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hindsight2020

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Everything posted by hindsight2020

  1. Buddy, the wheels came off this bus a long time ago. There's no turning this Titanic around. It gets even more ludicrous on our side of this mess. So first of all, AFRC volunteers for these nonner IAs, which is the original sin, but that's what happens when you promote Active Duty sycophant blue falcons to AFRC leadership in Washington. At any rate, it then realizes it can't do so legally, so it cooks up a new partial presidential mobilization authority in order to do so. Meanwhile on active duty land, our "mirror NAF" executes a flank and takes its own bodies, those the ARC members are supposed to replace-in-place during a wartime tasking in the first place, and manages to fence them out of those very COCOM rent-seeking nonner IAs. So the TRs end up doing the Active bubbas invol IAs, and the Active folks are fenced out from them while getting active duty points on "nights and weekends" too. How u like them apples? Nevermind that TR probably got out of Active Duty precisely to regain control of his life and away from those very dynamics. You literally cannot make this stuff up. And when you take the senior managers to task about the legality of our charter, and I quote the O-8: "you're dealing with outdated information, Major". Basically sit the F down, which I find myself doing a lot of these days.... To the ARC leadership, TFI (TFE is the actual name today BTW) was never the bug, it was the feature. This is a decade long decay and it has worked to morph the strategic reserves into the expeditionary reserve, and unsustainable abortion, that it is today. The Air Guard folks need to take some serious accounting of their situation. I know it's du jour to believe the Guard Bureau retains the kind of rebel without a cause atmosphere that shields people from the indignities of AFRC life, but those days are over. This IS coming to a Guard unit near you, as it has already to some, so plan accordingly.
  2. The ARC? Let me put it to y'all this way. We're losing people over flu shots, SG gatekeeper fucketry, and OBOGS. And that's before they added that individual INVOL mob bullshit grenade. LOL it's total chaos. Leadership says we're good though, mainly because we have the last remaining bastion of lost decade guys finishing active duty retirements, taking these on a voluntary basis. But that pot is drying up right quick. Oh and the cherry on top: Turns out AFRC actually volunteered to cover these rent-seeking CENTCOM nonner IAs. You cannot make this shit up. This job should be enviable. Leave it to the ARC to fvck up a two car funeral. If my wife hadn't got sick, as much as I hate admitting it, no doubt I too would have punched to Cat-E Shangri-La, go sit short call in MIA over a plato of arroz congrĂ­ with a goddamn smile on my face. And I don't even like flying airliners mind you...the hassles and nonner antics are outta hand.
  3. yeah it was tongue in cheek. I was talking about the MC-12, but the barrel dive reference meant to draw a parallel to the Q400 thing. Unsat overall indeed on that one.
  4. "Attempted" aileron roll was more like it. But the MIF is Fair (3+) so "barrel dive" is good enough. No fighter/FAIP follow-on, press to next block. LOL
  5. You guys attribute too much virtue to our senior leadership. Occam's razor: when you view the world from the prism of economic self interest, you realize that perpetual war and its rent seeking is not the bug, it's the feature. As such, there is no failure, only profit. Sure, we the pawns eat the opportunity cost. People are getting paid off our idealism, check that, RAIDING the cash registers on the backs of that naivete, and you guys are quoting Sun Tzu? Lol.
