You may now call me Airman Leader, if you prefer, OR I just got me my green rope!

[Airman Doors, USAF]

All of my hard work is beginning to pay off. Finally. Here's the deal.

I took my classes, and as I was doing that, I was also taking a leadership class. The end result of all that is that I am now an Airman Leader, which gives me all the rights and privileges of absolutely nobody and gets me yelled at twice as loud and twice as often for my fellow airmen's mistakes.

Why would I subject myself to that, you may ask. Well, so long as I keep my nose clean and maintain my 95% GPA, I will almost certainly be recommended for BTZ Senior Airman (E-4). That moves me closer to being able to test for Staff Sergeant by a good 6 months, at least. So my career is really moving quickly.

In addition to the above, the wedding is still on for the 24th, and I am now in Phase III, so anyone who wants to meet me in 'Nawlins, just let me know and it's on. :)

That's it for now. As always, I will keep you updated.

-A1C Dave Cartwright

[Airman Doors, USAF]

Unfortunately, they haven't taught me typing. It was SUPPOSED to be "now", not "mow".

I feel so sheepish.

[RTFirefly]

That's great, Dave - let me be the first to congratulate you!

[Mr. Cynical]

Want my red rope, or will you make it that far, toots?

I swear to god, you're pinging so hard, you're single-handedly driving up high-octane sales in the area. :D

[Serendipity]

Congrats, Airman Doors. I'm glad to hear you're doing so well. :)

[jacksen9]

Awesome! Cogratulations. Hey...Ocean Springs, Biloxi, Gulfport...I have spent alot of good time there. Before the casinos. Do take care and thanks for your service to this great nation. :)

[Zappo]

Awwwwright! Congratulations Dave!

Thank you and take care.

[Ringo]

'Grats, Dave! Keep it up!

[MsRobyn]

Sweetie, you always make me proud of you. That is wonderful!

And you're not going into Nawlins without me!

See you this weekend!

I love you,

Robin

[Rysdad]

Attaway, flyboy. Your hard work will pay off large. We're all proud of ya.

I'm looking forward to seeing Sergeant Doors, USAF as your handle.

[Pammipoo]

Way to go babe!

Me and Rashad are both rootin for ya....

[Flamsterette_X]

Hey, congratulations! It's great to hear that you're doing so well! :)

[Lucretia]

Hey, I had a green rope once! Of course, I busted curfew and lost it, so don't get too carried away in 'Nawlins.

Awesome job, Dave.

[iampunha]

Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF
Well, so long as I keep my nose clean and maintain my 95% GPA,

You know, based on my knowledge of the Air Force (i.e. as much as my rottweiler knows), I gotta ask: is this as hard as it seems (keeping a GPA that high ANYWHERE seems hard)?

[Simetra]

Nice rope... I still outrank you. :)

Well MrC offered his red one. You want my white rope? I got a buddy with a yellow one and Lodi (He posts here occasionally) has a Beat & Blow rope. That's just about all of them.

Seriously, if you're really pushing hard for BTZ, get your supervisor to put you in for quarterly awards and volunteer for everything you can... "Meals on Wheels", "HFH", etc...

GL AD. :)

[Airman Doors, USAF]

Not for long, Simetra, not for long. I fully expect to bust out my training, finish my CDCs, get my five level, and thn tear up my PFE and SKT. In other words, the competitive person in me wants Staff faster than anyone has ever done it before. We'll see about that, though.

Somehow I have no trouble believing that MrC had a Red Rope. He strikes me as the bossy, pushy, 341 pullin' bastard that everyone loves to hate, so that makes total sense to me. ;)

As far as the white rope goes, I try to stay as far from the Fishbowl as possible. Chief Mack works there and he just LOVES busting up NPS airmen like myself.

And I'd rather be on the drill team than get a D&B rope. That's just not my bag, y'know? But if I bust my ass, I'll probably be able to get my yellow rope.

Lucretia, I'm not surprised about your little soiree in 'Nawlins, by the way. You're way too wild for me. ;)

In other news, I had a very up and down day. I marched my first flight today and did OK, nothing too bad for the first time, I just need to work on my command voice, but that just takes time. The down part was the big whopping 74% that I got on my block test. I just barely passed, so yes, all the tests are tough, FYI. That sounds bad, and it brought my GPA down to a 90% :(, but here's the part that I didn't tell you. Four people washed out on that test, 9 got an 85% or lower, and the best student in the class lost 4 points on his GPA. So I was just happy to pass. So much for Top Grad, though. Oh well.


