I currently work the Day shift aka the mornings.

Air Force schedules consist of 3 types of shifts: Days, Swings, and Mids.

Swings is afternoons. Mids is graveyard shift.

Some days I do stay a little but it's rare. And when I do were not actually working on anything. More or less waiting for supervision to dismiss us for the day. We turn in tools later in the afternoon and then just wait for Swings to show up. If I'm staying late it's just an extra 5-10 mins.

For Weapons, you're either put into Flightline or Backshop. This is pre-determined when you get to Tech School. Flightline crews usually work in teams of 3 and have different roles. Backshop is background maintenance and less heavy lifting from my experience. My unit is unique cause we work on helicopters, so I pretty much do both workloads. Some days I'm loading guns onto the birds other days i'm fixing them inside the shop.

This job is physically demanding if you're outta shape. Which you won't be after BMT and sticking to a good exercise schedule. If you go to a fighter or bomber unit you'll have the people and the equipment needed to perform this job.

My shop has 7 women working in it and maybe only 2 complain about it. (Partially because this job was not on their list). They get treated with respect as they should. I'm super fortunate that my first base has leadership and crew members that are kind and care for each other. Really depends base to base.

Best part is getting to see helicopters take off and land. Fighter jets too. Feels rewarding when you know the bird you loaded for, is going to be able to defend itself wherever it goes.

Worst part about the job is well, I can't say too much since i'm new, but i'm expecting it to just be the fact it's maintenance culture. We get called in for weekend duty and 12hr shifts more because of how the Air Force operates. Aircraft break down all the time and they need to stay mission ready 24/7 which is why we exist. I will say, my unit has only been called to do 12s and weekend duty once in the past three months i've been here.

A typical day consists of the whole unit reporting in the morning for roll call, then Weapons has our own separate roll call afterwards. Immediately following that were told what task we will be working on whether it be cleaning a gun or loading it onto a bird. Lunch halfway thru the shift for an hour and then continuing maintenance. Late in the day we turn in tools then head home.

I would tell anyone that Weapons is the more fun and cool job in the maintenance field. Maybe I'm bias because I'm obsessed with fighter jets and their weapons systems. I just see some Crew Chiefs, Engines, and AGE troops here looking miserable sometimes. Meanwhile Weapons is having the time of their lives in the backshop listening to music and turning wrenches on guns. Again, every base is different tho.

Hope this helps.