My overall long term goal for future posts is to 1) gather real inputs from Airmen (enlisted and officer) in ANY career field who can provide the no-BS what is it like to do this job. I would love to be able to post this information on my blog to give people a good starting point for choosing the path for their career.
Secondly, I would like to dive deep into how to become a successful officer once you completely make the switch from enlisted to officer, or civilian to officer. Things like second assignments, ADP, career vectoring, PME like SOS or ACSC, promotions, politics, etc., are all topics I plan to cover in depth. Please let me know if you support this plan and I will begin making posts once I actually figure this stuff out for my own.
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When I was scouring the internet for information when I applied I discovered this was not a lot of information out there about OTS, and especially about the 13S career field. I somehow dug up this posting on reddit which provided me with an outstanding breakdown of what the 13S/1C6X1 career field is like (officer/enlisted AFSC, respectively). Now that I am fully immersed in the career field, fully certified, and intimately familiar with my mission, I can now personally vouch that this is good info.
Click here for the link. Post was created by SilentD
My own personal updates to this post:
Returning to School
The information posted about always returning to Vandenberg AFB, CA after every assignment is no longer current. Initial 13S and 1C6X1 tech school is indeed at Vandenberg, but after that you will start additional training at your first duty location. I am not 100% sure about what the current 1C6 timeline is, but for 13S tech school is still only a TDY meaning you will PCS to your first base then attend "Undergraduate Space Training" at Vandenberg for around three months.
Every time you arrive at a new base (including your first assignment) you will also need to do more specific system training there. Most bases are now calling this "Initial Qualification Training." This training will be an additional 3-9 months depending on what unit you are at or what your system is. After you are fully certified you will begin working crew.
If you finish a tour at one base and PCS to another base, you will NOT be returning to Vandenberg for more system specific training (any variant of IQT/MQT). Because you have already completed tech school or UST you can jump right in to the IQT class specific to your new base. This will teach you how to operate your new system and you will again be good to go and return to crew.
Here is one of my older posts about the 13S tech school. I need to update this.
http://journeytoairforceots.blogspot.com/2016/06/13s-space-operations-tech-school.htmlLabels: 13S, AFSC