You're listening to the Ones Ready podcast , a team of Air Force Special Operators forged in combat with over 70 years of combined operational experience as well as a decade of selection instructor experience. If you're tired of settling and you want to do something you truly believe in, you're in the right place. Now here's your favorite CCT personality JTAC extraordinaire, embracer of the ridiculous face, and like the shortest operator you'll ever meet. Peaches .
PeachesHey everybody. Welcome to the Ones Ready podcast. We've got another delicious episode for you today. We're going to cover some of the Air National Guard , tactical air control party stuff. So we've got a couple of guests on that are going to help us out. The Guard can kind of be a different animal and we've gotten quite a few questions on it. So that's why we brought these gentlemen on so that they can answer your questions. So we'll cover a whole gamut of different things , that you can expect in the Guard. And also , transitioning from active duty to Guard. So just like we do on every single episode, we want to thank all our affiliates in terms of Alpha Brew Coffee company, Strike Force Energy, and Eberlestock, all great products, all great companies, and they support us and by supporting us, they are not paying us. But please use the promo code ONESREADY. If you guys want to get a discount on any of those products, then we use all of them. So thank you. How about that? Okay, and also thanks to all the listeners out there, we really appreciate the support and everything that you guys done for us and please continue to engage us on Instagram or email and any other way that you can get ahold of us . We have got Ben and we've got Cody. Ben, you want to go ahead and introduce yourself, give us a little bit of background into your , info on your history and, and kind of how you became to be an Air National Guard technic .
I enlisted in active duty Air Force in 2009 , came in as a TACP. the only way I actually knew about TACP is my brother , had enlisted and become a TACP about four years before me. He started off in SERE went through part of their initial training and then switched over to TACP T about halfway through something about not able to sew correctly, but I'm not really, I think it was just soft. But , so that's how I found out about it. I was actually looking into like the Marines and Army and things like that beforehand. Went over to the Air Force recruiter, found a little bit about TACP and then talked to my brother about it and he pushed me that way. I was active duty at the 5th ASOS in Washington state for about six or seven years. Then I went to the Weapons School where Peaches was actually one of my instructors there. in 2015. Went back there shortly after to be an instructor and that's where I made the transition to the Guard. So it's about nine years active duty and then made the transition to be Guard. We had been there for about a year now.
AaronJust a quick question. Why did you make the transition? We get this question. A lot of guys are like right on that precipice that 6 to 10 year Mark is when you see a lot of guys do it. What was the deciding factor for you? Was it the stability of the Guard or was it a different mission?
BenIt was mostly stability. A lot of it was kind of the family aspect of it. both my wife and me , grew up in Southern Illinois. so having the 169th ASOS right there in Peoria , it's about two and a half hour drive to where we both grew up. we've got parents that are getting older, having health issues and grandparents , same thing. So we wanted our two daughters to be able to visit more often, see their grandparents grew up in that kind of , that environment. kind of what we grew up in. that was probably the biggest factor that led us back here.
PeachesHow about you, Cody?
So I also enlisted in 2009 and then as a traditional Guardsman at the 169th ASOS. Went through the pipeline, came out, went straight to Afghanistan , did a tour over there, came back, went to school for about a year. That's enough to get a full time position out there. So , I was recommended to apply for one of those. you got on there full time and I've been a full time with the 169th ever since.
PeachesNice. So we've got, got a good mixture. We've got a active duty that has transitioned over to Guard and then we've got a full time Guard , since cradle to grave, essentially. So. Awesome.one of the things that I asked Roomba on the last episode that we or the last episode we had him on was what drove him towards TACP. So , Cody, what drove you towards TACP?
CodyI really didn't know much about , Air Force and their a combat oriented jobs. When I first got in , I had a family friend who was an 18A. So, he's like, Hey man, a s a ttack unit, about 20 minutes from where y ou're up, go down there. And I t alked to those guys. Those guys a re pretty cool a nd n ow they do some cool stuff a nd he's like, they can tell you w hat it is. So w hat went down there showed me a motivational video of people jumping on a n a irplane, s ome s hooting guns and dropping bombs.
