What's your favorite mission?

[Skitzo]

That's how you know you've struck a nerve.

 

I mean it was a cross reference from a different thread too!

[BroncoEN]

Being the first US military aircraft to ever land at a certain uncontrolled airfield in Afghanistan, bringing in medical supplies and personnel after a natural disaster... while an AC-130 was overhead ready to take down anyone that flinched. 

[Trapped in ROTC]

All of this information is golden and thank you to those who replied! It's awesome to hear about what the Air Force actually does. In the land of ROTC its often too easy to forget that there is light at the end of the "warrior" knowledge tunnel. 

Aeromedical Evacuation sounds extremely rewarding to perform IMO. Could someone provide more detailed information on it? Is AE mostly dependent on what assets are available in the area of operations or the capability of the asset itself? Is AE something you would be assigned mid flight or is it assigned and planned out from the ground? From a pilot's perspective what part of AE is the most challenging?

Thank you for all the responses and please feel free to continue commenting on any type of mission! 

[Skitzo]

This really sounds like OPSEC fishing. Where is the host IP at and is he really a ROTC cadet?

 

I’m sorry if you are really legit bro but these questions raise hairs on the back of my neck.

[Trapped in ROTC]

19 minutes ago, Skitzo said:

is he really a ROTC cadet?

Yes I still have to memorize very meaningful quotes that will "inspire" me throughout my career and evaluate freshmen's leadership abilities as they make 2 foot towers out of office supplies.

I'm curious and want to know more but I don't mean to ask questions that are too in detail. If I do, I apologize and understand if they cannot be answered on this forum.

Edited June 16, 2018 by Trapped in ROTC

[Tank]

CAS, FAC(A), SANDY

[BashiChuni]

57 minutes ago, Trapped in ROTC said:

Yes I still have to memorize very meaningful quotes that will "inspire" me throughout my career and evaluate freshmen's leadership abilities as they make 2 foot towers out of office supplies.

I'm curious and want to know more but I don't mean to ask questions that are too in detail. If I do, I apologize and understand if they cannot be answered on this forum.

*rolls eyes*

[matmacwc]

Brown nosin starting a bit early no?

[Bergman]

It’s a toss up between scuba diving in Curaçao, driving around Western Europe, or drinking Mai Tais in Waikiki.

 

I wasn’t built to fly, but I sure was built to go TDY!

 

[Guest LumberjackAxe]

I loved going TDY in the tanker around the Pacific. The flying was okay, but I had way more fun on the ground at Ascension/Wake/Thailand/Guam/Tokyo/Alaska/Australia/Spain/Germany/etc...  Those super low-impact, low-threat fighter drags were my favorite.

[Disco_Nav963]

Dropping 18x unguided Mk-82s just north of Tabqa Dam last March after being told for 6 years "We'll never drop dumb bombs in combat again."

[Danger41]

The best part of being an aviator is the squadron life. I heard it described once as like being in a motorcycle gang, but your mom is proud of you. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Whatever you fly is the best airplane in the Air Force.

[Guest LumberjackAxe]

7 hours ago, Danger41 said:

Whatever you fly is the best airplane in the Air Force.

Yup, that's it. I swore I'd never fly tankers in UPT, and then I absolutely loved it. True, it was the KC10 and not the 135, but I realized it's not so much the airframe as it is the people you're with. As long as you're surrounded by good dudes and dudettes, you can turn any shitty experience into a good time.

So fighter drags were my favorite mission. Nowadays, the most rewarding missions are the high risk SRO ones where I'm going for a swim if the engine fails, but let's be honest--it's the go-gel I really like.

[ayz33]

13 hours ago, Trapped in ROTC said:

Yes I still have to memorize very meaningful quotes that will "inspire" me throughout my career and evaluate freshmen's leadership abilities as they make 2 foot towers out of office supplies.

I'm curious and want to know more but I don't mean to ask questions that are too in detail. If I do, I apologize and understand if they cannot be answered on this forum.

Sounds about right

[HU&W]

There's good flying, good traveling, and good living.  Pick two.

[Homestar]

8 hours ago, LumberjackAxe said:

True, it was the KC10 and not the 135,

Your consol has been approved. 😄

[FLEA]

6 hours ago, HU&W said:

There's good flying, good traveling, and good living.  Pick two.

That's probably the most accurate summation yet of assignments I've heard. Although you don't always get two. But I would say you are garunteed at least 1. 

