December 16, 2009

Tobin and I are approaching our second wedding anniversary already!  It’s only two months away.  We are loving our life together and learning how this Air Force thing works.  Tobin has been in training as a student navigator since August of ‘08, and I have been working as a manufacturing engineer since June of ‘08.

When we have time to be there, we love evenings at home.  There are two dogs that greet us every time we walk in the door, and we were blessed to find a roomy off-base house to rent that has been very good to us.  But when we’re not at home, the white sands of the Gulf of Mexico are only a 20 minute drive away; plus, we enjoy hanging out with some great friends we met at Hillcrest Baptist Church, our church home here in Pensacola.

Tobin has completed the following sets of training:

1) IFS (Initial Flight Screening) in Pueblo, Colorado (about 5 weeks)
2) ASBC (Air and Space Basic Course) in Montgomery, Alabama (6 weeks)
3) API (Aviation Preflight Indoctrination – aka ground school) in Pensacola, FL (6 weeks)
4) Primary in Pensacola, FL (5/26/09-9/2/09)
5) Intermediate in Pensacola, FL (9/8/09-11/1/09)

In progress:
Started Advanced on Monday, December 7th!.

Primary consisted of contacts & instruments; Intermediate consisted of VNAVS (visual navigation), forms (flying in formation), and learning the T-1 (a new aircraft); Advanced consists of learning the T-39 and air-to-ground navigation; if Tobin selects the F-15 after that, he learns some air-to-air skills.  Otherwise, after the A/G training he is finished with training in P’cola.

Once Tobin completes his training, he selects his aircraft.  Right now, we have two options, the F-15E Strike Eagle:

and the B-1B Lancer (or “Bone”):

More and more, Tobin has been talking about choosing the B-1 instead of the F-15.  If we do select B-1’s, we will go directly to Abilene, TX at Dyess Air Force Base for around 6 months of CTS (Combat Training Squadron), where Tobin will be trained to be a part of an active training squadron, and will learn about the B-1.  From there, we will have the option of being stationed at two bases: stay at Dyess, or be transferred to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.  I believe those are our options, and will update more if I find out differently.

Thanks for checking out our site!  To all our family and friends, we love having visitors to fill our home, thanks for taking the time to drive or fly all the way down to see us!  We hope to see each of you soon.