Earn a commission p1 - Military Career Advancement - Military Times Edge

Normal, Ill., native Marine Capt. Thomas Short wasn’t doing much after high school. He played some college and semi-pro hockey, coached at children’s hockey camps and took a few junior college courses. He was pretty much spinning his wheels.

“My parents let me know they were displeased with my career path and prospects,” said Short, now an attack helicopter pilot — call sign “Johnny.” After some family melodrama, Short “stormed off to see the recruiter.” He signed up with the Marine Corps to be a tanker but counts it a blessing that he got amphibious tractor duty instead.

“The command was very decentralized. It gives a great deal of authority to the [noncommissioned officer],” Short said. “I had the opportunity as a junior sergeant to do a lot of things. I was responsible for four vehicles. It really opened my eyes up to possibilities in the Marine Corps.”

He soon turned possibility into a successful new reality. After six years as an enlisted Marine, Short scored a commissioning program that propelled him into the cockpit.

He’s a member of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, an air-ground task force made up of an infantry battalion reinforced with artillery, tanks, amtracs and an aviation combat element that includes the four Super Cobra helicopters Short’s responsible for.

His mission: “operating the AH-1 Super Cobra aircraft, providing offensive air support to Marine and coalition ground forces,” he says with precision.

It was a long road to the career Short says he truly loves. Here’s what you can learn from his odyssey.

Make others proud

Short says his parents are satisfied that he ended up making something of his life. He’s glad they’re proud but particularly touched that his grandfather, a World War II Navy veteran and first-generation Mexican-American, has lived to witness Short’s 15-year journey.

“It means so much to him that he believed enough in America” — when people with darker complexions weren’t always accepted — “that his grandson could become an officer in the Marine Corps,” Short said. That sort of family pride is a tremendous career motivator — for anyone.

You have to apply

Short learned this lesson twice, first when he headed to college under the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program six years after enlisting, and later when he met the physical qualifications for a flight contract.

Going to school alongside young midshipmen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Short just didn’t think he was a candidate to fly.

“At the time I didn’t think that was a possibility, being old with a ground combat [military occupational specialty],” he said. But he saw an “old” staff sergeant in the same commissioning program get his flight contract, so Short figured: Why not try? The result: Short 2, crippling self-doubt 0.

Look to your roots

As an amtracker, Short’s job was on the ground, operating an armored personnel carrier that delivered infantry Marines from ships to the shore. A lot of prospective pilots want to fly jets, but Short knew he wanted to be closer to the troops on the ground.

Hard work pays off

Since he entered the fleet as a new co-pilot in 2005, Short’s earned one flying credential after another to rise to the post of division lead and his squadron’s weapons and tactics instructor. He’ll be eligible to retire in five years, but he can’t think of another job he’d rather be doing.

“It is the greatest job you can have as a Cobra pilot in the Marine Corps,” Short said. “I love to go to work every day. I love what we do.”

It’s not a one-man show

Short doesn’t forget that it takes more than just the pilots to get a helicopter off the ground. Teamwork, wherever you are, is a success multiplier.

“We can’t do any of what we do without the junior Marines below us to help this aircraft fly.”