The vast majority of AF folks I graduated with at Vance who are heading to AMC squadrons (C-17, KC-10, ect) say they are waaaaaaayyyyyy more laid back than AETC. I'm not as sure about the fighter geeks going to ACC squadrons but they indicated its not as bad as AETC either.
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HELP ME CHOOSE VANCE vs CORPUS!
- Thread starter onee
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boomersooner
Primary- Vance AFB
Is there anything good about Vance? I recently was given an option by Flight Management....wait another 6 months for my spot at Whiting to come up so I could class up for API or change my orders to Vance and class up in 3 weeks. Since I have been in A-Pool since the beginning of March(would have been earlier, but I took some leave), I chose Vance with the mindset that I could be done with Primary before I even reported to primary at Whiting. I am married with a young child and decided that waiting another 4-6 months just wasn't for me. So can anyone tell me what to expect at Vance? Do they have a watch bill? Is it all go 12 hours everyday? Do they get more hours flying that Whiting or Corpus? Do they get more formation flying? How is the T-37? I also am wanting to fly a Tacamo. Will this help or hurt me? Tacamo is definately my preference, but I am open to anything. I am of the school of thought that wings of gold are awesome no matter what you fly. So if anyone has any good gouge on these things, please elaborate. I would be appreciative.
Sorry my OU fan, you probably hurt yourself by making this choice. Very rarely do folks who go to Vance end up staying with their class all the way through T-1s. I've heard maybe one person per year gets TACAMO out of Vance, and some years no one.
I can tell you from experience, walking into the squadron spaces of the T-37 squadrons was like walking into a morg, the scent of misery, dissapointment, and death was very present. Probably 90% of my AF classmates who went through 37s hated life while going through them (the other 10% didn't care). They regularly told me how the IPs treated them like dirt, worse than thrid class people. The days were 12 hours everyday except for like the last 3 weeks. Forget about having fun while flying, it apparently doesn't happen. Even their cross countries suck. On mine in 34s, I went to Vegas and had a blast. The instructors we went with bought us a $50 dinner plus drinks, went gambling with us, heck even tried to get the ladies for us studs. Forget about that in 37s, your XC is 3 straight days of flying, and the days will be close to 12 hours long, and oh yeah, there is a 600 mile ring around Vance you have to stay within.
There are no watches as you would know them at Vance. They do more formation flying, a skill which will be absolutely usless to you in TACAMO. I think the total number of flight hours is about the same as 34s. The other thing is, you will not start up right away at Vance. You will have to wait till your class start date comes around and then do their version of API. I can't tell you how long the wait will be from when you arrive to when you start.
My only advice, if you can reverse this decision and wait for your Whiting spot I truly believe you will have a better chance of getting TACAMO. Also, word on the street is TACAMO is going down to only 18 slots per year, so if this is accurate that reduces your chances by 25% right then and there. I wish you the best of luck.
I can tell you from experience, walking into the squadron spaces of the T-37 squadrons was like walking into a morg, the scent of misery, dissapointment, and death was very present. Probably 90% of my AF classmates who went through 37s hated life while going through them (the other 10% didn't care). They regularly told me how the IPs treated them like dirt, worse than thrid class people. The days were 12 hours everyday except for like the last 3 weeks. Forget about having fun while flying, it apparently doesn't happen. Even their cross countries suck. On mine in 34s, I went to Vegas and had a blast. The instructors we went with bought us a $50 dinner plus drinks, went gambling with us, heck even tried to get the ladies for us studs. Forget about that in 37s, your XC is 3 straight days of flying, and the days will be close to 12 hours long, and oh yeah, there is a 600 mile ring around Vance you have to stay within.
There are no watches as you would know them at Vance. They do more formation flying, a skill which will be absolutely usless to you in TACAMO. I think the total number of flight hours is about the same as 34s. The other thing is, you will not start up right away at Vance. You will have to wait till your class start date comes around and then do their version of API. I can't tell you how long the wait will be from when you arrive to when you start.
My only advice, if you can reverse this decision and wait for your Whiting spot I truly believe you will have a better chance of getting TACAMO. Also, word on the street is TACAMO is going down to only 18 slots per year, so if this is accurate that reduces your chances by 25% right then and there. I wish you the best of luck.
MADarmstrong
newbie
well, think about it. if everyone who signs up for true blue wants to fly, then there is an assload of competition which makes those who actually make it anal-retentive *******s. but if that's what the AF is promoting for pilots... even in rotc, we've had two guys switch over to Navy from AF because they said the atmosphere sucked and if you didn't want to fly, you were treated like dirt. go navy!
boomersooner
Primary- Vance AFB
I don't think there is an end to the wait in sight for Whiting. CC is not nearly as bad, but right now, Whiting is only pulling 2-3 per week at best. There are so many people in A-Pool right now, it is ridiculous. The last I heard was close to 450 JO's. Anyways, I just want to get started so that is why I chose Vance. It offered me getting started quicker and I can justify 4-5 months of suck at an AFB instead of 4-6 months more of sitting on my hands waiting for my number to come up at Whiting. I will be close to done at Vance by the time the Navy would have classed me up for API and then I reporting to Whiting.
Chubby
Active Member
Don't anticipate starting anytime soon, my opinion. Like Boomer said there is a sh*t ton of JO's in the A-pool, and they have pretty much stopped sending ENS' there. They no sh*t ordmoded pretty much all of the ROTC ENS' until March, March! But, like I said earlier it isn't really that bad a deal. You are in the pipeline, so you will be a pilot, if you get through. So, please, enjoy the cake shore duty. The Navy will get enough work out of you. Not saying I don't want and anticipate going to flight school, but I'm not going to get pissed off about a basically win-win good deal.
A bit of a sidetrack here: I have heard that both TACAMO and P-3s will be reducing the number of pilots coming in by about 20-25%. Does anyone know if this is also a reason for the backup? With this large of a pool and no end in sight, are they going to cut the number of aviation slots NROTC and USNA are going to have available for next year?
Navy Pilots should be Navy trained!! I went through VT-2 and loved it. I selected E-6s, moved to Vance and have realized just how much I appreciate the Navy. The AF turns out great pilots just like the Navy does, but from what I have seen they are no where near as laid back, and they tend to be products of their environment. If you have a choice DO NOT GO TO PRIMARY AT VANCE or any other AF base for that matter.
TACA-MO
TACA-MO
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