From an old fart, a blast from the past. My, have things changed since I was at Lackland. I entered the Air Force in November 1959 as an Aviation Cadet, Navigator. The Aviation Cadet program was fazed out during the mid 1960's, but from WWI until that time the Navy and Army, and after 1947, the Air Force utilized the Aviation Cadet program to train and commission flight officers, pilots and navigators. Enterance requirements where a minimum of one year collage, preferably with a major in one of the STEM curriculum, a comprehensive background check, passing a series of aptitude tests, physical and psychological exams. The Aviation Cadet Corps was all male at the time. Upon selection a cadet entered the Air Force on a two year enlistment as an Aviation Cadet. Pay was at the rate of an E5 and you were paid monthly in cash. Uniform insigna were those of commissioned officers with cadet distinctive rank displayed on shoulder boards. Cadets did not rate the courtesy of a salute from enlisted personnel, but saluted other cadets with higher cadet rank, and of course all commissioned officers. Preflight training was at Lackland AFB and was 12 weeks long. The training was done under the classic cadet model of the military academies with the first six weeks as an underclassmen (similar training curriculum as today's BMT), and six weeks as an upperclassmen. We had no MTI's. The upperclassmen acted as the MTI's and provided military training and customs and courtesies training. Imagine having a ratio of MTI's to trainees of 1 to 1. Eating in the mess facilities was much different than today. Upon receiving your tray of food, you took it to a seat at the next open table, set it on the table, and stood at attention until cadets had set their trays at all seats in the mess hall (dining facility in today's jargon) . Tables had 6 or 8 seats as I remember and seating was evenly distributed between lowerclassmen and upperclassmen at each table. Upon the tables being filled, the senior upperclassmen would say "seats" and everyone would sit down. Lowerclassmen had to "ground" their dishes, that is each dish, plate, cup, and glass had to be touching another dish, plate, cup, or glass. Lowerclassmen ate "on the square", that is they sat at a form of attention with their backs straight and six inches from the back of the chair. All eating movements were squared, take a fork of food, bring it straight up to mouth level, and then horizontally to your mouth. Upperclassmen ate at a somewhat relaxed posture, but still sitting straight up in the chair, no slouching. During the meal any upperclassmen could quiz any lowerclassmen at the table about cadet knowledge. Cadet knowledge was contained in a book issued on the first day and was required to memorized by all cadets. It included information on military history, customs and courtesies, and other military subjects such as the chain of command at every level up to the President. When quizzed at a meal, lowerclassmen were required to stop eating and recite the relevant passages of cadet knowledge. So, the sooner you memorized the cadet knowledge and could recite it on command, the easier time you had, particularly at meals. Upperclassmen would focus on lowerclassmen who faltered in their responses. After the twelve weeks of preflight at Lackland cadets went to flight school, pilot candidates to one school and navigator candidates to another. Flight school was also run in the traditional cadet model, but with four levels of class, not two as it was in preflight. Each class was three months long before you moved up a class. Cadets received flight pay in addition to regular pay as soon as entering flight school. Upon graduation from flight school the two year enlistment was torn up and cadets were commissioned as second lieutenants with a further four year obligation of active duty service and received their silver wings as either a pilot or navigator. Date of commission was backdated to the date entered preflight at Lackland. At the time the minimum time in grade for a second lieutenant to be eligible for promotion to first lieutenant was 24 months. Most second lieutenants commissioned through the Aviation Cadet program were promoted to first lieutenant in just six months because their date of rank as a second lieutenant had been back dated to their date of entry in the Air Force. By the mid 1960's the Air Force Academy and ROTC programs were providing sufficient pilots and navigators and the Air Force Aviation Cadet program was phased out.
Every morning in BMT I ate the French toast with cherries on it. I never want to see another piece of French toast again. This was almost 8 months ago too...
KP duty was the best. U did a lot of fast paced work but u get to eat earlier then everyone else and we got to eat certain things u normally wouldn’t be allowed to. And ur in the chow hall all day u won’t have to do the other BS everyone else is doing that day
I was worried because I've always had this weird hatred to most bread. I like donuts, pancakes, biscuits, but the bread from a sandwich always triggers a gag reflex. Idk why this happens and I didnt plan on mentioning it to the recruiter since it's not any diagnosed condition but if I was forced to eat bread it would be a form of torture for me.
