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Disco_Nav963

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Everything posted by Disco_Nav963

  1. Pretty good T-38 drops after a bit of a drought...
  2. Perhaps because McSally hugged Trump/MAGA hard and Ducey did not?
  3. With all due respect, go fuck yourself. It wasn't a loophole, it was part of the AFI. "The deal" was 3 years... not to exceed your UPT or UCT commitment. There is nothing disingenuous about it. Had Big Blue wanted "the deal" to be a full 3 year payback, they would have done that. This year they decided that was what they wanted and they made the change. You have no moral authority to shit on people who volunteered for those programs under the earlier set of rules. That'd be like shitting on the last set of pilots who only got tagged with 6 or 8 year ADSCs (or whatever it used to be) for not staying for 10 voluntarily.
  4. Pile on to the pile on... The recent AFI changes most acutely affect CSO/ABM/RPA; the Intel/Cyber/Space/ICBM/etc. grads never had a "can't extend you past your initial skills training AFSC" get out of jail free card to start with.
  5. Agree, agree... I feel like it does have some ramifications in my corner of the world (BUFFworld) where instructor CSOs collectively outnumber IPs; plus in the past we've had a disproportionate number of older pilots go through (e.g. 15B had two FAIPs, 16B had a FAIP, 17A had a FAIP; we've had an O-4 IP go on a waiver after coming back from ALO; in the next class we have an elder IEWO going through on a waiver after returning from the ADAS at Nellis, although given he's already past his initial commitment Big Blue probably has him for life anyway). To the extent this deters applicants of any specialty, it hurts us collectively since all nearly all of our W-Coded jobs are specialty-agnostic (Wing EWO is an exception, but then again we don't always fill that with a patch). I also care selfishly as a Reservist because it's easier for me to recruit AD patches to PALACE CHASE/PALACE FRONT than it is to season an off-the-street guy from n00b to instructor/ML and then get him/her in the one AFRC slot a year we get under 11-415. Sometimes I think RegAF would rather be manned at 50% with people they can fully control & not have enough TFI help to pick up the slack vs being at 75% and trying to keep AD free agents happy/staying and TFI partners happy/motivated to keep volunteering.
  6. Yeah, tracking on that. The question is whether one can be in BRS and get an AD retirement from the Reserves/Guard. i.e. Collect the defined benefit immediately upon retiring vs. waiting until 60ish. After doing some Googling, I now realize my question above was based on a false premise. I thought the 20 year vested cliff had gone away because of all the talk about "BRS gives you something if you leave short of 20 years." i.e. I thought if you ducked out at 15 years, you'd get 30% of your High-3 (15 times the 2% multiplier) and your TSP savings. Reading up on it now, it looks like you still have to hit the 20 year vested cliff to get the defined benefit. Leave the service short of that, you only walk away with your TSP savings. [I was at 11 years of service when the BRS rollout happened, so opting in made zero sense for me and I brain dumped the details.] Based on that, I'd think if you hit 7,305 AD points in BRS you would still be able to get your AD retirement... Just the BRS version with the 40% of High-3 + your TSP savings. A separate issue for this cat is whether he'd be able to trough or get AGR or VLPAD out to 7305 points starting from the end of his UPT commitment (in another 2-3 years), while living where he wants to live which is New England (Boston specifically). On the AFRC side it looks like his best chance would be to try to get hired into C-5s and trough/AGR or maybe ANG tankers at Pease. As far as long term financial return + lifestyle, I imagine he'd be better off getting his line number with the airlines and doing the ANG/Reserve part time if he wants to keep a foot in military aviation.
  7. Thread bump. I have a friend on AD who opted into the Blended Retirement System. Is there any way he could get an AD retirement from AFRC (through AGR, troughing on MPA, etc) given that he's in BRS? i.e. Without the 20 year vested cliff, is there any point goalpost whatsoever that would get him the immediate defined benefit at retirement vs. waiting until age 60 (minus buyback time)?
  8. Kept the 3 year hard ADSCs for WIC and TPS (that DO extend you past your 10 or 6). Wonder how application rates for those programs are trending.
  9. One thing you should understand is they'll make you sign a sanctuary waiver to get orders, but that doesn't stop you from getting an AD retirement... It just stops you from invoking sanctuary to stay on orders for the purposes of getting an AD retirement. At least in my neck of the woods, there is always someone with MPA days and an unfilled need for dudes.
  10. I hope we are taking advantage of our special relationship with Israel to get the After Action Reports on all these strikes. The Israelis have more and more current real-world SEAD experience than just about anyone around.
  11. OMG I just had a waking nightmare that she becomes Secretary of Defense during a second Trump term.
  12. BLUF: Looking to understand the muscle movements of scheduling a partial DITY in AFRC. Situation: Currently a TR troughing at one location in the MDS I flew in RegAF. Am moving to a new unit at a new base in December to fly a different MDS. B-Course for new MDS is at the same base my new unit is at, and B-Course is greater than 20 weeks long. I'll be gained at the unit in mid-December, put on some sort of status (not yet clear), and start the B-Course in mid-January. I understand that whatever AD orders I get for the B-Course will incur PCS entitlements per the JTR since it is > 140 days long. I also understand I'll be entitled to DLA since I'll be on active duty for more than 20 weeks at one location, am authorized PCS allowances, and will move my dependent to my new base. What I have in hand from the gaining unit is my "Intent to hire" letter, and as of last week they have my 1288 with first endorsement signed. Not sure of current status but it isn't in PRDA yet with the 3rd endorsement, so guessing my gain has not yet been projected in MilPDS. Should be done soon though. What I'm not sure about: From talking to the hiring guy at gaining unit, it sounds like I'll be on one set of orders when I first arrive (guessing RPA since I can't do a ton to help our TFI partner not being qualified in the jet), and a different set for the B-Course. I'm 90% sure I won't be entitled to PCS allowances until I have orders in hand for the B-Course, but from talking to our hiring guy it also sounds like those can't be generated until I'm gained by the unit. BL: Is there any way to schedule movers before I'm actually gained by the unit (assuming they can't generate my B-Course orders until then)... i.e. "letter in lieu of orders"? Or is there a general PCS entitlement for switching AFRC units regardless of length of AD orders that I'm not aware of? Or do I have to get to the unit, couch surf, get my B-Course orders, then schedule a TSP through TMO at my losing base? (FWIW, we weren't planning on having our current home available for renters until February 1st, so this *IS* an option albeit a much less desirable one.)