BenI really didn't know what I was getting into to be honest. Even though my , I talked to my brother about it a little bit and he was already a couple years in. I knew I didn't want to do anything ordinary, like a job , a normal job that you can do , in civilian life. I wanted to do something a little bit different. it was either this or kind of keep going down the wrong path in my civilian life. So , I wanted to do something exciting, something I could travel, kind of the standard , reasons why most people get in the military, but I wanted to make sure that there was at least an avenue for me to do something kind of chase an adrenaline rush I guess. I wanted something and I had a brotherhood , something close knit, something small so that I could kind of build those relationships and not be kind of just another cog. I guess those are big, big reasons why following my brother's footsteps was a pretty big influencer for me as well. He was already doing well in it and he enjoyed it. So that, that pushed me that way. We get to tell like cool TACP stories and then he goes to talk about like radar screens and blips .
TrentHe used to come down to the gym , at the swamp and workout and we'd had students come up to us and be like, Hey, why are all the TACPs like 6'3 and super, huge and shredded. And we're like, guys , not all TACP piece look like that, but like Frank said, a different kind of person, but I'm back toTACP like going from active to Guard. Like what was that like? What was the transition like? What are the big differences , between active duty and Guard?
The transition was it was a lengthy , it was a lengthy process but it was fairly easy to navigate through. the first step in the process is getting in touch with the unit that you're most , that you would most likely want to go to. because in the garden , once you get there, that's kind of where you're staying, because you get hired to that unit. It's, there's no PCSs after that, it's where you're going to be. So you want to make sure you're making the right decision there, get in touch with them. there's a lot of work with the recruiters on both ends, so you'll start talking with the recruiters on the base side where you want to go as well as your in service Guard recruiter at your current base. There should be an inservice Guard recruiter at every Air Force base . I'm not aware of any that don't have them . and they will walk you step by step through the process and it's , it's a VMPF online Air Force portal process where you will submit , packages , and all kinds of information, all of your background information, all your certificates, everything that you've ever done. you'll submit it through there and it'll go through , up through the Air Force personnel channels to be approved. And that's all based on mostly driven by AFI requirements , as far as timelines and how early you can get out before your established ETS and things like that.
PeachesWas it a fairly easy process or is it pretty lengthy?
BenIt's somewhat lengthy. every part of the process is somewhere between 30 and 90 days. The standard 30 and 90 days for every process. probably the biggest hangups were once you got to that point, if you weren't constantly on top of the person that was supposed to be pushing your paperwork through to the next part , then it would become stagnant and it would kind of sit there for a little bit until you made a lot of calls and a lot of emails. But as long as you stayed on top of it and had some responsibility for it, then the recruiter was a big asset. They would always help as well. Try and push it through and it would, it would keep it going, but you are kind of stuck to those. If they say it's going to take 30 days, it will most likely take 29 and a half days to get done
Cody, what was different for you? Kind of along the same lines . So Meat made the transition from active duty over to Guard. You came fresh off the streets and you wanted to be a Guardsman from the rip. Why did you make that decision as opposed to going active duty?
CodyWell, I mean, I just, I kind of fell in love with it. I was wanting to do some stuff on the civilian side. I'm also felt like obligated and I want to do something for our country and , which is kind of what got my foot in the door to begin with. but I still want to have a civilian life. Once Ihad a taste of it, I went down range and did a deployment. I came home and I was like, man, this is, this is what I want to do. So I'm just getting that experience and exposure , extra instead of extremely unfortunate or fortunate to get that position as well. Full time Guard positions are hard to come by. There's only a certain amount of spots and it's either someone has to die or retire and those are really the only two options.
AaronCan we pause right there? Can you explain to people they might not know the difference between an active duty Guard position and your more traditional Guardsman.
