After being selected for Officer Training and UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) by the Reserve Unit, There has been a tremendous amount of waiting.  For anyone that is motivated enough to change their mind to drop a well-paying career in computers and lobby as hard as I did for the spot, waiting to leave does one thing…….it sucks.  Plain and simple.

            There are good things about the time spent waiting for OTS to start.  For me, I finally quit my job with IBM (Thank god because I was very miserable by the end) and was able, due to some saving, take a few months off from working in general.  A little side note here, if you have the opportunity to take some time off from work before you go, I would strongly recommend it.  There is nothing so good at focusing your energy and soul at what you have to accomplish in OTS/UPT.  I am forever grateful that I was able to do this.  Another good thing about time off is that you can get into shape for OTS.  The basic requirements for someone my age (25) are a minimum of 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes, minimum 40 pushups in 2 minutes, and running 2 miles in under 17:15 .  Sure, maybe not the hardest physical requirements for a rugby player of 8 years, but trust me, the better shape you are in before OTS, the less you have to worry about when you get there. 

            So since December 2001, I have been a bum, basically.  I went to Lake Tahoe and got engaged to the sweetest, prettiest gal in the whole wide world (For a website journal of being engaged and getting married, go to the url www.ball&chain.com ……just kidding).   I have heard both good and bad things about being married before or during UPT.  Let me just clarify this, because the guys that were married before or during swear by it, and the guys that were single, swear by that too.  So, I made my own decision and decided getting married before was the thing for me.  You make your own choice.  I’m sure wives are great and I am also sure that if you are single, chicks dig pilots……..just a hunch.  My partner in crime, the other guy selected from my Unit, is married as well, so it should be fun to get to know both he and his wife during the next few years.  Hardships can unite people of similar situations. 

            Okay, back to waiting.  Imagine being ready to run a race, training for a race, dreaming about a race, and the day of the race, you spend 4 months at the starting line.  That is a pretty accurate description of what happens when you get selected.  So, now that you know, please don’t do what I did.  Don’t be impatient.  It will make you so much more comfortable if you just go with the flow.

            Now let’s talk about what you have to do as a selectee waiting for an OTS date and UPT date.   First of all, there is an actual Air Force Reserve Selection Board that your package is sent to.  This is pretty routine and mostly just paper work that you and your recruiter have to fill out (SEE Recruiter Section on this page for that fun).   All of your stuff is sent down to Georgia and once they have reviewed you and your stuff, you get selected.  Once you are selected, guess what………more waiting.   Eventually (2-3 weeks) you will get your OTS start date.  This is close to the best day of your life because, FINALLY, the process is starting.  After I was selected and had my start date, I went to a recruiter and was sworn in.  You actually go ahead and enlist as an e-5 (Staff Sergent).   My enlistment was very cool, due to 2 things.  First, I was processed by a recruiter that actually knew what she was doing and was very professional.  Second because as we went over to the Unit to be sworn in by an Officer, Capt. Brooks, whom was my first contact with the Unit at all, had just arrived from a 21 day staging trip.  Well, Capt. Brooks read my oath to me as I repeated it.  It was a special moment for me.  And hey, I got to keep the pen that I signed my enlistment form with……cool.   I get to be a pilot AND I get a free pen…….bonus.   Hehehe, seriously though, it was a great day.  There is a feeling which I will not be able to describe very well, that when you take your oath, that it is all real and finally after much work (not soon to stop) that you are on your way.  I felt like I was truly and “Air Force Guy”, even if I have no idea of the way things work, just yet. 

            Okay, after taking my oath, I only had a few more things to do.  First, was to go back to the Base and get my uniforms, and to ensure that my pay was being properly dumped into my checking account (by the way, it is bucket loads of money, I’m talking tons…………..at least 400 pesos).  Hahaha, if you’re going to be in it for the money……..get out now.  Be in it to fly or don’t bother.   No pilot wants to fly with someone who doesn’t love to fly.  I think that may be what I like about the industry as a whole, no one gets into flying that doesn’t enjoy it.  And when you have co-workers that actually enjoy their job, well then, my friend, you got yo-self a pretty damn good gig. 

            After all of that, all that is left is to stay in shape and wait and enjoy your last days as a free man, because from what I have heard, OTS is where they teach you that you don’t own your butt anymore, Uncle Sam does.  Heh….heh……heh………DOH!!!!!

Piss & Moan about my Recruiter Section

Okay, First a little disclaimer about this section.   This section meant to help those recruits that find themselves in a bad situation with a recruiter that does not meet the High standards with which most recruiters hold themselves.  In no way am I implying that any recruiter, other than the one mentioned here, is less than the best person and possibly one of the finest people on the face of the earth.  I have had close contact with at least 5 recruiters and honestly, every one of them except for one was very professional.  That said, I would like to piss & moan about the one that I dealt with the most, so that you may recognize the signs and take appropriate action to save your career and quite possibly save yourself some mental anguish.  (Sounds like I am trying to bitch without getting in trouble, eh?  You are 100% correct).   Here goes.

