Jtuned_andy

Thinking about joining up. Just finished my Bachelors of science in may and thinking about going into the officer training program for the Airforce. I've always been attracted to mechanical stuff and repair, from the limited knowledge of the military I have, I always thought officers were the pencil pushers of the services?

If I joined up as a officer and went into maintenance programs or some sort of flight related sector, does anyone have any advice or maybe insight on what their jobs actually entailed?

very interested to hear everyones thoughts if you are in the Air force, even the enlisted guys i'd like to hear from. Were your officers dicks? Is the job worth it?

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dahveed

All the maintenance officers I've met were/are weird as fuck lol. Then again I've only been in 1 and a half.

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harrypotter

Maintenance officers usually put in slot of hours, go to tons of meetings, and never touch aircraft. The best ones I have met had all been prior enlisted and actually know how aircraft maintenance works. The overall goal of a mx officer is to be a squadron commander. I have been in aircraft maintenance for over 11 years...aircraft mechanic.

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Jtuned_andy

yea, this is what I want to know about. I have a vague sense of what officers duties are in the services, the more I know from people in the service the better I can decide what I want. I would like to gravitate towards something more hands on than just logistics and paper work and if at all possible be closely involved with the flight line. Preferably, I always wanted to be a pilot or have duties aboard aircraft but I know that is a highly rigorous job.

I have my degree and I'm at a point in my life where if I do decide to make the plunge, it will be soon or not at all. I have a large skill set in the automotive field that I can continue to persue but i've always thought about joining the Airforce as my dad was a fighter pilot years ago and later retired as an airline pilot

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harrypotter

The only time maintenance officers in the fighter world do anything hands on with aircraft is when they are a new Lt. They have a list of items that they have to participate in replacing. Like changing tire, brake, gearbox, engine, ect. That is just so they have a basic grasp of how the workers do stuff. Mainly so they can talk about maintenance at meetings and stuff.

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LoneStarSilvia

Sorry, but in my 5 years of aircraft maintenance, the only time I've ever seen an officer touch or even go near aircraft, they were pilots or flight crew. I like to think as officers as "managers", instead of the actual work force, they just point fingers and ask for answers on why something isn't the way they like it and attempt to reinvent the wheel. But hey, they deserve the triple the paycheck with their degrees while doing 1/3rd the work.

Sorry, that was a rant lol. But seriously, i have never seen an officer turn a wrench besides our base commander earlier this year, he wanted to be a maintainer for a day.

Check out the latest pat charts, maybe that will help your decision.

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Toi

Officers are not mechanics, and when I was in I wouldn't let an officer touch the weapons systems or AME of any aircraft I worked.

The same can be said when Crew Chiefs are involved, the Pilot may fly it but the Crew Chief knows more about that jet than the pilot could ever know.

spooled240

subscribed

i'm about to finish up my business degree in a few months and i'm also contemplating joining the AF as an officer..I'd be a pilot and nothing else though

blktopsr20

The officers in today's military is way different. Especially in the corporate Air Force. The closest that I've seen an officer gets down and dirty is for pictorial or deployment. I mean come on, officers in the corporate AIRFORCE are not trained to get dirty, instead to look blinging clean!! haha

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badbob2121

^^This, though I was only around marine infantry officers.. but Mustangs have and always will be the best officers in our armed forces.. 90% of the time

(this is an opinion)

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ch1873857

Heres been my experience. If you dont want to be a pencil pusher, be an Engineer. Civil Engineer or EOD. You could do EOD play with robots for 2 tours then go build shit.

Air Force Engineering officers are a 1 for 1 swap with deployments (6 on 6 off)

Ive had the pleasure of working with some awesome Air Force officers here in Afghanistan. We are completely joint. All 4 services and 6 different countries. the AF guys definately have their head on straight. The engineers are on patrols 6 days out of the week. Commanding patrols inside and outside the city. Granted they are in the staff meetings every evening but only us lower enlisted aren't in those haha (E-4).

If you wanna get your hands dirty and do cool shit there IS hope as officer. MOST of them have their head on straight at least the engineers. Whether I'm behind the wheel or in the turret I prefer an AF officer as my truck commander any day! I have a biased opinion since im AF as well but Ive worked PLENTY with all branches in the past 9 months.

Hope ive shed some light on the subject...


this is PURE ignorance... Funny actually. The Air Force is not the same as it was 10 years ago even 5.. Communications, Engineers, Fuels, Trans, Ammo, Supply, even Weather are the ones grabbing our gear and the 240Bs and the 50cals and rolling out in the mornings.. Not the MPs. We leave them behind to find drugs and sheit.. This goes for officers and enlisted. Corporate Air Force my ass...

Jtuned_andy

^ thanks for this input, I really appreciate all the info you guys are giving. I want to hear the bad from the good and the nitty gritty and the squeaky clean side of things.

If I join it might most likely be a couple tours of duty, so I want to be involved and not just sign up for 4 and then peace out. Officer or not I need to be in the field or getting my hands on something important. I could care less about how many logistic meetings I have to go to as long as i'm physically and mentally challenged.