CodySo you got your AGRs are full-timers. they're the ones that pretty much just get the squadron runningday to day operations. Same roles, responsibilities that active squadron have to do, just a lot less Manning . It comes with the benefits of getting AGRs out there, but you also have a little bit more additional duties than a standard ASOS would have. But then your DSGs are out there with the minimum days that they have to do throughout the year. So a standard is two weeks a month and then you get the two weeks in the summer. We've got to do a hybrid thing , because it's hard for us to train on a two day period. Especially being JTACs and keeping our currency . So we have to travel, we can't just call in strikes in our backyard. So we kind of consolidate it and we do sort of a hybrid. Do all our admin stuff that we have to do our CBTS and stuff like that. Then it starts to get warm we do like seven day TDYs. And then we do 10 days or whatever it is to facilitate the training. So most of the time there's civilians are out doing their day job. And then when , when our schedule calls for them to be out there, they need to come out there. I'd say TACP is a little bit more , demanding than a normal Air National Guard job just because of the requirements that shooting medical and cast training, all that stuff we have to maintain. Guys know that coming in when we come get them off the streets and like Meat with saying a second ago the Guard has to do a lot of its own recruiting. We don't get the guys to come in. So , pulling guys off of active duty guys that want to retire or not retire, I'm sorry, get outgrabbing, hold those dudes that are already trained, stuff like that and getting them over. that's, that's kind of where we have to go. So our recruiting , is pretty hot and heavy , especially with the Guard , with them in man, good guy from like beginning to actually go in down range is pretty daunting.
PeachesSo the process then would be, so if I'm a dude, just like I had no prior service or anything like that and I want a full time gig, I've got to come interview with you guys. And if you decide if, assuming that they're slots available, then I interview you guys decide to hire me and then I go to the pipeline and everything like that.
CodyYeah, you would, you would not get a job , full time out there unless you were already like a qualified JTAC TACP it's really hard to get them as young as I did. I think I was just fortunate to get that deployment and thenbuild a relationship with a squadron. so I kind of got vetted and hired on early. A lot of it's guys that have been prior , active and they've got time under their belt or guys that have done a combat deployment or two have that time a position comes available and they apply for it. And then yes. Just like you said we'd board, I have a board, we assess them and make sure it's a good fit for the squadron and everything makes sense. And then we hire 'em out there but forgot to come out right off the streets on you get a full time position out there like that . I don't think that would ever happen in the Guard.
PeachesOkay. And what about part time then for those? That same kind of individual?
CodyYeah, absolutely. Man part-timer we got thoe slots for that. I think every squadron does right now as well in the Air National Guard and that's just, they come in and say, Hey man, I want to be attached to you. They take the PAST test, we assess them, we get them through the medical , make sure everything checks and once they have actually a passing PAST test and their medical is good to go, then we send them just a basic, just like an activity tech . And then they go through everything just like active duty until they get done with their, their pipeline. And then they come back to us. We keep them on our combat mission ready , days, time to get , we're up to about 365 days about the squadron. So squadron get them all spun up, ready to go, JTAC qualified. And then , once they're done, then they go back to their civilian life and they're qualified JTAC and they come out in the drill that they need you to maintain their goal currencies and calls. Their day to day is just doing their civilian job that we do have guys that are called Guard bums, which of guys that are going to school or whatever it is that they want to be doing, but they, they really want to be involved in TACP. And they come out there and they asked me four days , Hey, you got any days out there? And then we'll get them look them up a days and , and try to keep them out there as full time. And that just kind of flexes around the fiscal year. And how much money i n days we have for that year. But for a lot of the motivated guys w e're able to do that. And that's generally kind of the younger guys that are bouncing between college or j obs and stuff like that too.
