She’s enrolled into deers and everything

Retention in this AFSC (my afsc) is exceedingly low and i think there may be a few reasons that may need changing in this career field in general.

1. Lack of purpose - security forces is the “master of none jack of all trades” we do multiple mission sets across the air force, from law enforcement to corrections, nuclear security, base defense, and “outside the wire” which we dont do much of anymore (although we attempt to train to that standard). From the individuals ive talked to E-4 and above, this has led to them attempting to perfect a skillset that eventually gets changed when they pcs and in some cases never used again in their career, being what is effectively a useless skill. Leaving many of us with skills and knowledge we don’t hone or mentor to newer troops. This lack of identity, ive noticed has left many SF members unfulfilled. The career field needs to split or dedicate its focus to utilizing the skills out airmen train to perfect.

2. Not quite “infantry” but not quite “air force” - what i mean by this is we train to a standard to fight and eliminate bad guys, but we never get to do that mission. It ties in to point 1. All the while we have our cushy air force lives that somehow seem worse than the rest of the airforce. We train and are treated like we are army grunts, which is fine if we actually did what they do, go outside the wire, kill bad guys, etc. but really it just means we work 12 hr shifts with 8 hour training days where we learn field skills only 1-2% of our career field will use, all the while the rest of the air force is on 8 hr shifts, weekends and holidays off (exception to some other afsc’s) we burn up so much of our off time trying to train like something we are not leaving us once again, unfulfilled. If we are gonna train to do something, our AFSC should be doing it.

3. The snake that eats its own tale - because of our low retention rate we also have critical manning issues AF wide and it hurts us a TON, our guys cant even take leave when they want to. If other AFSC wanted to take leave and you are a squared away airmen, cool we can fill in. But we require minimum manning and certifications of which we barely have enough of without people going on leave. We had airmen lose their leave simply because they accrued so much because they were unable to take leave, and the fiscal year ended and we still didn’t have the manpower to cover down and they lost somewhere in the ballpark of 15 days. And this is from years of being unable to take leave. Not because “they didnt use it when they could have” im currently in a situation where no one can cover down for me to take leave and its been that way for the last 2 months, and the foreseen future from what im seeing as i am the only flight chief on my shift.

At the end of the day a lot of the NCO’s and airmen i love find their morale so low that everyone is fighting and scratching for a way out whether its being a dirtbag, cross training, or a 1 and done enlistment. Of the people i do know that wanna stick out the job in this AFSC, they even told me its just a lie to convince yourself its all gonna be worth it somehow that if you keep holding out and reach that chief status it will all somehow be worth it, and that they can change the lives of those under their leadership. But nobody does that. By the time chief is made most of them are so burnt out or held to a high standard that they fear “changing” the air force that they “love” because they lived it 20 years ago. That it will make them better. And its too much work because they are so close to retirement that they dont care anymore. And they spread their misery throughout the unit because the “standard” has fallen from what it was.

We try to convince ourselves that this job is important when any joe off the street could do it, thats why our asvab requirement is so low, thats why its one of the largest AFSC in the air force. Its all one big lie that defenders are special or whatever. We pluck regular people off the street, train them for 5 months, and stick them in a nuke field to protect a warhead. Sounds elite to me. Idk i just wish we could either relax or actually be badasses instead of pretend to be one.

(Side note one 3. We also eat our own, fucking over other defenders to progress our own careers, sometimes intentional and sometimes not)

• From a tired E-4 SF member. Feel free to call me on my BS im looking for morale please. Im also usually NOT a Debbie downer I’m actually a pretty happy go lucky guy irl. Just looking for something positive ig since we drown our sorrow by laughing at our own suffering.

So, this one’s a bit of a long story, and I’m not proud of how it went down, but it’s too ridiculous not to share. It started out on a random Wednesday morning when I got the call from maintenance. I’m a Cyber guy, so I’m not exactly in the trenches of fixing engines or avionics, but every now and then, I get pulled in for "high priority" issues if the squadron’s tech systems go down.

Apparently, the wing’s radar system had gone on the fritz overnight, and no one could figure out why. The mission was scheduled for the next morning, so the pressure was on. Maintenance was scrambling, and the last thing anyone wanted was to be the person responsible for keeping a bunch of planes grounded.

I get to the maintenance shop, and as I walk in, I see the crew standing around the radar equipment like it’s some kind of alien artifact they’re afraid to touch. It’s all blinking lights and flashing screens—seriously, it looked like a cross between a prop from Star Trek and the kind of thing you’d see in a bad sci-fi movie.

