Future of the RPA career

[Evers790]

I am waiting to go off to RPA training in September (been a loonnnngg wait). In doing as much research as I can on this field, I found there just isn’t a lot of information about the career path of RPAs. I was curious if anyone here has had any experience with the field and what the future looks like.

From past post (from the 2010-2013 range )I’ve seen on reddit and other sources, I heard that a lot of RPA pilots were leaving because they either got burnt out or couldn’t rank up due to lack of respect from higher ups. I’m sure a lot of the career has changed, but I don’t have any resources about the career.

In all honesty, my dream was to be a fighter pilot and make a career out of it. I played it safe with boards because scores weren’t the best and I knew no matter what I wanted to be rated. I was selected for RPA, and I am very grateful for being selected and given the opportunity to be part of a growing field. However, with the lack of information available it makes me unsure about tha ability to make a career out of the AF anymore with the field.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tex232]

I found there just isn’t a lot of information about the career path of RPAs.

You think it’s hard finding info on RPA? Try space. Lol now THAT is a hard AFSC to find info on. But yea I get your point, ROTC doesn’t do a good job on informing people of the different AFSC’s in general. And unfortunately we as officers get the short end of the stick, some of us being disappointed in finding out what our career fields are actually like once we start our first tour. I for one, know that I would have chosen a different career field had someone told me exactly what my job would actually be like. My best advice is to try and get in touch with someone who is actually in the career field. Heck, even talking to an enlisted RPA sensor operator could probably give you a decent feel for what the job is like.

 

[Humey]

I have to imagine that as time goes on, more of the Air Force's mission will rely on RPA. I have to imagine that in the future there will be more emphasis on the career of those in RPA. You are right, in todays AF, the pilots get all the glory but like I said I would think that will change. As for promotions, while their is never a guarantee, if you do well, you will definitely become a major. It is becoming a LT Colonel when things get harder. I am not even sure that being a pilot is the best path in reaching higher levels of promotion. It seem like those behind the scenes do better as they have much more leadership experience than pilots do. Pilots in the AF seem to complain about all the crap that comes down the line and imposed on them and i have to imagine that if the Colones and Generals making the decisions were all former pilots, there wouldnt be so much of it.

 

[Pima]

The majority of the Colonel and Generals are former pilots, the reason all the crap that comes down the line is the same that is true in the corporate world...due more with less. Than they get power hungry by wanting to leave "their mark" on the AF.
~ Best example is Skeltor McPeak where he spent millions on new flight suits and blues without talking to fliers. Lo and behold the minute he left his position as CSAF, Fogleman his successor put a halt on that and this time listened to the military members.
~ Our current CSAF is Fingers Goldfein. He too is a pilot.

The crap has been coming down the line for decades. People tend to forget that the AF has not left the sandbox since 1990. Those 6 month deployments every 18 months have not changed for almost 30 yrs. The 1 yr remote has been around for the exact same amount of time. The having a 2nd job in the squadron or wing when not flying has always been there too.
~ My DS is ADAF C130J pilot. The crap he has to do is the same crap that my DH Bullet went through for his entire career.
~~ Still needs to go to SOS in residence by a certain time. Still needs to become an IP by a certain time. Still needs to get their Masters. Still needs to PCS every few years. Still needs to get that "good" 2nd job within the wing. So on and so forth.

IMPO it hasn't really changed, it is just when you are young and get that pilot slot you think it really is all about flying, and never realized in between keeping your MQ and upgrading, you have to spread yourself even thinner by doing other things too. It becomes infuriating when you are like my DS, or Stealth's DS. coming off a 6 month deployment and then being sent for 6 weeks to SOS. More so if you are like my DS where you left your wife and child (14 months) and come back and now she will be coming close to 2 yo. IOWS their personal life is getting away.

Now back on track. Our close friend was an RPA commander out of Creech. He never PCSd in the 9 yrs he was there. There are a lot of positives and a lot of negatives regarding that world, just like flying manned aircraft.
~ The hours are long.
~ It is a 24/7 mission. There maybe weeks that you will work from 2 a.m. to noon, Thursday through Tuesday. That is hard on your family life if your wife works 9-5 M-F. You will sleep until 8 or 9 every night, and because she has to be up early she will than be going to sleep right after you wake up. In essence, you have about an hour to spend together daily.
~ Clovis is not the hotspot of the world. It use to be the F111 base. Bullet flew the 111. We knew people, including us that decided to jump out of perfectly good airplanes or a remote to Korea to avoid Clovis.
~~ That being said an assignment is as good as you make it. If you walk in with a positive attitude it will be a great assignment. Military members are generally more tight knit because of the size of the town. They typically will live near each other, whereas, Creech being in Vegas they typically will be more spread out. You could live on one side of town and others on the other side, it could be 45 min drive. Thus, your lives are more centered around where you live, less around the military.
~ Creech and San Antonio are great bases.

Making rank impo is going to be the same. You will need to attend SOS in residence. You will need your Masters. You will need to upgrade every single time you have the ability.
Do I think you could easily make O4 and O5? Yes, because the AF impo made a huge mistake a few years ago when they pulled 2 UPT students from every class to go RPA for an entire yr. The AF made a promise that after 1 tour they would xtrain them back to manned airframes. Thus, in the long run they are going to be coming up short very shortly, meaning the next few years the RPA grads coming out will have the experience as senior O3s while the O4 and O5 pools will be decreasing.