NOLAflyer

Thanks for the replies, and xcraft, an update from your unit too would be appreciated! I think I'm going to start networking with some reserve squadrons when I get to my new duty station in the next month and inquire directly. I hate wasting the 18 hours I've already worked for, but I'm tired of missing out on family time because of it.

Hello, I read this thread but a lot has changed since 2012 regarding masters so I'm looking for an update. I'm currently a second assignment guy (O-3) leaving RPAs for C-17s. Just curious what the latest is with reserve units and requiring/desiring advanced degrees? I've gotten the bug to get out of AD ASAP to create a more stable life for my family in one place. Anyway, my pipe dream now is complete this next assignment, then hopefully PC to a reserve unit while starting up with an airline. Whether it plays out like that or not, getting out at 10 is looking more and more certain for me. So that said, I have 18 of 36 hrs in a degree that really doesn't do much for me which I started as a box-checker not certain what my future held for me with the AD. Is my selection/ability to complete 20 years hinge on having a masters? To be clear, I have no personal desire to waste money on a degree that I feel is teaching me the same things I learn through experience, and I have no extreme ambition to promote. O-4 desired, O-5 would be welcomed if it happened. Appreciate any updates and input!

Craftsman, Is this what you're being told/heard for UPT-D guys at ALL bases? My drop has been consistently pushed back from Spring of this year to Spring of next year and its pretty much pushing me and other UPT-D guys around my time frame up the wall. Not sure if that's my leadership being incredibly vague and cautious or what. Can you elaborate on what you've heard and when that supposed final UPT-D drop is supposed to happen?

Any knowledge on when they anticipate the second round to take place? What about the locations of those assignements? Aside from the obvious PC-12 staying at Cannon. Congrats to all!

I found only one question and answer along these lines and it was kind of vague so I was hoping for a little more clarity. I'll be leaving for LR sometime at the end of the year, presumably after survival in November-early December. My question is in regards to taking leave to visit my girlfriend and/or family. -I know the schoolhouse still operates on the weekends, but does this include federal holidays (MLK day, Washington's Bday, Memorial Day, etc)? -What about Christmas and NYE, does training continue in the week between these holidays or is it like UPT where they just give you the entire week off? -And just in general over normal weekends, is it possible to request for a Friday off to allow for a three day weekend or is that pretty much unheard of? My gf has a great job here in Corpus and both agree that we don't want to pull her away from helping her own career out so we're just trying to figure out as best we can how to plan for the holiday season and beyond. any info would be great!

How exactly does this work? I heard that once you download it and mess with your iPhone you cant sync it without it resetting the old format. Maybe I misunderstood, but regardless I'm not technilogically informed enough to understand any ill effects to the phone and/or problems encountered with retailers should I need to take the phone in for some sort of glitch or problem. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Because I've seen a few jailbroken phones that look cool and want to do myself. Anyway, a list of what I like: UTILITY: USAA Red Laser Files Kayak Pilot Wiz AeroWeather Weather Channel FUN/GAMES: USA Today Crossword Shazam Flixster TFLN (Texts From Last Night) Epic Fail Battleship Kaeru Jump Words with Friends FREE (my new favorite)

I dont think so, but I have to ask what was his excuse? I only ask because I didn't see hear a response to that issue. assuming I'm not restating the excuse he gave, I think it was more a product of how the losing team is treating at the end of the game. It's sad to say, but the losing team is pretty much roped off immediately to make way for the quick assembly of the trophy stage and the winning team is usually too amped and excited to calm down enough to do the same. I thought it showed more class that he wore a suit and tie and fielded questions during a post game interview than simply fading away. Can't remember the last time I saw the losing team get any sort of live post-loss attention.

When I was at ASBC, the Chief MSgt of the AF came and spoke to us, and one of the points he touched on was the fitness issue. He said that they asked one (or a few) doctors to assess their PT program and especially the waist measurement. He said the doctors came back with the results saying that there is little to no health difference between a 32-36" waist. And the Chief was very understanding of the arguements many of us have regarding the 32" guy scoring better with a 11 minute 1.5 versus the 38" who may run in 9.5 mins. So that being said, he said they're are planning on changing the scoring so that it is appropriately distributed and awarded. He said by this summer (this was back in April he said this) that the new PT program will have it so that 32-36" waist measurements will be given the exact same point value. I don't recall whether he said that points will decrease from 36.5 to 37 and so on versus groups of points values, i.e. 36.5-38" is worth x points. But regardless it sounds as though they finally are finding a way to clear up the issues with the PT scoring system. Whether that wil be implemented this summer or also in Jan of 2010, I dont know. I'm just glad it's being adressed.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Awesome book about the Chicago's Fair and what it took it make it come to fruition, which is paralleled with the story of the man who was responsible for the serial killings at the same time. It was a #1 bestseller, and I really couldn't put it down.

