I am looking for any info on the AOC course. I think it is at Hurlburt for about a month. Anyone done it yet, got any info? Thanks AT

 

I did the AOC course back in 2007. Not too bad, the tests only required studying for an hour or two the night before. There was a useful exercise at the end that lasted about three days if I remember correctly, and if your class doesn't shoot down the A-50 Mainstay then you probably did something wrong.

There was a website they had on NIPR back in the day where you had to fill out your information to get registered ahead of time, not sure if that system is still in use.


Otherwise, when I was there they had everybody lodged on base and we had to share a rental car between 4 people unless you drove yourself down. Things may have changed but at the time the cited budget cutbacks. I went to the beach everyday after class and on the weekends. I thought the instructors were pretty good too. I think the ATC guys spent the most hours in class. Overall, I hated working in the AOC but the TDY to hurlburt was pretty nice.

 

Thank you much.

 

You have to do a weeks worth of CBTs before you attend. They cut a week from the original AOC course (hence the CBTs). I believe it is just shy of 30 days now ... so if you are a reservist, no health care for you.

If you go for air refueling, your life is going to suck as you will be busy while the cargo folks are out early on most days.

The CBTs are a waste of your time, but you have to have them completed before attending. The lectures in the main hall (not the AMD lectures) aren't worth your time, but you have to attend. They will give you a no jeopardy test on the first of second day to see what you learned from the CBTs. If you score well on the test, and the end of course test, you will receive DG.

If you are in the AMD, you will most likely stay in base housing. Every person we've sent has been in base housing including myself. The other AFSCs stay downtown Fort Walton Beach or Destin. I was glad to stay in base housing. The geckos provide comic relief -- just don't step on them while going to the bathroom in the middle of the night! Get up 20 minutes prior to class and jump in the car. Traffic into Hurlburt can be bad.

All of the AMD folks are great. Beer and brauts or other cookouts for lunch. Volleyball and beer in the evenings.

Enjoy the fun.

 

STRONGLY recommend you drive your own wheels if at all possible. If not you have to share one of their cars with 3 strangers and you might be hostage to the amoeba for dinner/gym pushes.

Other than that, slow paced course. Lots of free time to the point that it's frustrating because it will be in the form of a 3 hour lunch break more often than it will be an off by 1300 thing.

 

YGTBSM...30 days to learn how to operate in an AOC? Only in the USAF...not meant as a jab, just saying that's crazy talk!

 

The USMC, USN, USA also send their people to the same course. It is a DOD course, not a USAF course.

I had to sit there and learn about all of the distinctive capabilities of the USN, USMC, USA ... on and on. I wanted to gouge my eyes and ears out. I kept saying, "How is this going to make me a better Tanker DO?"

They can definitely shorten the course for 99% of individuals there. For the tanker bubbas, it is a demanding course. And only then are you briefly exposed to what your job is really going to be in an AOC.

 

Interesting, I attended an IAMD conference at Hurlburt and that wasn't the impression I got from the schoolhouse reps there. Having been in the AOCs in Osan, Tyndall & Tuscon I think you're right. Its hilarious to me that DoD spends that money keeping that course alive when the resident/corporate knowledge for a given AOR resides in THAT AOC, not some CBT or lecture in FL.

 

I agree and disagree with you. The AOCs are a mess when it comes to standardization and they don't always have it right. However, the FTU can also get out of Fort Walton Beach and learn a couple of new tricks.

For example, IMHO, Osan should never have an AOC. You can't tell me with a straight face that if NK comes south, that Osan's AOC is going to remain. During a shoot'em war, will they be able to send troops and equipment from Travis to Osan in order to stand up the AMD portion? Not only no, but hell no. So why do we allow these AOCs and commands to play these stupid games? Move the crap back to Hickam, Japan, or Guam. South Korea will get over it. If they want to die in the HTAC, let them.

The schoolhouse. A select few of those bubbas pushed for the ATP-56B crap air refueling procedures. What is more disturbing is that AMC adopted it, overnight, without even consulting the shooters and bombers. Some LtCols and Majors at the FTU got their OPR bullets. Mark my words, there will be an accident that will be directly contributed to the woeful procedures in this document.

The schoolhouse is quick to show how several of the AOCs are currently violating doctrine. Now I agree with having the flexibility to change things, especially doctrine, if the situation is right. However, we've been doing things doctrinally incorrect for so long, the new cadre of folks wouldn't even know that the way they're doing business is wrong and we learned those lessons the hard way a long time ago. But if we get into a big shoot'em war, think Gulf War I or larger scale war (GWII doesn't come close), we are screwed from a doctrine aspect and we will again learn the hard way.

The next big hatchet that's going to fall is AOC consolidation. I think with all these funding cuts you're going to see a lot of AOCs combined, or at least the mobility part brought back to Scott.

 

Yeah, and why is an AOC a "weapons system" anyway? Does that get them more funding or something?