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New Officer Arrivals at Rucker


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I can't find any posts relating to a new officer arriving at Rucker. They all seem to be about you pesky Warrants. :P I hope this won't be redundant.

 

My fiancee and I would like to buy a house at Rucker. As far as time management is concerned, would living off post be that big of a deal?

 

I'm 25, a home owner, and a finance major so I know all about the risks involved with the investment as well as the fact that in all likelihood we'll only be there for 2 years. We plan on leasing it out upon moving away as an extra source of income.

 

There's a long thread about arriving at a new unit as a WO1 but what would that look like as a new LT?

 

Thanks in advance yall.

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My first advice would be don't buy anything here. I know of several people who own "rental properties" and can't get them rented out. On our street alone, there are more vacant "for rent/sale" signs than actually occupied homes.

 

As far as what to expect when you get here:

 

1. If you don't sign a lease or buy a home prior to arriving, the Army will give you up to 10 days of permissive TDY to look for a place to live. We didn't know this coming down and had already signed a lease, so we didn't get any.

 

2. Expect about a week or two of sitting "on hold" where you show up for PT from 06:00 to 07:00, then come back for formation at 09:00, and your day is over by 09:30. Some folks get detailed out to "staff duty officer" positions where you can expect to watch a desk for 12 hours at a time.

 

3. You'll start with BOLC. The first day of BOLC you have your APFT. I *think* BOLC is 6 weeks of classes from 07:30 to 16:00 with a lunch break in the middle.

 

4. Somewhere during BOLC, you'll work in a day of "dunker" (a.k.a. HOST) and your flight physical.

 

5. After you have BOLC, HOST, and your flight physical complete, then you have SERE. I can't say any more about this.

 

6. Between BOLC and SERE, expect to be "on hold" again for an indeterminate amount of time.

 

7. Next you'll start IERW which consists of Aeromed, Systems, Primary (8 weeks, half-day at the flightline and half-day of academics), Instruments (8 weeks, half-day at the flightline and half-day of academics), and BWS (6 weeks, half-day at the flightline and half-day of academics). Instruments is 5 weeks in the simulator and 3 weeks at the flightline. The last week of Instruments, you won't have academics to give you about a week to complete your map-book for BWS. You will have a "supervised solo" four weeks into Primary which consists of three traffic patters in the TH-67 with you and your stick buddy (no instructor) and then another "supervised solo" after BWS which consists of you flying to two different off airport locations followed by Troy Airport with your stick buddy (no instructor).

 

8. At the end of BWS, you'll have about a week to prep for the APFT (on a Monday) and Selection (on a Wednesday). After Selection, then you are on hold again until you start your advanced airframe. At Selection, you choose your advanced airframe (based on class ranking) and your top three duty stations.

 

9. When you start your advanced airframe, you'll have about two to four weeks of systems, followed by Contact, Instruments, Tactics, and Nights/NVGs. The length of each is different depending on your airframe.

 

10. After advanced airframe, you have another APFT, two weeks of classes, and a week of outprocessing/graduation.

 

My wife and I arrived here the middle of October 2013, and next week is my last week of Nights/NVGs in the UH-60M. I had a two month bubble between SERE and IERW and a one month bubble between IERW and Advanced Airframe. However, I had an abbreviated BOLC because I branched Med Service Corps rather than Aviation and attended Med Service Corps BOLC in 2012.

 

A few other words of advice:

 

- Start logging your own time from day one. I do a LOT of flight instruction on the side and most of my students are military aviators. They come to me with no logbook, meaning they can't show cross-country time, meaning that they don't get credit for a lot of the flight time they need for their add-on ratings.

 

- If your wife wants to find work, she will need to look outside the immediate area. My wife was able to find a very stable full-time job but has an hour commute each way.

 

- I recommend living off-base. If you price shop for rentals in the area, you can usually pocket a few extra hundred dollars a month from your BAH.

 

- Start studying your limits and emergency procedures for Primary as soon as you finish BOLC. You should show up on day one with all of them memorized.

 

- If you don't already have helicopter flight experience, read chapters 1 thru 4 of the Helicopter Flying Handbook (https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/helicopter_flying_handbook/media/helicopter_flying_handbook.pdf) and try to score some R22/R44 time.

 

Let me know if there's anything else I can answer for you.

 

Fly safe!

Edited by Bootcamp
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If you don't decide to purchase a townhome/house to retain for the long term and rent out after you PCS, you might buy it now and sell when you leave. At least then you can recoup some of your BAH instead of giving it all away on a rental.

 

Or you can buy a smallish trailer and use your BAH to pay for it. If you have a SUV/truck and are the unconventional type, this is a great way to get something permanent for your money. There used to be a trailer park on Fort Rucker, coming in the Enterprise side. If you or she hates camping, this is clearly not your best choice but if you go this way you can sell the trailer in the future and pocket the cash.

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Apache, I know a guy who is living in his camp trailer at lake tholocco. He loves it. Great idea. If I didn't have kids id do that for sure...

 

I never thought to do it when I was a noob but there's trailer parks on more than a few bases. Fort Irwin has a pretty big one, though living in the desert in a trailer is where I draw the line. Depending on what type of vehicle you already own, it can be a very profitable way to use your BAH.

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