 So I joined the Air Force mainly just to get out of my comfort zone and when I was in high school It wasn't a huge fan of school. It was kind of like the average student I played sports and stuff like that but going to college and Pursuing a degree and getting that nine-to-five job wasn't something that I had it like a passion for so a big thing I want to like stress the importance of is like when you grow up You're in you know You're taught to go to elementary school to middle school to high school to college get the degree and get that job And that's what society kind of instills in you and that's the norm And I just I like doing different things especially being in the military stepping out of my comfort zone doing different things It's made me furthermore understand why I made that decision and it helps me You know justify that I did make the right decision so I joined pretty much because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone wasn't a huge fan of school and Probably the biggest thing is I want to travel the world So and I've been pretty fortunate enough to travel the world. I've been to about 11 countries lived in Tokyo for two years So so far so good Currently been in for about three years and five months September well tomorrow will be three years and six months with three years and six months I've been in the military. I joined back in April of 2016 and went to map some medical swore in October of 2015 So I didn't ship out to April 19th of 2016 currently in E4, which is a senior airman in the Air Force I actually just came back from deployment I tested for Staff Sergeant back in May and I found out when I was there and missed it by nine points So better luck next year. E4 Mafia continues on So the name of my job air transportation specialist or it's pretty much listed as air transportation air trans nicknames for it Port dog Porter or something like that. You'll hear a bunch of it when you're in and my FSC right now Since I'm a five level is a 2t251. I believe you correct me for wrong You believe or I believe you join as a 2t2 like X1 That's what it's listed as the the big ones are the first three 2t2 is just you're known to be a porter or air transportation, but you start out once you get to tech school You'll be a three level once you graduate tech school. You move on to your first base You'll do CDC's and on the train on the job training So then you promote it to a five level on completion of that once you hit the nco grade You'll be a seven level once you test on CDC's senior nco level nine level and that's the max you can go So I got this job when I was in depth believe it or not So the delayed entry program I was waiting for a job I went to to meps and I found out I was colorblind So everything I wanted to do kind of got sliced in half and the Air Force is like here's your 15 jobs choose from here You go So I did my research because I didn't want to get a crappy job stuck with it for a while So I did get this job. It was my number one. They're like here's the list of stuff I looked into them as much as possible you two videos recruiter told me some stuff And I knew generically what it was about so I'm glad we're doing videos like this Just a bottomly the horizon as far as what jobs can entail and find out you know from first person from people Let's do these job what you do because when I came in I didn't know there was so much I could do in this career field, you know the recruiters tell you stuff And it's not even half of what you actually do so got this job when I was in depth It was my number one choice since I was limited and so far enjoy the job To tie it back to the last question. Yes, this was a job I wanted to do like I said went to maps found out I was colorblind Which is a big thing the Air Force since predominantly most of the career fields in the Air Force involve flying So if you're colorblind you can't really take that risk and stuff like that So this was a job I wanted to do there was other ones I don't really remember which were on my list, but this was my number one and it's the number one choice that I got So other jobs when I wanted to join so initially when I joined I knew I wanted to join the Air Force because I just enjoyed the whole flying aspect of it I knew I was gonna be a pilot because I wasn't a fan of college and I don't really have the eyesight for that But when I wanted to join I wanted to be an aerial gunner. I wanted to be a load master I wanted to do special missions aviation. I also wanted to be a cop I also considered being attack P or CCT anything spec ops wants to do that too But once the color vision thing kind of thing hit all those jobs went out the window not even possible So I joined and I signed a six-year contract So actually when I initially went to meps and I met with the liaison I Signed a four-year contract and then the day I was supposed to ship out I shouldn't have to a six-year contract plenty of videos and the benefits of four and six-year contract But I wanted the extra money. I want to make that rank faster and it's pretty much it Tech school for my job was at Fort Lee, Virginia, which is an army base Tech school, I believe it was about eight weeks or so. So it was about the same amount as basic training So I graduated I went for basic from April to