High School Life

[Mikenike]

17 hours ago, Lewie said:

Same! Are you thinking of going to Officer training school after college?

I am thinking of applying to the USAF college right out of high school. And using CAP to boost my career for now. Joining CAP in a few weeks here. Our local CAP squadron isn't tied to a school or anything, so I get to join no matter what school. But in the USAF if you go through the Air Force Academy you become an officer, which is what I plan to do. I would also be helping my ability to go that route through CAP. If I cannot go through the Air Force Academy, then I would join the Marine Corps and just become enlisted, and not go to become an officer through Annapolis.

What do you plan to do?

[Lewie]

1 hour ago, Mikenike said:

What do you plan to do?

Going to SDSU, get a bachelor’s. Head out to officer training school. I’m planning on enlisting in the Air national guard to help pay for college/get some military experience. Going to head out to officer training school after that. Have a much better chance if doing what you want out of OTS then the academy.

[Mikenike]

27 minutes ago, Lewie said:

Have a much better chance if doing what you want out of OTS then the academy.

Really?? I tought that the academy would have been a better idea than OTS. Out of curiousity what are you wanting to do for the Air Force?

[Lewie]

3 hours ago, Mikenike said:

Really?? I tought that the academy would have been a better idea than OTS. Out of curiousity what are you wanting to do for the Air Force?

Yeah, with the Academy you get to ask for your desired job based on your rank in your class. (Top student chooses first, second chooses second, etc.)

I hope to fly some of the 5th generation fighters, actually. (Especially the F-22...but go figure, it’s being retired in the 2030’s)

[Mikenike]

9 minutes ago, Lewie said:

Yeah, with the Academy you get to ask for your desired job based on your rank in your class. (Top student chooses first, second chooses second, etc.)

I knew that but what does OTS offer that the academy doesn't??I can go academy and get certified in other things, and if I do well enough, I can go through some simulator training in junior year, as well as have my private pilots liscense by then, (hoping to start training next year, 14-15 yrs old, so by the end, I'll be 16, and I can just take the test and be on with it.

[Lewie]

13 minutes ago, Mikenike said:

I knew that but what does OTS offer that the academy doesn't??I can go academy and get certified in other things, and if I do well enough, I can go through some simulator training in junior year, as well as have my private pilots liscense by then, (hoping to start training next year, 14-15 yrs old, so by the end, I'll be 16, and I can just take the test and be on with it.

Well, from what I have read/heard, you have a higher chance if doing what you want when you’re all said and done with OTS. I’m not saying the academy is a bad way to go, but OTS is a bit more...guaranteed.

[Mikenike]

5 hours ago, Lewie said:

Well, from what I have read/heard, you have a higher chance if doing what you want when you’re all said and done with OTS. I’m not saying the academy is a bad way to go, but OTS is a bit more...guaranteed.

I could get more training, like parachute, etc. in the academy though

[Mikenike]

Aighty then. Thursday. Thursday was short, but long and drawn out. I went through civics with one thing in my brain, my cross country race later that day. I simply went to civics and then to ELA. When I got to PE. I trolled around on the forums, anticipating the hours to come. At the end of 3rd period, I went tinto the locker room and changed into my XC uniform, then waited for our coach to make us hop on the bus. I hopped on the bus with my team, [snip]. Within the first minute, I was chilling with my teammates and had my headphones in, listening to one of my Spotify Playlists. Well, a short (felt like 500 yrs) while later, we were in [snip] stretching for our meet.  The girls ran first. We had two of them PR, or get a personal record. We also had our best runner for the girls team get a school record, by 2 minutes, besting our second best runner and her school record. Our guys team was not so lucky. While we may have been some hot stuff in our area, running an average 20:30 3 mile, most all the runners at regionals were in the 18ish mark. We walked away without a trophy, and one state placement. Good end to the school's first true Cross Country season. We grabbed McDonalds' after on our way home. We overall had a good regionals meet, and a great season. Now, on to Tennis, then Track. We have offically gone back full time for Freshm(eat)an. So expect more, and faster. Thank you to @Lewie for answering some questions, and being a continous supporter of this series.

[adsii1970]

On 11/4/2020 at 2:54 PM, Lewie said:

Well, from what I have read/heard, you have a higher chance if doing what you want when you’re all said and done with OTS. I’m not saying the academy is a bad way to go, but OTS is a bit more...guaranteed.

