likearock1515

I think I put in above average effort on the OLMP compared to other military classmates, not that I don't think they took it seriously. The civilians supertrooper44 mentioned put in an above average amount of effort as well I thought, and they provided an interesting perspective. I'll agree it was frustrating to be put into a group project with non-ops people, but you have to work with them everyday so do your best to not look like a jerk and come to some mutual understanding of what the Joint Force is/does. I did fine with primary duties I think. I went through three upgrades during the OLMP, had a decent office workload, and we had our first kid. I definitely made sure to work on classwork at work to the max extent possible though, and I didn't try to hide it. If the Air Force wanted me to get a degree/IDE, I wasn't going to sacrifice too much home time to knock it out. Nobody called me out on doing non-work stuff at the desk, and my shop chief even would assign things to other folks if they knew I was working on a paper. I probably did one third of the discussions/papers/projects at work. For the research paper, I wrote at least half of it at work. I doubled up classes on deployments, since my usual deployment day looks like 1 hour of preflight, 5 hours of flying, then 18 hours of nothing. Unfortunately, the kid prevented me from scheduling too many of the tee times you were fortunate enough to focus on, but I did drink more than usual to get through some zoom reflections and discussion posts. 🙂

I guess there would be a minimum of 7 8-week semesters, so about a year and a couple months. That includes three double-turn semesters, two of which would contain research classes. That would be a heavy lift, but if all you care about is getting C's, you can probably manage. I think some courses do not get unlocked immediately either, so you'll maybe need to map out pre-reqs. Most courses were available when I would look at registering for them. The research courses can't be started until a certain number of classes are done. No it is not like the DL-ACSC; there are no self-paced courses, other than the orientation course. All courses are facilitated, structured with mid-term essays, weekly discussion boards, and final exam essays. Some also have group projects. As for transferring credit, I doubt those courses give any credit towards the masters program, but you can ask the help desk.

I just wrapped up the OLMP in December. I doubled up on two back to back semesters, which was kind of draining. I didn't know which classes were best to combine, so I'm glad you asked! I found these to be the easiest classes: Practice of Command (LC-5510), International Security Studies (NS-5510), Airpower Studies (AP-5510), and Leadership and Warfare (LW-5510). I had to take (and pass) three courses before I could sign up for two at one time, and I assume its the same now...if you want to double up on your fourth semester, you'll need to send a heads up to the student help desk folks, as your registration window will close before your 3rd course grade is submitted and your account can be "unlocked." It was easy to do this, just plan ahead! They will make sure you are on track to pass and unlock your registration I would definitely not recommend doubling up classes while taking the Joint Planning, Joint Forces, or Research 1 or 2 classes, but you'd still be able to manage passing scores if you need to. I'm not sure of the prerequisites that were required to take before some classes were unlocked, but here's a notional order in which I would take the classes: Joint Forces, Joint Planning, Joint Air Operations (send double course registration request about a month from finishing this class), International Security Studies + Practice of Command, Research 1 (if unlocked), Leadership and Warfare + Airpower Studies, Warfare Studies + work on your research paper for research 2 if you want, then wrap up with Research 2. Good luck!

The joint warfare concentration checks the IDE/ACSC/JPME Phase 1 boxes I believe. It is my understanding you can do the ACSC top off if you already have a masters. I can say with 99% certainty it is not required to do the top off after completing the Joint Warfare concentration of OLMP, which is what I’m in now.

