Do you remember buying your first car?

  • Published
  • By Col. Cassie Barlow
  • 48th Mission Support Group commander
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  I'm sure you remember fondly the first time you bought a car. You spent months deciding what type of car ... compact, sport utility vehicle, truck or sports. Then, after you decided on the type of car, you spent a lot of time figuring out what options were right for your car.

After you had the car in hand, you probably spent a lot of time taking care of the new vehicle: washing it, waxing it and making sure you parked it in safe locations.

Buying a new car is a lot like assessing a new Airman into the Air Force. The Air Force spends a lot of time making sure we get it right, and then we spend a lot of time taking care of our new additions.

Much like a new car, the Air Force has a lot of potential new Airmen to choose from ... we have to narrow down our choices. We pick 35,000 new Airmen every year from their 18 to 20 year-old cohort of 20 million fellow Americans. So, the Airman we choose to make part of the Air Force team is approximately 0.1 percent of the total population of Americans the same age. You are part of a very select group!

Then, much like a new car, we spend a lot of time picking out options for our car. We bring all Airmen to Lackland Air Force Base for eight weeks of basic military training.

It costs the Air Force about $12,000 to put each Airman through basic training. After basic training, we send you through technical training courses. The length of these courses varies widely, as do the costs. However, on average, it costs about $30,000 to send an Airman through a 22-week course, so even before first term airmen center and airman leadership school, the cost of bringing a new Airman in is $42,000.

After you join our wing, we dedicate countless hours to making you the best Airman we can, by giving you new technical skills as well as new leadership skills.

Each and every Airman the Air Force selects for our team is important. You were competitively selected from a very large peer group, and we are proud to dedicate a lot of time, money and energy into making you the best Airman in the world!