United States Air Force’s Post

My dream sheet included bases in CA and NC. I was sent to Germany and am so grateful that I was. It was literally the best three years of my life. Once there, I clearly understood why CA and NC were not options. My unsolicited recommendation is to join and go with the flow.

lol I don’t know anyone that ever got an assignment on their dream sheet.

Hmm…my first assignment was Alaska (which I loved) which was nowhere near anything on my dream sheet. 😊 Alaska turned out to be a dream assignment. Wouldn’t change it for anything.

Why not Minot? I went in to the Reserves, guaranteed job, already knowing my base and unit. I remember going to the meeting where first duty assignments were announced and I remember a lot of crying during the meeting and afterwards.

United States Air Force HICKAM 1st pick in the draft! Got it back in 1992. Some salty drill instructors. 😁

As an AFROTC lieutenant from October of 1961 to October, 1964, I served three years active duty and had three separate duty stations with very different assignments. Hancock Field in Syracuse, New York which, at the time was a NORAD base, headquarters of the 26th Air Division and Syracuse Air Defense Sector (SYADS) and a SAGE center. As a brand new 2nd lieutenant, I was the squadron administrative officer for the support squadron with 1200 assigned and attached personnel. It was a captain’s slot. After a year I was reassigned to a custodial detached of a munitions maintenance squadron on a British base in northwestern Germany. Our RAF allies were flying English Electric Canberra light bombers. We had Mark 7 atomic bombs and, as an alert duty officer, I sat alert duty with British air crews prepared to release nuclear warfare if the Soviets started overrunning Western Europe and we couldn’t stop them any other way. It was just after the Cuban Missile Crisis. They didn’t. Next the long arm of the Air Force reached down and dropped me on Athenai Air Base outside Athens, Greece. I was assigned to the Athens station of the Armed Forces Courier Service where, because I was senior by two weeks time in grade, I became OIC. Adventures!

The Air Force is an outstanding way to start your career! Now, changing the subject... this photo is hilarious. Flying Hueys at the Air Force Museum? Is that a Dream Sheet career option?

Dream Sheet LOL yeah! You’ll love Turkey they said.

“Dream Sheet”. Emphasis, boys and girls, on “Dream”. Though I finished near the top of my Tech School class, and had requested assignments in Europe, where did I end up after BMT at Lackland, and Tech School at Brooks? Kelly AFB, Texas, followed by Camp Bullis, Texas. Imagine this Native Texan’s delight. Go Air Force!

This is only half true. In order to get your dream sheet base, you must have met the requirements. 1: The job must exist at said base. Recruiters can get the list of bases for a job. Going open anything, means you are open for anything. They will give you a list of open bases during basic. I had only a few choices. I picked what I wanted, got what I wanted... out of a list given to me. If I had chosen something not on that list, they would have chosen for me. 2: The job must have openings for that position and rank for that base. The E-1 to E-3 slot has the most openings because it changes so often. New guys move more than old guys, just the way it is. It took 8 Base of Preference Applications (could only submit once a quarter) as a Staff/Tech to finally get something I wanted, which was anything but where I was. If your job is critically manned at your current base... good luck.