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How to take the next 6 years off, a.k.a, my transfer to the Air Force

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
Figured since I just got my orders today, I'd post this up for anyone who may be interested.

I'm posting this as an example of another way to get to 20, or to get fixed wing time, or (like me) just do something that not many people have done.

I'm a senior LCDR, FTS helo bubba type, have roughly 2,700 hours in the H-60 and a little less than 200 hours in mil and civ fixed wing. Prior enlisted, so total time as of today is about 15 years.

From the Air Force side:
In June 2018, I emailed the IST office, AFPC.DP2LT.InterserviceTrans@us.af.mil, and sent them my last 3 FITREPS and a brief resume. Didn't hear anything for about a month so I followed up. The AF asked for my entire NATOPS jacket, I scanned it and sent it over. Didn't hear anything for two-three weeks. Found the IST phone number and called, turns out they had me marked down as an Army helo bubba. Once they fixed that, in about a day I heard that the H-60 and the KC-135s would take me. I agreed to the KC-135.

All pilot ISTs are required to have a 6 year commitment. Not a big deal for me, that'll put me right at 21 years total. Those 6 years should give me a good amount of time to build up my fixed wing time.

The AF office asked for a bunch of stuff, gathered it all up and sent it in. My flight physical was required to be completed by an AF flight surgeon, other than that the paperwork was all pretty easy to get off of BOL and NSIPS.

From the Navy side:
Followed Milpersman 1300-81. There is a blurb in there saying you are ineligible for an IST if you have been told via email, voicemail, letter, carrier pigeon, smoke signals, or telepathy of PCS orders. I kept my cards close, told my CO and had my letter and his endorsement letter in a folder for him to sign as soon as I told him. Turns out he was cool with it but the last thing I wanted was for my detailer to catch wind of it and cut me orders before I officially submitted my package.

Other than the CO endorsement letter and my personal request, the entire process on the Navy side is completed via NSIPS. It took roughly 3 months to get approved by PERS and the Deputy Navy Secretary for Manpower and Personnel Affairs.

Once my package was approved by PERS in late October 2018, it then went in front of the official AF IST board in Dec 2018. Currently they are selecting at 100%, they need pilots! Was notified in late January 2019 I was officially accepted. After that, completed more paperwork and waited for Senate confirmation. Took almost 5 months for the Senate to stamp it approved, which happened at the end of June 2019.

Fast forward to today, I'm commissioning into the USAF next month, heading to the KC-135 rag this fall, and then PCS OCONUS around the start of 2020. Took about a little over a year from start to finish. At current op-tempos, I should get approximately 1,500-2,000 hours in the next 6 years, and with the way the Air Force works, I'll be able to literally spend my entire career flying.

Oh, and @webmaster or @Gatordev, can this fella get some wings of lead along with the wings of gold on my profile?

Is this what you said to the detailer?

 

SLH350

Member
pilot
So was your first move just emailing the AF IST office your resume? Any contact with specific units or anyone in the IST office prior to that? I’m super curious what my options would be if I put in something similar.
 

insanebikerboy

Internet killed the television star
pilot
None
Contributor
So was your first move just emailing the AF IST office your resume? Any contact with specific units or anyone in the IST office prior to that? I’m super curious what my options would be if I put in something similar.

Yup, I just called them straight up.

Unfortunately, the AF has suspended the IST program for the time being. Not sure if it’s due to covid or something else, but until it opens back up there’s not much else you can do. My only advice is to check their website every few months to see if it’s available.

 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
Unfortunately, the AF has suspended the IST program for the time being. Not sure if it’s due to covid or something else,
I don't think it's directly due to covid, more like because of covid the are no longer shedding personnel faster than a covid patient sheds virions.

(Another fun simile is hæmorrhaging worse than the Czar's children after a family photo.)
 

pelexecute

Active Member
pilot
None
Along with airlines, I think a lot of guys in the AF didn’t realize how good they had it compared to other services, so they’re very spoiled. Any Gold Winger going to the AF will just laugh at the stuff that pisses off your typical AF pilot. Very different perspectives.
 

SLH350

Member
pilot
Yup, I just called them straight up.

Unfortunately, the AF has suspended the IST program for the time being. Not sure if it’s due to covid or something else, but until it opens back up there’s not much else you can do. My only advice is to check their website every few months to see if it’s available.

I saw that. I still have 3 years of RAG Instructor duty so I’m hoping at some point during that time it opens up again. In the meantime I’m looking at reserve and ANG options as well. Thanks for the insight and advice!
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
I think a lot of guys in the AF didn’t realize how good they had it compared to other services, so they’re very spoiled.
I would opine that there is a significant difference in being "spoiled"... versus having an expectation of a standard.

If and when the AF fails to meet the expectations of its aircrew, many of them will move on to non-military careers. None of us AF-types look at things day-to-day and say "well, we have it better than the Navy and Marines." That has never been part of the litmus test.

Everyone of us wants a better situation for our professional, personal, and family lives. When we think we can acquire that improvement, we often make that change.
 

