Special Reconnaissance - 1Z4X1 - Air Force Jobs

you can never get every single qualification you know like you can never be done like there's always something that you can be better at there's always a new and emerging technology that we can integrate into the teams there's always you know something that you can be better at welcome back to another Airmen Vision Video today we're interviewing Trent who is special reconnaissance in the United States Air Force and he's also a co-host of the podcast once ready now here at intermittvision we don't just have this YouTube channel we also have a website airmenvision.com with a ton of other Air Force information to help you prepare for joining the Air Force we have a BMT Fitness prep guide a BMT prep guide and an Air Force Prep course plus tons more so be sure to head over to our website and check that stuff out but with that being said let's go ahead and jump right into the interview so Trent what is the name of your job and it's afsc the name of the job is a special reconnaissance the afsc is one Zulu four x one the x is your uh your your level of training you know three five seven or whatever else so that's what the X stands for why did you specifically join the Air Force now why does everybody else join but why Trent why did you join the Air Force so this is I don't want to go too far down story storybook Lane I didn't have a lot of options left I'd made some poor decisions in my life I college wasn't for me I tried it out I went to all the great parties and skipped all the classes it just wasn't my thing and then you know I was living in like a duplex and not a good part of town just selling cars and doing a couple other jobs I had multiple jobs at a time trying to do all these things and at a certain point I was just like hey I'm going to join the military my older brother had just joined the Air Force and I was like I'm not going to do that I'm going to just join the Marine Corps right because because I'm a I'm a hard dude you're gonna be way cooler yeah yeah my old man was in the Air Force too so I was like no I'm going to check if the Marines out so I checked the Marines out and you know I was on my way to sign the paperwork with them and I drove past the recruiting office where my brother had signed up for the Air Force and he was about to ship so I called my brother and I'm like hey man why'd you join the Air Force he says just go talk to them you know so I did they didn't you know they weren't excited to see me they didn't really want me to join the Air Force which of course uh precipitated my my desire to join the Air Force I think that story can relate with a lot of people where you're just like I don't know what path my life is going down and you're like the military is kind of stable or so I've heard so yeah let's give that a shot because I kind of felt the same way I was going to college I was going to parties too I wasn't drinking or partaking I just showed up to the parties skipped school wasn't doing so hot and I was like man school just isn't for me so yeah it's like I think there's a lot of people that are at that point in life where they're like what am I doing you know you just kind of have a wake-up call where you're like what like where's this head at like three years from now I'm not gonna be in the same spot I don't want to be here yeah so yeah definitely relatable I denied the itch for a long time too because I I think I always knew I wanted to be in the military or or do something kind of like what I fell into but you know I denied it and denied it and denied it like I'm gonna I'm gonna go to college and make something to myself or do something like I'm a very prescribed path you know that's just not who I am and once I came to terms with it everything got a lot easier so after you joined you've been in for a little bit so how long have you been in to this point uh 20 years 20 years and like uh less than a month ago I hit my 20-year Mark so I made it his retirement in the future the nearest yeah a few months a few months from now I'll be uh have my retirement ceremony and be on my way out the door oh congratulations you uh you did it you're like one of the 17 that actually did the full 20. yeah so if you're thinking about joining the Air Force is about to get a lot better because I'm gonna be gone that's funny so when you went and talked to the Air Force recruiter right you said didn't really know what to do with my life my brother had served or was about to my dad served so when you went to the recruiter were you like I want to be special reconnaissance or were you like I want to be special operations or you're like yo I don't care what it is just open General let's go like what did your list look like and how did you end up being special reconnaissance so I actually joined to be a linguist so I went in there I took the ASVAB and then I took the d-lab uh which is the language assessment or whatever and they're like hey you you scored high enough on the d-lab to be a linguist like I wasn't like off the charts or anything I'm not like super smart but I did well enough that I was going to be a linguist however like I said I thought my life was dumps dumpster fires I wasn't making good decisions and so when I when I hit basic training they were like you can't we can't give you a top secret clearance right out the gate so we don't know you you have paperwork and stuff in your history uh you can't get a top secret clearance so I wanted to be a linguist because it sounded cool there was flying involved like I didn't think I was a special operations guy and honestly I didn't know that these uh these jobs existed yeah there was flying there was survival school and all that other stuff that I was going to be an Airborne you know crypto linguist so after that got taken away and I ended up in weather I got like a choice of five jobs and weather looked interesting so I joined weather and then I was just like this is miserable I hate my life and you know through basic training and at tech school like I'm not the most physically fit person but I was in that like top percentage and I like working out a fair bit and I like challenges so you know when the guys came with their funny hats on and they were like hey you want to jump out of planes and do weather instead of just sitting behind a desk you know no offense to weather and all that I was like yes Count Me In what do I got to do they laid out the path and uh I started running down it that's awesome so you were actually how long were you in weather then I was at my first Duty station about a year and a half oh close to two years actually so you have to go through like airborne and sear well this is a long time ago so uh you had to change the name of your career field right because it wasn't initially special reconnaissance right so it was Special Operations weather and then now like a few years ago some folks at the Pentagon are like hey we need these additional capabilities and just build out a new career field and so the new career field is called special reconnaissance okay so they took the the previous career field and they just added a little bit to it and changed the name yeah it looks so it was a brand new career field so we used to be one whiskey zero X2 and we went from that to one Zulu four so it's a brand new career field we use the existing Manpower and transferred them over because the way that uh Special Operations weather was going we were moving in that direction anyway towards like the more reconnaissance heavy role but there's a lot of stuff that happened in the background that it's probably very uninteresting that led to the decision uh for us to uh to switch over so a few of us got together we got the career field education and training