BONE Co-driver

You are in the silo for 24 hours, but you are not awake the entire time. You take turns with the other missileer sleeping. During the entire alert you are actually working an average of 2-3 hours depending on if there is an exercise going on. The rest of the time people study (kind of like studying in the vault), work on Master's classes, watch Direct TV, play games(I can neither confirm nor deny that there are people who bring PS2 or an XBox on alert). There is a "support" crew topside which consists of a chef (if you want to call them that! lol some are ok, however), a FM (Facilities Manager- takes care of most of the maintaince topside and much of the equipment downstairs, and 4-7 cops. To answer your question as to why they do 24 hour shifts, to be honest, that is just the way it has always been done. I think it is partly because of the long travel times to get to the sites. Their just isn't enough manning to have shorter shifts. However, during certain "real world conditions and states of readiness" they have an A1/A2 crew which is basically another crew topside that you change out with every 12 hours because both crewmembers are required to be awake at all times...that is just about all I can say about that. According to regs, you can only have 8 scheduled events a month meaning 8 alerts, 7 alerts and a standby, and so on. Most line crews have the full 8 events, but when you go to a shop (OGV or OSS) you only have 2 alerts a month. Other than the alerts you will have a minimum of 1 4-4 hour sim (you practice ending the world...lol) and 2 half days for other training. So, when it is all said and done I was working at most 12 or 13 days a month. The rest of the time I could do what I wanted. I am not going to lie, it does get pretty boring at times, but as with any job, it is what you make of it. Most work on Master's degrees. That is the 1 cool thing about the job...your free time to get an education. It is very rare that someone would PCS without a Masters complete. The follow on jobs after your life as a missileer is pretty good. Some go to Vandenberg (schoolhouse or Space lift), Colorado Springs to "drive" satellites, Florida for space lift, and the few that go to ???? for an NRO job. From what I have heard, the guys who go to Colorado Springs to do the satellite thing have a good deal afterwards since the civilian contractors love to hire seperating officers to do the same job and pay them 3 times as much as the Air Force was. If I didn't like flying so much, Space Command would have been a very good life for my family and I...decent bases (other than the missile bases) and you are non-deployable for the most part. If you have any other questions, please let me know and I will try to answer them for you.

Madeus, I was in Space and Missiles for almost 4 years before going to pilot training. If you have any specific questions, PM me.

I had a break between my Army time and Air Force time. The break was long enough that my records were forward from the base that I left active duty to the national archives at St. Louis. I have tried to get a copy of the orders for the medal since it was awarded after my records were sent to St. Louis, but the process seems to take YEARS. I do have proof that I was in Korea (award orders from when I was there), but MPF is saying that since it was during my Army time the Army would have to award the madal, not the Air Force.

Tweet FAIP Were you ever stationed in Korea while in the Army? If so, did you get orders for the Korean National Defense Medal and do you wear it now? I am prior Army as well and I was there but my local MPF is telling me that I can't wear it because I have no proof that I was overseas while at the same time they have my DD 214 with the Army Overseas ribbon and AAM orders that I earned while in Korea. Any ideas? Thanks

In 38's you do 1 solo out and back as well as your standard cross country weekend (dual). I think that we were a bit different for our cross country weekend. We had terrible weather all thru training, so half of our flights that weekend were 2 ship tactical. We flew from Laughlin to Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, to JAX, to Scott AFB, to Ft. Worth-Alliance, and back to Laughlin. It was an awesome weekend!

You should be an O-1 with over 4 years of service. I was active for 3 1/2 and a little over a year in the reserves before I was commissioned. I didn't get the O-1E pay but I did get the over 4 years of service pay. There isn't a huge difference in base pay...the real difference is in the BAH rates. I was only getting paid about $50 less a month compared to an O-1E/O-2E until I pinned on O-3. Let me tell you, the base pay from an O-2 topped out to an O-3 with over 10 years service was HUGE!!! Good luck

I could be wrong here, but I thought that airline tickets were just like most airplane rentals...prices are "wet" (sts)

If you get 38's you go a couple of days after track select and you go again after you get your wings if you get a fighter assignment.

I agree completely with dirty. I had my family with me when I was in UPT and don't regret it at all!! There will be plenty for you family to do during the day on base...my wife and daughter had something going on almost every day with the officer spouse's club. Like dirty said, there is a lot to be said about going home to people who think that you are the best after getting your ass kicked all day.