Where Are They Now?

My twin sons entered USAFA in June, 2008 in the class of 2012 ("Hap!" "Never Falter, Never Fail {not to be confused with "Epic Falter, Epic Fail} ).

Twin A: Went to Laughlin (with PIMA's son!) and is now a pilot, flying a C130J Super Herc!! His wife is a 2013 grad and they expect their first child in May. They own a nice house near Dyess AFB. He has been in Brazil this past fall and was to go to "the Sandbox" in January but has had his orders changed and will still be away, but not to... there.

Twin B: had his UPT at Vance, is married (to his sister's college roommate), has a son 14 months and another child due in March. He flies a C5M Super Galaxy and has been to every continent except Antarctica (I think - I'm not privvy to all his info). He LOVES flying that huge plane, and it is GIGANTIC. He is out of Dover AFB. His base housing is nicer than any house we have ever lived in! Beautiful!

Note: both sons fly their airframe of choice, they didn't "settle" for the heavies, they requested them. Both sons also say that going to USAFA was the best decision!

Will be happy to answer any questions I can
I’m a late comer reading through all these while I wait for my child’s possible appointment but we’ve lived in Dover ( both on and off base ) for 20 yrs :) very nice sea hope they enjoyed their time here
 
I thanked @Stealth_81 for reviving this thread so I guess I should write something.

My DS, AROTC, was promoted to O-3 last fall and is on the hook for at least another 3 years. It was very informal, as the battalion was preparing for deployment--without him. I must say I really liked it that way. We could visit with various folks from the BC on down. It was our first up close and personal experience on a military installation. We got the distinct impression that the "ceremony" was done for the benefit of Mrs. cb7893 and me. They, of course, said good things about him which is always nice for a parent.

Before the ceremony, DS came to pick us up at the hotel and his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and said, "I love this guy and I can't wait for you to meet him." When DS answered he put the call on the speaker. It was an NCO he served with in the ME, who as much as anyone was responsible for my DS receiving a transfer by request to his unit. He was calling to apologize that he wouldn't be able to make it to the promotion ceremony, because of a meeting someone had scheduled without consulting him. Not knowing he was on speaker, he used the F-word in every conceivable part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, gerund), in his otherwise, grammatically correct, slightly Southern-accented English. He also addressed my "kid" as LT and either began or ended every sentence "Sir." Coming from a Green Beret, 10 years my son's senior, with multiple Iraq/Syria/Afghanistan deployments, I think I finally understood that my "kid" wasn't a "kid " anymore.

There have been several threads lately asking which is better, xROTC or SA or SMC? What school has the best xROTC program? What's the best major if I want to do X?

There is no question, in my mind, that SA's and SMC's will give cadets/mids beginning lives as O-1's with certain advantages. Certain majors can give a leg up as well. My DS benefitedfrom a STEM major, although it had little to do with his MOS directly. In the case of my DS's experience in the Army, the "disadvantages" can be made up--not unlike a late bloomer taking up a sport in high school.

I brought up the NCO, their relationship illustrates the transformation in DS. Ten years ago, he was obsessed with the kind of metrics and questions that are discussed ad nauseum on SAF. Many NCO's never knew anything about those metrics, because they never even thought about college or had already enlisted. In the end, DS's successes have been possible because of the support of folks who didn't care where he went to college or what his major was.
 
@cb7893 looking at your date of joining this forum, It seems you would have joined when your DS was going thru application process ( ROTC or SA). Thank you for your contribution.
 
@cb7893 looking at your date of joining this forum, It seems you would have joined when your DS was going thru application process ( ROTC or SA). Thank you for your contribution.
It was actually during his first semester of college. To be honest, we didn't even know he'd applied for the scholarship until after he got it.

Other than a brother who flew in Vietnam, we had no direct experience with any of this stuff, so SAF was the only place to get questions answered and to compare my son's experience with that of other cadets.

If I recall you have a DD who will be in AROTC. I'm sure she'll have a great experience and I wish her the best of luck!
 
It was actually during his first semester of college. To be honest, we didn't even know he'd applied for the scholarship until after he got it.

Other than a brother who flew in Vietnam, we had no direct experience with any of this stuff, so SAF was the only place to get questions answered and to compare my son's experience with that of other cadets.

