Can anyone tell me about the 1C6X1 - SPACE SYSTEMS OPERATIONS field and/or school? I signed a one year contract and I decided I want to reenlist and this is a "hot job" at my base. The recruiter said based on my scores I qualify but I wanted some inside info about this job before I decided to go for it.

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Originally posted by Cpl_Duke:
Can anyone tell me about the 1C6X1 - SPACE SYSTEMS OPERATIONS field and/or school? I signed a one year contract and I decided I want to reenlist and this is a "hot job" at my base. The recruiter said based on my scores I qualify but I wanted some inside info about this job before I decided to go for it.

Space ops is a broad field with few people.

I did it for 7 years and had four assignments.

My first was at a phased array missile warning radar doing ICBM early warning and space surveillence.

Second I did satellite command and control, the actual operation of satellites from launch to moving orbits to daily commanding to keep the satellite in operation.

Third I went back to missile warning, but in the Arctic.

Last I was an analyst in Cheyenne Mountain determining where exactly objects in space were.

There is a lot of schooling involved, except for my second tour in missile warning I had to go back to a 8-12 week school with every PCS and then go through 2-4 months of training at the unit before I could even touch the equipment without supervision.

The initial introduction course is not hard, but it is a lot if information in a very short time.

The other schools varied in difficulty, but none were that hard.

The career field is changing often, and training is constant. You will spend a lot of time in a simulator even after you are qualified, and one mistake can be very bad.

I enjoyed the operations part of the job, I recommend it unless you like to be outside because once in this career field you'll find yourself in building without windows for the majority of the time.

nspreitler, thanks for the insight into the career. I'm active duty air force in the 2F career field (POL fuels). I've always wanted the 1C6 job, and coming up soon I may be able to cross train into it.

I was wondering if I should take any classes before I switch over to help me in the career? Of course my asvab score is high enough, I just want to know if there is a lot of complicated math involved or anything, because I suck a math.

Thanks.

I'm currently a 1C6 stationed at Buckley AFB in Denver. I do space-based missile warning, similar to what nspreitler did but with a system of satellites rather than radar stations on the ground. There are basically 4 areas of the career field that you will probably end up in.

Missile Warning: If you get a job doing what I do, you will be stationed at Buckley in Denver. There is nowhere else to do the job. You could also get a radar site like mentioned earlier though.

Space Surveillance: Basically you track and catalog all the junk floating around in space. You'd probably be stationed at Eglin in Florida, or possibly a couple other places.

Space Launch: Only a few 1C6s get to do this, but you'd basically be assisting with the launch of rockets at either Vandenberg in California or Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Command and Control: Monitoring state of health on satellites systems such as MILSTAR and GPS, sending commands to move the satellites and keep them in good condition, etc.

Tech School is at Vandenberg AFB in central California. Depending on what you do, the training could be a couple months to about 8 months long. Everyone takes Space 100, which is a basic introduction to space. You learn an overview of our space systems and capabilities, the very basics of orbital mechanics, all the squadrons and wings involved in Space Command, etc. It's an extremely concentrated course, but is not very difficult. It's mostly just memorization. You don't have to do any math or know how to calculate orbits or anything like that. I think the failure rate for Space 100 is probably 10 - 20%. Mostly just people that can't keep up with the pace of the class. I would say it's probably enough information for a semester-long college class in about 2 - 3 weeks.

After that you'd go to learn your actual job. Missile warning is about 6 - 8 weeks of training, mostly in a simulator. Command and Control is more like 6 months of training.

When I got on base my on-the-job training was actually over twice as long as my training at Vandenberg, so you spend a pretty long time on base before you actually start work. I've been on base since August of last year and actually just got certified less than a week ago. But, a lot of that time I was waiting for my security clearance to come through. (A Top Secret/SCI is required to work at Buckley)

The job has very long hours, at least for missile warning as it's 24/7 ops. You'll usually be working 13 hour shifts. I just got off a mid last night. Got home at 7am, slept until 2, and now have to go back to work in a few hours.

