Around This World

Welcome! Bienvenido! Youkoso! Willkommen!
Most people like the idea of joining the Air Force because of its traveling options. Ask most seniors in high school why they're in the AF softbook program and you'll get, "I'll get to see the world!"
I hate to burst bubbles, but the belief that by joining the military you'll get sent all over the world isn't as true as you'd think. But don't worry, it could still happen to you. Let me explain.
When you first join the Air Force, you'll get sent to BMT. Basic Training is in San Antonio, Texas, and every airman, no matter where you're from or what job you're assigned, will go there. (Unless you've signed up as an officer, which is totally different than enlisted. Officers go to college first, then the AF, so the AF pays off all the college debt and the officer-to-be goes to the AF Officer Academy or some such place. I'll get back to that one later.) Anyway, after Basic, an airman will get sent to Tech School.
Tech School is like a mix of Basic (strict and organized and, well, military) and College life. Depending on a person's job, they could get sent to any Tech School, anywhere. A Security Forces member will stay in San Antonio, at Lackland AF Base. Someone who works on A-10 planes or the Warthog (Wart-Hog is an airplane) are often sent to Mississippi. An aerial gunner could end up in Florida, Washington, Texas, or New Mexico. (If you have a job in mind for the AF, type it in on www.airforce.com and you can find every base that you could get sent to for Tech School.)
Now, don't choose a job for its Tech School location. Tech School isn't like College, although you will earn an actual degree at Tech School, because Tech School is very short. As an aerial gunner, to get a degree in Aviation Operations only takes 27 days. A Logistics Planner takes the same amount of time. Cyber Systems Operations takes 56 days while Geospatial Intelligence takes 100-110 days. While the time varies a bit from job to job, it isn't nearly as long to get an Air Force degree compared to college degree, eh? Tech School is cool, though, because you get the college life with dorms, teachers, peers, a cafeteria, and college homework. It's just shorter, tougher, and lacks hazing.
While in Tech School, the Air Force will ask you what your top places to be stationed are (12 of them, I believe, 6 locations OCONUS and 6 CONUS) and you can list you're #1, what you want most, #2, #3, then so on. There is no guarantee at all that you will go to the base you want. If you want Hawaii and you have a job that you can't do on that base, don't put it as your #1. Depending on your job, there are some bases you will never be stationed at because you can't do your job there. However, there are some jobs that can be done on every base. Every base needs a Security Forces Specialist or a Services Specialist or a Nurse or a Doctor, etc. Unfortunately, because every base needs that job, someone could end up in Nebraska or Utah or Italy or Hawaii. It just depends on the needs of the Air Force.
The Air Force isn't mean. If you put Florida as your #1 and they have a spot open in there, they'll ship you right down to Eglin. The trouble is, most people put the same things at the top, places like Hawaii and Florida and Italy and California - places lots of people want to go to. So think about where you'd like most. If you want to go to Florida really bad, put the bases in Florida on your sheet and areas around FL, like Georgia or Louisiana. Because it is the big digital computer that ultimately slides you into your spot on a base, it will put you in that general region. If you put Maine then California then Florida, the data looks like you don't really care where you're going.
A lot of people get sent to their base and will end up there for most of their career. There are exceptions, though. If you're in Security Forces, you can get sent to Korea or Turkey or Afghanistan for a few months, maybe a year, then get sent to a different, safer base. If you work on air planes, you may be stuck on one base or get shipped all over. It depends on the plane(s) you work on and need. If you fix all the A-10 planes that have come onto your base in Oregon and tons are broken over in Japan, they'll send you over to fix them. My brother works on planes. He went to Basic in TX, then Tech School in Mississippi, then Arizona, then Korea, then a different base in Arizona, then over to Germany (His #1), and now he's going to Georgia.
So, yes, you can see the world. My first recruiter (who retired) lived on one base his whole career. It wasn't on his dream sheet, either. As soon as his eight years were up, he got out of the AF. Then he signed back up again a year later and was sent back to his same old base. He could have been sent to a different base, but the need for his job skills there hadn't changed.
Now, if you feel upset because you might not get sent all over the world, relax. Even if you don't get shipped all over, if you join the AF you'll have 30 days of paid vacation. That is a whole month, every year, that you can use to go anywhere you want while being paid your normal salary. Plus, as an airman, you get a huge discount while flying. However, even though we're in the military, you still need a passport to fly as a civilian. If the Air Force is sending you somewhere, they box your things for you and ship them for free and ship you to your destination with just a normal military ID, but if you're going somewhere on vacation, a passport is a must.
There are many Air Force bases overseas for the more daring person, such as:
Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan (I wouldn't recommend those), Italy, Guam, several in the UK, several in Germany, Turkey, three in Japan, Portugal, possibly Spain, Alaska and Hawaii both count as overseas, and a few I'm forgetting. Some of the bases I listed, such as those in high danger zones, you have to have special clearance to enter and a reason to be there (like being stationed there for a job and not on a vacation). Places that are danger zones don't generally allow civilian family members to be sent there or even visit because it is too dangerous. So if you were married and were stationed in a dangerous area, like Korea, your wife/husband would not be able to come with you and would have to stay behind. Once you finished serving in that area and got sent to a safer base, they can easily move in with you. Which reminds me, I forgot to talk about housing.
Okay, there are 3 kinds of housing: Base housing, dormitories (Never call them Barracks or your TI will beat you-verbally), and off-base housing. Dormitories are for all single airmen. If you don't have kids or a spouse, you will live on the base in a 'dorm.' It isn't as bad as it sounds - the 'dorm' is very similar to an apartment. You have your own bedroom, your own bathroom, and a kitchen/living/washer and dryer area you share with a couple other airmen. Women and men have dorms that are separated and far apart for obvious reasons.
Another kind of housing is Base housing. It is for all airmen with a family. If you have a spouse, kids, a decrepit old grandma, you'll probably live in an on-base house. It is a very nice house with all the things you'd find in a normal home without any of the possible sharing that comes from living in the dorms. You have a dining room, bedrooms, living room, yard, and get security with a, ahem, safe neighborhood. These houses are only available to families, though, so if you're single, then no dice until you're at least an E-4 (that is a rank, people. E = Enlisted)
Finally, there's off-base housing. Sometimes families, for whatever reason, don't want to live on the base. A husband and wife can move off the base if they want and live in a house, a rental, or an apartment. If you move off base then the AF will pay you a food-allowance, housing-allowance, and clothing-allowance because on-base housing is free, there's free food on the base, and the BX (an Airmen store that's on every base and sells super good things for SUPER low prices.) So there's that. Single people living in the dorms cannot choose to live off-base. The only way an unmarried, child-less person could go from the dorms to off-base housing is if the base were overcrowded. It happens sometimes, on certain bases, when too many people get shipped to the same base because there are jobs there that need doing and not enough dorms are available for everyone. When that happens, several people can volunteer or be chosen, and those people go out into the surrounding area, find a good place, and stay there until space opens up (which can take a long time). While living off-base, single airmen will also be paid allowances. Airmen who live in dorms, but have dependents that don't live with them get paid an allowance as well because the Air Force, and the military in general, requires you to provide adequate support (including a home) to your dependents (people you're responsible for taking care of).
So don't worry so much about where you're sent to live.  Bases are safe, secure, and comfortable. And, if you're really that uncomfortable with where you've been stationed, then just cross-train. Cross-training is where you learn a different job than the one you've got. As long as you qualify for it, you can learn that job, get shipped where that job is needed, and relax.

Any questions? Feel free to ask.

Airman Trainee Elizabeth