Air Force BMT

[BlueJ1]

Originally posted by Tarmac
Unless there have been some pretty big changes in the last year, I call bull**** on cell phones and weekends off.

[Tarmac]

yourself.

[clerick]

6.5 weeks.  For some reason he AF starts counting at 0 up to 6.  No weekends off, maybe a few hours for church and definitely no cell phones.

I appreciate the input.  One nice thing about being in the ANG is that i have been reporting for my UTA's since October.  They have a program that is designed to get you a leg-up, as it were.  They practice the basics, facing movements, enlisted and commissioned ranks and grades, saluting.  We are issued BDU's and are expected to keep them up to standard. Its the ANG so its a bit laid back anyway, but we don't get any special treatment because of our "slick sleeve" status.

[AKIron]

Originally posted by Gunslinger
I will tell you though it is not a walk in the park anymore.  We train hard.....be prepared to feel some pain.

Sounds like it's changed since I went through Basic in '73. Was a walk in the park then. Did 40 situps, 40 pushups, and worked up to a mile run everyday. That and some marching was it for PT. The toughest part was staying awake during some boring training classes and keeping a straight face when the TI got indignant about something.

[JeepinAZ]

Best advice is to keep you head down & try to stay un-noticed (i.e. don't screw up) With your age, that's gonna be a feat. When I got out of boot, one of my Drills asked me if I was in his platoon when I shook his hand at graduation, that was when I knew I did a good job @ keeping my head down like my father had suggested.

Good luck sukka, you gonna need it running all the time (I seen your pics on myspace)

[Charon]

I'm Thirty-fricken-two!

LOL! Have fun man

Charon

[xbrit]

32 !! that's almost twice the age I was when I went through basic training, I was 16 yrs and 7 months old and it was the best move I ever made. That was a long time ago and it's been 19 years now since I got out after 15 years of service.
That was service in the Royal Air Force starting back in 1974, not sure on age requirements over there now. We had one older guy in our Flight and he was expected to do as good if not better than us young pups.

[Gunslinger]

WOW,

lot of misconceptions here.

1.  Cell phones get packed away in zero week not to be seen till gradation.  You might be getting confused with the Army's new standard.

2.  BMT is 6.5 weeks long.  The 8 week program starts 1 oct allegedly

3.  It is extremely physical now.  The PT is harder.  We are allowed to punish our flights physically for mistakes made.

4.  You might get to use the pay phone to call home but that is a reward.....no weekends off.  2 hours on sunday for church...that's it!

5.  There is no "free time" or what not.

6.  They actually carry a "trainer rifle" from week one and shoot live 5.56mm rounds out of a real M16 at the range.  (SF people have to qualify on alot more)

Basically it boils down to this.  For the last 3 years the Air Force has been planning on a longer BMT but it doesn't adapt to change very well.  There's alot of hands in the pot as far as what curriculum we teach our trainees.  For the last year we have been teaching 8 weeks worth of curriculum in 6.5 weeks.  It's tough to do but it works for now.  

If BMT is longer less trainees will graduate in a year.  It is a statistical fact.  The Air Force hasn't quite figured out how to solve this problem yet.  It is also about bragging rights at the pentagon among the brass.  Our physical standards are actually tougher than most services with the exception of the Marines.  

With all that said, you have a physically tougher boot camp and mixed with a faster paced academic study program and all around it is really tough.  You are required to learn things the first time they are taught no matter how fast you get taught them.  I tend to teach "right face'' in about 15 minutes and spend the next 30 minutes applying.  after that I move on to the next drill movement.  If you haven't figured the first one out by then you are going to be totally lost by the second.  From there it just starts to snowball....the act of you falling behind the power curve.  Learn fast and know it the first time it's taught.  It's not that I don't want it taught properly....I as an instructor am under time constraints.  There's stuff I can only teach on "my time" and I do it when ever that may appear.  Time is your biggest enemy.  You can't get it back once it's been spent.  

I call this new generation the "Gen WOW".  They've played world of warcraft so much that they can't comprehend learning any other way unless it's broken down on a keyboard for them.  After 2 weeks of punishment they still can't comprehend stepping off with the left foot every time in a full 24" step.  Going to bed at 9PM and waking up at 445 is completely foreign to them.  Not only do they have to be taught, they have to be taught "WHY" because that's the only way it makes sense to them.  

In a flight of 50 I generally lose 20% in the first 2 weeks.  I usually have 1-2 kids that gets admitted to the psyc ward at the hospital here for suicidal ideations.  I usually get 2-3 that have pre-existing conditions that come to light that would have disqualified them from service.  There's always 1 in every flight that got off his antidepressants thinking he could handle it and tends to go crazy.  

