Cross Into The Future

I updated my previous post so that the links that I listed are now clickable. Enjoy! Also, here is a neat website I ran into one day. Have fun watching the videos posted here:

Do Something Amazing

Looks like some changes might be taking place in S.W.A.T.S. (Satellite Wideband and Telemetry Space Systems). As far as I know right now, the school is considering taking two of the blocks out of the twelve block course. These blocks also happen to be the hardest blocks in the course! Hopefully these changes will take place in time for my class to take advantage of them. Eventually the S.W.A.T.S. course will be merged with Ground Radio to combine both job fields. This course will be moved to Keesler AFB, the base where I took EP and the base where Ground Radio is currently being taught. Both of the current courses are in the process of being rewritten, and our teacher showed us a draft course outline which will be 23 blocks long. This could be good for us and it could be really bad for us. The good would be if they let us take advantage of the course precompression so that we can skip a few blocks and graduate early. Then we would be sent back by our assigned unit to get the updated CDC’s or specific training on the radio equipment we will be working on. The bad would be if they made us go through the current S.W.A.T.S. course and then come back to take the updated, combined course. If the latter happens, one benefit would be that by the time I got out of the Air Force and applied for a civilian job, I would have had so much training that I could pretty much be guaranteed a job making well over six figures! Chances are good though that my course will be the former case or some variation of it.

It is getting colder here, which makes morning PC pretty rough. My knee flared up from an old high school injury, but it seems to be doing better. So far everything is on par for me to phase up to phase 4, which is my last phase up stage. I will then be more free to get my stuff done on the weekends. I have had a tough time making everything fit into a tight schedule and an extended weekend curfew will be nice!

Every day it seems like Georgia is feeling more like “home” (away from home). Moving never was my favorite pasttime, but the military saw fit to drag me around the country for a while. I can’t complain because it’s free; I will just be glad to be able to settle down for a while in more comfortable quarters.

I cannot believe that it has been two months since I updated my blog! Most of the time seems like a blur to me. My EP class went very well and I have completed my first stage of tech school. Now, since my work at Keesler AFB is done, I have moved. My new location is Fort Gordon, Georgia, an Army post about fifteen minutes south of Augusta. Fort Gordon is a much larger base than Keesler was, and it has a lot more to do. It has bowling, golfing, paintball, go-karts, fishing, a movie theater, horse-back riding trails, and a full-sized PX and Comissary. The only problem with big bases, however, is that you cannot walk anywhere. Everything except the movie theater is about a twenty minute walk from our squadron. Hopefully I will be able to get my car over the holidays and bring it back to Georgia along with some other necessities (movies, cd’s, computer, x-box, etc.). Hey, what can I say? It gets a little boring here during the weekends, and everything around here costs money to do anyway. Well, I arrived on October 14 and it was quite apparent that this squadron is more relaxed than Keesler. I have not started class yet because they only start new classes every two weeks. I never got a roommate when I was at Keesler, but now I have three roommates. The experience is definately unique. Most of the time all goes well, but on the weekends everybody basically stays up late. I am doing this because I finished watching a movie on my computer and two of my roommates decided to start a poker game since they have to be in the room by midnight. We have down Fridays, which means that every other week we get Friday off. This Friday I went to the mall in town with three of my friends from Keesler to pick up some clothes and shoes from Abercrombie and Aeropostale (I never could understand why someone would pay $28.00 for a T-shirt or $75.00 for a pair of jeans, but it’s their money, not mine). Today we went bowling and go-kart driving. The weather here is much nicer and the nights are quite cool. I think the heat is basically gone for the year. I had a fun time and enjoyed being able to just relax.

Here are a few links to information about my class as far as I know right now. I have heard that changes are in place which will affect my class and possibly change my graduation date. With the old course schedule my graduation date will be some time around the middle of March. We will be getting about 12 days off for Christmas and New Year’s to come home. I have not yet found out where my first active duty station will be, but I should know sometime around block four.

Fort Gordon Home Page

http://www.gordon.army.mil/garrfp/sites/local/

Detachment 1, 338 Training Squadron

http://www.gordon.army.mil/338trsdet1/

S.W.A.T.S. Course Schedule

http://www.gordon.army.mil/338trsdet1/courses/ECABP2E13101AA.htm