change:
I’m sure you have received messages like this before so I will attempt to be brief, and probably fail miserably. I came across your blog a bit randomly as I searched for more information on becoming a naval aviator. I am a recent graduate from the University of Notre Dame and am currently working in Newport Beach as an architect. It has always been a passion of mine having growing up with a father in the Navy and traveling the world. There has always been a certain duality in my passions for aviation and architecture/design. The price you pay for playing with legos and going to airshows regularly as a kid. I decided against ROTC once I had enrolled partly because of my dad’s retirement from the Navy as well as the academic demands of an Architecture Major (in my time there, out of 400 or so arch majors there was one NROTC Middie). A decision I regret every now and again but I think i still benefited from focusing on architecture. Now I find myself at a crossroad where I do enjoy the work that I do, I live in a great place and life is good. But there is something inherent in me that drives me to pursue service in the Navy, I want to do it and want to serve. I know well enough what it is like to live in a Navy family, the demands and sacrifices having been born into it. I am fit, young (23), and willing to dedicate my life to this because I believe that if I were to serve there is nothing saying that I can’t return back to a profession that I enjoy practicing in architecture. The benefit of my institution, and there is always grad school. I am just looking to get everything that I can out of life and the things I want to achieve: adventure, knowledge, honor and respect. I am in the process of trying to decide whether to do OCS in the next 18 months and I was hoping to get a better idea of what you went through leading up to your commissioning and how you came to the conclusion that you wanted to become a pilot. Also if you have any suggestions as to where I can gain more information, insight, or text, or if I should just visit a recruiter. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Look forward to hearing from you.
An earnest question deserves an honest reply:
The two best pieces of advice I ever got were to “know yourself” and “follow your heart.” The follow up bit was that they came in sequential order – you have to understand your motivations before you take a big step.
I grew up in a naval family, third generation, and the sea has always called to me. I loved the connectedness of it, always being part of a team, sometimes getting to be the coach/captain. Being part of something important, something bigger than myself. Feeling proud of what I did. Seeing things and doing things that other people read about. If those things are missing in your life then I cannot recommend anything more heartily than the Navy and naval aviation.
If, on the other hand, you are merely feeling restless about your life – it’s not unusual at your age, by any means – then I’d give it a ponder. Sure, you can go and talk to an officer recruiter – you can find one through http://www.navy.com – but understand that it’s his job to attract and sign qualified candidates. He’s a salesman, and he’ll sell. That’s not a bad thing, you’ve just got to go into it with your eyes wide open. If he offers you a path to an aviation billet, make him show you where that’s spelled out in the contract. That sort of thing. But as I wrote recently in a different context, walk towards something, not away.
I loved flying fighters off aircraft carriers, but when I look back on it, the odds of actually getting to do that were daunting. Only one in three students got jets, and only three of 22 newly winged aviators got fighters in my class. These days your odds of getting into a fighter cockpit are better once you get jets though, since we’re necking down aircraft types on the carrier deck. And to tell you the truth you bloom where you’re planted and have fun with those you’re around. I don’t know how successful I would have been as a surface warfare officer or submariner though. But one of the good things about Navy (as opposed to Air Force) is that you can join and – even if you don’t get a flying spot – have a great career in another warfighting branch like surface or subs.
If you decide to join – and if we decide to take you – OCS will swiftly prepare you to be a junior officer, but you will have to keep learning at every step of the way once commissioned, like everyone else. Your training will seem to take forever, and sometimes there are fits and starts. When you get to the fleet the learning really begins, and you’ll have the chance to be a part of something very important – to your country in the macro sense, and to the people you are asked to lead in the micro. I still get letters and emails from young folks whose names I barely recalled 20 years later, who told me how important I had been in their lives. It’s hard to put a price tag on that.
If you decide it isn’t for you, you’ll owe a number of years after you get your wings – make sure the recruiter tells you, it changes – and when that’s done you’ll come out into the world with the kind of life experiences you could write a blog about. And maybe some day, someone will do you the honor of writing you a note, asking your opinion on something so crucial as their own life’s path.
Best of luck. Let me know what you decide, how it turns out.
Heard back from him this month:
It’s just over five months since I last wrote you. I’m sure that in the grand scheme of things this falls into the category of minutiae for you considering what you have going on in your life, but I had emailed you in late October as I was considering becoming an Officer in the Navy, more specifically a Naval Aviator. In the past several months I have done a great deal of reflecting on the decision and what it means to me as a career option. I have done as much research as possible on the matter considering it is a decision that has the possibility to affect the next ten to twenty years of my life. I have read up on message boards such as airwarriors.com and USNavyOCS.com as much as possible, received a great deal of information from my officer recruiter, not to mention checking up on your blog almost daily, well done by the way, what you have written gives such a vivid description of the experiences of a pilot and the career of an Officer. As much as these other resources are helpful you have actually given insight into the life beyond IFS, API, Flight School, FRS, etc. The various websites I have searched for information and the increasingly large stack of books on the matter has helped me greater understand the life and career. It has made me question my decision: do I have the character to be part of this? do I have the moral conviction and dedication? how will I contribute to the Navy? will I thrive and be an asset to the Navy?
