Reserve to AD
 

I'm scheduled to interview with an Air Force Reserve unit (for the second time) sometime this spring. Let's assume I get the job and go through the 2 years of training and end up flying with this unit. If I suddenly decide that I really like the military life, what would be involved in transferring from the reserve to active duty? I know most people make that transfer in the opposite direction, but is it possible to go from reserves to AD?

For the record: I'm not joining the reserve for the sole purpose of switching to active duty. I've been debating AD vs the reserve for a while, and I'm still not 100% sold on either, I just know I want to join the military.

If I don't get this slot with the reserve, and I decide to do AD, what is the process for deciding who gets a pilot slot? I know I'd go through OTS. After OTS, does anyone who wants to be a pilot get to go through UPT, and then if you don't wash out you get to pick a plane based on your class rank? Is that kinda how it works? Thanks a lot.

I can't speak for the Reserve to AD part of the question, but the UPT part I can comment on. If you get a pilot slot from OTS, then the track select after T-6's at most bases gets you to the type of aircraft. The same thing happens again when you finish T-1, T-38, T-44, or rotor training (Sheppard only has T-38's on base but now has the option to send someone to T-1 or to Corpus for C-130 track which has been exercised a few times). You fill out a dream sheet with your choices and then get matched w/ an assignment (the higher your rank, the more likely you'll get a top choice, but it all depends what the class has to choose from). The only constant these days is that things are constantly changing in the rated world.

Getting on Active Duty as an already rated Reserve pilot is almost certainly gonna be easier than getting an AD OTS pilot slot--those tend to be few in number. Getting the Reserve slot is also, of course, challenging. Going from there to AD will be situational--the Needs of the Air Force At the Time. Are we drawing down, are we building up, does AFPC know which way to jump to meet whatever total end strength versus rated requirements? The big picture is a big puzzle. No one here can tell you how it'll be in two years time. Best wishes.
Zach

What (if any) is the difference between retiring after 20 years of AD and retiring from 20 years of Reserve service?

Depends. Retiring as a 20 full-time reservist, nothing except not having to move every few years and not getting screwed with a desk job(most likely). You start collecting your retirement check immediately. Retiring after 20 as a traditional reservist, you can't collect your pension till 60(with some changes to that recently due to GWOT).

[quote=GunnF16;552516](Sheppard only has T-38's on base but now has the option to send someone to T-1 or to Corpus for C-130 track which has been exercised a few times). [quote]

Can you expound on this at all? I thought ENJJPT was fighters or bust...

Is this basically for the folks that are not deemed to be suited for fighters?

Before 2 years ago, ENJJPT used to be T-38's or washout, but now they can get them to a different base to find a crew aircraft if the leadership thinks he/she can still hack flying, but don't trust the student to end up in a single seat fighter (this option came about before the recent changes in T-38 drops w/ UAS, spec ops, etc). Now, since a drop will have fighters, bombers, spec ops, and UASs, there are plenty of options besides the single seat fighter these days. But I think it's like that from any of the T-38 tracks at the rest of the UPT bases as well.

I can't help you out when it comes to going AD from Reserves, except to say you'd probably end up behind the stick of a UAS right now.

However I can tell you I can count the number of happy AD pilots I know on about 2 fingers and the number of unhappy reservist pilots I know on zero fingers. You do the math. This is coming from a purely AD perspective, but if you want to fly and see interesting places while defending your country, go Guard or Reserve. I promise every cool job you have ever heard that the Air Force does is done by a guard or reserve pilot. Want to go to Antarctica on a C-17. Go guard. Want to be a Hurricane Hunter go reserve.

AD does a lot of desk work (around 95% of my job is doing what was once an enlisted guys job) and going to the Died and no where else. (Around 90% of my flights after UPT are out of there.) Though the job security is better, you WILL NOT be a pilot on AD. If what you want to do is fly stay the heck away from AD like the plague. :cool:

You don't know me but... make it 3.

You must have a group of bitter friends. Misery loves company. Must be an awesome ready room!

On the day you join APC and with your 4th post you spew this crap? If YOU are not happy fine. Don't lump all of AD in with your bad situation. Pass your gas elsewhere. If you don't like your job...get another job.

OBTW...15 yrs straight in the cockpit....livin' the dream.

Whoa, I actually got the account to answer this guys question if you must know.

I'm sure there are more happy pilots in Florida than where I live, but just a poll around the tanker community will back me up. Generally if you are at an AMC base the guard gets the trips, we get the 'Died. If you aren't at the Died, you are doing menial paperwork... all friggen day. My buddy went to AC upgrade and had 1 non deployed TDY in over 2 years. I have been luckier than him, but not by much. At home station we fly once every 2 months or so. Most of our beans are done in the sim. It's just a fact.

If someone had told me before I joined this was the case I wouldn't have signed up, especially if I knew about the Guard. I promise I'm not alone in this sentiment. I acknowedge that not all of us feel this way, but at least from where I'm from its a healthy majority. I wish I was livin the dream too, but it just doesn't happen for a lot of us, and this guy should at least know there is more to the AD than recruiting commercials make it out.

Didn't mean to offend just giving my $.02 :o

I make 4 and I didn't get lucky enough to spend all my time in the cockpit either - plenty of time either in school, on the ground in Iraq or humping a pack with 1st Bn/2d Marines - and I still have a smile on my face too.

