Moody Air Force Base - MAFB

I finally pulled in down here in Valdosta, GA for my IFF class which starts Monday at Moody Air Force Base. It's GREAT to be here getting ready to start something new and different! Living in a new place is cool too. The base is very nice (they have a brand new awesome gym), and the town is much better than Columbus, MS. I played the base golf course today, and it's decent. Here at Moody they currently fly the T-6 Texan, the T-38C Talon, the HC-130 and the HH-60 helicopter. So, I'll be seeing a variety of aircraft in the pattern while flying the T-38C around here. Some of my buds who are already here in IFF were able to show me my new squadron and the flightline...I can't wait to get started! The flying is going to be much different than in SUPT and it'll be more of a "big-boy" program which I'm ready for.

My living quarters while I'm here at Moody aren't actually on the base...they're about a 15 minute drive away, but it's a pretty nice place. The base basically has a deal with some apartments in town to house us as we go through the program. It's good in a way too because we can be separate from work, hang with the bros in one place and chill at the pool after a hard days work!

The whole day Monday will probably be spent inprocessing and making sure all the paperwork is up to speed and they have all the records they need to. Day two starts academics and after about a week or so the flying will begin. The cool thing about IFF is they're training us to be good/smart wingmen. So, that means it's all formation flying and lead will be leading us everywhere we need to go...I just need to be in position and be smart with my flying and administrative stuff (knowing procedures, sounding sharp on the radio, etc.) From what I've heard, they don't expect you to be awesome at basic fighter maneuvers (BFM) right away. The main thing is not scaring flight lead by doing something unsafe with the jet when you're "fighting" or flying a rejoin, and just showing that you have the potential and situational awareness while flying to be a good fighter pilot in your follow on aircraft. I'll be able to give more input on exactly what's it's like in a few weeks, but for now that's what I've been told...let the fun begin!

Intro to Fighter Fundamentals...Almost Here

Most of you are probably wondering what I've been up to for the past two months or so. Well, lets just say I'm glad that I leave for IFF in a week and a half! Since survival training I've been flying as much as possible, going to the gym, playing golf and spending time with friends. I help out with some flight scheduling around the squadron to earn my pay as well! Most of my bros that I went through pilot training with are gone, so I'm ready to move on myself. Once I get to Moody AFB, I will be assigned to the 435th Flying Training Squadron, known as the Black Eagles. They too fly the T-38C, but with some bigger engines to give a little more thrust. The sooner I get through IFF the sooner I get to strap into an F-16!

IFF will consist of offensive and defensive Basic Fighter Maneuver (BFM) flights, surface attack flights (simulated bombing) and some others for a total of around 18. There are also SIMs. I've been told that if I keep from doing the following three things, I'll be fine at IFF:

1. Don't fly through Joker/Bingo fuel (sounds familiar from my formation checkride in 38s eh?)

2. Don't over g the jet.

3. Don't bust the training floor (usually set at 9,000' MSL)

Normally, those things aren't hard not to do, but when you're in and out of afterburner in an air-to-air sortie trying to "kill" the guy in front of you or keep from being "killed" yourself they can fall out of your cross-check. Of course, having thick skin when they're debriefing you on the things you screwed up and having a work hard/positive attitude will play a big part in my success there. Anyway, I'm not too worried about it. I'll give it my best effort and let God take care of the rest. That's all I have this time around...not much has been happening. I'll try to keep things updated while at IFF, assuming I have easy access to the internet while I'm there. Fly safe!

Combat Survival Training

I recently completed both land and water survival training before I head off to IFF in May. Land survival and resistance training up at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA went well, but by the end I was ready to get home. The first few days of training we had "death by PowerPoint," which is typical of most training courses. They discussed things like first aid care, surviving off the land and camouflage techniques to prepare us for our time in the woods. We were all issued a ruck sack and a bunch of other gear for the upcoming week of "camping, which weighted 50-60 lbs total once it was all packed. Saturday at 0500 we departed the base for a little more than an hour trip north into the mountains in northeastern WA. Towards the end of our trip snow began to appear on the ground and by the time we were at the official training site there was about 2-3 ft. The last 5-6 miles of the trip we had to jump into a personnel carrier type machine on tracks because of the snow. After we were dropped off, we grabbed our ruck sacks and began a short hike to what would be our camp for the next couple nights. Our element was comprised of 7 people...myself and another 2nd Lt being the only officers. He is also going to be flying F-16s down the road. The first couple days were spent learning how to use items we'd have after ejecting to make shelters, signal recovery helicopters and set up traps. We would also hike about 2 miles a day through the snow to different points in the area. We never caught anything, but the Air Force was nice enough to provide a couple rabbits for our eating pleasure. We killed and eat a couple rabbits the first night. Personally it didn't taste all that great to me, but I wouldn't complain if I were in the woods without food. We also hiked about 2-3 miles a day around the mountains...we didn't have snowshoes, so at times it was a pain since with every few steps you'd sink up to you thigh in snow.

