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What's wrong with the Air Force?


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We're in the new, longer version now.  Guess I'll provide a review once complete.  I will say that I'd much rather be here than the job I was working (Staff), so I'm going to be biased.

If nothing else, I'm enjoying the time speaking with different pilots and other officers.  I've been able to hang with some Hog, Viper, AFSOC, and C17 dudes and it's been very informative.  I'm getting asked a ton of questions about Cyber.  Everything else (re: class) is background noise to learning from my peers.  We've been given a lot of social time so far.

From some of your anecdotes it seems to have changed quite a bit in just 3~4 years.

P.S. Thanks to this board, and RAINMAN, I can follow about 50% of the A10 conversations.

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6 hours ago, RTB said:

Back in the Good Ole Days, we were allowed to fly on the weekends during SOS.  My squadron sent two jets to Maxwell for one of the middle weekends and I got 2 BFM sorties each on Saturday and Sunday, with the RON at Eglin to hit the Destin beaches Saturday night.  It made SOS much more palatable.

 

My commander tried to do this for our guys. Schedule a T-6 CT XC to Maxwell when we had guys there.  Allow them to do some Saturday flying, at least once during their time there.

It got shot down by SOS leadership. Apparently, that "wasn't fair" for everyone else, along with the risk they could divert and he could miss class Monday.

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5 hours ago, bronxbomber252 said:

I went about a year ago and there was a Capt in my flight who had just pinned on a few months prior and was going to be an instructor as soon as he finished.

 

 

Like a FAIP, but for PME?

1 hour ago, flyusaf83 said:

Apparently, that "wasn't fair" for everyone else, along with the risk they could divert and he could miss class Monday.

Wouldn't want to interfere with the AF's primary mission.

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1 hour ago, flyusaf83 said:

My commander tried to do this for our guys. Schedule a T-6 CT XC to Maxwell when we had guys there.  Allow them to do some Saturday flying, at least once during their time there.

It got shot down by SOS leadership. Apparently, that "wasn't fair" for everyone else, along with the risk they could divert and he could miss class Monday.

Yeah, it wasn't too long after I went that the fun police at AU stomped out that practice.  We never asked, just did it but they eventually put out a formal complaint and policy forbidding it.  Never mind that we kept landing currency and actually logged a couple RAP counters.  That's just mission shit...

A good deal, both for pilots and the AF was detected and therefore crushed.

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7 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

I went to SOS (under protest), 60 days after I pinned on O-3...Being the most "junior" guy there I actually had to pull CQ duty one weekend to sign people in and out.  :bash:

To be fair, this was during the Korean war and those overnight patrols were necessary to keep the base secure from a possible sneak-attack Chinese invasion :beer:

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50 minutes ago, RTB said:

Yeah, it wasn't too long after I went that the fun police at AU stomped out that practice.  We never asked, just did it but they eventually put out a formal complaint and policy forbidding it.  Never mind that we kept landing currency and actually logged a couple RAP counters.  That's just mission shit...

A good deal, both for pilots and the AF was detected and therefore crushed.

Shit, they pulled our aviation orders so we weren't legal to log time/sorties with the HARM office...just in case a jet "happened" to show up on the weekend. 

 

Dicks

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3 hours ago, flyusaf83 said:

My commander tried to do this for our guys. Schedule a T-6 CT XC to Maxwell when we had guys there.  Allow them to do some Saturday flying, at least once during their time there.

It got shot down by SOS leadership. Apparently, that "wasn't fair" for everyone else, along with the risk they could divert and he could miss class Monday.

The good 'ol Fair Force strikes again.  

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2 hours ago, RTB said:

Yeah, it wasn't too long after I went that the fun police at AU stomped out that practice.  We never asked, just did it but they eventually put out a formal complaint and policy forbidding it.  Never mind that we kept landing currency and actually logged a couple RAP counters.  That's just mission shit...

A good deal, both for pilots and the AF was detected and therefore crushed.

Totally unfair.  It's not like they prevented the support guys from keeping up currency on their normal jobs (sitting in a room talking to other people, making powerpoints, and checking email).

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10 hours ago, nsplayr said:

To be fair, this was during the Korean war and those overnight patrols were necessary to keep the base secure from a possible sneak-attack Chinese invasion :beer:

You wouldn't laugh if you'd stood patrol with a million Chicoms poised to cross the Yalu...:M16:

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I went in-residence in 2015 a year before my Maj board (no correspondence), and it was very low threat.  Classes were discussion based, there were no tests, the only writing assignment was to create your AF bio, and the final project was the war game.  I think we had 2 PT days, also low threat.

The course does have value as a CGO course, but the execution always needs work.

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2 hours ago, Toasty said:

I went in-residence in 2015 a year before my Maj board (no correspondence), and it was very low threat.  Classes were discussion based, there were no tests, the only writing assignment was to create your AF bio, and the final project was the war game.  I think we had 2 PT days, also low threat.

The course does have value as a CGO course, but the execution always needs work.