So that's the skinny for today. Tomorrow is another day, and tomorrow I will be the best airman in the Air Force, as always. :) Later, everyone.

-Dave

[Rysdad]

Originally posted by Simetra
I got a buddy with a yellow one and Lodi (He posts here occasionally) has a Beat & Blow rope.

Please tell me this has something to do with a drum and budle corps.

[Rysdad]

Budle? Bugle! And I even previewed.

[Nacho4Sara]

Congrats, Dave! You are quite a blessed dude right now - recieving this honor, and getting married in a few weeks to boot.

Unfortunately, I am mired on papers and finals right now, so N'awlins and the wedding are out of the question, but please know that I am cheering you on in spirit.

BTW, you struck me as an incredibly smart person (duh - you're marrying Robin, after all), so I have complete faith in your ability to keep up the GPA and get your next ribbon.

Congrats again! {{Dave}}

[Tripler]

Originally posted by Simetra
Nice rope... I still outrank you. :)

Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF
Not for long, Simetra, not for long.


Yeah, well y'know what? Should you fuck up, I will invoke my executive priviledge and have a li'l talk with you. :D

Congrats. Now I owe ya two cases.

Tripler
And yer getting married in a few weeks!!

[GingerOfTheNorth]

Congrats, Dave! All the best!

[Billdo]

Good job, Airman Leader Doors! Gotta love a man with a green rope.

Now, can you explain to me and the other clueless civilians what all of the acronyms and jargon (BTZ, Fishbowl, 341) and the rope colors mean. (you know, fighting ignorance and all).

Best of luck on the tests and promotions.

[Billdo]

Good job, Airman Leader Doors! Gotta love a man with a green rope.

Now, can you explain to me and the other clueless civilians what all of the acronyms and jargon (BTZ, Fishbowl, 341) and the rope colors mean. (you know, fighting ignorance and all).

Best of luck on the tests and promotions.

[Billdo]

Good job, Airman Leader Doors! Gotta love a man with a green rope.

Now, can you explain to me and the other clueless civilians what all of the acronyms and jargon (BTZ, Fishbowl, 341) and the rope colors mean. (you know, fighting ignorance and all).

Best of luck on the tests and promotions.

[Billdo]

Oops, sorry. I don't know how I did that, but I only need one set of explanations, not three.

[Leifsmama]

Congratulations all the way around! I have no idea what you've accomplished, but I'm sure you deserved it. I'm so proud!

[Airman Doors, USAF]

Originally posted by Billdo
Good job, Airman Leader Doors! Gotta love a man with a green rope.

Now, can you explain to me and the other clueless civilians what all of the acronyms and jargon (BTZ, Fishbowl, 341) and the rope colors mean. (you know, fighting ignorance and all).

Best of luck on the tests and promotions.

I guess I somewhat ambiguous there. OK, here's your explanation.

There are three colors for Airman Leader ropes: Green, which is the lowest one, the one everyone starts at. Yellow you get after you meet some specific requirements, such as Open Ranks inspection. Red is the top of the heap, the leader of the Airman Leaders, if you will. They run the show for the most part. I have a lot to do to get Yellow, but I can never make Red because I'm not here long enough.

BTZ means Below The Zone. Airmen are promoted up to Senior Airman automatically barrng any major screwups, but you can get it faster than normal if you distinguish yourself, which I am trying to do. After that there are many ways to get promoted, but you can always get promoted BTZ if you show superior leadership skills.

The Fishbowl is the nickname for the Levitow Training Support Facility Student Center, so named because in the old one you could watch people go by and they could look in on you like you were "in a fishbowl".

A PFE is a Promotion Fitness Examination, which is required to get Staff Sergeant or above (aka Non-Commissioned Officer). An SKT is a Specialty Knowledge Test, required for promotion as proof that you know what you are doing. And a CDC is a Career Development Course, required to increase your skill level.

That's all those acronyms in a nutshell.

[Billdo]

Thanks, Airman!

I now realize that I have a more basic question: What does it mean to be an Airman Leader (of whatever color rope)?

I figure that it's some sort of leadership position (duh) and that's a good thing in the military. However, I'd be interested to know what privileges it may get you or responsibilities it may give you.

[Spavined Gelding]

I'm happy things are going well, but tell us when you learn to head space a .50.

[Rysdad]

What's a Beat and Blow, darn it?