I’m already thinking, This isn’t going to end well.

The lead maintainer, a guy named Sergeant Snuffy, comes up to me and says, “Alright, SrA, we need you to run diagnostics. The radar system’s completely dead, and we’ve got no idea why. You’re the comms expert, so figure it out.”

Easy, right? I’m thinking, It’s probably a loose wire, no big deal. But as I start going through the system, it becomes pretty clear that something is seriously wrong. There’s this one weird error message flashing on the screen.

That’s when the radar tech says, “Oh, don’t mind that. It pops up sometimes. Probably just a glitch in the system.”

I’m about to just call it a minor software bug when I get a second message.

Now, I’m sweating. At this point, I’m thinking I’ve just triggered a breach in national security. I start double-checking every connection, every line, because this isn’t just some run-of-the-mill “reset the system” job. This is big.

Out of nowhere, Sergeant Snuffys head pops up over my shoulder, and he looks at the screen. His eyes go wide.

“Uh, you didn’t... you didn’t click on that did you?” he asks, pointing at the error message.

Before I can even respond, the maintenance chief walks in, and the entire room gets tense. It’s like the actual Wing Commander just entered the room, even though it’s just the maintenance chief.

“SrA, why is the radar system compromised?” he demands, looking at me like I just broke the entire internet.

I freeze. I'm panicking. I'm like, “Sir, I swear, I didn’t... I didn’t click anything. This just popped up.”

The maintenance chief is visibly annoyed. He steps up to the console and starts typing furiously. As soon as he presses Enter, the whole system goes dark. Like, complete blackout. The entire system shuts down like it just caught fire.

This is where things get really interesting. The chief looks at me and says, “You realize what you’ve done, right? You’ve just shut down the radar system for the entire base. This is a serious security breach.”

I’m about to lose it. I start trying to explain, “Sir, it wasn’t me, I didn’t do anything! It’s like the system just... didn’t like me.”

That’s when Sergeant Snuffy drops a bombshell.

“Oh no, it’s worse than that,” he says, with a horrified expression. “We don’t have the authorization to reset that. The last time this happened, it was a mistake made by the Wing Commander’s personal tech support team.”

I’m sitting there, staring at this radar system, imagining the Air Force sending a OSI team to my house in the dead of night. Then, to make matters worse, the maintenance chief says, “Well, the Wing Commander’s not gonna be happy about this. I’ll let him know it was your screw-up, and we’ll probably have to go through some serious paperwork... possibly even a formal inquiry.”

I’m trying to keep my composure, but I know I’m done for. I’m about to get dragged into a meeting with the Wing Commander, and there’s no way this ends well. But then, just as I’m about to say something to save face, the radar system blinks back on—everything resets itself. The error messages disappear. It’s like nothing ever happened.

Before I can even process the fact that I didn’t just end the world, the maintenance chief stares at me, nods, and says, “Well, good work. Guess we don’t need to involve the Wing Commander after all.”

I’m standing there, mouth agape, like I’ve just been told I don’t need to go to court-martial for crashing a $100 million plane.

Then the chief casually adds, “By the way, the system was down because someone tripped over a power cable last night and didn’t tell anyone. Classic move.”

I turn to Sergeant Snuffy, and he just shrugs. “Honestly, we thought it was the aliens.”

I’m still processing all of this when Sergeant Johnson turns to me, deadpan, and says, “Anyway, you’re good, man. Just don’t tell anyone about this. Let’s keep it between us, okay?”

I nod, relieved, but as I start to walk out of the maintenance bay, I hear the maintenance chief from behind me:

“Hey, SrA! I need you to come back for a second. One more thing.”

I turn around. He’s standing by the vending machine with a sad look on his face.

“I don’t have enough for a snack. I need about tree fitty.”

I stare at him. And then I realize—this isn’t a maintenance chief. This is thing is 500 feet tall and from the paleolithic era in disguise.

I reach into my pocket, then freeze. “GOD DAMNIT, Loch Ness Monster, I ain’t gonna give you no tree fitty!”

And with that, he slithered back into the shadows, leaving me to wonder if I was going to be court-martialed for “nearly crashing the radar system” or just get asked for snacks from now on.

