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I flew f-16s for 10 years. I'm off of active duty now, and even through rose covered glasses, I look back on my time like a prison sentence. It feels amazing to be "out." If you want to experience 85% of your life as a fighter pilot, go hang out at the DMV for 12 hours tomorrow.

Aero is crap, Foreflight with military EFB has everything you need and then some (okay it doesn't have jepps). Cost is pretty steep for the global kit but pays dividends in the off chance mobile iron has a glitch in its servers that automatically deletes aero from your efb and won't allow you to reinstall it and in a mad dash you reset your ipad to download but DISA won't allow you to get a new pin because they need approval from someone who takes Fridays off to issue a new pin because the new iOS drop is like a week out (which your efb is incompatible with)... Not saying anything like that would happen, just saying it could...

Bullshit - amendments are essentially the same as new orders. They have to accept all amendments. In fact, I'd say about half of my PCS orders haven't initially had my dependents on them, but the amendment adding my family was all that was needed to get all the dependent entitlements (same overall order number). Stop talking to Airman dumbass and go straight to the first officer in the chain. If they can't produce official AFI /JTR that backs their side up, they have to concede. If they don't at that point, may be time to talk to your B-Course Flt/CC and ask for some higher level help.

To the OP, I was in almost the exact same position as you when I was at your point. I chose flying. Would I make the same choice again? Maybe. Here are a couple of things to consider: 1. Longevity. What can you do longer? Which is more stable? I'm at the end of my commitment. Flying pointy jets has been awesome. The overall career? Eh. My back and neck hurt too. I don't know if everyone can fly their whole life due to medical reasons. I would bet doctors can still work with some of the medical issues that would ground a pilot. That might not seem like a big deal now when you're young, but trust me it's a big deal and something you should consider now. 2. Looking back it seems much easier to become a doc first and then become a pilot one way or another later. The other way is much MUCH harder from what I have seen. If you're anywhere near 50/50 on this just go to medical school. You'll make enough money as a doc to pay for all of your ratings and can then probably own your own aerobatic plane if you really want to go upside down. I make sure I go upside down on every flight in the Air Force, but I'm pretty sure most docs deal with less b.s. and get treated better when they are at work than I do. At the end of the day if you really end up wanting to fly in a fighter or something just go sign up to be a flight doc and you'll get to taste the life. 3. There's a reason why so many pilots are leaving the Air Force. Don't discount that fact! How many docs are running from their jobs? I really don't know the answer, but I bet not that many. 4. The Air Force overall has done a really great job taking care of me and my family. There are some huge benefits to being in the Air Force. At the end of the day it sucks though. There is too much b.s. Just go become doc.

I don't come to McDonalds and tell you your job is great. So don't do the same to me. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

I was accepted and passed on med school to go to UPT...broke my mom's heart in doing so. Looking back after 26 years, if I had it to do over again, you SNAPs would be calling me Dr CH...actually you wouldn't be calling me as I would ignoring all of you and concentrating on the boob job I was going to do in the morning.

Mom and dad are fighting again. :(

Our Box shirt for this year.

Fairly easy. All you need are your ID and orders. More options if you go to Germany as you could always catch the rotator back to CONUS. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Why don't you guys just get a high res picture and zap it to someone in Korea? Lots patchy patchy real quick.

Reno Races 2016. Once again, epic times. Steve Hinton Jr. took the Unlimited Championship back. Five destroyed airplanes, but no injuries. Pete Zaccagnino crashed in his beautiful DeHavilland Vampire Friday. Today, it seems two bi-planes got tangled up on the runway and both were totalled. See pic I took below late today. Near pefect WX all week. Was there for the two-ship F-4 arrival... Probably the last time I'll see them fly since Nellis Airshow in November closes the U.S. military's Phantom history. Blue Angel pilots were spot on with the timing maneuvers... but the actual routine seems to have a lot more dead time than we had ever seen. For all you current or former U-2 guys, join us next year. We have the best party at our location in the Box Seats. And we had a U-2 flyover Thurday. One of our newer U-2 pilots ran his RV-4 to 2nd place in the Medallion Sport Class. He hit around 230 mph... yes, in an RV-4. Lots of racers wanted to see it up close, to see what he had done to make it that fast. p.s. An RQ-4 and an MQ-9 pilot came by and hung out with us. They endured a lot of ribbing, but the large quantities of beer eased the blows. Good guys!

If you're going to publicly call some dude out for being a terrible pilot and having a terrible attitude, back it up. Otherwise, don't do it.

