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Yes and Hell Yes to flying. Despite the bullshit of being a part of any large organization (public or private), it is a unique challenge, personally and professionally rewarding and a chance to be part of something occasionally historic and always important. Would do it all over again. Pitfalls as a young officer (somewhat generic but my two cents looking back): - Alcohol Related Incidents. Enjoy but be aware of your limits and/or surroundings. Not to be condescending or cheesy but stupid shit does happen in the bar on Friday and on the road. Newbies sometimes feel a need to prove their bravado and limits are exceeded with damage to egos, reputations, friendships, faces and careers. - Realistic significant others (if you are single). Just a quick count but I can think of several buds (male & female) who got divorced about 3 years into their flying careers due to the lifestyle and requirements due to a military flying career (work hours, last minute schedule changes, TDYs, non-vol assignments, etc...) - Blue Kool Aid. The company line will be emphasized a lot and most of the time it is like the repetitive commercials on AFN, harmless but somewhat annoying. Take it with a grain of salt, don't be naive but don't be cynical, find some mixture of the two that suits you. - Career Priority Indecision. Towards the end of your second tour, the end of your youth as an AF officer, you'll need to decide the red pill or the blue pill. Operationally focused, Military career focused, Transition to the ARC or the road not taken... That is not to say I think you have to have it all figured out and/or if something changes (lifestyle, personal choices, new opportunities, etc..) but have a rough idea figured out of what you want, one more time - what you want, so you can work towards it and make the case to the AF that they should help you do that. Wisdom: Work hard, keep the end goal in mind, don't sweat the details until it is time to sweat the details, recognize nothing goes exactly to plan ever and always remember what you have already accomplished. I am in no way 100% in compliance with said advice but I try to remember that which was passed to me by smarter men.

I have lots of things to bitch about after a 20 year career in Big Blue. But...as I posted over on the Airwarriors forum recently, getting commissioned and earning the privilege to fly military aircraft for a career was hands down the best decision I've ever made in my life. There are things that I, in retrospect, wish I'd done slightly differently here and there, but overall it was a spectacular adventure and an entirely worthwhile experience. It was also incredibly formative in terms of my character as an American, a husband, a father, etc.Don't have a bit of worry that you'll regret the decision to follow in our footsteps.

It's pretty sad that I'm in this board but my give-a-shit factor is so low that I forgot the results were going to be released this summer.

Zero regrets about doing it for one decade. Zero regrets about not doing it for two.

Go read the books "Boyd" and "Flying Through Midnight." Kick butt at UPT and go do things you never could anywhere else. The greatest regrets are the lions we didn't chase and the mountains we didn't climb. Ignore those who want to be someone, and go do something big. When you're in the jet, being a USAF pilot is the most challenging and rewarding job on the planet.

Errr, most WaPo/NYT/CBS/NBC/ABC/CNN, etc, etc, et-bloody-c, don't seem to be bothering with "well-sourced" so perhaps you reach too far? If the price of harpooning the Trumpster is the occasional retraction or correction, well that's only minor collateral damage.

I don't pay an annual subscription to BO.net to have the drama shut down just when it's getting good... Sent from my Vitamix 450x Professional using Tapatalk

I heard through the grapevine, indirectly from AFPC, that it might be next week...not understanding what takes so long about the process, and why the projected release date was pushed back. How long does it really take to validate board results?

Fixed it for you.

What is this you say? I've heard nothing of this. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

UFB... What amazes me is that out of 30 people there wasn't one with some even basic physics knowledge that might have said, "Uh.....wait just a sec......." At least there's one therapist on the planet with a job for life when the 3-year old gets older.

As a guy with a civilian job and a pilot, the pilot job is way more fun. Yes, there are some complaints, but that happens everywhere.

As if they didn't make enough. Don't take the job if you don't like the pay.

I'm a UPT direct to RPAs, probably one of the most dreaded assignments out there, and I would do it again if given the option. My 13 months actually flying in UPT I wouldn't trade for the world. The government PAID me to learn to fly, and paid for all the training. Life long friends and memories made, and flying expierences that 99.9% of people dream of. I'll never forget that formation low level down the Charleston coast, or that night sortie at FL320 watching thunderstorms. Now I sit in a box or at a desk. We all bitch about the drone, but a normal day flying the box is 100x more rewarding than any civilian job I've had. The ISR saves lives and assists in our nations national security in ways many can only dream, and nothing beats killing terrorists and f**cking your wife all in the same day. The desk work is really what sucks, and dealing with blue/military/"professional" issues. All that being said, I know when I'm a crusty old man, sitting on my porch with a shotgun and a PBR I won't be asking myself "what if" I started my professional career doing anything else.

