Warning: I don't proof read after I type so sorry for the typing errors =P

June 15, 2000     

     I am to report to Brooks AFB 10th and 11th of July 2000 for  MFS (medical screening). After that I am to report NLT 10 days after completion to NAS Pensacola for API (aviation prefIight indoctrination). API is a 5.5 week course which teaches you general aviation knowledge and has some swimming for the first 4 weeks, and other aviation related activities the last 1.5 weeks. I'm sure I will be there for at least a couple of weeks before my API actually starts. I hear we have to muster every morning at 0720 and we are then released for the rest of the day until our class starts. My current plan is to live on base in P-cola for the 5.5 weeks of API, and then move to some house or apartment in or around Milton. My reasoning for this is that I want to be close to the training area. I don't want to have to wake up at 0500 to be in class at 0700 due to the sometimes 50 minute drive to Whiting from P-cola. I like to roll out of bed right into class =)

     I will post more information about housing as I get it. The SITES pages are pretty good for housing off base, but nothing beats a phone call.

July 2, 2000

     I went for a visit to Pensacola and Whiting this past week and I liked the Pensacola base a lot. I'll get some pictures up soon. Whiting is not much of a base though. Its just got a ton of T-34s and lots of runways. Its out in the middle of nowhere (30-45 min from Pensacola) which is good in that there are no distractions. At Pensacola I went to the BOQ (bachelor officer's quarters) to try to make arrangements for my stay but I was told that they will give me a room when I show up...no reservations required. The main BOQ building there is absolutely gorgeous inside and out and I thought that was where I was going to stay but then I noticed the older buildings behind it and came back down from the cloud. Another thing I found out is that all SNAs (Student Naval Aviators) are required to live on base during training which will make life easier for me since I don't have to go out and find a place to live and worry about paying for everything. For those USAF people going to Pensacola for training, Eglin AFB takes about the same time to get to as Whiting so you are not completely alienated from the USAF world. 
     I go to Brooks this weekend and I'm of course pretty nervous about that. I don't have any problems that I know of but you never know. What scares me are refractive tests since I have a little bit of astigmatism. Luckily there are no refractive tests done at Brooks, but I will have one in Pensacola. Since I'm flying a Navy plane I have to have a Navy physical. What sucks is that I heard they don't let you squint for the eye test. That sucks because I get 20/17 when I squint and have no idea what it will be if I can't squint. I just can't wait until all the medicals are done. I'll write more after Brooks.

July 12, 2000

     Just got back from Brooks and I passed the medical with flying colors. It was all done in civies from 7am to 4:30pm. First you do 5 hours worth of psych testing. It consists of some IQ/SAT/BAT stuff, and a lot of personality questions too. None of this can disqualify you from SUPT. I then went to get my echo cardiogram (heart ultrasound) done which was kind of uncomfortable especially when the guy forgot to tell me when to breathe again. This is to see if there is anything wrong with your heart valves, heart-muscle walls, and the flow of blood. After that, they sent me to get my standing and sitting heights measured( I forgot what the min is). I then proceeded to get my color vision tested...all I can say is that there are three books and I didn't think it was hard at all. Then I went to do the red lens test which somehow measures your depth perception and something else. In the same room I did the corneal topography which was no big deal. This is to see if you have had any surgery or if there are any legions or thinning of the cornea. After this we went and waited for 2 hours in the lobby and at 4:20 we found out that everyone in my class of 12 passed with no problems. 
     I found San Antonio to be a horrible place to live. There are no good looking girls in the town and it is hotter than hell. Even the wind is hot...its like being hit with a blow dryer. Very dry too. I hope I never get stationed there except maybe for IFF (introduction to fighter fundamentals). Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals is a program at Randolph AFB which is an introduction to fighter tactics taken after you get your wings and before you go to your RTU (replacement training unit). Randolph is a beautiful base. The buildings are white with red tile roofs and they look like Spanish missions. Too bad they put it in San Antonio. I feel sorry also for all those that have to go to Lackland AFB for field training or BMT (basic military training). The only thing nice in San Antonio is Riverwalk which is absolutely gorgeous. Its the oasis of the town. Tomorrow I'll be driving over to Pensacola and I'll write some more when I get there.

