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<p>Not exactly, hneedle. You’ll go through UPT get checked out in the plane your selected for, and then you do your first operational tour in THAT plane. Operational tours used to be 3 years, but they have been shortening them recently to 2 years, 8 months to get guys out to other requirements. </p>
<p>Here’s a big picture on the time line: Academy - 4 years (Congrats, you’re now a 2nd Lt!), UPT - 1 year, Fighter Transition Training (learning to ly your selected plane - 9 months to a year, go to your first Ops unit and stay there for almost 3 years. At the end of your first ops tour, you’ll be a young Capt (and you’ll be chased by every single girl in the O’Club if you haven’t gotten hitched by then 
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<p>So, it will be about 5 years after the Academy (when you finish your first Ops tour) that you’ll be looked at for “other” opportunities. Which crews aviod this? Your fast-burning, hard-charging, go-getters who have made a name for themselves and are quickly on the path to instructor and then Weapons School. Still too young to get there by year 3, but the bosses know this guy has a future and will protect them (i.e. fight for an ops-to-ops assigment for their next tour to continue to develop their flying potential.)</p>
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<p>Wisely you speak, my young Padawan! But let me say this. Very few (and I mean VERY FEW) flyers stay flying their entire career. (Usually the guys who go to Weapons School (and even they can expect one or two tours out of the jet during a 20-year career), or the guys who tell the AF to "stuff it, I’m staying flying, and only flyig (and they get passed over for O-5 and lose $700/month in retirment pay for the rest of their lives)). Almost all of us (even the WSOs!) get out of the cockpit and do “something else”. I was an ALO with the 82d Abn (got the blood wings to prove it, ended up with 40 static line jumps!). Did it suck not flying? Yeah. But I LOVED THE JOB (even if it was with the Army. Just kidding my fine Army brothers!) Lots of cool things, to include almost getting my gold star in my jump wings as I got turned around in the air from airborne assaulting Haiti. Also went to a year of school at Fort Leavenworth (I swear, I was only there for a year, and it wasn’t for a “bad thing”!), and spent 3 years screwing up the rest of the DoD in the Pentagon planning the next 20 years for the AF. </p>
<p>You’ll get a broad experience as an officer, and you can either hate or love every job you have. I chose the former, and my life couldn’t be happier! I could go on forever about what I love about serving as an officer in the active duty, fromthe experiences tothe life long friends, to the great people I’ve worked and served with. Live your own advice: go for your dreams, work hard, and I’ll add a third: love what you’re doing. God knows, when it’s time to hang up my spurs (which is all too soon), you’ll see this combat veteran shed many a tear as I toast those I leave behind.</p>