Question about becoming a pilot through the Air Force?

Rebecca, I am astonished at the cynical answers you received here. I graduated from the Air Force Academy, flew military aircraft for 15 years, which offered me more variety than a commercial pilot job would have, earned my Airline Taxi Pilot license through the Air Force, for free (except for the written exam portion), and then decided not to become a commercial pilot. Many of my friends, however, did become Airline pilots, and we are happy to mentor young women who dream of flight.

To answer your specific questions: According to a briefing I received from the Superintendent of the US Air Force Academy this past October, about 500 cadets in the class of 2010 went to pilot training, and 200 pilot slots meant for the Academy were returned to ROTC programs at civilian colleges. In other words, any USAFA cadet who qualified and wanted to go to pilot training, got to go. Warning: this changes from year to year, depending on the needs of the Air Force.

But it sounds like your chances of getting trained as a pilot are excellent. 2)You can major in languages at the Academy, but it is still an engineering school. 2 semesters of every engineering discipline there is, for everyone.

I encourage you to take rigorous math and science in high school. 3) Now is not the time for airline simulators--the Air Force will retrain the way you fly, anyway. 4) If you do not want to go into the Air Force, find a retired airline pilot who teaches flying or a 99 to mentor you.

5) Lots of scholarships exist for women to learn to fly. Check out my blog for links to scholarships (AnneMartinFletcher.wordpress.com), as well as the Women Military Aviators website, and the website for the Ninety-Nines. The 99's have mentoring programs, scholarships, and reduced dues targeted exactly at young women like yourself.

Let's be brutally honest here. Your chances of becoming a pilot in the US military today are about the same as being struck by lightning. The military IS NOT the cheap and easy way to become an airline pilot.

If that's your ultimate goal, then forget the military altogether and direct your studies towards a commercial pilot's certificate and eventually an ATP. You can start taking flying lessons today if you could figure out a way to pay for them. You can fly solo at 16 and get a private pilot's license at 17.

Training for a private pilot's license will cost you about $10,000, and it would cost up to $100,000 or more to get to the point where you would be eligible to find a job as an airline pilot.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.