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.

6 Days and a Wakeup!

Theres only one week left. Commissioning and graduation is next Tuesday morning at 8 am. I mentioned in an earlier post, the one discussing the Commander's Run, Prop & Wings Ceremony, and Phase 2, that I got back to the room and found something under my flight cap. I said I would share what it was inthe future. Below is a picture of it. It's an engraved Second Lieutenant bar; something we will pin on in a week. 

 I have three guests attending graduation; My father, grandfather, and fraternity brother Lieutenant Drew Moyer, USN. They are coming into town on Monday, the day before graduation. Dining Out is that night. Thats a formal dinner held at a hotel downtown that is a military tradition. Its the first (and probably second to last time) I'll have to wear mess dress, which is the military equivalent to a tuxedo. It should be a fun event, even boisterous at times, that celebrates our time at OTS. 

Getting back to graduation, Drew said if I ever got commissioned, he would attend. Im holding him to that. He will administer the oath of office, which signifies, among other things, direct authority from the president. It has to be administerd by an officer, active or retired. My father and grandfather will then pin 2d Lt rank on me. Later in the morning there will be a graduation parade on the parade field (which we have like 8 hours of practice for this week), and then I'll get the hell out of Alabama.

CWT #2 and AEF Complete! No more graded measures!

Its Sunday, July 28th. Last week was a busy week. On Monday, we had our second comprehensive written test. I scored a 95. I mistakenly filled in the wrong two bubbles, and changed a correct answer to an incorrect answer, but who cares because at least its over. The next day, Tuesday, we departed for AEF. AEF stands for Air Expediationary Forces. It simulates a deployment where Cubans retook Gitmo, and lasted until Friday morning. We arrived and had to retake a base from staff using paintball guns and the techniques we learned involving small unit tactics. For lagter base defesne operations, some groups of trainees became the opposing force in addition to staff members. Aside from these base defense operations, most of the time was spent on ELPS (expedionary leadership problems). these are graded field leadership measures where you have 40 minutes as team leader to complete an objective. This tested ones ability to delegate, lead a team in formulating a plan, and then makig decisions to impliment that plan. What was interesting was we did not do anyting at AEF with our Flights. Instead we were broken into chalks (they were essentially the chalks from our info and advo briefs), consisting of people we havent worked with before. Overall we, Chalk 9, did pretty well. We got 5 mission completes out of 11 missoins, which was probably about average. AEF was probably one of the times at OTS where we actually had free time after ELPs and BDOs. This time was mostly spent napping, in the morale tent playing cards/games, or watching movies in the dining tent. Overall it was a fun experience. Ive included picturs below which show the camp, and the inside of our tent. The tents were big, but not quite big enough for 18 people. The only real problem with the tents was the constant A/C malfunctions which made it 90 degrees inside. Other than that it wasn't that bad. Tomorrow is TD 41. 6 more TDs (Seven days and a wake up) and OTS is all over. The upcomming week, the last full one, should be pretty easy but it will probably go by slowly since we are done with academics. We have a drill competition, which we havent practiced for, tomorrow, graduation parade practice every morning for like 3 hours, some breifings that obviously aren't testable since we just had our last test, and a bunch of outprocessing stuff to do.