  6. The place is run by lifer locals mostly. Taxes and COL are sticker shock for most gringos. The weather is great if you are from the Caribbean or have that Kenny Chesney "affinity" for Caribbean living as an anglo. Housing is expensive and different (concrete construction, not wood, AC is generally modular, not central), electricity and water costs will knock your socks back so get accustomed to ceiling fans. These days the economy is so depressed with the looming Title III case and all the churn due to Hurricane Maria that you could snag a semi decent deal on a little hacienda in the outskirts. Aguadilla housing (my old man's hometown and my summer home growing up) is generally pretty cheap compared to the more urbanized areas like San Juan, which is a concrete jungle by the interior island's standards. Problem with PR housing is you'll get your a$$ handed to ya on resale. Things are not going to improve for at least 10 years, so if you going down there for a career you better have family reasons. As you probably surmise I'm originally from the place, and I bailed after high school before the second diaspora started in earnest. It will always be home, but it's not a good place to economically prosper, if you want to have something better than social security retirement that is. I suppose it would be a good springboard to other positions within federal service. This is not unique to CBP/AMOC critters. ATC, civilian pilot time builders, lawyers working for the fed, everybody uses PR as an entry way and "mini vacation" while junior in career, then they all bail back to the mainland when the transfer opportunity presents itself. From that perspective, all the economic negatives become a non-issue since you're not spending more than 5 years there anyways. Certainly better way to spend your low paid "juniority" years than sucking hind teet in provebial McAllen or Laredo. You do lose some constitutional rights as a US citizen establishing residency on a colony. Send me a PM for more on that, lest the MAGA crowd on here gets triggered about it. Again, for locals or family ties lifers, it's a no-brainer. My cousin from another mother employed a dude last year (part 91 management company, prior 135 certificate) who no kidding commuted from SJU to a Republic regional FO job in IND for 5 years. Obviously that didn't pan out so well (dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life actually), so he threw in the towel and flying down there full time but at least gets to bang the esposa more often. The place is like hotel california, you can check out any time you like, but you[r heart] can never leave! đŸ˜„ PM me if you want the specifics of how taxes work for a federal worker in PR. Bottom line, it's not a favorable tax situation, but it's a sunk cost if you wanna live down there and have an employer whose check actually doesn't bounce...oh wait we shut down the government over the holidays never mind! LOL Good luck.
  7. Just trough dude. civilian employment is a PITA to juggle under anything but the most inconsequential military reserve commitment (basically part b IMA or cat E).
  8. You have to understand that Enidstan is a former oil "boom" casualty of the 1980s. They are exceedingly skittish, like Minot, in allowing excess housing inventory to be built for a gritty transient population of energy blue collar workers. I understand where they're coming from regarding the housing stock. The DoD happens to be the welfare employer of the area via pork barrel, so servicemembers are the pawns. Captive audience dynamics abound.
  9. An AD OG not so many moons ago was yet again faced with that question as we BS'd amongst each other in the bread van on our way to the parking row. His response to the collective question about that proverbial technician/pilot track inquiry was : "We already have that, it's called the Guard/Reserves". As the sole Reservist in that van, I just quietly shook my head. They don't get it, and never will. For those who fell off the math bus, it is increasingly difficult to attain an Active Duty retirement by that metric. Not impossible, just laborious to a non-starter degree, given the nuances of double commuting and the pay/QOL deltas of major airline flying work. Furthermore, that second class treatment of the flying track disincentivizes the retention of tactical combat corporate knowledge, and dilutes the value of it (80 cents on the dollar by my last count, in the ARC), if one is to suspend disbelief for one second and assume 100% experience retention of separating members into the ARC component. And Lord knows it isn't...hell we have people quitting with no 20-year letters over ¡flu shots! I shit you not. Airlines are that frothy. A true technician track would allow someone to attain an active duty retirement while remaining in ops for the duration, with the recognition that O-5 may be just as scarce as it is in the FTS component of the ARC flying unit ecosystem. But recalcitrant AD just won't barter with their human property as a matter of principle, so we have what we have today. A completely fraudulent and gratuitous apathy toward point blank hemorrhaging of the experienced demographic. It is terrible stewardship of the People's money, and completely uninspiring as a fellow "pilot who happens to be an officer". This particular iteration of the see-saw has convinced me that nothing will change. If they are unwilling to stem the loss in this environment, there really isn't a single additional variable that would compel them to do so. They'll stop loss and then allow it to get worse, while they continue to run the clock offense until the next airline hiccup. The only people who could take them to task would be Congress, and they seem aloof as to the criticality of this manning deficit if we were to get mouth-punched with a peer fight today. So do your 12, fly your ass off, then punch to make whatever life and vocational priorities are the center piece of your life. We managed to pull ourselves out the ropes of Pearl Harbor like Rocky in the fourth movie, so I guess we can keep winging it like that when China sucker punches us. "Late to the melee...", the American Way it seems. LOL
  10. Is Tinker depot part 145 though? I understand y'all are majority civil servants, but isn't Tinker still mickey mouse AF MX run, to include military procedural fucketry standard? Genuinely curious, wife's born/grew up in Midwest City and I dropped more BUFFs at TIK that I care to recall, so I'm familiar with the area.
