OT - Track Select Day (USAF)

[Warhawk]

I got to spend a little time with some of America's finest yesterday. It was track select day for my youngest son, when he found out what his follow on trainer would be. It also sets WHERE he'll be for the next six months and what he can expect to fly once he gets out into the "real" Air Force. (He is in pilot training at Vance AFB in Oklahoma)

I got to Enid about noon, and had just enough time to see his new apartment before we headed off to lunch. He said that we were having lunch with "some of the 'kids' from his class", he always calls the other Lieutenants "kids". Lucky for me we wound up having lunch with three very good looking young ladies! Two were inmy sons' pilot training class, the third was a friend of one of the other girls.

We didn't have a lot of time, as they had scheduled some time in the T-6 simulator. It's a very nice sim, with the video projected inside a dome with about 270 degree visibility. Much more high tech than the sims I've dealt with at work, they just got T-6s at Vance in 2005 so these are pretty much state of the art. The gentleman running the sim was 73 years old, did 29 years as a pilot in the USAF and 20 more (so far) as a simulator instructor. We talked a little bit, turns out he was an Air Commando in Vietnam, flying the A-1 Skyraider starting in 1968. (all he told me was that he flew A-1s, I had to pry the rest out of him).

His mom got to fly the sim, I let some of the other folks that hadn't ever done anything like that use my time. The instructor would have the Lt get in the sim and demonstrate a take off and landing, that *MIGHT* have taken Cody a minute, maybe. If he flies the actual plane as well as he does the sim ... Anyway, it was a very cool experience.

After a pizza party they had the track select ceremony. As each student would come up they had a powerpoint slide about him or her with a little joke and they would announce their next aircraft. The T-38 if you were going to the Fighter/Bomber track, the T-1 if you are going tanker/transport, T-44 if you are going to the Navy to train for the C-130, and a helictoper if you're headed to Fort Rucker to train with the Army.

I think there were 28 total in his class, 28 that completed this phase of training. A few were Navy or Marines and they didn't attend this ceremony, they do this a little differently and this was Air Force only. There were 22 at the ceremony and the final count was four T-38s (one Air Guard so really three), five went to Corpus to fly the T-44, one to Rucker to fly helicopters, and the rest will fly the T-1.

My son will be flying the T-1, which means he'll probably end up flying a C-17, C-5, KC-135, KC-10, C-130, C-21 or some other tanker/transport aircraft. It also means that he will probably NOT fly the Predator, which he wanted nothing to with.


The T-1 Jayhawk

[C. Cash]

You must be one proud Papa....congrats! I never knew they used those to train. I have good memories of watching the T-37's and T-38's at Williams AFB. Guess that was a long time ago.

[Warhawk]

We're extremely proud of him, not bad for a kid from a small town in Kansas.


They phased out the T-37 (at Vance) in 2005 and replaced it with the T-6 (pictured above). They still fly the T-38s but have added the T-1 to train the tanker & transport pilots.

[olyinaz]

Congrats to you and him! Let us know what he winds up in after training.

Best,
Oly

[wecsoger]

Being a pilot of a 'trash hauler' is nothing to be ashamed of. It rather speaks very well of his character. Fighter pilots may make all the flash and noise, but when you want someone that's calm, cool and collected in a crisis, someone who's used to pushing a C-5 through the air is your man. Or woman.

And he's now set for life. Flying for the USAF he'll see the world, literally. Might be a lot of time away from home at times but he'll be everywhere, from little unimproved barely past dirt strips to the biggest cities of the world. May not see much of the latter, but he'll be there.

AF has one policy I dislike, that to make rank past a certain point you have to stop active flying and fly a BGD-57, that's big gray desk 5'x7'. Doesn't make sense that you take highly trained people and move them out of what they're good at just so they can pin on rank.

But he can make a decision then to look at commercial airlines, or better, corporate flying.

Best of luck to him, and you.

[samb]

Congratulations you have every right to be a very proud dad! Please pass on our thank you to your son for his service.

[JReed]

Congrats. Tell him that if he ever shuttles a bunch of Marines to be nice and give em a smooth flight. Some of those gents like see how easy we get air sick.

[RSY]

Congrats. Tell him that if he ever shuttles a bunch of Marines to be nice and give em a smooth flight. So of those gents like see how easy we get air sick.

