Active duty

I'll have to ask as Maholic doesn't ring a bell?

I guess he's referring to Firebase Maholic in Kandahar province. ;)

Well I suppose I should have asked that in a PM. Prior to 2006-ish it was just called Gecko.

Yes 2001.

Ah I'm a Iraq guy actually haven't been to Afghanistan surprisingly. I was in 1/75 back in early 2000's

Roger. I've been coming here since 2008. Took this in 2011...

Roger. I've been coming here since 2008. Took this in 2011...

 

:thumbup: I am glad I only did one tour in Afghanistan, but did 3 in Iraq and a few some other places. Before 2001 our rotations down to Central and South America were a bit more enjoyable.

Ya same can be said about Europe in the past and now currently.

Former Danish Navy...

Croatian navy, almost 25 years ago. :D

Active USAF Aerospace Propulsion (engine troop)

2002-2006 @ Ramstein

2006-2010 @ Pope

2010-Current @ Fairchild

Got an assignment to go back to Germany next year, this time to Spangdahlem.

Active service since 1988, Danish Army.

This will be my last year as active though, the deployments have put to much stress on the family.

Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1986. Leaving this year for pastures new.

Active service since 1998, Spanish Army.

Deployed in Bosnia twice (2000 and 2002), Macedonia and kosovo (2005)....

Great country Croatia, grunf.

Enviado desde mi iPhone con Tapatalk

Pope?

At Seymour for another couple weeks.

You may not see the point (and I may agree to an extent), but that's how it works and having a degree increases your pay, responsibility, and opens up options that would otherwise be closed to you (pilot being just a singular example.)

 

I didn't see the point in a degree either before I went in, got a good paying job, etc. (you may gather I joined quite late), and later fully regretted that decision. It's something that at age 18 may be hard to carefully consider, but an attempt needs to be made regardless. I thought I was going to be career USMC, but after 4 years of not seeing each other (ex-wife was Navy) we decided it'd be nice to see each other for more than a week at a time and got out. My Crohn's disease was also coming out of remmission as well and had I stayed there's a strong chance I would have ended up as a medical separation. Things change, even with the best of intentions and planning, as someone already said.

 

There are certainly jobs, and good jobs at that, that don't require a degree. And even some that say they do don't really (I held a couple IT jobs that supposedly required a degree before I had one).

 

And there are programs in the military that will pay for you to go to college so hoping to take advantage of one of those is potentially realistic. There are programs like MECEP when I was in. And at the them the Navy was looking to send people with some college to finish in order to commission them in the nurse corps. I nearly applied for that one after some proding as medicine is something of interest.

 

And I certainly don't advocate racking up huge amounts of debt without a plan to pay it off. Even before I had the G.I. Bill I managed to pay as I went with internship jobs, part time work, and applying for scholarships, though I admit that gets harder to do by the day with rising tuitions and both a stagnant job market and salaries.

 

I hardly think that's a decision to be fluffed off lightly though. If (s)he wants it later it's going to be all the much harder even with the government paying. Put it this way, do you think they offer such an incentive because most people who serve successfully take advantage of it?

I enlisted in the Army at 17 in 1989 and retired last year. I spent all my time in the infantry and then special operations. I also had a 4 year break in service. I finished school and flew for my first airline then. I'm now flying for my second airline.

On average, even in the infantry, over half the soldiers had degrees. There are pro's and cons to being an officer and it really depends on what it is you want to do in the military. On the combat arms side being an officer can suck. You'll get your line experience as a young LT and maybe as a company commander. After that it's staff duty and boring as hell. You can't just give a blanket statement for all branches and jobs and say go in as an officer because in the end, it really does matter, what it is you're looking to do, in the military.

As far as people using the GI Bill, people not using it to go to school is more of the exception. I've rarely seen people not use it.

I've been enlisted for nearly 10 years and got tired of only talking to the jets and wanted to fly them. I drained my Tuition Assistance for 2 consecutive Fiscal Years and took a lot of CLEPs and DSSTs to finish my associate's and bachelor's in just over a year. Pell Grant helped with the few classes that were more than my TA could cover.

Shortly after completing my degree and earning my PPL with an Instrument Rating, I applied for commissioning. I rolled the dice and applied "pilot-only", but fortunately they thought I had what it takes and accepted me into training. I start Officer Training School on 7 July and report directly to pilot training in September.

There are pros and cons to prior-enlisted Os and out-of-college Os. I've seen really good leaders out of both pools and, conversely, I've seen really poor examples of prior-enlisted Os that were bad NCOs to begin with. You can't really paint with such a broad brush.

Congrats. Any idea what you will select as your first 10 choices for aircraft? Not sure how they pick what you fly.

Congrats. Any idea what you will select as your first 10 choices for aircraft? Not sure how they pick what you fly.

Midway through UPT it splits into two separate tracks: T-1 (tanker/transport) or T-38 (fighter/bomber). With T-1s you're stuck with tanker/transport, but with 38s the entire fleet is open.

Track selection as well as aircraft assignment is based off of needs of the AF and preference. You can have more preference based on your performance. So, the #1 guy/gal will have top preference, but ultimately, it is dependent on Big Blue's requirement.

If I end up tracking 38s, A-10 is my #1, then F-22, T-38 Agressor, F-15C, F-35, F-16, F-15E, B-1

If I track Tones: C-17 is #1, then AC-130 and whatever else as long it's manned.

Shipping out to Air Force BMT on April 25th. 1A231!

Shipping out to Air Force BMT on April 25th. 1A231!

Congrats dude, if you go C-5 maybe we'll meet someday. I'm a civilian DOD guy and I've worked with a few C-5 crews moving things from Buckley to CCAFS or Vandenberg.

Shipping out to Air Force BMT on April 25th. 1A231!

Good luck, let us know where do you go for "Fundies" (basic mechanic course) It used to be at Sheppard AFB in Wichita falls Texas, 362nd TS.