magnetfreezer

Neon sign of the squadron patch (done by a local sign shop I think).

A few Marines that have gone through Pcola transferred in on AD (mostly Navy though). From what I hear, it is extremely rare, but you would only go to TBS if you are already a commissioned officer. You could try to get released from AFROTC to go to OCS depending on your scholarship status, etc. For specific info on transfer, you'd have to talk to an OSO (Marine officer recruiter).

When I was in school they usually paid the tuition/fees part directly to the university financial aid people - I'd check your student account status.

New site at https://www.airmanonline.af.mil/ - this is probably why they shopped the pic: Jul-Aug letters to the editor

Did your det give you the contact info for the base PDT project officer? They are responsible for scheduling you between squadrons, etc which varies a lot from base to base. That would be the best source since they know what you will actually be doing.

Your initial term of enlistment is for eight years from commissioning. Non-flying officers generally incur a 4-year active duty service commitment (ADSC), after which they can leave the military and spend 4 years in the IRR (Inactive Ready Reserve - doesn't drill but can be called up in case of major national emergency). If you incur additional active duty commitments than they can use up the rest of the 8 years in any combination. For example, a nav could spend 2 years in training, get winged, get a 6 year ADSC and serve all 8 years active. AFAIK your "enlisted" status in ROTC only really makes a difference if you are disenrolled and they make you go enlisted; since you are already in the system as an E-x assigned to the obligated reserve section (probably a file folder at ARPC), they can just issue orders calling you to active duty at BMT instead of trying to enlist/draft you.

Raising a for all the aircrew (and Army/USN/USMC/Allies) who fought 64 years ago today

We had a couple people get the same deal, 63AX with S&M or MX. Basically AFMC leadership wanted their AQ folks to have some real world experience with the AF so they were assigning 63AX to do a tour in another career field first.

Yeah, they are basically used to document that you were counseled about something as a CYA if more bad stuff happens. Whether they are bad or not depends on what you got counseled for.

ActivCard Software download ActivCard patch for WinXP Don't have Vista myself, if ActivCard does not work you may be screwed (sts) since backward compatibility is one of the major failures of Vista. You will also need drivers for the specific model of smart card reader they gave you (either google or post back up here for help) to allow ActivCard to read the certificates.

Tor is a wonderful thing (as is truecrypt)...

During the investigation my senior year, I got calls from people I hadn't seen since freshman year of high school that were contacted by the OPM guys. During the interviews with people you put down, they even get the names of other people who know you and interview them as well to provide a cross-check on you hiding any bad references.

2... Also consider used SIGs - you can pick up a used P226 for 250-350 depending on where you shop and mine still shoots great.

I believe OTS guys get their AFSCs before they leave (i.e, have to apply as a pilot, engineer, etc.)

To get picked up for strike nav out of ROTC you must have volunteered for it on the original categorization wishlist form you filled out (similar to stating that if you get picked up for pilot, you are volunteering for ENJJPT). The rest seems to be a straight OM pick - I got my WSO slot when all the ENJJPT slots for my det were announced. Don't know if they factor the PCSM as much in there, though. Depending on the year group, you may get picked up later as well - one dude in my squadron was an 07 grad and going to Randolph until they managed to switch him to Pcola 2-3 weeks before EAD since many of the original WSO selects had gotten picked up off the alternate pilot list. The other nav select at my det, however, had not volunteered for strike nav originally and so they were unable to transfer him from Randolph into one of the open WSO slots. Whenever they get all the nav training moved to PCola you will be able to compete for strike during training similar to the way UPTers do track select. I'll leave the discussion of the nav lifestyle to the folks with wings; however IMHO a 12 hour day studying airplanes with some spin recovery thrown in beats 8 hours writing TPS reports with mandatory Tops in Blue attendance any day

Myself and 3 other IFT guys met the instructor at KCEW to do our pattern solos; while each of us went up (sts) the instructor would take a radio and go out to the end of the taxiway to watch the landings/give the guys on the ground some pointers. C-130 flying into the rework facility at KCEW: "Crestview Traffic, ### 10 miles out, straight in for runway XX" Student in the pattern: silence C-130: "Crestview Traffic, ### 5 miles out, straight in for runway XX, any aircraft in the pattern please advise" Stud: silence C-130 is finally visible from the ground and we notice the stud turning base, Instructor: "###, this is a CFI on the ground with a Skyhawk in the pattern on his first solo" C-130: "Roger, Skyhawk in sight" Stud: "uhh...Crestview Traffic, Aero Club XX turning final runway XX, full stop"

While crunching the numbers for getting an old bike to save gas over driving my truck to work every day, I called GEICO and they quoted me over 2K/yr - about 1700 of that was for the minimum level of medical payments coverage. I don't plan on having anyone else ride with me - is it safe to drop the medical option and just rely on TRICARE?

