New Year...New Assignment!

[Pete Beck]

Well, a bit of news from the Beck's...

As it turns out this will be our last year here in Colorado Springs as we will be moving to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I applied and was selected for a position on the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Cadre at The University of Southern Mississippi. I will be reporting in March and will then come back to Colorado in June to move the the family after school ends. We are all happy to be going and are looking forward to “gettin back down south” where all this white stuff doesn't fall from the sky but once every 5 or 6 years! Yeah we won't get much skiing in...

For those who don't know there are basically three avenues to become an officer in the U.S. Military...Get an appointment to attend one of the Military Academies and gradutate (West Point, Annapolis or the Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs), earn your commission through an ROTC Scholarship, or complete your college degree and then apply to, attend and complete one of the services' Officer Training Schools. I went the third route, completing my degree while serving full time and then earning my commission through the Air Force Officer Training School. (The movie Officer and a Gentlemen is a take on the Navy's Officer Candidate School.)

The ROTC Program is actually where a majority of the officers complete their commissioning requirements...almost every university in the states has an ROTC Detachment for one of the services. Each Detachment has Officers who teach the classes...and i will be one of them. Officially i will be an Associate Professor of Aerospace Studies teaching the Military related and Air Force specific classes to the students at USM who are on ROTC Scholarships. For someone who wants to be a college professor when i retire from the Air Force in a few years this is a great opportunity fro me to get more teaching experience and work on my PhD or another Master's degree (if i can find the time).

While i never say never about attending G-Con until the weekend is over...Check the Original GWF Files page 148, Hurricane Daniel entry to see what i mean about showing up. With the move in June and me being away from the family for the 3 months prior it will be tough...but i am planning on attending! Hopefully all will work out so that i can attend and finally (and hopefully) WIN a spot in PM3!

[Matt]

Sounds like a great opportunity, Pete. Best of luck!

[JimSteel]

Good luck Pete and hope to see you in Jamestown

[rawhide]

best of luck mr. beck .

[wildcat]

Best of luck to you and yours Mr. Beck.
I wish you nothing but the best in everything you do.
You will be missed here in Colorado but hey I'm moving back to Ohio next year. So my hope is we both make Galacticon next year and roll some dice again.

[GalactiKing]

Good luck, Pete. Hope to see you at G-Con

[Avarice]

What's wrong with a little snow in Colorado? A little to you guys is probably 8"...in Iowa, a little to us is 1-2.

[Chad Olson]

Good luck Pete!

[Mike M]

Congrats on the new assignment, Pete. Glad to hear that it all worked out the way you hoped (at least, I think that this is the assignment that we were talking about at the Holiday Inn last G-con).

[Pete Beck]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! I am definitely looking forward to getting a chance to do something new for the AF!

And Mike, Yes, this is the assignment we were talking about at the Holiday Inn. As soon as i got back from G-Con 07 i went into full swing of working over the assignment personnel and my career field managers to get it...i had preliminary notification in October, but didn't get confirmation until later in the fall that i "had" the position.

[krisosk]

Just noticed this post...good luck, Pete!


~ :-Xsk

[stephenvegas]

Congratulations.

[JED-SE]

Good luck Pete, and thank you for serving!