pcola

Ha. I write OPRs, EPRs, decoration citations, and process the packages for all the above for the whole squadron. I also plan/organize/execute squadron parties, fundraisers, CC calls, Hi/Byes, and any other random excuse to make everybody come in to work and pretend to like it. On the side, I also manage the squadron Life Support shop, track people's training beans, handle my own finance/personnel issues (i.e. travel vouchers, paper and DTS, HFP/CTZE paperwork, ADPs, CROs, etc.) execute countless hours of ancillary training, wade through no less than 30 useless emails per day, and maintain my personal fitness. Oh yeah, I get to fly occasionally too. All that, and I'm just an LT.

I was enlisted in the Navy from 93-97. Served 4 years aboard the USS Eisenhower (the Mighty Dike, as we called her.) I was a green shirt flight deck type, V-2, Waist Catapult operator. Did we do 36-hour shifts? Yes and No. We worked when the jets were flying. Period. We were undermanned and didn't have enough for two shifts. We'd show up to work a couple hours before the first launch of the day to pre-op the cat. We'd work all day during the launch/recovery cycle, cleaning our spaces or catching 30 minute catnaps on the floors in between launches. Then we'd spend another couple of hours after the final trap of the day doing our post-op mx plus any other required scheduled mx. 20 hour workdays were common. A typical day would be a 5:00 AM muster to pre-op the cat. We would then launch jets all day, and would be required to do work (mostly cleaning our assigned spaces) in our down time until 16:00 or so. After 16:00, we still had to launch jets, but we would be allowed to watch TV or nap in our downtime, until the final recovery usually around 22:00. We would then spend a few hours doing more mx, with final release around midnight, plus or minus a couple hours depending on what kind of mx had to be done. We would then get 3-6 hours to shower/hit the rack in the night. By the time we finally got to get back to the berthing compartment to shower, all the hot water was gone, so we more often than not ended up with a cold shower. Add to that the additional duties assigned to folks while General Quarters (GQ) drills were going on, duties like firefighting, or damage control, etc, and many times getting woken up in the middle of the night (during our precious few hours in the racks) for man-overboard drills or false alarms, life was not good. Of course, this was all only when we were underway. In port, life was decent for a flight deck guy. We usually only had to do our preventative mx (PMS) and keep our spaces clean. Typical work day in-port was 7:00 AM show and be at the beach by noon. The only thing that sucked was still having to live on the boat. Yep, that pretty much sums up the quality of life and quarters onboard. I was ships company (assigned to the ship vs one of the flying squadrons) so I lived on the ship even in port. The boat was my home, 24/7/365, and the conditions described plus the trunk of my car was the only space I had to call mine in the world. I would've killed for a dorm room. Yeah, had to do the TAD rotation, too. Supposed to be a 90 day rot to the mess decks. Funny thing was that I had 12 hour shifts working on the mess decks and I did the last 30 days or so of my rotation out to sea, so I didn't want to go back to my real job working 20 hour days on the flight deck. You know its a shitty life when you'd rather wash dishes in the "scullery" just so that you can be guaranteed to get some sleep. I'm not saying that being in the Navy were the worst conditions a person could ever live in. I have nothing to complain about compared to you old-heads that served during Vietnam. However, life now as an Air Force Officer is completely Gucci compared to my days as a junior E in the Navy. I laugh at some of the shit I hear people in my Sq complain about. "What do you mean you won't give me a Non-A slip. I can't stay in billeting on base. I'm flight crew..." The sad fact is, I've caught myself complaining about the same shit. I guess its all a matter of what you get used to. My ship, the Ike, was the first USN warship to have women onboard. IIRC, they were onboard for our Med/Persian Gulf cruise in Oct94-Mar95. Very few were easy on the eyes, even after 6 months at sea. It actually made life worse, because having women on board brought alot of the PC type issues to the Navy. Before then, nobody gave a shit if you had porn hanging on the walls or what kind of jokes you told or what kind of hazing you did, and things were still more forgiving if you got in a fistfight with somebody, or if you got too plastered and got into trouble in port, etc...

HE doesn't know what min-turning means. If HE does, most of the rest of the shoe clerks don't. It means that you get a minimum specified amount of time on the ground between the time you land and the time you are legal to take-off. That time includes things like post-flight duties, pre-flight duties, and crew rest. It does not take into account the time it takes the people at billeting to get you into your room, or the time it takes for the trans folks to pick you up and take you to billeting. If you are scheduled to take off the next day after your minimum allowable en-route ground time, and you had to spend an extra two-hours checking into billeting, then you just lost two hours of sleep. Get it?

A bit of a threadjack... I saw a rumor on another thread on this site (imagine that, a rumor on baseops...) that the B-2 was going to be dropped to T-1 studs beginning in FY 09. Any of you B-2 guys got wind of this? Do you think its likely? I'm a C-21 guy who will be looking for an MWS in 09, and the B-2 would be awesome if it were an option. Probably a long shot, I know...

I'm currently at Ramstein and travel to Stuttgart frequently. I don't really have much else to add about the location. Pretty much concur w/everything else said. One more thing for you to consider. First grade is the perfect age for you to immerse your child in the local culture. Throw him/her into the German school system, he'll pick up the language in no time. A guy in my squadron went through the exact same thing. His parents were mil (neither spoke German) and they put him in a German school around the first grade. He spent 6 years in Germany as a kid before moving back to the States and still speaks German like a local. If you're interested, you can PM me and I'll give you his .mil email.

That was like one of those poems that doesn't rhyme. Blew my mind, man.

Hey bonehead. SIU = Southern Illinois University = D1. Not "really small." Reference the basketball team. And I'd wager to say that being a Cross Country/Middle distance Track runner is one of the toughest things going. Probably not as physically demanding as football, but much more so than baseball or basketball. Try running 20 400M laps each under 60 secs with only a 200M walk as a rest between laps. Those were the hardest workouts of my life, really makes a person question their will to continue. There are also very few athletes more disciplined and competitive than a D1 cross country runner. Running at that level takes a god-given talent and an incredible tolerance for pain. I understand you said you weren't knocking anything, but I'm not really sure what the point of your post was.

I don't know anything about the flying program at SIU, but I do have first hand knowledge of the ROTC program and track team. I was a middled distance runner at SIU, a ROTC cadet, and an EE student. Let me answer your question about how busy you'll be. Extremely. Here's a sample of my days when I was at my busiest: 4:30 AM - wakeup, eat, study 5:30 AM - hop on the bike to ride to AM practice. 6:00 AM - stretch, bullshit with the team, prepare for the morning run (anywhere from 3-8 miles, 6 min/mile - 4:30 min/mile pace) 7:00 AM - shower, dress, sometimes ICE/STEM/Stretch with the trainers for the tendonitis pain 8:00 AM - 2:50 PM - school, study, eat, BS 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM - Afternoon practice/weight training. Usually things like plyos, hills, sprints, interval work, speed drills, etc. 6:00 PM - Bike back home to eat, study, shower, sleep, etc Many times spent Thursday evenings traveling to Meets, competing on Friday/Saturday, usually only had a 10 mile run on Sunday and used the rest of that day to catch up on EE projects/ROTC stuff. It was a very demanding and busy schedule. Fortunately for me, the ROTC Cadre at the time were very understanding of my schedule and I was for the most part a "ghost cadet." I tried to make it to the Tuesday night lead labs, and always to class, but thats really about it. I never did anything extracurricular with ROTC, and was exempt (duh) from attending the PT sessions. It didn't hurt me, I still got a pilot slot. Your schedule will vary as a jumper. I don't remember for certain, but I'm pretty sure the jumpers didn't have morning practices. Also, if you are an aviation major (vs an EE) you won't have to spend as much time studying. However, its still going to be difficult, but in the end, worthwhile. You also mentioned trying to get a track scholarship. You may know this, but having a scholarship will cover your tuition and room/board, but it won't cover the flying related fees (which is the majority of the cost.) If you do get a scholarship, it will still cost a lot of money to get your flight ratings.

1. Who's gonna PAY YOU to learn to fly a King Air or a LJ-35? USAF. Period. Nobody else. 2. Who's gonna PAY YOU $100K/year to fly a LJ35 all over Europe as an Aircraft Commander with a whopping 400 hours total rated time? USAF. Period. Nobody else. Flying ANYTHING in the USAF is a good choice, even if you could fly it as a civilian.

Class 06-03 was the first to do Team sorties after it was reinstated. Sometime around September '05. Guess that didn't last long. Oh well, knowing some of the guys in Vance 06-03, I'm surprised it lasted more than a month. When I went we had a jet with 2 IP's, 3 jets with 2 studs each, then a trailing jet with 2 IP's. I believe we took off in 10 minute intervals. You would hear the other crews screwing up the radios, but other than that you wouldn't see anybody else on the "gay train" until you landed.

The problem you are going to run into is that USAF flying is not a M-F thing. UPT is pretty much M-F, but when you get to your first ops squadron, all bets are off. This is my first assignment, so I don't have much of a perspective, but in my job we pretty much ignore weekends, most holidays, and "family"/"goal" days. We have taskable lines 7 days a week, and have 2 crews on alert 7 days a week. We also usually have an off station trainer going out on the weekends. I have flown or sat alert on the majority of weekends in my first year on station. That's not to say you won't get time off, just that sometimes you have to take a day off during the normal work week vs a Friday or Saturday. Other squadrons may be different, hopefully somebody else will post their POV.

I personally think if you quit now, you MAY end up regretting wasting the opportunity for the rest of your life. If you give it a legitimate shot and its still not for you, at least you'll know when you look back on it. You may even like it. I know most people say UPT is not fun. I had a blast. I loved UPT, and I love my current assignment. My perspective: I served four years enlisted, got out, went to college, graduated, worked as an Elect. Eng. for 1 1/2 years, and the whole time wanted to be a pilot. When I finally got accepted to OTS, I had no doubt that I wanted to be in UPT. Military flying wasn't exactly what I expected, but it was always better than any other job I ever had. Even in UPT, I got to fly and meet some great people. Its a great life and I know its not for everybody, but you really should at least give it a shot, you won't get another one. FWIW

"Flying causes climate change" Seems pretty accurate to me. I change my climate almost everytime I fly. Unless its a local. Take off from Germany, its 5 C, 1000M -shra, ovc 003, Land at Sig, its 20 C, 9999, SKC My climate just changed (for the better.)

