Step Son Joining Air Force, Advice?
- Thread starter Famm
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TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Crew Chief in the Air Force. Or in the Army or any of the services working on the flight line is one of the jobs that appears more glamorous. But is generally a shitty ass job. Like Eidal says, you're a flight warrant, pilot officer or you're a servicing peasant.
If he wants to do maintenance jobs that guarantee GOOD work outside of the military. Get the MOS for things like medical equipment or security equipment repair. Those certs are worth damn good money outside. These positions also don't have the overworking hustle and bustle of the motor pool or flight line kind of maintenance work generally speaking.
Medical equipment repair guys get certs to repair shit like MRI/X-Ray/etc and the Security Equipment repair guys do shit like security camera systems/intelligence equipment/etc. Both of which skills hospitals or places like Vegas casinos recruit for.
If he wants to do maintenance jobs that guarantee GOOD work outside of the military. Get the MOS for things like medical equipment or security equipment repair. Those certs are worth damn good money outside. These positions also don't have the overworking hustle and bustle of the motor pool or flight line kind of maintenance work generally speaking.
Medical equipment repair guys get certs to repair shit like MRI/X-Ray/etc and the Security Equipment repair guys do shit like security camera systems/intelligence equipment/etc. Both of which skills hospitals or places like Vegas casinos recruit for.
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Sulrn
Deuces
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I know two 68A's that have been trying to find work for two years now and eventually broke down and renlisted. Anecdotal, but civilian medical is all sorts of fucked if they can't find a job. Both of them are some of the hardest working NCO'S I've ever met.
I can't fathom anyone ever thinking flight mechanics as glorious work (working in the heat/cold, fumes, noise, hours, stress, etc), but the notion of not looking into it because they treat the pilots better than the ground crew is silly if he's interested in it. I'm fairly certain working on larger airframes transfers fairly well to civilian side.
If you're talking rotary, I can't speak for the other services but I've never met a helo crew chief that didn't love his job/airframe.
I can't fathom anyone ever thinking flight mechanics as glorious work (working in the heat/cold, fumes, noise, hours, stress, etc), but the notion of not looking into it because they treat the pilots better than the ground crew is silly if he's interested in it. I'm fairly certain working on larger airframes transfers fairly well to civilian side.
If you're talking rotary, I can't speak for the other services but I've never met a helo crew chief that didn't love his job/airframe.
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Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I don't know their exact job in the military but I run into people quite often doing instrumentation related stuff that were military. I'm going to guess it was some sort of electrician type background. I dunno, it pays pretty well. All the stuff in industry, factories, etc..all have instrumentation specialist. The ones I run into do a lot of sitting around and then if something happens they work. Get paid well.
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Famm
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Guess I talked him out of the flightline maintenance shit, he dropped that with recruiter yesterday, kept sensor operator and other intel stuff and added some more techy shit to the list, I forget which. Said to just sign him up as soon as they have an opening on the list since he got the impression he could wait the full year of this delayed enlistment and still not see a sens op job and he just wants to get this thing moving at this point.
Talked to him about the realities of basic like people suggested which of course he thinks he's going to be able to hack it. Hopefully he's as serious as he seems about getting through and making something of this. Expecting he might get flown out as soon as the end of this month.
Talked to him about the realities of basic like people suggested which of course he thinks he's going to be able to hack it. Hopefully he's as serious as he seems about getting through and making something of this. Expecting he might get flown out as soon as the end of this month.
Kiroy
Marine Biologist
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Cool - hopefully he gets sensor operator. Basic won't be bad, navy basic was easy (even back in 99) and from the convos I've had with the young AF dudes I worked with their basic was a cakewalk. Just gotta keep your mouth shut and do what your told. And don't fuck up folding those shirts or making that bed, or everyone pays the piper and hates you.
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Brikker
Trump's Staff
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Flightline/aircraft maintenance jobs: Good that he shied away in the end. Flightline is an unforgiving, shitty place to work. I work with a lot of maintainers, it's one of the shittier jobs in the AF (security forces being the other).
