<p>need some questions answered about the Air Force in general and the Academy specifically. At this point I am thinking of considering the Air Force as a career possibility. Coming from a nonmilitary family, I don’t really know a whole lot about military life. but I love my country and I really want to fly. so my questions are:</p>
<li>what kind of personal qualities do you need to be happy in the Air Force? not generally speaking like courage, loyalty, honor, determination, but more specific.</li>
<li>do women go into combat? I don’t mind risking my life, but I don’t really want to be responsible for the deaths of other people.</li>
<li>can night blindness disqualify you from Academy admission?</li>
<li>can you learn to fly even if you end up with a desk job?</li>
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<p>thanks in advance for your help. (also please tell me if you agree with the little voice in my head that every so often tells me I’m going crazy.)</p>
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<li><p>Work ethic, self confidence, tenacity. You should be strong willed and be willing to fight for those below you. If you're ok with having to stay late with no personal benefit whatsoever, that'd be a plus too.</p></li>
<li><p>In the AF, as far as I know, women can serve in every role except Spec Ops. Your second sentence here worries me a little; if you stay in for a career, you will be forced to make some lose-lose decisions. We can work on that.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't know, sorry.</p></li>
<li><p>You can certainly still earn a private pilot's license on your own, but you wouldn't be flying for the AF. That being said, don't think that there's no "desk job" side to flying. As you gain rank, you also gain additional responsibilities, one of which is flying a desk even in the operational world.</p></li>
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<li>what kind of personal qualities do you need to be happy in the Air Force? not generally speaking like courage, loyalty, honor, determination, but more specific.
** This was answered quite well by 07Petko.</li>
<li>do women go into combat? I don't mind risking my life, but I don't really want to be responsible for the deaths of other people.
<strong>RED FLAG</strong> The purpose of the US Military, taking all the fancy words and phrases away from it, is to kill people and break things. That's it. Our role is to defend our nation and our people with either the "implied threat" of military force or the actual employment of military force. And that will involve killing the enemy. If you can NOT get past this, then you should reconsider the military as your chosen vocation.</li>
<li>can night blindness disqualify you from Academy admission?
**DODMERB would have to answer this and to my knowledge, NONE of us here are LE Mullen (DODMERB guy on another site)</li>
<li>can you learn to fly even if you end up with a desk job?
**Not sure you can got to SUPT is you have night blindness...so flying may not be an option. BUT...assuming you become a pilot, trust me...you WILL fly a desk often in a long career. Take it from me...25 years 6 months as of 1 DEC 08...and about half of that NOT in the cockpit.</li>
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<li><p>Besides what has been mentioned already. You need to have itchy feet. Bullet and I have seen many good fliers not get promoted because they didn't move. "it wasn't the right time...child in school, spouse has a good job. The AF doesn't not like homesteaders. We lived in 11 homes during his 21 yr career...this does not include me moving back home with my Mom while he went to 4 mos long courses (PCS move must be at leat 6 mos---no housing for shorter time periods) Our son who is a cadet at UMD ROTC (he decided in the end he still wanted to be a college kid and selected ROTC scholarship over the AFA) went to 8 different public schools...he never went to one for everything (i.e. elm., middle or high), our DD is a jr in HS she too has gone to 8, our DS2 is a freshman he will have gone to 7. Understand you can be deployed in a moments notice, I can give 3 quick examples, of Bullet being recalled to work during the weekend and leaving 72 hours later for an undetermined amount of time, this doesn't inlcude taking the jets to safety when a hurricane is coming, if I had to add that in we would be closer to a dozen.
