Bergman

Ok..you can't just throw THAT out there and not elaborate! I spent a few years during my misspent youth working on a B-25 in Burlington, WI, so would enjoy hearing what it takes to get to fly one (besides a sh1t-ton of cash...aka the commemorative air force). How does it fly?!

With all do respect to my true Nav brethern, good on ya for wanting to go EWO. While the true navs are being whittled down, the EWO's role seems to be ever-expanding. Many moons ago when I was in EWO school, my "dream sheet" looked something like: F-15E, B-1, B-52, RC-135, MC-130, AC-130 in that order. There were no strike Navs slots (VT-86) and no B-52 EWO slots either, so I ended up getting RC-135 EWO along with the other 8 guys in my class. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth initially, I can now look back 8 years later and say that it was the best possible route of the EWO (non-strike track) platforms. Good TDYs but not completely insane TDY rate, good permanent duty station (Offutt), very interesting and important mission (ISR is where it's at these days!), good promotion potential, and a lot of different career paths available after your initial ops tour (AIA, nav school instructor, NSA, NAIC, etc) - many more opportunities, IMHO, than a B-52 EWO. Bottom line...just know that the RC community is a good place to end up; don't be alarmed by the lack of credible info out there, as the community is still suffering from a lot of mis-information passed during the friggin' cold war. Beyond that info, try a search on this forum. We've had quite a few lengthy discussions about the nuts-and-bolts of the RC-135 community.

While I am not qualified to add a whole lot here...I just wanted to point out that if the guy is A) a WSO, B) a Lt Col, and C) a Squadron Commander...he has obviously done something right and most likely has his sh1t together. Hard to imagine, I know.

"Crew, we're pushing it up past max endurance...past max range...we're going straight to MORALE SPEED". .9 Mach in the -135!

The mighty KC-135E burns around 12,000/hr average. IIRC, you're looking at about 9-10,000/hr for the R-model. Oh yeah, and the R has 38% more available thrust (88,000 vs 64,000) and more reliable engines. Damn. [ 07. November 2005, 22:48: Message edited by: Bergman ]

The same can be said about the -135. Keep the thing in trim or you'll be fighting it all day...(or just take the low road and engage the autpilot). Flaps, power, pitch, roll!

Most of the time guys end up getting out of AD to go to UPT with the guard. It could probably be done, but your chances of being selected for UPT are much greater in the ANG...especially if you are already a navigator in the unit! As far as I know, there is NO crossflow for any officers from the ANG to AD right now. A year ago they were letting C-17, MH-53, and U-2 qualified pilots back on to AD but that has since stopped as well. The problem lies with AFPC (go figure). They just say "we're over-manned with officers!!!" and don't differentiate between the AFSCs...so even though they are, say, 70% manned on navs but are 110% manned on officers in general, the deciding factor is still being an officer not AFSC. Thus, the USAF is screwing themselves. Again.

This is very true! Do not underestimate the hassle associated with having a "real" civilian job (read: non-airline) and flying for the ANG. It can be done, but there will be some hardships. Those are the exact reasons I have encouraged many young Lts to stay on AD versus going after the greener grass on our side of the fence. Now for the bad news. The active duty is overmanned on officers right now, so your chances are about 0% of going to active duty. I was recently told by a guy at AFPC assignments that AD is 104% manned for pilots right now. Check out the general discussion forum topic on the "LT RIF" for the 02-03 year groups...the AD is going to be forcing people out soon! I suspect that when AD is short of pilots in another 2-3 years, they will be offering a crossflow program, but for now it's not looking good.

Kind of like flying the TOne in UPT...left seat on the way out to lunch, right seat on the way back. The only thing that changes is which side of the center line you land on.

Best one I've ever been a part of was punking our incoming squadron commander. During the change of command ceremony, a bunch of us stayed behind and completely emptied his office (including bare walls, no blinds, etc)...save a folding card table, a big orange Gatorade jug for a chair, and an old rotary dial phone. Picture "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". This was about a 15'x15' room. He comes back to the squadron with his parents, wife, and kid in tow beaming like a school kid while giving them a tour of "his" new building. Imagine his surprise when he opens his prized office to find...nothing. About a year later we filled the same guy's office with packing peanuts to a depth of about 5'. He took both jokes in stride and we all had a good laugh.

Carnac: "What is....we're going to invade Iraq?" Ed McMahon: "You are correct sir! ha ha ha"

Rumsfeld gets pissed after the General claims "Mine is THIS big".

I can neither confirm nor deny that on my inital area solo, after my 7th consecutive aileron roll, I looked down an saw 320 KIAS and just a wee bit nose low. Seemed to fly just fine at that speed. :D Better lucky than good!

Is that a bad thing? ISR is where it's at these days. Lots of opportunities both at Offutt and elsewhere in the intel community (Pentagon, NSA, NRO, AIA, etc). Always VERY good promotion rates for all flyers up to Lt Col. Robes and BigIron covered quite a few of the bigger attractions. My wife and I did plenty of camping and boating while there. Many good restaurants and bars. Plus, and I can't believe Scooter left this out, the BOATs in Iowa. Gotta love craps and blackjack. he he. Always good to come back from a long TDY and get a suite at the AmeriStar. ;D Brother Sebastian's (126th and Pacific...just down from Fred's Pizze) is the best restaurant in town, IMHO.

As was mentioned in the General Discussion forum, try a search for "RC-135". A ton of great info has been passed around in the last year or two. The short answer is...GREAT assignment. If I had been active duty in T-1s, an RC-135 would have been one of my top 3 choices. Good base, community, squadrons, and mission. The only real drawbacks are that Omaha is pretty far from anywhere ("the heartland" ha!) and it snows there...although not really that much. My wife and I both enjoyed our 5 years there. As the twist on the old saying goes, "It's a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there." More going on than you'd think. Fire away with any specific questions.

