It's official...our son is now an Air Force Airman!!!

pearsall001

He spend last Thursday at Fort Dix, NJ getting his physical & taking the ASVAB test. He scored pretty high on the test & from the results they want him to take another test. It's to qualify him for a Linguistics / Communication career. Apparently it's a very tough test but if he passes he'll have a pretty good shot at a great Air Force career. It comes with a Top Secret Military clearance level, & to be quite honest I'm not all too familiar w/ what all that means but he's flat out excited about the opportunity, as my wife & I are. We couldn't be prouder of our boy!!

Is anyone familiar w/ the Linguistics / Communications career path & what all that entails?

deronb1

Thats great! Congrats to you, your wife and your son.

Oldfatdogs

Congratulations to your son,you and the wife have good reason to be proud.

Dan

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Congratulations to your son. If things are the same as when I was in the USAF those tests would help place him in language training with a final job of translating radio communications from all types of intercepted sources.
Regards, Ken

cfrizz

Congrats to your family Tony!!!

dragon1952

Cryptologic Linguist
"Decipher and analyze foreign intelligence using classified techniques and foreign language skills"

Career Information for Air Force Linguists

"Air Force linguists, also known as cryptologic linguists, are enlisted military personnel who specialize in tasks using one or more foreign languages. These linguists often work overseas, receiving, translating, and recording intelligence in such foreign languages as Farsi, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Korean, Arabic, and Pashtu. In addition to translation and analysis, Air Force linguists are responsible for operating and utilizing communications equipment and for identifying new frequency searches for similar intelligence. Most of the work is classified and security clearance is mandatory."

The training center is in Monterrey, CA which is a very cool area. I believe that particular training can be very lengthy though....like maybe a couple years?
I spent 8 yrs in the USAF and had a pretty good time, although I would think that career field could be pretty intense.

George Grand

Linguistics/Comm are some LONG schools, but maybe after a couple hitches, he can get out and tell somebody how much to pay him. Clean hands too! In the old days they'd stick a bunch of those troops inside an RB-47, or a EC-121 Connie, and bait the bad guys until they reacted. Sometimes they'd OVERreact and shoot the airplane down. Lost a lot of guys that way. The only things left doing that kind of stuff are the RC-135's now, and they (I believe) have all O's aboard.

Congrats!

nooshinjohn

I would see if I could convince him to sit down with the ROTC guys and listen to what they have to say. If he is that smart, he would be better served earning some butter-bars and maybe even some wings.

Regardless, thank you for raising your boy right, and thank him for wanting to serve, ESPECIALLY in times like these...

dragon1952

Another thing.....You'd think with the length of the training that they'd want you to enlist for a 6 yr hitch, which is OK if you're looking at a career. Used to be 6 yr enlistees came out of basic as E-3's (Airman 1st class)

Erik Tracy

Congrats! Parental pride can make you choke up a bit - good job to you and all the best to your son!

My oldest son is off to college next week - big step and a big change to our family to have the oldest 'leave the nest'.

Life is about change - embrace it, appreciate the times shared and support their decisions - be proud!!!

cnh

nooshinjohn wrote: »

I would see if I could convince him to sit down with the ROTC guys and listen to what they have to say. If he is that smart, he would be better served earning some butter-bars and maybe even some wings.

Regardless, thank you for raising your boy right, and thank him for wanting to serve, ESPECIALLY in times like these...

Congrats. I do agree with John above. I'm assuming your son does not have a college degree? Did he look into the Air Force Academy? A military career as an Officer is an option, no?

cnh

vmaxer

pearsall001 wrote: »

He spend last Thursday at Fort Dix, NJ getting his physical & taking the ASVAB test. He scored pretty high on the test & from the results they want him to take another test. It's to qualify him for a Linguistics / Communication career. Apparently it's a very tough test but if he passes he'll have a pretty good shot at a great Air Force career. It comes with a Top Secret Military clearance level, & to be quite honest I'm not all too familiar w/ what all that means but he's flat out excited about the opportunity, as my wife & I are. We couldn't be prouder of our boy!!

Is anyone familiar w/ the Linguistics / Communications career path & what all that entails?

And you should be proud. In today's world it says a lot for you child to accomplish this, congrats and continue to support him!!

zane77

Thank your son for his service!

westmassguy

Congrats, to your family and him. Sounds like a great career choice.

Jimbo18

Congrats to you and your son. If it's like it was when I went through there, it was a 37 week school at the Presidio of Monterey. Beutiful area but the school is very, very tough. I was there in 1972-73 for Russian training. The first day of school we got homework to learn about 20 letters, Cyrillic alphabet, 20 vocabulary words, and a short conversation between two people that had to be memorized word-for-word and repeated with a partner the next day.

That's the first day, and it doesn't get easier after that. After 6 weeks you take a test that if you flunk, you are out of the school. We started with 50 students in our class and finished with 40, so as tough as it was, their entrance testing is pretty accurate or it would have been worse than that.

One of the reasons the school is as long as it is, is to give them time to get your Top Secret Cryptologic clearance complete. After that school, we went to San Angelo Texas for radio-telecommunications school. After that, you either go to a ground station, or stay in San Angelo for flight training which is an additional 6-8 weeks.

Since I volunteered for flight training, I then had to go to water survival, outdoor survival/POW camp, and altitude chamber training.

Before I got to my first duty station in Fairbanks, Ala., I had been in the Air Force for 1 1/2 years. Our planes were RC-135D models but they are now up to something like RC-135N or M models. Our planes were so old and underpowered, we had to take off with empty tanks and refuel twice on most of our long missions.

Good luck to your son if he goes that route. You have to grow up in a hurry.

George Grand

dragon1952 wrote: »

Another thing.....You'd think with the length of the training that they'd want you to enlist for a 6 yr hitch, which is OK if you're looking at a career. Used to be 6 yr enlistees came out of basic as E-3's (Airman 1st class)

This too, and I think this Jimbo guy got the "big picture" at one time.

starkiller

Congrats! My brother retired from the Air Force after 20 years as a Major. Was a chaplain and did a number of stints in Iraq. He wasn't fond of the camel spiders

nspindel

Congratulations, and thanks to your son for his service!

boston1450

Definitely something to be proud of. Congrats & Thank him for his upcoming services to our country

[Deleted User]

Ah yes, I still have my Goodfellow AFB credit union account there, I remember San Angelo fondly.

tonyb

Congrats to your son Phil, always a proud moment when you see your kids doing well and making progress in life.

scottyboy76

God bless you all, please thank him for me for serving us all.

Will say a prayer for god to keep him and you all in his hands.