drewpey

if you store with the armory, remove a piece of the weapon (firing pin) that will keep the SF guys from taking your weapon out and joy-shooting it...

the only thing that the UPT boards will care about is your GPA, and the fact you actually got a degree. Master's isn't going to hurt, especially if you are looking into a career in the AF.

AETC - Adults Eternally Treated as Children as long as you are under them, some amount of AETC-ridiculousness will trickle down to you. There isn't much of this generated at the sq. level here at randolph. There is an instructor or two that seem to get off on belittling people and yelling, but everyone (99.9%) here seems to have the right mindset, and realize that it's entirely likely that they could be working together in an operational sq in the not-too-distant-future. Some say there is quite a difference between the Nav and EWO instructors here as far as how you are treated, but I don't think I've had enough exposure to the 563rd to talk about that.

Free leave...twelve days, and can only include one weekend. I went to an OTS recruiting place, and I did minimal work. I mostly read while they waited to go visit campuses and stuff, then I would just tag along, eat lunch with the SSgt and he would tell me to leave. Probably about 3-4 hours max a day. Like Chuck's experience, most I did was put stickers on envelopes. My friends that went back to their ROTC units though were actually put to a "work day", showing up around 8 and staying until 4 doing paperwork, manual labor, or just sitting there waiting for the day to end.

if you are IFS complete and awaiting your class start date, you will show up for about an hour a day, start working on a checklist to make inprocessing easier. On top of that and PT in the morning a few times a week, you pretty much have the rest of the day to keep yourself out of trouble. A lot of the people that showed up looking for houses didn't get time off to go house hunt, mainly because they had plenty of time to do this after muster. For your sake though, I would definately show up a bit early...you'll want to get settled in before class starts.

those houses south of base though, will easily resell to anyone later on really. Wish I could have gotten offbase to do so...a nice developing neighborhood. If you have done IFS/have PPL then you should come down early and try to get it before classing up. If not, you will basically have time to house hunt anyways, as you get your first 10 days free in lodging once you report...after that you have to pay the $20 a night or whatever it is... Someone in NIFT could help you out though if you know what your RNLT date is, they can tell you when the soonest class will be starting. I imagine in December though, the rush will be over, and you will be shoved into a class rather quickly.

yeah, your friend would be kicked out. Not much they can do about it either...even if you were #1 and commander's pet, still going to give you the boot. Unfortunately for him, those guys doing the investigating know what they are doing...and will probably find out one way or the other if he told people.

thought the C-17 had built in recliners w/ minifridge/remote?

you wouldn't want to take anyone you cared about to Montgomery AL anyways...

from what ive been told, awards like these go into your record, and could end up helping in the long run if you develop a record of them, but as far as OPR bullets, if little awards are the best things you have to put on there, then you are screwed. but who knows...it definately won't hurt.

you got cso's on B52's and on the 130s...two planes that aren't going anywhere for a long time...

i think we were given the 5% washout rate when briefed here at randolph. Sounds pretty low, but thats just me.

insoles are a must. I only had one set and switched them out as needed. It's not so much the walking, but the standing at parade rest for such a long time.

clear speech is an issue, because there is a test requiring you to read a paragraph in clear english for an AF doc. Not sure at what point this was in the "poke & prod" process, but like said above, I would be more worried about the hearing loss.

On my way to my first duty station, I got pulled over by a Texas cop about 30 minutes from base for a burned out headlight. No big deal, gave me a written warning, and told me to fix it, was friendly. I pull up to the gate about midnight, the gate guard tells me it's out, I tell him I know, show him the ticket and told him I would fix it in the morning. He nods, says "ok" and I pull off to find lodging. He turns and says something to another guy as I pull off. I get about 400ft into the gate, I see a SF flip a U-turn, and start flying down the road like I stole something with his lights on. I pull over, and before he gets to my car, there were two other SF cars behind him with their lights going. He approaches the car, but not to where I can see him, he stays back like I'm going to pull a gun on him or something, and shouts for me to put my ID and registration out of my window. I do, he takes it and disappears and after about 15 minutes he comes back and tells me my car isn't state registered, because it's not showing up on his database, even though I gave him all the registration info and it was. 15 minutes later, they find it, and let me go after giving me a long lecture about how I can't drive on base with a burned out headlight because it's such a danger. I told him I just found out, and would change it in the morning. Because it was so dangerous driving without a headlight, I got an escort to lodging and to the TLF with their lights going and everything, one in front, two behind. I almost felt important... Nice little "Welcome to the Air Force"... truly though, they must get really bored, especially at training bases. Had a "nav appreciation day" at randolph, and they were out in full force with M-16s guarding the display planes for anyone to come climb on. A clueless LT stepped over the rope they had made the flightline instead of going through the restricted access (they even saw him coming, and didn't bother warning him), and oh boy, you would have thought he had a bomb strapped to his chest. Poor LT probably about wet himself the way they came after him. I bet they were just itching for someone to do that all day...

