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North Korea is about to get rekt.

Some peoples' kids' parents, too.

What ever happened to those pilots anyway?

I've heard that the official answer is no, but to try anyway.

Whoops - guess I was thinking of unit(s) like Ft. Wayne that were under consideration but didn't happen.

Best of both worlds! A couple of my friends did that and it worked out fine.

Funny how this thread is still relevant and very timely. Still waiting on dates 1.5 years later! Although at this point we're 50% considering just selling our house and experiencing the adventure together.

Ah, the dreaded 24 wheel landing.

You never know until you try.

That is a legitimate concern. I interviewed at an A-10 unit a few years ago that was sequestered and shut down like a month after I interviewed. I was given the opportunity to fly UAV's which I respectfully declined and probably 90% of the pilots bailed for other manned units. Other A-10 units have switched to MC-12's I believe. Both are cool options if that is what you are interested in, but just be aware of the possible outcomes if you do manage to get hired by an A-10 unit. It will still be super competitive regardless. Kiloalpha's advice is on point, by the way.

What do you think the endgame is here? It seems like things are on a steep downward trajectory and I think a certain number of candidates who do their homework here and elsewhere will decide not to subject themselves to it which will only accelerate the issue. I'd like to remain optimistic (naive?) that things could work themselves out in a few years. On a related note, it would be nice if the AF would pay out my travel voucher from 14 months ago!

You've got until you're about 28.5 until you start having age related setbacks. So push hard over the next 3.5 years, get some good experience, and hopefully get selected before then. It is still possible after 28.5 but about 50 times harder to get a unit to talk to you. You need to get those AFOQT and PCSM scores way up...hopefully into the 90's.

Looks like a tweet mated with an F-18 and not in a good way.

This must be old news. I was originally selected by a fighter unit a few years ago and I'm actually not cool believe it or not. The unit ended up getting sequestered. I guess once they figured out the goof they had to shut the unit down just to be safe.

Awesome, good luck!

That should go without needing to be said but apparently it is a real problem. I've spoken to a few people who said their strategy would be to use a heavy unit to get their foot in the door to UPT and then somehow switch to a fighter track. I know of a couple people who got burned trying to play that game. Some of the posts in this thread do show some of the unique situations that could allow for T-38's to happen though!

Years ago, one of my buddies got hired by a fighter squadron and as a result tracked T-38's. Part of the way into the T-38 syllabus he managed to get a joy ride in the back seat of an F-16 during dogfighting practice. He shit his pants and said he never wanted to be in a fighter again. He graduated from T-38's but found another unit flying tankers and has been enjoying it ever since. So that is one way to do it, I guess.

I think it is more the lack of situational awareness or respect to be calling out the hiring board on a public forum shortly after they gave you a great opportunity to go visit with them. They may still be considering all options and you're kind of making an ass of yourself at the same time.

I'm kind of in that boat right now. The answer is to fly whatever airframe that unit is currently flying for a brief period of time before transitioning. Although the last thing I heard (reading between the lines though) is possibly to time the very newest selectees to go straight to -46 without an interim step. But plans can still change.

If you have to ask...

Congrats on getting through that! Just like most things in like, having the right attitude really helps. My personal opinion is that they were slightly more lenient on people that obviously had the right attitude.

Whoops, sorry, I was thinking of KC-135's for some reason because I would likely be going to Altus twice with a short gap in between depending on when the KC-46's arrive. What I meant to say was that likely the person would be going to PIQ twice with an unspecified amount of time in between. I thought the Air Force would try to save costs by streamlining current folks heading to the KC-46 in the near future but I was told that is not the case, mainly because the delivery schedule is an unknown.

You go to Altus twice!

Yup, the test questions are really kind of stupid (how does a poorly drawn airplane have anything to do with a compass reading?). The whole AFOQT and TBAS are kind of like that - just kind of fumble through it and hope for the best. However, the study guides do give some method to the madness. Although if i remember correctly (I took it 5 years ago!), the study guides are not entirely consistent on how to solve problems. Anyway, see if you get the slot - if not, give the tests another shot. Just make sure to ace them the second time around because I think you can only take them twice, and most people do worse the second time around because they get complacent.

The "rule of thumb" according to my recruiter was that as long as you have no more than one waiver for something usually you'll be okay. Most of us were young and dumb at some point in time. Your GPA, scores, and flight time (get that PPL) are pretty solid and show that you've probably matured. Based on what you wrote it sounds like you're probably okay.