July 15, 2000

     After 10 hours of driving, I'm finally at Pen. I got here in the evening, went  to the BOQ, and was told they did not have any rooms. They said to try two hotels down the street and that I would have to stay there for at least 10 days. They do not make reservations. So I drove over to the hotels and one didn't have any and the other one only had suites left which were $86 a night. I called the BOQ and they said the Navy covered it so I got a pretty nice HUGE room to myself for that night. The next day I went back to the BOQ to make sure I would actually get refunded and lo and behold all of a sudden they had a room for me. So now I can dump all my stuff out of my car and feel safer about it. The BOQ rooms they put the lower ranking officers are.....modest. Rooms are joined in pairs by a lounge which has a microwave and a fridge. There is no kitchen so I guess I'll have to eat out or cook with the microwave. At least I got like 50 channels of cable and maid service. 
     I went to the Airshow today to watch the Blue Angels and met someone who just graduated from API. He told me I was to expect mustering at 7:30 every morning with a HUGE amount of students. Mon, Wed, Fri we supposedly do a 5 mile run and some PT then we are set free. Tues and Thurs he told me there is an inspection. This is supposed to go on until API starts. We so a PRT screening in which we have to do 5 more than the minimums, then the regular PRT is on the next Monday. I was told that many of the naval academy students failed the PRT which I thought was weird because the mins aren't too much. I was also told that there is over a month wait in the pool to start API. I report in tomorrow at 0800 and hopefully they willbe able to tell me when I'll be starting and all that. I actually don't mind the month wait and I'm actually hoping for it since it will give me a chance to get into better shape.

July 16, 2000

     I reported in to student control this morning and it seems there are a lot of rumors going around. The officer working the desk there told me we are not required to live on base and he hadn't heard of all the academy grads failing the PRT although many people seem to have probs on the run since the temperature is above 100 with close to 100% humidity. Its hot as hell for me and I'm from Miami so I should be used to this. Even at 10pm the heat gets you. Anyway, the main office was closed today of course since its Sunday so all I could do is get my orders stamped and get some rumor control going. Tomorrow I will go through the main reporting in procedure and get in the pool to start API. Some naval students are waiting from 1 to 6 months to start. It all depends when you get here. It seems each student has their own experience and everything is different for everybody.
     Today I also went to NAS Whiting field. There I met two students by the T-34 preflight bird and they were nice enough to tell us quite a bit about their experience. Before I talk about that i want to say that having talked with several people online and on base, I have come to the conclusion that you have to go through it to know how it is. EVERYBODY has a different story about what happens. With that said, these two students told me that the PRT is unimportant as long as you just pass, studying is all you will be doing for the first 4 weeks of API, the swimming is easy since they build you up to it, all USAF students do the 1 mile swim even though you don't have to pass, the tests are unfair and try to trick you, its normal to fail two tests and have to be rolled back a class, for them study groups sucked, one of the guys failed engines and navigation tests, and basically it is to stress you out and weed out people. One of them had finished primary and said you still have to study a lot but its a different atmosphere. IPs are more helpful. The one who already finished did it in 4.5 months only but some take 6 months or more. That's two student's perspectives. Oh, they told me that you are required to live on base. I'll try to find out for sure. Hearing so many different things makes me want to start a rumor control page. I hope everything goes well when I report tomorrow for real.

July 18, 2000

     Well everything seems to be very well organized here. We reported in Monday were given a schedule of what we had to do, where, and when. Monday was just to get on the roster and sign up for the medical and the PRT/swim screening. This is not the real PRT/swim test, it is just a screening that they do before since a lot of people were failing it in API. Now you have the chance to go to remedial training instead of risking expulsion. We also had to turn in our medical records to the clinic and make an appointment to get our teeth checked. Today we went to Corry station which is right off base to get all our in-processing paperwork done. Then we headed back to the API building in NAS Pensacola to listen to the indoc and drug and alcohol briefings. With that done they gave us another pych test which doesn't count for anything. It is exactly the same test battery I took at Brooks. After that we were waiting outside for some others to finish the test and a 3rd API week USAF student came out to talk to us. He told us that the academics weren't too tough and the questions were pretty straight forward. He said those who said they were tricky were reading too much into them. He studies about 3-4 hours a night. We were also told that we can at any time go to the computers and learn the exact lessons that we will be learning in class. I will probably go do that pretty soon. By the way, as you have seen from my journal there has been some confusion about whether you are allowed to stay off base or not during training. Here is the official statement for right now: The commander at NAS Whiting field has required all students to live in the BOQ at Whiting while flying there until the BOQ has a 94% occupation rate or higher. Only then may single students live off base. If you are married or have dependants, you may live off base regardless. Special exceptions are also made in some circumstances. We got a letter on that today that explains why and all that. No big deal, I want to live on base. I just hope they have a kitchen there. This microwave stuff is driving me crazy. I'll probably start going to the chow hall soon. Officers don't usually go to a chow hall, but on this base since there is no kitchen in the BOQ, its different. Oh, when we reported in on Monday we also got our course books. Its a stack of 6 books about 2 inches thick. Its got aero, engines, navagation, weather, FRRs, and physiology. Aero and weather are the thick ones. Physiology and FRRs are pretty skinny. I've been reading the API course books and they get really basic. After learning scalars vectors, moments and sine and cosine, it jumps to the definition of an airplane and what a fuselage and a wing are. It assumes you do not know what an airplane is. Then as it is telling you all this basic stuff it will throw in taper ratios and all these formulas that I would think only and engineer needs to know. I guess its going to be an interesting class. Tomorrow is my first muster and my dental check. Thursday I have some more briefings and Friday I have the screening for the PRT/swim test. I will have to do 42 pushups 50 situps and a 12 minute 1.5 mile run. The run is tricky and many people fail the run because of the surface you run on. They just built a brand new track next to it, but I guess they still don't want to switch over. The 1.5 mile we run is 3 half mile laps on sand, grass, dirt and wood chips and sometimes you are running up and down hill. My ankle twisted a couple of times on the sand when I did a practice run on it so you gotta be careful. Luckily I have strong ankles and they didn't get hurt or anything. I'm not too sure about the swim test and I'll write more about that after I take it. My medical is next Wednesday so all I have to do is pass this PRT/swim screen and that medical and I'm finished with the API pre-qualification. Those are the only two obstacles left that I know of before the start of classes. Wish me luck.

July 28, 2000

     Since I last wrote I've pretty much finished my API pre-qualification. Muster in the mornings are different depending on which day it is. Mondays we do a "4 mile" run which is closer to 6 miles since you run about a mile to get to the start of the 2 mile course that goes from the gym past the lighthouse. Its no big deal since you basically have an hour to do it. My first time I ended up walking a mile of it since it felt like black flag and I was dying in the heat. It gets to black flag by 0700 here some days. Our Monday runs are at 0800 so the heat is beating down on you. Tuesdays we report by the McDonald's by the seawall in our blues. They do a roll call and let us go. Wednesdays and Fridays we go to the gym and you can choose whatever you want to do in there. There is basketball, raquetball, tennis, weight lifting, or you can run. Thursdays we have briefings. There are a lot of people waiting to start API and some have to wait 2 months or more. I don't know if there is a system to choose people but those that have to wait a while are assigned briefings. I think you can choose your topic and then give a 10 minute briefing in the auditorium to all the students waiting to start. There has to be a certain number of USAF students in each API class so we usually start in the same week as printed on our orders. Navy guys are currently in deep water, some literally. Since API is so backed up right now they are sending mostly NROTC students to boats for a couple of months before they start API. Some just go to shore duty. Naval academy students get first priority followed by OCS. NROTC is at the tail end.  
     The Friday after I first reported in we did the PRT/swim screening. We had to be in a certain building at 0545. We stretched, warmed up then had to crank out 42 pushups in 2 minutes and 50 sit-ups in two minutes. For the pushups you only have to break a 90 degree angle when you go down. You are not allowed to move your hands once you start. The sit-ups are done with your arms across your chest with hands on your elbows. Both elbows must touch your legs and you can rest, get this, in the down position. Max for pushups is 67 and max for sit-ups is 100. The run was supposedly next but was cancelled since at 0645 it was already red flag and would soon be black. 
     After the PRT we did the swim screening. It wasn't too bad at all. First they demonstrated the 4 strokes we would need to know: The breaststoke, sidestroke, backstroke and freestyle. Then they told us how to fall into the water and made us jump off a 15 foot platform into the pool. That was the only fun part. We then had to demonstrate the strokes and were coached along the way. We did two laps with each stroke--once to get critiqued and once to make sure we can do it. Those who had problems were asked to stay afterwards. Those who still had problems were put on remedial which meant they had to show up at 0600 every day until they got it right. Those who fail any part of the PRT also have to go to remedial at 0600 until they pass. 
     The Wednesday after I had to take my medical. What an interesting day. First off they will give you a piece of paper that says show up in PT gear and they recommend parking at the o-club and walking the half mile over to the building since parking is scarce. Um...no. Get to the NOMI building a tad early and there is plenty of parking. As I was driving up, there was a group of unfortunate students on the long walk over. They were cursing after getting there and seeing all the parking. We all got in at 0700 and I sat there for a while until 0900 when I realized they must have not given my file to the right people because I was one of the few who hadn't been called in for any of the tests. After inquiring about the delay they informed me that my file had indeed been in the wrong pile and I was under way in less than 2 minutes. They measured every part of me in this medieval torture looking device weighed me, took my blood pressure and sent me back to the lobby. After another 30 minutes waiting I was called in to get an EKG which was really quick unlike some other bases. I then spent another 40 minutes in the lobby. I was then called in again to get my blood taken out for an HIV test. I had my class I physical taken less than a year ago so they didn't have to do any lab stuff on me. Anyway after waiting for another hour after getting my blood taken out, I went in for my eye test. Here is something important so that you don't go through a huge scare like I did. Do NOT check SNA on any of the medical papers even they tell everybody to do it. I'll get to why later. I went in and sat down in a chair facing a hall that had what looked like photocopied letters in rows-- not very easy to see, especially with the horrible lighting they had. I put a paddle on one eye and was asked to read one of the rows. I suinted and read it perfectly but the guy told me to read another line without squinting. I couldn't believe we weren't allowed to squint. I missed 2 out of 10 with one eye and 4 out of 10 with the other without squinting and read the 20/30 chart fine so I was dubbed 20/30. Damn it. On the USAF test I got 20/17. Anyway, we then went into a room with a lot of scary looking eye machines. Scary because they can disqualify you. One machine took a picture of my eye which showed a lot of red and didn't look good. I was told I had astigmatism. Duh. He moved me to another machine which then somehow by focusing and refocusing into my eye was able to print out exactly what my prescription should be. I also had to do that machine that blows air into your eye. This one seemed a lot stronger and I almost jumped out of my seat. Next we did the color vision test which wasn't hard at all. The last thing in that room was the depth perception test. This was much harder than the USAF one since the circles are much smaller and farter away. Luckily after moving my head around a little and staring at the rings, I was able to get all of them. I found later that several people got DQed by this test including a USAF guy. He is being sent to a USAF base to retest. Hopefully he will be able to come back. 
     I don't know if everyone has to do it or just me because I have astigmatism, but I had to go see a real eye doctor down the hall to do a refraction test. I had -0.75 astigmatism according to that test that day and he went to talk to his boss. He came back saying that since I had -1.00 a year ago (they had written my class I results from last year on the NOMI medical papers) that was disqualifying and I would have to come back after lunch to dilate my pupils and retest. He told me there are no waivers and I need a -0.75 or better to pass. Needless to say it wasn't a good lunch. I was totally depressed for 1.5 hours. I got back, got called in and asked why are they DQing me if the USAF said I was ok...."Oh, You're in the air force?" Um...like my big Air Force t-shirt didn't give that away the whole day. Well remember how I said not to check the SNA box on any paper in there is you are USAF? Well that's why. Navy vision standards are 20/30 or better and -0.75 astigmatism or better. No waivers. USAF is 20/70 ( I know 2 people who got waivers from the CoS up to 20/200) and -2.00 astigmatism. Thank God I joined the USAF. If I were Navy I would be DQed right now. I still don't know why standards are still so strict. What is the difference between someone who has 20/200 corrected to 20/20 and someone who has 20/70 corrected to 20/20? They both have to wear glasses anyway and both have 20/20 with them. 
     After the vision melodrama was all done with, I got my upchit signed my the flight surgeon and was happily on my way. 
     The day after, which was yesterday, we had to run the 1.5 mile trail. Everybody passed fine. One guy got close at 11:59. The limit is 12:00. At 1300 we had to take the ASTB which is the Navy version of the AFOQT. We have to take it just because the navy needs a score in their computer. We were told it did not count for anything and so one guy filled in the entire test in 3 minutes and turned it in and walked out. The Msgt in charge of the test said no one has ever done that before. The rest of us stayed in. I didn't really bother with the math and reading section so I just put down C for the ones I didn't feel like reading. I took the rest of the test seriously because I had nothing better to do and I didn't feel right just putting down anything and walking out like that other guy did. 
     And so now we are at today the 28th. Life, I must say, is good. I have been spending several days just playing golf or going to the beach the whole day. Those that have to wait a while sometimes get "stashed." They are given a job such as playing secretary or being the tour guide at the naval aviation museum. If you have a stash job, you do not have to muster in person. You just phone muster. You can wake up later and you don't work everyday. I would still rather go to muster and have the whole day off. Nightlife here is pretty good if you know where to go and which nights to go. Coconuts is good on Wednesdays and Seville Quarter is very very nice on Thursdays. Flounders is a good place to go on either Fridays or Saturdays (forgot which) but I'm going to try Floribama tonight. There are very very beautiful girls in Pensacola and plenty of them. This is a good place to be. There is also SCUBA trips from base for those who are interested. 
     Another thing that you should know is that you should do whatever you can to get into permanent BOQ. The bulding and the rooms are brand new and have a kitchen and your own washer and dryer. There is no common area and you have the whole place to yourself. You will have to buy your own TV and pay for the phone (only if you plan to call out), oh, and pay for cable. But it is well worth is for a brand new room with nice decor which is a lot bigger than the temp BOQ. It even has digital air conditioning controls. Its just really nice not having to nuke my food every night. Microwave food is nasty. If you don't mind staying in the temp BOQ, you will get BAH which is like $480 a month here and being that the temp BOQ is $12 a day, you make about $120 a month from living there--but you have to eat out or buy TV dinners every night. Well, you can also go to the "galley" and buy lunch and dinner for $3 each time if you don't mind lunch from 10:30 to 12:30 or dinner from 4:00 to 6:00.
     Well that's all I can think of for now. Next week all I have to do is show up for a service etiquette briefing Wednesday at 0800 and that's all that I have scheduled. After that I think its just mustering as usual. I class up (start API)  the 30th of August so I'll see if I can find some more stuff to put up on this page before then.

August 9, 2000

     Not much has happened since last I wrote. Just muster as usual followed by working out, going to the beach or golfing. Several of my friends here have already started API and have been doing well. Two of them have gotten a 100 on the aero and weather tests. Others have gotten in the mid to high 90s. They all spend about 5 hours a day studying outside of class. Something that has been causing a lot of slowdown and backlogging here has been that the flight simulator guys, who are civilians, are on strike. They have been for several weeks now and you don't fly until you've been on the sims. If you go to Whiting you will see a group of old men standing in the scalding heat with signs and waving at the few cars that go on that secluded road into the base...whatever floats their boat. 
     Last Wednesday they took us out to the flight line here in Pensacola to give us a small familiarization  briefing on the T-34C. We got to sit in the cockpit of the navigators version of the T-34C and an IP out there was telling us what the elevator and rudder did. Very basic. I said the navigator version because the pilot version over at Whiting is a bit different inside. There are a few more avionics gizmos in the pilot version such as GPS. The instrument panel is bigger too on the pilot version since there is more equipment. Before visiting the T-34C here in Pensacola I wasn't aware that there were any differences. Too bad the navs don't get to play with the GPS =P. I don't know if we'll be able to touch it though, even if we have it. I sure it will be some relief to have it on solo though. 
     I just realized I didn't talk about the dental part of the medical. The dental is done well before the NOMI physical and they do an x-ray then start poking your teeth to see if you have any cavities that the x-ray didn't reveal. There is one thing they did that I have never had done before. They take this small needle tipped with some pain killer and poke your gums to get some sort of measurement. I think its called "PM" and there is a certain range you have to be in or you can get grounded for it. Luckily I was in range. My only problem is my wisdom teeth which they said I had to have removed but since they aren't causing any harm at the moment, I don't have to get it done right away. I'll try to postpone that as long as I can since my dad is 60 and still has his wisdom teeth which never caused him any discomfort. 
     The relationships between the services are interesting here. In all the briefings I've been to, there is always the group of khakis taking up most of the room with a small little cluster of blues in one corner. Then again, when we are out on the weekends, or week for those who don't need as much sleep, there is no distinction between services which is a welcome change, especially since the Navy has some good looking women =). I haven't seen much of the Marines though. 
     I don't know if I've mentioned the heat here but its crazy. I'm from Miami so I thought I was used to heat and humidity....not so. Its usually about 95 here with a heat index of 115. When I go out of an air-conditioned room, my sunglasses and watch fog up completely. I've never seen that happen before. Another thing that's crazy here is the rules to eat at the "galley." You can't wear any solid black green or white t-shirts, and you have to have pockets. There is a whole page listing things like this to be able to go inside. Another restriction that is annoying is that you have to be in blues to go to the dentist and the API building. Lots of things are put off here until we have to be in uniform for something else. 
     As I have mentioned the Pensacola and Whiting sim instructors have been on strike. Well thankfully, that strike ended yesterday for Pensacola and will end tomorrow for Whiting which should get the tempo back up. Training here is so backlogged here right now its crazy. 
     Well I've written this journal mostly out of boredom today as I'm counting down the days to get my 2000 Suzuki GSXR 750 next Tuesday. I'm probably not going to add anything else to this journal until I start or at least get within a couple of days of my class start date: September 1st. So check back at the end of the month. I will then probably write journals every weekend about all the fun stuff in API. If there is anything specific you want to ask that I haven't covered here or that you are confused about, feel free to e-mail me. Hopefully I won't get stashed before I start. Wish me luck =)

August 17, 2000

     Well I got stashed so I guess I'll write some more. My job isn't too bad. Its called watch bill...normally it would suck but I got stuck in a pretty helpful location. I'm in the learning center here in the API building. The learning center is where all the computers are which have the power point type lessons which are taught during API. Since I'm in the room for 6.5 hours at a time (twice a week) I go through the lessons which actually do a better job of explaining everything than the books do, especially since there are little video clips in the program. I will probably be in there 6 more days before I start and I'll try to go through everything more than once. The days that I don't work, I just call in the morning between 7 and 8 to let them know I'm alive then roll back to sleep. Others are not so lucky. Some of my friends have gotten stuck on the quarterdeck where there is nothing to do but stare at the wall. Some have to go there for midnight shifts which suck. Some work everyday for 9 hours. The Navy is going crazy trying to put people in jobs all around to base to control the immense number of students waiting to start. A commander today talked to us about the state of affairs here at P-cola. He said that normally there are 20-50 people waiting to start API and they usually start within a couple of weeks. Currently there are over 230 students in the pool! Some have been here over 4 months. The simulator strike didn't help this situation any. We were told today also that they just implemented a plan last week for ROTC and the academy to send people over in a more time organized fashion. I take that to mean that more and more people will be going casual for a few months before being sent here. Some resident here wrote a letter to the local newspaper about all these aviation students running around town and getting paid to do nothing wasting tax payers money. The very next day, that article had reached Washington....not good. 
     Most of my friends have already started API and I'm itching to get in on it also. I start two weeks from tomorrow (Friday). So check back then.

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