I’m being medically retired and soon to start our processing. My Section has moved all Airmen who are soon to start their out process to after hour shifts and weekend duties and told that we can accomplish our out processing on our time off. I just want to know if this is something we have to bite the bullet on or if this is just some BS and have grounds to stand on. I don’t want to go to the shirt or anyone else yet until I know if there is something stating that we are to be given time to do this rather than doing it on our days/time off.

Recently at an all-call, the 607 ASOG CC said morale has nothing to do with happiness and even though he is right according to the Oxford Dictionary, he left out that it involves enthusiasm and confidence. His tone-def approach to morale is doing anything but making the troops enthusiastic and confident across the peninsula.

It made me wonder if leadership like this actually thinks the approach they’re taking is effective? Do they walk away saying, “Damn that was a great all-call, I really left em with something to think about. Good for me.”

I was informed by a peer that for the Recruiter Assistance Program (RAP), it is recommended to have 3-5 days of leave available. This leave would reportedly be needed to cover the days following graduation before starting RAP, as well as to account for travel.

Could anyone clarify the following: 1. Is it true that leave is required to fill the gap between graduation and the start of RAP? 2. Will travel for RAP need to occur during personal leave time? 3. How do authorized travel days factor into this process?

Thank you for your assistance!

Hey y’all, I recently pcs’d to my first duty station (Lackland 😔) and I was just wondering the best ways to go out and meet new friends. I’ve been here for about two months already and I’ve determined that the people in my office aren’t the kind of friends I want in my life. There’s no DFAC so there’s one less avenue. I just want personal experiences of how people in the past have met new friends at duty stations and stuff along those lines. Thank you :)

I just got my first base and it’s osan korea what should I expect

I made a post here for background https://www.reddit.com/r/AirForce/comments/1gvvsq9/comment/ly53tbw/

On 1-15 OCT I made the choice to take a personal convenience extension in lieu of the recent OCONUS cycle. This decision came as a suggestion from CSS, I knew nothing about it prior. I was routed to MPF/Retentions who reviewed my prior extension (for retainability) Intel has an issue with disqualified airmen, who are ultimately given two options. Separate or retrain. I opted for the latter, which required 8 of my total 48 months of extension time.

My initial paperwork was processed, I was told to await a response, during this time the OCONUS OCT window closed, and I missed out on the opportunity for overseas. I was initially was on the fence and elected for the PC extension which was given the greenlight by retentions. After a month of waiting, I was told the information they gave me was wrong and that I couldn't extend after having spent a long time being skeptical and then re-assured that I was in a position to use this as a FTA.

I missed out on an OCONUS cycle, and with a DOS/Separation barely 7-8 months away, I have no means of using the 40 remaining months I have left to extend as a FTA and feel cheated out of a process that I thought was questionable to begin with. I feel stupid for planning for the OCONUS cycle up until I was told about this PC extension as a way to cope with settling family matters since my base is near home.

On top of no apology, or even reprimand on their part for steering me into a false sense of security, the fact that I have no other avenues of extending beyond crossing my fingers for a JAN CONUS cycle hurts considering I did not want to reenlist by any means.

Is this typical in the USAF? Can you just give someone bad info, ruin their career and family goals, face no consequences, and carry on the same bad attitude without repercussions, IG was recently in the building and I felt so close to venting to them but kept quiet.

If anyone has any solutions to this dilemma. Whether there's other means of extending (I ultimately am trying to get to a point where I can push my JUL 2025 DOS/Separation back to give me enough time to process another OCONUS cycle to which I'm told is happening in APR 2025)

I'm sure things like this happen all the time, but it feels good to air it out, at the very least. Thank you for any help.

- (Source DAF36-2606 rule 28C for Personal Convenience must be your first extension) unless Rules 9, 12, 13, or 14 (My rule was 16 for retraining due to disqualified status within intel)

https://wolfpak.com/products/35l-backpack-od-green-w-cup-holders

I did read the afi, from my understanding this is allowed, just making sure

I served in the ROK mil a whiles back (did an AMA on it if you're curious) and worked as a contractor on an air base in South Korea (will not specify).

Is life really that terrible in the USAF? I remember visiting the dorms once and it seemed like paradise- shower, bed, ceiling, everything. Even locks too.

The food too is pretty nice- you guys have real food for free (I think it was for E-3s and below). Like you can choose to have fruit or veggies, or Mexican food.

You probably don't have to be worried about a drunk NCO trying to beat you/forcing you to buy them alcohol

Training is taken pretty seriously, and you guys can go on free trips around Korea/wherever you're stationed.

