The United States Air Force

[Talontwo]

Mech,

Good Luck and Thank you. I spent 28 years in the Air Force and the only advice I will offer, along with all the other good advice already offered on this thread, is this.... It will be the worst of times and it will be the best of times...but it will definitely be the most rewarding of times for you, Don't let the institutional rank structure stop you from listening to everyone...I have had mission success come from the ideas of an Airman, when the MSgts and LtCols couldn't see the big picture...Many things motivate different people, not saying they are wrong, just different...but treat everybody with "worth"...give credit where credit is due, and as an Officer learn what motivates your enlisted people, align that with your mission, and you will go far...

Good Luck, I am envious...wish I was at the beginning of my AF journey again

FLY...FIGHT...and WIN! :salute:

 

[cazsper]

Great advice.. Sorry, I didn't catch that you being an officer. I certainly agree about listening to the enlisted, not to mention the Airmen.. If you have a good Senior or Chief (and you back him/her up), you're golden. Your Staff's and Tech's are your managers and may have a more efficient way to do something. And for your airmen, they may be inexperienced to be jaded and possibly have an easier way to do something.

Easier doesn't necessarily mean you're cutting corners. It could just be a smarter way..

 

[MechEng]

Well,

I'm supposed to be leaving here in a month. But I am not. Due to the effects of Sequestration and Congress's inability to do anything until the last moment, the Air Force was forced to reduce the size of the training classes. My departure date has been pushed to October 2014 pending further notice.

We shall see if this new budget deal moving through congress (passed the House already!) has any effect on that. A bit bummed to say the least, I was quite ready to go, but there's a silver lining to everything.

And in this case, that means that I can get the 1973 up to driver status! So I've hit the ground running on that. I also plan to be around here a bit more now that my life has calmed down a tad

 

[cobra3073]

Sorry to hear the start of your AF duty has apparently been delayed.

Hopefully, everything will work out for the best.

BT

 

[73vertproject]

...when one door closes another opens...

Keep your head up and grab your wrenches.

Do you have any interest in joining any of the other branches?

Good to see you back here with the go get'em attitude! :exclamation:

 

[rpmcarter]

Congrats and thank you for serving!

 

[MechEng]

If things were bad then I guess you could say they got worse. I still don't have a class date and I was informed by my recruiter that my current DEP status expires in June and they're not going to give me the option to re-enroll. So I'm out.

Hell.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CZ-75]

Sorry... Makes you wonder. Why turn good people away?

 

[jbojo]

Sorry to hear this. Have you looked into other branches of the services? The Navy has a lot of good programs and if they are not in the same position as the Air Force you may consider them. I was in the submarine service and did a lot of interesting things and did not regret my decision.

-jbojo

 

[73vertproject]

Man, I'm sorry to hear about that, Michael. As jbojo said, have you considered other branches? I, too, served in the Navy and would recommend that as a career option.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Have you checked into other career fields? An engineering degree such as your can translate across many career fields, and there are even some that they don't care what your degree was in - you'd be doing something completely different (which might be cool).

Despite your degree, you'll still be scheduled for advance training (Technical School) after OTS. It sounds like the 62E career field is over-saturated, or being phased out in favor of contracting or having other branches handle the requirements.

Check with your recruiter for a different career field option that you might find interesting and go from there.

Good luck - I hope this isn't the end of the road for your hopes of being an Air Force Officer.

 

[midlife]

Wow. The Navy needs systems engineers like nobody's business (that's what I do, except I'm an uncivil civil servant).

 

[74proii]

Congrats. Both the wife and I AF brats. Yes, spent 20 yrs under Navy incarceration to boot.

 

[woodsnake]

I retired from the Idaho Air national Guard, (12 yrs) after an 8 year break from my almost 10 years on USAF active duty.

I have been watching and dealing with the man power ups and downs for a long time.

I want to add my thanks to the others for your attempt, but at the same time, I think looking at the Navy is an excellent choice.

However, with the changes I've seen over the years, one thing I've noticed when they cut personnel, they always make sure that the officers "pay their fair share" with the cuts.

It's tough enough to stay competitive once you get done with all your initial training, but when you add in everything else they expect from you.....It's getting harder and harder to want to make it a career, or if you do want to stay, even harder to do that!

I spend some time on

https://www.rallypoint.com/profiles/61000-tsgt-brian-herman

Do some reading here, and maybe this will give some insight as to what you will be in for.

good luck with what ever you end up doing!

 

[MeZapU]

21 yrs and still active duty.