Air Ambulance Blog

[Sly1978]

Hey all, for what it's worth I'm doing a blog about my time with the 2515th Air Ambulance Detatchment. Admittedly it's mostly set up for my family and friends, but you might be able to pull something out of it. A little insight to my life on det.

My Blog

 

[Sly1978]

By the way, for the new guys here who are wondering about timeline until their first operational deployment, I'll give you mine:

April 2004: Commisioned OCS Pensacola, Florida
June-July 2004: IFS Eglin AFB Florida
August-October 2004: API Pensacola, Florida
February-November 2005: Primary VT-6 NAS Whiting Field, Florida
November 2005-June 2006: Advanced Helos HT-8 NAS Whiting Field, Florida
August 2006: SERE school NAS North Island, California
August 2006-March 2007: FRS HSC-3 NAS North Island, California
April 2007: Check in to HSC-25, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam
June 2007: Receive "PQM" letter at HSC-25
June 2007: Deploy to Kuwait.

There you go. A little more than 3 years from commissioning to deploying. My timeline probably won't look like exactly like yours (notice the 5 months between API and Primary). As far as I know, most guys are winging now as Ensigns again (I guess it goes back and forth). Everybody in my winging class was at least O-2 (we had a couple of O-3 redesignates). One other date if you're curious:

December 2001: Got accepted into the BDCP program
February 2002: Sworn in as an E-3, BDCP

So if you want to do that math then it was about 6 1/2 years from being accepted to finding myself on the pointy end of the spear.

 

[Schnugg]

Thanks. Fly safe.
Need anything special sent from stateside...PM me.

 

[KBayDog]

June 2007: Receive "PQM" letter at HSC-25
June 2007: Deploy to Kuwait.

July 2007: Start growing my 'Stash.
Mid-July 2007: Shave my 'Stash after I realize just how ridiculous it looks.

Nice blog, Sly. Glad to hear things are going well for you.

Let me know if you need anything.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Just curious... Are you in Kuwait - or Yuma?!? Not that there's much of a difference...

Also curious:

It did cost me a Coke because I lost a bet that no one who's not a helicopter pilot would understand, but it was well worth the Coke.

What's the bet??

 

[Sly1978]

Just curious... Are you in Kuwait - or Yuma?!? Not that there's much of a difference...

I've never been to Yuma so I couldn't say, but these aren't bad digs.

Also curious:

What's the bet??

Dash 2 had to RTB early because of an APU fire so we had about an hour to kill in the pattern. There were two pilots and two crewmen so we paired off and made this bet:

We would go around the pattern SAS/Trim off and pull into an 80 foot over the approach end of the runway. The goal was for the crewman to hook the chocks up to the hoist and drop them into the hole on the 6 of the "36". The timer started when we crossed the threshold and we recieved a 10-second penalty for dropping below 75 feet or for setting the chocks down anywhere outside the circle.

My time was 33 seconds plus 10 for dipping below 75 feet.

HACs time was 24 seconds without penalties.

 

[hscs]

That looks like the Ritz compared to CHUs further up the road....

 

[phrogpilot73]

My time was 33 seconds plus 10 for dipping below 75 feet.

HACs time was 24 seconds without penalties.

Nice bet, and a less-than-boring way to burn some flight time. For the record, I could have done it in 15 secs...

 

[Gatordev]

That's a good bet. I'll have to remember that, down the road.

 

[KBayDog]

For the record, I could have done it in 15 secs...

Why don't you get into a Phrog again and prove it?

 

[bert]

Why don't you get into a Phrog again and prove it?

If he gets to have a phrog instead of a slush-box 60, then he ought to have to get there and back.