No matter which of those areas you work in, like nspreitler said, you'll be in a window-less building staring at a computer screen for your entire shift.

The base assignments are very limited. Almost all space ops are concentrated in Colorado either at Buckley, Schriever, Peterson, or Cheyenne Mountain. The only overseas assignments are pretty much Thule, Greenland and Moron, Spain. You may get stationed a couple other places but most are concentrated in Colorado.

It's a cool job though, and you can make tons of money outside the AF with your clearance plus experience on these satellite systems. I've heard lots of stories of people getting out and going to work for Lockheed or someone like them for over $100k a year just with their experience from the AF.

One thing to add, except for the basic course (Space 100) the training is not enlisted or officer specific. Every course I went to after the initial one was officer and enlisted, because everyone from the lowest ranking Airman to the Squadron commander is certified in the system.

One thing to remember about this job is it is a career field where the duties of the junior enlisted, SNCOs, and many officers are the same. It doesn't matter if you are a 3, 5, or 7 level in the career field your job is the same. Skill levels really mean nothing, since having 10 years in the career field doesn't help you that much moving to an area you haven't worked before.

Awesome, thanks guys. That info is priceless to me. Looks like I got a lot to think about. I want to get stationed in colorado so this could work out for me. I'm kinda worried about if I get trained in something else that puts you at say eglin ya know? Of course, I've always wanted to do missle launches and things, maybe down the line I can move into that? Is there any way you choose what you do, or is it determined any way besides what some person at AFPC decides? Thanks guys!

Another thing, you work 12 hour shifts what kind of schedule? 4 and 3's or 5 and 2's or what?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ThatGuy685,

At Buckley we work 12s on a 4 on 4 off rotation. 4 Days, 4 off, 4 mids, 4 off, etc.

I'm not sure if you can choose what specialty you want when you are a retrainee. I was a NPS airman when I went through so I of course didn't get to choose what area I went to at all. Maybe nspreitler can answer that one since he's been in the career field longer.

I know there is very few 1C6's involved in the launches though. As in, maybe 1 - 3. There is also a lot of top secret jobs in the field called Green Door jobs, where you don't even find out what you'll be doing until you get there. Obviously I don't have information on what you'd be doing, but the people that get them seem to think they are pretty awesome.

Awesome, half the month off!

I doubt you get to choose. Hopefully they look at your dream sheet, then give you a spot if one is available. I'll be on a 23 month extention, so if I get the shaft I can just get out.

Green Door jobs...wicked cool. I'm am all about this job, I hope its available for me. Fiscal year 2010 quotas.

So how does chain of command go if everyone does the same job? Do you ever have to do airman work like clean things? Is it a laidback work environment as far as co worker interaction?

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Awesome, half the month off!

They are 12 hour shifts. If you do the math then it works out to be like regular hours per week.

True, but when you work 5 days per week 8 hour shifts thats 8 days off in the month. Working 4 on 4 off all month is the same amount of hours worked, but in a 30 day month you get 15 days off, almost double before.

I used to work 4 on 4 off rotation and loved it especially when the 4 off fell over a weekend. Now, when the 4 on fell over a weekend that was a different story!

quote:

Originally posted by ThatGuy685:
Awesome, half the month off!

I doubt you get to choose. Hopefully they look at your dream sheet, then give you a spot if one is available. I'll be on a 23 month extention, so if I get the shaft I can just get out.

Green Door jobs...wicked cool. I'm am all about this job, I hope its available for me. Fiscal year 2010 quotas.

So how does chain of command go if everyone does the same job? Do you ever have to do airman work like clean things? Is it a laidback work environment as far as co worker interaction?

The mission is the same, but it is still the Air Force. Crews usually have an officer crew commander and and NCO crew chief (flight chief).

