Mustangcbra

Everyone,

Thanks for all the posts. It is alot of information to read over and I value your experience and advice. It is very helpful. My recruiter has informed me that a majority of my training will take place in Little Rock, Arkansas. I am not sure what base is there but plan on looking into it. I have a appointment with the 914th's chief pilot next month to go on base and talk to some other pilots and get a feel for the unit. Does anyone have any suggestions for when I talk to this guy. I of course want to leave an excellent impression so he knows I am motivated and very serious about flying for the USAFR.

Also just wanted to let you know that my fiance is getting quite a bit better about the whole UPT thing. She said to me the other day that she understands that I want this badly and that it is necessary to help us start our lives the right way. Not to mention she recognizes the fact that I would be a miserable old man if I never followed my dreams of flying for the military. She moved to MI with me for 2 years so we could be together during my college and I believe her when she says that we will make it work during UPT and other training.

Also thanks for the ideas of what to do around the bases. I am by no means a strictly metropolitan oriented person but I do like there to be someplace around to waste some of my very limited free time and relieve stress. Please keep the suggestions and comments coming as it helps me to form a better picture in my mind as to what this is like.

Tweet46

Glad to hear your fiance is settling down. It's important that you have her support!

Be yourself when you talk to the chief pilot. Anything else will be obvious.

As far as training at Little Rock... I assume you've been hired by a C-130 unit. Little Rock AFB is where the herk RTU is located. This is where your aircraft specific training will be once you graduate UPT. It's been a while since I went through the "Rock" but I believe you will be there for about 5 months.

Best of Luck,
Tweet

T-1A

Here's my 2 cents,

Did Columbus for 6mo (primary) Corpus 6mo advanced. My wife worked at both. I also went through as an active duty guy and my buddy was reserves. Little Rock was about 6mo. (initial and tac qual). Between enroute time etc you won't fly at your squadron until about 1yr 9mo after you start pilot training. At all locations my wife found a job and her degree was not as versatile as yours. I flew the C-130H and left to teach T-1s at CBM. I am recently back from the Rock as a reserve guy flying the C-130J. If you want any pros/cons to tracks or locations PM me and I'll be happy to help. Good luck and Congrats!
T-1

C-130Driver

A little more info:

The info your getting from everyone is right on. As for the three primary bases, there are arguments for all of them. I would probably roll with the one that gets you into training first. I went to laughlin/corpus(San Antonio is about 2.5-3 hrs drive). You can go navy or air force all the way or a combo of both. Know guys that did all of these. Combos of T-34/C-12, T-34/T-1, T-37/T-1, T-37/C-12. Obviously the 37 is replaced by the T-6 now, but you get the drift. It is pretty rare, but you can also go to the 38. In my class, myself and another guard guy were tracked to the 38 by our tweet IP's but our units wouldn't go for it.(There was another post about the portability when trained in the 38; what I'm getting at is if you did real well in the 38 a commander may worry that you'll leave and go to a fighter unit; assuming you could get a slot). They(AF & Navy) both have great training programs, so don't worry about who trains you. The air force has stricter rules and schedules(formal release) whereas the navy is a bit more laid back. You'll probably graduate quicker from the air force because you won't have the breaks in training that you'll encounter with jumping locations.
As for the wife, I don't know. I didn't have one in training, but there will be guys there with you in the same situation, so there will be other wifes to occupy yours. The job stuff for her will probably work too. Only you know your wife and how to handle it, but you will be very busy for the bulk of your training. As long as she understands that it'll work just fine.
All in all, don't sweat it. With the economy and airline industry the way it is, this is a good time to be in training with a steady paycheck. Things will probably turn around by the time you're ready. Have fun and study hard; yes pilot training may be one of the most demanding times of your life, but it's a great time too. Fly hard, play hard. This is definitely just my opinion, but once you find out your location and date check out baseops.net and get the info for the T-6. You don't need to go crazy with knowing all of it but knowing your ops limits/bold face cold will help to get you started.
This is a little beyond where you are now, but I've deployed to the desert with the guys from your prospective unit and they're a good group from my point of view. You will see later that guard and reserve units have personalities much like people do; your prospective unit has a good one. Anyhow, sorry this was so lengthy, but currently I'm sitting in the desert on alert, so I had some time on my hands. Good luck and fly safe.

Mustangcbra

C-130 driver... Thanks for the info on my unit. Would you mind if I PM'd you some time to ask some additional questions?

C-130Driver

No problem, shoot me a line whenever.