^What BashiChuni said. Going to UPT as a Guard guy would be great. Knowing what is waiting for you at the end of the training would be great. The luck and timing thing of AD is very real and if you have your heart set on flying one thing and that's not in the drop, then tough luck. For example, the first drop I witnessed at ENJJPT was back in the days where if you could fog a mirror, you'd end up in a Viper. The next one, half the class went to RPA's, 5 others went to U-28's, and 1 guy went to Strike Eagles. It's back to mirror fogging = Viper now, but the unpredictability sucks as a student.

Nice use of the escalatory "bro" to convey sh1t just got real. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ANG baby, the only way. Best flying I'll ever have, best people I'll ever meet, have seen things nobody else will. I can't wait to retire.

Med school. If planes were really your thing, you wouldn't have been premed.

Absolutely worth it. I served 21+ years flying F-15s and T-38s and wouldn't trade it for anything. Sure, there were times I was annoyed and disillusioned by the queep and mis-prioritization of Big Blue, but flying fighters was a dream come true and serving with some of the finest people I've ever known was even better. Lifelong friends, incredible flying, great experiences and now a follow on career in the airlines that was enabled by all of the above. I was never interested in Med School so can't give advice on what to pursue, but I've known a couple guys who went to Med School after their initial flying commitment was up. Also know 2 guys who are docs but went to pilot training and now fly as pilot flight surgeons. So there are options to do both, although very limited obviously.

Had I known getting stuck in drones was an option, I would not have joined the Air Force.

Flying fighters is the greatest job ever. Being in the USAF is the price you pay to do it. Once you figure out the game and play it accordingly, you can have a great life flying fighters. If you allow however, the USAF will take all the fun and pound you, your family, your morale and love for flying into the ground. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Totally worth it - I never considered any other path. I've about had it with all the bullshit and my bag of fucks to give is about empty, but I'd still make the same decision if I rewound the clock 11 years. Despite the negatives, there are a lot of great things about flying in the AF. But, everyone's experience is different and time/luck/who your leadership is all matters and can make or break an assignment being an awesome or an assignment being a prison sentence as Jaded pointed out.

How about back to tracks and assignments? Fighters for everybody now? SP's getting non-vol'd to fighters. The struggle is real.

NATO has actually done some harm since the end of the Cold War. Without a substantial threat, our European allies have really let their military readiness go to hell all willingly and over reliant on the US. The problem is, they don't know it and we aren't calling them on it. Our allies are running around in their Eurofighters and Gripens thinking they are just barely below US capes but they are FAR below, and don't know it. I'm talking every level. They don't have tanker capacity, armament capacity and are reliant on the US in most ways past getting go #1 airborne. I didn't know this until I saw it firsthand how bad they are, across the board, from the way they train, organize and if you think the F-35 is a shitshow, you should see the Eurofighter.....a $100m jet with $40m in capes. It's really, really bad. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

For F-cks sake, You fatty drivers are only reacting to TCAS anyway when anyone gets within 6.9nm so you can file your HATR and bust someone's balls. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

I would disagree with you. It is so much more than just a trainer. Designed in the 1950s, it has done a fantastic job for 50 years in transitioning pilots to supersonic fighters, and a myriad of high-performance heavies and bombers. NASA astronaut trainers, USAF and Navy TPS usage, test squadron aircraft for chasing cruise missiles on low levels. And most recently, a jet used to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in its F-22 adversary support role. Versatile... and impressive. Did you know it briefly held the time to climb record in 1963? And be thankful: had the T-38 not been selected, it would have been an F-100 variant. I'd bet we wouldn't be flying those anymore. When it came to getting out of Del Rio, Randolph, or Beale on the weekend, the "two-engine, twin-turbine, JP-8 slurpin', dual afterburnin', supersonic bar hopping machine" was the perfect steed. I met a lot of people as a result of the T-38. Even flew six sorties with Steve Ritchie. I got 5 rides in the T-38 in college; solo'd it in 1985; flew it all over the U.S. in some very challenging conditions, and on gorgeous VFR legs through the Sierra and the Rockies; flew my fini flight on 24 Sept 2014. Some trips were solo, some were with my favorite people. Loved it every time I got in it. And I am a substantially better pilot today because of all the sorties I flew in that jet. I've got over 100 types of aircraft in my logbook, including 8 sorties in the Viper (one from the front seat), a smattering in the Eagle, two in the T-45, three in the A-4,... F-18B, F-18F... and plenty more. From my perspective, looking at those other 100 types I've gotten stick time in, the T-38 is pretty impressive. F16 capabilities? Nope. But just because you're married to a Brazilian supermodel doesn't mean every other woman is a let down. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

.8 and 6-9 calls to the SOF. Too lazy to get the Kermit image macro made up, but you get the picture.

I agree, but this wasn't at the schoolhouse.

Good cop out.

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Or you could accept the fact that not everyone hated it as much as you. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk