Krypto!

Here I am.  Ellen said it's about time I do a blog post and since I'm on leave this week, I suppose I'll catch the world up on what I've been doing the last couple years since my last post.  The big news is that a few weeks ago, I graduated from the US Air Force Weapons School.  It's a 5 month training program designed to take the top instructors from each airframe in the Air Force and develop them to become the experts in integration and everything else required to win the next war we find ourselves in.  I would post a good news article or youtube video link to explain it, but none of them really do it justice (or they all just focus on the fighters).  But before I get too much about Weapons School, I'll catch you up on everything since the last time I really posted on the blog.

Here's a timeline of what I've been doing in my Air Force career:
2007:  Move to TX, misc TDYs prior to pilot training like Initial Flight Screening at Pueblo, CO
2007 - 08: Pilot Training (Euro Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training) at Sheppard AFB, TX
2009:  Move to LA, miscellaneous TDYs like survival training at Florida and Washington
2009:  B-52 initial copilot training at Barksdale AFB, LA
2010-11: Copilot at the 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale AFB, LA
2011:  Aircraft Commander upgrade training
2011-12: Aircraft Commander at the 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale AFB, LA
2012: Instructor Pilot upgrade training
2012-2013: Instructor Pilot at the 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale AFB, LA
2013: Move to ND, Instructor Pilot at the 23d Bomb Squadron at Minot AFB, ND
Jan - Jun 2014: Weapons School at Barksdale AFB, LA
Now:  Weapons Officer at 69th Bomb Squadron at Minot AFB, ND

When getting assigned to the B-52 out of pilot training, I wasn't really sure what to think of it. But as I learned about the capabilities it has, the benefits of flying a crew aircraft, and the reality of flying a combat jet aircraft with a pretty diverse spread of mission sets, the B-52 grew on me.  Rather than see what it would take to get transferred to a different aircraft or assignment, I decided my goal would be to become the best pilot I could be in the B-52.  It was about that same time I first heard of Weapons School.  For most of its history, it was the Fighter Weapons School; focusing on elevating dog fighting and air to air skills for fighter aircraft.  But in the 1990s, they started expanding it to allow other airframes (the bombers, command and control aircraft, etc).  Now they have squadrons within the weapons school for just about every aircraft including cargo, helicopters, and even intelligence, cyber warfare, and missiliers.  There's no question that every airframe will have to work together to succeed in war, so the WS focusses a lot on how to integrate and get the most out of every capability.  Since it's a school for instructors and carries with it a lot of prestige, it represents the highest mark you can shoot for when it comes to flying progression (student - copilot - aircraft commander - instructor/evaluator - weapons instructor).  So that was my goal: learn as much as I could, upgrade, kick ass, graduate from WS.

The idea behind the Weapons Officer role is that every squadron has at least one "patch" as its referred to (because of the notoriety behind the patch you wear when you graduate).  That patch has the primary responsibility for making sure the squadron is ready for war.  They're typically the flight commander for the weapons and tactics flight who put together the day to day training scenarios.  And when the time comes, the weapons officer leads the way into combat (mostly in mission planning, but also as the mission commander for the opening sorties of the war).  In a perfect "fully-manned" air force, every B-52 squadron would have at least three weapons officers teaming up to handle everything.  But because of the down-sizing nature of the military, each squadron typically only has one (in addition to the Squadron Commander and Director of Operations, who are often Weapons School graduates themselves).

Our class (14A) at Weapons School was unique because we were the first class to follow the result of sequestration.  I was originally selected for 13B, but they cancelled the 13B class (only the third class to be cancelled in history, with the other two being those immediately following the Korean and Vietnam Wars).  They revamped the syllabus to be more efficient and also decided to allow 14A to take more students than normal to make up for the deficit of weapons officers from the cancelled class.  So because of that, we had 13 graduates in our class who will now go to to each of the four operational B-52 squadron plus the 2 operation support squadrons.

So all in all, I feel like I've pretty much been sprinting in my career ever since pilot training (maybe ROTC too?).  And now, as a weapons instructor, with another two years before my promotion board to Major, I pretty much feel like my number one job is just to focus on teaching and training the squadron I just joined.  I've "checked all the boxes" when it comes to Air Force careerism and non-flying duties.  So it's a good spot to be in; just focused on improving the flying and tactics of the rest of the squadron / B-52 community.  And there's still plenty for me to learn too.  One of the perks of having a big WS class was that I've got a good net of connections who are getting things done in the rest of the B-52 squadrons (and non-B-52 squadrons).

Some other notes on Weapons School...
It was tough.  But it was what I expected.  I wouldn't be as proud of it if the program didn't have such high standards.  In addition to being expected to manage a lot of difficult scenarios in the air, you also have to write a 15-20 page paper that solves some sort of tactical problem that the community or the Air Force is facing, do multiple briefs between 20 and 40 minutes, and pass a lot of academic exams.  The program and instructors are good at finding each person's weaknesses.  And since it's 5 months long with LONG days, it makes it pretty much impossible for anyone to fake their way through like some other training programs.  The people who do best are generally the people who want to be there the most.  And I can vouch that you don't necessarily have to be the smartest or most experienced, but things like attitude / teamwork / communication can get you through.  It sounds like I'm spitting out the same cheesy stuff that I rolled my eyes at throughout other far less beneficial training programs I've been through.  So I guess the difference is that everything in this program had direct correlation to the real mission, and not just some playing some stupid Air Force version of dodgeball to learn teamwork.  At one point I remember thinking about how there always tends to be some sort of "logic" or "critical thinking" section on standardized tests at middle / high school / college.  I have never gotten better education in critical thinking than at Weapons School.

I was very grateful to have someone as understanding as Ellen backing me up through Weapons School.  Since it was a TDY to Barksdale, we had the option of Ellen and the kids going with while our stuff stayed in our house at Minot.  Everyone in my class was married and I ended up being the only to not have family nearby during the course.  It was monumental that Ellen was able to understand ahead of time how stressful the program would be.  We discussed prior that it was going to be worse than a deployment since not only would I be physically gone, but the time I have available for phone calls and skype in the evenings/weekends was slim to none.  Ellen knew how much I wanted to succeed in the program and she also knew my tendency to get sucked into my projects with obsessive stubborn focus.  So rather than add to the chaos with us living in some temporary lodging with two kids separated from their favorite toys/beds while I spend the majority of my time in a room with no windows and phones, Ellen stayed back home at Minot and kept life together for her, Theodore, and Woodrow.  It always sucks to be away from family.  And this was our longest (we didn't see each other the whole 5/6 months!).  But I am very thankful for Ellen being on the same page as me.  And I can also say her support was a huge enabler for me to graduate #1 in my class!

So what now?  Well all the commendation that I give the Weapons School program and all the "so there I was" stories I picked up now becomes my burden.  The whole point of the school is to train instructors.  I've got to consider what I think is the most important things for the crews to learn and figure out how to train everyone in the squadron to that level.  I think one of the hardest parts will be finding ways to motivate the people who aren't really that excited about their flying career in the B-52.  Not everyone makes the most of it, not everyone plans to stick with the B-52, and since our airframe hasn't seen combat since 2005, it's hard to keep everyone motivated to keep learning.  I'll probably be in this job for about a year.  And I expect we'll be at Minot for another 3 years or so.  And this September, we're taking a super vacation!  We're going to take a road trip out to Washington state making sure to hit every national park along the way for three weeks.  Road trip with a 1 and 3 year old sound a little crazy to you too?  Yes, us as well. But they're not in school.  And I was able to get the leave approved at work since the Minot squadrons will just be getting back from deployment.  So when you get the chance, you take it!

If there's any AF people who read this and have questions about B-52 / weapons school stuff, feel free to email me.