BossHogg

I only skimmed some of the peeing contests above, so I am not weighing in on those. 1. I completed the course in about a year and three months. It was free. It checked the squares for a masters degree and all the ACSC testing. I never had to buy a book. 2. I agree with the above about the classes making you want to OD on dip and booze to keep you from wanting to kill the shoe clerks, GS types, and other clowns checking the square. 3. The reading is a joke. Each lesson would have you read an encyclopedia before posting but it is not necessary. I would use someone elses well thought out post and references and then make some counter claim and it saved me countless hours reading. 4. Average week would take me about two to three hours per class. ( I doubled up at times STS) The mid-terms and final exams are a pain but get good at MS word and they are manageable. During those weeks it would take about 8 hours per class. 5. The research classes are a total pain in the ass. I had to double up on classes during one of the research classes and I think I was buying Bud Light in bulk from the commissary. The research class alone took me about 10 hours per week as there is much more to these than just posting responses once per week. 6. I graduated with a 3.7 and min effort at times just due to regular work, I was also a Flt CC at the time, etc... It made for a shitty summer last year as I was trying to knock out several classes at once in order to check the square in time for my last look at ACSC in residence. 7. Is the degree worthless on the outside? Probably... Is it free and outside of TORO or some other online basket weaving degree, it is relatively painless, save the research stuff. Get past that stuff and I would do it again.

Lt Col Brown was one of the best DO's and CC's I have ever known. Col Romero was also a great CC. Long live the 2AS...

In the Air Force, "NO" only means two things. 1. You are not asking the right person. 2. You are not asking at the right time.

I don't know what you guys are talking about... When I went through water survival training here is what it consisted of: 1. A 10 mile swim with a jelly fish duct taped to your genitals. 2. A free fall from 10,000 feet with only 4 garbage bags, ball of yarn, and a crochet needle. You had 30 seconds to make your own chute -- or else... A lot of people failed this one -- its why they need so many pilot candidates. 3. The last test was the hardest. They put you in these spandex type wet suits and find the hottest chic instructors they can find to demonstrate the manual inflation of the one man life raft. In order to enforce the kinder, gentler, more politically correct Air Force, if you get an errection -- you wash out -- I mean right there, don't pass go, don't collect 200 dollars. The Air Force is dead serious about professionalism these days -- good luck -- and try to find a baggy suit, those chics are hot, real hot. I hope this helps.

Mike "Bull" Dodson... What can I tell you about this guy? He bought his Dad a 41K dollar truck, just because. When I was with him at Pope his Mom had cancer and passed. He would come off the rotator and spend all of his leave until the next deployment at her side. He was made from a time gone by in life and in the Air Force -- guys like this are found one at a time. Your problems were his problems -- even if it meant he had to drop his problems. I saw his selfless character at Pope AFB when he was a navigator and I witnessed it first hand at Sheppard AFB at ENJJPT. He would never complain about carring an extra burden. I would see him struggling with his own daily grind, stop to help a new navigator at Pope or take care of problems as SRO at Sheppard, and he would get hammered on his flight or ground job the next day -- but it never mattered to him -- success always meant that you did well. A good dude defined is a guy that makes life better without you knowing why, how, or who was doing it. That was Bull's card -- in most cases you never even knew that he went to bat for you or took a bullet for the team -- he never needed to advertise it because him knowing was enough for him. He was a leader -- the Air Force tries to manufacture these kinds of traits and attitudes but it is like trying to build a diamond. You may get close but you will never achieve the quality of the real thing. I spoke to his wife and if you can make a service for him -- it would mean the world to her and their families. I am hurting too bad to talk about the good stories but this is just two that I keep thinking about. We had both got the good deal card to go to ENJJPT and we were in the same class. I was giving the morning flight brief. It is a very formal brief and part of the hazing of UPT is to sit at attention and listen to the brief. Well, I hate formality and really all things serious for that matter, so at the start of the brief, I yelled, "MICHAEL DODSON." In his best effort to look sharp because all eyes snapped to him, Bull stood up stiff as a board and at attention, and I said, "TERRIBLE HAIRCUT -- please sit down." He had just got what hair that he had buzzed off the day before, and the whole class errupted in laughter, Bull cut me his best, "You dirty son-of-a-bitch," and that started our reign of bringing some C-130 flavor to ENJJPT. He got me back about a month later as I walked through a dark parking lot. I was looking the other way and he sped up to me, slammed on brakes, and honked the horn. It was in the middle of some fancy hotel parking lot when we were TDY with a whole bunch of people watching at the front desk. A pilot is always to be cool and collected. I dropped the bag I was carrying, leaped in the air, and ran like a little girl and everyone laughed as I tried to tell them, "I f!!*@ing tripped, you didn't scare me!" I hope to see you all at a service.