plan we cut a bunch of stuff out of it we added a bunch of stuff and then revamped the entire thing so it's a little bit more than just uh you know sprinkling some reconnaissance on top and changing the name so it was a it was a pretty big change and you mentioned earlier you were miserable in weather but I'm on a state I have met several weather people I was in ALS my ALS instructor my Airman leadership school instructor for when I was putting on E5 he was weather absolutely loved his job and then I had another kid in my ALS class it was weather loved his job like you were being like oh it wasn't for me but obviously like Special Operations isn't for most people right you've made that work so it's like maybe there's that's a bit of a difference there too is because for you know somebody that can fit into those normal jobs you know weather might be a good fit but I think you wanted more of a challenge probably than what you were getting in weather yeah and well and it's just one of those things like I'm not it's like The Accidental elitism like when I say that weather wasn't for me it doesn't mean I'm too good for it but like sitting behind a desk and doing that stuff over and over and over again it just wasn't going to keep me occupied for the long term you know what I mean yeah I needed that because it didn't hit the spot yeah right and so I don't think I'm better than you know regular weather folks I don't think I'm better than anybody in the Air Force I just have a different job that I Vibe with you know like that that was calling me and that pulled me in and that's where I fit it's it's not anything else we're all just puzzle pieces and misfit toys and this is where I landed and it worked out did you sign a four or six year contract I know with uh crypto linguist I believe you have to sign six anyways because training is so long anyways that they don't want you in training for like three years and then you just like dip out right away I don't know if you have to but I know it was highly encouraged uh the just like with our jobs I think six years is highly encouraged because of the amount of training there was a a bonus for linguists at the time you know back in 2003 and so uh I did sign the six year contract because it was a bigger bonus or whatever yeah the bonuses I think are only for six year contracts I don't even think they offer them for four so yeah maybe that's how they they get you guys because they're like hey dangle that carrot in front of you you know and I think my older brother had done a six year contract as well so I was just like yeah whatever fine I'll do six years I've talked to peaches and Aaron about combat control and para rescue and they kind of have similar pipelines for their training because you guys are special special operations you go all over the place and do all this stuff so I'm not sure because I don't really know anything about special reconnaissance so like how long is your tech school so it's so combat control and special reconnaissance folks will go to the exact same places for training all the training uh you know you go through uh your your Prep course swick and then your selection course ANS uh pre-dive Airborne free fall and your Seer courses and then the combat controllers on the special reconnaissance guys both go to or folks both go to Pope Army Airfield uh for their their furnace course their three level awarding course it's different when they get there though because the combat controllers have to go through their Air Traffic Control school which is up there now and my folks just go through their uh their reconnaissance courses and then they all meet up uh you know and do a lot of the training together all the shoot move communicate all the stuff that's crossover and then at the end they do uh their big exercises together in the the long walk out so and then they have the graduation ceremony I'll get their braids at the same time so it's a it's pretty lined up I think ours is probably a couple weeks shorter than combat control we're looking at like a year year and a half depending on how your pipeline lays out so logistically it's a logistically challenging pipeline for everybody there's just a lot of moving pieces so that that's the thing it's like you got to hit your courses just perfectly to get through in about a year I think technically but most folks spend a little bit longer than that in the pipeline how was your tech school your personal experience did you enjoy tech school was it a good time was it a bad time uh why was it something that you enjoyed or didn't enjoy so when I came through we had to be weather first right and weather school was like seven months long they just increased the length of the weather school when I got there and so we were and I was just I was a regular Air Force you know tech school student so I'm probably just like your experiences it's just you wake up march to school which is whatever the weather is as long as there's not lightning actually hitting students you're marching to school sit there all nine hours at a time and in your wet clothes and then you march on home so uh the weekends are a lot of fun like it's just like everything the Air Force right and we were talking about this before we started recording you know that when you're a brand new tech school student and you don't have a lot of Liberty it's not that much fun like you're at a basic training so things are better but like it's just not that much fun but with like a seven month test School Tire to tech school by the time you graduate but you know you live the life and like your weekends are free and you have a lot of Liberty and all these other things and so yeah we had there were Shenanigans just like anything else like if it's hard that's good and then you blow off your Steam and you have fun with your people that you've made you know friends with that you're going to talk to for the rest of your life and uh it can be a good time and then graduate and you're happy it's over so then when it came to Special Operations training how was that for you uh because you went through a normal tech school normal Air Force job right then later you cross-trained it's complicated okay so what is weather is like kind of it was kind of similar I guess so special operations weather was a special Duty assignment within the weather career field and so when I crossed over it was it was a weird thing where you had to be a five level a weather person and then you could cross over into the Special Operations side and all you had to do to get to the Special Operations side just to get there assigned there was airborne and your your survival courses so you didn't have to go through swick or like selection you didn't have to go through any of that yeah so we would we did a lot of our training in-house so I got over to uh to Fort Bragg I was there about two weeks uh went to a week-long shooting school did six weeks of training up at Fort Campbell and they were like hey you're not going to go anywhere until you go through uh the Hurlburt course which our guys still go through after you graduate as a three level you go to Florida for like six to 12 months of fall on training so I was gonna get that before they're gonna do anything with me but one of our guys got shot down range and they needed a replacement so after I'd done a grand total of of seven weeks of Special Operations training outside of airborne and Seer I got deployed and then when I came back from my first deployment and had like some legit experience then I did technically the end of the pipeline uh to be qualified to be doing the job we've made a lot of progress that's kind of crazy actually to think about so what bases can special reconnaissance be stationed at I'm assuming it's