Be able to always follow an order no matter how much you disagree with it. Salute sharply and do it. NO WHINING</p></li>
<li><p>Agree with flieger83...big red flag. Bullet and I taught CCD at our church for 8th graders, all of the children were military dependents, they asked him point blank how can he justify dropping bombs on people or shoot down another airplane. It is hard for many people to know that they maybe killing someone, if this is going to be something you need to come terms with, it will always be there until you do. You can even extrapolate it to the people who load the bombs, to the intel officers, to the life support flight, all of these people knew when the loaded the bomb on the jet, gave the intel of where the target was and made sure the g-suits were in shape was an integral part of the mission and they all were sending fliers into complete a mission.</p></li>
<li><p>I agree Dodmerb would have to answer it, but my guess is no! You must be qualified to fly day and night missions. Look back to shock and awe in 02, it was done at night. The most important thing to realize is you may have night blindness, but you might be in the parameters that will allow you to fly,</p></li>
<li><p>I have told this story a ton of times. If you want to get promoted you will fly a desk. We have 2 friends who just retired after 20 yrs as Majors. Why? Because they never wanted to get out of th cockpit. When you come up for O-5 you will be going against people that have diversity under their belt. Bullet stepped out 3 times in 21 yrs. 1st time was to jump out of perfectly good airplanes with the 82nd AB for 2 yrs as a young Capt. Since he did that when he became a Major he was selected to go to PME at Ft Leavenworth...his Army experience was most likely the clincher. Only 60 AF guys are selcted yearly out of a class of 1000. From there he was selected to go to the Pentagon and work on a joint staff...due to that he was able to get back in the cockpit, and most of all when he retired in Aug. companies were fighting for him. He was able to choose between working on the 22 or 35...he chose the 35. All of his stepping out of the jet actually helped him along the way, whereas the guys who said all I want to do is fly and I don't care if they don't promote me, spent the last 4 yrs saluting Bullet (they started their career at the same time), making thousands of dollars less a yr, forced to retire at 20, and will now make thousands of dollars a yr for the rest of their life in less retirement pay.(Ret pay at 20 is 50% base) Bullet spent 6 yrs out of 21 out of the cockpit, but it was well worth it.</p></li>
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<p>I might sound like a downer, but I would rather you see the reality of an AF life warts and all. As I said before we retired @3 mos. ago, we loved every second, and there are some people on this forum who did attend Bullet's retirement...I think they would attest that it was very hard for us to say goodby to our AF Family. Even with the warts, I am very happy that our DS will be joining the AF.</p>
<p>thanks everyone for your help. about question #2: I know. It was kind of a stupid question for me to ask. I know this is something I'm going to have to work through one way or the other. bulletandpima, thanks for your great answer (btw, what did he say to the eighth graders?) about question #3: thanks anyway, guess I'll look it up elsewhere.</p>
<p>Question #2 not only applies to the profession of arms, but many other occupations (medical, pharmaceutical, a host of engineering fields, defense, transportation, chemical, and agricultural industries, mining, government, or law enforcement) where the intent may not be to harm, but because of human error or failure, design flaw etc. people lose their lives every day. Protecting your wingman, or saving lives of soldiers on the ground, may be easier to live with than a medication error, farm accident or bridge collapse.</p>
<p>What Bullet said was that he felt that he was not committing a mortal sin...he wasn't just going out to kill anybody willy nilly, he took all precautions not to kill innocent people. He also felt that he was doing it for good against evil and by his actions he saved many innocent lives...i.e. the Kurds in Gulf I. Our DS addressed this issue on 1 of his essays for college..."if you could talk to anyone who would it be and what would you ask" His was about asking Truman knowing the destruction the A-bomb did how did he feel ordering the 2nd bombing.</p>
<p>It is a job and you need to compartmentalize what you are doing. I know that one way Bullet did that was he knew he was protecting all Americans, including his family.</p>
<p>Go to United</a> States of America Service Academy Forums - Powered by vBulletin and ask your question under Dodmerb section...MullenLE will get beack to you quickly and he will have a much more definitive answer than anybody here. Realize that every Dodmerb situation is different and nobody here is qualified to answer the question, even if they have night blindness it could be different than yours. We knew somebody who was med dq for colorblindness with the Navy, but flew 16s for the AF</p>