USAF retiree "exercise"

My email today contained the press release on the Air Reserve Personnel Center's "push pull" exercise.

"For the first time, retired active-duty majors and master sergeants are being asked by Air Reserve Personnel Center officials to participate in the biennial "Push-Pull" exercise, an end-to-end test of key mobilization systems and processes."

I thought, dude, that's me! (Retired active duty master sergeant) I read further and found that if I'd been part of the "preselected population", I would have received an invitation to apply. Which I didn't. But it made me wonder, would I have applied if I had?

"Airmen selected to participate will be "pushed" to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for re-orientation training. This training increases participants' situational awareness of current Air Force issues and activities."

A trip to Texas is none too appealing. Although April isn't that bad of a month to go there (if you have to go). I'm sort of curious about how things have changed since '97. I know the uniforms are different, and the sergeant (E-4) is no more. Instead of AFR (Air Force regulations), they have AFI (Air Force instructions) - they were starting that transition when I was still in, and I still don't like it. It's a stupid word change that didn't seem to do anything except cost money. Like renaming units. They changed the AFSC system (Air Force specialty code) too, but I only remember my old ones...207x2, 732x0, and a special duty one that I forgot...and I'm sure procedures have changed so much as to make everything I knew how to do useless.

It would have been an adventure to go, though. So I guess I probably would have applied. I wish I knew someone who was going so I could find out what it was like afterward.

posted by Schaz @ 2/13/2009 10:18:00 PM