like most other Special Operations jobs where it's very limited to the locations that you guys are able to go to yeah it's all the the two series units so we have the the STS the special tactics Squadron in Japan one in England and then we have uh two in North Carolina one of them requires an additional assessment and then uh Hurlburt Cannon and then up there in Washington state that's a McCord I believe there's not that many and then there's the aatc training bases uh Pope and then down here in Texas and a couple other places but those are pretty limited on the numbers in the aatc stuff is if you're an instructor yes okay so that's if you they move you because then that's like another special Duty within the career field where you'll go and then you'll teach the Next Generation coming through right I mean it's just like the rest of the Air Force you know all the afses teach themselves uh take the the manpower to do it so that's what we do too so I know this is probably going to be impossible to to actually answer most questions don't have cookie cutter answers so on average you know like when because right now you said you're an instructor location but like at your normal Duty station like how many hours you guys work in a week uh what's that kind of look like well so I'm I'm a match called functional so like I oversee all of my career field stuff in ATC so I'm I write a desk I'm up at headquarters yada yada and so like the numbers of hours I week like in the office so to speak uh some of it's remote is like it's like a 40-hour week it's it's pretty office like I do get a lot of phone calls I put my my cell phone on all my emails and so like when we're talking about retraining and assignments and all that other stuff like you know work life and personal life bleed over a fair bit but my instructors on the ATC side depending on where they're at they they actually put in a lot of hours because they're they're wholly dedicated to making the Next Generation better and you know making sure we get the right people in the career field so while most the time it's probably not crazy like 50 60 hour weeks are probably you know especially when they're surging with students and getting stuff done uh probably not unheard of and then on team like if you're gonna you'd have to do that average over like a two-month period or like a year-long period right like because you're going to have days where like the rest of the Air Force doesn't have a day off but like you just came off of you know 10 15 days straight of of just training and then you're gonna get a day off and and go back to work uh and so like it's a lot of hours it's gonna take a lot so like it you know like but like it doesn't feel like work all the time when you're on team so it's hard like when do you stop working and when do you start working is not always clear-cut you know what I mean like yeah so so it's well it takes a lot of dedication probably for what you guys the training that you guys have to keep up with and the requirements that you guys have to stay current and so you know like you guys probably you go in stints it sounds like and that's what it seems like with the other Special Operations too you guys will go these long stints and then you you know you guys will get a little break and then you go and you you really power through some of those those uh requirements so you guys have to keep up with but it's just it's just normal you know like when you're on team at least when I was on team like yeah you you have a general understanding of how much you're you're working and I I put that in quotes but like that's what everybody else is doing and you're out there with your your friends your teammates and all these other things and and a lot of it's a lot of fun even though it's challenging and you know you might not be eating enough or sleeping enough and it might be it might be difficult uh but it's always a good time not maybe okay it's not always a good time but in hindsight it's a good time it's like the most fun you never want to have again you know exactly so well it seems like you guys like you guys you know it's quite the commitment to get to where you guys are anyways so like everybody that's there they didn't just stumble upon that path right like it wasn't like a a 2 month tech school where you just kind of like you could sleep half the time and make it through barely like you're literally like no we had to be on top of it and like we chose to be here and so like once you guys get to that one you guys are actually doing your actual training missions you guys are all pretty committed at that point so when you're with a bunch of guys that are motivated you know that really want to be out there I think that just adds to the experience so you might work a lot of hours but it may not feel like it at times just because you're you have the camaraderie in your guys's organization yeah but like there's they're still complaining I don't want to make it sound like we're all like gung-ho all the time like sometimes you know like the teams aren't walking and be like hey guys this is what we're doing everybody Ruck up or whatever it is that everybody's like oh my God but everybody does it no matter what you know no matter how tired you are so uh so it's like one of those things where you you at the beginning you're like black and then at the end you're like yeah we crushed that let's go yeah and you're like now that it's done you're like I'm proud of myself you know yep all right so uh what do you do in your job explain what a typical day week month is like you said like that you gotta kind of like take take a segment right so in general like when you're on team that's at your normal stations like not the instructors so when you're at a normal Duty station saying somebody in their first 10 years what is we'll just go with like a year-long cycle like what is in general kind of what does that look like like what do you guys even do to work every day or every month in uh special reconnaissance so everything is is to get ready to deploy so like unlike a lot of the Air Force uh we're more like a lot of the Army jobs where for the most part uh we don't have like a state side job like we're not allowed to do things State Side so uh you you have like your down time like if you get home from a deployment you're gonna have like three to five months or whatever I forget the numbers Aaron's a lot better at this than I am because he has it all memorized because he's still at an STS but you're gonna have your down time where you know rest and Recovery uh take care of a lot of your Air Force stuff like going through your ALS your ncos your professional development schools all those kinds of things and and getting all your paperwork done and all that other stuff and then you're gonna have like your your train up cycle or you're you're getting ready to train up cycle where you start knocking out your shooting schools and all those other things and then you're gonna have like your uh no kidding get ready for deployment cycle I think it's three different Cycles before you deploy and then uh you know then you're with your team you guys are like full up training up doing full mission profiles and all those other things uh coming together as a team and figuring out what you're going to do before you deploy and then you deploy so like everything just like culminates in an appointment so depending on what you're doing and where you're at if you're on station uh all the sts's like the good parts about the job right like we have gems we have physical trainers we have coaches and all those other things now we have a lot of really good programs so you're going to go in you're going to work out you know you might get a briefing from the boss