Show of Hands

12? Wow. How many as a basic, and how many as a cadet?

Yes it was my first encampment. Quite the experience. I'm contemplating returning as staff next year.

Definitely go as staff, it gets so much better each year.
One basic. Then I was first sergeant, XO, and chief of Stan/eval, I had to turn down CC to go to COS. The rest are different staff roles as a senior - everything from encampment cc and down.

I guess my biggest question right now is what I should apply for as staff. I think I'll be promoting to C/TSgt sometime next month. Any ideas on what I should choose, and what the benefits and drawbacks are on some of the positions?

I prefer line staff - so if you an NCO next summer, I'd suggest flight or first sergeant, depending on your experience in your home squadron.
If you are an officer, definitely flight commander.
Unless, of course, your own interest is support staff.

I've been a fill-in flight sergeant twice at my squadron. So I guess that seems pretty fun. What was your experience as a first sergeant?

Encampment positions are very different than that same position at home. I loved being the first shirt, it was stressful but I learned a lot.

Haha. Yeah. A flight sergeant at my squadron compared to flight sergeants at encampment… Same position, drastically different tactics to achieve the mission.

A week of being completely gone and a week before of being half gone. :) But I am happily still here.

Yup. What EB said.

It was an awesome week… and an awful week. I had a lot of fun, and I got yelled at a ton. It was only a tiny fraction of what basic training in the military will be like, but it was still certainly challenging, and as I said, fun too…

I got to do a lot of drill, impromptu speeches, shoot M4s at an EST range, look inside a helicopter, do an hour of PT every morning with a ton of yelling after a brutal wake up call with at least 95 db right in my ears, and a ton of…

other neat stuff. I definitely enjoyed my week there.