Hey yall. its been awhile since i was last on here well im back.
to keep to topic. I am going into the U.S. Air Force in 2 years. Does any one have any advice or anything that might be able to help me before i go?
Don’t be scared of heights 
You’d be better off asking at your recruitment station to be honest.
Have a lawyer review your enlistment contract, before you sign on the dotted line…
Also, learn to fly in the middle of the sky.
Problems always occur when you fly into the edges of the sky, like land and sea and mountains and space.
Im not going to be a pilot. I am going in for Aerial Gunner. im not afraid of heights. I fell in love with helicopters when i went to the beach and they took me up in one over the ocean. It was the most amazing thing i ever did or saw.
Hey Sniper,
Have you signed on the dotted line yet? I joined the USAF right out of high School when I was only 17 and I have to say it was the best thing I ever did. I recommend a job that will teach you a skill, something you can use when you get out. Not to be mean or anything but there’s not much call for an aerial gunner on the outside and if you love helicopters, I think the Army would be a better choice and learn to fly them and if that’s not for you… learn to fix them…lots of jobs for a good helicopter mechanic.
I went in the AF as crash rescue fire fighter and truly believe the experience I received there got me hired on with my City as a FF. Again…get a skill you can use in the outside world.
Take some time to go through the jobs they offer, and chose the one or two that you really like. You can see what the fine points are, about each, and decide for yourself what you want to do. Recruiters are no different than used car salesmen, they have quotas for enlistments, and for the most needed jobs, they get extra$$. They will try to steer you into one of those if they can, and bending the truth is fine by them. They have a basic test series to "help you decide " what you want to do, but do your homework, and tell them what YOU want.
There will be the usual 1st, second third choice thing, but You dont have to go that route if you dont want to, just be firm on the one you really want. If he says, “we dont need that now or for a year” etc, then say thats fine, I’ll wait.And if the form has extra lines for 2nd-3rd choice, be SURE TO LINE THEM THROUGH IF YOU DONT USE THEM, OR HE MAY FILL IN SOMETHING ONCE YOU LEAVE. Remember, its your life, and your goals, so you make the choice. The key is, do your homework as to your chosen field (occupational specialty) So you know what is what, that will keep any lying to a minimum.
When its signing time for the contract, they will bring you a military lawyer, but you cant have your own. So it was in the early 70’s, I hope things have improved in the meantime.
You mean the American armed services actually give recruits their chosen military occupation?
Isn’t there a “if you qualify during training” type of clause that could result in a recruit ending up as a grunt, driver, clerk, grave digger or whatever because he or she washed out in basic or corps training?
I can’t believe that a recruiter would mislead a candidate. 
OK, it happened to me when I told the recruiting sergeant I wanted to command a Ferret scout car and he assured me that in practically no time I’d be living my dream of flying across the landscape with my scarf and aerials lashing in the wind, but maybe he didn’t know that after I’d signed up I’d discover that the unit had only a few Ferrets and that it’d take me about fifteen years to get to the top of the waiting list to get a seat in one. He seemed like a very nice man and it’s hard to believe he would have misled me, although he had been in the unit for a long time and you’d think he’d know about such things. 
I must qualify that point, if one enlists for a certain term, one can (this was the early 70’s, could be different now as then we had the draft) one could choose the occupational specialty, or location of posting after training. this would be part of the enlistment contract, subject of course to the allocation schedules for each occupation. how many people would be needed to keep each job staffed in a given year. If your dream job was full, you could wait till a spot opened to join, or choose something else. One could request both what and where, but only one could be guaranteed. (but you might get lucky.) If you were drafted, you can make requests for occupation, or location, but Uncle Sugar has the last word on that.(which means the sorting staff has a laugh, then throws it in the bin, and assigns you to latrine maintainance.) I agree, that the enlistment N.C.O’s should really know their stuff,so I’m sure it was some manner of odd mistake that ended you up in the wrong job, they are after all,paragons of virtue…
If you want to drive a Ferret, come to the states, you can buy one on ebay.
A plane without a tail may crash upon a plain, but not the other way around.:
Good one!:lol:
Tailless planes in Spain fall mainly upon the plain.
Brilliant Sir!!
At least no one does the old “Kings Shilling” trick anymore,invite local men to the pub, buy the first round, and slip the King’s shilling into the tankard, invisible till the drink is near finished. Then when discovered, the thirsty unfortunate has accepted the shilling, completing the enlistment process… (or so it was told to me.) I had always wondered why Tankards were later given glass bottoms,an easy foil to this trick.Sad for he, who does the glass unwisely take…
If you want to be an aerial gunner (door gunner if you will) the U.S. Army may be a better choice. Both branches deploy a large number of helicopters but the Army usually has more door gunners simply because they normally send more helos into combat. The better you score on your ASVAB the more likely you are to get the occupation of you’re choice but if you score too high be warned that they will try rather high to get you into Military Intelligence. As for signing on the dotted line, don’t sign anything until your old enough to enter and review everything closely. Another thing to consider, if you enroll in a community college and get a 2 year degree before enlisting you can usually come out of basic with some rank but that can backfire, I went that route and was going to enter as an E-4 and be going to NCO school after my training was complete but I blew out a knee in college and ended up not being able to enlist. 
Now if you’re sure that aerial gunnery is your chosen field start shooting skeet with a shotgun, it is some of the best practice a civilian can get. Also learn all the mechanics you can, door gunners are usually cross trained as on board mechanics incase there is a problem with the helicopter. :army:
Or get a high pressure water hose and learn to hit moving objects at a distance with the water. It’s like tracer and it teaches you to lead off.
Never thought about that, but should work well…skeet shooting is just how many door gunners were trained in the old days-don’t know about now-they would mount a skeet thrower in a truck and put the trainee in the same truck and start driving and throwing skeet. Don’t know how practical (or safe!) that would be in the real world though.