Nothing like buying your 500,000 dollar executive jet from "Johnny GQ Gots Deals" It sounds like you may need to bring your own "chain" flight yoke and pizza cutters to be dressed appropriately on taxi out.

The FACT -- in terms of threats while at UPT -- I would put this one closer, if not at, the bottom of the things you should be concerned about. If you have the time now, then yeah, hit the gym -- it will only help you prepare for the 100+ heat and double turning etc... ENJJPT takes it pretty serious -- at least they did when I was there -- everyone went to 38's and everyone was going for fighter qualification. They were form strict and even made you follow the redamndickulous metronome. You being guard and going to a 135, I wouldn't give a flying monkeys ass about it. We had two guys fail it -- one for bench and one for leg presses. The only reprecussion from it are two things: 1. You will get the eyeball when you go to 38's for proper G-strain. 2 The results of this test are passed directly to the squadron commander and up the chain from there -- G-Loc ing and dying seems to make people frown -- so it puts your name in lights in a bad way. For others FYI: You have to pass it before they will put you in a 38. It was not until I flew everyday, many times twice a day, in 100-115 degree Texas heat -- that I understood the reason the Air Force does not look for just the smartest dude to fly jets for them. If this were the case, Air Force pilots would consist of chess clubs and math majors, and Albert Einstein could have probably been the best pilot in the world if the world stayed 73 degrees and 1G. So, what I am trying to tell you, is that if you are a fat ass -- your problems will start long before the FACT.

I can appreciate the misconception that most people have towards military pilots. To illustrate the "global" SA that you might find yourself beak to beak with. Brew, I think you probably have more hours than I did when I was doing Cloverleafs at 250 knots in that MOA. I can assure you that I was eyes outside and head on a swivel and not looking down at my maneuver card cheater, scratching my nuts, or trying to figure out why my fvcking helmet and mask was cutting off the circulation to my face.

Can I get a number crunch on this new development? 32.333 (repeating of course)?

I don't mean to spread any reality to this thread; but lets put things in perspective. 1. Referring to SF as brothers? I don't know if you have been deployed or not, but at the locations I have been at -- there are two groups trying to ruin your career, Security Forces and Al Qeada -- I would take my chances with Al Qeada. 2. What does it matter who is checking the gate? If you are a terrorist are you really going to drive up to the main gate like it is McDonald's or something? I mean do you honestly feel safer that there is a gate and they thoroughly (I use this loosely) check 1 out of every 100 cars anyways? It falls under the same neanderthal logic that the airports use. We will just hire more people to stand around and thoroughly check every 90 year old grandma that failed the metal detector because of the steel socket in her hip. IE lets carry on the facade that we have more security, when in reality we only have more harrassment. 3. I kind of like the tubby old guys, they are smiling each morning, and I get a consistent response each time I go through the gate. You never know what your going to get with regular SF's. Some mornings I could be dressed up in full Arab head dress and a fake beard to my ankles and they wouldn't check my ID. On mornings that I am in a hurry they stop just shy of a full cavity search. 4. Do I really care what they look like? I put this in the same category of the 90-10 rule. (For those that don't know yet, but soon will find out. 90% of the work done by 10% of the people.) It is always the slack ass that has abso(@(*lutely nothing else to do at his job; that he goes out of his way to make other people miserable at doing theirs. (Any similarity to SF's in the above remark is strictly coincidental.) So, I honestly haven't noticed, or let alone ask my smiling guard to step on the scale for me. I have real things to worry about.

There was no kidding, five feet of snow when I went through in 2002. They bussed our asses up there with tire chains etc... When they couldn't make it with tire chains alone, they had these weird looking snow tractors, like bull dozers with rubber tracks on them, try to haul the busses up the rest of the way. We were about half way up the mountain and trees had knocked down powerlines. We were getting out to walk the rest of the way up, but they couldn't even get the power company to get out in it to turn the power off to the downed lines. So, to my knowledge, at least told by the instructors, we were the first class since 1976 to be shorted "one" day in the woods. Long story short -- in the gamble on you and the SERE schedule, bet on the SERE schedule.

