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What's wrong with the Air Force?


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44 minutes ago, dream big said:

The only strats/awards I've gotten are pilot/IP.  Those mean more to me than any CGO strat/award fruitified by volunteering at the CGOC bullets.  

I wouldn't stipulate only volunteering gets you CGO strats and awards. You are misleading some of the younger guys here. I've seen people who do not volunteer but have received those awards and strats as SOFs. You are are making decisions on the behalf of the OG/CC as a SOF.

Does volunteering at a soup kitchen sound better on a package? Or landing all the aircraft in the pattern and clearing the runway for the arrival of an IFE aircraft with the OG/CC on board? 

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Or landing all the aircraft in the pattern and clearing the runway for the arrival of an IFE aircraft with the OG/CC on board? 

Don't disagree on the volunteering, and I don't know if the tower chief could possibly have handled that situation at a base (such as AMC or Navy) without a SOF.
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The only strats/awards I've gotten are pilot/IP.  Those mean more to me than any CGO strat/award fruitified by volunteering at the CGOC bullets.  

What type of strat you get has nothing to do with actual performance in that particular area and everything to do with what tier of stratification you end up getting. I once got 11/269 IPs in my OG. Was I actually the #11 IP? No phucking way! Stratification within your rank is first tier, CGO/FGO/year group/duty position are all inferior strats. #1/50 Capts is better than #1/100 CGOs (unless you're getting this as a Lt) and better than #1/100 IPs


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Stratification within your rank is first tier, CGO/FGO/year group/duty position are all inferior strats. #1/50 Capts is better than #1/100 CGOs (unless you're getting this as a Lt) and better than #1/100 IPs


Not to get into this argument again, but not all SRs agree with that. My base doesn't even give out strats based on rank (#1 Capt, Maj, etc) but only CGO, FGO, job strats (ADO, Flt/CC) and finally IP strats.


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7 hours ago, ihtfp06 said:

Stratification within your rank is first tier, CGO/FGO/year group/duty position are all inferior strats. #1/50 Capts is better than #1/100 CGOs (unless you're getting this as a Lt) and better than #1/100 IPs

1 hour ago, Duck said:

Not to get into this argument again, but not all SRs agree with that. My base doesn't even give out strats based on rank (#1 Capt, Maj, etc) but only CGO, FGO, job strats (ADO, Flt/CC) and finally IP strats.
 

 

You're both right and wrong...it depends.

I've seen Sq/OG/Wg strats of all flavors that were far removed from reality and had given the officer in question a incorrect sense of accomplishment.

The other side of the coin is the #1 CGO (out of several hundred) was a Group Weapon Officer, who also locked up the #1 IP strat at the OG, and held them both for quite awhile.

You could argue that both #1's going to the same person is unfair, or that it accurately reflected his shred out when compared to his peers.

IMO, the problem with the strat process, in the AF as a whole, is a lack of transparency. I'm not saying its nefarious as Commander's schedules are busy and they might not always have the ability to speak to officers on why Capt Snuffy got X and you got Y strats. If you have questions, make the effort to make an appointment and ask the boss. Strive for the honest feedback and put yourself in his shoes and do an honest comparison against your peers. Ask questions from that point of view. Find out what factors (both subjective and objective) are important to your boss, your boss's boss, etc and how you improve. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, GKinnear said:

If you have questions, make the effort to make an appointment and ask the boss. Strive for the honest feedback and put yourself in his shoes and do an honest comparison against your peers. Ask questions from that point of view. Find out what factors (both subjective and objective) are important to your boss, your boss's boss, etc and how you improve. 

I'm probably in the minority here because there's facets of the strat process I really like.  I'm a simple dude, and the simple number makes it an easy goal for me to shoot for.  It's a common language I can share with every level of leadership above me.  Generally every boss has an idea of what their #1 looks like, for better/worse.

When I don't get the #1, or am not the #1 clearly, I do what GKinnear has said and talk with my boss (or bosses boss).  I've gotten great feedback (leadership focused, not bake sale/CGOC) and it's led to one of the best jobs I've ever had.

I'm old enough now to know how I work, what I value and what I'm willing to do to "succeed" in a given position.  The discussion with the boss will make it clear if this job is worth it.  

For example, I do like my peers and leadership but the current job is not "worth it."  I still work just as hard as I would any other job, and that's generally harder than a lot of fellow CGOs.  When OPR time comes around I don't care what's on there because there's levels of insanity to Staff that will not be mitigated by anyone working supremely hard to get the mission done.