June. I'm about mid to end June I went to Fort Lee, Virginia, and I graduated second or third of August So I want to say about seven to eight weeks long not too bad So for the most part tech school I enjoyed I think everyone's gonna enjoy tech school coming out of basic because you have these freedoms and you're Allowed to do more things compared to you're not as restricted as much You still have your restrictions because you just came out of basic You're not fully operational in the Air Force yet and independent. So you're still gonna have some rules to abide by But tech school I enjoyed for the most part. It was nice being able to go to the gym again It was nice going to be able to get food whenever I want order food to the dorms watch movies Sleep in on the weekends. Have your own shower and not have to share it with a bunch of people The only thing I didn't enjoy back tech school was it was so hot when in Virginia I went to tech school mid-summer. So it was hot as hell and you'd have to march get information March all the way to Tech school, which is about a mile away. So when you got to tech school, you were sweating and then there's a lot of academic things So this is one this ties back to me not enjoying school that much only thing I enjoy it like there was a lot of hands-on training but that came like later on in tech school Initially it was a lot of coursework and classwork and tests and stuff like that So sitting in a classroom for about eight hours a day getting stemmed out on as much caffeine as possible Eating as much snacks as possible something I didn't really enjoy because I don't like sitting behind a desk for long periods of time The good thing about my career field as a 2-2-2 air transportation You can get stationed anywhere in the world wherever an air force bases You can even end up at army bases wherever there's bases you can go all over the world every states I base Italy Germany Spain Japan Guam Honduras you can go everywhere everywhere. There's a base. They need you So not to go in a huge tangent like this But I want to try and be as detailed as possible and as little amount of time as possible So basically in a nutshell what my job kind of does load and download planes so upload planes and download planes So anything cargo related palletized equipment medical supplies vehicles personnel weapons cargo in general anything That's needed for the base. We use machinery forklifts and K loaders and Halverson loaders and 60 K loaders and cargo gets put on Pallets pallets get built up and stuff like that and that's another thing you do in my career field You build up pallets throw the nets on to restrain it and stuff So that's why it's safer flight pretty much upload cargo onto planes They'll fly it to other bases wherever they need to go And then you're someone another group of porters are down there to receive the cargo and download it and take it off The plane but there's also a lot of things you can do within that So I didn't know initially when I joined how big my career field can do so like I said Was it the bread and butter in my career field is pretty much upload and download planes cargo take cargo on a plane Take cargo off a plane transport it all over the world wherever the supplies are needed But there's also other things you can do so in my job in general You can pack parachutes attach it to cargo build up a cargo put a parachute on it load it onto a plane Pilots and load masters will conduct air drops and you will be there to recover the cargo That's just trains the load masters when they deploy downrange pilots and stuff that they're sufficient and air drops for troops on the ground That's a nothing you do my career field. So there's different sections of my career as well There's ramp where you're pretty much downloading and uploading planes There's cargo where you're palatizing and building these pallets and putting that sets over them and stuff like that There's fleet where you are there's dirty and clean fleets and dirty fleet You're gonna not like a kid you not you're gonna be sucking crap out of a plane with a hose So, you know cleaning the lavatories up taking the trash off the planes clean fleets gonna put in a fresh like blue Juice and like kind of like what you'd see in porta-potties and toilets or doesn't smell You're gonna bring meals to the plane which kind of varies because that could fall on another section And you're gonna bring like jugs of water for the air crew and stuff like that. So when they're flying they got water There's also passenger service where picture Everything a TSA agent does at an airport you can do it in my career for as well So as a porter you have different sections that you can go to at different bases So, you know going to through security processing passengers putting them on planes Making manifest and stuff like that. So that's everything you could do You could also end up at a squadron that I meant now Called a CRW which is a contingency response wing and what they're known for is rapidly deploying to all steer locations in middle of nowhere Setting up a base within like 24 48 hours to get planes on the ground conduct I could survey of the airfield if there is an airfield if not You're gonna build an airfield and also another part a big thing as we help out FEMA