AFR Flight Nurse

I am an active duty USAF FN. Be patient but do not be forgotton. Things move slow until the paperwork starts to drop then it will hit all at once. I would drop a call every couple of weeks for an update though.

Flight school @ Brooks City-Base in San Antonio is a blast! You'll love it.

All FN's and AET's now must attend Survial School Level C (same as what the pilots go through) @ Fairchild AFb, WA. ***THIS IS A NO SH*T SURVIVAL PROGRAM.*** I do not want to concern you but for real...it will be unpleasant. This is a recent change in 2007, as many of us went through Level B survival training which is significantly easier. In the level B pgm, we had 4-5 days in the field. in 4 days I ate 3 powerbars, a small portion of rabbit (which we butchered ourselves), one potato and some fish jerky. Thats it. I can't discuss much more but I have never felt so cold or tired in my entire life. Reminder, this was the easy course. Fairchild is longer, harder and more intense.

On the plus side, the SERE guys work hard to equip you with the training you need to survive. I left that pgm knowing that if I was ever in that survival/evasion situation I could survive (at least for a short while).

USAF Flight Nursing is the bomb. It is hard at times but I have absolutely loved every min.

Suds,
great posting!

If you have the time to talk more about AF flight nurse I'm sure a lot of folks would love to hear more about your journey, opportunities and sage advice... thanks for the great posting!
v/r

Hello LBB15 -

I am also in the process of joining the USAFR as a flight nurse and have gone through the same thing as you - I have gone through a number of stages wondering what is going on. My process has been a long one but here is a very quick overview of what I have gone through

April 2008 - Contact with USAFR healthcare recruiter and intial paperwork started
May 2008 - Visit to base and squadron and interview with Lt. Col and another person (they were impressed and said they "wanted me") ..... recrutier started to set up date for physical
June 2008 - flight physical completeted but needed to wait on some Ob-GYN results that will be in July at my own MD
July (end) 2008 - Test completed and results recieved and faxed over to flight med
August 2008 - no word on anything and could not get any answers
Aug or Sept 2008 - new recruiter assigned now
Sept (beg) 2008 - told my packet was being sent to SG

waiting.......
Oct 2008 - call recevied that flight med was waiting on one more piece of info from me (needed another spinal xray on my own dime) but I was never told about so I was just waiting
Oct 2008 - did the test and faxed over results to flight med
Nov 2008 - called to check on my paperwork to make sure and they tell me that they have everything and it will be sent to MAJCOM (higher power) soon
Dec 2008 - I actually got an email from a SSgt at base that my packet is sent with 1 waiver to MAJCOM

waiting.......
Jan 23 2009 (just last Friday) - got an email from SSgt at flight med that my physical and waiver were APPROVED!!!! YAY!!!!!

ok, so now what......I have no idea. I contacted my recruiter (who I have not spoken with in about 4-5 months - all contact the past few months has been with flight med and handled myself) ..... Have not heard from yet but hoping he will call me back on monday to see what happens next and get the ball rolling.

Im excited but hope it all still works out well. Good luck and I hope this helps you or at least makes you feel less stressed realted to the delay in anything.
What AES are you intending to join?

No difference in qualifications or expectations between AD or reserve FN's. Most crews are mixed when deployed anyway. The AE Chief Nurse/D.O. will likely break up the crews and get the mix in chemistry and exp levels. Only real difference is where your squadron is located. I would suggest researching the busiest AE sq in your area. In fact I know a few nurses who actually live 5-6 states away from thier assigned squadron but love the people enough to FLY to thier UTA's every month. That's loyalty!!! Anyway, The bigger the squadron the more flight time you'll get. The 433rd out of San Antonio is a rockin crew, they are among the biggest if not the biggest Reserve AE sq. I have flown w/ many of those guys and they are all #1.

BTW, where your squadron is at may also dictate what your primary MDS is (what aircraft you fly on). For example, the 433rd in San Antonio primarily fly C-130's, the 315th in Charleston, NC fly C-17's, the 452nd out of March AFB CA, fly KC-135's and C-17's. Just FYI...

I've met many Pittsburgh flyers. That is another busy bunch. There's at least 1 FN who flys out of Pittsburg and lives in Chicago. I met a few Niagara folks in Germany doing downrange missions.