I thought there was value added for a CGO, stepping out of the flying aspect of the AF and learning how the rest of the AF operates, and learning certain aspects of the FRLM in order to handle different personalities you may encounter during your time in a leadership role. That said, having to watch video clips and being tested on how well you can pick up on different leadership traits WRT the FRLM was little/no value added. They ram that stuff down your throats the entire time you're there. 

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I thought there was value added for a CGO, stepping out of the flying aspect of the AF and learning how the rest of the AF operates, and learning certain aspects of the FRLM in order to handle different personalities you may encounter during your time in a leadership role. That said, having to watch video clips and being tested on how well you can pick up on different leadership traits WRT the FRLM was little/no value added. They ram that stuff down your throats the entire time you're there. 

All FRLM taught me is that the AF is nearly as inept at transactional leadership as it is at transformational.
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Agreed. Although SOS has its faults, it's still to this day the most fun I've had on an 8-week TDY in my career as a flyer (which is really saying something). Lots of camaraderie built up through daily drunken shenanigans and weekend trips to Taladega, Destin, Atlanta and the like. 

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13 minutes ago, Runr6730 said:

 it's still to this day the most fun I've had on an 8-week TDY in my career as a flyer 

I'm glad you enjoyed it... but wow.  The only time I've really thought of SOS in the past decade is seeing this thread.  

I've had some great TDY's, and none of them were at Maxwell.  

Certainly not a reflection on you, but the fact that this was the best long-TDY in your career is indicative of "what's wrong with the Air Force".  

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Don't underestimate the value of boozing with a bunch of folks outside of your career field. Some call that networking and it is tax deductible. Many lessons have been learned over a few cold ones. Boozing with your bros is part of the SOS experience and along with the sober discussions, I found it valuable. If anything, I learned that not all officers are created equal.

 

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One of the only valuable part of SOS was the promotion board excercise.  Taught me how and why pilots with perfectly clean records get passed over during a pilot shortage.  I also learned that your record could be looked at by someone in the med group who won't tell the difference between a copilot/wingman and a weapons officer.  It is why I strongly believe that we need to have separate rated boards.

The fact that a few games of dodgeball, some obstacle courses and war gaming has the biggest influence on your career potential as an Air Force officer speaks volumes about what is wrong with the Air Force.  I met some cool people from different career fields and enjoyed the southern culture from an overseas base but overall, a screwed up program.

 

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13 minutes ago, dream big said:

One of the only valuable part of SOS was the promotion board excercise.  Taught me how and why pilots with perfectly clean records get passed over during a pilot shortage. 

Actually, I thought the promotion board exercise was flawed and outdated.  As of few years ago, we were still doing paper exercises that led to the conclusion that a coffee making/party planning USAFE staff/exec was more accomplished than someone who deployed a lot.  Also the cadre was perpetuating the myth that the board only had ~30 seconds to review/score before moving on to the next package (STS), despite showing everyone a separate AFPC video highlighting the updated computer scoring system and how the O-6s had much more time to scrutinize and deliberate the PRFs/OPRs.

 

13 minutes ago, dream big said:

  I also learned that your record could be looked at by someone in the med group who won't tell the difference between a copilot/wingman and a weapons officer.  It is why I strongly believe that we need to have separate rated boards.

people really need to learn to get away from the cool acronyms and dumb down the bullets for the masses...

Edited by panchbarnes
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5 hours ago, BashiChuni said:

I had a great time at SOS. 

7 hour days, booze, golf...it was awesome. 

Then again I didn't volunteer for the commanders think tank 

There's a commanders think tank? Man, I must have gone astray in my career...I was never even approached about a think tank.

 

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2 hours ago, panchbarnes said:

Actually, I thought the promotion board exercise was flawed and outdated.  As of few years ago, we were still doing paper exercises that led to the conclusion that a coffee making/party planning USAFE staff/exec was more accomplished than someone who deployed a lot.  Also the cadre was perpetuating the myth that the board only had ~30 seconds to review/score before moving on to the next package (STS), despite showing everyone a separate AFPC video highlighting the updated computer scoring system and how the O-6s had much more time to scrutinize and deliberate the PRFs/OPRs.

 

people really need to learn to get away from the cool acronyms and dumb down the bullets for the masses...

Seems to square with the last promotion board. We had a rated officer with a DP passed over for LtCol in the last board. One of the reasons given in his AFPC feedback was a lack of FGO awards.

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On 8/2/2017 at 3:56 PM, dream big said:

One of the only valuable part of SOS was the promotion board excercise.  Taught me how and why pilots with perfectly clean records get passed over during a pilot shortage.  I also learned that your record could be looked at by someone in the med group who won't tell the difference between a copilot/wingman and a weapons officer.  It is why I strongly believe that we need to have separate rated boards.

The fact that a few games of dodgeball, some obstacle courses and war gaming has the biggest influence on your career potential as an Air Force officer speaks volumes about what is wrong with the Air Force.  I met some cool people from different career fields and enjoyed the southern culture from an overseas base but overall, a screwed up program.

 

^^^THIS!!!^^^ So much! SOS was very depressing for me because I realized just how screwed up the Air Force was overall. I knew that day that I'd be punching. 

Edited by SnapLock
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