[A1C Joe]

In tech school, you have a military training leader. Pretty much, he's like a T.I. only less harsh. Its been a while since i was in tech school, but i remember the ropes were a bunch of kiss-ups who acted as the MTL's henchmen while he was away. They're very militant anal people who have been successfuly brainwashed in six quick weeks. They use staple words alot too. Its the rope's job to make sure you stand of line and keep your eyes and head straight forward. Why in the world would anybody want to do that? You don't get paid any more than you normally would. Airman freekin special! Maybe ropes have an inferiority complex and feel that they need to be part of some "elite" group.

[A1C Joe]

The people who are responsible for giving you BTZ usually dont look at whether you were a rope or not, but it helps. The main points they look at are amount of hours spent doing volunteering (honor guard, helping with special events, etc.) and your scores for you CDCs (Career Development Course). Your CDC tests are exams you take to reach your 5-level.

[Crunchy Frog]

Siding with A1C Joe just a little here in that being a rope in tech school won't mean much in the real AF. For BTZ they're going to look at a lot more than your GPA, a clean nose, and whether you were a rope in tech school or not. Volunteer work is a big boon, being a mentor was always a big one and volunteering in the local community, not just on base. They also like to see airmen expanding their college credits along with good scores on the CDCs.

I was Honor Guard and Unit Historian (a job normally done by NCOs, not the airmen), but not a rope in tech school. I was submitted for BTZ, but my spotty record held me back (a couple arrests, some LORs) which was just as well since I did my four years and got out.

You'll have to go to Airman Leadership School before they promote you to SSgt anyway (at least that was the case 6 years ago), so I don't know what the hell kind of class they've got you going to now, unless it's just a class to be a rope. In short, being a rope is all well and good, but I'm getting the feeling you're reading a bit much into it.

[heresiarch]

341's! :eek:

:D :D Bwahahahaha! :D :D

That just took me back, lessee, 17 years!

Since you didn't explain that along with the other jargon, please allow me. Those are Air Education Training Command form 341's, which are used to report merits and (more typically) demerits. You have to carry blank ones with you and present them to people who catch you screwing up.

A1C Doors, do you still have to fold them in perfect thirds lengthwise, then make another fold near the end so that you can tuck them into your shirt pocket? If we couldn't whip out a 341 in under a second, like a freaking street magician, we'd get another demerit for being too slow. And if your face betrayed any emotion for getting written up, you guessed it, a third demerit for "lack of military bearing."

Dave, someday you'll look back on things like this and laugh. Probably in 17 years. Mwahahahaha!

I gotta admit that I was nowhere near as ambitious as you when I was in tech school. I was on the drill team and we got cut a little bit of slack in exchange for learning to flip rifles around and for getting our boots just a little shinier than everybody else. Not a bad deal.

Anyway, congratulations on your rope and the academic achievements! Hey, I don't remember, can ropes pull 341's from other students?

[Simetra]

Originally posted by Rysdad
What's a Beat and Blow, darn it?

You guessed it: Drum(beat) & Bugle(blow).

Not to be confused with Blow & Beat... (fife and drum)

:)

Originally posted by heresiarch
Do you still have to fold them in perfect thirds lengthwise, then make another fold near the end so that you can tuck them into your shirt pocket? If we couldn't whip out a 341 in under a second, like a freaking street magician, we'd get another demerit for being too slow. And if your face betrayed any emotion for getting written up, you guessed it, a third demerit for "lack of military bearing."

Yup... that's about the way it was when I went through BMT and Tech School 3 years ago...

Jesus Christ... three whole years ago...

<wanders off feeling old>

[D_Odds]

This ex-USAF BTZ E-4 (4 yrs and out) wishes you the best of luck. Did the whole rope thing myself, up to red at both my tech schools (DLI Presidio, Monterey, CA and Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo, TX)

[Crunchy Frog]

D_Odds - were you a linguist? I was a 209x0 (later changed to 1N6x1), a job title more affectionately known around Goodfellow as a "buddyfucker" and a "7 week wonder".

[D_Odds]

Originally posted by Billdo
Thanks, Airman!

I now realize that I have a more basic question: What does it mean to be an Airman Leader (of whatever color rope)?

I figure that it's some sort of leadership position (duh) and that's a good thing in the military. However, I'd be interested to know what privileges it may get you or responsibilities it may give you.
I can't speak for Airman Doors, but my primary reason for becoming a rope (student leader) all those long years ago was simply I didn't being told by other junior TI-wannabes what to do :cool: Whether or not I became one is open to interpretation, but I don't think I did.