YGBSM! I just typed "AF biographies" into Google and it returned the link M3 posted in .25 seconds; it was the first site. You need to fix your cranial rectal inversion.

Damn, you guys suck! :D

Nice post, MDINC. It should be added to the selection process FAQ! To answer your question about AMS...roughly 20% of each AMS class are AFRC folks. A very small number of those are going to rated career fields, as it seems to be unwritten policy that AFRC pilots and navs go to OTS unless there is an unusual circumstance.

Login...you need to go back and read his post! He explained in pretty good detail why his family can't move to SA. WX...you're right about the $500/mo to live. Step 1 will be finding a roommate. Back when I was there for UNT (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) rent was ~$600/mo for a 2 bedroom place, plus utils. So you might get under $500. You will also start getting flight pay once you get there...$125 a month isn't a lot, but it all helps. You can try to meet with the dorm manager and sweet talk them into a dorm...but you will run the risk of getting them to say "OK" and 2 months later discovering that finance found out about it and started nixing your BAH, which I assume would be much more of a financial hardship that the $500/mo for an apartment. You don't want to deal with that aggrivation while in training - because it would most likely end up with you having to move. There is the off chance you could get a waiver to live on base AND get BAH...which I guess is your original question. You don't know until you ask! Wish I could be more help there.

Sad, but entertaining, stories gents! I have another I will throw in the mix... So there I was...the SRO for my UPT class at XL. Lounging at my base house around 1700 hours on a Saturday, I get a call from one of the 2Lts in my class. LT: "This is Matt" ME: "Hey dude..what's going on?" LT: "Ummm...I'm kind of having a problem" ME: "Ooooo...kay...???? [WTF?!]" LT: "Jerome and I are...kinda...in...jail" ME: "WTF!?!!!" It turns out, after much discussion, that they were "detained" by the wonderful XL SF robots while riding their motorcycles back from the RC airplane area (on the NE side of the runway, near where parasailing is done). The gate was open, folks were flying airplanes, and it's broad daylight on a Saturday. Apparently, the SF clowns saw them coming out the gate that was posted with a sign "No entrance", and pulled them over. The two LTs explained to the SrA that they were coming back from the RC airplane area, but the guy said, "You were exiting a restricted area!" They pointed out that there were 5-8 other vehicles in the area, and the cop's tune quickly turned to, "I saw you DRAG RACING across the flight line...at speeds in excess of 100 MPH. THAT is why I stopped you." No radar. No other evidence. So he hauls them in to the SF shack and puts them in separate rooms where they are grilled by some NCO for 4 hours before they are allowed to call someone (ME). The SF guys wouldn't release them to me for custody, despite my valiant attempts, so the day ended with me contacting the 84 FTS/DO around 6pm on his cell phone. He is 100 miles away in his deer hunting stand! He gets down, rides his 4 wheeler back to his truck, and drives in...still in camouflage, to get these guys released. WTF! The SQ/CC ended up confronting the SF/CC about the incident and nothing ever happened (remember the part of no proof?) Our Sq/CC did have a little fun with the 2Lts..had them come in wearing service dress, report in, and all that. They were scared shitless. He just laughed and told them "Don't worry about it". All of this was pre-solo in tweets, so they were off to a good start! Just remember...you can't spell STUPID without S.P. [ 17. September 2005, 12:08: Message edited by: Bergman ]

Yes, it's somewhat different. Something like 3 pay periods in 2 days. I've never sat alert in the tanker/ANG, so don't have very good info. I believe Scooter, KIPP, and some others have BTDT and can speak with some authority. That's because they are putting him "on orders" [for alert, just to fly, or whatever]. If you are on orders, you will get mileage (anyone else see the rate hike to 48.5 cents/mile?!) and per diem. For just a regular part-timer commuting on drill weekend (or making up drills), you will NOT get those benefits. Thus, it's advantageous to be put on orders.

Correct No BAH on drills or FTPS, just base rate plus 1/30th flight pay. This may vary by unit, but in general I would say NO, as you are within the commuting distance. I believe it's 50 miles or greater to get expenses (read: unit pays for hotel stay; not mileage/per diem). You are probably getting half the story. Is your friend pulling alerts? That gets you into an entirely different pay discussion. He could be making that much a month by catching up on drills...i.e. hasn't been to the base in 2 months then works 21 days straight at 2 pay per day. More than likely, he is burning his normal drills and FTPS (8 pay periods per month) plus pulling some man-days (esentially AD days..1/30th of your active duty pay, with BAH) to get to that monthly number. That's my best shot. The ANG pay system can best be described as "a riddle within a mystery wrapped in an enigma". If/when you ever figure it out completely, please let the rest of us know!

Perhaps I'm a bit behind the times...but just got this emailed today. Thought it summed up the current USAFE attitude...

Is skydiving worth a potentially disqualifying injury while in UPT? It would really suck to finally get to UPT, break an ankle jumping on the weekend, and wash back/out because of it. The leadership at your UPT base will probably hassle you about this as well (beyond just filling out the forms) - much like the motorcycle rider witch hunts. Keep your priorities straight. UPT is a year. You can jump out of airplanes after that.

Does the AF stock/use the .22 converter for the M-16? Years ago I was able to go to an Army Guard unit and spend an entire day with my buds going through .22 ammo like Sherman through Georgia. Good times if you can talk them into using their weapons and range.