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[Tim Hite]

Weird. The auditions seemed to be at Lackland. I have no idea how the military works.

If you look at the left column, the positions open for the premier bands are listed. Center is regional bands and you will likely end up somewhere other than Lackland, which happens to be centrally located.

USAF Band of the Golden West is up at Travis AFB between Sacramento and SF, for instance.

I'm working with a few Former Marines now, and they have nothing but good to say about the bands in that branch.

[Tom Roche]

That would be an excellent job opportunity - here's my story.

I got a call in 1987 from the California Air National Guard base in Fresno to provide audio reinforcement for the Air Force Band at the annual base open house.  I told them sure, I'd do the job and at a reduced rate as it was for a community open house and I was in fact a former member of the unit from 1972-1978.  A couple of week pass and on the Saturday morning of the event, I load up a pole mount setup with dual 12's per side and headed out to the base which was on the corner of the airport complex.  I drove up to one of the gates and identified myself as instructed, and security opened the gate and I proceeded down to the flightline area.  As soon as I transitioned from the roadway to the tarmac in front of the hangers I knew immediately that I needed to come back there.

Did the show, the Air Force Band sounded great.  Monday afternoon I was in the recruiters office - I believe I was sworn back into service that Thursday under Commander in Chief Ronald Reagan.  First enlistment was Food Service as lots and lots of people were hiding out from the Viet Nam war draft.  At that time the guard units were overstaffed.  The second 1987 enlistment I got my career field preference of Avionics.  After just under a year of full time avionics training, I landed a job in the avionics shop at the base in 1989 to help out during the transition from the F-4D Phantom to the Block 15 OCU/ADF F-16.  After working about 6 months in the avionics shop running the Automatic Test Stations, the General Dynamics Field Engineering Reps showed up.  After working with two of them in the ATE backshop, they approached me about working for GD.  I gave them my resume, was setup for an interview and flown to Fort Worth.  In September I got a pretty good job offer for a spot as a Field Service Engineer and I accepted it.

At the tail end of the 31yr career in defense aerospace that's been good to me.  15 years F-16 field service and mods, 6 years on the F-22 program doing avionics mods, much of it the field leading a team - spent a year and a half in Panama City Florida at Tyndall AFB, and now year 16 on the F-35 program working in project engineering.  Traveled many places, both stateside and overseas.

Currently transitioning back into professional audio. 

I had similar experience; that is, working avionics.  I worked on RF-4C, F-16, and F-111.  Now I work at the first F-35 operational wing in the USAF. 

I imagine the audio engineer job in the USAF is a good gig.  They start you out as a Technical Sergeant (E-6), which is pretty good.  Lots of benefits.

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