Is a 'light-hearted everyday joe' something we really need in office right now? I think we can all agree whether we're Republican or Democrat that Bush has said some AMAZINGLY stupid things that very easily merit a palm slap to the forehead in amazement. So thinking that Obama needs to lighten up I think is the last thing we need right now. Obama is probably trying extremely hard to make sure that he and Joe don't make the same mistake of letting some slip of the tongue/bad joke, be a focal point of the administration. Much like it was with the last.

This one's just gross...nicely done with photoshop....but just gross.

I agree with duckhunter. Being a hardcore LSU fan myself, this was a tough game to root for anyone in particular. Ultimately though, my arguement is that the SEC rules and I will argue with anyone any day about this absolute fact that cannot be disproven! I was rooting for Bama on the simple logic that I wanted a third SEC team to make it to the national championship and win. Therefore proving SEC dominance!! Case in point, Big 12 teams have been dominant in the offensive category, but seriously, look at the defenses. Big 12 ranks among the worst, most of which fall under the rank of 70 of 118 teams in D1 ball. Certainly not taking away from the tremendous QB play from the Big 12 guys, but seeing and a dominant big 12 offense against and SEC defense should be a tremendous showdown!

In his defense, the post might indicate that CH was controling such hand-like mechanisms himself since he said he saw them "gently caressing the round objects in a synchronized clockwise and counter clockwise movement." In similar situations when I have used my own hand-like mechanism, I see the same results. I too thought at first that CH was working on Regardless, TSummers, that's some interesting sh*t right there.

I agree with davidg, yea you know what airframe your going to fly by getting accepted into a guard/reserve unit but you still have perform at a certain level to move on to followon training. As far as ruling out AD because of a nursing degree, although I understand where your coming from, that question would probably be best answered by a PAS at some ROTC det around your area. It would seem to me that if you were well qualified for a pilot slot, not on the fence, then the pilot boards wouldn't decline you application simply because you got a nursing degree.

If your trying to go Active Duty, you need to apply to OTS first. Once you get accepted to that, then you go through their little boot camp deal which is when you would throw your name into the hat for UPT selection. This is tough seeing as OTS slots have been cut back drastically in the last couple years, which also means you have to be extremely competitive in your class to make sure you qualify to get one of the few UPT slots awarded to your class. I'm not an OTS guy so you may want to do a little more research on it seeing as I could be a little off on exactly how the process works. If your trying to go to UPT via the Guard or Reserve, then you contact the squadron(s) that you wish to apply to and talk to them about when their next UPT boards are and what kind of information, format, due date, etc that they like to see in their application packets. Also not a Guard/Reserve guy so I may be a little off on this as well but I'm sure there's other people who can clarify anything I may have missed in trying to explain this.

Just got back from an NBA game and thought about this thread when it came to the national anthem. At first, I am glad to report that the announcer not only request that everyone stand up, but also that they remove their hats. Awesome! unfortunately this was tainted by a couple in front and next to me who sat through the entire national anthem only to stand up when the mc of the game told everyone to get on their feet and stay there until the home team scored it's first points, which these two couples had no problem being a part of. I was shocked. I don't think Ive ever seen anyone not stand for the national anthem whether they meant to as some sort of lame claim to beliefs or what but I was extremely dissappointed. I'd like to convince myself that perhaps these people, as mentioned in previous posts, just aren't educated in the respect that should be shown to your nations flag and anthem. However, I find it hard to believe that even the uneducated dont get the hint when 18,000 other fans are showing respect that they shouldn't do the same.

Yea I think that's whats weighing most in my mind. She's an awesome girl and I KNOW she can do the distance thing but it being her senior year and my career will be just starting out, I feel inclined to stay friends and hope the opportunity presents itself to give it another try when the timing is better. Like Kayla said, for lack of a better term, but I just hate the idea of the all this not working out and ultimately wasting each others time when this should be her last year to enjoy college, and time for me to grow into the whole AF life without any outside pressure or drama. I appreciate all the input on this. If there's any more out there I'd still love to hear it.

