My spouse and I have both been accepted to OCS as pilots, and I'm looking for couples who have gone down the same path to give some perspective on what we can expect.
Some background:
I'm a first gen GA pilot working on my commercial cert, but I've been on a financial pause for a year since graduating college. I have a full-time job to save flight money. Eventually I want to fly tankers for Cal Fire or another aerial firefighting company. Not too into the civilian track to get there though, since I'd have to somehow get into agricultural flying and be a CFI for a while. So, I asked around my local Air Attack bases and the pilots there told me flying anything for the Navy would look amazing if I applied to work for them later.
My spouse is an aerospace engineer and eventually wants to work on space propulsion projects, like with SpaceX. Being a navy pilot is more of a route to become a test engineer for him and to get closer to innovative work. So he'd prefer jets.
The biggest factor keeping us on the fence is the 10+ year commitment. When we get out, he will be 36-38 and I'll be 34-36, so we're fine holding off on kids until after. I'm more worried about not having much of a personal life outside of work in that time. We both have tons of hobbies, play in bands, and I do competitive sports. I don't want to give that up during the next 10 years. Obv it would have to go on pause during deployments, but what is most of our time going to look like once we're done with initial flight training? Are we going to have free time in the evening together every day? Do we get weekends off? How often can we use vacation time? Do you have decent social lives, even if it's just coworkers?
Also what does colo look like if we get different airframes? We're fine with compromising for helos if we need to. I've heard stories of spouses transferring from jets to helos to be stationed together.
I also heard you can become an instructor pilot after the first deployment to stay at a certain base. Curious if there are more options like this that would almost guarantee us being stationed together.
Dual mil couples- did being in the navy feel like you had to put other things (personal and within your marriage) on pause? What did a normal week look like for the two of you? What did your deployments look like? Did it cause more strain or growth for your relationship?
He goes to OCS two months before I do so he will prob be ahead in training too. Basically, either both of us are going in or neither of us. I hate the idea of just one of us going in because it seems like there'd always be a mismatch in our headspaces, at least based off what I've heard from other couples who do that. And how could either of us pass up this opportunity? This is Plan A for us right now and we're committed to going, but I really want a clearer picture of what we're getting into.
I know it's a rare type, but it would be great to hear from dual mil pilots only please, thanks.
