guineapigfury

I'm a deployed UAV pilot, flew KC-135s and MC-12s formerly, take my advice for what you will. 1. UAV training is shorter than pilot training, but not by too much (I can't speak for Global Hawks). Use the search function. Length of training should not drive this decision. All of the UPT locations suck, as does Alamogordo where MQ-1 and MQ-9 IQT takes place. Call that a wash. You can wash out of both, so bring your A game wherever you go. 2. Expect going the UAV-direct route to close the door to flying manned aircraft. The majority of UAV pilots right now are guys forced into UAVs sometime at after graduating UPT. The vast majority of them want to return to flying manned aircraft. All of them would be in line in front of you. Retention and morale are grievous issues in this community, which is why the 18X career field exists. However, those few people in this community who are happy are the ones who chose it in order to be home with the wife and kids. Your family situation, your call. Understand that just because you aren't on the road doesn't mean you will be at home. 60-80 hour weeks are normal. 3. There are several active duty bases for 1s and 9s: Off the top of my head: Creech, Cannon, Holloman (FTU), Ellsworth (9s only) and Whiteman (1s only). Global Hawks are Grand Forks and Beale, IIRC. There are also Guard/Reserve units in various locations. Google works for you as well as it works for me, so I'll let you figure it out from here. 4. This is what you should probably give the most consideration. The USAF is more family friendly than the USMC, but this is a difference in degree, not in kind. On base housing is nicer, that's about it. You are a number on a spreadsheet somewhere and Big Blue gives exactly zero fucks about your family. The military is the military, and we're at war (or at least "at counterinsurgency"), so expect that shit to be your priority. You can expect to deploy. Reread the first five words of this post. Also, the LRE trends young for two reasons. First, as a brand new Lt in a flying squadron, you're at the front of the line for any task the Capts and Majs in your squadron would prefer not to do. Most of them have deployed already, so guess what you're going to do. Second, instructors are in short supply (ref that sentence about retention and morale), so they can't be spared for the LRE since so many noobs need training. Relocating is a wash. You can moved with next to no-notice in any community. Finally, I'll be blunt here: your wife doesn't seem like she'll be happy as a military wife. If she isn't happy, you probably won't be either. You know her better than anyone, so again, your call. Also, Threeholer, Nunya and Matmacwc are giving you excellent advice.

75% of the officers in my MQ-9 squadron agree with this statement.

Agreed; if you're leaving anything on the table, you're wrong.

FTFY. I've been in 7 years and I've marched in formation exactly zero times since OTS. I've stood in a formation maybe three times, two of those being unit pictures.

That llama was the shit.

Looking at PRFs is probably a good idea, but do enough guys have Q2s and Q3s for this to be a useful discriminator? I've been in 7 years and I know about 6 guys with Q3s. Half of those were good to excellent pilots (including one patchwearer). My other concern here is that there is no similar event to a checkride with which to evaluate MSG types.

In addition to that, I always assumed OPR/EPRs were inflated so people who separated would still have something shiny to show possible employers when they're looking for a job. Below average guys get to walk out the door with prospects intact, promotion boards can read between the lines for what they're actually looking for. I think it's the same way with PCS medals. Big Blue gets to do something strat like for $0.69 of ribbon and tin, and if a guy gets the "wrong" medal the civilian HR guy with no military experience thinks "WOW! This guy has 3 Air Force Achievement Medals!"

Smart man. Good luck with UPT.

Concur with Noonin and Ravens52. You won't have time to take care of the dog during UPT. You won't be able to go home during the day to walk him on your lunch break, so after a long day of flying, stand-up and studying you get to come home every day to a pile of shit on the floor. It isn't fair to you or the dog. Further, if you do show up single with a dog expect to be forced into the dorms where you can't keep the dog. Dogs are awesome, but this is the wrong time in your life to get one.

This is the wrong answer. Google "line of duty determination". Take the time to coordinate actually being on leave in a documented manner.

I can only speak for my little corner of the AF (mq-9s), but there is no one in my year group that I know who is considering staying (prior Es excluded). Maybe the disgruntled are loud enough to drown everyone else out, I don't know.

I'd split it up further and go by group type. MX and MSG/FSG can have up or out, Ops gets something different to reflect the millions of dollars spent training aviators. Rated officers should get promoted to Major on a "fully qualified" basis, just like captains. No boards until O-5. There is no shortage of guys wanting out, so overmanning shouldn't be an issue.

I thought Fuzz's comments were more in the vein of "I'm a new guy, and even I know this stuff". Some of us take ourselves way too seriously.

Everyone who gave this guy some grief (me included) was doing him a favor. Letting a guy sign away 10 years of his life with false visions of a stable family life is cruelty. Still waiting for this guy to thank us.

Concur with evil eagle. Sims are great to try things out that would be too dangerous/expensive in real life. In the Sim I've: put a T-1 thru a loop, landed a KC-135 in a 50 knot crosswind, and shacked an landing in the MQ-9 after losing the engine 8 miles from the field. Sims are awesome for practicing EPs and building confidence for unusual situations. The ability to hit the reset button and repeat the same scenario immediately allows for more training in less time, which may be the single best aspect of Sims. However, they're a supplement to flying, not a substitute for flying.

Proper verbiage is "dependapotami" for the plural.

You're kid will grow up in one place: wherever your ex wife takes him when she gets custody. Also, fix your attitude. You haven't even made the cut to get into ROTC yet.

RPAs will hire UPT washouts, just saying.

I thought the preferred old fat guy technique was to have the last fraction of an inch of Velcro miraculously holding on to the waist so that it bisects the wearer when they sit down.

Concur. Brad definitely downgraded from Jennifer Anniston. My guess is Angelina is more of a freak in the sheets though.

Educate me: what percentage of fighter/bomber guys go to WIC? In the tanker we had up to 3 in the squadron, but 2 were the CC and DO, positions where you would expect patches to be overrepresented statistically.

IMHO, inaccurate. I can't speak for Global Chickens, but Ellsworth is probably the best MQ-9 base. Tax-free state (better than CA, same as NV), significantly lower ops tempo, no hour+ drive to work, and relatively generous BAH. Everyone here who came from Creech prefers it here. That said it's still flying RPAs, which sucks. I know it's moot for you, but I wanted to throw it out there for other guys in a similar situation.

Isn't the real fix for Congress to take back it's Constitutionally prescribed role of declaring war, which it has currently abdicated? Repeal the war powers act, and then the president doesn't send troops anywhere without the nation's buy-in. This would force a debate every time politicians feel the need to fix something just because it's on the news.

If you lack depth perception, you mave have trouble grabbing your bag of Cheetos from above the touchscreen menus.

Meh, color me unimpressed. I automatically tune out anyone calling for a draft outside of a World War 3 scenario. A draft is a good idea, just not for the military. Randomly selecting college educated citizens over the age of 30 to be Congresspeople would probably get us better government than we get now.