NOAA Corps

[Realms09]

A little bit ago I got curious about what outfit the hurricane hunters came from. I came across the AF reserve unit, which I knew about, but then I also found the NOAA Corps, which was new to me. The NOAA Corps is a uniformed service with structure similar to a branch of the armed services. Some amount (perhaps most) of the P-3 hurricane hunter guys transfer into NOAA Corp aviation after serving in the Navy. However, you can also enter the aviation wing by working up through the Corps from within. There are also other aviation missions than the hurricanes.

NOAA Corps might be an interesting path for people to pursue who are:

-Interested in a more active and travelling profession (avoiding the cubicle).
-Interested in service but more interested in science research missions rather than defense missions.
-Interested in more things than aviation. All officers start out serving on naval vessels. After a period of time some are selected to go to diving school, and some are selected to go to flight school.

http://www.noaacorps.noaa.gov/about/about.html

It's not right for me, but I thought I'd post about it in case others were not aware of this organization.

[JimmyK]

Where do they send people to learn to fly, do they have their own program? Civilian school? Or some sort of inter-service thing with the military?

[mjg407]

Their P-3 ranks are full, with a waiting list. They have an active pool of already trained pilots.

[galvestonaggie]

I wonder if you have to go through the same OCS business and if you have any advantage going in with all of your ratings? Thanks again for the post, its good info!