jsteele90

iTrader: (13)

considering transferring to the air force anybody on here done this? less than 5 years of service and done 3 deployments already. 21 months of my life away from my family. too much b.s and more b.s in the marine corps right now. i love the marines dont get me wrong and i know its a step down" no offense air force"
but im a 6154 h-1 series airframer. hueys and cobras. what kind of jobs are there in the air force that relate to that? anything at dover air force base? and is the air force even accepting prior service marines right now?

KevinR

I was in the Marine Corps, and I never even thought about joining another branch. Too much pride probably. I have heard that the Air Force is the way to go if you are looking at a career. Good luck with your decision.Its gotta be a tough one.

DJ99Z28

Good luck man i believe it'll be pretty hard (Airforce is overmanned ) but its always worth a try just depends on the job.

BADFNZ

iTrader: (19)

If it's a step down, why do it?

jsteele90

iTrader: (13)

^shorter easier deployments,nicer bases overseas and in conus, more time with family, better equipment,etc,etc

ImpalaSSpeed96

iTrader: (10)

Step down, lol. We all got our place... Marines do the dirty work, which is cool. We save lives by moving **** through the air keeping Convoy's off the dirt, which is cool...

I'd say you'll have a pretty hard time getting over. Like said, we're still cutting numbers. Not like we did a couple years ago, but all you can do is talk to a recruiter. And i'm sure when you come over, they'll slap a completely new job on you. I doubt they'll take your prior exp into to much consideration. There are plenty of acft mx jobs out there though... And 21 months over three deployments isn't bad for being in the marines. If you were army, I'd guarantee you'd have been over longer than that. FYI, almost all our deployments are 6 months now. Most 12 month rotations are volunteer only. There are still some 120s out there, but most career fields have went to 180 now. You'll just have better living conditions while you're out here. And also, depending on what job you have, you could very well be on a 6 and 6 rotation. We have a whole new jacked up system on who deploys for how long. No doubt your life will be better in the AF though. They really do take care of their people like none of the other services.

Slowv696

iTrader: (15)

plus air force gets paid more when theyre stationed with other branches like the army. i find that to b BS

jgoo

iTrader: (2)

Im in the marines to and I would look at it as a step up lol. I got 10 months left on my contract and im out. Like stated above the airforce is over manned i heard theres a huge waiting list and i got a buddy who tried and they wouldnt take him so hes headed to the army now. Good luck in whichever choice you make

KevinR

Better food lol

I may be wrong, but I have heard that you have to wait at least 6 months after you leave the Marines before you can join the AirForce. Not sure if this is true or not, but just what I heard.

ImpalaSSpeed96

iTrader: (10)

Well thats usually due to the living conditions that are available. As said, the AF has higher living standards than other branches. So they try and compensate by paying you more. You wouldn't be complaining if you were getting it. Its like hating on the Viper guys just cause i can't afford one...

Slowv696

iTrader: (15)

ur in the military. U learn to adapt.

BADFNZ

iTrader: (19)

Sounds like a step up to me.

The Professor

iTrader: (3)

I was army for 5 years then came into the air force in 2007 when they were cutting back pretty hard. The air force gets a set number of slots for prior service every year. When I came in there were 40 slots. The problem is finding a recruiter that will put in the work (more paperwork). It was a chore for them to even figure out what to do. The meps I went to (richmond, va) hadn't processed a prior service troop for 3 years. I went to 4 different recruiters before one would help me and it still took 6 months. I actually had one recruiter tell me the air force didn't need arabic linguists with ts clearence.

Just to give you an idea of what you're up against: my instructor at lackland was the only person processing prior service. In her 2 years doing it, I was her 6th student. 2 troops became sere instructors, 1 tac p, 1 pararescue, 1 band member and me (linguist). The band member and I were the only ones that weren't retrained. I guess if you want to do some kind of special forces, they don't care if you're prior service.

jsteele90

iTrader: (13)

thanks for all the info guys!

bayer-z28

iTrader: (14)

AF has a lot of political BS right now.. -From what I've heard from close friends who are still in. But if you're MX or a Maintainer, you're pretty well catered to. CE gets hit hard as always. Deployed once a year for 6-8mo at a time (I know it's no comparison to 1yr remotes.) Seemed like every july I was gone or coming back.

Took me till about my 4th year to start to wish I had joined the army.. hung out with a PR group @ Ft Dix that was COOL ****! and the 1st Mountain guys in Afghan were really cool. I was jealous. yeah they were on remotes, but the work seemed a lot more laid back.. Op Ord...Go out on partol for a couple hours.. come back . Debrief.. eat.... nap... Op Ord ... go out on partol again for a couple hrs.. Come back...Debrief... eat dinner.. etc etc..

cbailey

Are you really that ignorant? Just like when I got haz duty pay for being stationed at NAS Pensacola because the Marines were there boo hoo. (Sarcasm, as this did not happen, it was a rumor among the marines there.)

YOU DO NOT get extra pay for being in a joint base/command. I didnt get crap for living in tents in the desert and I was stationed with every service. But we did see them putting double bunks for the Army, when we were leaving, in where we had single cots and 10 to a tent.

Please don't always think its greener on the other side as well, I havent been issued a pair of boots since 2007, let alone cold weather gear. But its totally ok to buy 2 42' lcd tvs, one for shift turnover and one for TAS system to check my man number at the end of shift?

Sure "deployments" only last 6 months. Thats in a perfect world. I was deployed 11 months total in 2009. If their arent alot of people in your shop or if you have alot of "broke" people, expect to go on every tdy and deployment.

Being an AM, just like my wife, that job would cross over into 2a7x3 and 2a7x5. x3 is Sheet metal, my last AFSC (mos) and x5 current AFSC is LO low observables ( sheet metal on stealth airframes).


On top of that, my shop and sf were the only people on base during the first bad weekend of the winter storms.

Sure you may be deployed less, but im 100% positive that MX Air Force works more CONUS than any other service. How about 12 on 12 off for 2 years straight?(AND still REQUIRED to pas PFT's w/o alloted daily PT time) I'll take a 365 anyday over that **** again.

KevinR

And you said the Marines were crying???

cbailey

I never said they were crying, guy wanted to know about the Air Force, and I hate people that think we get special pay for "lower standards".

KevinR

Really???...I must have misread the "boo hoo" part. It must mean something else. There are a lot of people out there that don't know anything about the different branches of service. I understand that its annoying when people throw comments out there like the one that you are talking about, but to hate someone for that is pretty harsh.

cbailey

The boo hoo part was me being sarcastic. And I dont wanna get into an online fight here, but words like hate, and any other cuss word really have lost their meaning to me its just the way I talk.