I appreciate the responses and certainly am aware that only I can truly decide if it's going to work, and as far as a wild weekend goes, I've never cheated in a relationship and plan on keeping that record clean so i'm not too worried about that. As far as the two years comment goes, I based that off of reading some of the threads stating that moving to a UPT town may not be good because the job opportunities are "slim pickings." So keeping that in mind, there's 1)the possiblity of her not moving down while im in UPT which would mean an over two year long distance relationship by the time i graduate 2) her moving down and not being able to find a job which places the stress on me to entertain her while im just starting UPT, or 3) Her moving down here, living off base, and ultimately having it not work out and once again feeling the responsibility for her coming down there in the first place. I guess my biggest fear is having to deal with with this issue at the beginning of UPT. I've read the "doing well at UPT" thread and it seems to be a consensus that one should have all friendship, financial, and relationship issues on lock, scott free, no problems. And personally, the last thing I need during UPT, especially at the start, is a relationship going bad. Also, one final point that might make my situation a little bit more clear is that my current gf isn't the most independent person so I sometimes feel like I have to solve little issues that should really be hers to solve, which, from my perspective, is the opposite of the type of girl I need in my life. I need someone who is independent, can entertain herself, fend for herself because it will ultimately help her survive UPT along side of me. Again I appreciate any input, hope I don't come across as an ass, def not trying to do that. I need to go drink some 's now and relax!

A lot of my questions have been answered except for one specific aspect of my relationship. My gf and I dated for only 3 months before we made it official which was about a week after I graduated and moved away, a decision I had debated to myself for at least a month as to whether or not I even wanted a gf. Regardless I decided to give it a shot and things have been great. The problem is that things have been great for 6 months because I don't even start AD until Nov. She's a great girl whoI know I can trust and would do anything for me, but I'm battling whether or not I should keep going with this long distance relationship especially since she doesn't graduate until at earliest the summer of 09 and doesn't exactly have any idea what she wants to do job/career wise afterwards. Once I start in Nov I've got 4 months of "casual" at Columbus before I start ASBC, which could be really busy given any particular job, then ASBC, followed immediately by IFS, then immediately by UPT. Though she's a great girl, I sometimes feel that not being together physically day-to-day for over a year limits how much we know and understand about each other. This limits how much I'm willing to invest in a girl when I have zero plan on getting married anytime soon plus the idea that the long distance relationship may last close to 2 years given everything I've already read on this thread about phases I & II. There's more to the question that I could probably add but this should be sufficient in explaining my situation. Any advice, tips, suggestions?

Is it possibly because the AF uniforms, compared to the Army, Marines, and some Navy, are considerably less attractive? Don't get me wrong, I'm as proud as can be to wear the uniform both serving and representing our country but even I see that our uniform are considerably less attractive and hard to get motvated wearing a business suit with fake pockets and dull silver buttons next to a marine officers black with shiny gold buttons and a white wheel cap etc looking like he's ready to . Hell, even my parents at my commissioning made the same observation after the ceremonies. I would love to see our uniforms have some sort of representation of which squadron you are in much like you see on the Army and Marine uniforms. Who knows, just my 2 cents.

I went to Field Training with Lt. Littler....I can't believe I've already lost a friend so soon. I guess I can second what I've seen written on here before, don't loose track of your friends, you never know when it'll end. He was a great cadet and I'm sure an even better officer. He was funny, extremely motivated, and an all around top notch man. God bless him and his family, I can't even begin to imagine.

Appreciate the updates on all this. I think i'm going to call ahead a couple months just to see what the situation is or projected to be so I can plan accordingly. Unfortunately being a 5th year in school, I don't know nearly as many people commissioning with me let alone going CBM for UPT so finding any number of roommates to live of base will probably be tough.

Now that you've lived there for a while, is/are there any advantages/disadvanted to living either on or off base? I was planning on calling Columbus housing simetime this summer and talking to them about this and maybe planning a trip up there since I have friends in the surrounding area. I'm just trying to get as much info from someone whose living there now so I know what to expect when I do talk to housing.

So the last replies are almost 3 years old and was wondering if anyone had an update for this thread, at least for Columbus AFB? I EAD on Nov 22 and and dont start UPT until Jul 09, and I'm trying to figure out if as a single 2d Lt, will be able to live off base when I report in and/or during UPT or should I just expect to live on base through it all??

This may be a trivial question, but I've flown Cessna's before and had no problem, especially since I sat in the left seat. However I'm left handed and have lots of anxiety about how I'll perform using a right handed stick (and thats through all phases, IFS, UPT etc.). Is there any insight out there that may help alleviate the stress of this, especially if there are any lefties who have been through or are curently going through UPT? Thanks for any help on this!