Posted on Mar 3, 2019
Are there any USAF Space Operations officers willing to talk about their career field to help an AS 300 cadet choose for the dreamsheet?
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I'm torn between Intel and Space Operations. Both sound like a lot of fun. I'll need more details to know how to order my preferences.
13S: Space Operations
(Pre-Commission)
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 5
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Space is awesome. It is what you make of it, but the next 5-10 years are going to be incredible. I'd go with that between the two. My personal opinion as a 5 year space ops guy.
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2d Lt (Join to see)
Capt (Join to see) I agree sir, space is pretty cool. That's why I've thought about it so much. I'm going to list my questions in a comment above. If you would be willing to answer the questions, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you!
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If you're willing to indulge my questions, I've broken my 18 questions down into four categories; Your role(s)/experiences, initial training, initial positions/duties, deployments, and career development.
Your Role(s) and Experiences
1. What is your current role (in a level that you can tell me if some level of your tasking is classified)? What were your past roles?
2. How frequently do you give briefings? What are some of the things you tend to do frequently besides briefings?
3. Do you tend to work mostly with other officers or are you mostly in charge of enlisted personnel?
4. Do you usually have consistent work hours, or do they rotate frequently for 24/7 coverage?
Initial Training and Positions
1. What does the training pipeline look like for newly commissioned second lieutenants?
2. How long can we expect after commissioning before we get our EAD date? I know pilots can have up to a year wait.
3. Is there much hands-on training, or is it mostly academic?
4. What kind of base options can we expect to start with? How do those options evolve over time?
5. What kinds of skills, characteristics, and academic background are most helpful for success?
6. What do you wish you knew when you started that you know now?
Deployments
1. What kind of deployment opportunities are there?
2. How frequently and how long are typical deployments?
3. Are deployments typically voluntarily, mandatory, or something in between?
Career Development
1. Besides normal USAF trainings like Squadron Officer School that everyone should attend in person or remotely, what are continuing education opportunities for Space Operations officers?
2. When we get ready to pursue a Masters, does it matter what it's in, or just that we have one?
3. Are there opportunities to develop, acquire, and/or maintain foreign language proficiency?
4. What are general duties for Space Operations officers?
5. Is there any other general advice you would want to pass on?
I greatly appreciate you taking the time to respond to my laundry list of questions. It will give me valuable insight into how I order my dream-sheet. Thank you!
Your Role(s) and Experiences
1. What is your current role (in a level that you can tell me if some level of your tasking is classified)? What were your past roles?
2. How frequently do you give briefings? What are some of the things you tend to do frequently besides briefings?
3. Do you tend to work mostly with other officers or are you mostly in charge of enlisted personnel?
4. Do you usually have consistent work hours, or do they rotate frequently for 24/7 coverage?
Initial Training and Positions
1. What does the training pipeline look like for newly commissioned second lieutenants?
2. How long can we expect after commissioning before we get our EAD date? I know pilots can have up to a year wait.
3. Is there much hands-on training, or is it mostly academic?
4. What kind of base options can we expect to start with? How do those options evolve over time?
5. What kinds of skills, characteristics, and academic background are most helpful for success?
6. What do you wish you knew when you started that you know now?
Deployments
1. What kind of deployment opportunities are there?
2. How frequently and how long are typical deployments?
3. Are deployments typically voluntarily, mandatory, or something in between?
Career Development
1. Besides normal USAF trainings like Squadron Officer School that everyone should attend in person or remotely, what are continuing education opportunities for Space Operations officers?
2. When we get ready to pursue a Masters, does it matter what it's in, or just that we have one?
3. Are there opportunities to develop, acquire, and/or maintain foreign language proficiency?
4. What are general duties for Space Operations officers?
5. Is there any other general advice you would want to pass on?
I greatly appreciate you taking the time to respond to my laundry list of questions. It will give me valuable insight into how I order my dream-sheet. Thank you!
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Capt (Join to see)
I have done many things since starting.
After tech school training for initial space training and satellite command and control , I was a payload operator for strategic SATCOM (MILSTAR/AEHF) where I basically sent commands, gathered telemetry and updated cryptography on satellites during shift work, then a Payload engineer where I worked to build updates for and troubleshooted satellites during problems (non-shift work), a deputy mission planning cell chief where I planned operations and developed tactics to protect previously mentioned satellites, a crew commander (11 officers/enlisted in the crew) where I managed the crew performing MILSTAR/AEHF/WGS/DSCS (all different satellite constellations) operations during shift work. I then moved squadrons to the 50 OSS where I worked in Wing Weapons and Tactics helping to integrate all the 50th Space Wing squadrons operations and tactics, as well as developed wing level advanced training. Currently I am attending the USAF Weapons School in the Space Superiority Weapons Instructor Course. (An extremely rigorous course that helps explain why I took so long to follow up haha).