that day and then you're going to go to your team room uh your team Sergeant your team leader your supervisor whatever is going to tell you what what needs to happen right and a lot of that is you know doing paperwork getting ready for the next TDY because a lot of it's TDY training and then you know prepping your gear for the next TDY cleaning your gear from the last TDY like checking out the weapons checking out the radios talking to all the people in the shops and you're going to start doing this at a very young age like as soon as you get on team like you're going to be handed these responsibilities showing all the people you need to talk to emailing people outside of your organization and that just to get all the training uh right get everybody ready tracking everything the right way so that when everybody moves out the door to go on that deployment everybody's greened up and ready to do their job so you know it's a lot of prep it's a lot of logistics a lot of coordination a lot of going TDY to do stuff and so it's like just that constant cycle you know wash and repeat sometimes literally where you're you're cleaning your stuff you know unpacking it from the trucks and from the the trailers get it all sorted pack it back up for the next uh training event and then and then head out there you know so then you got to do all your jumping and your all the other stuff that you got to do so so you had mentioned like tdys so that would be like a temporary dude that's like really short stints where like you have deployments which will be longer but then tdys are like shorts training stints so uh because Aaron and peaches both had talked about in theirs with combat control and bear rescue that they can't do all their training in one location because sometimes they need to go into the mountains sometimes they need to go to the ocean sometimes they need to go to the desert right and so you can't there's no place that has it all and so there's a lot of times where they'll travel to go and do specific training like if you guys need to be practicing stuff in the mountains or in the desert you guys are going to go to those locations so you're going to be there so you're actually stationed in you know like North Carolina did you say it was yeah so you could be stationed there but you guys are going to come to New Mexico to train out in the desert and then you guys will go back like two weeks later so that's where you were like we gotta pack all our stuff up you guys gotta take it all the way to New Mexico and then you do your training then you come back and then you're like let's unpack it clean it put it all the way you get some time off and then you're like and back let's pack up for the next trip to go somewhere unless you can do the training at home station what are those training missions look like so it's weird now that the career field has changed right so like my personal experiences are a little bit different than a lot of the other guys experiences but like you know a lot of the shooting schools were really good like uh everybody talks about Darcy darc and it's one of those shooting schools where you go you get shot up with some Munitions you get your butt kicked like the first three nights that you're you're running through the buildings and then you eventually your Team figures it out and you have a good time uh but like a a unique one I was able to do is there's like a a pavement course that you can go through so like when I got to a two series unit because we did we used to be separate and we ended up together don't worry anyway um I was like hey I need to be valuable on this like combat control Centric team so I need to be able to like do their job and do my job at the same time but I was like a tech sergeant moving to like the team Sergeant role and so I went to this this course where you have to graduate from this course to drill into runways overseas to do your assessments to figure out how many times and what kind of planes can land on these runways right like so you do all your assessments and you can say like hey a C-130 can land and take off from this this uh Airfield two thousand more times before this Airfield is going to fall apart you know what I mean so that course was was super super weird you know like there was this old Vietnam vet guy that was running it and like he didn't care like he was like the gatekeeper if you did not you know meet his standards you're gone you're not going to graduate you're not going to have the certificate you're gonna have to go back uh and hang your head in shame and it was one of the higher attrition like courses I've ever been through but it was it was super interesting and uh yeah like so I got the the cert and so on my last rotation I was like the team sergeant and I was the weather guy and I was also the pavement guy and so when we were like bumping around all over the Middle East getting ready for the Syria Invasion and making sure like all the airfields and everything was good you know and also going to Iraq for some political stuff to make sure that airfields were good for uh some of the birds that were going to give the Iraqis you know like that's that was my job so it was actually really rewarding to like have like the weather stuff and also that but also be the team Sergeant so it was busy and was stressful but it was cool to have like an additional capability and those are the types of things that that you really get to do so like my guys get to do like um sniper you have to be a qualified sniper be a seven level now and so like those those types of opportunities and like the the electronic warfare and a lot of the other stuff that we're getting into there's a lot of different courses and places you can go and work with people that's super unique you know like so like you can expand your skill set almost as much as you want to and so like I had that problem when I was on team I was never home which really worked out for my marriage my wife was never really happy about that and then because you're You're gone all the time and then you deploy right so like yeah but there's always another school another skill set that you can get to and um you know and being TDY with the guys is always a good time so I think the tdys serve two purposes it's the the training that you need where you need it but even if you can get it home station it's not always the best place to get it you know like you gotta like take the team move them somewhere else no distractions and then just all you do is train seems like there's more to special reconnaissance too than a lot of people would think because like even me I'm like well like special reconnaissance do and it almost is like it kind of seems like Seer but it's like no it seems like you guys are like there's a lot that you guys do and you guys intermix so I think now too A lot of the Special Operations sounds like they intermix a lot of things you want to be able to cohesively work together and so you guys kind of have to overlap a tiny bit so there's no issues with that yeah there's always going to be overlap right between all the the different career fields and and the different soft units and all that other stuff but um the way special constants works is there's a we work for the Air Force right so like we get a lot of questions um like hey why do we need reconnaissance guys why do we have range reconnaissance why do we have you know Marine reconnaissance and then MARSOC and then the seals and then the Green Berets and then us you know like there's a lot of different folks running around out there but we work for the Air Force and one of the reasons we developed this career field is you know there's there's phases of warfare and in Phase zero you need to gather data and figure