Exchange tour FINAF - USMC

This blog deals with a Finnish Air Force flight officer's three-year commandment to MCAS Miramar, USA. During that period, I will work as an instructor pilot as part of the 3rd Marine Air Wing, VMFAT-101, Fighter Attack Training Wing. Thoughts and opinions in the blog are entirely personal, and therefore may not always correspond to the Finnish Air Force's opinion.

I'm part of an exchange program between the Finnish Air Force and the United States Marine Corps. The purpose of these exchanges is to learn from the other nationalities' procedures, share information and thereby improve own national defence forces. This kind of exchange tour is the first of its kind in the Finnish Air Force.

I was informed of my selection in December 2016. It was undoubtedly a great surprise because there were so many applicants. It is a great honor to be the first Finnish F-18 flight instructor abroad. Earlier, the Finnish Air Force had two Hawk pilots working as flight instructors in Canada from 2002-2005 and 2010-2012.

The preparatory phase required a lot of effort from many parties because this kind of flight instructor exchange has not been done before. The Finnish Air Force has a lot of permanent or regularly recurring jobs abroad.  Creating something new from scratch is always a challenge, but even more such, when the other player is the United States of America, a country which really believes in exact paperwork.

Culture shock when arriving in San Diego wasn't as big as predicted. Although the time difference to Finland is 10 hours, my sleeping rhythm turned quite painlessly. I immediately felt at home. The people were very welcoming and they seemed to appreciate the military personnel much more than the Finns. When I told the hotel receptionist I was going to be working in the Marine Corps for the next three years, I got a very appreciative response: "Thank you for what you do. Thank you for doing it for all of us."

USA's Stars and Stripes' appearance on the streets is more a rule than an exception. In Finland you don't see the national flag as much; it's only up on official flag days and some major events. Even though the continued use of the Finnish flag in not prohibited, people don't want to use it on a regular basis. Maybe we want to maintain its solemn status by using it only on special occasions. Personally I'd like to see the Finnish flag more often.

During the first two days in San Diego, I heard two very sad news stories. First, on Wednesday 27.7 two police officers were shot near Downtown San Diego. Second, on 28.7. a fatal crash of an F/A-18 crash happened. It was really sad events and a lot of prayers to the families who lost their loved ones. Apparently, there is lot more happening here in the big world than what I'm used to.

Tomorrow is my first work day in my new, temporary, home country. At least for me, an important guideline is to remain humble but not subservient.  Working as a representative of a small country's Air Force in the world's largest military power can certainly be confusing at first. In the last 70 years USA has been active in several missions around the world and Finland hasn't: at all. When I visited the base last spring, one of the local instructors said they are excited to have a Finnish Hornet pilot joining them. It might even be possible that I could have something to give them, not only the other way around.

My most important Hornet patches.

The leftmost patch is the Fighter Squadron 21's patch. The squadron was located in Pirkkala, but has now been shut down. It is the squadron where I got my F-18 training. The one in the middle is the official patch of the FINAF Hornet pilots. The right is the Fighter Squadron 31's patch, where I worked as an air combat instructor before my commandment.