Four years and nine months. Made it to Staff Sergeant then got discharged for the illness, so got a pretty penny outta that. $20,000 to be exact, so when I got home I had enough change to make a down payment on a house. Of course I'm broke now...
I think one of the best experiences I ever had in the AF was getting to go on a familiarization flight on a C-9. We went to several stops in Italy, stayed the night in Spain (and it was raining like mad; the co-pilot told me I was bad luck, he'd never seen it rain on that leg of the flight until I had come along, and to beat all we were at the beach), then back to Ramstein AB the next day. As we were getting ready to land they invited me to the cockpit to sit in the crew chiefs jump seat, and it was the most awesome ride ever! You can feel every little turn and shimmy as you look out that big windshield, way more fun than riding in the back. A lot like a rollercoaster.
