Leaderboard

U-28 1. Ops Tempo: High but stable for now. 3 gone, 6 home with usually a week in transit on both sides of that. 2. Lifestyle: It's fine but expect hours switching around a lot with night flying and early mornings regularly. 3. Community morale: Good but the older guys are getting worn out. 4. Advancements & Future: This thing evolves all the time so it's always on the cutting edge technology wise. That's a plus. In a few years, the U-28 will be replaced by something else. What that will be, I have no clue. 5. PCS Locations: Hurlburt and Cannon. 2/3 chance for Hurlburt. And in AFSOC, all roads eventually lead back to Hurlburt. Bottom line, if you pick based on mission, this airplane has one of the best in the AF now. If the big one with the Commies kicks off, we will not participate. But in the current counter terror fight, we get to have a big impact.

MQ-9s weren't on your list, but if you're graduating UPT soon there is a non-zero chance you'll be stuck flying them in a few years. 1. Ops tempo: awful, I routinely worked 70+ hours a week. Deployments: not enough, I only got 1 that lasted 5 months. It was a nice break from the misery of home station. 2. Lifestyle/Family Stability: You'll sleep in your own bed, but 1/3 of the time you'll be sleeping in the middle of the day. If your absolute number one goal is to avoid deployments and TDYs, MQ-9s have got you covered. It seemed like someone was getting divorced every couple of months, but you never know what's really driving those. 3. Community Morale: Zero to very low. I'm shocked no-one at my last squadron killed themself. Things were/are that bad. We have a retention crisis that will not be abating any time in the foreseeable future. 4. Advancements & Future of the Airframe: There are two tracks in MQ-9s: one for the shiny pennies who parachute in to be SQ/CCs and DOs and one for the unfortunate bastards flying the line. If you're looking for any kind of career broadening (staff/instruct at UPT/white jets) you can forget it. These things aren't going away so you'll have job security. 5. PCS locations: Ugh. Two undesirable locations in New Mexico. Vegas is your most likely option. There is also Ellsworth AFB, SD which is a lovely location with a terrible wing if you're in the MQ-9 squadron. After my time there, I wouldn't shit on the 28th BW if it was on fire. YMMV. On the plus side there are Guard & Reserve locations all over, which is nice.

Why don't you ask them? Get your on your CC's schedule and talk to him. "Hey boss, now that I'm going to part time status, what do you expect from me? Do you have days and orders to hand out? Should I brush up on that HD resume?" Sometimes, it really is that simple, especially in the ARC. No reason to hide your agenda like an Active guy has to.

C-17s: 1. Ops tempo's varied wildly over the life of the program. Before my time, it was common for guys to be gone at least 250 days a year, but it's not nearly that bad anymore. These days, you can probably expect about one 90-day deployment every 18 months or so, and an average of one 7-10 day mission per month out of home station. As a young guy, you'll also spend a lot of time back at the schoolhouse at Altus. It takes five trips there to go from UPT grad to C-17 airdrop IP. 2. Lifestyle/family stability: highly related to #1. We generally don't get many long deployments, but you'll often be gone for relatively short bursts. Like Jarhead said, it's AMC. 3. Morale: Probably average compared to USAF flying squadrons as a whole. You'll get some amazing opportunities to travel to some really cool places. I've been handed papers before to fly to a country I didn't even know existed at the time (Mauritius, as an example). But the sweet trips are tempered with the usual AF BS. Most C-17 guys who are past their UPT commitments are now based at KATL or KJFK, leaving a relatively young and inexperienced crew force behind to pick up the slack. Like I said, standard. 4. This jet's not going anywhere. Being a newer airframe, she's already got most of the bells and whistles that you want. The jet was designed with a 30,000 hour service life in mind, but several of the tails have already hit 20,000+. That lifespan will be extended well past 30,000 in due time. As far as usage goes, I don't see any real changes coming down the pipe. Wherever the US gov operates, which is everywhere, there's going to be a need for airlift. 5. Besides the FTU at beautiful Altus, there are seven AD C-17 bases: four on the west coast (McChord, Travis, Elmo, and Hickam) and three on the east coast (Charleston, Dover, and McGuire). Charleston and McChord are by far the two largest hubs, each with close to 50 of the 223 tails. There are also some limited opportunities to pick up exchange tours with the Aussies, Brits, or Canadians or to go out to fly with the HAW, a NATO unit based in Hungary. All in all, I've really enjoyed it. If you like to travel and you like working with a team of guys and gals on a crew airplane, you'll have a good time. The mission set is varied enough that it's never the same thing twice. You'll see plenty of Iraq and Afghanistan, but you'll also wake up in Peru, Chad, Myanmar, or wherever else Uncle Sam wants to go that day. Pretty fun gig.

*Edited because I didn't RTFQ* C-12s weren't on your list, but there's nothing bad about them. 1/2 -- deployments are rare (and usually voluntary). Banker's hours most other times and even RONs are pretty unusual. 3. Morale is great because it's a good deal in a good spot and most people asked for it 4. The plane isn't going anywhere soon 5. Elmendorf/Yokota, unless you're with DIA or AFMC. And if you hate it, you only have to deal with it for 3 years.

