Nerds in the Air Force?

Renraku asks: "I know that I am considering joining the U.S. Air Force and going with their networking course. I saw in a story the other day how several people answered with comments about their own life in the Air Force, in the line of work I would be doing. Does anyone have any stories, or tips for surviving basic / tech school / Air Force life in general?"

Comments

Don't.

[presearch]

One less soldier is one step closer to peace.

Re:Don't.

[presearch]

Hey, it wasn't flamebait.

The training you'll get will be so dumbed down and slow paced
that it'll take you 8 times as long to learn the same thing in the real world.

The military wants you to think that you'll gain an exciting life, a rewarding
career, valuable work experience, travel the world, be a patriot and geek out on the
highest of tech. But in reality, you'll be stripped of your individualism,
be used as muscle to expand corporate interests abroad, have a hand in killing
other human beings and quite possibly be killed yourself.

Re:Don't.

[dt23507]

I don't know about this Air Force program, but the training I received through the Navy's Nuclear Power program was far from dumbed down and slow paced. Completing my BS in Computer Engineering was a hell of a lot easier than Nuke School!!

But I fully agree with your other points about being stripped of your individualism, etc.

My advice is this: Don't go into the military unless you have absolutely no where else to go.

Re:Don't.

[wdr1]

This is true only if you disregard all of human history.

"Let him who desires peace prepare for war" --Vegetius

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace." -- General George Washington

-Bill

Re:Don't.

[bwt]

The training you'll get will be so dumbed down and slow paced that it'll take you 8 times as long to learn the same thing in the real world.

The military persues tech training the same way that corporations do: they hire the same consulting firms to teach the exact same classes. For example, the USAF just hired Oracle to teach us one of the stock off-the-shelf courses on Oracle's Designer product. They have also purchased the entire collection of Oracle CBT's.

You obviously are trying to spread disinformation. Why would you be doing that?

The military wants you to think that you'll gain an exciting life, a rewarding career, valuable work experience, travel the world, be a patriot and geek out on the highest of tech. But in reality, you'll be stripped of your individualism, be used as muscle to expand corporate interests abroad, have a hand in killing other human beings and quite possibly be killed yourself.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
-- John Stuart Mill

Re:Don't.

[superyooser]

Proof that public education has failed. Or that anti-American propaganda has succeeded.

Obviously, a remedial class in Holocaust history is in order. Look carefully at these absolutely horrifying, chilling pictures of mass executions and torture. You are comparing Bush to this, this, and this? All innocent victims, mind you. In the photos from the first link, you see pictures of human medical experiments involving freezing, surgeries, and head-shrinking. Bush is against stem cell research, for crying out loud!

Please read up on Adolph Hitler so you don't embarrass yourself in public again. Hitler's Nazi party is responsible for the deaths of 11 million innocent people. There's simply no legitimate comparison to Bush in any respect whatsoever. Everything about the two men is different: politics, principles, priorities, religion, worldview, philosophies, leadership style, attitude, demeanor, relationships, sociability, values, likes, dislikes, etc, etc, etc.

The closest modern-day comparison to Hitler is probably Saddam Hussein. Arafat would take the title, except that he doesn't have much power anymore.

Al-uh-bama!

[borgboy]

Wecome to the deep south. Well, maybe not. If you go into the Communications Computer Systems Operator career field, you could end up anywhere - Guam, Turkey, even California. Operators go everywhere. Programmers - the enlisted programmer career track at least - usually end up in Nebraska, Boston, or Montgomery, Alabama.

It aint bad. I had a worthwhile time in the Air Force, and a wonderful pay raise when I got out. The experience was valuable. Just be sure that if you enlist, your enlistment contract guarantees that you'll get the career field you want.

Recruiters lie. Lots.

--Former Senior Airman J Pitts, Standard Systems Group, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Proud TIB 95/97 Prior.

from a former airman...

[Anonymous Coward]

i was working on nukes, so i can't tell you exactly to expect from your particular tech school. but i can back up a previous post:

get your career in writing. my recruiter was incredibly honest, but i've heard some real horror stories about how recruiters can dick people over.

other than that, be able to run a few miles, do (i think) 30 pushups and situps, and clear your mind. basic training is a giant head game. remember that training instructors can't physically harm you, but they do have some extraordinary tricks up their sleeves when it comes to how to screw with your noodle.

do not volunteer for anything in those crucial first 48 hours. and by volunteering, i mean don't answer any questions directed at your flight that seem to come from nowhere. don't raise your hand and say you like bowling. don't claim that you joined to get some exercise. don't nuthin.

true, i'm a former airman. but i have no regrets about the 4 years i was in. i had a whole lot of fun and met people i would never have even looked twice at in the real world.

Views from a (sorta) Pacifist

[greenhide]

All other disadvantages of enlisting with the Air Force aside, keep in mind that the true purpose of the Air Force is to serve as a military force. This means that you will have to make yourself comfortable with the possibility that you will, either indirectly or directly, be responsible for the deaths of other people.

There are many ways to learn networking. Going through the Air Force may be free (and will no doubt use the latest and greatest technology), but in my opinion it is much more costly.

Funny you should ask

[bwt]

I work at the Air Force Recruiting Center in the database shop. It is a pretty nice place to work. I was never in the military (I'm a contractor), but about half of the people I work with are, and a good chunk of the contractors are ex-military.

The Air Force offers a great opportunity in IT that few companies will offer, because they expect to fill entry level positions and they understand that they need to offer training. There are all varieties of systems at the Air Force, so there is no shortage of interesting technical problems to solve. One nice thing is that they do take computer security seriously, although that can also be a pain in the ass sometimes.

How well you deal with basic military training (BMT) depends on you. There is a certain level of physical fitness and humility that you need to have. They simply will not put up with your crap, so don't try to pull anything. BMT doesn't last all that long in the big picutre, so I wouldn't worry too much about that -- the big question is what comes after that, where will you work, and what will you do.

I was very surprised to learn what now seems obvious: the people in the military are just people. Some are very cool and a few are jerks. Contrary to Hollywood images, they don't shout orders at each other all day. I'm most impressed with the senior NCO's. There really are some outstanding people in the enlisted leadership positions. I work with a couple E-9's who I am very impressed with.