The best two years? Probably not.

Believe it or not this is Nathan posting this time. I thought that the few that read this might want to know exactly what is going to happen after I graduate basic training. I recently had the opportunity to visit for about two hours with an E-4 (Senior Airman) that had just graduated from Linguist training. For those not yet aware, that's the job that I'm going to have in the Airforce. Airborne Linguist actually, but close enough. He told me what to expect during training and gave me some very helpful advice.

What I found most interesting was the timeline of all the different bases I'd go to before completing my training and actually being "stationed" somewhere. First, of course, there's the two months in basic training. Not fun for anyone, but something to look back on and be proud of (I guess). This is in San Antonio at Lackland AFB. Right after that I go to the AFB right next door to Lackland (the name escapes me) for a month of "Airborne training". Not what you're thinking (thank goodness). Prettymuch just learning about different planes and enduring the monotiny of sitting up in a plane in cramped quarters for hours. Next comes the long part. I'll go to Monterey California where I'll meet up with Amanda finally. Monterey is a nice coastal city where the Defense Language Institute is located. It's the language school for the entire military. Here they supposedly assign me a language to learn and drill it into my head for anywhere from 6 to 18 months. Although Pfeifer (the guy I visited with) told me that with a test score as high as mine I might actually be able to pick my language. That might be fun. This constitutes the majority of my training. Post-graduation comes Goodfellow AFB. If you don't know where that is, it's basically the armpit of Texas. Nothing is out near it. I didn't get a whole lot of details about what I'll do at Goodfellow. I know a lot of it has to do with learning how to handle sensitive information and training how to use the equipment. But that's about all I know. This lasts for about four months. Finally, after Goodfellow, comes the last section of training. It's called SERE and I'm not really sure where it's located. SERE is an acronym that stands for "Survival Evasion Resistance Escape". It's only three weeks long but it sounded pretty intense. He told me a bit about that, most of which I won't repeat, because I'm not certain I'm supposed to. You can probably imagine the worst possible implications of its title, and you might be right.

Anyway, depending on how long I'm at the DLI (if I get my choice, Arabic, I'll be there roughly 18 months), my training will last anywhere from 14-26 months.

And yet I'm still more excited than ever...