just wait until you retire to live the public life... https://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendID=67527787

I have a problem with my ears clogging up every so often, and want to know if this is going to affect my flying career in the AF. I have never had problems with my ears as a kid, and I keep my ears clean. First year or so into college my ears were bothering me (felt like it was constantly clogged up in one ear after sleeping), and saw a doctor. They looked in, said they couldn't see anything, so they rinsed the hell out of it, and was good as new. At the time they said it was probably because of working at a dusty workplace (FedEx). Two years later I go for my physical after getting a nav slot, and I borderline fail the hearing test. They take a look, and my ears are all clogged up again. So they do the rinsing again, I pass the test no problem, and they just tell me some people are more prone to this than others. Here it is about 2 years later, and my ears are starting to bother me again (feels like my ears are clogged up when I valsalva). I don't notice much hearing loss, but I go in for a checkup in a few weeks, so I will mention it then, and I wouldn't be suprised if they need to be cleaned out again. While the doctors I've seen dont seem to think it's a big deal, if this becomes a recurring problem, is the Air Force going to fuss about it or are they just going to keep doing the warm water and alcohol mix every few years? Any help would be appreciated.

The navy has planes that don't stay on the boats, fyi. Not sure if that would have any effect on the competitiveness of getting said planes.

we had a lot of enroute LTs at my ASBC class, and I don't think any of them wore patches. I think most just wait until they inprocess at their duty station and are actually given the patches. As far as if it is actually authorized, who knows. Technically though, from dealing with my gaining unit while enroute, they acted like I had no affiliation with them until I reported in (was doing recruiter's assistance program) so until you are actually "gained" then probably not...but someone else here probably has a better idea than I.

i guess since the all weather jacket is so popular, it only makes sense that they make the service coat look like it...

When headed to Randolph, I was scared to death of getting put on base, but now that I am here, it's not that bad. Sure, I could be banking a lot of money living offbase, but the dorms are pretty convenient. You are allowed to eat at the mess hall, but you get charged more than normal for being an officer, so it's not that good of a deal, plus the food isn't all that great, so it's not worth it. Don't worry too much about living in the dorms, it's not that bad. It's not a $840 apartment in San Antonio, but its adequate, and quite convenient. I wake up 10 minutes before I need to be at the Squadron. Randolph is a busy base, I can only imagine what its like trying to get on in the morning(if there isn't a train). There might be a loophole to living off base though, but I don't know a whole lot about it. You are allowed to turn down the Air Force's offer to room you on base, but that means you have to pay for your own housing out of your own pocket to live off base. Once off base, I guess you can re-apply to live on base, and if the dorms are full when you reapply, then you are given your full BAH. This is just secondhand info, and you would have to talk to the Sgt (dorm manager). Odds are though the Sgt would have to like you a lot to pull that off... perhaps someone else might know more about it...

most of the profit made from AAFES goes back to the military in one fashion or the other. Mostly into MWR programs.

I don't know anything, but I would guess since B52's have 3 nav slots(I think), they would probably split them between randolph and PCola, and the "bombadier" nav would be filled from PCola, trained the same as the F15E and B1 WSOs, but I would venture to say that the EWO and radar Nav position will probably stay at Randolph...

the fewer options they give navs the less effort they will put into trying to get their airframe... I don't know what all drops at randolph, but here's a list of the ones that come to mind: B52 AWACS C130 variants (except J) KC135 JSTARS RC135 not sure about the C-5... If the B52 and AC130 is taken from randolph, then PCola will get all the "tip of the spear" platforms. I thought I read somewhere that eventually the airborne laser thing was going to have a nav...but it might be a while before that happens...

I hope they don't detract from Randolph...the options keep dwindling down...