TankerDriver

My first time at the Deid was July of 2005. Things were still bearable around that time, but started heading south shortly there after. The leadership buffoonery didn't really hit hard until 1 Oct 2006 when PT gear/reflective belts went mandatory and SNCO's were standing outside the DFAC chiefing your every move. I even remember when they wanted you to salute in PT gear. It got nasty real fast. I witnessed one of our AC's (O-3) absolutely flip on a MSgt after said Sgt chief'd him because he wasn't wearing his reflective belt on the way to the shitter in the middle of the night. Of course the MSgt reported him to the OG for being "unprofessional" and all hell broke loose. It was shortly there after that I Palace Chased to the ANG and didn't set foot back at that place for 7 years. My first time back there was 2013 and I was just there this past summer. It's a lot more "big boy" and quite a bit more enjoyable than it used to be. It's about as enjoyable as the Deid could be right now. I did witness a few people get chief'd for wearing sunglasses on their heads in uniform in the DFAC so it does still happen on a smaller scale, but for the most part, the place is a lot better. When dealing with that stuff, a simple, "Thank you Sgt, you're right." usually does the trick. You have to understand that aircrew are a special breed and we're usually the first ones people (non-flyers) are going to notice stepping out of line and the first ones to get the finger pointed at. Tanker guys are in their own rooms. Still the old trailers of course, but I hear we're supposed to move to the new billets this winter. These billets were supposed to be ready a while ago, but apparently the workers dumped concrete powder down the drains and it hardened in the pipes so they had to redo the plumbing. Playing devil's advocate, the Deid was a little bit of a free-for-all in the 2003-2005 timeframe. The population there grew tremendously. Lots of Army and Marines. There aren't a whole lot of people there anymore compared to when OIF/OEF was in full swing. There was plenty of "inappropriateness" roaming around. Females wearing lot of provocative clothing. Guys wearing shirts with obscene language on them. I even heard of prostitution rings going on there at one point. Did I care about this shit? Nope... I got up everyday and did my job, but when the SAF/CSAF shows up for a tour and sees A1C SlutBag walking around with her tits halfway out of her shirt wearing shorts so short you can see what she ate for breakfast, at some point someone is going to do something about it. You know the drill... one person shits their pants and everyone has to wear diapers.

With 1st year pay at most of the legacy airlines up around $70-80 an hour with a bump up to $110+ your second year to just fly airplanes 75 hours a month, who would risk record acceleration up the seniority list for $25k a year to do year long staff tours in the desert? There's just something to be said about getting paid good money to just fly airplanes and be off 16 days a month. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Add McGuire AFB to the list of ANG KC-135's.

Can anyone post a summary of the take rates for the last 3 years? Are these rates on myPers? Couldn't find them.

Any idea when the FY16 ACP is coming out? I can tell you AD isn't alone with people wanting to bail. Us guardsmen are getting sick of the BS also. Granted we have a little more control over our lives, but we're busier than we've ever been before. Between PACOM taskings and CENTCOM mobilizations that seem to never end, our typical traditional guardsmen do a whole lot more than the "one weekend a month/two weeks a year. We're spending 2-3 months of a year TDY in addition to accomplishing local training, exercises, PME, etc... it's a busy part-time job. We lost a handful of Lt Col's this year due to self initiated retirements and will lose another handful next year for the same thing. These are all guys senior at their airlines who just don't want to deal with the expectation that the Guard is going to maintain an AD-like ops tempo. It's just not going to happen when these people have to juggle life between two jobs that take them away from home many days throughout the year. There is no bonus for pilots with +10 years in the ANG/AFRC unless you're an AGR. We even have a few Majors who are punching out of the mil aviation world for less deployable non-flying positions so they can focus on their airline jobs and not have to be worried about getting mob'd for the second time in a year to go play in the sandbox again. I'm afraid "the sky is falling" and the USAF is in big trouble over the next 5-10 years on both the AD and RC sides of the house. The ANG is losing full-timers left and right due to a lack of AGR opportunities and a lack-luster ART program that is going to die an ugly death to the explosion of airline hiring. If anyone has ever had aspirations to be an airline pilot at some time in their lives, now is the time. Taking a bonus is not worth the sacrifice when it comes to the QOL and pay in the commercial airline world. With most of the legacy airlines hiring 500-600 pilots per year, waiting 10 years to put in an app could be catastrophic. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk