Forum: Future F-16 crew

Since im on the same path as many wish to follow here, in my short enlisted active duty USAF career Ive decided to offer some tips and information that ive found since making the decision to serve my country last year. Before I start, do understand that no matter which direction you choose, the foundation of any effective career in any military branch is the desire to serve your country. Period. If youre joining for the adventure, status, or insurance discount you will have a long and harsh enlistment term regardless of whether youre flying a Viper, a BUFF, or a desk.
With that out of the way *sigh*, lets get to the business at hand.
Before you decide which comissioning source is right for your circumstances, keep in mind what the general status of the Air Force is before you sign on the dotted line. With the exception of OTS, AFROTC and the USAFA have typical training timelines of 4 or so years. They also generate the most pilots for the Air Force. This is no accident, as the military spend a great deal of money on training its troops. It costed the Air Force about $50,000 to train me from the street to the cubicle at my duty station.That is an example of an average ground enlisted airman , which is a fraction of the cost of specialized flight training that pilots and aircrew experience.

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So, as you can imagine, the Air Force values its people immensely. Im not implying that the only criterion is money , but you must understand that like the average joe the military does not have infinite funds, and must economize like any other organization or person with finite funding( radical press articles notwithstanding). As such, the number of slots go first to the most expensive and intensive training process, the USAFA, and then to ROTC, and then to OTS.

With that understanding, the reason you must keep the status of the Air Force as a whole in mind is because, like the civilian economy, the military has periods of 'booms' and 'busts'.And the military makes decisions based on its personell and mission needs, not the exclusive desires of its members. After the events of 2001 and OIF in 2003 , the Air Force needed pilots. Today, 7 years later, with Iraq beginning to wind down and our current administration cutting aircraft and defense spending,that's not the case anymore. The Air Force today is above strength in general, and is not in dire need of aircrews like it was. While this makes things hard if you want to join with a less than stellar record, it makes matters harder for those in training pipelines right now. Say in 2006 you comitted to serving your country and joined an ROTC detachment.

Last edited by silversmok3 on Oct 31, 2010 - 08:05 PM; edited 1 time in total

You bust your hump and become a fine trainee in your detachment.In between the date you signed the commitment paperwork in '06 and your graduation date in '10, the world changed around you. Now , 4 years after you joined, the Air Force is now overstaffed with officers. Due to needing to meet congessional personell limits, you now are informed by your commander that the Air Force has withheld comissions on thousands of officer candidates, and yours is one of them.
The above didnt happen to me personally, but it did happen to an airman in my tech school. He was about to graduate the detatchment with a pipeline slot to UPT , when he was informed that he was being separated from the detachment due to the Air Force being overstaffed, effectively. After 4 years of hard work. He enlisted to try his luck at the academy or OTS,and it speaks to the quality of someone when they get told NO and try again.
I post that as an example that the road to the cockpit is not a straight line, but its a long path that WILL have setbacks. Expect them. Whether you go via the academy,ROTC, or OTS, expect that you will get handed some ugly news by Big Blue at some point in the process.Even if you enter the Academy with perfect grades and perfect health, life happens to everyone.

Expect about eventy-billion people to give you every form of bad, outdated, or flat out wrong info about your career path.Just because someone is in the Air Force ( and this applies to myself as well as anyone else) doesnt mean that their info is handed down on tablets from Mt Sinai. Do concrete research, stick to your guns, and have a plan to accomplish what you need to accomplish to become a pilot or a navigator.I could be posting for hours based on the info I have been blessed to know and discover along my 'path', but the common things you will need is perseverance, and a good idea of the end goal you want. Stay motivated. You WILL be tested. But you cannot appreciate the light, if you never experience the dark.Just for background, im enlisted currently with the goal of comissioning via OTS to be a pilot. Yes, I realize my odds suck-but I know, and could care less. Smile

Hope that helps.

Life does happen. Perfectly stated. My vision is waiverable but my corneas weren't (found that out half way through my junior year at USAFA) and now I'll be flying a missile capsule instead of a jet.

Forum: Future F-16 crew

Things to Consider if you want to Fly.