Something that would be different for you is that the initial training course is going to be majorly revamped and will be significantly better than what I went through. We as a space community are building a cadre of officers/enlisted that thinks tactically, understands our systems at a in depth level and develops ops and solutions to overcome a possible contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment, and the new training will reflect that.
I know that pretty much just answered your first question, but I will continue to follow up to get at your other questions as I have time.
After tech school training for initial space training and satellite command and control , I was a payload operator for strategic SATCOM (MILSTAR/AEHF) where I basically sent commands, gathered telemetry and updated cryptography on satellites during shift work, then a Payload engineer where I worked to build updates for and troubleshooted satellites during problems (non-shift work), a deputy mission planning cell chief where I planned operations and developed tactics to protect previously mentioned satellites, a crew commander (11 officers/enlisted in the crew) where I managed the crew performing MILSTAR/AEHF/WGS/DSCS (all different satellite constellations) operations during shift work. I then moved squadrons to the 50 OSS where I worked in Wing Weapons and Tactics helping to integrate all the 50th Space Wing squadrons operations and tactics, as well as developed wing level advanced training. Currently I am attending the USAF Weapons School in the Space Superiority Weapons Instructor Course. (An extremely rigorous course that helps explain why I took so long to follow up haha).
Something that would be different for you is that the initial training course is going to be majorly revamped and will be significantly better than what I went through. We as a space community are building a cadre of officers/enlisted that thinks tactically, understands our systems at a in depth level and develops ops and solutions to overcome a possible contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment, and the new training will reflect that.
I know that pretty much just answered your first question, but I will continue to follow up to get at your other questions as I have time.
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Capt (Join to see)
Apologize for some of the typos and grammar in my previous post and possibly this one. I am answering off my phone and maneuvering around the long post is a bit difficult for quality checking.
For Question 2, 3 and 4 under roles
2. Depends on the job. For example, as an operator, outside of a certification brief for my position, I rarely ever briefed. Possibly 2 or 3 times in my first year at the unit. Once/if you become a certified instructor the opportunities increase whether they are briefings or lessons being taught.
In higher level roles, you may be assigned longer term projects where you may have to give updates to leadership on a periodic basis. Also as a crew commander you will be "briefing" changeover to a crew every shift you are on.
For the most part you have a primary job in a given position that involves ops, ops support like planning, engineering, scheduling, weapons and tactics, training. Briefings are typically the minority of what you do.
3. Space is a relatively very officer heavy field % wise although still a sizable % of enlisted overall. For example, a crew could typically have 3-4 officers out of 12 people, whereas an engineering section could have 5 or 6 officers and no enlisted. Wing Weapons and Tactics had 5-6 officers and 3-4 enlisted.
4. If you are on crew doing ops your work hours will shift to cover 24/7 ops with a few others crews. When not, they are typically 7:30 - 4:30 plus/minus for getting work done and PT other things etc.
For Question 2, 3 and 4 under roles
2. Depends on the job. For example, as an operator, outside of a certification brief for my position, I rarely ever briefed. Possibly 2 or 3 times in my first year at the unit. Once/if you become a certified instructor the opportunities increase whether they are briefings or lessons being taught.
In higher level roles, you may be assigned longer term projects where you may have to give updates to leadership on a periodic basis. Also as a crew commander you will be "briefing" changeover to a crew every shift you are on.
For the most part you have a primary job in a given position that involves ops, ops support like planning, engineering, scheduling, weapons and tactics, training. Briefings are typically the minority of what you do.
3. Space is a relatively very officer heavy field % wise although still a sizable % of enlisted overall. For example, a crew could typically have 3-4 officers out of 12 people, whereas an engineering section could have 5 or 6 officers and no enlisted. Wing Weapons and Tactics had 5-6 officers and 3-4 enlisted.
4. If you are on crew doing ops your work hours will shift to cover 24/7 ops with a few others crews. When not, they are typically 7:30 - 4:30 plus/minus for getting work done and PT other things etc.
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