https://the-military-guide.com/maximizing-your-thrift-savings-plan-contributions-in-a-combat-zone/ I don’t believe everything I read on the internet, but this article seems to be written by someone who has done their research. There’s a TON of fluff in it, and it is from a few years ago, so may not be 100% accurate, but I’m wary of what some folks have suggested up til this point regarding maxing your Roth ASAP. Once you hit the elective deferral limit in your Roth, you may basically get locked out of any additional limit contributions, Roth or traditional. (You certainly won’t be able to contribute anything over 20,500 into your Roth) Also, any additional limit contributions have to be made while you are in the combat zone, so an “early” deployment won’t do you much good. The best way to work it, according to this article, would be to put $20,499 or less into your Roth, deploy long enough to dump 40,500 into the traditional side of your account, then put $1 into your Roth at the end of deployment or once you’re home. If you are in the BRS then you obviously need to plan/spread the contributions out to where you don’t hose yourself out of a government match towards the end of the year. Bottom line, my interpretation of a third party article is that if you hit your elective deferral limit by contributing 20,500 into your Roth, you may get locked out of additional limit contributions, unless the TSP coding has been fixed from when this article was written. Hopefully it has been fixed, but it’s probably such a rare situation that I doubt finance or TSP folks could give you a 100% clear answer. Even if my interpretation of this article is wrong, you only potentially miss out on a small dollar amount in your Roth, which you can probably make up by the end of the calendar year. Happy to hear any reattacks or real world experiences since I’ll be trying this myself this upcoming year. Good luck!

Had no idea I could change the departure date...good to know for the future.. Thanks! It was my first outprocessing...happened to others in my class too so we just went with it.

Reporting instructions were on the AETC ETCA site, and said that students should plan to arrive one day prior to class start date... It went on to say that if students arrive more than one day prior to class start date, to go ahead and report in to student admin on the next duty day, which I did. It just didn't make sense that I would be PCSd seven days prior to the class start date. I am still drawing BAH, so I can definitely pay the ~$400. I just would have much rather spent that money and those extra days in a different location... Decided to travel straight to Altus based on the fact I thought I was already TDY...not even sure what my "status" was then after being PCS'd, before being "TDY", prior to signing in at a new PDS, and not being on leave. Hate to be the first person to go AWOL to Altus... What exactly was my status after outprocessing a PDS and prior to arriving at a TDY enroute location?...may help knowing that when I go to finance next time.

I PCS'd from UPT about a month ago for TDY enroute at Altus, but my departure date was a week before my class start date. Since it was a PCS departure, no more housing at the old PDS...it only took two days to arrive at Altus, so I was here for about five days with no class, but still spending money on the hotel. Went to finance to do an accrual voucher so I could be reimbursed for the hotel, and was told that I would not be reimbursed for any days prior to the day before my class start date....which means I'm paying out of pocket for an unwanted 5 day vacation in lovely Altus, OK. Does anyone know if it is possible to get an amendment on the TDY orders that puts me arriving here when I actually did so I can be reimbursed for those days prior to the class start date? Or did I get boned? At least there's free breakfast... My only other thought was to claim TLE for those few days ICW the PCS, but I was hoping to use all those TLE days at the new PDS.

Please expand upon this statement besides speculation of my interests, priorities, financial situation, and what would make me miserable about it. Have you done this before? The way I seeit, I would be living next to the flight line (no commute) in a good size (31' with slide out) RV (plenty of room for 1 or 2) and be able to cover my wife's rent check back home for when she is back in school. I would have no house to sell, no maintenance required (though it looks like lawns are kept up by contractors on base), no lease to sign/break upon leaving (if I didn't live in housing), all utilities included, and would still be close enough to classmates to hang out in our free time. Do you have any idea of how far out from my EAD I could inquire with the housing office to get an idea of how full they are? In other words, do you think I could give them a call about a month away from leaving home and get a reasonable idea of whether or not I would have to stay on base? Did you have married students in your class that were required to live in housing that you know of?

I see most of you are recommending living on base in the housing, but I had an unconventional idea. I will be heading towards Laughlin AFB hopefully around late September / early October with my wife. I believe I saw somewhere that if you are accompanied, you can live off base, and therefore collect BAH. She is still in school, so will not be staying with me 100% of the year. This means we will also be renting an apartment for her, back home in North Carolina. Instead of living in the housing on base AND paying for an apartment, I was planning to live at the FamCamp in my dad's RV, which he has been trying to get rid of for a while now. That way, in theory, I would receive BAH, pay $72 a month for my rent, and still have enough BAH to cover her rent back home. I see there is a limit to how long you can stay at the FamCamp, but active personnel can request a waiver to stay permanently. Does anyone KNOW FOR SURE, that an ACCOMPANIED student pilot can or cannot live off base. I've seen varying responses. Thanks!