 Why did you have joining the Air Force? I personally joined the Air Force because, I don't know, like as a kid I've always just been like fascinated with airplanes, like always wondered how they work and like how they could fly and stuff and I always knew I wanted to like work on them and my uncle was in the Air Force for four years and he was like a big advocate. I'm one of seven children so going to college was like I knew I was starting my life in debt if I went to college like just on my own free will so I know the Air Force like at least get my like trade experience and then like I can get free college and like get at least my life set up. My mom and dad didn't graduate college and you know they always like advocated that. I grew up in a apartment and slept on a couch so you know like I knew like if I wanted to to make something of myself I needed like put into work to do it so I joined the Air Force like with that intent and like I knew I wanted to be with airplanes so like Air Force at least the military like I knew they're all about the jets and helicopters and stuff like that so I was like you know like I want to go this one. Did you join right out of high school? We were straight out of high school as soon as I graduated I had like my last summer like we had my grad party slash going away party and then as soon as that was done I got on the bus and went went to the Air Force. So how long have you been in the Air Force and what is your current rank? I've been in for three and a half years a little over that it'll be four years of September. I'm currently a senior airman which is E4. And you're about to test for the first time? Yeah I test on the 15th of May. Not even two weeks. Yeah two weeks like I test and I'm praying. You been studying? A little bit. I need to be studying a lot more but. So what is your job name, title and AFSC? The official name of my job is aircraft metals technology but we just go by metals tech and the AFSC is 2A7X1. Did you get this job in depth as a specific contract or did you get it as an open mechanical contract? I got it like straight from depth I had like my listing and I actually put aircraft metals technology like number four and like two weeks later he's like yeah you got the job like you can. What was your other three about that do you remember? I actually think I had aircraft structural maintenance above that. Be thankful you didn't get it. Yeah I honestly I didn't even know what like metals tech was. I literally went into like the mechanic side of like the listing and whatnot and I was like I know I want to work on the jet I don't want to be hands-on. I just found a bunch that was like that's hands-on that's hands-on that's hands-on I put it on the list and and you know they were just like well you got one of them. So you were just like happy if you got A&A it was hands-on when you're back. Yeah like I just I I just wanted to be hands-on like I always want to know how they work and I was like if I can be hands-on and like figure out how they work on my own and like you know put my own parts on it and whatnot like I would have been happy either way. So when you signed your contract did you sign four or six years and why? I signed four years that was a vice given to me by my uncle who like was in the Air Force for four years and he told me like you never know like what you're gonna like what you're gonna dislike um if you do sign a six-year contract of course they're gonna like offer you bonuses and all that stuff but he's like you might be a year in and hate your life and then you got to be in for five more years and he's like or you can be in for four years totally love your job and be like you know I can sign up for four or six more now. So we'll roll off of that one and you just recently did what? I recently just re-signed for four years I'll be serving at the very least eight years in the military. And even then eight years you could still take your experience and walk if you chose. Yeah I keep signed for four because like if I do find a job that will offer me more money or you know I get my college degree and like can do that then I can walk I always try to get myself that option just in case you know like you get that horrible work environment and whatnot and you're just like man I just gotta get out. So something a lot of people that are researching jobs in the Air Force want to know about the jobs they're researching is where is tech school and how long are you there? Tech school for metals tech is in Texas at Shepherd Air Force Base. For me it was about six months but I went during Christmas so we had like those extra like two weeks off so it's probably five and a half to six months it's not long a lot of machining for like half of it and then the other half is welding because that's we kind of have like two jobs in one we do machining and welding so like three months of machining three months of welding then you get like your basic math and stuff because machining is all about angles and trying to take measurements and all that other stuff. So I've heard some bad things about Shepherd but then I've heard good things about Shepherd also so what was your experience with Tech School overall? Would you say it was like terrible or it was okay or it was great? Honestly I had a fun time but I think it was just because of like the people I was with like you know you find yourself like everyone in