Not so. As a legal NCO (non-commissioned officer), I cannot tell you the number of folks the Army sent home or back to their assigned units because they could not survive OTS/OCS. When the Clinton Administration put BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) and the QMP (Quality Management Program) into effect, we saw soldiers who could not make it through OTS/OCS  discharged from the Army as an E5/Sergeant rather than being allowed to stay in. And it could have been for any reason.

Case in point, we had a female, a military police NCO, who was going for her commission. She broke her arm during one of the training exercises. Nothing major, but would require her to have some time for recovery before continuing. But because it would have caused her to have to be "recycled" (the term used for someone who could not complete the training for any reason the first time through), she was discharged instead.

During that time (1992-1996) I saw a lot of good strong leaders in the military who were sent packing because of the desire to reduce the size of the military by any means possible. It left us with serious issues in the regular forces, the reserves, and National Guard. There is just as much risk with OCS/OTS as there is with going to any of the military academies. But the benefit of going to one of the academies is when you graduate from there, you have a commission AND a B.A. or B.S. - a degree that no one can ever take away.

[Mikenike]

6 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

But the benefit of going to one of the academies is when you graduate from there, you have a commission AND a B.A. or B.S. - a degree that no one can ever take away.

And I can get parachute training, and if I get my private pilots license before joining, I have a better chance of going to fly, because I have made it past basic flight school, which allots more time for me to focus on other things, such as my grades etc.

[Lewie]

8 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Not so. As a legal NCO (non-commissioned officer), I cannot tell you the number of folks the Army sent home or back to their assigned units because they could not survive OTS/OCS. When the Clinton Administration put BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) and the QMP (Quality Management Program) into effect, we saw soldiers who could not make it through OTS/OCS  discharged from the Army as an E5/Sergeant rather than being allowed to stay in. And it could have been for any reason.

Case in point, we had a female, a military police NCO, who was going for her commission. She broke her arm during one of the training exercises. Nothing major, but would require her to have some time for recovery before continuing. But because it would have caused her to have to be "recycled" (the term used for someone who could not complete the training for any reason the first time through), she was discharged instead.

During that time (1992-1996) I saw a lot of good strong leaders in the military who were sent packing because of the desire to reduce the size of the military by any means possible. It left us with serious issues in the regular forces, the reserves, and National Guard. There is just as much risk with OCS/OTS as there is with going to any of the military academies. But the benefit of going to one of the academies is when you graduate from there, you have a commission AND a B.A. or B.S. - a degree that no one can ever take away.

1.

Thank you for your service!

 

2.

I should've phrased that better. I meant safe as in securing your chances of being a pilot (provided passing OTS, of course)  From what I read and heard, with the Academy, it goes by the top of the class,(for requesting a AFCS) then second, etc. etc.  With OTS, it sounded that any request you made would be more likely to be followed out on.  The wording is my bad, sorry about that! 

 

[adsii1970]

30 minutes ago, Lewie said:

2.

I should've phrased that better. I meant safe as in securing your chances of being a pilot (provided passing OTS, of course)  From what I read and heard, with the Academy, it goes by the top of the class,(for requesting a AFCS) then second, etc. etc.  With OTS, it sounded that any request you made would be more likely to be followed out on.  The wording is my bad, sorry about that! 

There is a sure-fire way to be at the top of the pilot selection list and I have seen it done in both the Army and know of it happening in the Navy with a buddy of mine. Before you begin officer's training, get a civilian pilot's license. If you are planning to head into the Army,  get a license to fly helicopters. For the Navy (and presumably the other branches) get either a helicopter pilot's license or fixed wing aircraft with instruments rating pilot's license.

[Lewie]

46 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

There is a sure-fire way to be at the top of the pilot selection list and I have seen it done in both the Army and know of it happening in the Navy with a buddy of mine. Before you begin officer's training, get a civilian pilot's license. If you are planning to head into the Army,  get a license to fly helicopters. For the Navy (and presumably the other branches) get either a helicopter pilot's license or fixed wing aircraft with instruments rating pilot's license.

Thanks! This is very good to know...luckily, the college I am planning to go to (SDSU) offers flight training. (With instrument rating too!) so this is very, very good to know. Thank you so much for this little tid-bit!

I guess I should probably write down my day, too. 

Drill was fun, we practiced for the cake cutting ceremony. (For the Marine Corps Birthday. As of me writing this, it is tomorrow, November 10) A couple of my fellow LE-1’s locked their knees while standing at POA came close to blacking out. When one of them, a fellow head strong fellow, denied he almost blacked out, the Sgt.Maj. Was NOT happy! He may only be 5’7, but boy oh boy...

