Sam Wilson Meta: A Timeline
I’ve made a timeline before but it wasn’t totally correct, so I’m making a new one. This includes from birth to pretty much the moment Sam met Steve.
Sam was born September 23rd, 1978 (making this coming September his 39th birthday.
Sam started preschool in the Fall of 1983 (no more than 5 y/o by Sep. 30th, his fifth birthday being 9/23/1983).
Source and source. Sorry I can’t find anything closer to when he would’ve been in school! It’s really hard to find the cut off date for the 80s lol.
(In my timeline he goes to preschool, does not have to re-do any grades, and doesn’t graduate early, but if you want to add that, it should be easy.)
Sam started kindergarten in the Fall of 1984.
Sam graduated high school in May 1997.
Sam joined the AF on October 15th, 1997.
I’m having him join right off the bat – specifically the middle of October after he turns 18 – which can be changed for headcanon purposes.
This is where it gets a lil wonky. Sam only served two tours (generally two years) and more than likely didn’t become a PJ immediately. I’m by no means an expert at the Air Force so I’m not totally sure how his tours work around the PJ thing or what he would’ve been doing before he became a PJ.
My original timeline had him starting as a PJ, so I’m going to be keeping it that way. I’m gonna kinda disregard the fact that it’s unlikely because I am but a simple high schooler and it makes my brain hurt to try and figure that out. If someone wants to help me with fixing this, please do!
Basic Training is 7.5 weeks long, ending December 7th, 1997 (December 6th if half a week is 3 days/7th if half a week is 4 days).
Source
Airman’s Week is 1 week long, ending December 14th, 1997.
Nifty PDF telling you what happens during each week of Basic Training and Airman’s Week
Technical Training is 501 days long, ending April 29th, 1999 (at this point, Sam is nineteen).
Source
Wait, you may be asking, what squadron is he in?
The 48th Pararescue Squadron became active May 1st, 1993
The 58th Pararescue Squadron (the canon one) became active June 14th, 2002
Sam would have started in the 48th and been transferred to the 58th. Fun fact: both the 48th and 58th are Guardian Angel Squadrons. Marvel made our man a Guardian Angel.
Now onto the ranks.
I got my averages here, where I also saw that upon entering Basic Training, you get the rank of Airman Basic – if you agree to enlist for six years. Promotions for ranks are based on Time-in-Service (TIS) and Time-in-Grade (TIG).
In order to be a PJ, you cannot be promoted above Senior Airman, but I have dates for past that if anyone wants them. (The E-# means salary.)
Airman Basic (E-1) starts when he enters Basic Training, so October 15th, 1997.
Airman (E-2) lasts for 6 months and starts when he leaves Technical School, so April 29th, 1999.
Generally, people stay an Airman for 6 months. The promotions are automatic if the Airman is on their best behavior and does their job satisfactorily.
Airman First Class (E-3) lasts for 16 months and starts when he’s promoted, so September 29th, 1999. (At this point, Sam is 20.)
Senior Airman (E-4) ~usually lasts for 3 years but not in Sam’s case. It starts when he’s promoted, so December 29th, 2000.
Now you’re wondering when did Riley die, right? Well, you’re in luck.
I’ve based the following on the idea that Sam is a Peer Specialist. Here’s the meta for that.
In order to be a Peer Specialist, Sam would have to be recovering from PTSD or other issues for at least a year. Sam would be discharged due to his PTSD, so the timeline depends on (a) how long he’s worked as a Peer Specialist, (b) when he had his mandatory year of recovery, and © how long it took for him to show symptoms of PTSD.
A few notes: Honorable Discharges are different for each case, so I went for 1 month. If you’d like to drag it out, discharges can take super long to process, so go on ahead. Symptoms of PTSD can show within days of the traumatic event or up to within six months of the traumatic event, and that is accounted for here.
If you have any questions or suggestions, shoot me an ask! Again, I am not an expert at the Air Force or how it works.
This timeline was made for the @samwilsonbirthdaybang.
An anon told me, “ just fyi, you can become a pj immediately in the air force, and in fact, most pjs, combat controllers, etc, are promised their jobs before they even ship, and are therefore placed into specific squadrons/flights during basic. also, airman’s week is a VERY recent change; it didn’t exist when i went to bmt at the end of 2013. the length of bmt has changed several times over the years. it may have been as little as 6.5 weeks when sam went, or the same 8.5 weeks i got.”
So the Basic Training can also be editing at your discretion.
@lemniskate67 said, “I also didn’t have airman’s week, and basic was only six weeks for me (1994). Also, Sam, if he had college credits from classes taken during high school, or if he was in ROTC, he could have come out of basic as an E-3 - everyone’s an AB in basic, but you get paid for your rank from the start. That would have gotten him to E4 faster.”
So Basic Training was probably 6-7 weeks for Sam.