out weak points strong points all those other things how you defeat certain systems how you're going to create problems for your adversary how you're going to solve the problems for your your customer right which for us is first and foremost the Air Force and so everybody's really worried about that near pure environment where we're going up against an adversary that is uh technologically uh at a similar level as United States and so that they've worked out a lot of different things the same things that we've worked out uh like uh how to shoot down a plane with a system that's not uh plugged into the internet or or into a computer system right you have your air gap systems but everything has electro magnetic emissions and so like that's how you gather a lot of data on that type of stuff and and how you can do certain things with those systems with different systems that we have to you know like cause a problem for them bring a system down or whatever it is or either go in there create space create an airhead that's safe enough uh to get other birds in there so you can you know establish an Airfield or whatever bring the Rangers and combat controllers and all that other stuff to get it done so um that that's what we do so we have a lot of different skill sets that our folks acquire and so we have like that sniper uh seven level skill set as the uh it's a lot of team leader stuff and also being good on the glass understanding your environment and then if you have to like solve a problem kinetically from a distance that's something that we really need to have in certain situations I know this is going to be another tough question here so what certifications or training do you receive through this job that can be used to land a job on the outside because that's one of the big things I think with the new generation too is they're like how can I use this experience to help me later on because I think a lot of people now are understanding more and more that hey there's going to be a life after my military service so I might do four six ten years whatever so uh or even 20 and you could get out you know in your 40s and be like I'm gonna start a second career how does how does special reconnaissance kind of help you LeapFrog into the civilian side I know there might not be any specific certifications Aaron and peaches both had said that there was really nothing specific like yeah you can go and do like EMT if you're a peer rescue but they said more so just the mindset of Special Operations really helps with people with like pushing to get any job that they want or like them buckling down and be able to knock out their education or being able to start their own company so for you what's your mindset with special reconnaissance and how you guys transition into the civilian world I think it's the same thing as the other guys and I want to say like if you read like Forbes and all those other magazines uh the big companies more and more are looking for the right people instead of the the right degrees you know degrees are becoming less and less valuable depending on the degree obviously um but like what we're missing out in the the greater Marketplace are the people that can just get stuff done the problem solvers right and that is a skill set that you might not think is is a unique skill set but to be able to think on your feet and solve a problem and find a way to solve the problem no matter what is the job that's all of our jobs you know so well we talk about day to day but like what we plan for is like the worst possible scenario and that's what we do we try to see problems coming down you know the pipe we try to solve those problems before they even get to us and so those are the things and to be able to overcome the odds uh to to deal with you know uh levels of discomfort that are unusual for most people I think um you know you learn a lot about yourself and the more you learn about yourself the more you learn about other people so I think that's why we have a lot of really strong like enlisted leadership from our career Fields is because once you know you and you can look at your teammates and you start to understand that everybody's different you're like oh I can maximize the talent on my team to accomplish any Mission and everybody's not the same and that's okay but as a team we're going to be unstoppable and we're going to make this happen and so I think those are the kind of skill sets that are really going to translate into doing really whatever it is that you want to do if you want to go corporate you want to do whatever you want to be an entrepreneur like those are the things that really make our people successful on the outside I think Partnerships and collaborations are some of the best ways or easiest ways to be successful and you've pretty much ingrained that like I can't do my mission without everybody else working together and so you have ingrained this idea that like teamwork literally makes the dream work right and so when you get out you you have a team mentality where you're like I can one be a part of a team because that's another big thing like you said getting hired is like companies want to hire people that can work with a team right they want to they want to hire people that can take orders they can listen they can work with others in the group and get stuff done and you get some employees that you know don't like listening or they don't work well with other people you guys have a different mentality where you're like no like that's literally like first and foremost like we rely on each other like that's like I you I think you like you guys are really bought into the team mindset and so I think that possibly would be huge because people employers want people that can work in teams because employers have learned that teams create the best results absolutely and and one of the unique things about the Air Force side is is not only do we so we we train as teams and sometimes we deploy as teams but oftentimes we're deploying as individuals to attach to other teams like your your green beret teams your SEAL Teams or whatever and so our folks are really good at being a I think one of the commanders calls it like social chameleons because you're you're a guy and you you ship out to a forward operating base and you're you you drop in there's 12 other dudes there they don't know you you don't know them but you have a job to do and you have to like rely on them to get the job done they got to rely on you to do your job and you have to get you know you begin you have to become a part of that team as fast as you can to be successful you can't wait you can't wait months to blend in and fit like you gotta find a way to fit in day one and then everybody has like a different strategy you know like some guys are like big yoke dudes in the gym so what are you gonna do you're gonna go to the gym and start talking to everybody because you're really good at working out y'all got to get on the Range to prove that you're competent and capable to go shoot with them and do all these other things and so yeah that's uh something unique about us is like you as an E4 we're going to throw you out with another team and just expect you to get your job done and uh ingratiate yourself to that team and and and you know be part of that team and then we're gonna pull you out of there you know and then you're gonna go to another team it's it's pretty wild that's a that's a huge life skill is being able to fit into any team that you you're thrown into because it just it proves that you understand teamwork and how to like mesh cohesively with a group I know we've talked multiple times where you said hey this is uh you're pretty much training for deployment right like everything we do is not we don't have like an at-home job or just preparing for deployments so you guys have a cycle uh what does that look like what is that deployment Tempo cycle look like I think it's every 15 months or more now it it since we stood up the new 2 Series unit it takes a little bit longer to get deployed and and you know now that the global war on terror is is over ish everybody's not going on every deployment so it's a little more like pre-911 but like you're you're gonna go do something you're going to do a joint exercise or or some of these other things that you're going to go deploy with and so it's pretty regular right now and obviously if there's contingencies if things pop up all over the world like do you know people still get sucked out of their their units to go deploy uh you know on short notice and so like during thought it was like once every maybe that was once every 15 months and now it's once every like 19 months almost two years that your deployment your actual deployment cycle is up from the time that you get home um so it's really not that bad but you know once you're out there it's uh you're expected to be going the whole time and so if you if you look at like G watt like the the Army infantry folks would do like 12-month rotations which are crazy 12 to 18 months at certain times during the war where you're all your your soft units are doing slightly shorter rotations uh I think it started out at seven months for the Green Berets and ended up down closer to six or five months and I think that's what we're doing most of the time is five month rotations because you're not you know like some folks deployed and no hate to them but they're working like five six days a week and they get a day off if that's just not how we work you're expected to go out there and push and push and push and push the whole time you're there so it should be pretty uh pretty exhausted by the time you get home so basically like a year and a half two years is kind of what how often you can expect to deploy but in in between that's where it goes back to what is your typical you know work week look like and that's where you're like we're that whole year and a half is dedicated for getting ready for that deployment yep like you're just here's all these things we got to be qualified on trained on understand be able to jump into a team as soon as we get there so you're still like constantly training just you're you're not fully putting that into motion actively until that deployment but the whole time the year and a half you're preparing you're getting ready and building those skills so even though you're not on deployment all the time it seems like you guys still say pretty active and super busy yes and well the best part about the job is you can never you can never get every single qualification you know like you can never be done like there's always something that you can be better at there's always a new and emerging technology that we can integrate into the teams there's always you know something that you can be better at so a lot of folks on team gravitate towards towards different things right like you got the guys that want to be the the super jump master and and jump with weird things out of planes and all these other things they're going to go to a bunch of those courses and then you got you know nerds that like me that want to do other courses things that are that are a little different um and so like you can never be done so as long as you stay motivated and you just keep asking to go do more stuff and or or like you show the the competence in a certain area like you're going to be busy and that's on top of like the core skill sets right what advice do you have for somebody who's interested in special reconnaissance specifically like if you were talking to kind of like you guys already do on one's ready right you're talking to some 17 18 19 year olds you're a 25 year old and they're like hey I saw something about special reconnaissance I'm in arrested in that job what is your advice for those people that are possibly picking that path to go down first I would ask them I would I would want to know if you're actually interested you know like there's there's interest and then there's people and and most of the people that we find that are successful they they express it as more than an interest they're like I heard about this job or I heard about this community and I felt that I needed to do it that I you know like I had an itch I had something that you know like like when I was in weather school right and these guys came and talked to us like I never questioned my decision after that day you know like you know like when you hear something you're like that's me like I have to I have to do that like yeah that's what's going to get you through so like if you're just interested it's like just do your research and start building capacity you know uh your your physical and mental capacity or whatever it is that you have to do but like if you have that itch if you have that that calling so to speak um I would say don't question it just just get after it and you might find that once you join the Air Force because you come in like open you know special Warfare General off the street you might find that once you get there you actually Vibe with like combat control more than you do with special reconnaissance and I'm here to tell you like I don't care what you do as long as you end up doing something that you value and that makes you happy and makes you a better person and gives you a better life um that's the most important thing so go with with what you want to do and don't listen to anybody else that hasn't been there uh for the most part obviously like people will give great advice but like if people are are nay saying or or whatever you know it is what it is it's like listening to a skinny guy at a gym like why would you do that so like what you're saying is basically when when you know what you want to do or say you you know you because you come into Special Operations people are a better asset to the Air Force when they're where they want to be or where they know they should be versus just like them being like well I wanted to be special reconnaissance but then as they're going through and they're understanding training they're going through indoc everything they're like yo like you know PJ or CCT is really calling me like if that's what because you're probably gonna regret going down the wrong path at that point if you've if you're starting to see that and you're drifting a certain way like one you're a better asset to everybody around you because you're happy you you know where you're where you're supposed to be you're gonna Thrive way more than it being in a path that you're just in just because right but on top of that you're a better asset to the Air Force and the amount of money that the Air Force is putting into you guys like you need to be where you want to be you don't want to be stuck in a job job for you know several years where you're like man I wish I would have done that like um and so even the guys that come in and they think they want to be PJs because I think being a PJ is the most known right like when you think of Special Operations in the Air Force it's like pararescue like that's just you know that's what crosses most people's mind and so when you realize when you're going through that training if it's like hey special reconnaissance or something like not many people know about it's a semi-newer uh compared to the other Special Operations yeah so then it's like well it's not as cool right you know nobody knows about it but it's like but if that's what you feel called to it doesn't matter if it's cool to other people it just matter like you like you said Don't listen