[KYTGuy]

Guess I'm not a young father anymore...Daughter is enlisting in the USAF...She was bored in college, bored with the advanced Calc classes, and the advanced physics, and she hated Chemistry...(her only bad grades)...

Any member of the USAF got any do's and dont's for her? She is looking to get into the Space Program...

What about BMT? Any tips?

She blew the lid off the asvab tests, scoring 95 or higher in all but "general"...and a 90 in QT.

The list of available paths included: 1C631 Space Systems (electronics), 1N131 Imagery Analysis (general), 2E131 Satellite Communications (electronics), 1C531 Aerospace Control & Warning (general), 1A411 Airborne Battle Management (general), and 9S100 Applied Geophysics (not listed in any guide or manual on or off-line, and only has 300 in the whole Force)

She says she is leaning towards the Applied Geophysics for first choice...

She takes her Physical tomorrow, swears in Friday....for October/Nov BMT...

 

[jpr703]

Not sure if this is applicable or not, but having been in the Air Force I can tell you that there is a big difference in the experience between enlisted folks and officers. Have her finish college and get a commission before signing up!

PS--The Air Force doesn't care too much about the college you graduate from, your field of study or your GPA. Just get that parchment. Otherwise, she could be in for a very rude awakening.

 

[KYTGuy]

yeah, I know that - I went to one of the Academies, and went into the Navy...ergo, she is going into the USAF!! I told her to hang on to get a degree, but she just went and signed up. she will swear in this Thurs, so if she doesn't fail the physical, it is a done deal...

I guess she has to learn this lesson the hard way.

Thanks.

 

[Spaghetti]

Tell her good luck. Maybe seeing how the enlisted side lives will make her reconsider. However I applaud her decision not to force herself to continue in college right now if she is bored. Maybe she has more discipline then I did at that age, but I just wasted my time.

My Dad did four in the Navy and I joined the AF too (Air Guard, but full-time since Sept. 11). Not sure why, but I still tell Navy jokes to him.

 

[braillediver]

Congratulations and Good Luck.

(Yeah we used to tell coast guard jokes)

It’s a good stepping stone to a successful future. The Space Program would be cool?


Mitch

 

[Elec]

I have a buddy who was in a similar boat. He was in college with me, just screwing around, not going to class, not liking anything he was studying. He always told us he wanted to go into the military sometime later. So one day a couple of us pulled him aside and said "Look, dummy...why don't you just go do it NOW? Not like you're really doing anything else with your life or getting a lot out of college."

So that's what he did. Went into the Air Force, blew away the ASVAB, and has been working in AF intel. for a couple years now. He seems really happy with it.

 

[dip16amp]

For basic training, she should be able to run a mile in about ten minutes. If not already a runner, start with a quarter mile a day for a few days, then a half mile, then three quarter mile, until a full mile a day. Also do some pull ups and sit ups. That way she won't be exhausted from the sudden exercise and it will be easy.

Tech school should be easier and more interesting than college. After that it takes about a year to learn the job. After two years, you know everything about it. After three years they get them into supervising and management classes to be a NCO. After four years, it is not a very high paying supervisor job. May get to travel to different places but not always the best.

After a few years maybe she will be ready and more interested in going back to college. She can get a much better job with a degree along with the USAF experience. Try to get the tuition assistance benefits if she does get out and goes back to college. She can even takes some college courses in the third or fourth year of the air force if interested.

 

[Fickle-Friend]

call sign Mavrick at your service....erm maybe not!

 

[Usagi]

[size=large]Stop[/size] Tell her to have a guaranteed job before she signs up or swears in. Recruiters love to tell new recruits that they will receive their new job in basic training, but if she goes in open (no job guaranteed) then the military can give you any job they see fit. This could happen because the job she wants has no available slots and they are in dire need of cooks!

When she gets into BMT and things aren't going as planned, then I think she has about six months to get out (even thou they say you can't) before the discharge sticks with her for the rest of your natural life. I'm not sure if the regulation has changed. Check it out.

More words of advice would be for her to finish college. If she enlists she will always be looking up at a glass ceiling. Enlisted people will never make enough money, and someone will always be telling her what to do and when to do it. She could spend 20 years doing her job, and know her craft well, and some snot-nosed Lieutenant with 3 months time-in-service can tell her, "I don't like what you're doing. Do it my way." Don't mean to sound so negative, but I have to play the other side because she decided to go in already. Here is a pay scale to compare Officers to Enlisted. This should be some motivation because the officers make about twice as much. Oh yea, get the G.I. Bill. It's a Godsend for when she decides to go back to school. They offer it in BMT.

I did about five years USAF. I had to do an extra year because of 9/11.

SRA Usagi, USAF 1997-2002

 

[DanG]

Can't reiterate it enough, but college is important. I went into an Army recruiter's office a couple weeks ago saying I have two years left in college and would like to start preparing for certain officer MOSs and got a sales pitch (from two guys at the same time) for why I should join up either active duty or reserves right away. I probably won't get called up in the next two years while I'm at college, but if I do, then I can come back. And if they don't take me back, I can sue. And with active duty, I can give up my spot at Williams College for a chance at the Army's online university.

That was enough to make me go to a Marine officer recruiter who told me to stay in school (I never said I wouldn't), get good grades, and take the summer officer course between junior and senior years.

The pressure is so high on recruiters to get enlisted men and women (as opposed to officers) that they'll clearly say and do anything to get people. I think that should give a good idea of how full of sh!t these people can be and how important it is to finish the BA or BS and take a commission.

 

[Todd R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpr703 Not sure if this is applicable or not, but having been in the Air Force I can tell you that there is a big difference in the experience between enlisted folks and officers. Have her finish college and get a commission before signing up! PS--The Air Force doesn't care too much about the college you graduate from, your field of study or your GPA. Just get that parchment. Otherwise, she could be in for a very rude awakening.

Second that!
Finish college, officers have a much better life.

I was talking to an F-16 pilot one day and asked him what kind of degree he had. I assumed he was an engineer or something like that.
He told me "I have a degree in music".

I was completely blown away.

SSGT Todd R, USAF 82-90.

 

[jpr703]

I was enlisted too. I got really tired of taking junk from people that graduated from no-name schools with well below average GPAs and Physical Education degrees. There's a lot of them out there and they really believe that their in-depth knowledge of dodge-ball makes them a whole lot better than you.

The upside is that when I did get out and go to college, I was really motivated. Every single day that I woke up at school I was really thankful to be there and my attitude made things that much easier. I knew without a doubt that they were the best days of my life and I made the most of them academically as well as socially.

I can't say that I would have had that gold "cum-laude" seal on my diploma if it weren't for my experiences as an enlisted guy. College seemed really easy compared to that.

 

[Born2bwire]

Doesn't the Air Force have a ROTC program in college? That would be a better compromise in my opinion.

 

[recstar24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd R Second that! Finish college, officers have a much better life. I was talking to an F-16 pilot one day and asked him what kind of degree he had. I assumed he was an engineer or something like that. He told me "I have a degree in music". I was completely blown away. SSGT Todd R, USAF 82-90.

Sweet, i guess there's a future for me in the air force after all!

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by recstar24 Sweet, i guess there's a future for me in the air force after all!

The military really doesn't care, that's true...they train you for what they need you to do.