AaronLiving out of a van, not a care in the world. Just trying to call in some CAS in the MOA dog. That's all. I'm just trying to, trying to shred some sweet NAR NAR on the weekends and I'm trying to call and some sweet lines on
the weekdays . Meat more for you. because we're Cody touched on a whole bunch of it. They're just a bunch of differences between active duty and Guard. What were the differences, especially since came from active duty and now you're, you're in the Guard. What are those, what are those other differences that guys can look for, especially when they're guys and gals when they're looking at career fields. And this is, I want to say for everybody listening like this, we're talking specifically TACP because that's who we have on. But this applies across all of AFSPECWAR. If we had two Guard PJ's on, they'd be doing the same thing. They'd be talking differences and all these things would be the same. So take to heart what it is, the intent of what we're saying and what we're talking about here. And don't just be like, well they didn't talk about Combat Controllers. It's a lot of the same stuff. So off my soapbox Meat. But the question is what are, what are some of those other differences between active duty and Guard, especially from your angle seeing both sides.
BenSome of the stuff that I saw on active duty that I was kind of concerned about making the transition was currency , just the training cycles. And I didn't really fully understand how with as many currencies as all all of us have , qualifications they have to maintain and upgrade processes and things like that. How that could possibly happen on a Guard schedule. but then when I started, when I made the transition, I looked back and this was a big kind of eye opening thing for me, is that there was a lot of time on active duty, not to talk down to active duty in any way, shape or form, but that was wasted . There was all this extra time that was a , it was spent doing things, but it wasn't, what the Guard does is it boils it down to only the training days that you need to meet the qualifications in the currencies that are required , with some, with some leftover for , for additional qualifications if you want them to do extra things like go to Airborne. And when it really boils down, it's like we have the days to do quite a bit of training outside of what's actually required. It's just if the person is willing to take extra time away from work, which is where that balance comes in being a true traditional versus an active duty. Like you kind of have to balance the , the, the career that the guy is , pursuing on the outside as well as how much she wants to pursue outside of his normal requirements. On , when he's on days at the unit. So I was a huge , kind of eye opening aspect of it. To me it's like, it's when you really boil it down, we're meeting the exact same requirements and currencies and training , aspects is active duty is because we still run off the same , AFIs and regulations. it's just in a different way and the schedule is weird because they're not there full time, but at the end of the year, we still make all of our currencies
PeachesCould you, one of you explain what what you guys mean by days?
CodyI'm not going to get too weird about it. there, there are certain amount of number of days. So like as an active dudes, I don't have to worry about days because they're out there 365. Days for us or well down to like what's considered a good year. and what I mean by good year is that they can actually count that as a retirement year. So there's a minimum amount of days back out there throughout the year to make sure that they have that good year. We have different like special , training days , annual training days. Again, I could bore you guys to death and it's pretty terrible. But , boils down to really is like they have a certain number of days that they can get , in order to come out there and train and they can't come out there and train unless they have the day is associated with it. And with the days comes money. A lot of admin nerd stuff that has to be done by the scenes , for an order for our guys to come out there and actually train. They just, we just need to have those. And if I said the fiscal year , I'm just like, the government works , we don't get anything as the fiscal year , transitions with them. By the end of it, it's like, Hey man, we got all these days and dollars I need you to spend right now. So generally speaking with those Guard bums we get 'em out there at the very end of the fiscal year and then there's like a two month lull. We don't have those days and money. And then as right back to getting those guys out there, we're going on trips, we're buying gear , we're getting the wishlist together, we're getting all that stuff that goes on. It's just a little bit on an unorthodox . But for the members, man, they don't, they don't see it. They just, Hey, I want to come out here and train. Got it. We'll get you to what we need to. And then they're out here training.
BenOne thing to add onto that is, so far what I've seen is I haven't seen , us not having days for guys that are , that want to come out extra or on top of what they've, they're just required to do. So if somebody wanted to come out more days , just because they needed a break from work or school or whatever they're doing and they want to train more or , go to a school or, or do whatever, there's, there's always been enough days to do that. with the days , they follow the same process that the money does in the military where you could get to the end of the year and you won't get your days allocated until a couple months in. But other than that, I don't , I haven't seen actual limitation on days , that has hindered anybody from doing the things that they want to do. Especially or specifically for the traditional guys.