to other people like people are gonna be naysayers like you got to focus on what you want because you're better off being where you want to be right no no there's two things I want to touch like the first thing is the PJ thing is I think one of the reasons we have so many people joining to be a PJ is it's easier to sell to like your parents your teachers your friends back right like I'm not joining people yeah I'm not a sociopath people yeah and then once you get over here it's like we're like man you know like you can save people by dropping bombs on other people like that's that's how this works they're like oh like no one's here like judging me anymore like I can it's fun to kick indoors and do things it's a good time um and the other thing is is doing things for the wrong reason I remember I was an instructor a long time ago at Keesler and I would go to lunch with my students every once in a while and I'd sit down and talk to them and I would tell them like especially in like my career field the odds of anybody a knowing what you do and and B having you like caring right like no one no one knows what we do like and generally the Air Force as the the only people there's a small group of people that probably understand what we're doing and think it's cool um but it's like the first special reconnaissance person I've ever talked to in my life right right it's like but like if you're expecting it to be like a Navy SEAL where like people know and like it's gonna get you like all these like uh tertiary benefits of of whatever when you go to the bar and say that you're this or that or the other I'm like that's not what we do like if you if you don't have like I did a good job and that's enough if that's not who you are then like this isn't for you like if you're looking for the accolades and the the spotlight and all those other things like go go somewhere else go be you know seals write books go be a seal or whatever like much love to the seals I know that they take a lot of crap but yeah no one knows about us and it's it's to me like that's awesome but like to some people I remember I went to lunch one day and I talked to these kids and like three of those kids quit like the next morning they're like yeah this isn't for me I was like okay bye they needed they need extrinsic motivation right and like it's more of an intrinsic motivator is what you need to have in order to keep pushing in your career because you're not going to get a lot of that like people being like Oh you know I respect you so much for what you do they're like what do you do like why is that important you know yeah are you para rescue because it's all you know no no and they're like I don't care but like peaches has done some wild stuff and you have to like drag those stories out of him you know like it's not like he's not writing a book and there's not a bunch of magazine or articles about them but he is a highly prolific jtac during g-wat doing what he did and um you know and he just is like hey I did a good job people in my career field respect me which is the only important thing I have a good reputation there it is that's what he said he said he likes to give Aaron crap because he's like everybody loves a hero like you know and it's like because he's like you know just PJs in general get way more recognition yeah and it's just like some of the other Special Operations career Fields don't get that and so yeah if you're looking for that praise and that recognition and people that actually understand when you tell them that your special operations to like care you're probably not in the right career field if you're going special like reconnaissance at that point because yeah people aren't going to know what you do and people are just going to be like uh sure now come over here to disappear you know and then to the a lot of people in the career field like that's that's what they were looking for it's like oh I'm just gonna go out there do my job and it's going to be awesome I'm gonna get these experiences for me for my teammates what advice do you have for people who are just now starting this job how can they have a successful career so this is probably good for you because you said you were an instructor so you used to go and talk with your your troops right so those guys that are just they just finished their pipeline they're like to the people that have just got in what's that experience um and information that you want to give on to them for how they can set themselves up I mean it's it's hard because you just went through like a really long Pipeline and you're feeling pretty good about yourself you know and you have to start over when you get to team they're the new guy again they're starting back at Step Zero so um be humble and then be patient like not everything is going to be like the movies right away you gotta wait for your opportunities you got to work hard for your opportunities like nothing changed like all the lessons you learn in the pipeline you don't get to like throw them away just because you're on team you know like keep working hard keep moving forward your opportunities are going to present themselves and then jump on them when they do you know be ready for for the call be ready to to go out on that that TDY or that deployment or whatever it is that you're trying to get to and uh and keep soaking up training because it's it's awesome because like there's a there's a weird place where we kind of all the career Fields all kind of meet together you know like I'm I'm not a PJ but like all my guys are going to get a lot of Medical Training you know like I'm not a combat controller but like I've done a lot of their type of training and like same goes for them you know there's controllers that are great reconnaissance guys and PJs that are great with Consciousness guys and all these other things there is no limit to how far you can go in any of these career Fields so it's going to take a little bit of time uh but don't doubt yourself take the opportunities and if if you work hard odds are you're gonna get whatever it is that you're trying to get out of this uh this crazy experience what are your biggest things of advice for somebody joining the Air Force in general right so we're talking you're talking the future generation here not just people that are trying to go Special Operations but we're talking about anybody that wants to wear the U.S Air Force tape on their chest what's your advice to those people take your name seriously you know it's a lot of the same stuff like humility patience right but like for me anyway the first time that I put on a uniform and I had my last name on it I was responsible for more than just myself you know and also had U.S Air Force on it which meant I was more I was responsible for more than just myself and it's cheesy and it's it can it sounds dramatic right that like oh like I'm responsible for all these other things but but take it seriously like take take those opportunities to to you know make your name mean something make the US Air Force name mean something you know and and and also like that patience thing it's it's gonna suck for a while it's a weird thing that happens and I'm I'm a soapbox a little bit but like before everybody joins the Air Force and you've seen these these people what do you do when when you go to the recruiter after you sign up for the Air Force and you have a ship date like what what does everybody do we're all Air Force stuff and they're like super motivated like they tell everybody right yeah I'm joining the Air Force I'm gonna do this cool job yada yada hey it's not gonna seem like a cool job when you first get there and like to something happens in basic training where everybody goes from being this is something I'm