Do most Army soldiers want aviation?

akscott60 · January 15, 2016

Well shindig, if you are a real human, get ready for a series of 25m targets. This isnt the easiest undertaking. Aviation is unforgiving. The Army is as well. BCT will be a wakeup call, let alone SERE.

dovq2011 · January 15, 2016

Well shindig, if you are a real human, get ready for a series of 25m targets. This isnt the easiest undertaking. Aviation is unforgiving. The Army is as well. BCT will be a wakeup call, let alone SERE.

I'm looking forward to SERE. I hear it's like Disney World, but without the rides. And the characters. And food...

Tradewinds · January 15, 2016

I'm looking forward to SERE. I hear it's like Disney World, but without the rides. And the characters. And food...

You will however, most certainly meet someone named Grumpy.

Dbargs · January 15, 2016

I'm looking forward to SERE. I hear it's like Disney World, but without the rides. And the characters. And food...

so... standing in line?

dovq2011 · January 15, 2016

You will however, most certainly meet someone named Grumpy.

But seriously, it's going to suck I'm sure. Do you think I can get it waived if I bring my SERE 100 certificate?

dondlhmn · January 15, 2016

But seriously, it's going to suck I'm sure. Do you think I can get it waived if I bring my SERE 100 certificate?

I wouldn't worry too much about the SERE training....it has been SEVERELY pussified since older days and is a cakewalk now that my handicapped daughter could get through. Just MAN UP a little....if you are truly worried about it, which I'm sure you are NOT and that you just like having a little fun with the keyboard kommandos. Any hardship will be in your mind if you listen to all the "how tough it is" stories.....and then you will be disappointed after going through it!

CharyouTree · January 15, 2016

I wouldn't worry too much about the SERE training....it has been SEVERELY pussified since older days and is a cakewalk now that my handicapped daughter could get through. Just MAN UP a little....if you are truly worried about it, which I'm sure you are NOT and that you just like having a little fun with the keyboard kommandos. Any hardship will be in your mind if you listen to all the "how tough it is" stories.....and then you will be disappointed after going through it!

Oh, cool. Which class did you go through, recently?

dondlhmn · January 15, 2016

Nope, not recently..I RETIRED recently...1991.What I know about the current course is what I hear from friends that instruct at Rucker and from people that have gone through the course in the last few years.

Lindsey · January 15, 2016

Nope, not recently..I RETIRED recently...1991.What I know about the current course is what I hear from friends that instruct at Rucker and from people that have gone through the course in the last few years.

Pure curiosity; did you go through SERE?

dondlhmn · January 15, 2016

Pure curiosity; did you go through SERE?

Oh, yes....I was black and blue from my Adam's apple to my thighs for a while afterward and some of my classmates took it worse than I did. When my wife saw me when they were done with us, she asked just exactly what in the hell had happened to me!! She'd never ever seen me that beat up.Really, though, the worst thing was that I couldn't have a cigarette during the whole course. The interrogators were nice enough to put a bag over my head while they had me in the "camp" and blow cigar and cigarette smoke up under it for a couple of hours. That was really nice of them and sure took the nicotine "edge" off for me, though I'm SURE they had no idea that was enjoying every breath of that smoke!! Man, that was a long time ago...I haven't smoked since my last tour at Wiesbaden, which I left in early-mid 1986.

cwil7280 · January 15, 2016

that's ok bc At least I have my family and recomenders

You poor kid, if you are real, you have no idea how miserable your life is about to become. Your family and "recomenders" are going to be a long ways away. You think we're mean here on the internet? Many of these mean people are the same kinds of people you're about to meet in person, in a much less friendly environment, and they're going to make you do SO many "p-ups". I really can't wait until you have to write a memorandum in WOCS, assuming you make it through BCT of course. Good luck. You're going to need it.

dondlhmn · January 15, 2016

Not to hijack this (ungodly long running) thread, BUT............something to think about......Mostly for "SHINDIG" (real or not) but basically for everyone striving to get in to Army WOFT----"Flight School".

(1) Remember that most of it is a big ARMY game that will only in small ways have to be played through the rest of your Army career....learn the game, play it well and you will get through fine; (2) The people running the show are not out to be mean to YOU....they (and the entire system) just happen to have high standards which, IF YOU GET IN, you ARE capable of meeting if you keep your attitude right for the duration.... (Flight school is NOT FOR the Lazy, weak, mentally lacking, or for those not willing to do the VERY BEST THEY CAN);

(3) If you take the attitude/approach that the whole experience is to learn and have fun....guess what? IT IS FUN and the more fun you have doing it, THE BETTER YOU WILL DO. (yes, there were times I heard "Drop and give me twenty (or however many)!" that I was pissed off by events/people and totally ready to tell the powers that be to JAM IT..... but I DID HAVE FUN overall!) Remember....WOFT is NOT for whiners or people that feel sorry for themselves, but is aimed at training/teaching you.....not only to fly, but to always strive to do your best, excel, keep your standards high,and etc. The lessons learned there will serve you well through the rest of your career/life, whether you stay in or head out to the civilian world.

Remember...if it is worth doing, it is WORTH DOING RIGHT!! (WHATEVER the hell "it" is)

OK...I am now officially getting down off of my soap box!!

JHart · January 15, 2016

guys i just got call from recr I was selected.... wow !! ..... my hands shaking right now lol

Making recent retirement all the sweeter... Good luck. If you are real, and even remotely close to how you represent yourself on here, you're going to need loads of it. I truly do wish you well...as a person. As a prior aviator/officer, I'm just glad to be done with Uncle Sugar's personnel experiments. Thought we shut off the flood gates...?

Wally · January 16, 2016

Not to hijack this (ungodly long running) thread, BUT............something to think about......Mostly for "SHINDIG" (real or not) but basically for everyone striving to get in to Army WOFT----"Flight School".
(1) Remember that most of it is a big ARMY game that will only in small ways have to be played through the rest of your Army career....learn the game, play it well and you will get through fine; (2) The people running the show are not out to be mean to YOU....they (and the entire system) just happen to have high standards which, IF YOU GET IN, you ARE capable of meeting if you keep your attitude right for the duration.... (Flight school is NOT FOR the Lazy, weak, mentally lacking, or for those not willing to do the VERY BEST THEY CAN);
(3) If you take the attitude/approach that the whole experience is to learn and have fun....guess what? IT IS FUN and the more fun you have doing it, THE BETTER YOU WILL DO. (yes, there were times I heard "Drop and give me twenty (or however many)!" that I was pissed off by events/people and totally ready to tell the powers that be to JAM IT..... but I DID HAVE FUN overall!) Remember....WOFT is NOT for whiners or people that feel sorry for themselves, but is aimed at training/teaching you.....not only to fly, but to always strive to do your best, excel, keep your standards high,and etc. The lessons learned there will serve you well through the rest of your career/life, whether you stay in or head out to the civilian world.

Remember...if it is worth doing, it is WORTH DOING RIGHT!! (WHATEVER the hell "it" is)

OK...I am now officially getting down off of my soap box!!

The military and aviation in general, require your very best "A game" all the time- 100 per cent, period. The military ain't always OSHA compliant, aviation will kill you dead and everything.

The military is full of people. There are mean, venal, evil people that are out to hurt you there, too, as well as on civvie street. Hard to tell the bad from the good, though, because the standards of performance are pretty demanding... Mostly good people very invested in your success.

Flight school was a game in a sense that all I had to do was play by flight school rules. It was never personal if I didn't let it be personal. I still had to play the game at 100% WFO throttle because after flight school comes the real world. It's not a game anymore out there. You take what you've learned so far, apply it, and hope you learn fast enough to survive. They don't grade on the curve...

If you're real and actually in, never give less than your all and never compromise your integrity- period.

Edited January 16, 2016 by Wally

Rob Lyman · January 16, 2016

guys i just got call from recr I was selected.... wow !! ..... my hands shaking right now lol

Awesome! You'll fit right in with where the modern military is going!

Thank God I will be punching out in less than 6 years.

Luofynerd · January 16, 2016

If shindig can get picked up the active duty list better be 200/200 selects.

stearmann4 · January 17, 2016

Nope, not recently..I RETIRED recently...1991.What I know about the current course is what I hear from friends that instruct at Rucker and from people that have gone through the course in the last few years.

Don, I'm actually curious too. Which SERE school did you go through and what year roughly?