All I can say is the food at Air Force BMT sounds a million times better than what they served me inside county jail plus they only gave us 2 minutes to chow down before we had to pick up the trays
If following a really low carb eating style, are there enough meat options at each meal? Especially sundays with the grilled cheese and fries; is that all they have that day?
yes, absolutely and tons of really good veggies if you know what to look for they have chick peas quite often, i ate a lot of those before my 6th week pt test
Milk is considered carbonated? 😂 carbonated drinks are Sodas (I say pops), Sparkling water, Sparkling Juice, basically anything bubbly or fizzy. So no milk isn’t carbonated great video 👍🏽
Clearly it’s not carbonated. But they serve water milk and juice. None of those are carbonated. He’s meaning you always have to have two waters and then a milk or juice basically
Yeah you can go back for seconds. I wouldn't do it the first week though. There's a-lot you have to get done so the MTI's are rushing you through chow. But when you go through the line the first time just fill your plate up as much as you can, you might not eat it all but it's ok.
Hi there! Thank you for posting it. So, will I be going to BMT right after MEPS? Or does it take some time? I am also freaking out about PT because I am not good at pushups, but I am really working on it.
Keep working on those push ups! Don't stress about the PT! As long as you are trying you absolute best everytime you workout you'll be perfectly fine! They'll help you a whole bunch while you are at BMT too! And you will not go to BMT right after MEPS, you'll swear in at MEPS then it'll be about a week or two before you get a "ship date". That ship date will be the day you go to BMT. They are usually a couple months out, so you'll have some time before you leave after MEPS.
The whole point of the PT routine in BMT is to get you in shape. It works. Do the "one by three" method if you're looking to improve rapidly before BMT or in BMT.
Thanks for the tips man I've seen a video of how the dining facility works the chow runner and all. But do you have to finish everything on your tray? & when you get to your seat you put the tray on the table right then count the 3 second mark?
No you don't have to finish everything on your tray, that's illegal for them to make you eat all of it if you don't want to. And yeah right after you set your tray down you go to the position of attention then you count to three in your head.
I wake up at 5 am every day and workout for a straight hour then I'll take a cold shower , eat either 3 eggs and veggies or oatmeal and a breakfast bar , then I'll leave to school and have the usual and then go to track for 2 hours and come home and workout for 2more hours then eat dinner , I drink only water and never any sugary food or drinks or tons of carbs , I time all of my tasks and chores so will I be good for the air Force
They won't make you eat anything you're allergic to. In fact, inform your MTI of ANY food allergies. To answer your first question, no, not in BMT. They have it in Airman's Week, though, but they're getting rid of that, so idk what they'll do with the 326th TRS
It's really based off of opinion, if double cheeseburgers are your only energy source you're going to have a rough time during BMT. Once you get to tech school though you can eat them for ever meal. I've witnessed it first hand.
alcatraz food is better than disney land but the dfac itself is disgusting (specifically the clipper rooms) i did KP at the 322nd running the window and it was awful
I'm really not sure, you will be going to the bathroom a-lot. I don't know if it was the food or what but everybody in my flight, including me, was always on the toilet lol!
John Sunga I actually lost weight. It was more cardio, so if ur already physically fit you will end up more chizzled and defined. It tech school u will be doing PT 2-3 times a week but after after class and on the weekends I can go to the gym no problem
Remember that the military contracts the lowest bidder, so the food you eat is full of crap carbs/sugar; inflammatory seed oils, soy, wheat, corn and other crap that makes you fat and diabetic.
Is each meal during the course of the 8 and 1/2 weeks like this clip in terms of tension or does the tension decrease due to everyone knowing what to do? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3KQLPMYDYh0.html
Most of it tasted good but some of it was not that great. Most of the chicken is very dry, just go into it with an open mind, and like I said in the video if you get something that you aren't sure about, always get something that you know you'll like with it, like a PB and J sandwich.