Swanee

Cereal Killer
pilot
None
Contributor
I would opine that there is a significant difference in being "spoiled"... versus having an expectation of a standard.

I'd say this is the biggest culture shock thus far going from AD USMC to the ANG. There is something to be said when a unit will cancel because the living accommodations, or the flight schedule, or the support, or any other of the list of things the USMC just "deals with" aren't up to what is expected. It's the same for crew rest.

Here it all matters, and if one part isn't up to snuff it's time to go home.

The USMC is/was always big on, "A standard is a standard, as soon as you don't enforce the standard you just created a new, lower, one. " From what I've seen the AF chooses to take that in a difference direction.

The one thing I miss from the Marine Corps is that the USMC is much better administratively, and they are much more focused on who needs to be supported when and with what, than the ANG/AF could ever hope to be.
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
I would opine that there is a significant difference in being "spoiled"... versus having an expectation of a standard.

If and when the AF fails to meet the expectations of its aircrew, many of them will move on to non-military careers. None of us AF-types look at things day-to-day and say "well, we have it better than the Navy and Marines." That has never been part of the litmus test.

Everyone of us wants a better situation for our professional, personal, and family lives. When we think we can acquire that improvement, we often make that change.

bingo. When an AF crew cancels because the base accommodations are too shitty to get good rest, someone important enough to do something about it hears about it (and probably from someone they don’t want to have a one sided conversation with). When a navy crew cancels because they couldn’t sleep because the bedbugs and roaches were having a party in the shit hole NGIS, they’re being a bunch of entitled bitches. And no, you can’t have a CNA even though the AF has condemned the NGIS and won’t let their guys stay there.
 

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
I’m out at Peterson AFB attending an in-person conference with my peers in my command and our Cat B (aka SELRES) reservists. Ran across a former HT-18 classmate who had an interesting career path! East Coast HSL SH-60Bs out of flight school. Then went to VT-10 as a T-34C IP (almost unheard of then). His journey then continued with an IST to AF to fly C-5s. He retired as an AF O-5, and then flew Predators as an AF GS civ before taking the same role I’m in, in the Mid-Atlantic region... talk about a cool journey.
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
I’m out at Peterson AFB attending an in-person conference with my peers in my command and our Cat B (aka SELRES) reservists. Ran across a former HT-18 classmate who had an interesting career path! East Coast HSL SH-60Bs out of flight school. Then went to VT-10 as a T-34C IP (almost unheard of then). His journey then continued with an IST to AF to fly C-5s. He retired as an AF O-5, and then flew Predators as an AF GS civ before taking the same role I’m in, in the Mid-Atlantic region... talk about a cool journey.

You're right down the street from me. Enjoy the snow today. Should be 70 again tomorrow.
 

loadtoad

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
I would opine that there is a significant difference in being "spoiled"... versus having an expectation of a standard.

One of the biggest things I noticed from my exchange tour was the amount of down time I had when at home. After a few years with the USAF I had more four day weekends, and more half day Fridays than the rest of my Navy career combined. Talk about treating your people right to avoid burn out. Same goes for "comp time" which was foreign to me. It was standard when you get back from detachment/TDY/deployment that you get XX amount of days off of work (local area liberty basically) before you needed to come back to work or start your leave. I really appreciated that ethos. It was an expectation of the squadron and a standard the leadership practically enforced.
 

insanebikerboy

Internet killed the television star
pilot
None
Contributor
I really appreciated that ethos. It was an expectation of the squadron and a standard the leadership practically enforced.

It’s actually written in the AF instructions. As much as I liked to bash on the AF before I switched over, especially on things like crew rest, they do it right. And by right I don’t mean good deals, I mean letting people just physically recover. It opened my eyes to just how much we sucked it up in the Navy for no other reason than ‘just because’.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
things like crew rest,
Have people in Navy squadrons experienced a significant amount of deviations from crew rest policy? Just trying to get a sense about that, because that’s not something I’ve seen personally.
 

Swanee

Cereal Killer
pilot
None
Contributor
I mean letting people just physically recover.

It's even simple stuff like switching from the day page to the night page. The transition is scheduled, and it is longer than, "Well, we gave you the weekend."


Have people in Navy squadrons experienced a significant amount of deviations from crew rest policy? Just trying to get a sense about that, because that’s not something I’ve seen personally.

In the VTs and the FRS, crew rest was nothing more than time you weren't on the flight schedule. But that's not crew rest in the USAF. In the USAF you don't mission plan or prep for a brief during your crew rest.

USMC fleet was different depending on the front office/OpsO. Some were good about it. Others... not so much.

The Navy would have to significantly change how the SWOs run the boat, as well as how aircrew staterooms are constructed, in order to meet AF crew rest standards. The noise alone would ensure that the AF would never have an aircrew available to fly an airplane off the boat. In the Navy "Sir, the E-2 ATO line is delayed for the next 12 hours because the aircrew's crew rest was violated by maintenance and a fire drill." would probably get the E-2 OpsO or Skipper fired. In the AF, it gets the base commander fired. (Which happened recently at a place that the E-3 deploys out of.)
 
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