tech school like I had like all my classmates always wanted to go do something like you know like we always went to like the oh man the airman's club or whatnot and like the always played pool or ping pong or like the video games and then like we'd went out and and we went out to like the mall and stuff so like we always had like something to do we were always finding something to do like because we all knew like we're all there by ourselves but like we're all there together by ourselves so it was like found something and that's what you make the best of it. That's like the Air Force like no matter what no matter where you are it's just me and my wife right now but like you know we got no one around us but we're making the best of it this is our life like you know you just it everything everywhere you go is what you make of it like you can sit in your room all day and be like man there's nothing to do or whatnot or you can go out and just you know go to like the Airman's Club or like the little like get-together place for people playing ping pong and pool and just like challenge people whatnot like I've never played ping pong before in my life but like I played so much ping pong in tech school and I got like pretty good at it and I was like you want to play you want to play like you know you just stay busy yeah you just gotta stay busy keep your mind busy you know tech school for metals tech like some jobs you'll get homework and whatnot like metals tech it's all the whole job is hands-on so like we got no homework or whatnot so you go to class you get back and like you just do whatever you want that's awesome yeah it was a good time so does metals tech limit the amount of places that you can go or can you go anywhere because some jobs are very like specific to certain airframes or certain locations so what's the situation with metals tech metals tech you can go to any base with aircraft pretty much and that that's basically all of them you can literally go to any airframe any base that and you don't get locked in on specific aircraft no you don't get locked in so you actually this isn't your first base this is my second base so what airframes did you work on I worked on f22 fighter jets before and now I'm on the helicopters out here okay so totally different airframes yeah jet to helicopter yeah but you know I've worked on both now I've I've welded on a helicopter the jets are a lot newer so like if something breaks they won't they'll want the part completely replaced rather than welded but we still do like welding and whatnot on helicopters everything's helicopters like just fix it so this might be one of the most important things that I ask you in this whole interview and it's going to be what exactly do you do in your job like what all does your job entail that you would have to do and explain because sometimes air force will try to explain what people do in their job and then people get out of the job and they're like no this is not even accurate you lied yeah so what what would it be if you could give like a description of all the things that you do in your job well for metals tech is basically like anything on an airframe that's metal that needs to be fixed we fix it but uh we do a lot of machining and welding so like basically we could take a block like a two by two block of metal and we'd actually have to like cut it down shape it reshape it to make a bracket to fit inside this aircraft or whatever and you know we'd have to weld it on you'd have to you know riveted on or whatnot but you have like literally see thinking outside the box we have a block of metal and you have to think about how am I going to get this you're like a sculptor yeah a metal sculptor pretty much for aircraft like that's like the best way to put it like we take machinery we take uh lathes to like spin it and make bushings we take mills to actually like cut down the part to make brackets we use water jets which is like the coolest machine in the i was like i loved the water jet i forgot about water jets like it look up like just people cutting stuff up on water jet we'll throw a link up above so you guys can check out what water jets are water jetting is like my favorite part of the job like anyone says hey we need this cut out of water jet i always volunteer just because like watching how that thing works it literally takes a stream of water and pierces metal and like it cuts out designs and shapes and it's all computer programs so you're like hey i want to i want to cut out you know the los vegas knight's logo like you can put you can put the whole picture in there you can tell it hey i want this part cut out on this part to be kept in and you just watch water go around metal and cut out the design you want it's it's the coolest thing like we literally have the freedom to to like use our imagination and like the the freedom to to just take any sheet of metal any block of metal and make what we want out of it to make sure that these aircrafts fly to do their job and that's like the the best way to put it like you literally a lot of jobs in the air force it's very by the book like you have to do it this way you have to do this like metals metals tech they're like hey here's this block of metal please make it work for us we don't care how you do it if you if you fit these dimensions like a it's got to be three inches by two inches and as to fit in this spot like we don't