Eventually the focus shifted from the surviving part to the evading part. We were taught basic navigation using a compass and map as well as movement, camouflaging and concealment techniques. This was the most fun in my opinion. The last day before getting "captured" was spent evading the "enemy" (our previous days instructors) and making it to a rendezvous point. I led a group of two other enlisted guys and thankfully we never got caught. I don't take all the credit, they did a good job too. We split up leading the evading portion between the three of us. The morning of the last day...yeah, we didn't have a chance to get away. They gave us a point on the map to get to, but as soon as we basically turned around to head into the woods...guys jumped out with fake guns and camo on their faces yelling as us to get down...we were caught.

This began the resistance phase, my least favorite part. There isn't much I can say about this phase because most of it's classified. Plus, I don't want to ruin the "fun" for those of you who will experience the training in the future. I will say I have a whole new respect for the American flag and all those who have been or will be a Prisoner of War (POW). We were taught how to resist interrogations and physical discomfort and return with honor to our countries...something very tough to do sometimes (the resisting part) under such high pressure and extreme torture as we learned from past POW cases. We were in the resistance lab for approximately 48 hrs.

A week after returning from land survival and resistance training, I was on my way to Pensacola, FL to the Navy base for water survival. This training was pretty fun. We kicked things off with PowerPoint stuff as usual, but day two we were into the water...it was a little chilly. The best part was the parasailing and helicopter hoist. After being pulled up to about 500 ft. under the canopy, we'd disconnect from tow boat, run our post ejection checklist and prepare for a water landing. After splashdown, we'd release our canopy and wait for the "rescue" boat. The Navy let us use one of their choppers from the base for the hoist demo. After signaling our position to direct the chopper to our location, we prepared to grab the hoist skimming along to surface of the water. Once the chopper was hovering above us, we'd strap in and give a thumbs up to let them know we were ready and away we went.

We also had a little entertainment on day three of training with the Blue Angles training directly overhead...sweet! It helped the day go by quicker watching them practice their maneuvers. Knowing they were in town, I had to drive down to the flightline and check things out. We were done with training Thursday afternoon, so I decided to chill with a buddy of mine from OTS for the rest of the weekend. I'm sure I'll make it back down before I'm out of here. That's it for now...check back in a few weeks.

Graduate Aviation Program (GAP)

After graduating from SUPT, I moved into the Graduate Aviation Program (GAP) here at Columbus AFB. It's a fancy term to describe the flight I'll be in from now until I head off to Intro to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) at Moody AFB, GA in May. The GAP flight is called Training Flight. It's actually a pretty cool program, and the goal is to keep our flying skills from getting too rusty. We are still a part of the 50 FTS and have both dedicated and sandbag flights. The dedicated flights are actual flights the squadron dedicates to the guys in the GAP program to keep them current whereas sandbag flights are those we can jump into whenever there's an open cockpit available. So far I've had one dedicated and two nice tries at sandbag flights...they've both been cancelled due to weather. But, I'm on the board to fly a couple 4-ship and a couple 2-ship sandbag flights this coming week. We're also allowed to sandbag cross-country flights if we can find an open cockpit, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for one of those. Besides the flights, we have dedicated sims and the commander's approval to use the sim whenever we want to keep instruments skills sharp.

In addition to being part of the GAP, I have an additional duty to help out as an assistance flight scheduler in Hawk Flight...one of the four student training flights in the 50 FTS. I actually requested a scheduling job because I knew I'd have a better chance at getting flights whenever they were available, and it would keep me in the squadron. We have a big base wide Operations Readiness Inspection (ORI) coming up soon and a few dudes are getting tagged to help out with that...thankfully not me!

