2,100 miles later...

On the 18th I left home for a 2,100 mile drive to Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, TX. I was accompanied by Alida, which was nice. We stopped in Dayton, OH, Tulsa, OK, and Austin, TX. Austin was a pretty nice city that I will definately return to. I reported in to the transition flight here on the 22nd and began inprocessing. Of course it is not going smoothly because the miliary personnel flight (MPF) at Maxwell never put in the paperwork to update me in DEERs, so the MPF here had to do it, and now I have to wait until that goes through. We went to the officers club on Friday night. It was "drop night" for class 13-14 who graduates next week, which is a party where they find out their assignments (airframe and location). It was pretty cool and I'm looking forward to many more nights at the officers club because the beer was cheap and there are no bars in Del Rio that are worth going into. We also checked out Amistad Reservoir, which is just outside of town. We found a cool place to go cliff jumping. See the pictures below. The final picture is of the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Its a pedestrian walkway right alongside a river that is in the middle of downtown. It is lined with stores and restaurants. This week I have more inprocessing stuff to do. I also have an appointment to get issued equipment and fitted for a g-suit. Other than that time is pretty much mine to spend how I need to so I'm ready to start class the following week. I'll check in again once class starts.

Dining out

I, Timothy John Nonna, having been appointed a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force...

I'm finally back in Saratoga. Commissioning was yesterday morning. My father, Pop and fraternity brother Lt. Andrew Moyer, USN, all came down. It was an honor to have my oath of office administered by Drew (the oath has to be given by an officer). Following the oath, my father and Pop pinned second lieutenant rank on the epaulets of my service coat. Overall it was a great day. Looking back on it, I really had a good experience at OTS. It was certainly not easy. The first few weeks, which consisted of 17 hour days (17 hours of doing stuff without ten minutes to relax) were tough, but worthwhile. I met a lot of good people, some of which will be in my UPT class at Laughlin. I'll keep this post pretty short. In the days and weeks leading up to OTS, I viewed it simply as a formality that I had to go through so I could start doing what I really wanted to do- fly jets. I have a different viewpoint now. They must have done a real good job at OTS because they definately got me to drink the cool aid. Now I realize that I will be an officer first, and a pilot second. This is not to be confused with having flying as a second priority; its not. You need to be one before you can become the other. Even though I'm done with OTS, things are only going to get harder. Now its time to get ready for what will probably be the most challenging year of my life- USAF undergraduate pilot training.

Apparently OTS is not over until we leave Maxwell

Last Friday the Goldhawks had a no-notice inspection by my flight commander. This was a problem because we had just been inspected by the MTIs (miitary training instructors- the guys with the "drill sergeant" hats) the previous day,AND we had to change from blues to ABUs at lunch time, so people took shortcuts and didnt really have their rooms in inspection order. Anyway, he waited for us to get back to the dorms and yell at all of us in the hall, and then proceed room by room what was wrong. After going down one side of the hallway, he said "Now for my favorite room- lets see." Myself and my two roomates knew exactly which room he was talking about. It was ours. One roommate was convinced we werent getting inspected so he left all his shit on his desk, didnt make his bed, didn't empty the trash can, etc. The counseling that happened in our room next was hilarious, and definately worth the OTMR (Officer Trainee Memorandum for Record) that went in our file. When I reported in to sign the OTMR for that, he said that there would be one more inspection- but he didn;t know who it would be- goldhawks, tigers, or hoyas. Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this story is there was another inspection by the MTIs yesterday for the upper class of all three suqadrons. Goldhawk rooms were all perfect. The same can not be said for the other two squadrons. It was so bad for the other two squadrons, in fact, that they had their privledge level knocked down from Phase four to Phase three. This means they can't wear civilian clothes any more, they have to formally report in, etc. It wasnt just bad, it was eally bad. The most ridiculous story had to do with a pizza box in a room- with pizza in it AND there was pizza crust in the toilet. I'm not sure what those people were thinking, but I can't really blame them. There is a general attitude of "not giving a fuck" at this point and most people are checking out mentally since we only have like 4 more days here and we have so much more freedom now that we have Phase Four privleges. We were reminded by the MTIs yesterday and parade practice that OTS is not over until we leave Maxwell.