There is usually 1-2 that literally can't handle the stress of being  yelled at.  They tend to snap in the first week.  I call this condition "vapor lock", they just freeze up and don't respond to questioning like they just saw their family murdered or something.  And then there's those that just get injured....knees, ankles, shoulders, and what not.  They have to go to a transition squadron to heal.

Well that's my rant on AF boot camp from someone that actually teaches it.

The average MTI works about 100 hours a week.  That's 15-18 hours a day for 3 weeks strait.  You get a week down for field training ( 3-4 hour shifts per day) and then right back at it for another 2 weeks.  You get a week off between flights.  You generally do this till you can't handle it anymore and then do it for one more cycle.  I pushed 8 flights strait....took 3 weeks of leave and then pushed another 3 more.  About the time I had problems with my wife I was given a bunch of down time but now I'm right back at it.  

With all that said I never forget the fact that it is my sworn oath to "properly prepare young men and woman for military duty" and to "spare no effort".  I take my job very seriously as about 20% of each flight I graduate will be in Iraq in less than 5 months.  Another 40% will be there within the year.  The stress and hardship I'm allowed to put on them now will make them a better Airman.  Keep in mind there's more USAF personnel in Iraq right now than there are Marines.  It's not like it used to be.

[Sketch]

Nice post GS!!
Man I remember that first night not knowing what to expect that next day... but was well worth it.  Keeping your head on straight and staying focused is the big thing...

[AGM65]

When your MTI asks who has a drivers license, get ready to push a mower. But it beats raking and bagging. Good luck, it may just be remembered as one of the best times of your life. When I went through BMT at Lackland in April of 1985 we had a recruit name Nickooforsat. Our MTI named him "Alphabet".

[LePaul]

(Edit:  Gun, saw your post about what its like now...that's awesome.  I wish it was like that when I went.  After 4 years of high school ROTC, I was pumped to go back then...so you can understand my "let down" when basic wasnt quite that tough as rumored)

Air Force TI's are wusses.  Sorry Gun, mine was so dramatic and teary eyed, Im surprised he doesnt have a regular spot on Oprah.



There I stirred the pot...

But seriously, the TI's were OK, it was the Air Force Academy wanna-be that tailed with our instructor we really had daggers for.  I dont know if they still shadow the instrutors, but the kid we had to put up with was mouthy.  And he made sure to run away with the instructors...wise move.

As for the age thing, I went when I was 18 and we had a few guys in their 30s in our flight too.  If anything, their wisdom and age had a calming effect on us young guys.  We'd be all wound up over an inspection and those guys would just tell us to relax, do our task and all would be alright.

I went thru in 1988 (Flight 575     )  Don't recall the building, right across from the Security Police dog trainers and we had a T-38 in the front yard.  Nothing about Air Force basic was physical, just a big mind game.  I was disappointed, as we had a confidence course that looked like something out of a schoolyard.  And the M-16s were lousy .22 LR conversions that jammed constantly.   Now look, it isnt like I was hoping for something similar to the Marines, but I really thought it would be more.  Maybe it was just the times...we walked a lot, but no doubletime, few pushups and the instructors werent allowed to yell at you if you got offended by that (rollseyes...we had a few that did).

Feel free to set me straight, Guns  

[Grayeagle]

LOL .. the comment about keepin a straight face brought back some memories for sure

Two of us 'giggled' in formation .. near the end of basic .. I mean ..we could see the light at the end and knew we were outta there in a week .. and we had a little short mexican assistant TI who just went off at .. well .. me ..

..I had looked down at him .. and even worse ...smiled.. directly at him.

He had said something that tickled me ..made a comment about me bein tall, skinny ..and it was something my dad useda say to me.

Well.

He 'went off.' .. and I was staring straight ahead at the very tip of his hat as he got right in front of me .. and .. I giggled.

Ohh yaa ..I was in deep kimchi then .. then another guy to my left giggled .. I think we spent 2 hours pickin up leaves by hand.. the whole flight .. and most of us thought it was hilarious

-GE aka Frank

[nirvana]

 :lolGood story GE, had a good time watching some guys get incentively trained in my company for laughing too.   Ever hear of a monkey f***er?

[AWMac]

GunSlinger yer now a Air Force BMT?
 
Dam and you said before you were a Army DI at Ft. Jackson, SC?

WTF? Did you change branches of service?

Holy crap Rambo...

~Busted~

Mac

(SF people have to qualify on alot more) Now this is sooo moronic...but good.

[nirvana]

I think he's been a TI for a couple years.