Kiowa maintenance MOS question

Any Kiowa (or army helo) maintenance persons out there?

Having a friend who recently joined the Army, and is off to Basic soon, and
me knowing little about Army maintenance and flight ops...

His MOS will be 15J (OH-58D Armament/Avionics/Electrical System repair)

He's told me his recruiter said he'll be "the crew chief and the crew chief
is the copilot"

From what I've read at goarmy.com....a 15J is a standard ground crew
weapons/avionics specialist. Not a bad job, but not crew chief, and
definately not 'copilot'. The 15S is the crew chief slot.

Knowing how truthful recruiters are...I'd like some knowledgable thought
before we send this guy off with the wrong impression.

Opinions?

Pete

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 02:15:18 GMT, "Pete" wrote:

Any Kiowa (or army helo) maintenance persons out there?

Having a friend who recently joined the Army, and is off to Basic soon, and
me knowing little about Army maintenance and flight ops...

His MOS will be 15J (OH-58D Armament/Avionics/Electrical System repair)

He's told me his recruiter said he'll be "the crew chief and the crew chief
is the copilot"

From what I've read at goarmy.com....a 15J is a standard ground crew
weapons/avionics specialist. Not a bad job, but not crew chief, and
definately not 'copilot'. The 15S is the crew chief slot.

Knowing how truthful recruiters are...I'd like some knowledgable thought
before we send this guy off with the wrong impression.

Opinions?


Recruiter B.S. The recruiter should have a book which shows what all
the MOS specialties are and it gives a job-by-job description of what
the duties are. It will also show you what the tasks relate to in the
civilian world.

As a 15J (old 68J MOS) your friend will be working on the helicopter
sub-systems and will be doing primarily electrical/electronics
troubleshooting - he probably won't be a crew chief, and he definitely
won't be a "co-pilot" other than sitting next to the pilot and
watching things if he gets to fly. Normally an OH-58D flies with two
pilots (officers) or one pilot and one observer (could be two officers
or one officer/one EM with an enlisted observer/aeroscout MOS or a
crew chief/mechanic acting in that capacity) and there's no other room
for anybody else.

15S is an "OH-58D Helicopter Repairer" who most likely would end up as
a crew chief instead of a more specialized MOS like a 15J - note that
the job doesn't require a flight physical as part of their normal
duties.

If your friend can swing it, he should go to an Army aviation facility
and talk to the people who work there. Although "crew chief" sounds
neat, it actually involves long hours of maintenance, often in
crude/rough conditions, and any flying hours are added to the
maintenance hours. When the pilots are at home warm in bed the crew
chiefs are often hard at work.

See AR 600-106 ("Flying Status for Nonrated Army Aviation Personnel")
for requirements for flying status - the main criteria is that a
person has to perform frequent and regular aerial flight while
performing their duties.

John Hairell )