Mike-

dondlhmn · January 17, 2016

I've been through a couple of them...one in the orient in 1966 which was easy-peasy...got to eat snakes, frogs, other "rodents" and some "hand picked" vegetation. It was operated by the Army Security Agency with some other help and they didn't hardly hurt the "captives" at all...didn't want to mess up their million dollar babies, I guess. They told you that if you managed to evade from the drop-off to the "US safe camp" you didn't have to go to the internment camp. They LIED!! Everyone had to go whether you got captured by the aggressors or not. (Don't ask me how I know...I am STILL PO'd about it!) The one at Mother Rucker I referred to above was in 1976 and it was out in the boonies somewhere, run by some sadistic oriental bastards and a few caucasian guys...Viet Nam style interrogation camp and all...torture cells, wall lockers buried in the ground that they put captives into and then threw snakes in on top of them etc. Lots of fun!! The worst thing was being made to kneel on a long piece of (IIRC) 4 X 4 for long periods of time, though that doesn't sound at all too tough to the casual observer that has never done it.. I don't think that camp exists any longer...hasn't for years as long as far as I know. They stopped doing that whole thing because they were injuring too many "highly trained and expensive" aviator types. In later years they did it----somewhat pussified----early in the training BEFORE a candidate was trained and they had invested a bunch of time and money in them. I don't know how it is organised or what the "camp" is like nowdays, but from what I hear it is a walk in the park

napoleonpp · January 17, 2016

Luckily I went through SERE at Fort Bragg years ago. So didn't even have to think about going through it for Flight School and pushed me ahead of my peers in class.

stearmann4 · January 17, 2016

Interesting history lesson, you must've attended some secret SERE the Army had at Rucker, since they didn't open up a SERE school until 1963, and it was at Ft Bragg available only to special operations personnel. Ft Rucker offered a watered down "SERE-B" which only included academics, and evasion, but no interrogation, and was not certified an "official" SERE course by the JPRA (Joint Personnel Recovery Agency).

Ft Rucker has since implemented a full SERE-C course which mirrors the Ft Bragg SERE-C course and results in the same certification.

Everyone assumes training "was easier back in my day". I'd offer up that the training is no easier, but SERE has emerged and developed to prepare at-risk personnel for current and predicted conflicts and environments, and not based solely on the post-Korea and Vietnam experiences on which the early programs were built.

dovq2011 · January 17, 2016

So, something that has always popped into my mind every time 350-1 training comes up - if you go to SERE-C, do you still have to do SERE 100 training every year? I always wondered that and kept forgetting to ask buddies who have been through SERE-C.

StockTrader · January 17, 2016

I would venture to stay its probably relative to the type of individual you are and what pushes your buttons in todays course. Each of us had a certain thing that irked us. What one person thought was easy, some people had a really tough time with. I can honestly say I learned a lot about myself personally in the course. Was it "easy"? At times, yes. Other times no. But it did teach us a lot about things that you could easily overlook and be taken advantage of for.

akscott60 · January 17, 2016

Yes, you have to do SERE 100 every damn year. Regardless of going to actual SERE-C.

dovq2011 · January 17, 2016

Yes, you have to do SERE 100 every damn year. Regardless of going to actual SERE-C.

Damn that is depressing... haha.

dondlhmn · January 17, 2016

Interesting history lesson, you must've attended some secret SERE the Army had at Rucker, since they didn't open up a SERE school until 1963, and it was at Ft Bragg available only to special operations personnel. Ft Rucker offered a watered down "SERE-B" which only included academics, and evasion, but no interrogation, and was not certified an "official" SERE course by the JPRA (Joint Personnel Recovery Agency).

Ft Rucker has since implemented a full SERE-C course which mirrors the Ft Bragg SERE-C course and results in the same certification.

Everyone assumes training "was easier back in my day". I'd offer up that the training is no easier, but SERE has emerged and developed to prepare at-risk personnel for current and predicted conflicts and environments, and not based solely on the post-Korea and Vietnam experiences on which the early programs were built.

I don't know about "secret" or not, but to me and my classmates it was DAMNED REAL. My memories of it, how it was organized, contolled or what the "curriculum" was may not be complete or TOTALLY accurate (hey...us old farts get CRS as we age...!), so maybe you should check with some of the other old farts that went through flight school in the same era I did. Their memories may be better than mine and I don't remember being told that the SERE training at Rucker was any kind of a secret, so i'm sure that they would be willing to talk about their experiences in that course. Also, I do not recall that there was any sort of "certification" that anyone got back in the old, non-standardized days other than maybe just another "block getting checked" in your local training requirements.

You are absolutely right about learning things about yourself that you never knew, though. For one thing, I never had a clue that I would cry at the sight of the American flag.......but at dawn when they took down the NVA flag (or whatever it was) and raised the Stars And Bars while we were out there kneeling on that rail just before they released us, I sure as hell did!!!

It is interesting (and I guess a good thing!) to hear that there is a standardized training scenario for SERE nowdays that results in some kind of a certification that allows you a "get out of jail free" rather than attending the course over and over every time you went to a new command. I think that back in the 60s and 70s many commands had their own standards and their own courses and you had to go through THEIR course to get "credited" for having done it......likely because there was no sort of standardization from course to course.