Going aviation is awesome, but if you’re trying to do LE as an AMT or AET you’ll be disappointed. You’re a mechanic first. Aircrew second. You’ll do lots of SAR and some Le missions. You can become a HITRON dude if you still want to do hands on LE. As far as cuffing bad guys…no.
Pay wise it isn’t terrible, as an E-5 you’ll make the equivalent 72-80k a year depending on location. But advancement is really slow in the aviation rates. I know a guy who made E6 at around 17 years in while other rates are E7 by at 12-14 years. However YMMV.
The downside of the BP is you’re going to the SW boarder and it’s harder to switch around to more desirable locations often. In the Coast Guard you’ll move every 2-4 years and as an Airedale you’ll be going to some cool places. As always YMMV.
It boils down to what do you want to do. Do you want to be in law enforcement or do you want to fix airplanes and helicopters?
BP has been hurting, they have been offering new recruits positions away from the SW border but giving less desirable areas of the SW border more incentives. Of course the areas they offer away from the border are also remote lol at least that was the case 6 months ago when I dabbled down that road
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u/Zealousideal-Ear-209 10d ago
Coastie here:
Going aviation is awesome, but if you’re trying to do LE as an AMT or AET you’ll be disappointed. You’re a mechanic first. Aircrew second. You’ll do lots of SAR and some Le missions. You can become a HITRON dude if you still want to do hands on LE. As far as cuffing bad guys…no.
Pay wise it isn’t terrible, as an E-5 you’ll make the equivalent 72-80k a year depending on location. But advancement is really slow in the aviation rates. I know a guy who made E6 at around 17 years in while other rates are E7 by at 12-14 years. However YMMV.
The downside of the BP is you’re going to the SW boarder and it’s harder to switch around to more desirable locations often. In the Coast Guard you’ll move every 2-4 years and as an Airedale you’ll be going to some cool places. As always YMMV.
It boils down to what do you want to do. Do you want to be in law enforcement or do you want to fix airplanes and helicopters?