  11. Your shitty PRF won't be a problem for O-5 in the Reserves, hell we promote convicted deviants. Your lack of ACSC in correspondence however, will 100% guarantee your non-promotion. I'm telling you, it's that binary. It's a matter of opportunity cost. A reserve retirement is not that lucrative when you have to wait for it until 60 (or high 50s as a disbursement buydown for certain 90 day chunks of orders post-2008), to the degree that O-4 vs O-5 would make a difference in your life. All you're doing with reaching for O-5 is increasing your MSD in the reserves, which for an airline guy may or may not be worthwhile, depending on if the airline treats you right or you get sodomized in the *next (not *if) airline musical chair stopping period. That's more of a airline timing and industry thing, than anything inherent to O-5 considerations on the mil side. Active duty retirement via the Reserves? Sure, you probably have an incentive to push through the bullshit ACSC side quest (which gets worse by the decade). Of course that also requires looking for O-5AGR in the line, where a lot of people time out waiting on a younger guy sitting ont the controlled position, and have to go looking for some retirement desk job just to get the TIG and go back to their airline. I'd certainly wouldn't do that just to get O-5 since I don't have a turbine job in my back pocket like MLOA airline guys do, but that's me and my reasons for sticking around in the military full time vice rummaging through civilian commercial aviation. So do ACSC, and you'll make O-5. Don't, and you won't. It's not the end of the world, but it is that simple. Meaning there's no decoder ring here like there is on Active Duty. No excuse for not knowing this in the AFRC side. I'm not defending it; I'm exceedingly UNINSPIRED by every administrative aspect of my career, and it is tough as an intelligent individual to accept that mediocrity. I'm only here because I'm still having fun in the flight line. They touch my "baby" single issue vote, and I vanish like a fart with the wind so fast all they'll see is the outline of my prior self like Wylie coyote. I digress, my point being, the outcome track is open source, so it's an easy decision to formulate in the ARC. No decoder ring needed.
  12. See bolded. Bro, kudos on one of the most candid and on-point assessments of female military pilot dynamics out there. I've said that shit offline a couple times and get tar/feathered. It is def not a politically correct assessment, but it's hella repeatable and easy to illustrate for those without an axe to grind, let alone those who resemble the remark. Let's not even get started on how these dynamics create tension and a sense of inequity in the squadron when it comes to deployment cycles, work schedules while in garrison, and even post-separation working expectations, especially in the dual pilot couple household. Again, my experience with acquaintances on the post-separation side of things, tracks 100% batting average what you highlight. Problem is that 'thirsty' won't see what they don't want to see. So you're spinning your wheels with these types. Or that poor fuck I know that forewent a Viper for a bomber so wifie T-6 FAIP could join spouse with him, even though wouldn't stop the lamentations in the bar when not in mixed company (aka wifie not there). Just a god damn self-imposed heartbreak. Not all baby turtles make it to the ocean; I used to say that about UPT grads, but Jesus these days it's the late rate Capts, priors, or FAIPS going into second assignment the ones that look in need of better adulting mentorship. LOL
  13. Airline X? You presume too much. Robin Olds would have failed the Hogan.đŸ˜†
  14. At the end of the day, the only people who need to believe you in post af life is your wife, your mother, and your airline hiring board. The rest is ballwash. Lol
  15. As to the first paragraph, that has been happening for years now. USERRA is a joke wrt hiring in the real world. Caveat emptor. As to the second paragraph, I haven't heard of it. If true, eh, fvck 'em.
  16. valid. Not the right forum for this discussion.
  17. Indeed. One of the things I'm most glad of is that my first exposure to aviation was civilian flying. UPT almost cured me from wanting to fly professionally for a living. I absolutely cherish my private aircraft ownership and also work hard to keep it as far away from anything work-related as possible. I enjoy the craft I'm allowed to draw a paycheck from the AF for, but at the end of the day it's tiring work. It would absolutely cure me from flying if I had to approach my own recreational/travel flying the same way. fwiw, I would say the same thing about airline flying. Just not my idea of a good time while flying. To each their own.
  18. I was briefly involved in the attempt to galvanize support for the re opening of the flying club two duty stations ago, and the bottom line is that it comes down to money over risk. WG/CC don't want the hassle and the club would be a burden on the general funding if not supported by the IFT graft money. Good bad or indifferent, it was a straight up cash cow for the instructors involved, but once thatmoney dried up, the other facilities wanted nothing to do with upkeeping the airplanes, which is why you saw them die en masee when the money was gone. The ladies at the CDC outvote you compared to the couple cats that want to have access to general aviation. It;s not just the military, as a private aircraft owner myself and involved in GA for longer I've been in the military, I can attest to the fact GA is a hard sell to the pedestrians on the civilian side of the street. Costs of certified anything make it a troubling proposition. Also, since most people want automotive quality accomodations for automotive prices, the proposition of spam cans become a non starter quick, since it only offers automotive comfort at million dollar housing prices.
  19. There was a flag officer in attendance but it is my understanding he was the parent of a different student, not of the female targeted.
  20. FTFY (correction in underline, opinion in bold). Not everybody in attendance was fond of his "management style", and that's as euphemistic as I can put it without causing his fans to insta mouth-foam. Fwiw, I'm also of the opinion the DO firing was circumstantial by virtue of subordinancy; the WG firing was certainly a political necessity, again neither causal imo. I digress. At the end of the day, part of being in the hot seat is taking the political fallout. And it is a political game make no mistake; nobody can claim ignorance to that reality at the O-4+ level. Everybody knows the name of the game when they get on that track. I was witness to the BAD/MIB bent spear flush; this thing is nothing new. AETC is in a tough position. The question of IP accessions quality control will continue to be debated at the 19th level, and the MWS communities will continue to claim ignorance to the cherry picking. It truly is a food fight at the inter-MAJCOM level, nothing really endemic to the UPT squadron itself. Though as we see on display, it definitively ends up always coming to a head.
  21. False dichotomy. Both positions are correct at the same time. Not everybody borrows because they can't afford it. And most of America's behavior towards borrowing is motivated by the sheer inability to afford their lifestyle on the real wages they get paid in this craptastic McWage american labor landscape. An economy where the govt brags about everybody being employed (U3) but nobody gets paid shit (U6 by proxy). Neither the government nor the "mouth breathers" ever want to talk about that dichotomy though. So the street borrows for everything instead, inflating the price of everything. Those of us who don't subscribe to that life outlook get dragged into inelastic choices, and divorces ensue when hypergamy is not acquiesced to (ask me how I know). I have it on good authority most Americans recognize they're screwed in non-working life (I refuse to call it retirement, that concept is dead for post-millenials). The act of mortgaging their future labor value is thenceforth not only a sunk cost, but the rational choice when staring at the indignity of American life the very month the W-2 stops. Telling 250 million working age people to stop sucking at math and "become landlords" or "daytraders" is not incorrect on the technical merits, but it is tone deaf af. Equally tone deaf to mock/scorn W-2 life in general by suggesting it's [accurately] an insolvent way to become financially free, then not addressing the arithmetic impossibility of everybody being everybody's "landlord"/surgeon/WB FO/potato. Again, the canyon of living in the world of what things should be v. the world of what things are. But as always, "Better lucky than good", "better you than me", "timing and luck", "there is no justice"// pick your platitude...Nothing to see here. To each their own indeed wrt to borrowing.
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