It is laidback, sometimes too much, however for the mission work it is very disciplined. The rules are strict when it comes to commanding a billion dollar satellite, and you have to pay attention to detail.

I wouldn't think too much about "Green Door" stuff. The majority of the career field is in regular AF units, don't go into the AFSC thinking you will be working secret squirrel missions for some three letter agency.

Cool, how is it too laid back? I figured the work would be hardcore, with the billion dollar equipment and all. I hope I can adjust well to that. I mean, I work around millions of dollars work of equipment all the time, this just seems different, because its in space.

I'm not worried about all the secret stuff. If I get that opportunity I do, if not oh well. I'd be happy to just bounce around colorado for 15 years.

I have to admit that I am a little intrigued by this career field.

I guess my only question to add to the on-going discussion would be what is the average day like for the Says Systems Operator?

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Originally posted by ThatGuy685:
Cool, how is it too laid back? I figured the work would be hardcore, with the billion dollar equipment and all. I hope I can adjust well to that. I mean, I work around millions of dollars work of equipment all the time, this just seems different, because its in space.

I'm not worried about all the secret stuff. If I get that opportunity I do, if not oh well. I'd be happy to just bounce around colorado for 15 years.

By too laid back, I mean that it isn't very military. Yes there is a rank structure, but my experience was the junior enlisted were pampered. The work is in a building for 8-12 hours. Honestly the majority of the time there isn't that much to do. Some days are very busy, but day to day you just make sure the sky isn't falling.

I wasn't allowed to put this job down at MEPS because i said I was afraid of heights.Funny how that works out when you guys say it's usually ina room.

Yeah it is pretty laid back. Pretty much everyone is on a first name basis in my squadron. Except like enlisted speaking to officers of course. At Buckley we also work with foreign nationals, so there will be Australians, British and Canadians working on crew with you. They have a little bit different military culture so some of them actually get offended if you call them by their last name. They think it's too impersonal so they make you call them by their first name.

It is generally laid back though. When you're working 12 hour shifts in the middle of the night it's all you can do to stay awake. On night shifts we watch a lot of movies/tv and play chess and stuff just to stay awake.

When it's time to work though, it's dead serious. A mistake in missile warning could mean you just woke up a 4 star general in the middle of the night or even the President for no reason. The certification process is extremely precise and if you make a mistake on crew you will immediately be on restricted status and will have to basically go through training all over again in most cases.

Airmen get some of the crap jobs, but it's mostly just taking out the trash or doing a snack bar/food run. In missile warning at least, you have to have 24/7 coverage so people really can't be off wandering around doing random stuff unless there are extra people. You're just sitting there looking at your console for the whole time for the most part.

Gerry_Agnosia: At least at my squadron a typical day is come in at about 0630 if you're working a day shift, have a crew changeover briefing with the offgoing crew, then sit at your console for the next 12 hours either watching the news or a movie or reading a book or something. If there are extra people on the floor you might get a couple hour break to go to the gym or take care of admin stuff.

Obviously if things are actually going on then you'd be working, it's not like you just sit there and stare at the console doing nothing at all.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dekerr:
When it's time to work though, it's dead serious. A mistake in missile warning could mean you just woke up a 4 star general in the middle of the night or even the President for no reason. The certification process is extremely precise and if you make a mistake on crew you will immediately be on restricted status and will have to basically go through training all over again in most cases.
QUOTE]

Sounds pretty intense. How often do people screw up?

So its safe to say that if your taking college classes you can do your homework if nothing important is going on?

Yeah I've been doing my CDCs on crew, and you could also bring in your textbook to read or whatever. Again I can only speak for my job, don't know about other squadrons working on other satellite systems.

People don't screw up often, but it happens. We're all humans after all.

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Originally posted by dekerr:
Missile Warning: If you get a *** doing what I do, you will be stati**ed at B***ley in Denver. There is nowhere else to do the ***. You could also get a radar site like menti**ed earlier t**ugh.

Space Surveillance: Basically you track and catalog all the junk floating around in space. You'd probably be stati**ed at Eglin in Florida, or possibly a couple other places.

That is incorrect. True, SPACE BASED missile warning is d o n e there, but we also have GROUND based missile warning at Beale, Cape Cod, Thule, Clear (there's another o n e, but my mind just went blank)
All these locati o ns also do space surviellance. Alth ough surveivallance is their seco ndary missio n, this missio n is the lio ns share of the work (more stuff to "survey" than missiles launched)

Surveivallance is more than tracking junk in space (but we DO that!) we also track new launches to ensure stuff actually goes wher it's supposed to go, we track rocket bodies as they return back to earth, we look for "lost" stuff in space (and even sometimes FIND it). We mo nitor the shuttle and space statio n, doing our part to keep manned space safe. O ne of our big taskings is to track junk (yes, debris) that is orbiting too close to the ISS or shuttle, risking a collisio n. I remember o nce the ISS had to be moved about 5 years ago(lu c kily the shuttle was docked and could use it's engines to do so) because something was dangeriously close to hitting it)

Eglin is a sweet a ssigment, they're overmanned now so that place is next to impossible to get now. Keep in mind that "Eglin" radar is actually 30 miles west of "Eglin main" it's o n Eglin property, but not really o n Eglin (it's actually out in the middle of the woods.)

I've do ne surveillance at Eglin and now I'm doing Missile Warning/Missile Defense at Beale (Beale has the UPGRADED Early Warning Radar, which adds misslie defense to our missio n)

Almost every time we PCS, we go back to Vandi for sch ool (specialized training). The o nly time we do n't go is when we're PCSing to a "like system"

AFSPC has 3x as many o fficers as enlisted. Enlisted folks do not have respo nsibilities like other AFSCs. From what I've seen, our best NCOs come from th ose wh o've retrained IN from other career fields. It's really h a r d for space squadro ns to "grow" good NCOs when you have a bunch of new Lts running the flights.

As the Sr Enlisted member, I look to my prior AFSC NCOs for enlisted leadership in my squadro n. I depend o n them to help mentor/lead our new airmen and teach new SSgts h ow to be good NCOs. (Even my group Chief is a retrainee into space!)

Oh! Our shifts in surveivallance and warning: 2 days, 2 swings, 2 mids, and 3 days o f f. Most of your training, appts, etc. are do ne o n day's o f f . There is a crew vs day staff at many squadro ns, with "greener gra ss" o n both sides. Crews work all weekends, h olidays and down days, but over all work many LESS h ours than day staffers. Shifts are 8-hr shifts. o nce you take shift, you cannot leave the site (for lunch, appts, ceremo nies, etc) so you have to brown bag it.

You do n't "ch oose" your area (missile warning, space launch, C&C, etc) you're placed according to manning. It's pretty much a crap sh oot. You can PCS from si te are to another th ough.

Chain of Command:
for my sites, crews are 3 perso n crews: Space Co nsole Operator (the Airman - and the o ne wh o does most of the work!)
Crew Chief (NCO usually), and Crew CC (o fficer) Normally that's your CoC. Sometimes the CC supervises all 3 crew members; I do my best to ensure (good/trained) NCOs supervise the SCOs.

Average days: most crews hate day shifts because they have to deal with "day staff" (see comments about the "vs" above) Swings are probably the busiest (we work in zulu time, and that's when it becomes "tomorrow" in zulu time) Mids are quiet, but sometimes busy. There really aren't "normal" days. It all depends o n what's going o n - launches, satellite break-ups, stuff burning in to Earth (remember when we recently blew up our dangereous satellite?)

As you can see, you'll get a different example from people w h o are at different sites (even different wings - the 21 SW missio ns/experiences are different from the 50 SW.

Do n't disregard any opinio ns, but do n't put your eggs all in o ne perso n's story either.



The profanity filter has a dirty mind

This message has been edited. Last edited by: AFshirt1,