Originally Posted by mtsupilot09
Hey guys, I really appreciate all this advice. I talked with an ANG recruiter in high school. He wasn't very clear about flying, he really just wanted me to enlist. What would I need to do to fly kc-135's? They have a wing in my home town (McGhee Tyson ANG Base Knoxville, TN.) I have always loved seeing those heavies flying out of TYS. And, like you gentlemen suggested, the airlines (yes, I am hoping to eventually get with a major airline) prefer heavy time over fighter time. Any ANG or specifically stratotanker pilots out there? I'd love to talk to you about your career. For example, what is your lifestyle like? Are you married, and how long are you usually seperated when you are flying? What is your time commitment? I've got a worried girlfriend who has visions of me being in Iraq for a year if I do any kind of military flying. Anyways, let me know about the ANG thing and commitments etc. Also, thank you guys for your professionalism, I really appreciate it.
Chandler
Chandler,
I'm a Stratotanker copilot. I will give you an idea of what post 9/11 tanker life is like because that's pretty much all I know. Eventually, when the dust settles and we pull out of Iraq (Afghanistan is just about fizzled out now), it may go back the way it was, but I'm sure we'll eventually get into a scuffle with someone else one day, so who knows? You won't be in the Middle East for a year at a time as a tanker pilot and if you get into a tanker ANG unit, you most likely won't be in the Middle East at all unless you volunteer for it (which some guys do because of the money, benefits and flight time). ANG tanker units get some of the best taskings. Spain, Netherlands, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, Vegas, France, and I could go on and on. Taskings like that on active duty are few and far in between. Instead, we deploy for 60 days at a time. Sometimes more, but never less (60 days is a minimum requirement by CENTAF right now). While deployed, you'll fly, on average, 25-35 missions in a 60 day period (schedule will vary). You may fly 3-4 days in a row and get one or two off. You may sit alert one day followed by a day off. At roughly 6-7 hours per sortie, you'll be looking at around 200 hours of flight time in a two month period. Our mission, obviously, is to offload fuel to coalition aircraft over Iraq who are protecting our troops on the ground. We've been offloading about two million pounds of fuel per day over there, which is amazing to say the least. When home from deployments, you most likely will get a job in the squadron or if you're lucky and your squadron has an abundance of LT's running around, you may not. It all depends. We're pretty much spread out so thin with staff that you would most definitely get a job right out of mission qual if you showed up to my squadron right now. You may work in the unit deployment office, the scheduling office, be made a squadron exec officer, etc... Time at home right now is averaging two to two and a half months and it looks like it may be getting longer in the near future. The amount of flying you'll do while at home varies. You may get on a local training sortie once a week or so. If they've got you doing a desk job and you're the only one in the office there to do it, you may only fly once a month to stay current (which is not out of the ordinary). We occasionally do Medivac missions, coronets (taking a flight of fighters somewhere for an excersize), and presidential support missions. We also sometimes support Edwards AFB and their F-22's testing, but again, stuff like this is few and far in between and at a Super Tanker base, everyone fights over these kinds of missions. For the most part, it's pretty much been: Deploy for 2 months, come home for 2 months, do your desk job and fly 3-4 times, deploy for 2 months, come home for 2 months, do your desk job and fly 3-4 times, etc... I am married and being away for 2 months at a time gets tough, but even as an airline pilot, you've got the chance to be gone 180 days a year. Unfortunately, being away from home is part of the job as a pilot no matter who you're flying for.