If I recall you have a DD who will be in AROTC. I'm sure she'll have a great experience and I wish her the best of luck!
She is a junior right now, getting ready for showtime coming fall..
 
Again I wish her all the best and hope you become an old timer like me. If the military is slightly out of your element, as it was for me, this is a great place to get your questions answered without the eye roll.

...because you can't see the eye roll! And because there isn't an *eye roll* emoji reaction. I'm SURE I've gotten it! In fact, I am pretty sure I have *eye rolled* myself!

This is a GREAT thread for non-military!!
 
Digging up this old gem of a thread to let you all know that son #1 got a call from his commander this morning to let him know he was selected for promotion to Major. The official list isn’t out, yet, but the commanders are given the news early to call each officer to let them know. Now we wait to see his line number and the promotion schedule to figure out when we have to fly out to New Mexico for the promotion ceremony.

Stealth_81
Congrats, Stealth and even more so for your son #1!

A few months ago DW and I were pierside watching DD1’s ship pull in. What an incredible proud moment especially considering twenty some years ago DW was holding her waiting for me on the pier! It was most definitely one of the best days of my life!
 
I'm going to be a little cautious since I don't want to say the wrong thing inadvertently. My daughter tells me the AF is smaller than you think. Also no military background in our family so I don't know the acronyms. Anyway these days I have been thinking back to the kids school days because I homeschooled them both, the older one just for middle school and high school. Upon seeing the curriculum I had the girls either read or listen to a number of additional books chosen because I perceived a gap in their knowledge, or just to better prepare them for life. One was the Hot Zone, and I just wanted them both to have a healthy respect for viruses as teenagers. I certainly was impressed when I had a biochem class in college, it was so long ago that virus reproduction wasn't even in the text book, it was just scribbled on big chalk boards. My oldest daughter especially enjoyed the Hot Zone, with the Army veterinarians playing a big part. She even considered transferring to Army to go to Vet School but she didn't have enough chemistry prereqs from usafa.

My eldest daughter was a recruited athlete who graduated from USAFA in '09. This one got all the energy, which I was constantly trying to work off even as a toddler...Ie when she was 5 1/2 she ran 4 miles in 39 minutes at a coummunity road race I was working, and my husband couldn't catch her ! A service academy was perfect for her as her fitness was appreciated. I think she was the first female finisher when they ran the last race at BCT, but she got shin splints after as she really didnt have any running experience.!.... She told me she still always gets 100% on the fitness tests as she believes it's important for the officers to lead by example. So I would say she's a great example of having an active lifestyle as well as working hard at your job. She met her husband at the academy and he is a pilot and a year older. They are both majors. They have really enjoyed their base assignments, they have been in England , Florida and now a base on the east coast. They always get involved locally off the base and my daughter joins a running club or similar community activity.The current base doesn't have my SILs plane so he has a desk job. My daughter was requested especially for this base as assistant to the squadron commander so they had switched their orders as they were on their way back to Europe when her boss stepped in to make the change to a different base. Meaning her husband had to follow. He's been a good sport and he now has a pretty interesting job and I guess he is doing really well at it. But my daughter said its important to get him back flying soon or they won't let him come back.

They both got their Masters online, and my daughter is supposed to go to school at Maxwell to get another Masters. They let her defer in hopes her husband will also get selected for next year. So they can go together. They have a farm with 18 acres and she gets up at 4am to ride her horses before work as she has a very long day. Her husband got her arena lights for Christmas. This way he is at least home, albeit asleep, while she is riding. She competes in Equestrian events and once even got to wear her dress jacket for the event. She said it has to be a certain caliber of competition to do that according to regulations.. She wears white breeches with her jacket..in case you were wondering...

When the corona virus hit she was called back to base as she was on vacation taking horse riding lessons with a special teacher. I think she said the base closed and her husband was working from home for part of the time anyway..She had mentioned that the military doesn't normally allow working remotely so some things were going to be changing. When she arrived back this week she had to start on new Mortuary policies. I'm not sure exactly but it probably it has to do with the quarantines.They have started having mortalities at nearby bases.. She has had some experience doing that starting with her first base. I think she raised the level of service in this area and made it more consistent and better as one of her first duties..She said with the corona virus there will need to be a lot of changes in many areas.. She said her experience combined with her skill set made it a good fit for her, she's happy they appreciate her and she said the new policies and procedures will most likely be shared with other bases, and perhaps other branches. She said she felt a calling to serve in this area since reading and being really interested in the Hot Zone!. She still remembers! She has a few grim and sad stories but generally she doesn't discuss it much. She prides herself on knowing the procedures and dealing with the families in a professional manner..