PeachesThat's good man. because I mean if there's want to get some work then, I mean they're not being told no and they don't have to, that don't necessarily have to wait until days become available. So that's, that's pretty awesome.
CodyYeah, that's a good thing about the Guard too is that if guys are super motivated and they find a love and a passion for it, they can come out there as much as they want. And if they end up doing it and committed and they're like, Hey man, I want to focus on my civilian career. It's not exactly what I want .they just have to do the minimum commitment and they still get theirGI benefits and all the otherGuard benefits that are associated with it as well. So it's kind of up to the user.
So we kind of, we kind of hit like a Garrison one and we did it for, we did it from the lens. One of our other podcasts was on like, what do you guys do? because the , the whole idea for the Ones Ready thing that we're doing is like all of these questions that we've all gotten, we're trying to get it to a central place that we can get them to where instead of answering the question for the 4 millionth time, we're like, Hey man, this is what this looks like. Like yes, you can go to airborne school. Yes, you can go to free fall school. Like all those questions that people ask you , right. One of the questions that we get all the time as well, what does life look like inside of this thing? Like what does a PJ look like day to day when you're at home? What do you do when you're not training? What do you do when you're getting ready for deployment? But we didn't ask it from the Guard side. So for you guys from like, what's a day to day look like for you guys? Just on a normal training getting training cycle, getting ready to go deploy. What does that look like for you guys at home station as Guard smen ?
BenOur day probably mirrors active duty from for the AGRs probably mirrors it pretty closely. We do the normal Monday through Friday , usually around six 30 in the morning, starting PT do that for a couple of hours , shower up , get to your desk, start working. Most of the stuff that we're doing may be a little bit different from active duty, but it's still along the same lines. We're, the guys that are there full time are essentially just putting together all of the TDYs that are to follow. So we're building the training, we're building the scenarios, we're doing the coordination with pilots. We're coordination with the range.
AaronBut I mean even like man zero seven, you're there, you guys are working out. You guys go to work at nine. Like that's the kind of stuff people ask her like, Hey, no kidding. What is life?
BenOkay? 6:30 in the morning, everybody shows up. We start a PT. It's somewhat on your own. but we've got a gym across the street and it's built up for us to use most a sauces in the, in the Guard now have some sort of gym built up for them for their use. Since the Guard bases are typically , quite a bit smaller , you go and work out for about a hour and a half to two and a half hours, however long you need to , stretch out, get back in the building, cook breakfast. So after breakfast gets showered, up, getting uniform, just like normal , start a day in uniform around , nine o'clock. We're at our desks. We're usually have an agenda for the day or at least task put out. there's two main offices on , the AGR side. There's what we call our silver team or the ops , room. And then there is the , where me and Cody said his Weapons and Tactics in the opposite position. silver team pretty much runs all the planning for the upcoming TDY. So most of their day is spent either doing a small admin things as well as maintenance to the, all the additional duties that they hold. because they hold the majority of them along with the front office people. and then the coordination for the TDYs. so sending emails back and forth, making phone calls, logistical things , all the, all the stuff that you don't really want to do but pays off in the long run. Once you get to the TDY, when the prep is supposed to pay out for the traditional guys so that when they do show up for those five to 10 days , it's not, you don't want to waste any of their time because they're taking time away from work to be there. So you want to make sure that it's valuable for them. So most of our effort on a day to day basis is towards that. Oh , we get off work 1600-1630 and then go back home. the only thing that's a little bit weird is whenever you have a drill weekend, which is , some of your standard , there's wing drills and then there's other drill weekends that you've put together based on , really just kind of based on what the squadron wants to do. that would cause one long weekend, a month essentially where you would go Monday through Friday and then you'd have to stay there Saturday and Sunday when all the traditional guys show up. Usually you get , some sort of comp day the following Monday or something like that to break it up. But that would be the only famous out of the ordinary from , from the active duty schedule.
