Dave Koza

VSP denied Thursday afternoon. 2003 11M w/ 11 months UPT ADSC and 5 months PCS ADSC. For the rest of May, it is safe to say that no news is good news. Best of luck to everyone still waiting to hear back.

And this is exactly what AFPC wants. No separation pay expense, plus some of those 500 Total Force pilot vacancies listed in the PSDM get filled. Now that they have tricked us into showing our cards, they have the chance to fully evaluate the market conditions and "change the truth" to their benefit. We are not being dealt with in good faith. Unfortunately, the short-term savings isn't worth the long-term loss of institutional credibility. But that'll be the next guy's problem.

Chang, I read on af.mil FAQs that the intent was to give individuals time to make informed decisions. How can we do this with such incomplete information? Even the matrix released Friday afternoon provides no actionable details. I would very much appreciate your insight on the following isssues: 1) My WG/CC stated that if you aren't eligible for voluntary separation, then you won't be subject to RIF. 2) He said if someone's VSP is denied, then no one in that group will meet RIF board. Example: 198 '03 11Ms apply for VSP but only 37 are approved. That RIF board doesn't meet. 3) Everyone will know by 1 January if they are eligible. 4) The 2009-2012 pilots & navs all show red on the matrix. Am I safe in assuming that we won't have to waste time writing RRFs on these young officers? We are getting conflicting "official rumors" from senior leaders. Any clarification from someone with actual insight would be much appreciated this holiday season.

"The gulf between the intent of a General Officer and the execution of that intent by those in positions of immediate authority is massive in a complex bureaucracy." A guy named Blake Page said this, but I wish I had.

I rented a furnished house in New Braunfels for $1400/mo all bills paid. Had a fenced-in backyard for my small dogs and was a .25 mile walk to Comal River and Schlitterbahn. The drive was a bit long, but I thought it was well worth it. I found it on a vacation home rental site and got the "winter Texan" rate after labor day. It was nice to float the river or go to Gruene Hall after getting Burbed.

It seems like nothing ever materialized from those 15,000 ideas submitted to the DoD's 2010 INVEST Initiative. Here is another such program: The President's SAVE Award I submitted an idea about masking AADs for promotion to major. Some of the points may seem familiar to frequent visitors of this board. Please vote for it if you agree, since that is how they select the finalists. Summary: At $250/credit hour, each AAD costs the USAF about $10K in TA. That means it costs $10 million for 1000 CGOs to play the game.

SOS and ACSC by correspondence...so no Maxwell, ever?

While AZWildcat probably knows that Eller is Arizona's business school, I wouldn't count on immediate name recognition in your interview with Goldman Sachs. The only reason I know about Eller is because of their ads on bus benches throughout Phoenix. The sad part is that a grad degree at Arizona is about as good as it gets for an Air Force pilot these days.

Here is an update to the INVEST program: The deadline for submissions was September 24th, with winners scheduled to be announced in October. Nearly 16,000 ideas were submitted. In November, the DoD finally updated their website stating that they would need until early December to evaluate the proposals. It is now the middle of February and the DoD is over two months late on its own revised deadline. The website now says that "final winners will be announced here as soon as they are selected." While this contest was a good idea, it is pretty ridiculous that the DoD cannot even accomplish an efficiency/savings contest anywhere near on time.