I will begin to snoop....

USNA2011Dad

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
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Apr 5, 2007
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Our daughter had informed my wife and I that she is applying to the Air force Academy. She called and told her plebe brother and by the back and forth name calling, ie; Chairforce, Squid and the like. My wife and I could tell that her brother was proud. I am retired Navy and usually stay over on the USNA forum. But I will be now snooping this forum and learning the jargon of the Air force :thumb:
 
USNA2011Dad,

Welcome to the "Dark Side"! :smile: I guess the most important thing you can relay to your daughter is that we use "left" and "right" instead of "port" and "starboard"! You'll pick up the other jargon as you go along. And she'll also end up with a better golf game than you and your son! :thumb:
 
Flyboy,
She has always been interested in space and becoming a pilot. She had recently spoken to Astronaut Duane (Digger) Carey, his daughter attends college here in our area, and he spoke with her about the various routes to become an astronaut. Like her brother she wants to serve her country and could not decide whether to go to a "regular college", AFROTC or one of our service academies. She has decided to apply to the USAFA. Her goal is to become a pilot, test pilot and then an astronaut. My daughter is a realist and realizes that she has to be accepted first in each step of the long process. She has her ALO interview tomorrow. After going through this process with our son, my wife and I know that it will be a long process with many up and downs. Thanks for asking.
 
Good luck to your daughter, USNA2011dad!

I just met a mom via the "other" forum (College Confidential) and she has a son (2011) at USNA and her daughter is heading off to USAFA this June! :)

and Pima--thanks for the "castle" idea!! We found one with Rockets!! It has four big rockets in the corners and they say USA on them! We reserved it and can't wait to play! Thanks for letting us steal your idea!
 
usnadad,
i am thinking of taking that route myself as well, but we will still have to see what the AF wants me to fly :) (hopefuly an f-22!)
 
To quote Indiana Jones,
"Eleven-o-clock! Dad, eleven-o-clock!"
(Checks watch) "What happens at eleven-o-clock?"
 
That is the scene where Indy is telling his Dad to shoot down the other plane, I think Raimius was trying to say that you need to be able to do it 1st.

Bullet and I know 2 F-15E guys that are currently with NASA, one just came off the last shuttle and the other is to go in August.

I wish your daughter the best, but I hope she realizes that it is @ 20 yrs to get there. Mike Goode who will be going up in August for the 1st time has @ 24 yrs in, and he has been at NASA since 97 training. Also don't let her giv e up on her dream if she doesn't get in the AFA...Col. Goode is a graduate of Notre Dame ROTC, and he is a WSO who first had a desk assignment and then got accepted to UNT (he was a Capt while at FTU) He went to Edwards for test school in 93, graduated, spent 4 yrs there and got accepted to NASA.

As for the 22, as Bullet said on CC, they will be handed out few and far between. Mike actually went to Edwards from flying the 111, he xtrained at Edwards into the Strike. My guesstimate according from what I have heard you will be more likely to get a Strike, do great in that and maybe you can xtrain. I personally prefer jets that have 2 engines, like the strike, since they tend not to be lawn darts (also known as the 16)

I am typically seen as the rain on the parade, however, I believe it is better to hope for the best but expect the worse...a Strike is not the worse, but of course to you young ones you all want the 22...that was true back when Bullet went through UNT everyone wanted the 15, but only 4's and 111s came down. It was 5 yrs later that they started x training these guys. So if you follow that pattern, by the time you graduate from UPT you would be right on track, however, the 22 is to be like the stealth, not alot of squadrons, thus even if you are #1, that doesn't mean there will be a drop for the 22. No matter where you go to UPT, it does come down to the drop, and then #1 gets to chose 1st, so you can still get a 22 even if you are not #1. We had a friend who was the commander of a UPT squadron at Columbus, many #1's chose heavies over the fighters in anticipation of leaving the service and becoming a bus driver in the sky...also b/c the commander before him convinced the class that it was a better path (previous commander was a heavy driver)...our friend came in and explained that you can still get to fly for the airlines (truth be known our friend was right), most airlines go for the fighter guys, because they are typically the top grads of UPT, except in the 90's when no fighters came down for @18 mos.

So as you can see, as excited as you are, the path you take can and will take many turns that you have no control over, except on how you react to keep it on course!

USNA we x posted...btw they also use that in the AF...it is a pretty sad state that my kids know how to call 11 with their hands...just for those of you who don't know how they call out hand signals from the jet, closed fist is 0, and then begin to pt fingers straight up, when you get to 6 point the finger to the 3 o'clock position...thus for 11, it would be closed fist and then a quick fore finger pointing at the 12 o'clock position...G I have been a wife to long, I even understand how they get the runway numbers...i.e runway 09 and 27...for the first few years I couldn't get it because there is only 1 runway:confused:
 
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Pima,
Thanks for all the great info. My daughter does realize that she not only needs a plan B and C in case she does not get accepted to the AFA but she will also need a plan B and C if she does get an appointment. Someone told me that the plebes are called dooleys at the AFA?
 
yup, freshman are called doolies here. Not many refer to them that way anymore though.
 
really? what are we gonna be called...worms?? haha, jk ;)
 
Don't worry about it. I was just making a joke about linguistic confusion.:biggrin:

Around here the freshmen are "four digs", "four degrees", or "smacks."
 
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