Leaderboard

I was out riding around Tucson today and happened to see a four ship that looked like they were setting up for a missing man formation (or maybe it was my imagination) and I thought of this thread and Pyro, even though I never met the man. That moment had me thinking about this military aviation family, and all the things society fights about that don't mean anything. It was a sort of Zen moment, I'm grateful for it, and I'm damn lucky to be in this family. Life is too short to not live it. Him, Him.

Or, the ARC has been so busy and people have deployed so much that they are actually within striking distance of an AD retirement and they would rather drop 3 years of mil leave and go be an ROTC instructor and call it quits rather than continue in this revolving door of constant AEF deployments...

Yes, the entire program is under review. As a current VLPAD/ROTC Det CC, we were told that there are a combination of things going on that caused the pause in the program. First, the AFRC is not meeting total end strength numbers so they wanted a pause of all the VLPAD accessions to take a look at this and ensure they can continue to meet mission reqs. Second, the AD is already at their authorized end strength number for FY20 (as of Oct) so taking on new VLPADs only makes sense for basically the most critical fill positions. As of today (Jan 1st), I think ROTC was able to get at least one new VLPAD tour approved since the pause went into effect so I believe it is a very case by case approval process. If you have applied for the program but are waiting to hear on it, IMO, I wouldn't hold your breath/make any firm plans/etc....unless you know your position is a very critical fill and the POC has advised you they are sending up a waiver to the HAF (no guesses by me on what is critical and what isn't in the eyes of the AF). As far as ROTC goes, the ROTC Leadership is telling us the VLPAD program is in a sunset mode so the openings will be few and far between going forward. They plan to get down to about 10% of the total postions filled by VLPADs. The AD has a new process of filling the ROTC positions and after the first round this year it seemed to provide a lot more qualified candidates and fills than in years past. I'll try to repost anything I hear out of ROTC on this going forward.

LOL: I think we should start with the expectation management of "flying full time" means? On AD, you are only going to fly "full time" one year in your whole career.

Ah, there it is. I feel like we just got to the “that’s it!” point in a naming. Deadbolts and magnetic signs.

It rips me apart to post this, Matmacwc flew west peacefully Christmas morning after a long fight with cancer. He bravely fought it to the end. He was truly a good man and a great fighter pilot. If your inclined to pray please pass a few on to his family. Nickle on the grass my friend. 🍺