brabus

Yep, FT's a pretty lame attempt to grade everyone against eachother. Some FTOs are total d bags and others are really cool. Some don't care if you can't stay in step, others will practically give you a form 17 if you don't. All the evaluators (FTO and CTA) are just so different between flights and camps that FT really is a terrible way to provide part of ranking. Not to mention who's in your flight is huge. So, terrible sysytem, but just something we all gotta do. Worked out fine for me, but I certainly saw my fair share of cadets get totally screwed.

Anyone want to chip in to the "I need a plane ticket fund?" I wish I had money...damn. [ 13. August 2005, 00:20: Message edited by: brabus ]

Just wondering, why can spouses get o-rides in heavies, but not in fighters? Does the AF just think it's too risky?

I saw a guy get a waiver for it at Brooks back in May. So you're probably not completely screwed.

Well, when did you actually get yours? And to the orig poster, what ENJJPT said is all correct. I gave you the reality, that does not mean give up. I completely agree with ENJJPT here. Have a positive attitude, put a portfolio together and do whatever else you can. Give it your best. If you don't get one, don't worry about it, if you do, that's awesome! However, just know that right now it's nearly impossible w/o a technical degree (such as the ones I listed). Don't give up, do what you can. You never know.

I would guess it depends on how bad. If you have three tickets for 20-30 over each time, then that's pretty bad. If they're more minor, then it's probably not going to kill you. If only one is more than 12 over, then you're probably fine. This is just me guessing though.

Getting non-tech scholarships out of HS right now is virtually impossible. Hate to tell you that, but that's the way it is right now. As with everything in the AF, this will change over time, then change back...the whole damn cycle continues. I got mine for Poli Sci, but that's back when anybody could get one. Now if you're not engineering, meteorology, or nursing, you're pretty much screwed. It's not impossible, but very likely you won't get one unless you have one of those majors. I wouldn't suggest doing one of those majors just to get a scholarship unless, a. you really want to study that, or b. You have absolutely no other way of affording college. Best thing to do is major in something you're interested in, that way you like it and do much better (and GPA is big for many things in ROTC and jobs later on down the road). Just my 2 cents.

The AF LOVES engineers. Reasoning is because they really really need all you smart folk to keep rolling out all the cool stuff and to keep all the crazy stuff we have running. However, the AF faces a huge problem of engineer attrition because you can make tons more money doing engineering in the civilian world. So, a lot guys do 4 and get out so they can make way more money. I know a guy who's now doing developmental engineering (he was an aero major); he loves his job. I don't know for sure, but I'd say he was probably in about the middle of his ROTC class. That might be able to give you at least a little perspective. As far as being selected for engineering, if you say you want to do engineering and you have an engineering degree (assuming decent grades), then you're pretty much a shoe-in. Commander's ranking is decently important for getting exactly what you want, but like I said, you don't need to be in the top 5% to get engineering. I know countless people who have gone into engineering who were the cross-town, nobody knew them, kids. They didn't do a ton in ROTC, but still made it to what they wanted, engineering. Now, don't take this as me saying you can slack off in ROTC. Do the best you can, volunteer, try to hold good positions, but don't let the people going for rated slots try to tell you that you have to make ROTC 90% of your life to get what you want. Do the best you can in ROTC, but don't feel that you have to bust your ass to be #1. Personally I would bust mine because I like being at the top, but that's just preference, not a requirement in your case. Sorry, I don't really know of a site like this more tuned to other AFSC's...I know it must be annoying for you with baseops considering it's practically all pilot/nav oriented. Keep looking, maybe you'll find something. Also, a good thing to do would be to find out what guys ahead of you in your position have done. i.e. do you see guys going to engineering who were ROTC studs, or were they just kind of there, did some stuff, and comissioned. There's basically those two ways to go through ROTC. Neither is necessarily better or worse, it just matters on which is best tailored to your situation. Sorry for the long post, hope something helps out of it. Let me know if you have any questions or would like me to clarify anything I said in this one (as I wouldn't be surprised if I had to ;) ).

I think what uniball is getting at is that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Working hard in ROTC and caring about it is great, as you should. The example of 6 hours on the phone is trying to show someone who is not very well-rounded. While you should care about ROTC, you need to do other stuff. Doing ROTC stuff on a Friday night should ALMOST never happen. If you've got something big going on Sat, then I could see it, but if not, then let it go and do something fun for the weekend. You're not well-rounded if 95% of your time is spent doing ROTC stuff (that doesn't include hanging out with friends from ROTC). Let me know if I'm wrong on this interpretation uniball.

I've seen a couple guys go away for a semester and come back to get a nav slot and end up doing engineering (both got what they wanted). So, it's not impossible, but what jetjock says makes a lot of sense. How can you be ranked well for that fall semester when you're not even there? Being that the AF needs engineers, I'd say you probably are ok to do this (assuming your grades and everything are good). Because lets just face it, you don't need to be #1 right now to be an engineer in the AF. Not dogging engineers, but the AF needs them so bad, that they won't really care if you're not in the top 5%. However, having fun abroad is still going to cost you in your ROTC career. If you're not looking to be rated or gunning for DG or something like that, then go for it, have some fun! But if you care about what positions you get in ROTC and your overall class ranking, I'd think seriously about going abroad.

Seen it work for a friend, saw my mom get kind of screwed (not horribly I guess) and my brother get really screwed (as in the car should have had a salvage title). Carfax was done on both of them, what a waste of time. Carfax is pretty worthless sometimes because people can get in a huge crash (i.e. wrap the car around a phone poll) but as long as there's no police report/insurance claim, carfax will never know. So, the person can pay out of pocket just to get the car semi-working and then dump it...the perfect place to dump is ebay. My advice: only buy a car off of ebay if you can personally check it out or have a trusted friend/mechanic check it out. It's always good to have a mechanic check any car out, but especially one for sale on the internet. Some people do ok on ebay, but I think a good number get anywhere from a little screwed to extremely screwed. And to add, my brother's car came from a dealership (or so they called themselves). So just b/c it's from some dealership in TX or whatever, does not make the description legit.

Well, no one knows a f*cking thing about being a fighter pilot until they've gone through the training and then some. So, every single person who goes through IFF and then a RTU doesn't know a thing about being a fighter pilot until they've gone through it all. So yeah, the moral is don't screw up...because anyone could screw up, FAIPs and all.

I had lunch with a guy a few days ago who's oldest son is now an IP at Vance. He (the son) knows a guy who put in his FAIP time, getting about 1000 hours. He then went to Tyndall and failed 15 school. The AF kicked him out. Moral of the story, watch your ass and don't screw up...force shaping sucks.