Print out your pubs in half size (2/page, booklet format) and put them in a small binder - buy a smaller bag.

I don't buy it. I agree that a military pension is very valuable - but not that valuable. The author is conveniently neglecting interest accrual in their calculations. I'm too lazy to do the actual math right now to come up with an actual number about how much you would need to sustain a $30K income, but a quick calculation tells me that its not a million bucks. If you had $1,000,000, you could split that up into several different federally insured savings account and earn 5% and be 100% safe. That would bring in $50k/year. With a bit more risk you could leave it invested in mutual funds and expect to earn around 10% which would bring in $100,000/year (duh) without ever touching the principle. I'm not knocking the value of the military pension, I plan on having one. But $30K per year is not the same as having a million bucks in the bank.

Agreed with gearpig. At first I thought she should be given props for at least having the set to stand up for what she believes in. Even if it does make her dumb as hell. If more people would stand up rather than play the "company man" party line, maybe the airforce wouldn't be run by shoeclerks with less common sense than an angered mob. Then I realized that gearpig is right. Playboy wouldn't give this chick a second look of she wasn't in the military. Given the current political landscape and subsequent interest in the armed forces, they know that people would be interested in seeing this shoot. Without the Air Force title, she would have about a 0.01% shot at playboy. She played the cards she was dealt and I really doubt if she gives two shits about standing up for "my own rights and participate in the freedoms that make this country what it is?" Just one man's opinion.

ILS is always a better choice than PAR in the weather. I'm not sure about your flying background so you may already know this and I could be misinterpreting your post, but I think you may be confusing the Categories of ILS's. You mentioned that since the USAF just got its first Cat III ILS, pilots must have been using PAR's. However, a PAR is no substitute for a Cat II or III ILS. FYI, Cat I ILS mins are 200 Ft DH and 800M prevailing vis or 550 RVR. These are generally the same as a PAR. Cat II ILS mins are as low as 100 Ft DH and 350 RVR. Cat IIIa mins are as low as 0 DH and 200 RVR Cat IIIb mins as low as 0 DH and 50 RVR Cat IIIc mins as low as 0 DH and 0 RVR (meaning that the autopilot must be capable of landing and guiding the a/c to the terminal.) To my knowledge, there is no PAR with mins less than a Cat I ILS, and Cat I ILS's are much more prevalant than PAR's. Hopefully this helps to answer your questions.

My opinion. If you wear them for longer than 2 hours at a time, every ounce counts. The lighter they are, the longer you can wear them without noticing them. The Bose are flimsy, but they fold up and take up less space in your bag. Noise cancellation is overrated (unless you are on a 130, I guess). However, the Bose are more comfortable. If you aren't footing the bill, go for the Bose. I second the opinion on the flexible boom mike. They are much better than the hinged mikes. If you go with the DC's, get the one's with the flexible mike.

These suck compared to helitacs awesome pics, but here are a few I took just yesterday while transiting Switzerland.

Email Chuck Norris and ask what he'd do. After you get roundhouse kicked to the face (through the internet, no less), decide that you'd rather kick ass now and worry about money later and enlist. After your enlistment is up, become an officer and CRO.

A couple of the basics. First week, death by power point. Second week, Field. Third week, Happy Valley. You work/train through the weekends, no days off. The field portion can be a good time, depending on your element, your instructors, your level of fitness, and the weather. The weather sucked for us, but the rest was good so I had fun. If you don't get anything else out of this thread, remember the comment about rationing. Having an MRE meal left on the last day in the woods will make life better. Oh yeah, make sure to try the Moose Drool. Great stuff.

That sounds correct. You get paid per pound. Period. You will also file a travel voucher that is seperate from your DITY, where you will be reimbursed for mileage. Basically, they take the amount of weight that you moved and pay you 90% (I think) of what it would have cost them to hire somebody to do it. Your truck rental and other costs come out of pocket. If you rent, use Budget. In my experience, they have always been much cheaper. There are horror stories about people making like $200 bucks after paying for the Uhaul and supplies, but I've always made good money. I moved around 11000 lbs from Pensacola to Enid and profited around $1500 for the move alone (not including travel voucher and DLA.)

Is Ramstein still planning to keep 8-9 jets, as originally thought?

OK, I was taking the IRC last week and while scouring the GP looking for the answer to one of the test questions I came across this info regarding initial radio contact to clearance delivery: from GP chapter 5 Section B para. 5-9 b. I remembered reading this on this website: So, looks like either the GP is in error, or Rotorheads source is, but there is obviously a descrepancy. Any of you older, wiser types care to clear up my confusion? [ 11. March 2006, 11:09: Message edited by: pcola stud ]

Hey, if a disembodied rat brain can fly, by god, my IP's may have been wrong, and there's hope for me yet.