doing to something that's happening to me like if you if you stay in the mindset of this is something that I am doing I am happening to the process and the process is not happening to me and you never adopt that victim mentality like the amount of opportunity in the Air Force the amount of goodness the amount of change you can make the amount of things that you can effect are it's almost unlimited and it's a it's a fascinating thing to be able to look back on and see it all and obviously from like my standpoint it's a little easier to see it all um but like is if you are joining and you're like I'm security forces and then like you get there and everybody's like Security Forces sucks I'm like does it does it suck because we have a lot of opportunity in Security Forces you can be dog handler you could be catam you can be one of the guys out of Moody you can be a nuke cop like there's eight million things you can do if you're motivated and you don't get sucked into the crowd of naysayers and victims like just avoid all that crap and the Air Force whether you do four years or 20 years like it can be the greatest experience of your life if you let it be I think two on top of that where you said it's going to take patience like not every job when you first start out is good but I think one of the most rewarding aspects of any job is being able to move up to become a leader for the Next Generation for the guys below you and like once you become a leader you start doing less and less of the actual job because you're mentoring your coaching you're training younger guys right and I think that's when a job really because a lot of people think oh I'm doing this job to do this job and like they think that's going to be like the most satisfying part of that career but I think a lot of people start to realize that's actually not the most satisfying thing yeah that like they're going to go through and you're gonna have a lot of good memories but some of the best satisfaction that you have is like you're like I trained these guys that then I train these 10 guys and they went out and they did all these achievements right and you're like I have 10 guys that achieved 10 times more stuff than I did like that's way more rewarding I think than just like the stuff that you do and so like you said it's gonna suck sometimes because sometimes doing your job your day job isn't the most fun thing ever but if you can have a good attitude about it and you can promote and move up and and get in a position where you can mentor that next Generation have that same mindset right you can coach those guys to then be successful and so years down the road you're going to look and say I I helped build these guys into the success stories that they are yeah I think that maybe is like one of the more rewarding aspects is like that's why I do what I do is like I'm trying to help the younger generation I think that's a big reason for you guys with one's ready is like you guys are focused on the Next Generation like how can we prepare them but that's not something that like when you typically come in as a brand new Airman right you don't have much experience it's kind of hard to coach somebody because you're literally the new guy right like so um you're gonna be the one taking out the trash so yeah I think that's that's great advice though like yeah have patience and know that it's not always going to be glamorous yeah and there's nothing wrong with taking out the trash I don't know wait yeah why why that that seems like a bad thing but also like you you're you enjoy coaching mentoring and all that other stuff just be yourself too like yeah I know I know lots of guys that are great like fantastic they're good people they're good you know on team you guys are good at all these other things probably not going to be the best instructors and maybe not even like the best like e8s or e9s or or if they commissioned or whatever or like if the leadership roles like they could be great e8s and e9s but like depending on what they're doing but it's like some guys just want to do the job and that's also okay like not everybody has to be a leader you know quote unquote or whatever like trust yourself a little bit whatever you have that itch for like you said you know like you get that itch and you're like go go that path like if you don't have that itch to be a leader then like don't try to force yourself into that role like really push yourself into where you're going to be the best fit and where you feel the most comfortable yep if you wear your belong and you're being uh you know and this word is so overused but I'm going to use it anyway if you're being authentic to like who you are and what you want to do and that that's going to change over time as well but like if you're just being authentic then you're gonna have a way better impact uh not only on your own life but on the Air Force as a whole I think that comes with being like well authentic just being honest with yourself and with the people around you right like what what your expectations are for yourself and you're setting the expectations for everyone around you too where you're not trying to be something that you're not and you're not gonna you know try to fake that either so I think that's a big thing it's just to know yeah who you are yeah we're gonna go ahead and wrap this up where can people find you Trent um you guys obviously have ones ready so what is ones ready and where can they find you and what do you guys do so one's ready is a little project you know that we threw together myself and Aaron and and Jared or peaches as we call them uh so there's myself special reconnaissance combat control and a pair rescue guy on this uh podcast and what we're doing is we're trying to fill the void of information that was out there about these career fields and some of the misnomers and all those other things uh so we have a podcast about it it's tailored towards people that are interested or think they're interested uh in the Air Force Special Warfare stuff also attack p and then we'll talk about sear and EOD and all those other things and you know off-topic subjects often as well but there's a lot of content on there specifically for the Air Force Special Warfare folks and then um yeah you can find us Instagram everything one's ready right like uh the the podcast is on all streaming platforms and audio and video on YouTube and then uh one's ready at one's ready on Instagram is probably the easiest way to find us I appreciate you jumping on and sharing a little bit more about special reconnaissance because like you said you guys are kind of uh in the background a lot of times so there's not a whole lot of info out there about you guys so this should hopefully open open some people's eyes to what you guys do yeah it's hard it's hard too because like I know what's happening out there to a certain extent and I'll tell you like the my my guys are making a difference their their job in it so that's about all I can say but also man like thanks for having me on I I hope you can't cut this out of the don't edit this out I you know I've been watching your videos for a long time I saw you way back in the day and you're doing great work so don't ever let anybody tell you you're not doing great work thanks for the opportunity yeah I appreciate it

Channel: Airman Vision

Views: 17,409

Keywords: airforce, usaf, airfocre, air foce, air focre, airf orce, special operations, air force special operations, usaf special operations, spec ops, special ops, onesready podcast, onesready, ones ready podcast, ones ready, trent onesready, special recon, special reconnaisance, special reconasance, special reconesance

Id: QQLaY-Ra94E

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023