AaronNice. And then Cody is you like that new guy rolling in like first couple of DRO weekends what was it, what was it like for you rolling into those first out of the, out of the pipeline, you're in kind of that first year of training where you have those days to get upgrade and stuff. Like for you, what was your focus on during that first part?
CodyReally just upgrade and then getting to know the squadron. And obviously you're the new guy. You , you have absolutely nothing that you've done thus far. I know you're trying to build up the rapport with those guys and then just figuring out how to get to that JTAC qualification. and it's a little bit different now for the kids coming out of the pipeline. They're trying to just streamline everything. But back when I came through you had your do your time as a ROMAD, pretty much a JTAC and it was just fulfilling that obligation and just trying to get to JTAC school as quick as I could. Okay. Awesome . Cool.
PeachesWhen are you guys, I think when you guys mentioned, I can't remember. I know that I wanted to talk about this. Do I get to choose if I'm a new guy, do I get to choose which unit I go to? Like, or is it just kind of, Hey, I go into the Guard and I get wherever I want. And then kind of along with that is what kind of distance am I looking at between the unit and where I'm allowed to live?
CodyYeah, I mean, you most certainly do. It's kind of , where you live. And that's one of the benefits of the Guard is you get to stay kind of around where , where you live. now obviously there's not a TACP Guard unit in every state. So for some they have to travel quite a bit of ways , over than others. But if you live out in Washington state of Washington, there's a sauce out there and you can go , go over to the Guard base and say, Hey man, I want to be a TACP and then go through the whole assessment. same thing, North Carolina or in Illinois or Indiana or wherever the state is, if they have a Guard , a sauce. Yeah, it's, that's where you want to be and that's where you can do your whole time. Now if you, there's positions and the availabilities that open up elsewhere, you definitely have the opportunity to move if you want to. But if not, if you want to stay where you're at, then you more than willing to do that.
BenSo we've got a couple of guys that live anywhere between , 15 minutes from base that are traditionals as well as guys that live States away that fly in and meet us for drill either in Illinois or at the TDY location that we're going to. It seems like it'd be kind of a hassle, but honestly it works out really well. They show up just like anybody else would. at the same time as everybody else, they just take a different , they take a plane to work instead of a car. So actually works out pretty well and it gives you the flexibility to kind of stay in a state where your career is kind of already established and then you can join the closest ASOS or the one that's most appealing to you. And it kind of gives you the opportunity to shop around and find the state that you might want to spend some time in or find a place that's close to where other family lives so that you can visit them on the way in and out of work. And things like that.
TrentOh man, this is, this is all sounding so amazing. So I'm a 19 year old or whatever. I want to join and ASOS. I walk in for the interview assessment process. What are your, like your top three do's, don'ts, tips, advice, like the quickest way for you to be, like, we'll call you don't call us versus you're hired right now. W hat, what did you f ind from I'm washing my hair t o w ant a Netflix and chill, right? That's the scale that I want to talk about right there. Just some really general less specific advice about how to get hired on as a TACP and what you guys are looking for versus what y ou're definitely not looking for.
I think it's kind of the same with all AFSC within Special Warfare. We're looking for the same thing. Then we're just looking for professional that's motivated and wants to be there and just physically fit. And I'm not saying the, the most fitness of them all, like the, the eight week assessment with all of SW right now, they do a great job of getting them into , pretty good shape before they go to the breakouts. But , they, they need to be motivated and that's what we need. We need to be humble and motivated and willing to learn and really wanting to be there. Um, and I'm not saying you don't need to be in physically good shape. You need to be crushing it. Like the standards are, are set and the minimums are minimum. That's not where you should be. Um, you want to blow people away, come in there and be the best and that's how you're going to get hired. Um, but if you're wanting to join the 169th ASOS best way is to go to the Instagram page and send a message and we'll get them going. Um, but I mean we've got the slots for it and I think all the Guard ASOS as long as they want to be there, like they'll get hired.