Sensor Operator is a solid AFSC. Drones are obviously the future of flight so there's a good future there for those working with them. They also just started training enlisted to become pilots for non-weaponized drone platforms, so even more options if he sticks it out.
Basic training is a cakewalk, as was said. Don't talk back, don't cop an attitude, do what you're told, and do it quickly. Follow those and you'll breeze through, pending any physical performance issues. I only went through BMT in November 2011 - Jan 2012; since then, it's been changed a good bit in the "hardship" department due to all the sexual assault scandals with the military training instructors (MTI). MTI used to be a volunteer special duty job, now they pick people to do it (most of which do not want to do it). It's more lax then it was even when I did it 4.5 years ago. I was just down at Lackland AFB (where BMT is) in April for some training. All the basic trainees have a lot more freedom in their off time, can go to the little food-court style area, etc. Kinda funny. Majority of them also live in very large, new, quite nice facilities (built after I went through). Everything is centralized in the big buildings; housing, food, classrooms, etc.
Sensor Operator is a solid AFSC. Drones are obviously the future of flight so there's a good future there for those working with them. They also just started training enlisted to become pilots for non-weaponized drone platforms, so even more options if he sticks it out.
Basic training is a cakewalk, as was said. Don't talk back, don't cop an attitude, do what you're told, and do it quickly. Follow those and you'll breeze through, pending any physical performance issues. I only went through BMT in November 2011 - Jan 2012; since then, it's been changed a good bit in the "hardship" department due to all the sexual assault scandals with the military training instructors (MTI). MTI used to be a volunteer special duty job, now they pick people to do it (most of which do not want to do it). It's more lax then it was even when I did it 4.5 years ago. I was just down at Lackland AFB (where BMT is) in April for some training. All the basic trainees have a lot more freedom in their off time, can go to the little food-court style area, etc. Kinda funny. Majority of them also live in very large, new, quite nice facilities (built after I went through). Everything is centralized in the big buildings; housing, food, classrooms, etc.
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Eidal
Molten Core Raider
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Haha, as a Marine I read this and my jaw dropped a little bit. It's fascinating to me how easy it can be to categorize people as "civilian", "servicemember", and "veteran" yet the disparity in experience is so vast.
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TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Seems AF basic is more like the later stages of Army AIT. I spent nearly 2 years in damn AIT. I always thought Basic as being a joke though. If you were somewhat athletic (high school athlete or something) then the PT was very easy.
I was never the keep your head down and avoid everything type of person in the Army. Seriously, volunteer for shit. Sometimes it sucks, other times its badass. Gets leadership to like you and ultimately rewards you in the end. The dudes who chronically avoided ANY possibility of doing shit they don't want to do get noticed for the wrong reasons. Leadership will eventually shit on you for it. Give you shit duties, bar you from promotion, etc.
I had zero problem calling people out for idiocy even if they outranked me. Especially in country. Sometimes they fuck with you, other times they respect it.
I was never the keep your head down and avoid everything type of person in the Army. Seriously, volunteer for shit. Sometimes it sucks, other times its badass. Gets leadership to like you and ultimately rewards you in the end. The dudes who chronically avoided ANY possibility of doing shit they don't want to do get noticed for the wrong reasons. Leadership will eventually shit on you for it. Give you shit duties, bar you from promotion, etc.
I had zero problem calling people out for idiocy even if they outranked me. Especially in country. Sometimes they fuck with you, other times they respect it.
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Brikker
Trump's Staff
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AF promotes differently than the other services so you wouldn't have to worry about that.
And yeah, AF basic is kinda a joke. Though, the changes are more recent. When I went through 4.5 years ago, all I got to see were the insides of our dorm or, if I opted to, a church on sundays, during my free time (free time being like, the hour before lights out at night and the sunday when the MTI didn't come into work).
And yeah, AF basic is kinda a joke. Though, the changes are more recent. When I went through 4.5 years ago, all I got to see were the insides of our dorm or, if I opted to, a church on sundays, during my free time (free time being like, the hour before lights out at night and the sunday when the MTI didn't come into work).