However, the Presidio was much more laid back than many other technical training schools. I think we did marching drills no more than a half-dozen times in my year there.

[A1C Joe]

Yes, ropes (facist youth) are aloud to pull 341's. What in the world would they have to gain? What kind of sicko gets his kicks doing that?

[D_Odds]

Jeez, I hadn't seen a 341 after I left summer (boot) camp. You should have been a linguist. :)

[Airman Doors, USAF]

I think you have drawn some inaccurate conclusions about me, A1C Joe. I am NOT a person who thinks that I am better than anyone else. I chose to become an Airman Leader so I could get an idea of what leadership is all about. I am not on an ego trip at all. Think about it-why would I do something that detracts from my personal life, my schoolwork, my leisure time, and gets me both disrespect from people who hate authority and the MTLs who don't think I do the job well enough? It's all about sacrifice, sir. I have my own selfish reasons for wanting to do this, however.

The primary reason above and beyond the leadership issue is my promotion to Senior Airman. I am eligible for promotion to Senior Airman right about the time I leave Keesler, and I was told that if I have a rope my promotion will be endorsed favorably. So there you go. You want to call me a brownnoser, go ahead. I'm in it for life, so the sooner I can get to ALS and get Staff Sergeant the better. I'm sorry if you can't or won't understand that.

As far as being a mini TI...well, yeah. If you know me and you know what dramatic changes I have gone through, you'd realize that I WANT to be a TI. I can't think of a better group of people to emulate. They are among the best Airmen in the Air Force, and they turn out the best Airmen in the Air Force, and I would consider it to be an honor to be counted among them.

Also, I have pulled exactly ONE 341, and as I turned it in to an MTL I gave him my opinion that this Airman, who was having very severe personal problems at the time, should not be punished but instead counseled. That earned me a butt ripping for telling an MTL how to do his job. So yes, I care about the people I am in charge of, and I will do anything for them that I can possibly do. I do not just do things to prove how special I am, and I never will.

So, A1C Joe, my dedication to my service runs very deep, and as you question my motivations you question my integrity. That, sir, is something I don't appreciate, but you may keep your own counsel if you like. Just realize that if you need me, I'll be there, and I would hope that despite your obvious distaste for people like me you would still be willing to do the same for me.

-A1C Dave Cartwright

[Bluesman]

Dam', Doors, that was a helluva response. Way to go, son.

I would like to add that a good leader, a REALLY good leader, is trying to keep his people OUT of trouble, not get 'em in any. If you have to do that by going to The Hammer, it should be after all other tools have been tried. And apply exactly enough to correct the behavior - no more, and no less. If the measure is correct, you will have inflicted less pain than that follower was headed for in the long run.

A1C Joe, I am saddened but not surprised that you haven't encountered a single decent student leader. If nobody is teaching them how to do it right, they're forced to rely on trial-and-error, and it's no wonder some of 'em get it wrong. Hell, SOME of 'em may never realize how badly they carried out their duties. And we can guess what kind of NCO they'll be.

But here's the important thing to remember: there is NO PERK to compensate for making yourself responsible for young military people, when you're still one yourself. Doors is doing it for leadership experience, and a better shot at BTZ selection. Nothing wrong with that. But what he should know, what anybody that asks for responsibility of other people should always keep in mind, is this: It ain't always a way to the top. If you OR THOSE YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR screw up, it's all on you.

So, if he adheres to the core values, you can keep the snide comments to yourself, Hoss, unless you're willing to put it on the line, too.

[Rossarian]

Bravo Airman Doors, I wish every airman, both officer and enlisted, had that outlook. It didn't take me long to notice that some people don't understand the responsibility that goes along with the power their position or rank gives them, even when they were taught better than that. But it only made me respect the true leaders even more.

And I see I'm not the only Doper to enjoy a pleasant stay in San Angelo. Just 1.5 more months and no more Goodfellow...until I inevitably have to come back again for some other training. :(

But at least I'll be free from AETC...

[Rossarian]

Bravo Airman Doors, I wish every airman, both officer and enlisted, had that outlook. It didn't take me long to notice that some people don't understand the responsibility that goes along with the power their position or rank gives them, even when they were taught better than that. But it only made me respect the true leaders even more.

And I see I'm not the only Doper to enjoy a pleasant stay in San Angelo. Just 1.5 more months and no more Goodfellow...until I inevitably have to come back again for some other training. :(

But at least I'll be free from AETC...

[A1C Joe]

sacrifice does not always have to be admirable