Just came back on sunday from Vance AFB where my son graduated from Undergraduate Pilot Training. He got his wings, is going to be going to SERE school and then is off to Barksdale AFB in Shreveport Lousiana. Two weeks ago was drop night and he was assigned the B-52 bomber. It wasnt his first choice, hell it wasnt his 24th choice but he is happy with it.
As for the our time at Vance it was great. Friday morning, they had a little ceremony and breakfast for for the T-38 pilots where they showed the class graduation video, the pilots spoke about the best and worst experiences and their trainers talked about the training itself. Later that morning they had the graduation and of course my wife cried her eyes out. We got a nice tour of the facilities afterwards, got to go up to the planes and later went on a basic flight simulators (still a lot of fun) That evening the AF put on a really nice black tie event. For a catered event (off base) the food was actually prettty decent. It was a really nice time. The best part was spending 4 days with my son. Six of us came to visit and he tried to show us the real Oklahoma. As we are from Los Angeles, it was different. As for my son's fellow pilots, they were all wonderful people. As you can imagine many of the pilots are married and their wifes and children live on base. One of the pilots was a women who was also married. As far as i can tell, none of the other women pilots were married. Both of them were in the early 30s and the husband was according t him the only male spouse (non pilot) on base . In any case, it was wonderful to see how well he was accepted by the all of the pilots. I must say they were a great punch of guys and gals and I wish them luck where ever they may go
As for the our time at Vance it was great. Friday morning, they had a little ceremony and breakfast for for the T-38 pilots where they showed the class graduation video, the pilots spoke about the best and worst experiences and their trainers talked about the training itself. Later that morning they had the graduation and of course my wife cried her eyes out. We got a nice tour of the facilities afterwards, got to go up to the planes and later went on a basic flight simulators (still a lot of fun) That evening the AF put on a really nice black tie event. For a catered event (off base) the food was actually prettty decent. It was a really nice time. The best part was spending 4 days with my son. Six of us came to visit and he tried to show us the real Oklahoma. As we are from Los Angeles, it was different. As for my son's fellow pilots, they were all wonderful people. As you can imagine many of the pilots are married and their wifes and children live on base. One of the pilots was a women who was also married. As far as i can tell, none of the other women pilots were married. Both of them were in the early 30s and the husband was according t him the only male spouse (non pilot) on base . In any case, it was wonderful to see how well he was accepted by the all of the pilots. I must say they were a great punch of guys and gals and I wish them luck where ever they may go