That's for sure. During the Haiti fun in '93-'94 I was stationed at GITMO, and our Colonel just had to get the Barracks involved somehow. So, he volunteered our platoon for Sparrow Hawk duty. We were assigned to a USAF CH-53, and they liked to do extreme vomit rolls, side-to-side for us. Nice guys, eh? I remember looking out the crew chief's hatch and seeing sky-sea-sky-sea, etc.

[MrMurphy]

Congrats.

Guy i was deployed with, he was an A1C, his brother commissioned. Made 1st in class across the board, and was thus allowed to select what HE wanted to fly.

He chose C-17s. Most of the rest of them wanted to kill him being fighter jocks, but while they make the flash and the noise and movies, the transports make the war happen. I guarded my fair share of both and transport crews work their tails off.


Yours doesn't seem to have the cadet attitude problem many later develop, we had quite a few USAFA kids show up at my squadron during their summer breaks to see how the real AF worked. First/second year guys were very much "cadet" called E-2s and E-3s sir, etc and we had no problems with most of them. A couple of the piloty types (already had flight suits) had to be taken down a notch or two.

In one case, my captain had us use two of them (one piloty type one not) as aggressors during an exercise. They had plastic guns we had live rounds loaded (we were still on duty) and when it came down to challenging them, the piloty one made a wrong move after being commanded not to do so. Loud reaming of fourth point of contact ensued and he got to meet the ground face first quickly.

A few minutes later after the exercise, i informed him that had this been real, he'd have been hit by five to ten rounds at that point as he looked like he was going for a weapon.

His eyes got REAL REAL big... and we ceased to have problems with him. Apparently the fact that we were the real thing, and not cadets playing simulation finally got through.


Don't think you'll have that problem with yours.

[dr walker]

Congratulations!!

[Warhawk]

Congrats. Tell him that if he ever shuttles a bunch of Marines to be nice and give em a smooth flight. Some of those gents like see how easy we get air sick.

Funny you mention that. He had 3 Marines in his T-6 class. Apparently he got along well with the Marines and the jokes about him all came from the Marines in his class. He had wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 or 12 years old, but thought he would have a better shot at being a pilot if he went Air Force. Don't know about that, but it's water under the bridge now.

[jeepnik]

Congrats. Tell him that if he ever shuttles a bunch of Marines to be nice and give em a smooth flight. Some of those gents like see how easy we get air sick.

Funny you mention that. He had 3 Marines in his T-6 class. Apparently he got along well with the Marines and the jokes about him all came from the Marines in his class. He had wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 or 12 years old, but thought he would have a better shot at being a pilot if he went Air Force. Don't know about that, but it's water under the bridge now.

Well, if he had gotten to fly 130's, he might have managed an interservice transfer. Back in the late 60's and early 70's, a few Marine Phantom pilots transfered into the USAF. Seems they realized there was a bit more chance for promotion in the Air Force than in Marine Aviation. Strictly a numbers game. Only problem they had was they weren't used to a back seater having the controls, and ability to fly the aircraft. Seems the Navy and Marines felt the back seaters should just be weapons system officers.

[Warhawk]

Congrats.

Yours doesn't seem to have the cadet attitude problem many later develop, we had quite a few USAFA kids show up at my squadron during their summer breaks to see how the real AF worked. First/second year guys were very much "cadet" called E-2s and E-3s sir, etc and we had no problems with most of them. A couple of the piloty types (already had flight suits) had to be taken down a notch or two.

Myself and his older brother are both former enlisted, so he's heard plenty about not becoming just another a**hole officer! He's never been that way anyhow and seems to have a good grasp of what's important and what's not.

One of the older boys that he looked up to growing up was killed by a sniper in Hawijah a few years ago. Cody has worn his KIA bracelet every day since he started at the Academy. He caught a little grief for it a few times, and about got in trouble for refusing to take it off ... until they bother to look at it and read what it said.

[Warhawk]

Congrats. Tell him that if he ever shuttles a bunch of Marines to be nice and give em a smooth flight. Some of those gents like see how easy we get air sick.

Funny you mention that. He had 3 Marines in his T-6 class. Apparently he got along well with the Marines and the jokes about him all came from the Marines in his class. He had wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 or 12 years old, but thought he would have a better shot at being a pilot if he went Air Force. Don't know about that, but it's water under the bridge now.

Well, if he had gotten to fly 130's, he might have managed an interservice transfer. Back in the late 60's and early 70's, a few Marine Phantom pilots transfered into the USAF. Seems they realized there was a bit more chance for promotion in the Air Force than in Marine Aviation. Strictly a numbers game. Only problem they had was they weren't used to a back seater having the controls, and ability to fly the aircraft. Seems the Navy and Marines felt the back seaters should just be weapons system officers.

