[frog_flyer]

12B1 - B-52 Navigator

Day to DayOperations- After the initial training time which ranges from 18 - 24+ months, broken down as follows: 10 months of UNT (Undergraduate Navigator Training) (aka CSO, SUNT), 1.5 Months of SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) Land and Water, and 8 Months B-52 FTU (Formal Training Unit), and 4 Months or so of spin up time at your Op Sq (the infamous FNG time), plus any time spent as a casual, your life is pretty busy. Once you are CMR (Combat Mission Ready) you are required to fly at least 4 times a month or 12 times a quarter. Flights are typically 6 - 9 hours in length with 2 - 5 hours of pre and post flight grd ops. Your only job for the first 6 months is to fly and then after that you get a desk job in the sq along with your flying requirements.


Best/Worst Assignments - Unfortunately in the Air Force there are a lot of B-52 navs so the majority of them get the chance to go play Army for 2 years or so. Another bad gig is ending up in the 11th Bomb Sq (B-52 FTU) as an instructor and finding out what 60% manning feels like. Good gigs include deployments to Guam, white jet (T-43) back to Randolph, and some choice staff tours.

Career Advancement - Pretty decent right now. Career progression for nav's is to upgrade to Radar Nav and then to Instructor. There's a critical shortage of Radars right now so that's a plus. Staff jobs aren't terribly difficult to come across and of course you can always reapply for UPT.

Employment outside of the Air Force - Slim for a Nav. We do have a pretty high security clearance so that can help to find employment in some cases.

Education Requirements - Obvisouly a 4 year and a Master's is pretty much the standard today. So be prepared to go and get it. This goes for everybody in the B-52 field, all crew positions. Unfortunately you don't necessarily get time to do it, so it's on your own which means night or weekend classes for the most part. PME is a must, with SOS needing to be done in correspondence first and then you can apply to go in residence. If you don't have it done in correspondence, don't expect to go in residence and don't expect to pin on Major either.

Pro / Con - You're a bomber and you get to drop some bombs every once in a while. You get to fly and be in an op squadron. As of right now it's still a protected AFSC, so force shaping doesn't concern you. Deployments are to a remote tropical island for 4 months at a time. Congress likes us, and the Senators from ND and LA are good to us. Now for the cons. You're a bomber and the oldest one. We don't get the funding we need in a lot of cases. The current number of B-52's isn't the final number of B-52's. ALO tours are almost a sure thing whether you volunteer or not. Neither location is all that nice. No TDY time.

That's about it. Hope this info helps. –Lt xxxxx (xxxxxxxxx)