I was in the Air Force for 4 years, and not only did I have nothing to do with anything that flies, I spent all of 2 days on bases with active airfields (one day at RAF Lackland for medical purposes and one day at Macguire AFB for outprocessing). Given my mechanical aptitude (or lake thereof), the powers-that-be figured it would be best if I served my country as far away from expensive flying machinery as possible.
Do you mean RAF Lakenheath? That was where I was stationed for two years. Had one of USAFE’s primary medical centers there. They removed my appendix with only minutes to spare before it would have burst.
Lackland, being in Texas, isn’t a Royal Air Force Base.
:eek:
I have this image of a doctor cutting the appendix loose and running from the operating room with your appendix firmly clenched in a pair of hemostats.
“Outta my way! It’s gonna blow”
He clears the building and throws the appendix, hemostats and all, into a pile of sandbags or something, then throws himself for cover as this huge explosion sends sand and dirt flying everywhere.
Roll credits.
DOH! RAF Lakenheath. Old age and all that…they both start with ‘L’
I’ll go hide my head in the sand now…
Sounds like my Navy career. Six years in and I spent three whole hours aboard a commissioned Naval vessel, the Lexington, when I visited a buddy of mine one Sunday afternoon.
It was tied quite firmly to the dock the whole time.
DD
I know a few radio operators who would be interested to hear that! 
(well true, there are no more than a handfull still in existance, but they wouldn’t like being called dead hehe)
I worked 5 years as an avionics technician. I saw far more of the airplanes than I could eventually stand. It’s amazing the old (35year+) junkers could still make it into the air. Much of the wiring had aquired that special “statue of liberty” greenish color from decades of moisture slowly seeping into the insulation. I somehow became my unit’s wiring replacement expert, an unenviable job that inspired me to leave for greener pastures.
I fly. My job is AFSC is 1A3X1, Airborne Communications and Electronics Specialist, but because of my additional specialized training, I am an Electronic Communications Systems Operator.
In addition to myself, on the enlisted side we have Loadmasters and Flight Engineers where I’m at.
AWACS and J-STARS are almost all enisted as well, except for the flight crew and the Air Battle Manager.
Fact is, unless you’re a pilot, navigator, or a mission commander of some sort, you’re enlisted. The fighters don’t have enlisted men on them, naturally, but some bombers do (or did when the B-52 had tail guns). All C-130s, C-141s, C-17s and C-5s have enlisted people on them. Although, and I’m not sure how true this is because I can’t be bothered to look it up, I’ve been told that only 1 to 2% of all people in the AF actually fly for a living. True or not, it’s definitely a small percentage. I consider myself fortunate. 
Everything else in the AF is done in support of the aircrews and the airplanes, and enlisted vastly outnumber officers in virtually all of those areas. Incidentally, they all do a hell of a job. I can never praise my fellow servicemen and women enough.
As with any service, it’s the enlisted, and most especially the NCOs, that are the backbone of the service.
So what do enlisted people in the Air Force do? Almost everything you can think of except for pilot the airplane.
Soryy, I should have added this, the most complete list of enlisted AFSCs I could find.
My dad was enlisted and did various medical-type things.
Yeah, that was pretty much how it happened…