Going through this process has strengthened my resolve and has made me more confident that I can be an asset to the Navy. On Tuesday I passed the PRT and submitted my application package for the mid-April aviation Selection Board with SNA and SNFO designators. I am very confident with the application package I submitted and am looking foward to hearing back. I wanted to thank you for your insight and your words of advice, it motivated me to take a look at why this matters to me and what it really means to seek a commission beyond the desire to want to “fly jets off carriers”. Now I wait and hope that the opportunity presents itself. I will let you know once I’ve been informed.
I think I speak for all of us around these parts when I wish him good luck. I know I speak for myself when I wish I could trade places with him.
Best of luck to your correspondent. I’m glad that he spent time considering whether he had the character to be a good officer. To me, that’s probably the best indicator that he does.
The young man sounds like he’s going to be one fine young officer. No downside to this fellow joining the Navy, sir, and I’m glad you gave him the right advice.
What they saif above. Nice to see a fellow with his head on square. Going in with your eyes wide open is a LOT better than stumbling in blind, especially given the whole new environment he’s about to enter.
A nice resource for him is being able to write to here in now and then if he needs advice. Nothing like an extended Navy family to help someone out
I still think he should have looked at the Army.
We often say “where do we get such men”… Looks like another one is about to enter the fray. Good for him and godspeed.
XBradTC said:
I second that opinion. It seems to me that would be one of the most important things involved in making this kind of decision… do I have the character. Can I be an asset.
Anyone willing to take a long hard look at that before jumping in definately sounds like the kind of person I’d want leading our warfighters, and being at the tip of the spear.
If you are reading this… thank you for joining up, and I wish you the best of luck. I wish I could be there with you.
Jim C
XBradTC,
It all washes out. My own son just took the ASVAB for the Army. He’s going to talk to the recruiter again on monday to see how his score matches up to what’s available. He’s talking about artillery, or cavalry. We’ll see how it goes.
I have to tell you honestly, that I am torn between pride and angst. Probably the same way my father felt, and his father before him, and his father before him. It is a most sobering experience for anyone to see their child become a man and offer himself to the service of his country and constitution.
He is young, and in his own eyes immortal, as all young men are. I have so much that I want to tell him about, yet I find I restrain myself, knowung that he will learn enough in time, and that he needs to learn some things on his own. I can tell him a lot, but from me, it’s just an old man’s tales, something to nod respectfully to, and file away somewhere between thoughts on girls and thoughts on guns, and thoughts on perhaps tomorrow. It is always that way with youth.
Since he was about 4, I have tried to instill in him the concept of “spatial awareness” things going on around him. If he remembers that, and writes home to his mother from time to time, he’ll prolly be fine.
At least he’ll be in good hands…..
Lex,
We seldom realize our impact on others through word or deed — but our actions (and inactions) do indeed register on others.
It is a rare privilege to see the result of something said or done take root and bloom. Most often it is in our biological children. It is truly gratifying when it is in a non-family setting. That is the true reward for a good teacher.
It is a gift, and you have it.
Lex ~ that makes two of us. Though I suspect your desire is much more intense than mine.
To the future Naval aviator, good luck and God bless!
Lex, it’s a tremendous reflection on your personal qualities that young men seek you out for advice.
AW1 Tim, have to admit that it makes me giggle a little that your boy is considering the Army, but I’m sure that he’ll make a great soldier and that he will be (and is) a credit to his upbringing. I hope you’ll let us know what he decides.
Lex,
We are truly blessed with young men and women who have benefited from your (our collective) service to our Nation. While this blog is admittedly patriotic, it does my heart good to know that people know where to seek advice.
AW1Tim; Your son will instantly recall the life lessons (and he already has by thinking about Service to the Nation) that you have instilled, much as Lex’s mentee absorbed them growing up Navy. His service means something to him that he can not yet explain. It’s that way with “kids” (See the previous post re Virginia Beach).
I know, only too well.
Mr. K. Sends
Ditto on the trading places! Good luck feller!
I’ve been reading and trolling over at airwarriors.com where Nose seems to be a fixture and a positive influence for the young’uns. A lot of posts and gouge on the pipeline there, Some of it is GD enlightening to an old man like me on the “process” today. He might want to look areound.
b2
How lucky – to be free to make that decision and to have the sage advice of Lex to take with you.
Best of luck, bloom where you’re planted, and (above all) have fun!
Brian
Very cool !
We get such Men who serve us because we had Men like CAPT Lex who grew up with an example in his family, or who saw an example in the recruiting window or on a bus or train somewhere on in the news as we were growing up, and decided to become a part of a life of service to our country.
