BFM this

Attitude. To the prior poster: I went to UPT as an MEII with ATP mins met. And I crushed it. What always bugged me though, were the IPs that can't wait to slip the above gem into a conversation. To be fair, yeah, even I had a fair amount to shake loose in terms of "regardless of what you know, the AF wants it done X way". But at the end of the day: attitude. #1.

I've experienced this profession vicariously through my wife for 13 years. Sadly, the answer to your question is on the same plane with the riddle "Can this Officer lead?" with our current OPR/promotion system. The system doesn't give a shit.

Slapped on the wrist and promoted to O5 two below the zone. Wait, what are we talking about again?

We give to Plenty of counttries that turn right around and boost their militaries. NK has made a sport of it. (although that's more of an extortion racket) If we haven't reviewed russias aid status for a ton of other reasons by now, something else is out of wack.

First draft. I'm sure they'll figure out that they can get the job done with ~180 planes.

Yeah, waiting around for your fourth re-engine really blows...

No shoes? Where do I sign?

No point trying to rationalize or get inside this guy's cranium; the whole idea behind his article was f'd up from the word go. His "there I was" story actually kind of fit in with the rest of his drivel.

Kid: "Mommy, where's Daddy? When is he comming home?" Spouse: "Daddy had to go away for a while, sweetie, he'll be back in a few months." Kid: "Hey, wait a minute, that's BS! I saw this on an after-school special. Daddy's in REHAB!!!" Spouse: "...yes. Yes, dear, that's right Daddy's in rehab, he'll be back in three months. Ok?"

So To Speak...

Quoted for truth.

Ok, I'll bite: what ever happened to the Comm/Inst requirement from the feds? Did we relent and agree that we were never going to use public airspace?

Your rifle just failed its function check. Unload and turn into the armorer immediately. If you mean that throughout an engagement you repeatedly selected safe/fire, then CONGRATULATIONS! You lived. Buy the foks that were there with you a drink every time you see them. And do not ever allow yourself to be in a situation where you could get fellow servicemembers killed again.

We all knew this was happening (some first hand, maybe?) but GAWD DAYUM!

Ok, let me see if I follow your math here: 1) Mil members are nothing special wrt to the rest of the job market 2) we fetch a handsom reward for our mediocrity compared to the civ sector And yet, there were so few ivy leaguer's trying to elbow me out of my pilot slot when I applied... There's a reason you went reserves. On some days, I would too without blinking. But my opinion is that the average 20y O5 might have put in as much time and sweat and training as his law firm counterpart at that point.

Zing!

There has to be retention data on this era somewhere.

Or it means that you weren't a non-vol. A little encouragement for more folks to "take the red pill".

10 years from now I imagine that this era will be referred to as BT2 (Bathtub 2).

Already hashed out. Ad nauseam. I don't have time to point you toward the discussion; look in the "Track Select/Assignment" thread circa 07-08 when UAV's started going to UPT grads. Though it was agreed that the concept was bullshit on a some levels, your argument boiled down to a "crybaby" approach to the problem. While added to the list of personnel-management shenanigans that I think are on the verge of biting the AF in the ass, it was well within the AF's rights to do so. And yes, those saddled with the assignment were duty-bound to execute. And by all reports, they have.

several great points made in the last couple of pages, though I think we're all just circling the Root Cause. Service? Yeah, Hacker, I'm leaning toward the EABOD crowd on that one; if you want to drive the "service" point home, give Randolph a call, I'm sure you'll have a RIP before you hang up the phone. Well, no, I don't really think that you should do that. Why not? Because right now no pilot in his right mind should volunteer for this black hole. That takes us a step closer to the point. I've spent the better part of the last three weeks getting at best 4-5 hours a night, waking up several times with one central thought every time: "I'm going to UAVs". That thought really sux. But wait, what sucks about it? The mission? Schedule? Stress? Learning/broadening/advancement opportunities? Nope, all of my friends who've been or are there have nothing but great things to say (caveat that they DO want back into a jet), and truth be told, this nerd is actually a bit motivated overall. Getting warmer. So why is every rated Officer that’s worth a shit avoiding this assignment like The Plague? I’ll throw a “service” spear—right at AF leadership. Their actions over the last 5 years have been self serving, myopic, and damaging to this mission. Self serving because their only concern has been to give their Masters short term solutions that were flagrantly flawed over the long term. TAMI-21? Permanent MWS assignment? Non-vol? No ALFA credit? Return to flying boards? YGBSM!!! Where does the buffoonery end? At this point, Leadership and AFPC have ZERO credibility with those in the field who are getting, in, or even considering this assignment. I personally think the RTFBs are a red herring at best, if not completely disingenuous. We’ll see. Here’s two steps toward fixing this problem and giving this a permanent place in our assignment system: 1: this field will be 100% manned. Already been stated by leadership. This IS an important mission: press. 2: this will be a CONTROLED ALFA tour. Exceptions will be voluntary. No compromise. It has to be no compromise, as a contract, made by AF leadership to those that they should want to fill these positions: the best and brightest rated officers. Not the unwilling, kicking and screaming crowd that they have DESIGNATED by design to fill this field right now. 3: You want volunteers? Guaranteed TX course follow on. Assignment of choice for a 1 year extension. Add up #1 and #2 and you have a real personnel problem reaching across the CAF. Not insurmountable though. The rest of the assignment system will be strained by manning and assignment length. The UAV community itself will suffer those same stresses; RTU will go into overdrive in the short term. At some point the 18X AFSC should dovetail to help even things out. The way we’re going right now is toward another bathtub. Oh yeah, there is absolutely no reason that this problem should have ever reached this point. Side note: IMO, 18x aside, this mission should NEVER be completely devoid of rated participation. Separate discussion. BL: Leadership is trying to sell this as a great experience, with great opportunities, while every real action and policy has treated this asset/mission like they don’t really believe in what they’re selling. Leadership doesn’t believe that a promising officer should even want this as a “broadening” tour. From what I’ve read and discussed with friends, this mission is a valuable broadening experience, on par with ALO or UPT/IFF, if not more so. Meanwhile the mission has suffered from the “min qualification O2-converter” mindset of current manning policy. Leadership is treating the “ALFA” poker chip as a personnel management tool, they’ve completely lost sight (or just don’t care) about their greater responsibility to shepherd the development of future officers (at least within this narrow scope). OPR signed, another assignment, another star, UAV manning: forgotten. Those in place right now (Leadership): put your $ where your mouth is.

That program was in decline long before now. I'm sure many of the saltier staff know more of the history, but some of the milemarkers on its way downhill: -end of the Staff Air Transport Service (hastened along by Flightstar and for a while, two carriers into Willard) -getting rid of the Helos, and while I was there, the Stearman -end of the Mx program -inability of the current program to sell itself to the mainstream academic programs on campus (can't count how many HF experiments I was required to participate in over 4yrs) UofI is white-trash Ivy League (like to think they're IL, but obviously not). It's tough to hang out with that crowd when you have that 'vocational education' eyesore on campus.

Agreed, but then the Kabuki-Phantom showed up, and that was just disturbing for some reason...

Mentoring.

Caveman, If you don't mind, this seemed like a discussion relevant to this thread, and might draw other viewpoints, so I brought it here. One additional thought that I'd had was that the bulk of the USMC pilot pool (to support FAC, AirOff, and staff billets) wasn't from jets, but from RW. So as the numbers shrink from a lot of CH-46's to a lesser number of MV-22's, I imagine a manning problem for tradtional MEU and other functions tradtionaly supported by x-number of pilots from the fleet.