Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm new. And my boyfriend is strongly considering joining the Air Force. So I have a few questions that I was hoping I could get answered. Is there a buddy system in the Air Force? You know if you and a friend join they get stationed to the same area? Do you get a higher rank if you were in NJROTC or have a associates or bacholars (sp)degree? how much is the pay grade different between a regular highschool graduate and a college graduate?

Not everyone is the same rank through basic... there's just a lot of people out of uniform. I got paid E3 all the way through basic. So either you're right and Finance screwed up in such a way they only overpaid the airmen who put on a higher rank at graduation... or we were just not allowed to put on rank.

there is a buddy system but most of the time the military like to screw you over on that deal! some are lucky though.
as far as pay goes yes Enlisted ranks usually receive a better rate as they go up in rank until they hit officer i think the biggest pay raise is at E3 or something not exactly sure!

also with ROTC and stuff you should make E-3, any extra colledge added to that maybe an E-4,
to join as an E-5 you need some kind of NCO or OCS training
i did OCS pretty fun!

You are still considered an E-1 in basic until you graduate, than the ranks are applied at tech school, but you graduate with your extra stripes. At least that was the way in 2000

When you go to basic, provided that you had informed the recruiter/MEPS that you had college credit, that gets factored into your pay grade. I think 19 credits would garner you E-2 out the gate, and 60 would nab you E-3.

Everyone in BMT is an Airman Basic until graduation day- then you can put on your appropriate rank. But you are paid at whatever grade your contract specifies. The guy that was making 1k a check was likely also married and receiving BAH for his spouse.

...But yeah, E-3 is as high as it goes for non-prior enlisted newbies.

Other note: I got shafted on this. I had the credits to start as an E-2, but I was also a 6 year enlistee- MEPS copy+pasted the generic 6 year contract (for NPS, regardless of rank you are awarded E-3 after completion of tech school or after being in tech school for 20 weeks, whichever occurs first) and didn't put the snippet about coming in as an E-2 on there. I had so much paperwork thrown at me, misread it, etc., that I just signed it. It's a binding contract, so I couldn't contest it.

Oh well. Live and learn. And damn, that was 5 years ago. Seems like an eternity!