Some of my earlier memories of my AWACker days are of the seemingly horrible way my fellow Airmen and I were treated by our slightly superior Airmen, but now having been in for more than a decade and privy to the wisdom only attainable by cross training, I can see we didn’t have it all that bad compared to some career fields. Besides, no matter what anyone says, I think that treatment helped build character in all of us, and it’s sorely lacking from the new generation of recruits. As an A1C, I respected most of the senior airmen above me and did my best not to cross them. Now, if I tell a freaking one striper to take his sunglasses off his head in the BX food court I get an eye roll and shit-eating smirk. I could go on and on, but I know from multiple beer-thirty gatherings at the club on Fridays that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
That said, character building aside, some of the crap we were made to do was a bit ridiculous. This comic isn’t entirely based in fiction.
-Farva
“Copy, holding the spit”
It’s called “Character Building”
Reminded me of…
“Calvin, go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character!”
I remember this kind of stuff. I would just think about the hot breakfast burrito I had eaten while they were stuck doing the pre-flight. It was also fun to show them my Quiznos or Subway sandwich that I was heating up in the oven.
Speaking of food… It was always fun to eat tuna during AR with students when I was in the T-3 seat! lol Good times!
Damn shame about the kid with the shades. Being squared away is what everyone wants to be (or should, was what I was taught) and if you square someone away, you’re doing them a favor. Because once a young PV2 (me) was told quietly “unfuck that bootlace, soldier” by a sergeant major while at the Lewis PX. I think me and the other two privates in the CSM’s blast radius nearly sweat thumbtacks. He then told the other guys that they should have noticed it and squared me away. Different culture now I guess.. what the hell ever happened to “Don’t loose your standards!” ??
My very first supervisor told me that the older airmen will mess with me. He said “If a higher ranking person tells you to jump into that pond right there you need to come tell me. But you better be soaking wet when you do.” Respect of us old geezers is gone. There are some good ones though. But it’s time to go when the leadership allow the airmen to run the show and the NCOs work like dogs.
What? He didn’t ask for a literacola?
After I found out that I was transitioning out due to becomming the appocriphal story of why you don’t run over the troop walk at Lackland (trust me, don’t)… we had a SA TI come in and just trash a toilet stall – pee on the floor, etc… every horror story you have heard. This just hours after I was told that my AF experience was over – minus about 6 weeks of screwing with me on medical hold. I walked in to this TI throwing a fit about the stall being jacked up and needing to be cleaned.
I told him to clean it up, going as far as getting him the mop and brush. When the Chief showed up due to the SA losing it, the Chief (CMS Williams – got to love em) looked at me and the SA, grunted, and said, ‘Senior Airman, you heard the Airman – clean up the stall (two weeks later and we were renamed trainees)’. Then the Chief and I talked about what I was going to do after I transitioned out.
I think the SA never forgave me, but I really don’t care. There is a difference between character building and being a jerk.
Funny and so true.
Oh how I remember the days of “HEY, Airman, go get me a yard of flightline, a bottle of K9P, and the keys to that aircraft…. those were the days
The ‘New Guy’ prank happens everywhere, as I was a pimply-faced New Hire at the Phone Company “We’re running low, go get us another bucket of Dial Tone!” – which I’d kinda been expecting…
Shoulda seen their faces fall like a souffle when I turned it around on them – {sappy} “Oh, Goody! They need a bucket of Dial Tone! I’ll go get it for you!” {serious, stage whisper} “An excuse to go explore the basement, see ya in twenty!” And I did. Gee, and it never happened again…
Old San Fernando went up in 1920′s, they mined the basement and Cable Vault out from underneath it as it grew from Cordboard to Step and they needed more room…
I had a similar experience at my first duty station. I was told to get 10 meters of flightline and the keys to the helicopter. I went to our ops to get the keys to lock all 10 birds then went to supply and put in an order for the supplies needed to lay 10 meters of concrete. Needless to say they didn’t try to prank me again after that.
awesome
I hate my fellow young airmen. Maybe it’s because I’m older than most of them and have learned a thing or two in life, but they suffer respect for no one, can’t keep the damned dorms clean, nor care about their job. As an AWACker myself I find it disconcerting when I realize I may have to fly with some of these folks.
But, not all hope is lost. I have met some fellow airmen who actually give a damn and do the right thing.
Except my neighbor. Fuck that guy.
Saudi Arabia, a certain SST, and the hidden cookies. That needs to be an AWACer comic my friend.
That’s not a “Rite of Passage”. That’s just somebody being an idiot.
I’ve seen many of my fellow Lifers cash in and drop papers because they have had it. Many (not all) of these new Airmen have that brilliant ‘entitlement’ gene that makes them think that, “Phht, whatever…” My favorite thing is to a) kindly correct them and then b) pull them aside when they roll their eyes and make them cry….literally. As a former Instructor at DINFOS, my comrades would hand the problem children to me so I could go, as they would say, “Old School on their ass!” There is a time to mentor and a time to discipline and it’s about time the SrA, NCOs and SNCOs take back the Air Force from these entitled children. *PANT, PANT, PANT* (Stepping down off my soap box) Ummm Thank you for your time.
I hated being the One-striper around a bunch of brand new A1C’s. using rank as an excuse to do less work and not learning anything about their new job. Thankfully, the Senior Airmen and NCO’s in my office were smart enough to catch on to what they were doing and either tell them what they were told to do something, not me, or they would put me in charge of them.
Lame excuse indeed. He could have commando crawled to the next strip mall.
We have the same problem with boots in the Marines! Each new generation is progressively more belligerent, and an even bigger a group of…well…crybabies. You can get in trouble for yelling at someone nowadays. What ever happened to “We don’t promise you a rose garden”?
If you have crap troops, look in the mirror. Ever bragged to your troops or other junior airmen about how you don’t give a damn? That you’ll do shady work and don’t care what “they” do to you?
Have you ever tolerated this from another NCO?
Congratulations, you’re setting the example.
I work on an AETC base and I can pretty much tell why the newer generation is pretty much crap. They don’t have roll backs on phases anymore. So if they get in trouble it is more of just a stern talking to and that is about it. There is no phase one day one anymore. And MTLs pretty much can’t yell at their trainees anymore like they did back in the day. They are pretty much supervisors and have to talk to their trainee in such a manner. I talk to MTLs all the time and they just go on about how crappy it is now. It is rather sad.
Already? I got out of Keesler in ’05. I could remember passing my PT tests, staying away from alcohol and tobacco(on base), and passing inspections to retain Phase III. MTLs, if stirred well enough, knew how to shove a good boot up. Now I wonder if they still have remedial training, 3M tours, and CC.
When did this start happening? I know MTL yelling and phase one day one were part of life at Keesler and Sheppard back in ’09.
Yeah I went through in ’08 and ’09 and remember the same thing! They also have made it twice as easy at BMT now too… no wonder we are getting the crappy airmen in the last year or so!
I work in the medical field so I get to talk to a lot of them as they come through. One MTL told me they get in trouble if a trainee doesn’t get phased up by a certain amount of time. And that they get in trouble for yelling at trainees, but some still do it a bit. And one told me there really isn’t any phases anymore. They still aren’t allowed to do hotel parties and all that crap. But they just don’t get in the same amount of trouble like we all did back in the day.
You had me at “medical.”