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ToeMissile
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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I went through AF basic in May/June of '02. Was still 6 weeks then, and more of a pain in the ass than hard. As far as I know they don't make you fold clothes anymore, they're rolled up.
Basic is just to make sure you want to be there, can follow directions, and have a chance at not being a complete fuck up. Of course those guys still make it through sometimes.
Basic is just to make sure you want to be there, can follow directions, and have a chance at not being a complete fuck up. Of course those guys still make it through sometimes.
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Having gone through BMT Sep-Nov 2011, I can vouch for this. 100% spot on.
Only thing I can think to add is make sure your kid is in some sort of "shape". I was shocked how many trainees were struggling with PT. Come to find out many of them didn't even do any sort of training/preparation before shipping out. Their thinking was "well they will get me in shape". Problem was they had no base to build on and on top of all the other shut up and color bullshit, they weren't able to keep up.
We had 2 kids wash back due to PT failures in the last week (they eventually graduated, one only needed another week and the other was there for another two I think). We had many more that were barely passing.
Air Force PT is stupid but serious business. Make sure your kids push ups/sit ups/1.5 mile run is decent. Some recruiters will run PT sessions with the kids waiting to ship out to help prepare. Some do not.
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Kiroy
Marine Biologist
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wtf you get to roll up your cloths? God damn my division had to do so many pushups cause fucktards couldn't figure out how to fold their shit correctly.
Also, like brikker said, always opt to go to church. Chaplains are nice as fuck and use to let us get away with sleeping through service.
Famm
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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So he's a little over halfway through basic now, passed the halfway physical testing shit apparently, so I guess he's gonna make it.
I wanted to say thanks to anyone who responded in the thread or PM's with info. From what I've heard I think this is setting him straight in a few ways, so I'm glad he's doing it.
He's going into 1c711, which is airfield management. Any input on that job? I'd given up trying to steer him, he was all over the place, at one point he wanted to be an MP and go for K9 training, which I just didn't see him as a cop type personality, but at this point I'm fine with him just getting through basic and getting on with his life.
I wanted to say thanks to anyone who responded in the thread or PM's with info. From what I've heard I think this is setting him straight in a few ways, so I'm glad he's doing it.
He's going into 1c711, which is airfield management. Any input on that job? I'd given up trying to steer him, he was all over the place, at one point he wanted to be an MP and go for K9 training, which I just didn't see him as a cop type personality, but at this point I'm fine with him just getting through basic and getting on with his life.
Chanur
Shit Posting Professional
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I strongly encourage him to at least do 20 years. I am prior military so I have a lot of prior military friends. I didn't stay in long enough for a pension but a lot of them have retirements and nice jobs in private industry as well. Being set for life at 40 is a great thing.
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Eidal
Molten Core Raider
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Especially in today's climate with the uncertainty regarding health care costs. Military healthcare isn't the best in the world, but it isn't bad, either.
My wife is active duty -- I had a hernia surgery a few years back. Scheduled an appt, had a NP check the "bump", got scheduled for a sonogram (or something like that) a few days later. Confirmed. Met with two surgeons who provided recommendation to get surgery. Agreed. Surgery scheduled a week later. Whole process took about two weeks and paid zero for it. I literally have no idea what civilian healthcare looks like but I'm going to guess a lot of them end up paying out of pocket even for a routine surgery.
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Being able to make it to 20 is awesome but everyone's service is going to be different. It's hard for me to tell the flightline folks working 5-6 12s a week "yeah dude you should definitely do this for another 20 years, your family will still be there....."
Then there is the cycle every branch goes through of "good times and morale is super high" do "welcome to the hunger games where we have to force shape and we are cutting everyone"
Some bases are much easier on life than others (hi to you Minot).
There is nothing wrong with doing one term, getting your benefits, and bouncing. I suggest taking it one enlistment at a time and always keeping an eye out for opportunities.
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