Good morning everyone. It's Thursday right before my fortnight of ROTC training so I'm relaxing to some coffee, music, and writing. Unfortunately I don't have anything planned to write about, so I'm just gonna freestyle this one and see where it takes me.
So what's going on? Let's see. I got paid today, it's Air Force payday; so along with millions of other officers, airmen, and NCO's alike a good looking number goes right in my bank account for being awesome. It always feels pretty good to get a text message from my bank saying "Good morning Decker, America paid you this morning." Then I get to dress down in Airman's Battle Uniform and walk across campus to my friendly detachment for some friendly training.
Training sucks. In an ordinary setup, making a mistake isn't a huge deal. You can either correct it when able or you can just live with the fact that you made a mistake. Sometimes it's so trivial you don't even 'count it' as a mistake; you just move on. In a training environment, this changes dramatically. The purpose of training is to tailor an individual into a mindset where ZERO mistakes are made. It takes a while to get to the point where you never make any mistakes, like over a year. And it takes persistence. By persistence, I mean that every single mistake (no matter how trivial) is corrected. And if the same mistake is made repeatedly, then certain types of 'mental coaxing' are used to help convince the trainee to fix the problem. If this 'mental coaxing' comes in the form of humiliation, extreme stress, yelling, etc. then so be it--stop fucking up.
Due to that, training sucks. Because naturally, humans make mistakes. We make a lot of mistakes, and it takes a lot of fucking up before we reach that super-human level which we stop making mistakes. So it ends up that during training, there's a lot of stress and getting yelled at involved. And a lot of people can't handle it. If I had to guess, 99 out of 100 people will never experience any sort of real life 'training', and there's a reason behind it: it's hard. So I'm now knee deep in a swamp of Air Force training and yeah it's hard and yeah it sucks. But there's something good about training. Something REALLY good about training: the outcome.
Yes, after this year and a half or however long of training it eventually ends and you have been trained. And you are a superhuman. If you've been trained well, then you'll make zero mistakes without even thinking about it. Your ability to do things like plan ahead, never be late, communicate, etc. will be at a prestigious level. Usually, it's worth all the training.
This isn't the first time I've been trained. Although it wasn't through the Air Force, I actually have been through pilot training. The pilot training yielded a pilot's license and that training is the reason I wear wings. Private Pilot Training is usually not that hard, especially for a quick-witted and spatially-oriented mind like mine. However, I was taught by another quick-witted, spatially-oriented super pilot who wanted to 'train' me a little harder than most students.
My instructor went pretty hard on me. He had me correct the tiniest details of my flying, if I was just one degree too nose-low on climbout I would get snapped at and quickly pull the yoke back to get the nose perfectly on +8 above the horizon. He had me plan ahead so far out that I was literally unable to correctly predict the conditions to plan off of. And when the conditions changed, he would have me amend my flightplan mid-flight to adjust.
This type of high-intensity flight training (that wasn't all necessary for a private pilot's license) became less and less overwhelming as I grew into my role as a distinguished pilot. Then I took my exams, passed, and got a license. The training was over. And the outcome was very favorable to me. The result of it all is my ability to keep my plane right where I want it all the time. Unfortunately, most private pilot's didn't get the training I did and still aren't able to do that.
The superhuman skills you gain from training are too valuable to refute. So hopefully I'll be able to keep up the willpower to get through this training and come out one of the best pilots to ever live. I set the bar high, but I'm on my way up.
So yeah I had no plans to make this a blog post about the before and after effects of training but it's where it took me. In other news, it's free tanning week at Sun Tan City. So I might as well get my bronze on today, tomorrow, and maybe Sunday. Then Saturday is a Thunderbirds airshow I'm going to. So that'll be a day packed full of Air Force Pilot fun. Anyway, I hope this weekend is a good one. Until next time...
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