So....if you want to say such things about your tanker community in your redy room at your base - I can't argue with you; but I do think that oit is unfair for you to tell this person that is the AD force even in the rest of the AF and certainly AD in the military as a general rule.

USMCFLYR

The tanker being what it is, we don't really have a "ready room" per se.

It's not like everyone walks around crying all day, we have as much fun as we can, but it's more "office space" than anything else.

But pretty much everyone is waiting for the day they start allowing "palace chase" and/or VSP again. They stopped it because it absolutely decimated our ranks when it was open if that tells you anything. If you didn't have a package in it was only because you hadn't found a unit yet, for the most part. Of all the line IP's that were elegible here, only 2 didn't VSP. And 1 of those was because they held up his package and he couldn't.

I can't speak to the USMC or Navy, only my little corner. I've heard that the Navy side isn't quite as disfunctional as the AF, but that's just from the very few Navy pilots I've talked with. As usual, the fighter side of the AF may be taken better care of, but it's not all "Moralecon High" out here in AD.

I have always wondered but never been able to confirm this....

When the USN/USMC units are forward deployed they basically live the same way during peacetime or war time. Deployed time is roughly the same. A boat is a boat wherever it sails. Marines are used to doing more with way less and living in the dirt. They are crazy like that. OPTEMPO may change but the level of suck is about equivalent, IMO.

The forward deployed AF crew during peacetime pretty much has a standard FOB with all the typical AF type facilities. TAD/TDY length is short. During war time the FOB is wherever the conflict is located and is really substandard when compared to the peace time facilities/locations. TDY/TAD times are usually much longer. With these changes the level of suck increases dramatically.

Thoughts?

Don't believe recruiters
 

Reminds me of an old joke --- A kid asks the AF recruiter: "Why should I pick the Air Force?" He replies: "Well, in the Army, you live in a leaky tent and get shot at. In the Navy, you live in a smelly boat and get shot at. In the Marines, you live in the mud and get shot at. In the Air Force, you live in a nice room and watch the officers fly off to get shot at." :p

Basically true.. the vast majority of AF bubbas deploy to pretty nice facilities (i.e. Al Udeid) However it is becoming more and more common for AF folks to deploy to ****ty locations right along with the Army and Marines for lengths up to a year (still not as bad as an 18 mth Army deployment). For what its worth, during my 9 trips (3-6 mths each) to the mideast, only twice was I at what I would consider a cush base (Kuwait). Shorter trips are the norm in the AF but when you are home for 2 months and go right back for years on end it wears on you and your family. Life is all about choices though... and from what I have seen from this conflict, the Navy appears to be the most under-represented, but then again most of them are probably on the boat (which I am sure hot bunking sucks)...once again choices. Of course the Navy has way better base locations worldwide for when you aren't deployed, so you win on this one hands down!

You would be surprised at the number of Navy guys on Individual Augmentation (IA) doing some odd stuff. From on of my yeoman (E-4 admin guy) manning a turret on a Humvee on patrol to a pilot in charge of (supervising only) an IED jamming and defusing unit. After asking around about this kind of involvement the response I received (Flag level) was "we (the USN) need to show involvment in this conflict to keep the money flowing (i.e. budget intact)."

There are exceptions to everything in the military ... and the Air Force. I've deployed to the best of facilities and I've built and lived in my own tent. Go figure.

TAD/TDY numbers are irrelevant for the USAF. It all depends on what job you have and what AEF you support. For those in a high demand, low density aircraft, you just continously deploy. But, once you get home, you get your 4 days off and then go back TDY to fly some stupid mission around the world. In my unit, our enlisted folks routinely got 300 days TDY each year (some deployed, some TDYs). No typo.

I had a briefing somewhere that said the USAF had more people deployed in the middle east doing augmentee jobs. True? I don't know, that's what they briefed. I can tell you, since joining in 1997, the USAF has changed tremendously. Basically, you either deploy or you don't have a job.

-Fatty

On a side note, I just received a letter from Uncle Sam telling me that I am in the Ready Reserves. Does that mean I should have an ID Card?

-Fatty

One key component to this for all services is this: As the COCOMS plus up their JMD's to support the ongoing effort, many of these IA/GSA/GWOT billets are actually just billets on these staffs that haven't been funded yet. Bottom line: COCOM asks for bodies, services give up said bodies with little to no pushback and the COCOMS get thier folks. Some of the billets are actually doing some good work but some(staffs) are doing nothing.

...and therefore the Air Force right?

Sorry...couldn't resist:)


Concur...I have seen/heard the same. You are either real busy or real bored. On of my E's finished his BS while in Baghdad "on a staff." <--Separate E from the one I referenced above.

The pain is being shared... I am not implying the Navy isn't pulling their weight... I just saw few of them on the ground aside from NSW folks. That doesn't mean that they aren't suffering through a rote in the Persian Gulf on a boat supporting the myriad of Navy aircraft flying missions into country daily.

So true, that is the boat I was in and it does wear on you... gone constantly only to break up your two months home with TDYs\Exercises\etc. Sadly, the AF makes it very difficult to rotate out of these assignments into low ops tempo assignments to catch a breather for you and your family. Ultimately this drives good people out who might otherwise take a few years in a training unit to gladly return to the fight in a high tempo unit after the break. Just my .02!

At last count as of last week the Navy still has over 10K sets of boots on the ground in the CENTCOM AOR.(Not on ships)