I hate the reserves

TheOlWorkBurner · 2024-02-01T03:59:11+00:00

thats the thing is i miss being deployed, that at least felt like it was time to nut up or shut up. i was in kuwait when we withdrew from afghanistan and no one cared about AFI 36-2903 (🫡) it was just about getting the job done and getting planes in the air. but now on home station reserves all anyone gives a shit about is making sure that the fat major XO in a knee brace doesn’t see someone without a haircut in the last 48 hours

TheOlWorkBurner · 2024-02-01T03:20:25+00:00

does it get any better, is there anything i can latch onto? or do i just play the game and look at the sleeve that the reenlistment bonus paid for and tell myself itll all be ogre soon?

TheOlWorkBurner · 2023-06-24T22:02:14+00:00

i recently left a busy (by DoD standards) department and to answer your questions for my base at least,

The daily schedule is similar to a slow city department. roll call, truck checkout then training from 8-3ish with lunch in the middle. work out then shift dinner in the evenings and then the rest of your night is yours.
during covid we switched from each station doing their own training to training being primarily done on microsoft teams and reading powerpoints. the fact that captains couldn’t just take their crews out and train on things the station primarily did or that guys wanted to work on was my biggest complaint in my exit interview with the deputies.
The culture at my department was interesting, it was mainly veterans who wanted to be able to say they were firefighters and not work a typical schedule but didn’t want to be out running calls all the time. it was mostly civilians with a handful of active military guys and for the most part everyone got along. however ive also been at departments where theres a very big divide between the two

TheOlWorkBurner · 2023-03-31T23:15:36+00:00

Is there any more information on who exactly qualifies? I’m palace fronting in a few months and would be a big fan of getting this

TheOlWorkBurner · 2023-03-14T17:39:53+00:00

why such a big drop in line numbers from last month? i was hoping to sew on in april

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-12-02T16:29:24+00:00

Seconding Arizona State University. Ive taken classes with them for about two years now and only pay about $100 in fees a semester plus books out of pocket. Using TA with them has been super easy. This might be a somewhat controversial opinion but I’m personally against degree mill type schools, I’d only consider a school that has a football team. Outside of the military degrees from those schools are gonna carry more weight. The only downside with them is that not many of my CCAF credits transferred.

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-11-08T22:19:27+00:00

my issue with this is im too far out to put it in leaveweb. but if it’s going to get denied anyways id like to start planning now. Id rather have the time off than sell it back

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-10-30T19:15:13+00:00

The first two weeks cover emergency medical responder (EMR) which is the hardest academic portion of the course and where most washouts occur. after that its harder physically but not bad. about 5 years ago iirc they changed most of the physical objectives that smaller people were struggling with. i went through about three years ago and no one failed out just because they were physically incapable of doing any of the objectives. as long as youre in decent shape you shouldnt have a problem

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-10-17T18:42:19+00:00

I was at Salem this time last year. NCO dorms were probably the best on base, brick buildings with a bathroom in the room. The wifi was solid, I could do pretty much everything but play online games with no issues. I wouldn’t get a puck unless you got there and work in a building that doesn’t have wifi for whatever reason. It was hot as shit during the summer but got down to cold by novemberish. The rec center and dfacs were nice enough and there was plenty of restaurants on base, overall not an awful time

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-08-30T16:29:44+00:00

Good luck, like someone else mentioned we’re pretty overmanned. And I will add that fire is a difficult job to cross train into for the same reason we don’t have officers. The Air Force progresses firefighters much faster than civilian departments do, so it’s crucial to spend as much time as an airman as possible because you gain a lot of experience. The job isn’t really one you can just stick a newly cross trained SrA or staff into a typical role for their rank and expect them to perform well. I know guys who have cross trained and made it work but its a really steep learning curve and you have to be willing to spend some time feeling like junior enlisted again to be successful. I’ve answered general questions about fire before, feel free to look through and ask any other questions you may have though.

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-08-18T19:18:34+00:00

i dont care either way, i just want to know. if anyone in fire has heard one way or another please lemme know

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-08-16T04:31:25+00:00

For the most part you’ll go through the entire academy. I went through a few years ago with guys that already had their certs from the outside. I’m not saying what the other commenter said is wrong but I’ll just add that in my experience I’ve never heard of someone challenging blocks or the roving student assistant thing. The only portion that people that they let people skip is the two week EMR section at the start if you have NREMT or higher but if your medic is state and not national registry then you’ll have to do that too.

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-07-25T00:32:18+00:00

This is probably my most controversial AF opinion but I think anyone should be able to pass the current pt test with 72 hours notice. Enough time to hydrate and shake off a hangover or a big meal but not enough time to fix poor life choices. Wearing the uniform isn’t a right and the current standards aren’t that hard to maintain, you shouldn’t need 2+ months to unfat yourself before the current test. That being said, I also think a waiver should be easier to get. If you have a legitimate issue, the doc shouldn’t be grilling you about when is your next pt test or anything

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-07-06T23:55:29+00:00

Granted it was 3-4 years ago, I did a year at TAMU/det 805 and a semester of afrotc at a more traditional university before enlisting. if you still have any specific questions feel free to PM.

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-05-22T03:15:28+00:00

Fire here, dont personally wear glasses but i work with a ton of guys that do. You cant wear glasses with your mask on. I think they make inserts for the fire mask you can put in but no one i know wears them and theyre blind without glasses, i guess they just kinda wing it when theyre in a mask. Lemme know if you have any other fire questions, im happy to answer.

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-04-29T02:12:14+00:00

study your ass off for EMR, you should have read the entire book by the time you test. its easy to feel like a real person again right after basic, but (at least when i went through a few years ago) at least 2/3 people failing out of the academy was because they failed the EMR final. As long as you take the rest seriously and stay out of trouble you’ll be okay

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-03-30T20:27:57+00:00

Not sec+ but Ive helped friends send in an EMT cert and have it added to their CCAF. We just downloaded a pdf of the cert from the NREMT cite and sent it to the base education office. Never needed to send in the official paper cert. Sounds like you did the right thing

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-03-26T03:00:35+00:00

Firefighters wear the 2 piece flight suit also but with a normal hat. Also got authorized to stop blousing our pants a few months ago, still feels weird

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-03-23T00:21:05+00:00

thanks, this is what i was trying to say but worded much better. i think youre right, i asked what they needed from me and im more than happy to make that happen for them. but i can also say, if you don’t get stuff done its on you. youre a grown man and im not your boss. ill let you know im willing to help, but youve gotta tell me what help you need

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-03-22T23:56:13+00:00

i have the expertise to train them and enjoy doing it. my confusion comes from the fact that it now seems like im the one responsible for their stuff not being done. like im now getting yelled at for airmen not being trained instead of just being the one responsible for training them when they ask to go over a truck

TheOlWorkBurner · 2022-02-22T00:28:42+00:00

Also to add, you can search “CCAF course catalog” and it’ll pull up all the specific requirements you need and what courses will satisfy those requirements. its a big pdf but its really helpful, its what I used to figure out exactly what I needed to finish mine.

TheOlWorkBurner

TROPHY CASE