E-2 NFO to ATC?

Sorry this is gonna be a really niche question but a few peers and I were discussing it. So the age cut off for ATC is 30 years unless you have ATC experience in the military. For NFOs who operate the E-2 Hawkeye would that count as ATC experience or is there any workaround? I know it’s not the same, but damn it just seems crazy how you could have all that experience and training but still not be able to do ATC afterwards.