Raven school training/experience

Blog 9, Raven school training/experience.

Welcome back! I am very happy that you are taking your time to read this blog. Enjoy reading and let me know how it is!

Becoming Raven (read about Raven here) has always been one of the first goals in the Air Force. At first, I found out about it In tech school. One of my instructors was a Raven. He was very laid back, and everyone always asked him what that meant. His response was “Ravens fly to different countries to party and protect the jet”, now I can say it is a 100% true statement. He’d always tell us about workouts and how the schoolhouse was, and  answer all the questions he could. I listened but did not really retain information because it was not something I was passionate about in the moment. At that point, my goal was to graduate from tech school on time, so my mind was fully invested in learning the material that was taught to us. He would always say that the Ravens are only at specific bases. That’s another reason why I wasn’t really paying attention. At that time there was no information out in public about the Raven Program, so he was the only resource.

Luckily, back in BMT*, I put all Florida bases down on my dream sheet and MacDill AFB as my number one. I didn’t know where it was in Florida, I had zero idea about that place when I got orders there. After googling that place I realized that place is probably one of the best Air Force bases. I still had no idea MacDill has Ravens and how my time there would be some of the best in my career. Shortly after I got there back in March of 2017, I found out about the Raven section and how many people were up for a challenge, but they could not get past the tryouts. Tryouts is the whole day where Ravens smoke (physically challenge) everyone who showed up to see who will not quit. Being a brand-new Airman, I could not just go try out yet. Back then we had to do regular Security Forces jobs for 2 years, as well as finish CDC* and pass the final exam. It was a hustle for sure, but it made sure that everyone was fully qualified and had experience in the job first.

Learning more about Raven, I decided to give it a try, but first I had to get in shape. Where do I start? What is the best way to train? I did not know any of this. So, I had to improvise. Going to the gym and running every day was the norm for me. As I was getting better and stronger every day the tryout was coming closer. After a year and a half being there, I passed every evaluation and finally had doors fully open for Raven, but destiny had different plans for me. Roughly a month away from tryouts I was tasked to deploy (read about my deployment here). My hopes and dreams came crashing. “All the time it took me to prepare was for nothing” – I thought to myself. No matter how hard I tried talking to supervisors, and leaders I was turned away pretty much immediately. Nobody wanted to risk me not being able to attend required training for deployment because I would be in Raven school. The timing was not good at that time, unfortunately.

I deployed and the goal was still the same. So, I train, but how? At that point in my MacDill career, I had a couple of friends who went through the Raven school and had some insight into it. Asking as many questions as I could and getting tips from them, I got to work. Step one, change the way I work out. Lifting weights was completely pointless. Raven school is all about muscle fatigue and the best way to train for it is simple, fatigue your muscles with countless amounts of exercises. That is exactly what I did, at first it was hard and unusual. The whole workout would consist of pushups, flatter kicks, squats, and jumping jacks. It was hard because my muscles were used to lifting heavy weights for 10-15 reps but now I had to do 100+. Of course, I started with a low amount and slowly increased the reps. Step two, get to running. Running is the second most important thing in Raven school. Three-mile runs are the norm there. Every other day we had to do it and for graduation run it was 6. I have never run that much before so I had to start working on it. I began running every day, trying to start a little and grow the distance weekly. Whole 7 months of deployment I was able to improve my physical shape and be ready for the schoolhouse when I came back.

Being in great physical shape will get you through the Raven school for sure. As military members, we all experienced being yelled at, double time everywhere, and eating quickly. So that should not be anything new to you. There’s a lot of that in Raven school. Just like any other military school, the instructors are there to make you quit. They will use anything necessary to make you second guess your decision of coming up to the course. Pushing everyone to the limit and seeing if an individual will break or keep going, their main goal is to make people who would be able to work under any conditions for a long period of time. The course is evolving a lot every year. A lot of new stuff has been introduced since I went back in 2019. Keep reading and I will tell you how my Raven school experience was.

Right after a 2-weeks Pre-Raven course at MacDill, I and 3 others were blessed and sent off to McGuire AFB, NJ to Raven school. Back then the whole course was 4.5 weeks long (it might be different now, not sure). Everyone lived in the dorms. I had 5 people in the dorm, and some were 8 per room. Every morning, we had to be up at 5 am for morning PT. The PT was pretty much the same every day. It included running and calisthenics. Instructors always looked for motivation in PT, not looking motivated, I guess more PT for all. That was the motto the whole time, don’t bring any negative vibes or everyone will suffer. After PT was breakfast and classroom portion until lunch. There is a lot of information that Ravens have to know and follow when out on missions. That is what they teach in the morning. That time is also used to let students relax a little and connect on personal levels. After lunch was hands-on learning. For us 1st week learning how to use baton and strikes. 2nd week was combatives. 3rd weapons takeaways and 4th was final tests and different exercises. Everything you are taught; you have to test on right away. If you don’t pass, I will get one extra try. If you fail you go home. The pressure was always built up in the room. No one wanted to leave.

Personally, I liked Raven school. Lots of great information is needed for the job. The people I met there are awesome and to this day I still keep up with them. This job is very unique and requires a lot of attention. There are days when it’s the easiest job in the world and some when you are constantly on the go go go. That is exactly what Raven school is preparing you for. Instructors have lots of knowledge and personal experience to share. Would I recommend people go up for Raven? Absolutely yes! That is the best job I have ever done, and I am sure everyone who has done it will say the same.

Thank you everyone for reading my blogs. I feel great by sharing all this information with you. Even if there are only 10 people reading per month. It is not true haha last month we had a little over 300 readers. The numbers are growing each month and more and more people reaching out to me for information.

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Next Thursday, my blog will be about, “Tips on Becoming a Raven”

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You guys rock!!!

Very Respectfully,

Vlad Kalinin

BMT – Basic Military Training

CDC – Career Development Course