Lastly my other daughter who works in tech.., who survived corona but had to work every day and some nights as the cloud is so busy. She is making some remote conference recommendations to her sister that can be used safely when they need to work remotely. I guess there's a lot of tracking in some of the programs.yikes!..Her cloud company conferences daily with England and Australia as part of their work day. They work together on the same team but are in 3 different locations as their customers are all over the world..and they need 24 hour coverage...Its quite different from military communication..So in a small way she is trying to help her sister also. It sounds like the military might have need for routine remote capabilities in the future..
 
Great story and nice job raising two super star daughters. I read Hot Zone the first time while in Africa. I used to have two copies but one wasn’t returned by a student. The other I have marked up with highlights and underlines and dog eared pages. I will read a few passages during the two weeks I teach infection control to my high school students. This year learning about the links in the chain of infection and incubation periods and reproduction rates meant more than in previous years.

We spent the last week before school abruptly closed tracking the virus from its origin to Italy where one of my students went to and got stuck, to their county (I live 25 miles away) with one reported COVID-19 case. And then a couple days later there were a few more people infected with rumors of a teacher in another school being sick. We closed five Fridays ago and there are now over 500 cases in the county. I haven’t seen them since. We start again online in a few days.
 
...because you can't see the eye roll! And because there isn't an *eye roll* emoji reaction. I'm SURE I've gotten it! In fact, I am pretty sure I have *eye rolled* myself!

This is a GREAT thread for non-military!!

:rolleyes: rolleyes1
:rolleyes2: rolleyes2

(not as good as Devil Doc post)

There are some pretty clever Smilies — you can find all under Help section. Help is tiny link at bottom right of Forum pages.
 
Back from the dead. Figured I'd drop in and say hello; glad to see some familiar faces still around. Commissioned from Penn State DEC 2017, branched into the US Ordnance Corps.

Spent a year in Korea (before all the COVID craziness went down). Got promoted to 1LT back in OCT 2019. Currently stuck at Fort Jackson as a Basic Training Platoon Leader at the beheast of my glorious branch manager ... trying to sneak into ARSOF sustainment without my branch manager watching 👀
 
Back from the dead. Figured I'd drop in and say hello; glad to see some familiar faces still around. Commissioned from Penn State DEC 2017, branched into the US Ordnance Corps.

Spent a year in Korea (before all the COVID craziness went down). Got promoted to 1LT back in OCT 2019. Currently stuck at Fort Jackson as a Basic Training Platoon Leader at the beheast of my glorious branch manager ... trying to sneak into ARSOF sustainment without my branch manager watching 👀
There are worse places to be. Been to The Original Pancake House yet? Get the Dutch Baby.
 
Back from the dead. Figured I'd drop in and say hello; glad to see some familiar faces still around. Commissioned from Penn State DEC 2017, branched into the US Ordnance Corps.

Spent a year in Korea (before all the COVID craziness went down). Got promoted to 1LT back in OCT 2019. Currently stuck at Fort Jackson as a Basic Training Platoon Leader at the beheast of my glorious branch manager ... trying to sneak into ARSOF sustainment without my branch manager watching 👀

Good to see you're progressing. I still remember when you were trying to figure out what to wear and what to say the night before you drove to your PMS interview.
 
There are worse places to be. Been to The Original Pancake House yet? Get the Dutch Baby.
Definitely so ... but I'll say TRADOC isn't too far from the bottom haha

I have not yet actually ... working 6 days a week barely affords be the ability to do much except eat and sleep honestly. I'll definitely try that ... whenever the world opens back up again :cool:

Good to see you're progressing. I still remember when you were trying to figure out what to wear and what to say the night before you drove to your PMS interview.

Oh jeez ... that was quite some time ago. I've come a long way since then.
 
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