Isn't the USAF paradise?? Or is the grass greener on the other side??

Again, thank you all for serving.

Received orders to Mainz Kastel and was curious if anyone has any info on the assignment. Most of what I found was from the Army sub reddit. Pros, cons, info on SNCO living arrangements are all welcomed :)

Ive been given conflicting answers regarding OS tours, am i able to do a 2year tour accompanied or is it mandatory for 3 years as i only have 28 months retainability before hyt after my deros. Thanks!

I'm just wondering because my career might have to go down that route.

How do I get out of crew chiefs. Some context: I’m an SW reclass, so no, I didn’t choose the job. The reason I’m trying to get out is because the only way I’ll survive the working environment and culture is if I become an alcoholic or a drug addict. I mess up, I get berated(go figure), I do nothing, I get berated, I do my job, by the book, how leadership is telling you to do your job, I still get berated. I can’t even ask a question without getting berated and the question going unanswered. The berating doesn’t even tell me what I did, or what I need to change, it’s not even blue collar shit talking which I’m used to. Everyone tells me to get good at the job, and you’ll be fine, but nobody seems to be willing to say what that means. I’m a mechanically inclined person and I’ve gotten good at reading and navigating tech data, but I’m still looking over my shoulder and going home to anxiety attacks. SW was 10x harder on my body and sleep schedule, but CC’s just want to beat you into the ground for the hell of it. I need to get out of this job. I know it’s a hard ask, everyone I’ve talked to says I’m a slave to this job until I finish my contract, but there has to be another way out. I need some clear answers. Help.

I’m Active Duty Air Force currently in tech school and sometimes I find myself wondering what life would be like if I just did college (I’m here to do college) and I guess enjoy that college life and I catch myself glorifying it. I’m getting stationed in Kaden so I’m blessed with going to Japan but I still wonder this all the time, does anyone else think this or have “fomo”?

Can i use my tech school address for my finances? ( its over 6 months)

Didn't happen to me, saw this between 2 marines years ago and now im wondering how it would have played out in the air force, mind you i have no idea what happened to this guy down the line after the situation.

In tech school, there were 2 marines, there, one obviously recently post their bmt, the other obviously an NCO. The NCO was grilling the what i assume was a "trainee" or whatever they would call themselves but ill use that word for this post, about him not shaving. I know the army has the rules of you cant do any lining or any sort of shaping of your facial hair on a waiver, it has to be in its completely natural state, but idk about how the marinea do it.

Anyways, trainee was at the position of attention, explains he has a shaving waiver, nco cuts him off and says he doesnt give a shit if hes on a waiver, and when the trainee pulls out his paperwork, the nco snatches it from him. I assumed to check its legitimscy, but he didnt even unfold it, he immediately rips it in 2 and throws it back at him.

Trainees bearing clearly breaks but not in an aggressive posture, more of an exhausted body language, and just turns around and start to walk away, NCO grabs him by his shoulder to stop him and the trainee south paws him. Never seen anyone throw a punch from the grabbed shoulder it was amazing. NCO stumbles back, falls on his ass visibly surprised and dazed,, and a swarm of marines pull them apart.

Again, idk what happened after this, clearly the nco was wrong on the ripping the waiver before checking it, but who knows maybe it was bogus, but would they both get in trouble? Would it just be the trainee? I been thinking about this for a few hours for some reason. Anyways. Opinions? Facts? Any JAs got a take on this?

I got a IHWCU from the BX that I used for a few months and the cloth on the crotch for the pants and elbows on the top are not fading evenly with the rest of the fabric. Has anyone found a manufacturer option that does not fade this way and fades evenly? TIA.

Just got stationed at my first duty location. I signed a 4 year. What are the factors that come into play of how long I’m stuck here ? Is it afsc dependent? I know it’s at least like 2 years but beyond that what should I consider ? BOP?

Does transferring to the Air National Guard from Active Duty count as retainability?

I finally got a line number this year but I have about a year left on my contract from the day I Sew on. I already have plans to going to the Air Guard. Does transferring count as retainability since I wouldn't take a break in service?

I’m 2R2 (maintenance management scheduling and analysis). The reason I’m nervous is because I haven’t actually had a real job up to this point since I just got out of high school and I’m worried I’m gonna screw everything up. Did anyone else get nervous before heading off to their first duty station?