As I mentioned on the graduation page, we were all looking forward to the awesome opportunity (cough, cough) to head back to Holloman AFB, NM and revisit the torture chamber...only this time a little more pain was expected. For the Viper guys, the max g load we had to keep from passing out under was 9g's. Like my first fuge experience, it was painful but thankfully I didn't chew my shoulder like a couple guys did. I was the fourth person to go of the F-16 guys. The first guy made it fine, but the second dude wasn't so lucky. This was his second trip to Holloman to try and pass the F-16 profiles, but he passed out on profile #3 again. Of course this made my pregame jitters increase a bit...but, I knew I was in good enough shape to keep the blood in my head. =) There was also an F-15C dude that passed out on his first try, but then made it a few minutes later after he had some time to rest. The F-16 profiles were as follows:

Profile #1: 0.1g/second increase without the g-suit or straining to determine our resting g tolerance...5.0g for me.
Profile #2: 6.0g's for 30 seconds
Profile #3: 9.0g's for 15 seconds...ouch!!
Profile #4: check six at 7.0g's for 10 seconds
Profile #5: 90 seconds of varied g loads from 3.5g to 9g to simulate an air-to-air engagement...very tiring!

Next on my schedule are land and water survival training, which I leave for in a couple weeks. Survive Evade Resist Escape (S.E.R.E.) training is the technical term for it. This kind of training prepares us for the unfortunate day we hope never comes...having to eject over enemy territory. The survive and evade part is meant to keep one from getting captured, and the resist and escape part is for post capture if it happens. The water survival shows us the additional difficulties of surviving if ejecting takes place over water. I'll be finished with this training in late March. I'll update everyone as much as I'm allowed (because of classified stuff) on how the training went when I get back. Fly safe, and check six!

Next Assignment: Luke Air Force Base, Arizona!

Wow...what can I say! It feels awesome to have all the hard work over the past year pay off in getting my first choice out of pilot training. Honestly, it all the praise goes to God...He's blessed me too much!! I think this week has been the longest week I've ever been through. The nerves, excitement and being anxious about assignment night have all contributed to restless nights of sleep and a brain that just wouldn't shut off! Now I can finally tell people what I'll be doing next and where I'll be going after graduation. I was asked a ton over Christmas, "So, where are you going after this?" All I said was, "I'll get back to you on January 7th." F-16 training will be at Luke AFB in Phoenix, AZ, which should be a pretty cool place to live...better than Columbus, MS!! As of now I don't have my dates for Intro to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) at Moody AFB, GA, but the guys that have graduated just ahead of us have said they've been waiting 4-5 months to get there. IFF is a course in teaching basic fighter maneuvers (BFM) in the T-38C with bigger engines. It's 2 months long, and has around 20 flights total. So, in the meantime I'll be going back to the centrifuge for the F-16 profile and complete some other training. I have survival training, both land and water, as well as resistance training...some fun, some not so fun. But hey, it's worth it!

From what I've heard from IP's that have flown the F-16, it's going to be an awesome time. Of course, flying any fighter for the most part is sweet, but to be flying my #1 choice out of pilot training is going to be awesome! For me it came down the mission, with location being second. The F-16 is a multi-role fighter, so it'll give me a chance to do different things. It has both air-to-air and air-to-ground capability, which is cool because I'm a person who tends to get bored doing the same thing over and over again. I can dogfight one day and drop bombs the next. Also, I wanted to be able to use all the training I've been getting in war if the country needs me. It's been awhile since we've gone air-to-air with any country...we may in the future, but at least I'll be able to blow stuff up in the Falcon (a.k.a Viper). As far as locations are concerned, there are both good and bad. But, I've decided even if I end up in one of the "bad" spots, I'll still be flying an awesome jet and I'll make the most of my surroundings!

Assignment night is very similar to track select at the end of T-37s. It takes place in the O-club on base here and is set up where each individual student gets call up in front one at a time to get their assignment...we probably had about 400-500 people there. After you're made fun of and joked on a bit, the screen behind you shows the next jet you'll be flying. I can't even explain the feeling inside when I saw the F-16! My classmates rushed the stage to congratulate me, and then it was on to the next person. What a great time, and a day I'll never forget!

Over the past few weeks we finished up with our 4-ship formation flying, which by far has been the most fun...just slightly above low level flying. Being up there in formation with three other jets around you is awesome. Our 4-ship flights in the T-38 were just to get us familiar with what we'd be doing a lot more of in our follow on jet, and as with most things dealing with flying I'm looking forward to it!All that's left for me is five flights and then graduation on the 21st. It's been an awesome year of flying and an awesome year of rewarding work...God is good!