AD Unit at Cheyenne?

[HerkDerka]

It has been out for a while but all of the slicks go to Dyess/LR. What gives?

Dyess and LR need the people. Cheyenne doesn't.

HD

[Guest Boom]

Dyess and LR need the people. Cheyenne doesn't.

HD

Who the hell would want Cheyenne?

<~~~ Cheyenne native

[BADFNZ]

Who the hell would want Cheyenne?

<~~~ Cheyenne native

Ever been to Abilene?

[Guest Boom]

Ever been to Abilene?

Yeah I have, and Fayetteville and I was stationed at Little Rock for three years. The wind, snow, and more wind get very annoying after a few years of it in Cheyenne.

[HerkDerka]

Yeah I have, and Fayetteville and I was stationed at Little Rock for three years. The wind, snow, and more wind get very annoying after a few years of it in Cheyenne.

I'll take it over LR and Fayettenam.

HD

[Guest Boom]

I'll take it over LR and Fayettenam.

HD

Pope yeah, LR no way (if you're in AMC).

[HerkDerka]

Pope yeah, LR no way (if you're in AMC).

Ugh.

HD

[HercDude]

Found out I am headed to Cheyenne this summer. I'm hoping some of the info from this 3 year old post is outdated.

I communted 45 minutes one-way when I was at Pope and after 3 years it was a huge pain-in-the-ass. Any chance that Wellington, CO is no longer "in the middle of nowhere"? Just looking at a map it looks like it could be no more than 15 minutes from downtown Ft Collins, but a 30 min or less commute to Cheyenne.

Is base housing at F.E. Warren nice enough to forgo living in town or in CO?

Any gouge on taxes in CO vs. WY? I am assuming you'll pay out the ass to live in hippie heaven.

I'm married & my oldest kid will be starting school in 2 years - do Larimer County, CO and Larime County, WY have good schools?

[Guest Crew Report]

Found out I am headed to Cheyenne this summer. I'm hoping some of the info from this 3 year old post is outdated.

I communted 45 minutes one-way when I was at Pope and after 3 years it was a huge pain-in-the-ass. Any chance that Wellington, CO is no longer "in the middle of nowhere"? Just looking at a map it looks like it could be no more than 15 minutes from downtown Ft Collins, but a 30 min or less commute to Cheyenne.

Is base housing at F.E. Warren nice enough to forgo living in town or in CO?

Any gouge on taxes in CO vs. WY? I am assuming you'll pay out the ass to live in hippie heaven.

I'm married & my oldest kid will be starting school in 2 years - do Larimer County, CO and Larime County, WY have good schools?

I'm not a Herk guy but I'm a Cheyenne native. Wellington is about 20-25 minutes from Cheyenne, depending on how fast you're going on I-25 north (75MPH Speed Limit). I would live in Cheyenne over Wellington. They have started building new subdivisions on the northern side of the city by the Western Hills/Bar-X area. Assuming you're a CGO base housing at FE Warren is very nice for Officers since it's an old Army Calvary post. Wyoming doesn't have state tax and a low sales tax.

http://retirementliving.com/RLstate3.html#WYOMING

Cheyenne's public school system (Laramie County) was great when I went through (left 10 years ago). They've recently have opened another high school.

http://www.laramie1.org/

If you do decide to live in Colorado be advised that during white out conditions in the winter the Wyoming Highway Patrol closes parts of I-25 and you might not be able to make it to Cheyenne.

[contraildash]

I-25 does close occasionally in the winter. But then what's better than a snow day in a town full of breweries? (Ft Collins)

[skibum]

Is the Clown's Den still up & running? Pretty classy place back in the day (if you like to get in fights with fat strippers.)

[Q]

Don't forget about the Green Door downtown...just as bad as the Clown's Den without the long drive. Grew up on the north side of Cheyenne. Not a bad place to raise a family. If you go far enough north, you can get a pretty big house but its still kinda out on the prairie. It is windy but not that bad. If you aren't used to winter driving, you're in for a treat when the roads get bad. Good luck in cheytown.

[BADFNZ]

Bringing this one to the top as well.

FAIP dreamsheets came out today and Herks to Cheyenne was on there. Any recent info on ops tempo, deployments, etc? Also, how does being AD at a Guard unit effect jobs, promotion, queep, etc? I would think there would be less queep since it's a Guard unit, but at the same time, the queep might flow downstream to the AD dudes since the Guard guys might try to chaff it to them. Any input?

[HercDude]

Ops tempo & deployments should mirror what you would see in any other -130 AMC unit. Good deal for us is that ours are almost always 60 days vs. 120. New guys (CP type anyway) are usually gone on a 120 & a 60 day within their first year & a half, as a FAIP I'd probably expect to be on a pair of 60 day deployments within your first year or so. There are usually some good trips to be had aside from deployments, but mostly CONUS. If it's a really good deal it will be full of guard guys, unless the squadron has worked some drug deal directly with Little Rock.

The entire TFI concept is convoluted & complex, but on the whole I'd say it's a good deal for most guys. It's a very good deal for brand new guys, a pretty good deal for 2nd assignment type guys, and a dick in the eye for anyone looking at a promotion board. Zero chance of getting a school slot if that's your cup of tea.

One of the major problems is that you're always working for two bosses. The 30th, like the Pope, C-Springs, and Elmo units, are part of the 19th Airlift Group at Little Rock (so you're assignments, strats, school slots, etc.) come from there. However, the WY ANG owns the aircraft and day-to-day you're working for their OG & Wing. You skip some queep by the very nature of working at an ANG base located at a small regional airport vs. a real AF base (no one ever tells me to roll my sleeves up, wear a reflective belt, or go on a fun run). However, you're still in AMC and that right there is aboust as much bullshit as a lot of guys can take.

The location is awesome though. If you can handle the winters, the opportunities around here are phenomenal.

[Fifty-six & Two]

The 30th, like the Pope, C-Springs, and Elmo units, are part of the 19th Airlift Group at Little Rock (so you're assignments, strats, school slots, etc.) come from there.

You got 2 of them correct. Pope and Elmo fall under their respective bases and not under the 19th OG. The other unit that falls under the 19th is the 345th at Keesler.

[BattleRattle]

Rumor has it that an AD detachment will be standing up at New Castle County Airport (Delaware) with the ANG 130s in the next few months...

[Herk Mafia]

Ops tempo &amp; deployments should mirror what you would see in any other -130 AMC unit. Good deal for us is that ours are almost always 60 days vs. 120. New guys (CP type anyway) are usually gone on a 120 &amp; a 60 day within their first year &amp; a half, as a FAIP I'd probably expect to be on a pair of 60 day deployments within your first year or so. There are usually some good trips to be had aside from deployments, but mostly CONUS. If it's a really good deal it will be full of guard guys, unless the squadron has worked some drug deal directly with Little Rock.

The entire TFI concept is convoluted &amp; complex, but on the whole I'd say it's a good deal for most guys. It's a very good deal for brand new guys, a pretty good deal for 2nd assignment type guys, and a dick in the eye for anyone looking at a promotion board. Zero chance of getting a school slot if that's your cup of tea.

Yeah, except you guys just had a school select on your last Major promotion board.

[Herk Mafia]

For anyone who cares for a housing opinion. I would say the married guys were split 50/50 between Fort Collins/Wellington and Cheyenne. It seems that a majority of the single guys chose to live in FoCo which makes sense with the college right there and a bunch of cool bars. We (wife and son) lived in Wellington and we really liked it. It is nice to be close to FoCo without having to deal with the morning traffic and we hated Cheyenne itself so there wasn't a chance we were living there. It took me about 10 minutes to get to the bars in FoCo and about 25-30 minute commute to work during the work. It worked well for us. It was definitely a good deal assignment, but 4 years of that wind and snow was more than sufficient.

[BADFNZ]

How do the jobs work within the squadron? Do AD guys take the exec-type positions and Guard guys take the cushier ones?

So you work for a Guard CC, but you're assigned to the OG at LR? So when it comes to promotion, assignments, school, etc, you're competing against a bunch of dudes you're never met and odds are your ultimate rater has never met you either?

[Herk Mafia]

How do the jobs work within the squadron? Do AD guys take the exec-type positions and Guard guys take the cushier ones?

So you work for a Guard CC, but you're assigned to the OG at LR? So when it comes to promotion, assignments, school, etc, you're competing against a bunch of dudes you're never met and odds are your ultimate rater has never met you either?

Your Guard CC has OPCON over day-to-day missions. The AD CC has ADCON so he deals with all of your awards and promotions etc. So yes, you are competing with everyone under the 19 AW which includes all of the LR units, and the TFI units at Cheyenne, COS, and Keesler. You or your Sq/CC have to get creative if you want facetime with your senior rater when it comes time for promotion, otherwise you might not actually meet him face-to-face at any point by virtue of being at a GSU.

As far as Sq jobs, the AD guys have their own duties like CCE/ADO/Tactics/Scheduling etc. The Guard also has their own folks in those shops. The AD and Guard Sq/CCs have offices right next to each other. So do the ADOs and DOs. When I left, the Guard did not really have a Sq/CCE (at least not a formal one), and they really felt they had no need for an OG/CCE, so an AD guy actually fills that spot. I did it for a while and really just ended up doing SQ-level CCE duties.

[BADFNZ]

Thanks for the response.

So how do dudes usually fair on promotion boards? In my case, my first Majors board would take place ~2 years after I got on-station. Assuming I had all the containers checked, would I be behind other dudes at LR?

Does the unit have any specialty flying missions? They have H-3s, correct?

[Herk Mafia]

You won't be behind the LR dudes at all. It seemed we had an upper hand on them since we had more of a chance to deploy and do other real-world missions more often than the average LR bubba. You can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond at the TFI units especially if you work for the guard OG or WG/CCs since it is easier to get a decent strat from them than the CCD at LR which is next to impossible. Those play into your chances at getting a DP on your PRF come promotion time. I think the last board we had (mine) almost everyone got a DP and we had a school select (not me). I really think it is easier to be recognized for good work, but you can screw up and never recover so it goes both ways sts. Even though it is possible to get a school slot, your chances are waay better at one of the big bases.

You won't be behind the LR dudes at all. It seemed we had an upper hand on them since we had more of a chance to deploy and do other real-world missions more often than the average LR bubba. You can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond at the TFI units especially if you work for the guard OG or WG/CCs since it is easier to get a decent strat from them than the CCD at LR which is next to impossible. Those play into your chances at getting a DP on your PRF come promotion time. I think the last board we had (mine) almost everyone got a DP and we had a school select (not me). I really think it is easier to be recognized for good work, but you can screw up and never recover so it goes both ways sts. Even though it is possible to get a school slot, your chances are waay better at one of the big bases.

[135ASelect]

Rumor has it that an AD detachment will be standing up at New Castle County Airport (Delaware) with the ANG 130s in the next few months...

Where is this info? Plans on increasing the PAA @ ILG?

[BattleRattle]

Where is this info? Plans on increasing the PAA @ ILG?

AFAIK, no plans to increase # of tails at ILG. E-mail was sent out to wing personnel in early June about the associate wing concept being stood up. Based on RUMINT, AD will do all of their medical/dental/MPF/finance/etc at Dover and a detachment-like operation will reside at ILG. Plan calls for interflying between AD and ANG.