[brabus]

Killing ISIS while your friend shouts at you on the radio and getting a big hug from him when he got back in one piece. Best/most rewarding days of my life.  Outside of combat, SEAD and FAC(A) are great because they're both very dynamic...I like the challenge of flying into the fight with a decent plan, but knowing it will change 69 times in the next hour and I'll have to make those 1 sec decisions that will determine win or loss.  Flying fighters is like playing a very competitive team sport...it never gets old (but the queep and AF bs sure does!)

[VMFA187]

DCA. There are other platforms that are clearly more capable than a legacy Hornet, but get 4 experienced bros out there and there is nothing better. 

Hi-Threat CAS is a close second. Low altitude ingress to a pop delivery. Training only though, I wouldn't want to find myself in a position where that was the only feasible way to support our dudes on the ground. 

 

[PAWS]

On 6/16/2018 at 4:54 AM, Trapped in ROTC said:

I'm curious and want to know more but I don't mean to ask questions that are too in detail. If I do, I apologize and understand if they cannot be answered on this forum.

Go find an OSS or some other support unit at a flying base that will let you get a peek at the vanilla portions of their mission.  You'll learn a lot more by learning the different communities, than picking an airframe based on the mission.  Plus, don't come across as too much of a brown-noser while you're doing that, and you might actually hear folks open up about the good, bad, and ugly portions of their MWS/mission where they may otherwise just brush you off as an ROTC cadet who think's they're God's gift to SUPT.

I didn't get the airframe (or even track) I wanted in SUPT, and in retrospect, while I was REALLY really disappointed not to be flying something with a pointy nose, my personality wouldn't have gelled with the community; not the mission, mind you, the community.

 

On 6/16/2018 at 5:20 PM, LumberjackAxe said:

On 6/16/2018 at 9:49 AM, Danger41 said:

Whatever you fly is the best airplane in the Air Force.

Yup, that's it. I swore I'd never fly tankers in UPT, and then I absolutely loved it. True, it was the KC10 and not the 135, but I realized it's not so much the airframe as it is the people you're with. As long as you're surrounded by good dudes and dudettes, you can turn any shitty experience into a good time.

So fighter drags were my favorite mission. Nowadays, the most rewarding missions are the high risk SRO ones where I'm going for a swim if the engine fails, but let's be honest--it's the go-gel I really like.

In my experience, this is mostly true.  I'd amend it to say "Whatever mission you perform is the best mission in the Air Force."  My first two MWSs from SUPT I said I'd never voluntarily do that.  In hindsight, though, I'd still say I'd never voluntarily do that, but the mission was very unique, and if I gulped enough Blue Kool-Aid and held my breath, I could see how my mission was an irreplaceable cog in the GWOT.

My current MWS, by far, I'd say is better than all the other airplanes out there (though there are still some pretty dope missions others do), and I'm seriously considering hopping our TFI fence for greener pastures.  We even just recently got a pointy-nose driver who switched MAJCOMs just to get to our airframe, and he can't stop making fun of the fighter community he just left.

If I had to do it again, I'd find a guard/reserve unit to sponsor me through SUPT, once I had figured out which communities did or didn't mesh with my personality/lifestyle.  All the missions are great if you seriously get in the books and leverage your capes (and TDYs) to the max, even if you don't get your dream job.

Learn to read the JTR better than the finance squadron can, your unit mates will love you, but you might pigeonhole yourself...

[PAWS]

On 6/16/2018 at 4:54 AM, Trapped in ROTC said:

Yes I still have to memorize very meaningful quotes that will "inspire" me throughout my career and evaluate freshmen's leadership abilities as they make 2 foot towers out of office supplies.

I'm curious and want to know more but I don't mean to ask questions that are too in detail. If I do, I apologize and understand if they cannot be answered on this forum.

Almost forgot, ask your cadre what type of base visits the can get your detachment to take.  When I was in AFROTC, one of our cadre members was good friends with an MX officer, so she contacted him and we visited Tyndale AFB and got to walk around and crawl under an F-22 with it's bay doors open.

Have a few beers with your cadre, ask them to invite different AFSCs to talk to your detachment, or if they have any contacts who would give you all a base tour or orientation flight (I always had work or classes I couldn't miss when our det did the KC-135 rides), and hope that your cadre actually want you and the other cadets in your det to be informed about the various AFSCs, rated and non-rated.

[matmacwc]

DCA is great fun, but once you see F-22s do it you might as well take your ball and go home.

[di1630]

DCA is great fun, but once you see F-22s do it you might as well take your ball and go home.

Cheer up...you guys still do a terrific airshow plus with the QF program you’ve exceeded all expectations.

[stract]

Rescue.