Yeah, don’t tick off an Ex-marine. (He is actually a very great man, but y’know...don’t tick him off, and he’ll be very nice) 

Ela was fine. We’re going to be reading the novel All American Boys. It does have a rather political message and does have to deal with rather recent events in America, so I will refrain from talking about it.

Biology was fine, we just did a review for an upcoming test.

Shop was ok, we just continues work on our yard dice. Not the most exciting project. 

Lunch was decent. I grabbed a turkey sandwich, but it was frozen...yum. Turkey flavored popsicle, anyone? I gnawed on the sandwich (it was frozen, hard as a rock!) and ate my apple. I really do like apples. 

Math was fine, just a review day. Managed to get my homework done in class.

Play production was the same as the last few days-working on a 3d model in  Sketchup. It was raining today, and the theater roof was leaking...right over my seat. Not complaining, really, I just moved down a couple seats. Just kinda interesting. And I had PT team after school. Man, we do some tough workouts! (We go down to the Marine Recruiters on so e days) 

So overall, today was just boring. And naturally, my sisters are being louder then Mötley Crüe, so a raging headache is coming down. Oh, and the house is a mess. Go figure...

After I get the house clean, I’ll probably play some Stormworks with a friend, if I have time. Anyway, good night everyone!

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Lewie

[Mikenike]

13 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Before you begin officer's training, get a civilian pilot's license.

I was already training for it.

 

13 hours ago, Lewie said:

Yeah, don’t tick off an Ex-marine.

Its like ticking off a drunken sailor, but the marine isn't drunk.

 

14 hours ago, Lewie said:

.

Thank you for your service!

Couldn'tve said it better myself.

[Mikenike]

Monday. I had school yesterday, for the first time since [snip] We had all the freshman here today. I dropped off my trumpet in the pound, and made my way to civics. We are covering the organization of Congress and Judical system. It is really interesting[snip]. I then went over to ELA, and after some seat changes, I was discussing some parts of ALBD. After some basic level discussion, we were dismissed. I rushed over to PE, were we have just been hurrying up and waiting, fun, yet boring, I'd rather be doing something good with my time in PE, working out, or playing games. I went to Band, where we changed seats, again, and then we went out to play. We worked on a few songs, and packed up. I went up to physical science, where the class doubled in size.  So after we did some work on the never ending periodic table, we had lunch, if you could call it that. They took the grilled cheese concept to the NEXT level entirely. IBCA was easy, it was a mere review, and geometry was annoying

[Mikenike]

14 hours ago, Lewie said:

For the Marine Corps Birthday. As of me writing this, it is tomorrow, November 10

Yeah!! USMC SEMPER FI.

[Mikenike]

See ya tomorrow fellas.

[J O N]

@Mikenike You're interested in joining the Air Force, and if I understand correctly as a pilot? And is that the same for @Lewie? If that is the case I am too! I'd try to get an aerospace degree and become a pilot.  I hope maybe I'd get assigned to some space, or very high altitude capable aircraft, which a degree in aerospace engineering would be conducive to. Kindof like what Armstrong did before he did that landing on the moon thing. (man do I feel like an idiot writing this, I have no idea what I'm talking about!)

[Mikenike]

8 hours ago, J O N said:

ou're interested in joining the Air Force, and if I understand correctly as a pilot? And is that the same for @Lewie? If that is the case I am too! I'd try to get an aerospace degree and become a pilot.

Yes, we are going to join the air force. The aerospace degree isn't the best, the Navy(Im using them as an example) pretty much requires an engineering degree, and the air force prefers engineer or aerospace. Don't feel dumb. If you have read some(or all) of the posts in this thread, then you know that you need good grades (GPA of 3.87 or higher), and that you must have a good academic record, sports is one of the optional criterea.

[Mikenike]

On to yesterday. Yesterday was kinda fun not gonna lie. I had a boring civics class, where I did other classes work for the entire class. In ELA I started a project with 5 other people and we worked on that all class. I goofed off with my friends in P.E, we are just getting started playing games later this week or whatever. In band I am prepping for a game tomorrow (My first HS football game, last one the other team cancelled). I went up to my favorite class, physical science, and worked a little on the Bohr Model Periodic Table (boring as he//). We got like 20 done. Then I went to IBCA (I Bore you and don't Care About you) where we were told to finish up stuff from last 9 wks. In Geometry we worked on Lesson 8, which is kinda easy not gonna lie to yall. I had a tennis thing after school, but it was cancelled due to incessant rain. 