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3 hours ago, GKinnear said:

 

IMO, the problem with the strat process, in the AF as a whole, is a lack of transparency. I'm not saying its nefarious as Commander's schedules are busy and they might not always have the ability to speak to officers on why Capt Snuffy got X and you got Y strats. If you have questions, make the effort to make an appointment and ask the boss. Strive for the honest feedback and put yourself in his shoes and do an honest comparison against your peers. Ask questions from that point of view. Find out what factors (both subjective and objective) are important to your boss, your boss's boss, etc and how you improve. 

 

 

I wish I'd had the benefit of this advice 8-10 years ago.  I went 4 years in a unit, and the only stray I got was "#X/XX as group CGOQ."  The one time I asked what it asked to actually get a strat, my boss, who had been the CGO assignments officer for my career field at AFPC, lied and said "X/XX as award winner IS a good  strat."

I didn't figure out how hard I'd been screwed until three years later, when an O-6 sat me down and told me I was a good officer and a hard worker, but I was probably not going to able to make Lt Col and was very likely to get RIFed because of those non-strat years.

Super bad on me for not better knowing what it takes to get promoted and even worse on me for not asking harder.

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47 minutes ago, Weezer said:

I wish I'd had the benefit of this advice 8-10 years ago.  I went 4 years in a unit, and the only stray I got was "#X/XX as group CGOQ."  The one time I asked what it asked to actually get a strat, my boss, who had been the CGO assignments officer for my career field at AFPC, lied and said "X/XX as award winner IS a good  strat."

I didn't figure out how hard I'd been screwed until three years later, when an O-6 sat me down and told me I was a good officer and a hard worker, but I was probably not going to able to make Lt Col and was very likely to get RIFed because of those non-strat years.

Super bad on me for not better knowing what it takes to get promoted and even worse on me for not asking harder.

Some people in AF are biased as hell. There will always be a cool kids club in the AF. Bros taking care of bros. I take care of everyone, especially the dudes people tend to kick to the curb because they might be strange.

Don't beat yourself up when people claiming to be leaders, ultimately failed you.

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The biggest problem with the strat game is my #1 is not necessarily anywhere near your #1, and in fact, my #15 (which doesn't even show up on the OPR) might have been in your top 3. We have this problem in the TPS grad community, and I'm guessing there are WIC communities as well, but not as likely since those grads get spread out to other units.


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4 hours ago, hatedont said:

Some people in AF are biased as hell. There will always be a cool kids club in the AF. Bros taking care of bros. I take care of everyone, especially the dudes people tend to kick to the curb because they might be strange.

Don't beat yourself up when people claiming to be leaders, ultimately failed you.

Are you calling me strange?

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16 minutes ago, Guardian said:

So if you were the AF in the middle of a pilot crisis would you be passing majors over for continuation? My buddy was just let go.


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Is there more to the story?  MyPers strongly implies everyone "determined by the board to be fully qualified" will be continued.

Pilots (11X) are listed as a critical skill that will be offered continuation to 24 years.

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Unless the guy was a criminal and given a dismissal thru a cm, given that we are supposedly in crisis, he should have been offered continuation. If he was not a criminal and not offered continuation, there's your evidence that the AF doesn't truly believe they're in crisis.


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Is there more to the story?  MyPers strongly implies everyone "determined by the board to be fully qualified" will be continued.

Pilots (11X) are listed as a critical skill that will be offered continuation to 24 years.

 

This. I don't know a single guy passed over for Major, let alone Lt Col, who wasn't offered continuation. I'm guessing the guy must have had a current UIF or a referral OPR or something to find himself in this predicament.

 

 

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I know of two - the data is slightly old (right around fall '15 or spring of '16, can't exactly remember). One was an 11F, one was an 11B, both in white jets. Neither wanted to get out, and I bet that even if the AF had told them they were never going back to their MWS's but would just bounce around AETC (so very little money out of uncle suckers pockets, no T-X courses/requals) they would've been totally happy with that. Instead we lost two dudes and had two more slots to fill from somewhere else. 

I realize the shortage discussion has somewhat picked up since then, but even back then everyone I knew at afpc was talking about it and saying how it was about to get really bad - and then they kicked out those two guys.  

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46 minutes ago, Motofalcon said:

I realize the shortage discussion has somewhat picked up since then, but even back then everyone I knew at afpc was talking about it and saying how it was about to get really bad - and then they kicked out those two guys.  

AFPC - "Look, I realize it's going to get bad soon, but our process says we've got to kick these guys out.  So that's what we're going to do, because here in AFI 69-8008, flowchart 2 it says to kick them out unless we waive them.  Waivers can take...like...weeks.  So we'll just follow the process."

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It wasn't that long ago that there wasn't any such thing as a strat on an OPR...and somehow people still got promoted and had cool jobs (oh, and flew airplanes providing combat airpower too).

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