PeachesHey, so as you guys go in there, what are some, well , you mentioned the physicality of it, like, so what are some great ways to prepare , for the TACP pipeline and , and I know this will kind of translate between Guard and active duty. So like what did you guys do or what would you recommend?
BenWhen I first enlisted, I, I really didn't know anything about , how to exercise, how to work out, what was the best way. Like I didn't even understand what type of shape I needed to be in for the job that I was going to be doing. So , I lifted a of weights when I was young. I probably hurt a lot of ligaments and tendons, but with the too much in the wrong way. But the good thing now is if you are in a good , kind of balanced cardiovascular strength and conditioning type program, I think that's going to put you in a good place for the pipeline that is set up , to kind of get you to the next step that you need to be at. I think what's probably more important and what I was lucky to have my brother already in is the mindset , and the knowledge and being mentally ready to deal with , some of the hardships that go through that because you're going to get , regardless of where you go in the pipeline, you're going to get tired, you're going to get hungry, you're going to get fed up, things are going to be happening at home. You're going to miss home. it's not going to feel worth it anymore as certain points. And that mental fortitude is kind of the thing that's going to drive you through as long as you still at least have some sort of , physical strength and cardiovascular like baseline to go off of.
CodyIt was a big piece in that , that body weight motions rucking is another one that is just , something that I think people don't take seriously. And if they , if you don't take wrecking seriously, then it's going to break you .
AaronObviously guys we, we talked to an audience that is getting ready right now. from sometimes from an active duty position, sometimes from already in the military, some different brands, sometimes 17, 18 years old. We talked about like physically preparing. What's the one thing that you would do mentally if you could get yourself put yourself now like one thing that you would learn. You're going to go back, Cody, you're going to go back to fresh faced 18 years old, square jawed and ready to protect America. And you get to tell them one nugget of joy. Like, Hey, do this. And it'll make your pipeline more successful. What would old Cody tell younger?
CodyI mean, honestly, just having that positive mental attitude, man. Not , not wanting to quit. I mean, like I said, Meat touched on it too is just you're going to have that day where you're just like this is stupid and I don't know why I'm doing it. And then I don't, I don't see the tunnel. If you just have that , that attitude, man, like nothing can break you as long as you're mentally strong and you can go through it, then honestly just try to enjoy it and have with it. That's one thing I wish I w ould h ave done a little bit more. It's just, I mean, we're d own at Hurby. I m ean t hat's a wonderful place to be. Just keeping that attitude and you're going to be just like, you'll be just fine.
AaronYeah. So Meat, same thing. So there you are, you're getting ready to cross train. Future Meat comes back and sees Junior meat, which is something that made me laugh in my head when I was thinking to say I want to put it out there. Junior Meat is there and he's just needing that knowledge. And here comes Senior Meat. What does Senior Meat tell junior Meat?
BenI think the purpose you got to have a purpose for what you're doing. if you don't have, if you don't have that, you're not driving towards anything. So there's nothing to keep you from just stopping and quitting. you've got to find a purpose. Doesn't have to be some sort of like deep seated belief that you have. Like it doesn't have to be, I'm going to be the next warrior for America and I'm going to , I'm going to hold the land of the free of my shoulders. Anything crazy like that? It could literally just be that you want to take an adventure. You want to be a part of a brotherhood that stands for something that you believe in. It could be anything in between those two extremes. but you've got to have the purpose or you're not going to go anywhere.
CodyIt is worth it too . That's the one thing that going through it all and it suck and it's just like, if I could tell myself now, it's like, man, the things you're going to do and the things you're going to see like just suck it up man because it's, it's going to totally be worth it. I think that has to go with the mindset man is like, just because you made it through TACP school doesn't mean you've really done anything man . You haven't even gone down range. You haven't actually had done that, done the job. It's just always staying hungry and always wanting to be the best and that never stops at any level. Like whether you're the new guy or the most senior guy that is there at the shop. Like you should always be wanting to be the best.