Yesterday was also the USMC's birthday, and today, the 11th, is Veterans Day. Hooah

[Lewie]

1 hour ago, Mikenike said:

Yes, we are going to join the air force. The aerospace degree isn't the best, the Navy(Im using them as an example) pretty much requires an engineering degree, and the air force prefers engineer or aerospace. Don't feel dumb. If you have read some(or all) of the posts in this thread, then you know that you need good grades (GPA of 3.87 or higher), and that you must have a good academic record, sports is one of the optional criterea.

I’m not so sure about the degree...

I know an Air Force Colonel, and he has been flying the f-16 for almost 20 years now...

On an Agricultural Business degree. The Air Force’s criteria very well could have changed since then, but I was though that as long as it was a 4 year bachelors degree you’d be fine. 

Oh, and  @J O N it also helps to be in activities like Boy scouts (as of writing this, I am a few months away from Eagle!) and JROTC, and in college ROTC.

Cheers!

Lewie

, 

[Mikenike]

10 minutes ago, Lewie said:

On an Agricultural Business degree. The Air Force’s criteria very well could have changed since then, but I was though that as long as it was a 4 year bachelors degree you’d be fine. 

 

Could be.

[J O N]

3 minutes ago, Lewie said:

I’m not so sure about the degree...

I know an Air Force Colonel, and he has been flying the f-16 for almost 20 years now...

On an Agricultural Business degree. The Air Force’s criteria very well could have changed since then, but I was though that as long as it was a 4 year bachelors degree you’d be fine. 

Well that is quite amusing! But ofc my goal is to get assigned to sub orbital/space capable/almost kinda space capable aircraft, and then maybe become an astronaut for NASA. But alas, NASA hiring rounds are absurdly competitive so I will probably never get hired (I heard the last hiring round 85,000 applied 15 got in).

 

8 minutes ago, Lewie said:

Oh, and  @J O N it also helps to be in activities like Boy scouts (as of writing this, I am a few months away from Eagle!) and JROTC, and in college ROTC.

I will admit I have very little knowledge as to the workings of the JROTC, and ROTC programs. I used to want to join them a few years ago when I was leaning towards the Marine Corp, but I was very young back then and didn't even bother to research it. As for activities to make you a more attractive candidate for collage (and hopefully NASA too) I am working on designing a rocket engine (irl!) albeit a puny, very inefficient, and low thrust one.

15 minutes ago, Lewie said:

The Air Force’s criteria very well could have changed since then, but I was though that as long as it was a 4 year bachelors degree you’d be fine. 

Yes I did read somewhere that any 4 year bachelors degree will do.

[Mikenike]

1 minute ago, J O N said:

But ofc my goal is to get assigned to sub orbital/space capable/almost kinda space capable aircraft, and then maybe become an astronaut for NASA.

The closest thing in the USAF inventory to the things you want would be the rocketry side of the USAF, not the flight side. It would be beneficial to have a pilot role, however the USAF doesn't have these type of craft avalible just yet. Your best bet would be to join the USSF and hope for the best. I don't think the USSF has an academy yet, or if it is integrated to the AFA , so research is required. There is no sub orbital/space capable craft really created yet. The U-2 has gotten close, as has the SR-71, but we do't have sustained sub orbital craft that can reach space.

The X-15 is probably the highest flying plane ever, up to like 105,000 ft. And SS1 has gotten up to 112,000 ft.

Got to get back to class, see yall ltr.

[J O N]

3 minutes ago, Mikenike said:

The closest thing in the USAF inventory to the things you want would be the rocketry side of the USAF, not the flight side. It would be beneficial to have a pilot role, however the USAF doesn't have these type of craft avalible just yet.

Well The main reason I want to be a pilot is that a pre-requisite for applying to NASA for a position as an astronaut is that you have over 1000 hours commanding a jet fighter, or other similar aircraft (I assume this is because of how similar the cockpit of a fighter jet is to that of  a command pod, and the similar high octane situations you'd be subjected to). Most astronauts I know of used the USAF, or their countries equivalent to get into NASA (or their countries NASA equivalent). As of now I think the USSF is only doing research and development, they have been allocated some money from the pentagon. But I'm not sure if they operate fully independently from the USAF yet. However if the USSF does become an option, or I am offered an option to move from the USAF to the USSF I would very happily take it up.

As for those orbital/space capable/almost kinda space capable aircraft I was talking about, yes basically High altitude aircraft would be my best option I think  (or whatever is available).