care how you make it work like please make it work make this thing fly and like so if you don't like using like a cnc machine you could use a lathe just because yeah like you know how to make it that shape yeah pretty much like you can pick and choose what machinery you kind of yeah you can you know we got hand tools we got like actual machinery like we we got like you know one that spins it sideways and one that like keeps it still and you have the machine actually spinning and cutting from the top because like woodworkers but for metal yeah that's how it is yeah that's what all your guys's machinery reminds me yeah i just been working stuff i did we're woodworking in high school and like you've worked on like a a woodworking lathe where you actually like take your tooling and like take it to the wood but like we would never do that for metal all the like the lathe works the exact same it spins but like you actually have tooling like with like an arm that like will cut in for you because there's no way like your hand can take like that i'm not gonna do this but yeah like it's a lot more um precision uh a lot of our measurements actually have to be within five thousandths of an inch and that is point zero zero five of accuracy and to like just give a reference i believe a piece of hair is three thousandths of an inch so like we have to be pretty close to like like basically within a hair within a hair of our measurements and the machine they don't care how you get there they don't care how we get there yeah exactly like it it's it's crazy but like they're like we don't care how you get there but if you can make this work like make it work and that's what like that's what i love about it like i have the imagination and like it's not like i had a file book like okay like i have to put it on this machine i have to go in this many thousands and i have to i have to like you know use these tools like i could be like man like this this machine isn't working for me i need to make this part i'm gonna try this and like do it this way and like cut it down this way and you can even like do something that's challenging yeah because you want to be like you know this sounds a little too easy like let's try spinning it sideways or let's do it blindfolded right so we really like we just get to craft things out of metal and just make it work and make these these aircraft fly just and all we have is a blueprint that says hey this is how the part needs to look make it look that way so you guys also do welding too yeah we do welding um most of the time it's just like little cracks in like the the airframe and whatnot or like um we work with uh age and like they have like you know stands and stairs and stuff and like for their safety like stuff cracks out so we have to weld it make sure it's strictly safe so they can like get up on top of the aircraft and whatnot so a lot of time we will fix their stuff so you'll fix like stands yeah we'll fix stands and whatnot um on the f-22 that i worked on we really don't weld on that aircraft because it's so delicate that if something's broken they'll just replace it because it like that thing goes through like so many g-forces and all that stuff like but like helicopters ever ready like welded parts on the helicopter and like they're just like it's not going to go through as much g's it's like able to withstand like welding and like if i weld it's not going to crack out from the pressure and whatnot so we will we will weld on some aircraft some aircrafts they'll just be like yeah make a new part let's order a new part but uh a lot of time it's it's making the equipment that other people use safer to use so that way the stand doesn't fall apart and you know hurt someone some injured aircraft injured from that so the last question i'm going to ask is what advice do you have for somebody that's interested in this job or somebody that just got this job and was about to join advice i have yeah what advice do you have for somebody that's going to be filling your shoes one day oh man but that's a that's a really good question because me personally i love this job i think it's the best job in the air for so like the advice i could give is like go for this job like you're like you're gonna love it like you know i mean there's a lot of there's a lot of like stupid stuff that they'll make you do a metal step because you know like we try to keep our because you don't have rules so they're like yeah you can do this yeah so like so like we try to keep our jets and aircraft you know like at the top you know health that they can be so a lot of the time we won't get like you know making brackets and stuff like that that often jobs come in of course but a lot of time they'll have you just like make random stuff just to keep your skills up and you know we're making going away gifts yeah or make going away gifts pretty much like you make water jets for yeah that's what the water jets for you'll learn that too but but i love it so sometimes you'll be like man like this is so stupid like i've been in for three and a half years and like sometimes be like hey i want to see like how your skills are i'm like man you've worked with me for three and a half years you know i'm good at this you know but it's just stuff trying to like they'll tell you stuff and just take it with a grain of salt pretty much like they're they're doing it to help you be better