While he isn't being singled out for race, he might bring an EEO complaint for enforcing off-duty dress standards like this: https://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-30-2005-80232.asp. Several bars/clubs I know of have had similar problems - they banned hats, baggy pants, etc. and they were eventually forced to reverse based on outcries of racism.

https://www.truecrypt.org/ Can create encrypted disks on any storage medium (without the key it just looks like a file with garbage data). Also works great for recordkeeping - you can create a virtual encrypted disk on a thumbdrive, etc and save USAA online financial documents/PDF LESs/printouts of anything else (https://www.cutepdf.com/ is a free driver to do this). Then for backup you can burn it to CDs or even email it to yourself and it will still be secure. For those firing up the laptop, it might be worth it to create a 2nd account with a default looking desktop, etc. and no permissions to access any of your personal files and set it as the default profile. This is also useful to prevent your kids from messing with important settings while trying to find Solitaire and may even delay a thief in the event your laptop gets stolen.

No worries, couldn't hear them since I was usually out back studying with a after getting out of class at 1130

The Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard require all students to complete Aviation Preflight Indoctrination before training with one of their flying units. It is 4 weeks of academics on aerodynamics, weather, non-aircraft specific systems, navigation and flight rules/regs along with PT and all swimming events. The last 2 weeks are aerospace physiology and survival training (helo dunker, getting dropped in the bay, redneck parasailing, etc). In addition, it seems to be a tool for the Navy to weed out/control the pipeline through attrition and indoctrinate the flight school mindset since flight specific info like T-6 systems, EPs, local procedures, weather, etc. is taught again during academics at the start of primary. After graduation Air Force pilots move to VT-3 at Whiting to go through primary (Phase II) in the -34s and follow on to T-1/T-38/T-44/UH-1. Strike Nav selects stay at Pensacola and check into TW-6 to train in the T-6 and T-1 in VT-4 or VT-10 for primary/intermediate and move into advanced in the T-39 (rumored to be the T-45 soon) and are winged at the end of the syllabus in VT-86. Big Blue is supposed to move all CSO/WSO/nav/etc training here over the next few years, haven't heard anything on whether it will still be under the current joint system or if they will set up separate AF squadrons. There is a lot more info on API, etc over on www.airwarriors.com with the larger Navy population there.

Swimming update: According to the water survival department head and instructors, all AF personnel (both WSOs and pilots) going through API will now be required to pass all water related events including the mile swim, etc. For those reporting here it would be good to get some swim practice in before coming down, especially for the pilots on casual at Whiting since their base pool is closed during the winter months. The events are: WS-1/1A: Swim a couple laps of each stroke to measure comfort in the water WS-2*: 100 yard continuous swim test 1 length each breaststroke, sidestroke, backstroke, crawl, 5 minute prone float, step off 12 foot tower into pool WS-3: Tread water 2 minutes/prone float 3 minutes in bathing suit WS-4: WS-3 with flight suit and boots WS-5: WS-4 plus survival vest and gloves WS-6: WS-5 plus flight helmet WS-7: Step off 12 foot tower and swim 15 yards underwater (abandon ship drill) WS-8*: 200 yard continuous swim in bathing suit 2 lengths each breaststroke, sidestroke, backstroke, crawl, 75 yard swim in full flight gear from WS-6 1 length each breaststroke, sidestroke, backstroke WS-9*: 1 mile (36 laps) in flight suits <80:00 without backstroke or floating on your back The starred events are the ones you can get a pink sheet for failing, the other ones they will generally remediate you during extra instruction after academics.

At PCola casual for navs is in blues since the Navy doesn't have BDUs for most people and doesn't issue flight suits until after API academics. I'll ask some of the pilots tomorrow if they do the same thing for casual at Whiting but I think it is blues as well.

As of a month or 2 ago the JSUNT Form 63's were 6 years after wings (probably about 8-9 total with the rate the Navy is putting navs through, don't know the Randolph timeline).