I’m going active duty Air Force. What’s it like?

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 19:49:52 -0500

I’m in the Army National Guard as an E4 and I’m switching to active duty Air Force. Paperwork is almost 100% through. Can someone share active duty Air Force experiences and what I can expect?

Response by MSgt Neil Greenfield made Jan 4 at 2018 8:10 PM

MSgt Neil Greenfield — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 20:10:49 -0500

Culture shock! I went from Regular Army to Air National Guard. We all wear the uniform of the USA, but it's a bit different. I spent time on active duty for training while in the ANG and the overall philosophy is different. Expect to be reminded that you're supposed to be technically proficient always. Unless you're going Security Police or something to do with special operations, you won't be touching small arms weapons again, at least not as much as the Army does. But that's not all bad.

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Jan 4 at 2018 8:37 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 20:37:40 -0500

I'm just curious...what promoted you to change over? Not that I disagree, certainly, I was merely wondering...I gather youre going to have a similar USAF AFSC to your Army MOS? I'm also assuming they're going to send you for some level of orientation, though, being prior Army, I'd expect it'd be more customs and ceremonies, rules and regs, subtle interservice differences, I'd guess. I'd find interesting if you could possibly elaborate somewhat, I find what you'd described of interest. Are you getting same rank, higher rank? I'm also assuming your Army file would also ne transferred got sake of continuity...I'd originally been Army ROTC, though I went USAF OTS instead...are you going from ARNG to SNG, or are you going USAFR, or USAF active? Did you want to change fields? Obviously, I'd expect your zarmy stuff would clearly translate well to USAF, certainly, did you want more education, did you want to get your bachelors, go career enlisted, go commissioned, ose aspects also occurred to me. One of my younger brothers was King Point, Merchant Marine, he went USNR that way, I also had friends who were Navy enlisted and Navy commissioned. Did you look at going Guard or Reserve Tech as full time civil service with the drilling requirements for those at all? I'd be interested to hear more, so far as you might be able to explain, many thanks, if I think of more, I'll try to send it, interesting account.

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Jan 4 at 2018 8:44 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 20:44:57 -0500

Oh, I saw, youre going active USAF, I missed that, however. If you could elaborate on the other things I'd mentioned, I'd be interested to hear more. I tend to agree with the other thohght here about technical proficiency, culturally, I'd expect there would be differences, certainly. I had to be under numerous civil servants as raters, which, initially, I hadn't expected, I did have active duty raters, however, not as many, actually. I can tell you I'd expect that they're gonna be real serious about getting PME done, you should also make use of Communism College of the AF (CCAF), if you haven't already done undergrad at all much thus far. There are also programs in USAF for senior NCOs to get their Ph.D.s at AF Inst of Tech (AFIT,l, I've seen videos about that program. Further, USAF obviously doesn't have warrants, I'd seen that really senior NCOs were actually allowed to head system program offices (SPOs), essentially acing as the functional equivalent of warrants. I can explain a good deal more, I saw a good deal of Army also while I'd been in, though likely not enough to make really detailed comparisoms, hope was of ise and/or interest, be eager to hear more, many thanks

Response by SFC Joseph Weber made Jan 5 at 2018 1:48 AM

SFC Joseph Weber — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 01:48:54 -0500

Be careful saluting too vigorously. You could startle an AF Officer and he might spill his coffee on himself. Also, Aim High a lot.