Hello everyone, my name is Vlad Kalinin,
This is my first blog post, and I want to talk about my Air Force career which is one of the main reasons why I decided to create this blog. I will run down through my career timeline quickly just so you get an idea of what the heck I really did and what my career was like. In later blogs, I plan to dive deeper into my career and give you an idea of what I experienced. In total, I served in the Air Force for 8 years. Those 8 years were different from everything I had ever experienced in my life before. Going through a stressful environment of BMT*, tech school, and daily struggles of learning my job at my first duty station, first deployment, TDY*’s, and all the other stuff that came with it. Looking back at it now I can say I was pretty hard learning everything new for the first time and I had to learn quickly. But I got through it and learned a bunch. At the end of the day, the whole experience was a huge lesson that helped me grow and learn what I was capable of achieving at a young age.
My military career started when I left for BMT back on September 16, 2016, from MEPS* in Seattle, WA. Not knowing what to expect, I felt excited and of course a little bit nervous. San Antonio, TX was a place that I did not leave for the next 6 months. There, I went through 8 weeks of basic training, 1 week of Airman’s week, and roughly 3 months of Security Forces tech school. BMT, Airman’s week and tech school flew by quickly, and I found myself on the road to my first duty station at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL. God, my excitement was through the roof. “Imma be living in the sun year-round with a beach 15 minutes away!” – I told myself. Life was very good after close to 6 months of being a trainee.
MacDill is located on a little peninsula that is 15 minutes from downtown Tampa. The base is beautiful, it has its own beach, boat docks, and they even opened a tattoo shop when I was leaving it years later. Security Forces squadron* offered lots of great opportunities for those who were up for a challenge. Regular SF job, Raven, Boat Patrol, and base SWAT team. At that time, I did not know eventually I would end up doing it all ha-ha. Right away I realized that I wanted to become a Raven and start flying missions, but it was not as easy as I thought it would be. First, I had to make sure I passed all my job qualification evaluations and only after that my leadership was willing to let me try it out. Once I passed everything after being at the base for 2 years, the time has come for me to deploy for the first time. And that pushed my chance for another year.
My first deployment was in Kenya. It was a small base where I was for 7 months. Thirteen of us from MacDill went there at the end of September of 2018 and came back to the States at the end of April of 2019. That place was great, not a lot of people on base and it was perfect to focus on yourself. At that time, I did not know how great deployments are for personal growth, if you are motivated enough. I knocked out so many school classes that I finished my associate degree, and I kept pushing myself to stay in shape since my plan was still to go Raven when I came back home. During that deployment time dragged and it seemed like it would never end.
Coming back to MacDill I tried out for Raven and was picked up for it. I and 3 more people did 2,5 weeks of Pre-Raven and we were sent off to a schoolhouse up in McGuire, NJ. All 4 of us graduated from Raven school with success and came back to Tampa in August of 2019. At the end of September of the same year, I and 5 more Ravens were heading on to Kuwait for my second deployment. My second deployment was much different from the first. On the first one, I had to work gates, towers, and patrols making sure the base was safe. In Kuwait, our main job was to provide security for C-130s and C-17s when they went out on flyaway missions. The original plan was for us to be there for 6 months but with Covid becoming a huge concern, DoD initiated a stop troop movement, which extended us for 9 months in the desert. Eating the same food every week and pushing with everything that is left in our tanks we were super excited to leave our home for the last 9 months. Throughout 9 months I flew close to 80 different missions all over the Middle East giving me a better understanding of the problems the world was facing at that time. With every small or big conflict that was happening in that area, we were part of it. If planes fly, there we go with the planes. It was great. In May of 2020 I came back home to Tampa and 2 months later went to work as a regular Security Forces member. By the 4th anniversary of my military career, I experienced so much that working a regular job was just boring, so I needed a change.
Around August 2020 I received orders to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in WA, I was going back home to my family and to do the Raven job in the actual Raven section. With 6 months left in sunny Tampa, I decided to try everything our SF squadron had to offer. I tried out for the base SWAT team and got accepted and I tried out for boat patrol and got accepted as well. Both boat patrol and Swat members knew about me leaving within 6 months, but they did me a solid by giving me a chance. The last 6 months flew by quickly; I loved what I did. Riding fast boats in Tampa Bay was one of the highlights of my career. In March of 2021, I was officially part of the JBLM Raven section and started flying missions as soon as I could. Since then, its history. A lot of amazing missions I went to, I did a 6-month deployment in Germany where we had the freedom to travel as much as want to surrounding countries as long as there were no missions during that time. Day by day my time in the military was coming to an end. In October of 2024, I officially separated from the Air Force.
My time in the military went by quickly. I experienced a lot, and I want to share it with you. I don’t want to brag or come off as a know-it-all, I just want to share what happened to me and nothing else. When I was joining the military there was no information like this. I had to go and hope for the best. I want to tell my stories so people who decide to join the military have some knowledge that they can take with them on a new journey in their lives. If you have any questions, please reach out to me I will be more than happy to help as much as I can. If you find this helpful, share it with your friends, family, and everyone you think this could be helpful for. Again, thank you for taking your time and reading this.
Very respectfully,
Vlad Kalinin
BMT – Basic military training
TDY – Temporary duty away from home station. For example: training, mission, etc.
MEPS – Military Entrance Processing Station. A place where everyone going to the military does their medical exam, takes the oath, and signs the final contract.
MTI – Military Training Instructor. Military members, you see on videos yelling at new people. They also wear interesting-looking hats.
Squadron – Military unit. Each career field has its own “squadron”. Something like a department in a big company.