Pensacola

So here I am in Pensacola. After 11 years of anticipation and brushes with losing my sanity during the 53 hour car drive from Pullman; I'm here at flight school. The military life is what I thought it would be and at the same time not. I meet all kinds of people: up tight, cocky, friendly, awkward, patient, laid back, funny, vulgar (it's the Navy, what do you expect ha ha). There are even people here who don't know how to SWIM! I met another SNFO (Student Naval Flight Officer) who said "I don't like flying, and I don't like being on the ocean." I was so dumb founded I just laughed and reminded her that our job frequently includes flying over oceans.


So far the training is not bad. The work load is manageable if you don’t mind having three hours of free time a day. The material is trivial, the only issue I’ve had so far is no one seems to understand the science behind what we do. So if I ask a question most of the time it’s a,”what’s your major? Look, don’t worry about it; you don’t need to know that to fly it.” Aka, “I don’t know the answer.” The real kicker with training is the level or proficiency we are expected to have and how fast we have to acquire it.


When I got here, one of the first briefs I had went something like “We’re the best in the world, we expect no less from you. Our military is entirely voluntary. If don’t think you can keep up, you can DOR (Drop on Request) and you’ll be dismissed from the program. If we think you are not good enough for this program, you’ll be dismissed.” I feel like they’re telling me to not only be the best, but also to hurry up about it ha ha.


One more interesting thing I’ve found. I saw a lot of weird insignia on flight suits and uniforms. At first I thought it was some weird coast guard uniform but then I walked past two gentlemen who were not speaking English, as I was pondering that I walked past a sign over a door that said “Saudi Arabian liaison.” I asked a couple of people what’s going on. Apparently we train some pilots from other countries. So far I’ve ran into student military pilots my age from Germany, Saudi Arabia and Italy. Pretty obvious what they’re trying to do, especially if you consider the countries the pilots are from. I like it, they’re all pretty nice and as Kim would put it “their accents are fun.”


That’s all for now, I miss everyone back home. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it home for Christmas. They got me good ha ha.