FallingOsh

Does anyone know when the last fighter or bomber pilot was killed by enemy fire? Yes I've used the search function and google.

CH - At what point do you stop flying for a year to get your masters? Does getting DG mean you are guaranteed grad school at any point in your career? Thanks for the help.

I guess what I meant was that it depends on your major. If you are a tech major, you get stipend through your 5th year. If you're a non-tech like me, the stipend stops around the end of you're fourth year. My roommate is engineering and will keep getting stipend. My other friend is criminal justice and will not get any more stipend regardless of whether or not he graduates now or next year. Maybe that's what you meant by approval of extension. I think this is why people are arguing over 600 or 900 days.

Commission May 10th, stipend stops April 17th. It also depends on your scholarship. 5 year tech scholarship guys keep getting a stipend through their 5th year.

Try to have your leadership position in the first rotation. It'll be the most stressful, but if you do well then it's easy to gain the flight's and FTO's respect. After your rotation is done, spend the rest of the time backing up your current commander. Basically just get the hard stuff out of the way first and then "lead from within," which means march to chow and back three times a day without screwing up. You can't compare FT to basic for any service. It's not designed to be basic and you'll be disappointed if you think you're coming back an expert marksman killer. You will come back able to do more situps, but thats about it. The whole point is to evaluate what you've learned so far in ROTC and how you think under pressure. Pay attention in FTP and learn the FTM cover to cover. Overall, I wouldn't call it a joke. Like Flight said, you've got to take it seriously or you'll fail. Flyers that have been through UPT look back and say it was gay. But if someone goes into UPT not caring, they probably won't even make it into the jet. For our Det, how you perform at FT also has a big impact on what jobs you'll have in the corps as a POC. Those jobs lead to more recognition and that helps categorization or getting the AFSC you want. Enough rambling. I might be strange, but I'm a big fan of FT for several reasons. Feel free to PM me for more incoherent bable. [ 12. March 2006, 10:57: Message edited by: FallingOsh ]

Everyone's exactly right. The only thing I can think to add right now is DO NOT climb over anyone's back to get your name out there or try to show you have a better idea. Even if you are being a stellar cadet up to that point, stepping on people's toes will negate everything. You can't lead people who don't trust you and the cadre will (or should) see right through you if you're only out for yourself. Do all the things mentioned in here and you will get respect from your peers and a nod from the cadre when needed.

If you went to Brooks and completed the FC1, do you still have to go to MEPS?

My roommate is engineering and I'm aviation mngt. He gets so pissed when i come stumbling in and he's been studying all night... so I do it as much as possible. It's also a five year program, so he'll be dealing with professors and ROTC for a full year after we're long gone. That being said, he stuck with engineering because his ultimate goal is to be a test pilot. Granted that's a long shot, but it's damn near impossible without being an engineer. He has a 3.4 GPA cause he busts his ass. If you want to chill in college and get a good GPA pretty easily, go business. Unless you have a specific motivation for being an engineer major, stay away from it.

While at Maxwell, drive over to Bourbon St. Bar in Auburn for the weekend. It entertains us to watch Lt's (especially Academy kids fresh out of the cage) get wasted and try to hit on stuck-up hot girls.

Major- Excellent video. The guys out in Arizona are nuts jumping with cars and flying back into a diving airplane. ENJJPT IP - i really want to try that. it's supposed to be some of the best training available... since you don't have to worry about dying and all. Sleepy - that's absolutely true. the more jumps people get, the more qualified they think they are to push the limits. 40-50% of injuries and deaths every year come from people doing high speed landing stuff that they aren't qualified to do. Those guys come screaming in through the pattern and F everybody up. You only get one shot at a good approach, obviously, and those idiots put everyone at risk.

