TFOT FY2019 – Week 0, Day 3-5

Week 0, Day 3

More and more in-processing and marching.

• No questions or comments yet. (SR)

Tip: As a non-prior you need multiple copies of your spouse’s drivers license, all of your dependent’s SSN cards, birth certificates, and marriage license. You’ll need one for the personnel section and one for the finance section, at the very least. I also suggest scanning them and having them easy to email, if for some reason you don’t have enough copies. I only had one copy and had given it to personnel. This meant I had to scramble to get another one to finance so I got paid the correct amounts.

• This is a very common problem. From my years of experience in the Air Force, any time I have to in-process I keep about six copies of any paperwork I think I may need to give out. During a PCS this would include my orders so I would usually print about 10 copies when I first start the process. At OTS a non-prior needs this paperwork to register this person’s family in DEERS, and set up the (with dependents) pay rate. DEERS is the master database that the entire DoD uses to track you and your dependents as members of the Air Force. It is also the system the Military Personnel Flight uses to issue your military ID cards. Lastly, it is the system your family must be in to enable their Tricare benefits. In other words, this Personnel and Finance in-processing is very important so be sure you have the paperwork you need for this purpose. (SR)

I also suggest carrying your laptop with you every time you have your attaché, because you’ll never know when you need to write a note or send an email.

• I had a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 at OTS with me in 2015. It was the perfect “laptop” because it was light so I could carry it around with me wherever I wanted to go but it was also a fully capable computer. This became particularly helpful when I was marching around with my attaché. I had to carry around my flight-mate’s attachés a few times and they had full-sized laptops. Their attachés were ridiculously heavy. (SR)

I highly suggest making yourself an in-processing binder. Take a 1” 3-ring binder, put a bunch of page protectors in there, and put everything you may need in it. I had everything uber organized so in the rush that was in-processing I was able to get everything out fast.

• This is good advice, but I had the accordion style not a 3-ring binder. Do whatever works for you but the takeaway is to be organized. That is actually a crucial skill for an officer to have. I just added an organizer that is similar to what I had to the OTS packing list. (SR)

Have all travel receipts in above binder. I forgot mine in my car. They don’t need gas receipts because they pay by the mile. But, they do need hotel receipts, taxi receipts, etc.

• This paperwork is for the travel voucher. You have to have all of this paperwork and fill out the form in order to get paid for your travel from wherever you were before to when you arrived at OTS. You don’t need foot receipts or anything because that is covered under “per-diem” but you need receipts for your flight, parking fees, shuttle from the airport, toll roads, etc. (SR)

NEW STARTING WITH 19-01: They (Det 12) issued us a $1,200 easy-pay card. It’s like a debit card. They take that money back from you during your first 2 months of pay (so the 2 months you are at OTS). HOWEVER, this card only works on a few places on Maxwell AFB and doesn’t work anywhere else in the world. You can use it to buy uniforms (though I suggest you buy them before you get here). You can go to the Maxwell AFB Credit Union on base and just cash it out. But, you can’t use it anywhere else. If you lose it or forget to cash it out, you have to wait until it expires, then wait longer until the money is returned to you. Personal opinion, I hate it. They didn’t tell us we were going to get it (good thing you are reading this), it takes $1,200 out of my budget that I didn’t plan on with no way of putting that money back in the bank. I’m a non-prior so I don’t know if the priors got this as well. I don’t think they did. Oh and it is not secure. There is no PIN at all with the card. So anyone that has it can cash it out. It’s just awful.

• The purpose of this card is to address problems in the past with cadets showing up and not having the initial cash, which caused hardship to them and their families. Over the past few years I have hard of people showing up and not getting paid the entire time they were at OTS. While this card is not a perfect solution, it would have been very useful to those who were not getting paid at all. The thing is, in order to issue this card it is easiest to just blanket-issue it to each non-prior because of the large amount of paperwork and extended processing time for getting advance pay. Bottom line there are pros and cons to this so I am glad we are getting this information out there to you all. I am eager to hear if the 24 TRS is doing the same thing. (SR)

Something good to know, if you are having a baby or have a family member with special needs, you will be “Q Coded” so they can make sure you go to a base that can accommodate your family. While this is good, it could mess up what base you go to after OTS. Just something to think about.

• This one is interesting. The “Q” code he is referring to is an Assignment Limitation Code which is outlined in Air Force Instruction (AFI) 36-2110, Assignments, Table 2.2. This AFI can be found at the Air Force E-Publishing site which has all AFIs. The definition of the “Q” code is as follows: (SR)
  • Code: Q
  • Title: Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP)
  • Description: Airman has a family member with a special need that meets DOD criteria for enrollment in the EFMP. See Attachment 25.
  • Effective Date and Duration: Date of identification; indefinite. May be deleted when the special need no longer exists (see note 4).
  • Limitation on PCS Selection: The base Special
    Needs Coordinator must review CONUS or OS assignment.

Clothing allowance. I’m not 100% sure how this works, but this is what was told to us. Since we are technically enlisted for 2 months, we get 2 months of clothing allowance on our pay checks while we are here. Then, after we graduate we get a lump sum for clothing allowance, something around $400.

• Confirmed, I received two clothing allowances for my time at OTS. I should probably do a post about this someday but expect to get a one-time couple hundred bucks to offset the initial uniform costs. (SR)

Briefs that we had today: finance brief, academic brief, chaplain brief, suicide brief.

• No questions or comments yet. (SR)

Week 0, Day 4 and 5 (Weekend)

For the most part, we were left alone during the weekend. For better, or for worse… It was kind of weird.

• Confirmed. It was eerily quiet. When I was at BMT I never felt safe but at OTS I cherished the weekends. (SR)

We got a computer based communication platform up and running called Slack. Slack is great if used correctly. Here, it wasn’t used correctly. The way the military works you should use the chain of command for EVERYTHING, going both up the chain and back down. It doesn’t matter the medium used to communicate, you should always use the change of command. When Slack was introduced this broke down immediately, and 260+ people were trying to communicate. So for future classes, if you are going to introduce Slack (which I still recommend), make some ground rules first. Make it well known that this is only for communicating with your chain. If you try to ask someone a question that is not in your chain, you are wrong.

• This one problem he is talking about could literally make the difference between an effective cadet organization and a completely non-effective organization. Remind me to do a post about the military chain of command. (SR)

Part of the problem is that we were put into our flights on Friday (I believe.) However, where we were living was nowhere near our flights. We had people spread out across 4 floors and 2 buildings. Communication was just awful. Try to get ahead of this before it happens to you!

• Communication is the most important aspect of being an officer. Honestly when I was there we just had text groups for our flights. The FDO would talk only to the Cadet Squadron Commander, and the Cadet Squadron Commanders would only talk to the Cadet Group Commander, then etc. up to the wing. Downward communication worked the same. I’ll do a complete post about this. (SR)

Speaking of the buildings, these things feel like they are falling apart. There are a ton of rooms that we aren’t even allowed to enter. And even more rooms where there are big problems, like water leaks when the person above you takes a shower.

• This is unfortunately fairly common with Air Force training locations because keeping buildings maintained for decades requires money. Another problem is that if maintenance doesn’t know about the problems, they can’t be fixed. When I was there one of our cadet jobs was to compile a list of all of the dorm discrepancies. To make this happen the cadet in charge for the wing just has to create some spreadsheet for all of the details, and then it is tasked out to the entire cadet wing to identify the problems. This gives the cadets some buy-in to make things better for everyone. It can also provide the next class with some background info and history on extended problems which keep rooms out of commission. (SR)

We did a lot of marching practice. The pennant test (marching test) is the next Tuesday. If we pass, we get to march ourselves around without MTIs watching our every move.

• The pennant test is a huge milestone. I wrote about this in a post or two. (SR)

I was going to go for a run this morning, but the people who said they were going to run with me didn’t show up so I couldn’t march over to the track. Don’t be that guy.

• Try to find and latch on to a “Wingman.” When I was there I did absoultely everything with my roommate or every once in a while, other people on my flight. In order to get through training you have to learn to lean on each other and have each other’s back. That being said, everyone at OTS is stressed to the max in their own way, and everyone reacts to that stress in a different way. Don’t take anything personal but help each other work through the stress. (SR)