a lot like that So when disaster relief comes along we are usually tasked to upload supplies and stuff like that fly all over the world within 48 hours and help out humanitarian relief. So humanitarian relief rapidly deploying like I said I just came back from a deployment in the Middle East opening an air base You can do a talk and a talk is called the air terminal operation center So you're pretty much coordinating so when planes come in there the pilots and the air crew are gonna request what services are needed A talk is gonna receive that and they're gonna cement to simulate that information into perspective sections So say a plane comes down it needs pallets taken off a plane and it also needs, you know The lavatories cleaned up so that a talk is gonna reach out to those respective sections that do those specific duties and coordinate that So that's everything you can do in my career field didn't know there was that much to do until I kind of joined and experienced it first-hand So as far as hours I work on average it kind of depends on where you go So where I'm at now currently in a CRW unit is kind of like the place that everybody wants to be in my career field I've gotten pretty lucky So when I first got out at tech school I headed out to Yakota Air Base in Tokyo Japan and I worked for another Logistics readiness squadron and I handled I packed parachutes and did air drops and stuff like that still loaded and downloaded planes to train aircrew But also my additional duty was packing parachutes and doing that So when I was working there was working Monday through Friday eight hour shifts Then I ended up at McGuire Air Force Base at a CRW and I currently work about seven to eight hour shifts sometimes less It kind of depends right now Our main job and mission here is to train and then each year we have like a three month window where we can deploy So up until that point you're just training checking emails getting on top of stuff So you got a lot of free time We do have a lot of time to work out and stuff like that and we had to work So usually my day starts around 7 30 as far as work hours goes It starts at 7 30 and then the duty day ends at 4 30 But that varies depending on the mission the training and what the overall objective of the week is pretty much to do But my days usually start early like that I'm usually at the gym around 3 30 4 a.m. Before I do the Air Force's workout But if you end up at other bases you pretty much gonna work 12-hour shifts on 24-hour ops You're gonna work a 12-hour shift You'll work like three days on one day off or four days on two days off something like that it varies So between 8 to 12 hours is the max so you're gonna work anywhere So like I said once you get out of say you decide to get out of the Air Force and you have this career field Knowledge and experience you can pretty much work at any airport in the world So like I said as this job you're pretty much you pretty much do what airports do to an extent So you can you can load planes and upload cargo you can work as like a TSA agent I'm pretty sure you could also you also get certifications within it You get load planning certifications where everything that gets put on the plane You can't just throw anything you want on a plane You got to you know take account for the center balance the weight requirements of a plane If it's too heavy you can't take off and all that crap So you got to kind of take account of that so as a load planner You're the one who's specifically going through each thing that's going on the plane Making sure it's safe to fly meaning the requirements hazardous material requirements Like I said, you're gonna load a lot of hazardous materials You're gonna load bombs you're gonna load ammunition and weapons that aren't compatible that can't be near each other so another certification you get as a 2t2 is hazardous material handler and has hazardous material inspector as an inspector you pretty much inspect the cargo That's hazardous and you make sure that it's compatible it can fly close each other Does have to be separated and stored and as a handler you're preparing it and you're packaging it together and stuff like that So as an inspector you're looking over the work that handler did so hazardous material handler inspector and A load planner are three certifications that you can take away If you decide to get out of the military and go the civilian route for the career field So as far as deployments go for my job that again varies and try not to be as confusing as possible But you're pretty much going to have like a three month window If you go anywhere other base any other squadrons you're pretty much going to have when I was in Japan I was considered non-deployable because I wasn't just like a training part of the career field But you're pretty much going to have a band So everyone's going to have like a tempo band where they have like from april to like july of when they can deploy But in a crw we assume so there's multiple crw squadrons and each of them takes responsibility of a we call it alert So it's like a three month window. So I know these three months is when I can deploy This year it was Made no it was June july and august of this summer was when My three month window of alert was assumed in effect. So I