            I had a good recruiter.  She knew what was up and she knew what to do.  She, you could say, knew how to do her job.  So well in fact, that she was transferred to a different base, soon after I started the UPT selection process.  This was many months ago and I have wished many times that she was back.  Well, the recruiter that took her place had been doing his job for many years and one (me) would figure that he knew his job as well.  **BUZZZ!****  Wrong, thanks for playing, see you later.  I got the Whammy.  I went bankrupt, I lost a lifeline, I overbid, I spun too far, not enough, and the survey did not say.  My recruiter was and is a very “nice” guy, but this gentleman I wouldn’t trust with a squirt-gun……he’d be deadly.  What I am trying to say (not too very well, of course) is that this recruiter was for the birds.  I have NEVER had so much trouble with completing paperwork and the necessary requirements on ANYTHING in my entire life.  I went down there after being selected by the Unit Board to complete the necessary paperwork (ie security clearance, medical history, school history, etc etc. approximately 400 pages of paperwork total) and was in for a surprise, not only did Sgt. “Moron” forget to tell me certain things to bring and information to have access to (by the way, I drove for 6 & ½. Hours just to do this crap) but he also couldn’t enter any of the information that I DID have correctly.  I swear to you (and I have a witness) that I told him my home town 300,000,000 times!!!!  I spent 9 gawd-awful hours doing paperwork that a 4^th grader could have done in 2 hours…tops.  Writing this stuff really seems to unearth a lot of aggression but, come on, give me a break, let’s all do our jobs.  Whew!  Anyway, back to pissing & moaning (oh by the way, if you have a great recruiter, you can just skip this stuff, cause it’s not going to help you, unless of course, you find all of this funny, which it sort of is………now that everything is taken care of).  Okay, here we go again.  I have done all of the paperwork and we have 2 months until it needs to be reviewed by the Air Force Board.  Everything should be in order right???  Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full.   I get a call, oops, excuse me, I call HIM and he says “oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to get a hold of you, your package is incomplete and I need you to sign stuff and do things by the end of the week.”  …………….#@!#!&@$#*%^%#$@#$@#%@*^%$^%*^%@#!^#$!#$@%@%$#&%$@!#@&%$#@&%$#&%@$%@%  COME ON!!!!!!   “I AM AT THE OLYMPICS  HERE IN SALT LAKE CITY !!!!  WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL ME BEFORE I WAS 1,500 MILES AWAY!!!!!!”.    You get the point.   He is an idiot.  So I freak out, all the while thinking that I am going to miss my window and basically be right back where I started and that the Unit is going to be pissed at ME and blah blah blah, right.   I have to fax stuff, make a bunch of phone calls, and generally worry the hell out of myself to get all of this done.  To top things off, he gets an attitude with me AND my Squadron.  A very important thing to understand here is that throughout this entire thing, I remained polite, optimistic (to him), and professional.  That is the ONLY way to get anything done in that position.  If I had thrown a fit or gotten pissy, I would be writing how I was waiting even longer for the NEXT Board.  Be good to people even when they don’t deserve it and you will go a lot further than the other way. 

            Well, it all gets done and sent in……………not mentioning the night before the board actually meets (Let’s pause here and be thankful that FedEx is here).  I get selected.  Wahoo!  No thanks to the Professor. 

            Wait!  It’s not over, there’s more.  So, now I have to enlist right, well, Senor Dim forgets to tell me until the day before he leaves that he is LEAVING and I have to get my enlistment done this week!  “Oh gee, thanks buddy, and let me remind you just how much I think of YOU”.  So he completes some more paperwork and FedEx’s it down to another recruiter (thank you FedEx).  So I should be set right?  Nope, he forgets my security disk.  Once again, I drove to this base (10 hours away).  My “new” and much better recruiter was like “What the ….”.   The recruiter actually knew what she was doing and was able to process all of the stuff that needed to be done. Thank God.  However, I was supposed to have my old (and much less brilliant) recruiter send the security disk as soon as possible.  Well of course, Mr. OnTopOfThings forgets to send it to her, so the next time I talk to her, she still has not received my disk.  Well, I call him and he then swears that it was sent with the “original” package.  Based on his past track record for attention to details, I would say that this is highly unlikely. 

            I know it sounds like I have it out for my original recruiter, but I don’t, I just want to illustrate what problems I have had by using a less than stellar recruiter.  Like, I said before, not ALL recruiters are bad, careless, and unprofessional.  If you find yourself in a similar situation, my advice to you, is to work your’ hardest to get a new recruiter.  And if there are no other recruiters available, I would recommend staying extremely vigilant and connected with your recruiter so that you may “supervise” the process that ultimately is affecting YOUR life!   It’s your career, not the recruiters’.