Date: 2010-03-05 15:32:14
I’d like to say the reason I haven’t posted since week five of ASBC is that I’ve been super busy, but that would be a lie. I’ve only been moderately busy at best.
The last week of ASBC consisted of three days in the field. On the first day, we dropped our gear in the 24 man tents and were issued paint ball guns. We spent the morning practicing our small group tactics out in the forest with the occasional assaults from the civilian instructors. It was great except for it was 24 degrees! After an MRE lunch, we worked for a few hours on how to defend our “base” from the other squadron during the capstone exercise on the last day. At 4:30, we called it a day and went back to the tents. Day 2 consisted of basic IED training and a 20 minute run through an assault course. Oh, and we had a lesson from our flight commander about what to do in the event of a death in your unit. It was a really slow day. Day 3 was the capstone. We ran around all morning shooting paintballs and trying to find downed pilots and ammo. Not too bad at all. Then a three hour clean up/sit around and wait for the bus.
We graduated on Friday. The ceremony was short and sweet. Basically a “you didn’t screw up here, don’t screw up later” speech and a slide show of all the things we did. I was pretty sad to say goodbye to my flight. Then a 3 hour drive back to Columbus!
During ASBC, I heard some people talking about thing program called RAP, or the Recruiter’s Assistance Program. Basically, the Air Force will let anyone who has the time go to a recruiting station (ROTC, Stripmall, etc..) and spend 12 days helping out. It doesn’t matter where you go as long as they sign off on the paperwork. So after filling out two leave forms and a RAP sheet, I was given permission to go to the University of North Texas.
It’s been a lot of fun helping out. The point of contact here is a jaded prior enlisted captain that’s really easy going. He has to recruit at the 7 cross town universities UNT is responsible for every year, so he gave me a van, a key to the storeroom full of recruiting supplies, the list of universities, and said “have at it”. I’ve gone to five of them so far. I walk in to the admissions office and ask to speak with one of the counselors, then I discuss with them what the AF and UNT have to offer their students, and then I give out some free pens and put up posters. I highly recommend it to anyone awaiting pilot training.
That’s about it for now. Durham is at IFS right now, so I’m looking forward to talking to him this weekend to see how he’s doing. I love my job!