So i'm currently bored of studying and decided to do a AMA.
I completed the Basic Air Force training from August 2017 to November 2017. Ask me anything.
[AMA] I Was Trained By the Vietnamese Air Force for 3 Months - Ask Me (Almost) Anything
tomleonhart on 03/01/2018 - 21:26
Last edited 03/01/2018 - 23:01
Last edited 03/01/2018 - 23:01
closed Comments
No i graduated :P
How did you get accepted? Why didn't you join raaf?
It is not my interest to join the Army so I didn't join the RAAF (neither do i think I could make their selection criteria lol)
I actually got sent to the Vietnamese Air Force as a prerequisite to start a job with Vietnam Airlines.
The CEO has a PhD, doesn't she? And they use hot stewardesses, don't they?
What is the job? Pilot?
And which jobs with Vietnam Airlines make you go to the Vietnam Air Force first?
Pilot yeah.
Were their libraries quiet?
Yes. If you make noise you would get shot.
Thats terrible! I think we should invade Vietnam and put an end to this nonsense.
Should be pretty easy right?
I'd ask the American :P
When you were accidentally given 2 sets of uniforms did you let them know or did you keep one set
lol that poor guy removed his post.
I've heard Vietnamese Airlines pays quite poorly and they have to do some semi grey area schemes to earn some extra $$$s?
Op is probably going to move onto a better paying airline once he has more experience.
The air force is not an airline.
Op said his going to start a job with vietnam airlines
lol. I think you're speaking about Vietnam as a whole. Dodgy scheme left right and centre.
I dunno, with a name like Mr Tom Leonhart… one might think you'd go great distances in Vietnam
Are you going continue? Do you get paid like raaf? I'm guessing no cuz vietnam probably ozbargains too.
No I won't continue the Army Path as I just treated it as a prerequisite anyway.
And no we don't get paid for the training. But we do get food and a bed with a mosquito net.
Did they teach you how to make the GIs go home?
Sort of yeah. By teaching us how to shoot AK47 and K54 😂
But I like GI so I'd like GI to stay :-(
did you ever unintentionally dreamt of yelling 'GET SOME, GET SOME, come on, come on!' while manning the PKM and mowing down capitalist goons?
But I love capitalist GOONS! so that's a …. no ?
3 months of basic training, do you feel special?
Did you even get beyond just doing push ups?
Were the AKs legitimate or cheap Chinese knocks offs?
The AKs were legitimate, it was the push-ups that were the cheap Chinese knock offs….
funny you say that. Some AKs were made in China, some were Russian made, some were even made in Vietnam.
I don't feel special, just lot of fun experience. We did a lot more than push up, pull up and long distance running too. There were these unique exercises:
- endure a barany chair for 3 minutes at 60rpm
- once that done then we moved on to this circle thing - 30 rounds per minute to move on (took us 2 weeks)
- once that done then there was this ladder thing - 25 rounds per minute to move on (took us 2 weeks)
- those 2 previous exercises prepare us for this equipment - 25 rounds/spin to pass the test. (took around 1 week to just do 1 round and spin, then around 2 weeks to improve the speed)
For us rookie it was a milestone but for those pilots who have been there for 4 years, these just become their conditioning equipments.
Did anyone have a general preference for the origin of the AKs?
Did people like the Vietnamese ones because they were local, or the Russian ones over the Chinese?
Did you get to eat combat/emergency ration (MRE's) ?
What do you think of the taste of the main/entree and 'completeness' compared to CR1M - Aust army MREwe didn't get combat/emergency ration so i can't compare the "taste" to the Australia one.
but put it this way, at one point in October I was craving for chocolate(hmm m&m) and black tea so much I would I kill for an Aust MRE pack :((
Was it dangerous? How do feel about shooting the enemy?
some of the aviation exercise were dangerous as we spin at high speed and the only thing that attach us to the equipment is a string. But the rest are not.
We didn't have to shoot at any enemy since we don't have any :)
Is the Vietnamese Air Force ever going to stand up to the Trung Quoc stealing your land?
hah! when they make an announcement I'll let you know.
Are there still Hueys flying in the fleet? Any operational Kiowas or OH-6s that were left behind by Americans?
I still vividly remember taxiing to the airport terminal after landing at Tan Son Nhat years ago and passing all the military-style bunkers.
I'm actually not sure about helicopter to be honest. The S&R paratrooper told me they practice on MI-172.
All the pilots I interacted with either fly Su, L39 or Yak 52.
What's your highest score on Sturmovik?
wah i have actually never played that before! so i guess 0!
Can you recommend a good Vietnamese cook book?
youtube !
Why are Vietnamese Immigration Officers the most belligerent and unfriendly in the world?
I think they just have a sh*tty face and annoyed. Most of them can't speak English and their job requires English speaking ability 24/7.
They're actually not that unfriendly (to me at least). True story in 2016, we traveled through to Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City.
Upon landing in Singapore,Taipei, Hong Kong, the immigration queues were horrendous resulting in lengthy wait (around an hour queue). My back then 2 years old daughter couldn't stand/sit still for that long and needless to say we were very tired to keep her from running around. Bloody Terrible 2!
We got to Ho Chi Minh city at around 11pm, exhausted and the queue was just as long so I thought "FML, my daughter is going to scream this place down", suddenly there was a tap from a roaming immigration officer telling families to go to a spare booth and we were through within 5 minutes. Ho Chi Minh city was the last place I expect this to happen! So I might be biased after this experience :)
Because they had to pay sh*tload of money to get a spot on the booth where they're expecting naive and scared overseas Vietnamese to bribe their way to get through so they can quickly make a return of their investment. That sentiment gradually applies to any other visitors (well, in part because the oldies don't go back more or get smarter so their chance of getting a few bucks reduce further, another reason to be grumpy).
but on another note Australian custom officials are not much friendlier.
Were you kicked out for having a runny nose?