Thanks again guys!

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ch1873857

You want to mentally challenged?! O_o haha just kiddin

Any info you wanna know just let me know. Im not an officer but i work closely with them. Most of the ones here are very chill and i can joke around with the captain or the major like i would an enlisted. mostly has to do with the fact that AF will look out for AF in a joint environment more than any other service. I do about 6 different jobs here and i deal with everyone. i stay busy. when people arent my boss try to pimp me out to do their work. theyll always step in and tell them to fuck off (literally) thats what i like the most. Marines and Army dont give a shit about their people most of the time.

If you want to watch a movitating speech by an AF CG send me your email in a PM ill send you a link (its on my nipr at work) made me wanna cross over to the dark side.. but haha thatll never happen...

datpurpledrank

Hope you have good luck with this. I am transferring to a college with afrotc come out as an officer with the goal is to get into pilot school.

pacotaco345

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm AFROTC at TCU Det 845. I'm a freshman on scholarship so if all goes well I'll be an officer in 4 years, hopefully in pilot training. If not I'm on a technical major scholarship (computer science) so I'll most likely be hating life behind a computer screen for my career.

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Jtuned_andy

sent you a PM with my email, love to see the video

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ch1873857

Im really glad i read this thread. Joining the Air Force was the best decision Ive ever made. One thing to remember which is crutial and thats that you have to keep an open mind. Anything could happen. Theres no job description. You are a jack of a trades and a master at 1. Your job. But the chance will always be there that you'll have to pick up someone elses slack. Proficiency is the key.

Case in point. I went through 3 months of training with the Army. it was essentially a familiarization of the infantry world. from grenade lauchers to paintball to reading a map with a protractor. My squad leader was an AF Captain. Take a wild guess what his job was.... Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles... -___- Really?! Turned out he took the training and he uses it everyday. I drive for him. I gun for him. I trust him with my life. Moreso than the Army Major i used to drive for. I had to wake him up in the middle of a patrol. You can imagine the sick IED and taliban jokes we played on him.. AF is the only branch that ive seen that kind of proficiency. His job here is pretty much beefing up base defense for afghan army compounds. That, is not his j o b. An ICBM officer. who sits in a missile silo all day in pajamas is now this..

Im not an officer, again, but i will use myself as an example. Im a 3D152 Cyber Transport Tech. I sit in a top secret communications facility and look at blinky lights all day or night. Im the guy that stares at the computer screen all day. WHY? because civilian pay is great when i get out and because im color deficient. In a deployed environment. These are the duties i have inherited. not even joking with this..

Supply tech- i buy cool guy gear, ammo, red bulls, and office supplies
Ammo tech- i store, inventory, and issue small arms, crew served, pyro, and explosives in amounts that you couldnt even guess
Information management- i fix peoples computers when im in the office which is rare
Personal Security detachment/secfor- driver, gunner, radio specialist.
why?
because the ncoic likes the way i shoot, drive, and wash vehicles lol. compentence and proficiency.
oh and until we got a new guy in i was unit armorer. because i build rifles at home. i knew how to do it. go figure..

in the army world. when you are good at your job, you end up with a list of duties like mine. im pimped out by 4 different sections and work constantly 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week for the last 9 months.

i guess im preachin air force because of that haha. that and i go home in less than a week! i really get heated when people talk about air force pencil pushers, corporate air force, chair force, etc... so i apologize for my ranting..

RaVaGe

Like lol Im tired of hearing the "chair force" stuff also

Im an ammo troop and I've never seen any of our officers do anything but admin/paperwork work things, but thats because they all work on the flight/squadron level of stuff. Its always said the best officers are prior enlisted, but I have nothing to base that on myself being in just under a year now.

Overall the Air Force is great, and I am loving most of it lol. I just dont like some of the stupid rules, exercises and things of the sort.

LoneStarSilvia

There really are 3 sides of th Air Force. The "Chair" Force that most people see, people working at the hospital or fucking up my pay at finance. The officers seem to be at a managerial position, and their uniforms are always squeaky clean.

Then it's the hard working, always cussing, we hate nonners side off the Air Force, the backbone if you will, the maintainers. Officers seem to be a lot more involved with their enlisted people. Mainly because they have to answer to a lot of higher ups about what's going on with aircraft and their readiness to complete the mission or get ready to go to war.

Then lastly, the field guys like ch187 has mentioned. Seems like th enlisted and officers really work as one. I envy those guys truly putting it all on the line, and if I know all the bombs and ammo me and my crew loaded successfully, hopefully they saved someone's life and sent the bad to meet whoever they pray to.



Anywyas, what career field did you have in mind? I know you said you wanted to get your hands dirty, but how? Aircraft maintainence? Vehicle maintainence? Engineering?

