Air Force Tech School Phases - When can I see my boyfriend?
September 6, 2011 10:18 PM   Subscribe

Air Force Tech School Phases - When can I see my boyfriend?

My boyfriend will be graduating from Basic Military Training and will start tech school right after.

I can't be there for his BMT grad.
I want to see him as soon as possible.
I'm Canadian and don't know how that will effect my visitation rights?

Please advise thanks!
posted by audio to Work & Money (7 answers total)
 
You need to contact your boyfriend and get him to sponsor you to get onto Lackland Air Force Base to visit him. As long as you have some form of photo ID, your Canadian citizenship shouldn't affect your visitation rights. Since he is in training, his schedule may dictate when you can visit him.
posted by plokent at 10:49 PM on September 6, 2011


you can't see him while he's in basic, except for at grad. tech school generally has a phase program, he might have weekends off, but with a curfew. I'd say don't plan on seeing him his first month in tech school, after that you can visit him over a weekend but he may have to be back at the barracks by midnight.
posted by camdan at 4:07 AM on September 7, 2011


I think you can see him as soon as he gets into tech school as long as you can get on base. Phase restrictions here.
posted by white_devil at 4:44 AM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


It varies by how long his tech school is and how well he's doing, probably how long the training is too. In my case (very long tech school, and it was a good while ago, so keep that in mind) we were in uniform all the time the first month, not allowed off base along with other restrictions. Second phase lightened up a little, third and fourth the same. It wasn't til fourth phase that I could be gone overnight (weekends only). You could get phased back for discipline, or phased up for good behavior (or other reasons; we got phased up when new recruits came in and they needed to group them in rooms all together. He's not going to know til he's out of basic and in tech school exactly what the deal is, but you'd be safe in expecting to have to wait a month at least til he can leave base. (You can probably visit him on base during first phase but it would be for very short periods and only in public areas, not his room or anywhere off base.)
posted by lemniskate at 4:46 AM on September 7, 2011


Please also note that if you are also male (based on your name), the formal end of "Don't Ask-Don't Tell" isn't until September 20, and there is a risk of negative repercussions if you and your boyfriend are very openly a couple during his training. In other words, as much as I hate to say it, you should probably work on the assumption that institutionalized homophobia doesn't necessarily go away overnight.
posted by JMOZ at 5:49 AM on September 7, 2011


2nding JMOZ. Find out when he is first going to be able to have a night off base, and make plans to meet somewhere away from the base. Far away from the base.
posted by timsteil at 2:04 PM on September 7, 2011


When I was at Keelser last year, they got rid of the phase program and started "transitions" instead.
During the Initial period, he won't be able to leave his dorm building unless he is in uniform, he isn't supposed to ride in any cars, and he isn't supposed to leave base. You won't be able to go into his dorm building, either, so if he follows the rules, you will have to hang out somewhere on base, and he will have to be back in his room by 10pm during the week or midnight on the weekends. He can only move on to the Advanced period once he passes two open ranks and two room inspections, which will take at least two weeks, but I think it will probably be 30 days before he moves on to Advanced period and loses all of those restrictions except for the 10pm curfew during the week.

The rules can vary from base to base though, so once he gets to his dorm and finally gets released for the day he can go to his room and use his cellphone. He should be able to tell you when he will reach the Advanced transition period. To get on base, you'll have to go to the visitor's center at the gate with a photo ID, and he'll have to call the visitor's center and ask them to issue you a visitor's pass.
posted by zap at 3:11 PM on September 7, 2011


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