and whatnot you know you're like me like i know i'm good i know i can cut out this part but like the more practice you get the more the more stuff you do cut out like even though you can do it you're going to keep up with that because as soon as as soon as like you take six months off and you don't you don't really work with the machinery you're like man i know i know how to do this but like totally forgot yeah how do i set this so like there there will be like dumb stuff that they ask you to do but like take it with a grain of salt because like honestly meadowsack i think is the coolest job in world we get i feel like the most freedom out of any other job in the air force to like especially in maintenance especially in maintenance maintenance like for aircraft maintenance is very crucial like you know like you don't want to make a mistake or that's someone's lives life in an aircraft going down so we get a lot more freedom than anyone else in like maintenance to just make things work so i honestly think that meadowsack would be the best maintenance job like for anyone to pick if you're going to aircraft is going to have an influx of putting down i'm sure hope so man because the meadowsack like this the stuff we do like it it's it's amazing just honestly like if your meadowsack like practice welding we do tig welding which is like literally you have a torch and and a rod and you have to control the heat of what's coming out of the torch with your foot and then you have stuff called mig welding which literally like the heat and the rod and everything comes out of uh like a gun pretty much you pull a trigger and and you weld so like just get yourself familiar with that because like if you do go to your first base or your first career and you're able to do that stuff right away it's going to look a lot better for you um machining wise like just look up videos of cnc machining look up videos of water jetting or like people using a lathe like just get yourself like familiar so at least like you know what you're talking about at the very least you guys have a lot nicer equipment at your last base than here oh yeah my last base uh the only reason i know is because i was in the shop that you're in now oh yeah that's the shop i got out of yeah and everybody complained about how our shop doesn't have like any of stuff that most bases have or like as nice of equipment right yeah this base like i came from panama city florida where we had like two holes like one room was dedicated to machinery it was a whole bay we had three lathes three or two mills two cnc's a cnc lathe we had a water jet room like a six-axis like cnc machine yeah those things are crazy it was insane yeah and they move like every way possible you you can literally make anything you want out of like a six-axis cnc and then like we had a whole other room for welding but here like you have literally one lathe one mill everything's within five feet of each other everything's within five feet of each other like we our welders are right next to our mills and you have to like separate them by a curtain so no one goes blind and then uh if we if we need to use like a cnc or something we have to go 10 minutes down the road to a different shop but you know like i still like honestly no that stuff bothers me like you know like sometimes you're like man i really don't want to get in my car and drive 10 minutes but the work we do is honestly like so fun and trying to figure out how to do everything just like i'm like i love like solving puzzles and whatnot and like my job is literally one big puzzle every day like how i'm gonna solve this how am i gonna make this work so that that way like these guys can get the part they want like it so if you're not good with with math there is a lot of math this would be a good job or if you're like not a hands-on person probably not a good job yeah if you're not if you're not really hands-on like there's the entire job is hands-on like if you like if you like doing like symbiote computer and doing like your paperwork whatnot like metal stack is definitely not the job to go into but like if you love working with your hands if you love trying to like figure stuff out if you love doing like the math to figure out like you know yet a lot of times you have to get within point zero zero five of an inch so you're gonna have to be like okay point zero zero nine minus point zero zero four that's how much you gotta cut in and a lot of time you work with like angles and whatnot to get the bracket to fit so if you're not like if you don't like math there's gonna be a geometry yeah if you don't like geometry because there's a lot of angles and and all that stuff then uh then then definitely try to look into something else but like i honestly i love math i love trying to solve puzzles i i love like i knew i wanted to work hands-on with the aircraft and like i'm not out like every day on that jet putting my hands on it but like when work comes in and i have my hands on it like i love it like i i love like trying to figure out all right how am i going to get in here how am i going to make this part work it's it's it's just so much fun like it's a fun job to figure out and they're gonna watch this video and be like this guy needs to be a recruiter and then you're gonna be like i don't want to be a recruiter i want to do my job i want to be hands-on i don't want to work on to the desk