Congratulations you just landed the job, now what?! You have a long road a head of paperwork, training, and PCSing before you get to strap into the cockpit you were hired to fly. If you’re not in the military you’ll swear in and join the “student flight” before you head to MEPS and your FC1. If you’re in the military just not that unit you’ll be “gained” by them. 

Most importantly with this longer post is the FC1, it’s the thing that most everyone fears. Getting the DQ for something that has never affected you nor you’ve known about. From personal experience to talking with other individuals, the FC1 at WPAFB is a machine, you’re a number in a daily task sheet. They don’t know you and you don’t know them nor will ever see them again. That’s why it’s important to be your own advocate and most importantly take DETAILED notes of everything. Times, tests, who administered, etc… Keeping detailed notes will back you up incase you have to go to battle for anything. Example, at my FC1 they did several tests out of order to try and get me completed that day. Test #4 was supposed to be done last because it dilated your pupils and you had zero peripheral vision. As you can imagine it would be pretty hard to pass a peripheral vision test. Well that’s exactly what they had me do, I kept failing the test and the administer, a 1 stripe, looked at me and said “if you fail this again you’re DQ’d”… somehow I managed to barely pass however when I completed it and went out to the lobby the head nurse asked me about it and I told her what happened and she was livid. So long story short had I failed and had to fight to get un-DQ’d I would have had a lot more of a leg to stand if I’d taken notes describing each test, time it was administered, and by who. I’ve heard many stories like this as well so just be prepared!