Having lived on both sides of the fence for about six months. Having spent almost two years in the usual garden spots, Seeb, Deed, Ali, and (insert some corn hole spot here). We are entrusted to protect the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Well, I think this needs to be broken down a little better to clearly define who is truly the enemy. As one Lt Col, that I don't really even care for put it, there are the insurgents, and there are security forces -- both organizations are sitting around twisting their mustaches/beards and making elaborate plans to end your career. I have now run to AETC for refuge; which is equally depressing, not because of the typical stereotype of AETC. A bunch of rule wankers that love to wallow in self-inflicted queep. It is depressing because compared to the services, security forces, and uniform nazi's. Well, it is more like club med. So, I drink a beer for you guys -- keepers of the reflective belt. May your jogging without music, reflective belt/tucked in pt uniform wearing, saluting while carrying 60 pounds worth of gear, 1/4 mile walk to the pisser, triple fod checking asses remember that people were not meant to live this way. I will zonk you out and make you feel like you have been fishing all day.

Nav school typically lasts about 10-11 months. You will wait for a survival school slot to open up at Fairchild; mine took about a month and a half. Survival school is about a month long, if I remember correctly. I went to slick C130's and waited for another month for a school date to open up. FTU, or follow on training unit, lasts for about 4 months for 130's, but this was also when the E models had no wing cracks, etc... I have been talking to some buddies at Little Rock now and they are saying the school house is getting backed up because they have no planes. Active duty has been acquiring more E's from the guard, so it probably wouldn't affect your time frame as much. So, I started Nav school in January of 2001, winged Oct 2001, finished survival January of 2002, completed the school house May of 2002, and arrived at my first duty station in June of 2002. The regulation that you are looking for is AFI 36-2205. It governs the whole 2.5 year process. Page 8, figure 1.1; "rated navigators must serve 2.5 years of rate duty as a navigator prior to SUPT entry and may apply with 2 years rated duty (6 months prior). Take this years active duty board for example, it met on Feb 8th. If you are winged before Feb 8 of 2003, then you are golden. You can apply. You cannot start earlier than August 8 of 2005. At least this is my interpretation of the rule. I don't think there are any exceptions to this rule, but anyone wanting to critique my math, feel free. It is from the winging date, ie as a navigator, not the day you show at Randolph. AWACs typically have the shortest FTU, and I believe they do theirs in house. However, it is also my understanding that it is tougher to get a good endorsement from an AWACs WG/CC on your 215 because there are so many rated guys who apply from AWACs units. You will be able to apply for an age waiver up to 33 years, I believe. Check around for the reg. But, that is not most peoples problem. We get old man. It gets much tougher to pass an IFC1 physical the older you get, and don't kid yourself, because you are a nav means nothing to the flight doc's. You will have to pass the same IFC1 for pilot that the 22 year old out of college will do. Do a search on nav to pilot to get the rest of the tips. Of course, doing well in nav school is a good start, but don't be a tool to do it. San Antonio is a blast, have fun while you are there. If you go Herc's you will fly your rearend off once you get to your unit.

Dawg, Hey man, good luck bro. I have been battling hearing problems since my commission. If you have ever wondered if you are alone, or if H3 hearing would affect your ability to navigate. I am H3. Then again, I am also H1 and H2. It really depends on what day I take the test. The difference in H1 and H3 hearing in the 4K range is 15 decibals - the difference of a mouse fart in my opinion. However, then again, I am not the "man" making those rules. As a navigator mission commanding a 3+ ship to a DZ you will have to hear the following: interplane, intraplane, range control, DZ control, and ATC. I have to hear them correctly - the first time - mistakes are not an option. The comm's all come in rapid fire succession, sometimes simultaneously, and I have never had a problem. This is not to say you won't, but just don't let that H3 stigma stop or slow you down. If you have any specific questions fire them away at me. I got my H3 waiver when I was already a nav. My squadron had the waiver before the ink dried. It doesn't do much for you that you are a loadmaster, but your aircrew status and flight time should speak volumes to them. Good luck Also, when I went through ROTC, it took me 5 tries to get H1, and it was by the skin of my teeth. Are they giving you an option to retake it a few more times?