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Jtuned_andy

Well by just looking at the airforce website and seeing what looks interesting, these are some things that I have entertained.

as CH' mentioned above, I would also consider being an engineer if that means some kinds of field work or hands on experience.

aerial gunner (enlisted) - self explanatory, get to shoot shit, get to be on a bird

airborne battle management (enlisted) - get my wings and work with computer systems aboard a c-130 or e-3

aircraft maintenance officer - hopefully do more than just tell people what to do and visit meetings

munitions and missle maintenance officer - again, hopefully get to work hands on with munitions and not just push request paperwork around

air liaison officer - this is interesting but probably not for me, i'd love to be in combat but this job probably requires some basic medical knowledge. I dont know if i can handle digging slugs out of dudes in downed blackhawks.

Pilot - the ultimate end game for me and where I really want to be. I dont neccesarily need to fly F-22s (yea right) I could handle flying bigger multi engine aircraft or transport. I know you probably think "yea well get your shit straight if you want to be a pilot". I have experience with flying at least small, one engine aircraft, however I do not have my pilots license but have always been in love with airplanes since I was little.

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datpurpledrank

Whatever job you choose when doing enlisted think of long run. Ariel gunner, cool while in but what you gonna use it for after time served. No career for it

Jtuned_andy

I have skill sets rooted in the automotive field that I can use if I discharge from the military, not trying to sound snobish but I have other venues that I can follow if/when that day comes. If I choose a path in the military that does happen to lead to better job lineups when i'm out than all the better.

I know you are probably thinking, "well pick one or the other". I have been contemplating the Airforce very seriously for a year or so now and I like being able to be proficient at many things. Of course, once i'm in the military i will obviously have one primary job but I'd like to live and experience all types of work experiences if I have the opportunity. At this point in my life i'm very free to choose multiple types of work, I think I am very fortunate.

I mentioned above but i'll put it out again, if I join the services there is a 50/50 chance that it will be for multiple tours i.e. more than 4 years. That is my whole point of being an officer is that it opens up the pay scale and opportunities for me to continue to grow in the Airforce.

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Toi

The aerial gunner idea is awesome, I went through the school was ready to go but then the wife got sick and I ended up staying Weapons.....this was back when gunners were all 2W1/462s.

It is not an easy school either, if you are not ready to push yourself physically you are going to be hurting.

I never regret the time I put in wearing a Uniform, the only regret I have is not being able to shoot every ungrateful, POS American that thinks its fine to bad mouth the Military, not support them, and protest their funerals.

ttmblinkme182

Yeah, I'm a c5 crew chief. Have been for about 3 years. Maintenance officers have to have a basic idea of how the plane works. Our T.O.'s (technical orders) tell us how to do each individual job. The only time I've seen maintenance officers on the plane is if we had to fix the plane in a way that wasn't mentioned in the T.O.'s. We do the work and then they sign off the job based on whether they think it's safe for flight. As far as working on the plane though, my last M.O. always tried to jump in an help us and we would have to tell him not to because technically he wasn't signed off to do the task we were working. Just a little tip though if you do go that route. Don't be a douchebag officer, trust your mechanics and don't think you know more than them. You're in charge of course but you can make things difficult for yourself real quick if you piss off your maintainers.

lflkajfj12123

I'm not in the military but AMEN!

Toi

^^This right here can be the difference between getting to fly or going back home to have a grilled cheese sammich!!!!

fliprayzin240sx

Been in 11 yrs a week ago. Only cool officers I've ever dealt with are either prior enlisted officers or came from a family of prior military who's parents were enlisted.

On that note, holy fuck...11 yrs went by quick.

But really tho, if you want to get your hands "dirty", it will almost never happen. Your #1 job in the military would be delegate jobs and make sure they're done on a timely manner, basically be a manager. If you want to talk to somebody, I can refer you to my old Officer in Charge. Communications officer, basically went into AF after getting out of school and ROTC. Figured better to get the info straight from the horse's mouth.

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91sil80

im a raptor crew chief turned recruiter. the first think you need to do is find out if the air force will even take you. a B.S doesnt really mean shit anymore, i put a guy in enlisted who had a masters. if you have a generic degree then good luck. you might have to apply multiple times to get accepted. if you have a technical degree then you might have a better shot. you have no idea the amount of people who apply for ots. youve got less than a 10% chance of being accepted and if your gpa is less that 3.5 you might as well hang it up. sorry for being blunt thats just how it is with the economy the way it is. alot of people cant even get a civilian job with a B.S.

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Jtuned_andy

I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in a technical field with a 3.1ish GPA. I appreciate your candor, I will take that into consideration if I do decide to apply

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91sil80

sorry if i came off a bit rude i just read over my post, im a straigt shooter and sometimes that makes me come off wrong. with you having a technical degree you have a better shot at being accepted than someone with say a buisness management degree. youll be competing with people from all walks of life. the air force looks at your application from a whole person standpoint, they want to see what will make you a good leader vs the next guy. they look at clubs and organizations you were a part of in college stuff like that. even if they dont pick you up the first time dont give up, put another app in the next cycle. another option you have is go enlisted if you qualify and after 365 days of active duty you can put a package in to ots. you have a higher % pickup rate going that route. and i think thats the best way to make you a well rounded officer because you can see things from an enlisted point of view. you can pm me if you have any questions. i see you are loacated east coast but where exactly?

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91 TTZ