  13. Voter-verified paper ballots is something no reasonable person should disagree with. In my prior life before the Air Force (and before I became a Democrat) I was an Early/Absentee ballot judge and Republican precinct chair in a medium population county in TX (~250,000 county residents). I went to meetings with county officials each election cycle along with representatives from the Democrats... And this was one thing everyone agreed upon. I can't even think of a reason for manufacturers of electronic voting machines to disagree since it gives them an opportunity to charge more for a Print feature! Blows my mind it isn't standard. (I vote by paper absentee ballot every two years anyway, so G2G.)
  14. I have a feeling 12B "Professional Pay" will be on an hourly basis and tied to what BQZip's mom is making.
  15. The same thing can't even be said of Montenegro. The North Atlantic Treaty is a defensive collective security treaty. Nothing obliges any member state to aid another member state that starts a fight. Re: Taiwan, no, not even close. We have no collective or mutual defense treaty with Taiwan anymore (post-1970s One China policy). The relevant law is the Taiwan Relations Act (1979) which requires the President “to inform the Congress promptly of any threat to the security or the social or economic system of the people on Taiwan and any danger to the interests of the United States arising therefrom” and that the “President and the Congress shall determine, in accordance with constitutional processes, appropriate action by the United States in response to any such danger.” So even if Taiwan gets attacked, we're not obligated to do more than think about responding.
  16. There may not be an equivalent lucrative civilian job, but there's an equivalent lucrative military job called the Reserve and the Guard... And they were already paying a $35K/year AGR/ART bonus on 1-3 year contracts. The SecAF/CSAF messaging is what it is, and bomber WSO manning is not in the shithole fighter pilot manning is at, but it ain't pretty either. And while I absolutely could get behind a $60K pilot bonus, look at it from my perspective: My last year on active duty I ran the OSS Nuke shop through an NSI, STRATCOM Global Thunder exercise, and multiple nuke WSEPs, while also deploying to the Deid to run the OIR MPC. Obviously I cannot land the airplane or tell my A-Code what to do... But I can, and have (operationally), told two BUFF crews and two Mudhen crews what to do as a mission commander, and part of my job is train PILOTS (and WSOs and EWOs) to be mission commanders and mission leads etc etc. So why would I stay on active duty to make $60K less than my year group peer, mouth-breathing Major Chucklenuts with 50% fewer LOX quals who is at the gym by 3 and home by 5 every day, because he puts his right hand on eight throttles instead of one TGP track handle? [As it happens, I punched to the Reserves without that $60K differential... And I highly leaving active duty to anyone who's thinking about it.] Bottom line: In multi-specialty aircraft, especially those where CSOs perform much of the mission itself and manage/lead/instruct across specialties, you are going to have a significant brain drain to the Guard and Reserve if you make the differential between Pilot and CSO pay just downright insulting. Obviously market economics (airlines) are going to favor pilots, but us non-pilots can only put up with so much when Big Blue is fucking all of us in the ass and only has enough common decency to give the pilots a reach-around—and there's a ready escape mechanism to a better lifestyle.
  17. Note 1b (the "get out of jail free" card that applies to MDS instructor upgrade) also applies to USAFWS. Reference AFI 36-2107, Table 1.2, Rule 17, Note 1b.
  18. Sounds like chasing the golden rings down the glidepath on "Pilot Wings" on the Super Nintendo, circa 1992.
  19. Stiff-arming ADSCs for MWS instructor is a clean kill. It's always been PIT (Tweet babies going to teach the T-6, or T-38 guys going to teach the T-1) that AFPC dicks people down with. I've successfully dodged ADSCs both for B-52 CFIC and WIC. Can't argue with you about spending time in Altus though.
  20. It's not unheard of in Air Force Global Suck Command. One of my 16A bros is wing exec at KBAD right now. During my 6 years at Minot I saw it happen at least once, and I know another BUFF patch that volunteered to deploy from a Barksdale flying staff gig to the OIR MPC at the Deid in support of one of the Minot squadrons (at a time our OSS was struggling to find bodies). Dude's leadership told him "You can't go to be on the MPC, but you can go to be the 379th wing exec."
  21. May or may not have been a B-52 WIC paper topic a few years ago... (Dude unfortunately did not complete the course, so the paper remains unpublished.)
  22. From what I recall it was a unisex Deid trailer style "bathroom" IVO the hooch where the deployed unit did their roll calls. It was during/after a members only unit social event, and Wilkerson noticed a line had started forming up to use the pisser because someone had locked themselves in the stall for quite a while and wasn't answering when people were knocking. He knocked and went to check WTH was going on, and it was two female dependents (who weren't even supposed to be there) who had locked themselves in to gossip and look at their Instagram. He then apologized. NBD. At the trial, the prosecution never entered the incident into evidence. They just asked multiple of Wilkerson's character witnesses, on cross-examination, if they had heard of the incident... to try to get it into the jury's heads by implication that Wilkerson was a creepo.
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