[meeko]

MrMurphy, you shoud have been in about 15-20 years ago. CATM was the GRAVY assignment. Mon-Fri. alot of have days. Today however since the merger. Alot dependes on your assignment (base) They have folks (SF troops) as you know designated to the CATM shop. You would probably be ok in getting assigned to be a full time CATM guy. However with the way Air Force (especially SF) politics is it depends on how many people your base has that are CATM and what your back office is like.

As far as fireing CATM gets a few hundred rounds for familiaration firing (FAM fire). You and I have discussed it a little bit before. You will get alot more shooting as a civillian police firearms instructer or SWAT member. If thats what you want. It's good if you want to try to go into that field maybe after the service. While I'm not knocking my AF brothers you would be better off getting some good civilian firearms instructional development schools under your belt.The AF and military in general really isn't preparing instructors for the volume they see on the outside. My team amd I shot around 8-12,000 rounds in one day (15 or so of us) once a month. The military hardly shoots that in a year.

CATM is a long school. If you wont use it it's up to you. the SFS guys are really funny though. Some want to be Rangers so bad they go to 12 or so weeks of hell through Ranger school for the "TAB" and never use or are allowed to use those skills.

Intel would probably be interesting. As a 21 + year Cop I wish I would have tried something else.

The other thing do you want to do CATM CDC's and then if you cross train a few years down the road you'll go to another school and do more CDC's? I hate CDC's but thats me. Just something to think about.

When you get back to the states you could cross train to say Intel and be a reserve police officer. Then you get to contribute as a cop but not get burnt out 24/7 being one full time and then doing the reserve thing. Just an option. Good luck

 

[meeko]

If your planning on getting out here is another option you might not be aware of. They have what they call the Active Guard Resreve (AGR) program. It's where you are on title 32 orders for your ANG unit. The AF reserve dosn't utilize as many AGR's as the ANG. the AF Reserve full time jobs are mostly federal civil service technicians. Anyway the ANG have both SF AGR spots as wel as Intel AGR spots along with other careerfields.

The pros. Active duty pay and benifits and you keep your time. say you have 6 years AD AF. Do 14 as an AGR get a full active duty retirement. There is no high year tenure so if say you are a TSGT or even a SSGT you can stay past 20 if you want. All AGR positions are set for at least SSGT/E-5 with then they taper off to the higher ranks ie the piramid.

The cons. As a Cop you will still be subject to deploying. As intel you will still deploy but not as much as a cop. you also as intel can pick and choose a little on your deployments. Also you might have to be a traditional member (weekend a month etc)for a while until an AGR slot comes open. There is usually alot of interest in them.


PM me and I'll go more indepth on technician spots and anything else related if your interested.

 

[meeko]

Originally posted by coopesc2000
I've been active duty as SF and i'm currently a civilian cop and i will say this i make less money doing the civlian job but i enjoy coming to work everyday. yes every job has thier ups and downs but overall i love being a "cop."

The good thing about civillian employment is if you are needed to work over they pay you for it. No service before self speech while the one giving the speech plots his next promotion/back office assignment like a chess move.

 

[meeko]

Not to mention if you maintain mebership in a ANG SF squadron you can usually do a few days "extra" if you want. There are always extra days from somewhere. My unit is good about letting those of us in civillian LE work different shifts if we have to. Thats one other good thing about a 24/7 operation. They always need someone.

 

[meeko]

If I'm not mistaken isn't langly the Air Combat Command headquarters? I can't remember i'm an old SAC troop. That explains alot of it if it is. Command bases have people trying to prove something.