After retaking the AFOQT, you'll need to also take the TBAS to gain your PCSM score. I called up a ROTC program at a nearby university to set it up through them. For Guard, you'll follow the instructions for what the unit wants included in the application package and ship/email it directly to them without the help of a recruiter. My advice would be to scatter-shoot applications and take as many interviews as possible, since you don't have a lot of time to be very picky with locations and airframes. Guard does not do unsponsored boards. If you have the time and means, make sure to finish your PPL, since most folks I had met on the interview circuit have this in common with one another. I haven't been through the Reserves process, but I do know you work with a Reserves recruiter for unsponsored boards. I believe for the sponsored route, you meet a board after getting sponsored by a unit, and from there you'll find out if you're a "select" or not. Hopefully someone can chime in that has experience on the Reserves side.

Most of the bitching here is about how the AF makes a great job crappy in respect to what it "could" be or punching to airlines to get paid more to work less. Still I think my bad day is 69x better than what I imagine being an accountant is like. No offense.....if that answers your question. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

If I were a bettin man, I would guess hydroplaning mixed with winds. There were some wicked downpours/storms rolling through the Dayton area that day. Either way we'll know when the SIB/AIB are released. Glad no-one was seriously hurt. I cant find it now, but there is a video floating around somewhere, showing the jet in two peices on a flatbed. They cut it between the two cockpits.

$4 for misspelling comma.

I am sure the uniforms will be epic!

Naw, just come to gunships. Then you don't have to tell your kids you shoveled sh!t in Louisiana ate Doritos 12 hours a day during the great WW Syria . . . It's way more fun when you get to look out the window and watch the cannon fire killing ISIS scumbags. And some of us have 10x the missiles and bombs too!

Is she a predator? After your wife yells at your son for him hooking up with his teacher and it being nationally televised do you as a father do the following with your son? A. High five your son. B. Ask him how was his first time. C. Ask for his teachers number. D. Say, I'm the proudest father on the AFB base now. E. All of the above

Hey WayUp, while I appreciate the effort to keep your bro in line (though you're too late to keep his post from getting kinetically posted in the U-2 bar), there are some other issues here: - You want the CAF to wait until the GH is ready to get the party started? What if there's icing? Or weather? Or Satcom jamming? Or an IADS? Or a credible cyber threat? The GH won't be operating for very long in those cases. The CAF fights with or without you because they shouldn't need a handful of "special" jets (including the U-2) to make the mission happen. The job of both our airframes is to enhance their fight (in different ways) without introducing chaff. - While on one hand you believe the CAF needs you, you also don't care if you get shot down. You want to use GHs as SA-XX sponges, go ahead, but at least remove the expensive parts first; the U-2 would be glad to have more spare ASIP bits for test and training. Joking aside, there's a bigger problem here. GH operators really don't seem to care as much about their jets as their manned counterparts, and that's a problem for more than just them. I've watched them on multiple occasions not really GAF about their own buffoonery and equipment malfunctions even when they physically threaten the safety of others. As for why, my personal opinion is that millions of years of human evolution makes people just not care that much when they're not physically co-located with a jet or operation. - "...multiple times in the last year where the RQ-4 was more reliable and capable than the U-2..." I'll go ahead and call bullshit if you're referring to operational missions; if you're referring to how we did with a cobbed together jet in 16-1 I'll acknowledge that our stateside Ops-MX-DGS-CFSR team underperformed. 16-3 was pretty good, though, and I know of at least a couple pretty important Ex events this year where you guys were completely unable due to WX or equipment. - "...it's not a secret that we can replace the U-2 in what it does." Make no mistake, the GH will never be able to replicate what the U-2 can do. The U-2 has twice the thrust and electricity, which means it can haul more powerful sensors (particularly the radar kind) higher and faster that a GH ever will. And it'll do it in kinetically and electromagnetically contested airspace with a co-located pilot and a kickass defensive system. The GH's big programmatic mistake is that it's still trying to be a U-2 replacement. It will always fall short of that due to the above reasons, so the program relies on NG's political donations and book-cooking to get continued funding. Where it could really shine, and make itself much more useful than it currently is, is enhancing and expanding the BACN role. A bunch of networked GHs flying around outside of threat rings relaying IP-data is where the money could really be at. And as SAM sponges.