Week 20,21 & 22

This is our class patch, it is appropriate becuase of the amount of people who were washed out of training.

Week 20

This was another big week for me in formation. I double turned every day and am pretty much done with T-6’s. All I have left is my two check tomorrow and my check ride on Tuesday and I am done (if I pass). This week I also had my formation solo. That was scary. It is one thing to fly an airplane all by yourself, but to worry about doing it 10 feet away from someone else all by yourself is another. I did good and was happy when it was over. The person I was doing form with failed another one of his daily rides, so I will not be flying form with him anymore. I am sure that will make mom happy, and Larissa especially since the fact that the reason he hooked the ride is because he almost clipped my wing off. A couple of times I flew this week it was pushing sunset and it is incredible. One particular day, there were isolated thunderstorms which makes really cool clouds when you get above them. That night when I was on the wing of another airplane the sun was just setting and topping those clouds. It was so pretty, almost indescribable. What made it even cooler was that all around (except for directly over Laughlin) lightning was going off with lots of rain. It is such a feeling of freedom being able to see these things and being able to do whatever you want when you are in the Military operations area.

Week 21

T-6 COMPLETE!!! This a pretty cool week for me. I had my two last daily rides in the T-6 on Monday and had my formation checkride on Tuesday. The checkride was pretty standard as far as they go, but after I finished the check ride portion the IP just told me to have fun. It was awesome, there were all kinds of clouds and they formed a canyon like surface which I played around in for about 10 minutes before we had to go back. It was a little weird thinking that this could be the last time I would be in the T-6 (unless I get FAIP’ed). It is a little bitter-sweet being done. On the one hand it is cool to finish, but on the other I realize that a harder part of my training is about to begin. As you know I put down T-38’s as my first choice with T-1’s in second. I will find out for sure what I will get this coming Friday. I will be happy with whatever the lord see’s fit to give me. The rest of the week I pretty much just turned into a janitor (making sure the flight room was in tip top shape for the next class starting soon).

Week 22

Another week has gone by and this one left quite a mark on me in many ways. As far was work goes it was pretty laid back. I was done with the T-6 portion of the program and was able to have most of the week off and spent the time with my family. As the week progressed it really started to hit me that this laziness would not last long and my life was about to get real stressfull all over again. So, of course on cue Thursday night I was hit with a nice stomach ache which Larissa’s nose was thankful for. Friday was the big day. We went into work at 9:00 and were given words of encouragement. Larissa joined me at 9:30 and the ceremony started at 10:30. It was cool seeing all the people in the auditorium coming to congratulate us. When it was my turn to find out what I got I was pretty surprised. I did not get T-38’s and I still do not know why. I finished 3rd in my class and had well over the scores to track that way. My class only got 3 T-38’s for 22 people, and the 2 people that were ahead of me did get them. The reason for the lack of T-38’s was that my class had 4 reserve/guard/foreign students who were already guaranteed T-38’s positions and took those spaces in the class leaving only a few for the active duty side. It makes no sense to me, but I just have to live with it. My only explanation is that it was just meant to be and that there is a higher purpose for me not to go that direction in my career. I just have to trust that God has a divine purpose for it. I was talking to Larissa and telling her that I don’t know if I was more disappointed in the fact that I did not get T-38’s or the fact that I did not get something that I was working so hard for. This is the first time I have not been able to accomplish a goal. I think I am ok with it. My overall goal was to become an Air Force pilot with my passion being flying in general. Being a fighter pilot was just another perk. Both sides have definite advantages. The T-38 guys get to fly cool looking fast airplanes, but have a huge volume of negative factors such as stress, long hours, severe discipline, the people are mean and cocky and a many other little things that annoy me. Another major one was the fact that I might get stuck with flying a bomber and being stationed somewhere horrible. The T-1’s obviously train to fly the big airplanes that have just as important of a mission but don’t get to do all the aerobatics and junk. That stuff was fun, but I am still trying to sort out if it was something that I wanted to do every single day for the rest of my career. Pulling G’s was ok at times but it got old pretty quick. With heavies, I get to go all over the world and no mission will be the same. I did feel a sense of relief when they announced I got T-1’s. I don’t know if I am trying to convince myself of that fact, but everyone knows how hard the decision was for me to make in the first place and now the decision was made for me. The night before I was studying hard for a test I had to take if I tracked T-38’s I did not sleep well that night because of how nervous I was. After we found out what we got and the track ceremony was over, the guys who tracked T-38’s were marched out in single file to their new flight room where they were drilled with questions, hazed, yelled at, given the test, received their new pubs which they had to have memorized by Monday, and finally at about 6 that night were released. Those of us who were “lucky” enough to track T-1’s were given a warm greeting, had our family’s encouraged to accompany us to the T-1 building where we watched a motivational video, heard from our new commander and new flight commander, did about 30 minutes of paper work and then told to have a fun relaxing weekend and get ready to start training on Monday. It was amazing to me the difference in atmospheres and stress levels. The T-1 instructors were actually nice where the T-38 instructors don’t even talk to you for the first few weeks. The T-1 IP’s played with my kids and welcomed me into the flight. One of my IP’s is actually in my ward, so I guess I have a good hook up with that. After they released us we went to Applebee’s to “celebrate” my mediocrity. That night we celebrated with the Hansen’s and their kids by getting pizza and playing games.

Larissa and I are both ok with the new direction our life is going to take us. I am now going to try for the C-17 Globemaster III with my first choice of bases being Travis in California. The heavy track is more family oriented and has perks of seeing cool places and making a killing on TDY money. I have enclosed pictures of other planes that I could possibly fly as well. Some are tankers (air refuelers), but most are transports. I do like the fact that all these are crew aircraft where you are not always by yourself and have someone else to talk to and help you through the busy parts of flying. That is why my first choice if I had gotten fighters was going to be the F-15E Strike Eagle which is a two seater.

Larissa and the kids are all doing fine. Lily and Kalee ran up to me after the ceremony and gave me hugs and told me congratulations. It was difficult to fight off the tears. My squadron commander came up to me after as well and shook my hand and told me that all they needed was one more T-38 and it would have been mine. He also told me how good I did and that it was not fair how things worked out. Again, I am putting my faith in divine intervention. It makes me feel better that I did not get 38’s.