deployed back in june and I just returned a couple days ago So pretty much from june to september I was gone and then it varies each time So after that three month window is up That's going to go to another squadron and you're going to difference the next year I take march april may alert it varies But you pretty much kind of a three month window when you can deploy for me I can only deploy for 90 days max in this unit for other units and stuff like that You deploy six months as a normal air force deployment So right now I am not planning on making this a 20 year commitment When I joined I kind of just joined to just travel and take full advantage of that and I still have the opportunity to travel And I'm definitely taking full advantage of that now right now Actually, ironically considering going back to school and getting out in about two and a half years and pursuing a degree And what I go back to school for but that could change I've also floated the idea of doing a 20 we're a 20 year commitment But right now I'm leaning towards not doing it kind of changes all the time But I just want to have options So a big thing is if you don't if you're unsure of what you want to do in the military Just make sure you have an idea you may not think of it right away But just think of it ahead of time So don't wait until like you're six months away from your contract ending And you're like, what do I do you kind of just want to have in the back of your mind have backup options Have some ideas So if you say I don't want to make this a 20 year career you can fall back on something You know a lot of people end up re-enlisting in the military because they're they don't really want to re-enlist But they like don't know what they want to do when they get out because the paycheck stops And they don't have that stability and stuff like that. So have an idea what you want to do But I'm open to both of them right now leaning more towards getting out. But we'll see So my top job that if I could be right now, which I actually tried to so each year Air Force releases retraining options So pretty much like the Air Force identifies what's critically manned in the Air Force and they like you to retrain into it I know the color vision has been a lot more lenient and the policy has changed a little bit I believe it's waverable now So I did put a retrain package in to my my top job that one of these probably load master Which they handle they work hand-in-hand with my job and they're the ones flying with the cargo all over the place And they coordinated getting the cargo they need on their plane and getting the cargo off their plane They fly a lot all the time So if I could be a load master that would be my number one and my second one would probably be an aerial gunner Or a special missions aviation, but I believe are the same thing So advice for people that are joining in this career field This is like a lot. This is a big career field. It's needed all over the place You were pretty much like everything that you see on an Air Force base pretty much comes in from or it's taken care of porters So cargo anything like that is taken care of you and like I said I only I didn't go too in depth as far as the sections But there's a huge part of this career field that not a lot of people are aware of when they join So advice I'd give to people that say you land this career field is try and go overseas The biggest thing I can say is stress the importance of go overseas get out of your comfort zone It's okay to miss family and friends and relatives and wives and girlfriends majority of the time if you're married You can take them with you girls and stuff like that just go experience it Go have the opportunity the Air Force is paying you to go travel and live in another country take full advantage of it So my biggest advice is get out of your comfort zone get away from home Go travel as far away as possible and just enjoy life out there because nothing grows inside a comfort zone Travel travel travel and just be open to the possibilities of the career field Like I said if you end up in a career in a section in this career field that you're not Fond of majority of the time depending on how much Manning and stuff like this and your skill level and stuff like that you can get out and go to a different section You're in your career. You're going to transfer to different bases in different sections So there's so many sections so many things you can do So just be open that if you're stuck doing one thing there's better things for you to do So if you guys want to follow me and find more about my Air Force experience I also have a youtube channel tim zeigler youtube well tim zeigler on youtube my instagram is tim zeigler youtube tim zi gl er yt at instagram.com and I do have a youtube channel, which is my name tim zie gl er Pretty much document my life if you look back in my channel. I document my whole time when I was out in Tokyo Japan I documented me traveling to other countries with my job I've also documented doing stuff particularly in my job, which I'm allowed to show And also have you know videos about jeeps and car builds and working out so A little bit of everything on there So if you guys want to follow me on instagram and subscribe to my youtube channel and more than welcome to