Question for Current or Ex Personnel of the Air force (All Air forces)

[iTunes]

Hey guys
I often think how life would have turned out for me if I had followed by older brothers example and got a good education at high School and ended up with a technical Job in the AF (RAF)
He started on Air Radars for Nimrods, then was cross trained on all the other Electronic bits and pieces that are in this crate, anyway he done 22 years and then got a plumb Job working for a sonar research Company.
So my question is this, Do you guys all fall into Civillian equivalent Jobs afterwards? Or do you have a complete career change? Maybe you go into the AF with a Civillian career in mind?
Being as I ended up as Infantry, these wasn't really a Civillian Career path afterwards for me... And is the AF as cushy as it looks? I got to a few RAF bases and  at least one or two USAF bases and boy was I impressed, food was great, better acommadation. I went up to RAF Kinloss once to visit my brother and I was just gob smacked at the size of the place, There was a whole Army of ants crawling over the Nimrods, looked like organized chaos!

[Shifty]

Although my civilian career is completely different from what I did during the 16 years I spent in the USAF.
I use skills and technical knowledge I learned in the Air Force daily.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

I was a Lt. in the intelligence in the Air Force. Lived in an office 900ft underground in a still active section of the Maginot line, felt like a submariner. Analysing and filing photographs and reports. Learning and teaching various countries political situations, warfare techniques and material. Every morning I had to brief the top 80 personels of the base in a 30 min briefing. Since I was an officer, I got draffed to help in the basic training of the comandoes, mostly shooting range duties and field trip supervizing.

What did I learn that I could use in civilian life? Nothing really, except confidence that I could do anything I wanted.

[Babalonian]

I have some friends in the USAF.  To make it short, don't join their base defence or MP programs and you'll be living good.  MPs well... they're MPs.  Base defenders (forgot their official term) pretty much are infantry under the USAF flag because all they do it dig trenches, build defences and man them for defending and keeping secure an airfield.  Sometimes you're lucky and things aren't bad, other times they send to a you a place in the middle of a desert, where you spend most of your time on the base's perimiter doing your job while everyone else assigned to the base gets to do their job in the air conditioning.  My friend worked his bellybutton off to get into another program asap and eventualy became an ordinance specialist I think was his job title (preps and loads/unloads ammo, bombs and all that good stuff).

[DustyR]

I was a PJ in the USAF, since my discharge I have not worked in that career field.  I have been approached by several organizations to participate in different settings.  My experience equipped me to know that I can usually accomplish any goal as long as it is realistic.   

[trax1]

Personally I was never in the AF, but my cousin, who's more like my brother, joined the AF right outta high school, I know he really enjoyed it, he ended up as a mechanic for AWACS outta Tinker AFB in Oklahoma.  He did his 4 years and has been out now for about 3 years.  Currently he's been going to tech school to get trained in air condition & heating repair, all payed for by the AF ofcourse.

[expat]

I was a mover in the RAF ,closest i can come up to in USAF is a cross between ATOC and TMO  i stayed in the RAF for 15 years .
I am on my 4th job since leaving the air force in 99 and only 1 of them wasnt trade related ,my first job was in IT .
Nowadays im a DOD contractor supporting the  USAF  doing the ATOC/TMO thing ....   

[Tarmac]

I'm a TACP (forward air controller) in the USAF.  Our whole career field pretty much lives on Army bases after our initial training.  I'm always surprised by how nice things are when I go to Nellis or Hurlburt, but I wouldn't trade my job for a silly queepy regular air force job.  

I get the best of both worlds - don't have to deal with the Air Force's bullsht because I work on an Army base, and don't have to deal with the Army's bullsht because I'm in the Air Force.  

[red26]

I was in the Army for 4 yrs the first two I was a Combat Engineer A SAPPER if you will Not much there for the civilian world except for the police force. I left the Army and decided to be a civilian once again but I soon got board with working in the oil field and reenlisted into the Army for a second hitch. This time I entered Field Artillery working on the MLRS started in Ammo and worked my way up to Fires witch is working in the launcher unit itself. I learned how to operate s a team just like all the rest of the services and I also learned how to operate big machines. Since the MLRS is a tracked unit It kinda helped me to run stuff like dossers and the Ammo truck is a Hemmit so its kinda like driving a big truck but still very diffrent. So I guess as being a Combat Engineer I had skills for doing police work but the Artillery gave me some diffrent skills. I'm 28 now I operate a wirline unit in the oil field working with down hole oil well micro sizemic tools for a company called pinnacle. Good job to much travel though.LOL

[xbrit]

Same trade in the RAF as "expat", after 15 years I worked first as Dispatcher then Cargo Agent at Manchester International airport,which was very much trade related. After moving to the US 14 years ago not done anything that is related to what I did in the RAF.
Oh BTW yes it was cushy in the RAF, expat can back me up on that, back during the 80's if we travelled we normally got at least 3 star hotel accommodation anywhere in the world we travelled to and the job we did involved extensive travel.

[pxdig]

I was in the Air Force for 10 years.  My job is directly connected to what I did for the military (dont really wanna say what that was).  When I was in the AF, I was allowed and encouraged to go to college, paid for of course. I left with a full resume, an undergraduate dregee in Management, and a Masters in International Relations.  I am what I am today because of the USAF.

[cpxxx]

Biggest regret of my life was that I didn't join my own Air Corps, (as our military air service is called) or better still the RAF. I was so dead set on becoming a pilot that I didn't want to commit to an enlistment as I thought it would delay me in that goal. I really wanted to be a military pilot in either the Irish Air Corps or the RAF but for bureaucratic reasons could apply to either. But I could easily have enlisted in one or other. (Irish citizens can join most British armed forces).

In fact, far from delaying me it would have helped me get a flying job sooner and, I believe it would have enhanced me as a person. A friend joined the Irish Air Corps, ended up a sergeant signaller, he wasn't aircrew but flew in and even handled most aircraft in the service. Saved his overseas service allowance and got his pilot's licence while still serving, ended up flying civilian rescue helicopters, Sikorsky S61s and has had a good career flying helicopters since.

As for the RAF, who knows where I would have ended up. There are so many opportunities with them.

In the end, I had a short and unsatisfactory part time stint in the infantry reserve, got stuck in a dull office job for years, then dull factory jobs and only recently got a job flying skydivers.  Any notions of a career as an airline pilot are virtually dead.

So based on what course my friend took. I'm guessing I would be an airline Captain by now or even be flying that Coastguard S61 which clattered over my house this morning. And I wouldn't feel like such a loser:frown:

Ah well!

[Rich46yo]

USAF can be cushy. Even tho America has about 1/2 the air bases it had when I was in they still have quite a few.

The RAF is certainly a top outfit. Everything depends on the type of job you get and how much you want to pursue it when you get out. Lotsa things can happen during a 4 or 6 year tour. Overall however I think its a good thing. But remember as cushy as an Air Force base can be its still a disciplined life and an entirely different program then civilian life. If somebody is a screw up, or a trouble maker, they probably want to avoid military service.

Because a top NATO standard Air Force isn't going to tolerate nonsense. I know if my son wanted to join up I'd steer him towards USAF.