20 Years of High-Stakes Operations and Leadership - Munitions Systems Specialist US Air Force Employee Review

Great leadership training throughout your career.

Sometimes standards and mission come before people.

Travel, additional pay, Per diem, tax free for transiting hostile areas, personal agency, authority based on expertise not rank, working with small and agile teams instead of large slow groups. PAY: Actual pay in the DOW also includes the BAH, BAS, COLA, Flight Pay for aircrew, any applicable specialty or duty pay, and a small annual clothing allowance for for enlisted. All these pays are easily researched by publicly accessible official DOW sites. Don't take anyones word for it, just research it. My actual total E-7 compensation is over 100k.

Major con is that the AF does not promote based on technical expertise, so as you become a more expert in your field you will also be promoting out of the technician role. Maybe this is great for you, but if you prefer technical roles you will have to posture yourself for additional duties or vectored roles which will keep you out of personnel management roles. E-8 and E-9 competition is based largely on personnel management and administration capabilities, however.