By Tech. Sgt. Anthony Nelson Jr. Air Force Social Media
Your U.S. Air Force is a global force. The complex operations and missions that our Airmen are responsible for stretch far beyond our nation’s borders into other areas of our world. You will take comfort in knowing our Airmen are constantly training and sharpening their skillset to meet the expectations of our leaders. Take a look below of a recent Pacific Theater exercise meant to ensure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.
By Senior Airman Soochan Kim
Air Force Social Media Team
Many of us imagine it at least once: As a five-year-old child sitting on a chair playing pretend, as a teenager playing flight simulator video games, and in my case whenever I start the engine of my car (yes, I still play pretend when I’m by myself).
I’m talking about becoming a pilot. Not so surprisingly, many people choose to join the United States Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot.
While we all dream of flying the multimillion dollar metal bird and delivering freedom to the enemies below in a form of explosives, let’s hold that thought and ask: how DO you become a pilot in the Air Force?
As many may find this surprising, it’s definitely not by wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses and growing out a Burt Reynolds mustache (not to mention that his mustache would be pushing it against the regulations). Rather, it requires an extensive amount of training and education to be selected as a pilot.
Name: Airman 1st Class Austin Thompson
Unit: 344th Training Squadron
Where are you from: St. George, Utah
Why did you join?
My obsession for all things aviation and the military sparked my idea to join and I tried to learn as much as I could from watching documentaries and YouTube videos. I joined the United States Air Force to do something different from the rest of my peers. I hope to make a career out of it.
What was your experience with the Air Force before joining?
While in high school, I was part of an Air Force Junior ROTC program with more than 350 students from five different high schools. The cadre were all awesome instructors who shared their interesting stories and life details that also shaped my decision to join. Also, my uncle just retired last year after over 20 years in the Air Force.
What does your family think of you becoming an Airman?
My family has supported me through all of my decisions to join the military. They are proud of me for what I’ve chosen to do and believe that I can do greater good for myself, my family and those around me while I am serving.
What was your recruiting experience like?
While working with my recruiter, I was given a lot of options on what I could do. After a few months of going through the process of enlisting, I swore into the United States Air Force July 12, 2013, with a list of five jobs picked. Almost 10 months later, just as I was graduating high school, I was assigned my job. I would be an aircraft loadmaster or Air Force Specialty Code 1A2X1. The final months that lead up to my BMT date I spent researching and gathering all the information I could get.
You’ve made it this far, what was your impression of Basic Military Training (BMT)?
August 13, 2013, was my first day in BMT. It was a lot different than I expected. The overall experience was more focused on learning about the Air Force and team work than just about being a warrior.
What came next for you after graduating BMT?
I traveled a short distance to tech school at the 344th Training Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. I was finally ready to get on with my training as an aircraft loadmaster apprentice and see what the job was all about.
After the first week, which is known as Students Awaiting Training week, my job training began with the Career Enlisted Aviator (CEA) portion. This part of the training is for anyone who is going into an enlisted aviator career field whether it is loadmaster or a boom operator or another aircrew position. Here you start with aircrew fundamentals, a two-week course that teaches aircrew responsibilities, basic aircraft functionalities, safety procedures, safety equipment, and the different missions of each job and what they do. All the aircrew also attend a two-day course on how to tell the difference in your own hypoxia symptoms, how to deal with those, and why it is so important to use an oxygen mask if something happens while in-flight.
How was the hypoxia chamber?
The hypoxia training, or the Chamber as we call it, was probably the funniest thing I’ve done in training. Airmen attempt to complete tasks like simple math problems while being exposed to the effects of oxygen deficiency so they can recognize the symptoms. Being able to watch my fellow Airmen not be able to do simple tasks and realize that they need to do something to keep themselves conscious really brought it to my attention that the we receive our training for a reason, and that it’s for us to be able to keep ourselves and our fellow Airmen alive.
What happens once you learn the basics of being aircrew?
After the two weeks in aircrew fundamentals, you transition to the course for your actual career field. For loadmasters the course takes approximately two months. The classes cover everything from math procedures for finding the balance and weight of the aircraft for cargo loading procedures, to learning the different mission sets of our career field like airdrops, cargo loading and unloading. I also learned how to safely secure cargo to the aircraft, different types of passengers and safety procedures.
What was the next step in your training pipeline?
After the Basic Loadmaster Course, I became a detail Airman while I wait on my security clearance which can take some time. Since then, I have been able to complete water survival at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. There I learned how to survive in a water landing scenario. The instruction covers signaling rescue aircraft, hazardous aquatic life, food and water procurement, medical aspects of water survival and life raft procedures. To simulate an emergency in-flight over water you parasail and practice parachute descents. That course was a total of five days and is required for all officer and enlisted aircrew members. If we didn’t receive that training I wouldn’t know how to handle that type of emergency.
What has been your favorite part of training so far?
My favorite training so far would have to be either the load trainer, where you load cargo onto a C-130 training device, or parachute water survival.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned so far?
That no matter what, safety and communication are key. Also, never be afraid to ask a question about something.
What other training will you receive?
To add onto that experience, I am still waiting for a class at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, for SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training. SERE is a 19-day course required for all officer and enlisted aircrew members. After that I’ll go to C-17 Initial Qualification Training (IQT) at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma. This course ranges from over three months to six months depending on if your projected assignment does or does not do airdrops. Other aircraft available to aircraft loadmasters are the C-130 and the C-5 with their airframe specific courses ranging from two to eight months long.
Do you know where you’ll be heading next?
Toward the end of our two month training here at JBSA-Lackland, we received our future duty stations. I was assigned Travis Air Force Base, California working on C-17s, but it can change. From what I’ve heard about Travis it’s a wonderful base to be at and I’m excited. I’ve done my research to a basic level on the C-17 and I know the aircraft is an awesome workhorse and can do practically every mission available.
How do you feel about how your job fits into the overall Air Force mission?
My job has a very important role within the Air Force. Not only does the Air Force rely on us and our aircraft to transport cargo and personnel from one place to another, but so do the other branches of the military.
What do you look forward to about doing the job?
The main thing I look forward to is the travel, and just being able to know that somehow, somewhere I am helping someone by delivering cargo, personnel or even someone’s loved one.
By Tech. Sgt. Quinn White
336th Training Squadron, Det. 2
Being stationed at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, there are many opportunities to venture to Washington D.C., such as when the Det. 2 staff attended the Air Force Association Air and Space Conference.
My commander and I decided one presentation we really wanted to see was Gen. Robin Rand, the Commander of Air Education and Training Command. It is not often a person can hear directly from their major command commander about the direction of the organization, and we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.
During his speech, Gen. Rand talked about how AETC is instilling heritage into our Airmen and said something that really made me think: “History makes you smarter, but heritage makes you prouder.”
Continue reading Defining her AF heritage: A military training leader’s journey
By Master Sgt. Jason W. Edwards
18th Wing Public Affairs
I was accused of sexual assault. Even after 21 years, it’s still not easy to admit that. It was 1993, and I was a young airman basic at Lowry Air Force Base, Colo. I was in technical school learning how to be an Air Force photographer.
My class consisted of eight male Airmen and Marines, and one female Airman. She told us right up front she didn’t want to be treated any differently than anyone else. We were to consider her “one of the guys.”
So we did.
Continue reading Perils of being ‘not-so-innocent’ bystander