PeachesCan't argue with that. One of the things I wanted a hit and we're, we'll probably wrap this up here after this question, but what are some like really right in front of your just smack ya disqualifiers whenever somebody , whether they're interested in a part-timer full time . Like what, what just gets them turnaround at the door?
Speaker 6Oh man. We're talking about that a little bit. The thing that's going to get you that it gets our guys anyways as medical , in the PAST test , like if you can't pass the standards of PAST test, you're not going. Those are the minimums I was talking about. Those like those is not where you should be at. Like, Hey man, I got the minimums, I'm good to go. No, you need to be excelling those. However, if you can't meet the minimums, you're not going. and then there's medical disqualifiers. Really the only one that I've , I've seen this been an it show stopper is a depth perception or like eye issues. We've had a lot of guys just kind of get discouraged about it and then just we never hear from them again. But , I think we said to you guys during your past that have gone and gotten the LASIK surgery or whatever they needed to and are coming back to assess what those it's not a showstopper man, but a pass and I'd say medical is really the only thing. Those are going to hold you up.
PeachesIt's funny too because just today I've, I've answered several PRK/LASIK questions. So that is definitely something that people are out there going and getting just to make sure that they meet the vision requirements.
CodyYeah. You're asking the type of guys that we want. Those are the, those are the ones we want. Like Hey, they got told no and they were like, okay, well I'm going to find an option and figured out because I'm not taking no.
PeachesNope. Awesome. All right, well unless , Aaron or Trent have any parting shots or Cody been , if there was anything that you guys wanted to make sure that you got out there about the Air National Guard TACP.
BenJust one more thing on the transition stuff. I know there's a questions and comments from active duty guys that are currently active , that are wondering about the process of wondering what's going to change for them. And , just so that if those questions come up , your life can change as much as you want it to. Whenever you make the transition. If you can get the AGR spot, it's not really going to change at all. If you want to do the DSG stuff the traditional way, then it gives you an excellent opportunity to pursue a career that you've always wanted to pursue. You can go to school or you've got kind of all the options that you want to, you can live a civilian life and then still have the opportunity to remain in the community that you've, you've always been in, that you love being in . So it gives you a good opportunity to kind of do both if you're not fully committed and then you've always got the opportunity to down the road , if the slot , comes available that you can become full time , if that's, if that's the way you want to go. So there's a lot of flexibility there and if you want to pursue other things.
PeachesAwesome. Okay, cool. So to recap to them, what we've got is we've got Air National Guard and we've got active duty We covered Air National Guard. You've got your part-timers, you've got your active duty. I'm sorry, not active. I think one of the overarching things though is that the Guard gives you quite a bit of flexibility. We have a lot of flexibility in the active duty, but Guard gives you flexibility on whether you want to be part time or full time. And then also if you want to go, if you want to live in a specific area, whether it's Illinois, Boise, or wherever, there happens to be a Guard ASOS, you can go there, you can interview and just make sure that you've got a positive mental attitude. You're motivated and you're driven to get out there and get it. There's not much of a difference between active duty and the Guard guys. And I got to be honest guys, I don't think I have ever met a Guard dude that is not happy being Guard Awesome. Well, everybody is out there listening. We appreciate you tuning in and supporting us. I mean, we from bottom of our hearts, we love it. So check out our affiliates, Alpha Brew Coffee, Strike Force Energy, and Eberlestock. Please leave us a review and let us know how we're doing. Let me know how terrible I did at hosting this episode so that I can have remedial training and correct myself. And then now that a , so leave those reviews on Apple podcasts . Check us out on Stitcher. Buzzsprout we're on YouTube as well. Leave us comments, we'll engage with you guys and that please get after it. So get out there and EARN EACH BREATH.