Air Force Weather Officer

Does anyone have any current insight into the Air Force weather officer career field in terms of tours, schedules, deployments, and frequency of PCS moves? I am just curious about the career and how the lifestyle is for it. How difficult would it be to get located with or near a spouse who is also active duty AF (say.... like maybe a fighter pilot spouse).

Stealth_81

PCS moves average between 2 and 4 years for most officers (until upper leadership, then things go nuts). I'm pretty sure Wx follows that general rule.

Stealth_81 said:

Does anyone have any current insight into the Air Force weather officer career field in terms of tours, schedules, deployments, and frequency of PCS moves? I am just curious about the career and how the lifestyle is for it. How difficult would it be to get located with or near a spouse who is also active duty AF (say.... like maybe a fighter pilot spouse).

Stealth_81

Click to expand...

Well, since practically EVERY AF operational Wing has a Weather Shop (part of the OPs Support Squadron, or OSS), the chances to have a joint tour between a flyer and a weather officer are decent. But of course, the AF gets the bigger vote, with the career field managers having the ultimate say. They'll try their best to get that coveted "joint spouse" tour, but most married career couples can expect at least one tour apart. To the flesh peddlers at Manpower, one of you being in South Carolina, and the other in North Carolina, is sometimes "close enough". And don't forget that those deployments for both of you every 18 months may or may not be aligned, or if they are, to the same place (so "tactical trades" within your career field with Commander support are key).

The career field itself? Well, I've known many wx officers who loved their job, but were very aware that their options beyond Lt Col are VERY limited. You'll enjoy a very fulfilling time in the AF, but the competition to get higher rank is fierce.