Pilot Life and raising a family

[ThreeHoler]

That's because, in real life, "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." ~ Mike Tyson

Tyson ripped off Joe Louis: "Everyone has a plan until they get hit." What he really said: "Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze."

[Guest LumberjackAxe]

Well that escalated quickly. I think the best piece of advice from this thread is spend your 20's as a single pilot and don't get married till your 30. A lot of the older folks in my squadron say the same thing.

[joe1234]

Get married when you want. Divorce when you want. Just sign a prenup, and it's a get out of jail (almost) free card. But definitely don't have any kids until after 30, because then it gets messy.

[FallingOsh]

Well that escalated quickly. I think the best piece of advice from this thread is spend your 20's as a single pilot and don't get married till your 30. A lot of the older folks in my squadron say the same thing.

Meh. I have a wife of 7 years with a kid on the way and I'm not 30. We make it work and enjoy the adventures. As for "normal life," you can pretty much take that and throw it out the window. As long as I'm not dead when I turn 35, things will be fine.

[HercDude]

As long as I'm not dead when I turn 35, things will be fine.

Really? What is a prostitute bites your dick off?

http://ktla.com/2013/04/21/prostitute-bites-off-mans-penis-charged-with-attempted-murder/#axzz2VkLRc039

You'll be fine?

[FL001]

I don't know any 30 year old bachelors that aren't flakes.

Ridiculous. Let me introduce you to one: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128786907

Job devotion and competence has nothing to do with marital status.

I know many, many flakes, married and single, of all ages, and have witnessed equal levels of flakiness among all martial stati. We all know the dudes that show up late, leave early, avoid any kind of difficult missions or deployments because of some scheduled family situation. Others in this thread have said as much.

[FallingOsh]

Really? What is a prostitute bites your dick off?

http://ktla.com/2013.../#axzz2VkLRc039

You'll be fine?

Edited June 9, 2013 by FallingOsh

[Duff_Man]

Kid, here's the bottom line, prison rules don't apply here. If you come in guns ablazin' you won't earn everyone's respect because they think 'whoa I can't push this kid around,' you'll piss them off because they'll think that instead of listening, you're going to spend a bunch of time defending your bruised ego, which they don't give a ###### about (frankly, no one does). Whatever the case may be, they've been there, done that, you haven't, and they're speaking from experience that far exceeds any scope of your life. Anything you say that's not just a humble affirmation that you received the message is a painful waste of time. You were wrong or screwed up, admit it, you're human and made a mistake. Mistakes can be forgiven, just learn quickly and move on, no one cares about why you made the mistake because those are just excuses. But being able to quickly understand your mistakes, learn from them, and not repeat them is a skill. If they do care, they'll ask. Some guys are going to be sarcastic dicks. That's called humor. If you're insecure or have a fragile ego, it'll get to you. If you get pissed off when someone rips on you instead of thinking its funny and joking back then that's a dead giveaway that you have an ego/insecurity/attitude problem, which is like blood in the water around guys who are professional military flight crew. If you want to have a back-and-forth about your feelings and why you did what you did, get a girlfriend. Then you can spend hours discussing a subtle non-verbal expression so she'll stop being pissed off and start putting out again. If you want to be a decent officer candidate, then do the opposite! Just shut up, listen, realize you'll screw up, and learn when you do.

If you're concerned about your future family security potential, then just get out of the way because there are a thousand guys just as qualified as you (if not more) who have the same goal. The amount the military cares about you is money-spent-on-training*applicable-experience*current-manning-needs/ incompetence-of-AFPC. So for you it's probably something close to 0*0*10^(-10)/(big number).

Also, nobody on here cares about you or your specific tailored needs. They want to provide information to the entire community, so keep your questions general as opposed to telling us about your personal nuclear family dreams and your feelings and other fuzzy stuff. There has been some good info on this thread and I think you asked a good question, but the way you dealt with it showed that you have a lot of growing to do if you're going to succeed as an officer.

[pcola]

Kid, here's the bottom line, prison rules don't apply here. If you come in guns ablazin' you won't earn everyone's respect because they think 'whoa I can't push this kid around,' you'll piss them off because they'll think that instead of listening, you're going to spend a bunch of time defending your bruised ego, which they don't give a ###### about (frankly, no one does). Whatever the case may be, they've been there, done that, you haven't, and they're speaking from experience that far exceeds any scope of your life. Anything you say that's not just a humble affirmation that you received the message is a painful waste of time. You were wrong or screwed up, admit it, you're human and made a mistake. Mistakes can be forgiven, just learn quickly and move on, no one cares about why you made the mistake because those are just excuses. But being able to quickly understand your mistakes, learn from them, and not repeat them is a skill. If they do care, they'll ask. Some guys are going to be sarcastic dicks. That's called humor. If you're insecure or have a fragile ego, it'll get to you. If you get pissed off when someone rips on you instead of thinking its funny and joking back then that's a dead giveaway that you have an ego/insecurity/attitude problem, which is like blood in the water around guys who are professional military flight crew. If you want to have a back-and-forth about your feelings and why you did what you did, get a girlfriend. Then you can spend hours discussing a subtle non-verbal expression so she'll stop being pissed off and start putting out again. If you want to be a decent officer candidate, then do the opposite! Just shut up, listen, realize you'll screw up, and learn when you do..

I could give two shits about the OP, but as far as general advice goes, this is gold and should be mandatory reading for all newbs.

but the way you dealt with it showed that you have a lot of growing to do if you're going to succeed as an officer.

Not true. All you have to do to succeed as an officer is to spend your allotted TA at Box Check U in a timely fashion!