The Gun Counter

Youngest daughter has been texting, phoning, Face timing with a young airman 3 states away. They're both 19. Seems like a fine young man on paper.

She's out of the house, living on her own, supporting herself. We have an excellent relationship.

They'd like to meet. I'm not comfortable with their meeting away from either family. His family is in CA. So, I offered to let him stay at our house. I kind of figure if he's significantly opposed to that, it could flush out character information though it would not necessarily confirm any. He's concerned about flight costs to here.

The question: I thought I'd heard or read that AF personnel could deadhead on flights for free or cheap, given some coordination. Is that right or not?

They can but it's basically a crap shoot on whether they can catch a ride. Depends on a lot of things and there's no guarantee on a return trip. I know that coming back from Germany once, it took me three days to get Space A on a military flight and I had to pay commercial to get back.

I think it would be Minot to Whiteman, if that makes any difference.

Since neither is a transport base, the likelihood of aircraft with space on board for passengers goes WAY down.

When I was in Space-A seemed to be mainly used by retirees and dependent family members that had no set schedule and could afford to wait around a terminal a few days for hop to where they wanted to go (or at least close).

I never even tried to use it when I was on a limited schedule.

Minot to Whiteman isn't that much of a drive (and having been stationed in Nebraska and driven all over the great and northern plains, I have some idea of the distances involved). Assuming he has a decent car (not a safe assumption with a Junior Enlisted), and he probably can't rent one, so that may not be an option

Should be able to get relatively cheap air fare from Fargo or Grand Forks to KC, especially with a .mil discount.