KC-10 (I'll caveat up-front that my view is that of an enlisted Reservist, who's been out of the jet for over a year) 1. Ops Tempo/Deployment: Busy. AFAIK, deployments are still 56 days a pop, with AD guys seeing ADAB anywhere from 2-4 times a year, every year. The Reserves are still on the partial mobilization that started 5 years ago, and as of March of this year my SQ leadership said there was no end in sight. Plenty of TDY when you're not deployed - it's AMC. 2. Lifestyle/ Family Stability: It's AMC. Be prepared to spend at least half your time away from home. 3. Community morale: Not too bad (I think) on the Ops side. It's a relatively small community (59 jets, 2 bases), so after a few years of Dhafra deployments everyone pretty much knows who everyone else is. MX has been slashed and beaten to a bloody pulp, which causes availability issues and the occasional Ops vs. MX firefight. 4. Advancements & Future of the airframe: They're still modding the jets for the CNS/ATM mod, which is good. There was once talk of flying the jet into the 2030s, which was the whole point of spending the money on CNS/ATM. However, they're also still talking about the KC-46 turning into a KC-10 replacement... which is bad. I'm hoping they don't finish the CNS/ATM mod just in time to start parking them at AMARG, but the realist in me knows that unless Big Blue finds a shit-ton of money hiding in some dark corner of the budget (or if Boeing suddenly forgets how to build the KC-46), the -10's days are numbered. 5. Preferred PCS locations: Only two choices - McGuire or Travis. McGuire folks can live in PA and have a 30-40min commute to work, and pay half the property taxes vs. living in NJ. Philly is <1hr, NYC is ~1.5hrs, the NJ shore is ~40min depending on your beach choice. Travis is not far from the SF Bay area, and Reno/Tahoe is an easy day trip (I skied Squaw Valley once with half my crew, on a 36hr stop at Travis). If you're a gun guy/gal at McGuire, you can live in PA, get your PA LTCF and carry concealed (or open carry with no permit/license), possess any ammo variety and/or magazine size you'd like, and even own suppressors with nothing more than the usual ATF stamp. Just stay out of NJ with ANY of that on your person or in your car. At Travis... you might still be able to buy Guns & Ammo from the magazine rack in the BX.

AC130U 1. Ops Tempo/Deployment It changes from time to time, I've seen it as slow as 1:2 (3 month deployments) but currently the longest dwell is 1:1 (4 month deployments) and multiple guys are on dwell waivers. Deployments are pretty good when we're doing what we're designed for. There's a lot of times recently where we just get used as a dual sensor ISR and that sucks. 2. Lifestyle/ Family Stability There are people/families who absolutely love it and others who absolutely hate it. My family and I are fortunate to be the former. There will be a decent amount of both day/night flying at home and the opportunity to be home or gone a decent amount depending on your personal priorities. In my experience the squadron is willing to work with you for big events to make sure you're home. 3. Community morale Much better than some communities, but there will always be people who think it's the worst place in the AF. The squadron is like the older brother who beats on you but will kill anyone who isn't family and looks at you the wrong way. 4. Advancements & Future of the airframe There are always exceptions, but once you're in AFSOC, don't expect to leave. For some that's a blessing, for others it's a sentence. You can probably count the number of gunship guys that have gone back to white jet tours on one hand. There have been a handful of guys who have made moves to other AFSOC airframes, if that's your thing. I am not the kind of person who is looking to be a commander of any kind, so I don't keep track of people who are. But I can say if you're willing to climb on the backs of others to climb the ranks, it probably won't be a very enjoyable time for you. Future of the airframe - the gunship will be around for a long time. The U won't. As soon as they figure out the AC-J dick dance, the U is on the way out. That was supposed to be FY17, but obviously we're still a couple years out from that. 5. Preferred PCS locations There's only one. So if you like the beach and fresh seafood, you're in luck. If you like Cannon, go to the W because the old transition from Hurlburt to Cannon (or vice versa) is quickly going away as the J comes up. There's still a few guys that go back and forth but any new guys will likely avoid it until the J is solid at both locations, and that will be several years in the making. There isn't a single airframe that is always awesome, but the gunship comes pretty close. Much like what Danger said - if you pick based on mission, you'll like what you get. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some of the conventional wisdom out there is that Erdogan staged this "coup" in order to consolidate power and purge the military and judiciary. In the modern era, under constitutional mandate given it from Ataturk, the Turkish military has executed multiple coups when the government moved away from its secular roots. In those, the military held the PM, took over media and was successful. None of that happened here. Time will tell. This was either a wag the dog moment or a vast departure from previous successful military coups.

I am a bit confused, why would your company not want to process your clearance? It should not have any affect on your clearance once you get on active duty. You are correct in that while you have completed your TS background investigation, you technically don't have a clearance until you are in a position that requires one. However, you are eligible for one that your current company would submit you for. Once that is done, you'll "read in" for the clearances you need and once approved, you should be G2G. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss offline. Don't bother with your ROTC det as they simply help you complete the necessary paperwork. Your company security officer or SSO would be your best point of contact. Cheers! M2

In general, yes, but start treating the Guard and Reserves like AD and you can watch us walk also. Remember, from a traditional Guardsman/Reservist standpoint, they don't offer us bonuses to stay past 10 and we've historically had people who were willing to go right to 28 years as a Lt Col before hitting the R-button, but as of late, a lot are just getting to 20 and punching. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk