A little about myself...

As you've probably figured out by now I'm a Captain in the US Air Force. This blog is completely written from my silly capt perspective and should no way be interpreted as anything remotely resembling an official USAF point of view.

Whew!...now that the disclaimer's in place...

I love my job. I'm an aircraft maintenance officer. If you know anything about the AF you know that means I'm responsible for making airplanes fit to fly. I love working long hours with the dedicated young men and women of our great nation to ensure our ability to defend our national interests. I love being part of an organization that prides itself on Integrity, Service and Excellence. In short, I, like the overwhelming majority of those in uniform, am a patriotic guy!

I don't personally perform maintenance (MX for short) anymore, but I used to, back when I worked for a living as an avionics sensor systems technician. My particular job as a young enlisted troop was to fix target designation systems. The same systems you saw video from in Desert Storm (yes, I was there) and our latest conflicts in southwest asia and other various garden spots across the globe (yes, I've been to some of those too). After working in that career field for over 10 years I decided to cross over to the officer corps. I did it partly for my family (officers make more money than enlisted troops), but mostly I did it because of my desire to try and make my own contribution to our national defense. Don't think for a second that means I wasn't already doing that as a young Staff Sergeant (SSgt for short). I was. I crossed over because of my desire to impact the mission and our AF people in a bigger way and sooner.

A young SSgt has a lot of responsibility in our AF, but a young Lieutenant (Lt for short) has even more (especially in MX). As an officer you are immediately thrust into a position of leadership and responsibility. Again, don't misunderstand, don't equate the position of leadership and responsibility with the ability to lead or be responsible. I know a lot of SSgts with more natural leadership abilities than some Lts...but I digress...

I've been a MX officer for over 5 years now and haven't grown the least bit tired of it. I've been assigned to flying training units, operational flying units and am currently assigned to an Air Logistics Center focused on supporting entire weapons systems across the AF.

This is a particularly interesting tour as I'm not directly responsible for making aircraft fly, but helping to ensure long-term sustainment.

This assignment also has great hours (family time!), a prime location (a nice change from the desert of NM!) and the opportunity to learn the wholesale logistics side of our business.

So...that's my professional life...and all I'm going to write for now.

Capt B