Lower Class Arrival, TD-31 tomorrow

Its been a while since my last post. Its Sunday, 14 July. The lower class arrived on Tuesday the 9th. Its hard to believe it, but we were in their shoes about six weeks ago. I'll explain a little bit about their arrival day, and then share my thougts and observations. OT's (officer trainees) start rolling in at about noon. They park their cars and are greeted by an upperclassman. They are directed to a tent where they recieve an attache case, and are instructed on appearance (shirt and shoelaces tucked in, etc). They are treated politely at this point, and the stress is low. They then take their belongings to the "dojo." This is an artifical turf field covered by a roof, and provides some relief from the sun and heat. This is where the upper class inprocesses them. They proceed to a series of tables and get checked in, issued name tags, reflective belts, camel backs, apply for a STAR credit card if they need to,are given a pocket sized OTSMAN (OTS manual containing rules/regs and guidance) and a HAWK (a booklet of things that have to be memorized) etc. They also get instructed on the position of attention, etc. It was very visible that their stress was increasing. At this point they would be corrected by the upper class on things they were doing wrong. If these corrections came from commissioned staff, they were yelled at. One of the best yellers of the commissioned staff happened to be walking around, and as bad as I felt for the new OTs, it was amusing watching them get lit up for something they probably didnt even know they werent supposed to do, but thats all part of the game.I was amazed at the visiblly increasing stress levels these people were under. I don't think I was nearly as scared as they looked, but its hard to tell. Finally, after visiting all these tables, they were rushed over to stand in line. We remind them why they are here, and let them know that it is about to get intense. Once forty of them were lined up, they were walked (very quickly) the 1/4th mile to the dorm. I was one of the people who walked them to the dorm. This job sucked because it was hot- we were under black flag conditions. Anyway, once they got to the dorms they were met by the MTIs (miltary training instructors). These are the guys that people often refer to as drill sergaents in the flat brimmed hats. The OTs are lined up in front of the doors while the MTIs find a few to yell at. This serves to let them know that they are not special, and it doesnt matter what you were before you got here. They are then rushed up the stairs to their rooms to drpo their stuff off. they are then rushed back outside where the MTIs begin to teach them about drill (marching). Below is a video my room mate took out of the third floor laundry room window of such instruction taking place. I apppoolgize for the picture quality, as the video was texted to me, but the audio is good and thats really all that matters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBXmAPdLRyY Its nice having a lower class here since they are now the focus of attention. There is some added work, however, we now have to correct deficient behavior we see. We can't simply walk by and let it continue. So far this has not been too bad. I choose to use a constructive approach, and always treat the OTs in a professional manner. I'm still amazed at how scard/nervous they are around upper class. Last week we were briefed on how we should interact with them. It was explained to us that we were not supposed to create stress for them, but it was explained that we still would. This is definately true. I am the Squadron One mentorship officer. I solicited upper class volunteers to be mentors, and assigned 15 of them to the 45 lower class Goldhawks (I have to report 100% contact back up to the wing). We had our first mentoring meetings on friday. I also provided some tasty snacks and candy purchased with squadron funds since I think they deserved it. The sessions were well received. I filled in as a mentor for an upper classman who had family in town and cojuldnt make it. It was nice to put the mentees at ease and talk to them about how things have gone so far, answer questions (about stuff I could talk about- theres some stuff they shouldnt know about) about whats coming up, give them tips that might help them, and get to know a little bit about where they're from and what they are going to be doing in the AF. Since I was in charge of mentoring I gave myself three reservist pilots. One is flying C-5s, another KC-10s, and the third was C-130s. All airlift/tanker guys. Upcomming events: This week we have advocay briefs. These are briefs where we must take a position on an issue, write a position paper on it, and then present to the class. I chose an issue not on the list we were given; protests at military funerals. As repugnant as the individuals of the Westboro Baptist Church are, I feel they should be able to freely express their opinions and peacably assemble on public land. To target a group just because its message is unpopular is very dangerous. What if you had an unpopular message you had to share at some point? We also have Leadership Reaction Course at Project X. This is a graded measure were we are graded on our performance for one scenario where we are a leader, for al other scenarios we are either team members or safety observes. This is a site on the OTS campus that has a bunch of of "obstacle courses" in a 20ftx20ft cement "room" where we have to work as a team to move ourselves and our supplies from start to end. When we first got here we did two project X scenariosou. I was leader for one where we had to move from start over water to a 4 fot tall cement piling that was 1ft x 1ft about 6 feet away using a plank and some rope, to another piling about 6 feet away, and the onto a big pipe, and then go through the pipe. If you touched the water, or anything painted red it was a 30 second penalty and all members and equipment had to return to the start. This may not sound like much, but when you only have 20 minutes it is. Next week we have our second written test on monday. This is the last graded measure we have that goes into our overall grade. On tuesday we leave for AEF. This is our mock deployment where we live in tents, and have other graded leadership evaluations.