E-6 TACAMO - Tinker AFB

[Nebula.Nebulae]

Hi everybody!

My husband selected E-6’s in December and he is right now in Enid for Advanced in the T-1. I have been searching through the forum to get some information about this community. It seems like the deployment cycle will be a little different than the norm. From what I understood, he will be gone for shorter times but more frequently (somebody told me to think about it like one month in one month out). Also, the posts suggested that he might spend most of the tours in Tinker, but I am a little confused about what career options would make that happen.

I would really appreciate if any of you had a little more information about what to expect in general for this community:
- FRS (waiting time, stages of the program…)
- The deployments (where do they go? What are the current cycles?)
- The time in (what do they do? Schedules?)
- The squadrons
- Career advancement (how do you stay in OKC for the different tours? What other choices could you have? Are there any international options?)
- Life in Tinker AFB being Navy (do you miss the water and the boats? )
- Any other topic about which I should be inquiring

We are also thinking about housing. We have not decided yet if we want to buy or not and where. We were considering living in Norman, closer to the university since I am also thinking about going back to school. However, we are unsure about what the real estate market and the rental market are in this town. Anybody went to OU and wants to clarify housing situation for us? Also, what about traffic? Should we be looking at other areas, like Moore or even closer to Tinker?

Any information will be very welcome! Thank you!

 

[SnipeDude]

1. Do a search for "TACAMO" or "E-6"...there has already been alot posted. You should also use Google.

2. Can't speak to current optempo but they're bread and butter is a normal det-type rotation plus there is now a longer GWOT related deployment.

3. The Wing, the two squadrons VQ 3 & 4, and the RAG VQ-7 are at Tinker. So the Wing, the RAG and OU NROTC would be your OKC shore duty options. USSTRATCOM at Offutt is also a big shore duty job for later on.

4. The alert sites are Travis AFB, Offutt AFB, and NAS Patuxent River.

 

[milky-f18]

I can't give you the small details, hopefully somebody on here can. As for the overall lifestyle... I had a good buddy that transitioned from E-6 to F-18. Since he never shut up about how how things were in TACAMO, I can tell you a lot about it. I don't know about the GWOT deployments since those are new, but the normal rotation is quite gentlemanly and seems very conducive to family life. Advancement seemed to be competitive but not out of reach since most of his peers will likely be getting out to go to the airlines after their commitment. So, if he stays in, I hear they have a pretty good screen rate for Department Head and CO. If you stay in the cockpit, there is little room to move out of OK since they are pretty much just based there. But, as with any track, you can always take non-flying "shore-tour" jobs that can take you all over the world.

About being Navy on an AF base... Well, from what I can tell, the Navy guys there are more like AF guys than Navy guys. There are usually very few reasons to complain about being on an AF base instead of a Navy base when it comes to Quality Of Life.

I know that overall the guy that transitioned was probably a lot happier in the E6 community than he has been here, and I'm pretty sure his wife sure liked how much he was home as an E6 driver compared to the fact he has been gone about 18 of the first 24 months he was in the fleet here.

 

[FLY_USMC]

Since he will be flying "jets" in the T-1 and the E-6, it's not unheard of if he does well in his first tour by picking up the requisite quals and all, to be able to come to Meridian or Kingsville as a T-45 IP, so there's one other option post OKC.

Another negative is he's going to have that E-6 patch on his shoulder and is constantly going to be asked by civilians..."oh you flew the Prowler, how was that?"

Depending on the part of the country you're from, you "can" really enjoy OKC. I'm from the Midwest.....not the bullshiat Midwest that people from PA and OH claim they're from....and OKC isn't a bad place. Cost of living isn't high, they're is some stuff to do..simple pleasures...simple pleasures.