I was clearing up one of my previous posts to HerkDriver. I wanted him to understand I agree with him. You would really do yourself some good by paying attention to the conversation. Plenty of people in this thread (ptwob, ENJJPT IP, BONE Co-Driver) have contributed very helpful information. Even after I wrongfully snapped at TacAirCoug (sorry about that. tired and cranky at the time) he still made good points. You're way too worried about making fun of me and have yet to offer any helpful knowledge you may have. Flyin - Where were you a jump pilot? Luckily my DZ is small enough that we don't really have to worry about kamikaze pilots. I read about a guy in Florida not too long ago that got his legs cut off at the knee when an Otter hit him with the left wing. He was conscious long enough to land the chute but died on the way to the hospital. Talk about situational awareness. How do you hit someone under canopy less than 1000' off the ground? [ 09. September 2005, 01:55: Message edited by: FallingOsh ]

HerkDriver - I think my post was a little confusing. I meant it to say if you've already got your wings, you would be forced to sit around and wait to heal... If still in UPT, you would likely be washed out and forced to repay scholarship money. My point was that getting hurt anytime in your career as a pilot is bad, but getting hurt during UPT would likely be the end of flying in the military. Obviously I hurt someone's feelings with this thread cause I've been rated as a 1. I wonder who it could've been... [ 08. September 2005, 17:25: Message edited by: FallingOsh ]

I'm not a T-1 track, nor am I in UPT, nor did I say I was going to jump during UPT. My question was is it allowed. And don't you worry about my priorities, Mom. Skydiving is a hobby, not my career. [ 08. September 2005, 09:55: Message edited by: FallingOsh ]

Yeah a jump usually takes less than ten minutes counting the plane ride up. But it takes about an hour to repack your chute, manifest the next jump, wait for your plane... blah blah. On top of all that, most people drive an hour or more to the nearest DZ. I can understand how there wouldn't be time for it during UPT. Bergman makes a good point about not wanting to break an ankle during UPT, but getting hurt after UPT or anytime in your carreer isn't any different. You wouldn't be dropped out of the Air Force, but you would still be forced to sit on your ass for several weeks not flying. I guess the real question is how important is skydiving to me and are the good times worth the possibility of injury. I can't imagine not being in the sport. It's the only thing that gets me through the week most times. We'll see what happens. Blue Skies is just something jumpers say. Like in theater people say Break A Leg, but saying that in skydiving just doesn't fit. [ 08. September 2005, 03:34: Message edited by: FallingOsh ]

There aren't any restrictions in ROTC according to my cadre. How many jumps do you have?

I started sport skydiving a couple of years ago after completing Freefall at USAFA. I know you can jump on active duty if you watch a hazardous activities brief or somethings like that, but does anyone know if it's allowed during UPT? Preciate it.

Not that it makes any difference, but I'm a senior that finished FT summer before last and was the FTP group commander last year. Like I said, that doesn't make any difference, but I guess that explains why I'm partial to FT. I still think FT does it's job. It's obviously not perfect and an entire summer of it would probably be more effective in evaluations, but who wants to do that? I was Flt/CC for 9 days. At no point did I ever tell the flight, "Hey you don't have to listen to me if you don't want to." If that approach worked for you then great. I do completely agree with you that ROTC, FT included, cannot possibly simulate active duty AF. That's not the point of FT. If I ever see an officer marching 30 people to chow and trying to get there within a 3 minute window, I'll probably shit my pants and seperate from the AF. Again, Field Training has nothing to do with active duty.. only to evaluate what you have learned in the first years of ROTC, how you handle stress, and how you interact with total strangers. [ 07. September 2005, 11:36: Message edited by: FallingOsh ]

In my opinion, FT is an excellent judge of a person's leadership abilities under pressure. Obviously there are exceptions and nobody reacts to stress the same way. I agree FTO's and CTA's are all different, but you can't blame them for someone's poor performance. My girlfriend was a CTA at my FTU so I ended up hanging out with a few CTA's after we got home. They obviously wouldn't say names or anything, but the stories they had were amazing. There is a lot they don't see, but there is even more they do see. They said it's like watching someone try to solve a puzzle that you know the answer to. I agree more with your argument that your flight mates have a lot to do with awards. If you have a flight full of bad asses, it's obviously going to be very difficult to be DG. On the other hand, my girlfriend's flight as a CTA was full of damn retards. She said they must've just closed their eyes and picked a DG because they all sucked. Anyway, my main point is that I think FT is a very good way to evaluate what you have learned in your GMC years and how you lead under pressure. Typically, the people who hated it and thought it was a waste of time or only worried about getting top third were not the ones winning awards in the end. My $.02