And I, too, would gladly trade places with him, and do the same thing all over again. In exactly the same way (OK, I would hope I would do things better for the Navy rather than better for me).
Subsunk
BZ Lex.
And the best of luck to your correspondent. As the others have said, the time he took, the research he did and thought he gave it are all good signs. It sounds like he truly took to heart your advice to “know yourself” and he’s now ready to “follow his heart”. Darn good advice for any of us, no matter what big decision we are pondering.
As others have said, he sounds like a quality young man with a good head on his shoulders. And he’s lucky, too–lucky to have these opportunities, and very lucky to have Lex offering his wisdom and experience.
I hope he stays in touch. It would be interesting to watch him develop.
And Lex, I remember you telling me several years ago that if you only had yourself to worry about, you’d be a teacher. I agree, I think you do have the gift. Here’s hoping you’ll find a way to continue to use it, even if you have to wait a little longer to make it a vocation.
Lex; battin 0 for three, two oldest sons, Gonzaga grads, 6’8″, 240 lbs, neither took the bait, pee haight deeze (one dentist, one Celtic Mythologist), oldest daughter U Dub senior, prelaw, “Daddy, the unies are so not!” I said, “But Princess, you can wear a fart bag all day!” That didn’t help.
Holding out for the high school sophomore Son, great eye-hand co-ord (thanks to the video games) and the Third Grade Daughter who saw a female Prowler Aviator before Tom Tacks retirement explain the finer points of an OK 3.
Here’s hoping my 35 years here at the Rock will produce another B+8 in the cockpit.
Great job of roping that young Fighin Irishman into the fold. Echoing the gist of what you said, “If I had the chance to do it again……….”
v/r jug
Thirty years ago I had just gotten out of college and was working at a typical entry level corporate job. I was thinking, is this it? Is this the way the rest of my life was going to be? I wanted to do something, something BIG. I went to the recruiter, took the test and was selected for pilot training/AOCS. 4 1/2 year commitment if I succeeded in earning my wings. Greatest thing I have ever done. No career, just 7 years but I loved it. By the way, I am saddened to learn they are closing Aviation Officers Candidate school. It was one of a kind.
Lex: “I think I speak for all of us around these parts when I wish him good luck. I know I speak for myself when I wish I could trade places with him.”
Would you really wish to trade places and go all the way back to the beginning, Lex? I’m sure my spouse wouldn’t. This is the best time.
It’s kind of like having a new baby. Really difficult, with a lot of good memories, and certainly worth the cost looking forward, but to go back to the beginning and relive it again? Eeek. That’s what young people are for.
Anyway, very best of luck to the young man and thankyou for your future service to this country!
A fellow could always be an architect…but to serve and fly the finest tactical aircraft from ships at sea, that is a brief small window of grand opportunity to the able and determined. As I see it.
A fellow could always be an architect… but to serve and fill a position as an S-8 Officer responsible for bug juice powder and yakisoba marinade procurement or perhaps the A-Division Motor Whaleboat Maintenance Officer for 4-6 years, well, a feller might have a bit of catchin’ up to do to get back into architecture. As I see it.
“The Needs of the Navy Come First”, a phrase many here seem to have forgotten. I haven’t.
bobble-
I mentioned able and determined, but I naturally assumed competitive and achieved class standing…were it easy, anybody could do it. All who served know that which must come first, and yes not always coincident with one’s first aspiration. A-DIV’s Finest MWMO ever seen you say?
As they say in Jolly England: Lucky SOD!
McCain quote on National Service:
“Like most people, when I reflect on the adventures and joys of youth, I feel a longing for what is lost and cannot be restored. But though the happy pursuits of the young prove ephemeral, something better can endure, and endure until our last moment of life. And that is the honor we earn and the love we give when we work and sacrifice with others for a cause greater than our self-interest. For me that cause has long been our country. I am a lucky, lucky man to have found it, and am forever grateful to those who showed me the way. What they gave me was much more valuable and lasting than the tribute I once paid to vanity.”
“I am the son and grandson of admirals,’’ he said. “My grandfather was an aviator; my father a submariner. They were my first heroes, and their respect for me has been one of the most lasting ambitions of my life. They gave their lives to their country, and taught me lessons about honor, courage, duty, perseverance and leadership that I didn’t fully grasp until later in life, but remembered when I needed them most. I have been an imperfect servant of my country for many years. But I am their son, and they showed me how to love my country, and that has made all the difference for me, my friends, all the difference in the world.’’
That quote is pretty phenomenal. Life will probably be pretty good for the navy if McCain is elected. He’s very pro-navy (Airforce, not so much).
Candidly? It’s good to follow your dream when you are young. I don’t know of any young person with any poetry in his/her soul who thinks of “the military’s needs” first. Go for it, and get that plane!
As someone whose callsign could be “Casey”, I don’t regret my choice, despite the outcome. The way I see it, getting something you weren’t shooting for doesn’t hold a candle to wondering what might have been had you taken the chance.