There was one cadet in his squadron at the Academy that transferred to the Marines after graduation. Apparently that's a seldom used option for the cadets. Cody had said that if he didn't get "PQ" (Pilot Qualified) that he was going to transfer to the USMC after graduation.

The C-130 is still an option for him, but if he had gone to Corpus Christi to train with the Navy he would be flying C-130s for sure.

[RSY]

He had wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 or 12 years old, but thought he would have a better shot at being a pilot if he went Air Force. Don't know about that, but it's water under the bridge now.

Well, if he wanted to fly fixed wing, he made the right choice. Odds are high in the Corps that he would have ended up flying helos.

RSY

[Rusty]

Congratulations Warhawk to you and your son. I love those C-130's, the 18 wheelers of the skies!

I see the Coasties doing touch and go's at a little airport near me in their 130's several days a week. It sure does make ya feel good.

[Warhawk]

He had wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 or 12 years old, but thought he would have a better shot at being a pilot if he went Air Force. Don't know about that, but it's water under the bridge now.

Well, if he wanted to fly fixed wing, he made the right choice. Odds are high in the Corps that he would have ended up flying helos.

RSY

I don't know how many folks have paid attention, but the Air Force has to be at the low point of being able to field fighter planes. Mr Obama's administration has gutted our Air Force's capability. They have mothballed F-15s, F-16s, B-1s, B-52s, cut all future production of the F-22 and are cutting manpower levels all the time.

With all these cuts there just aren't a lot of fighter slots available, and a big chunk of the ones that get the T-38 will end up "flying" a Predator from a trailer in Las Vegas.

The current administration is putting all their eggs in the F-35 basket, and there is no doubt that they will continue to mothball our current fighters at an even faster rate once the F-35 starts rolling off the production lines, if it ever does.

I sure hope we don't have to fight a war against a competent opponent.

[jeepnik]

He had wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 or 12 years old, but thought he would have a better shot at being a pilot if he went Air Force. Don't know about that, but it's water under the bridge now.

Well, if he wanted to fly fixed wing, he made the right choice. Odds are high in the Corps that he would have ended up flying helos.

RSY

I don't know how many folks have paid attention, but the Air Force has to be at the low point of being able to field fighter planes. Mr Obama's administration has gutted our Air Force's capability. They have mothballed F-15s, F-16s, B-1s, B-52s, cut all future production of the F-22 and are cutting manpower levels all the time.

With all these cuts there just aren't a lot of fighter slots available, and a big chunk of the ones that get the T-38 will end up "flying" a Predator from a trailer in Las Vegas.

The current administration is putting all their eggs in the F-35 basket, and there is no doubt that they will continue to mothball our current fighters at an even faster rate once the F-35 starts rolling off the production lines, if it ever does.

I sure hope we don't have to fight a war against a competent opponent.

Nothing new here. And yes, at some point we will face a determined and well equiped enemy. When that happens, the thencurret generation will end up learning (expensively at that) what those before them already had learned and relearned and relearned. It's sorta the nature of the beast.

[olyinaz]

I don't know how many folks have paid attention, but the Air Force has to be at the low point of being able to field fighter planes. Mr Obama's administration has gutted our Air Force's capability. They have mothballed F-15s, F-16s, B-1s, B-52s, cut all future production of the F-22 and are cutting manpower levels all the time.

With all these cuts there just aren't a lot of fighter slots available, and a big chunk of the ones that get the T-38 will end up "flying" a Predator from a trailer in Las Vegas.

The current administration is putting all their eggs in the F-35 basket, and there is no doubt that they will continue to mothball our current fighters at an even faster rate once the F-35 starts rolling off the production lines, if it ever does.

I sure hope we don't have to fight a war against a competent opponent.

I hate to be the one to bring it up but our country is bankrupt. Our outstanding military is the least of my long term concerns, but that's just me talkin'.

Oly

[MrMurphy]

Both squadrons of F16s I guarded at my home base were 20 yrs old. And being flown daily. Fighters aren't made to have that long a shelf life with the maneuvers they do, but they're being used that way.

F-4s pushing 40+ yrs old are still being flown by some nations with retrofits, but they don't throw them around as hard as they used to. We had the Turks come through with Phantoms now and then.

In 2010, we are technologically the most advanced we've ever been militarily but budget-wise we're facing the mid 1920s again.