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Make UPT Great Again! MUGA What on Earth have they done to UPT? It worked pretty good for several decades.

~60 of us finished T-6 academics/sims in the fall, some late summer '24. We sat waiting for the flightline until April with zero instruction. We were free to sim on our own, but weren't allowed to sim with IPs or CSIs. We were literally told "make sure you hit the books" for 7 months, longer than my deployments. Some people didn't step foot on base for months. Zero accountability...maltraining in my opinion. Which hey, I totally get is a first world problem to be blessed with getting paid to do nothing, but after a while that got really old. Especially for the people who already were on casual for a year. There are people in my class who have pinned on 1st Lt and have had a grand total of 2 rides. With FTUs backing up 8-12 months, some people are gonna be pushing captain by the time they get to their ops units. Most people made it to the flightline late spring but for some people it's moving at a snail's pace, flying once a week if lucky. Others have had better experiences. It was all bad luck with timing, and I acknowledge that sometimes you get caught up in the thrash of change. Things do seem to improving, but I think that's because the IPT syllabus cuts the amount of T-6 hours basically in half. Still doesn't make the experience any better.

@Big Blue What do they have y’all doing with all this time?

Apparently a considerable commando force infiltrated Iran prior and took out their SAMs with drones and other tactics prior to the air strikes. Source: https://nypost.com/2025/06/13/world-news/israel-mossad-infiltrated-iran-to-damage-air-defense-systems-during-operation-rising-lion-airstrikes/

Shout out to the herbs: NKAWTG

Concur, but they have replaced something like 3/4 of the legacy syllabus (the one from a few years ago...not even the current "legacy" syllabus) with IPT. It seems like we are barreling towards IPT straight to heavies FTU. I hope I'm wrong!

Fair points, thank you for the honesty. It's easy to let frustrations cloud the big picture at times. Apologies for the outburst. I was in a fit of frustration after clocking 14 months in some form of UPT syllabus and only 5 flights to show for it (and that's without any time sitting casual...so others have it worse). The constant barrage of self-congratulations amongst the bobs has worn my patience very thin. Still, not my proudest moment. I'm still genuinely concerned about where this is all going, but I am uncertain how not to be a burden to my eventual ops unit when it feels like our training has been so short-changed other than the generic "study more". Doing my best to make sure that doesn't happen. Rumor has it the next iteration of the FUPT syllabus is coming in the summer, and from what I've seen/heard, there are some positives to it. I'm hoping they are able to bridge the gap between 141 schools and UPT in some way, but I won't hold my breath on that. Stay tuned, times are wild!

From the British Broadcasting Corporation... The IDF said that three Iranian military commanders had been "eliminated in the Israeli strikes across Iran". They were Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Gholamali Rashid, the commander of Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, and the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri. The Israeli military said its overnight attack focused on "over 100 targets, including senior figures of the Iranian General Staff and leaders of the nuclear program". IRGC-affiliated news agency Tasnim reported six nuclear scientists were also killed in the strikes, of whom five have been named: Fereydoon Abbasi, former head Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi, who was involved in Iran's nuclear weapons programme Abdulhamid Minouchehr, head of nuclear engineering at Iran's Shahid Beheshti University Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, a nuclear engineering professor at Shahid Beheshti University Amirhossein Feqhi, another nuclear professor at Shahid Beheshti University Ali Shamkhani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was also reported to have been seriously injured, according to Iranian reports. State media reported civilians, including children, were also among those killed.

disaster seems like a strong word. at the end of the day it's just UPT. things could always be worse. first step is to immediately stop the bolded part from happening. stop the heavy drinking. start working out more. hang with the bros vs isolating. don't let professional frustrations derail your personal life. second step is to not quit. if air force flying is what you want, go get it. you'll be thankful you did later in life.

If you want to be a great pilot, you need to intentionally seek training and experience. Right now, the AF is on a trajectory to give slightly above average training vs the excellent we expected. That doesn't mean you can't get great training from the AF...but it certainly means you will have to search harder and work more.

Honest take: I understand you omitted a fair amount of information to protect your identity (smart) which may change my take.. but from what you wrote, you sound selfish as hell. If you’re willing to quit on this, go ahead. It sounds like a future airline career is driving your decision making; my opinion, that shouldn’t even be in the equation. All I ever wanted to do, was fly AF fighters growing up, I can’t imagine throwing that chance away because of UPT reindeer games (I’ll obviously concede these aren’t minor games). I went through UPT when one or two guys got fighters and a large portion were sent to RPAs. It would’ve been easy to be down and depressed, but most guys and gals weren’t, they kept positive attitudes, ate the shit sandwiches, and pressed. It’s cliche, but I think there should be a little bit of Service Before Self.. I got lucky, although I didn’t get -38s, I still got to fly some incredible missions to interesting places that made differences in peoples lives—not all the time certainly, and often only at the tactical/operational level, but a handful of strategic impacts as well. I would not think of quitting over UPT syllabus and timeline shenanigans.

and the AEW&C is just doing its job

Gotta make sure that H model Herk gets out!

I would guess more just getting them off the ground rather than leaving but

Confirmed Mossad assassinations on the ground in addition to the IAF targeted political and IRGC leadership. Its morning there now but there are additional waves overhead. The Iranian govt has to be shitting their pants as to what comes next both from Israel and the Iranian people. Still have yet to see video of Iranian air defense going out. Saw some Mig-29s taking off but zero ground to air defense. There are bunches of video of F-35s overhead Iranian cities.

Did they think we were sending dependents home from the Middle East as a negotiation tactic..? Just sleeping at home like nothing is gonna happen.

And where did both fatal 737 MAX accidents take place? It was an absolutely stupid software update for the trim to do that and Boeing was dump and culpable, but I don't think its a coincidence that both accidents happened in non-Western airlines despite the fact that the west was likely flying far more Max flights.

Ya think? /s Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

UPDATE - Israel is reported to have eliminated the entire Iranian general Staff!

Those are just mostly peaceful protests!

Don’t quit, shit sucks sometimes but usually gets better. This is 24 years of AF service from a 50 year old realistic optimist. I had some tough times at UPT too, but quitting is likely to lead to later in life regrets you can’t quantum leap back and fix. It also closes the door on what could be an awesome career. My assignment out of UPT was Grand Forks, not my first choice mind you but I just got off the phone with a bud I’ve been friends with now for 24 years, we flew tankers together and I still have friends from all my AD assignments I keep in touch with. The professional & personal satisfaction you’ll share with the guys you fly with and the camaraderie is something you can’t find anywhere else, I’m on year 3 at a legacy, I like my job but it’s not the same, not even close. My first assignment was my best even though it was damn near bottom of the list. I got to fly multiple aircraft, deploy and be part of historical events in some way and be part of an overall great organization. I was down at some points too but I tell you, your career in the flying business is like the stock market, if you consistently invest in it over time the trend is upwards. Finishing UPT is the best investment you can make in your aviation career in my opinion.

Welp. I guess it's started.

Iran's CJCS reportedly taken out.

What's your plan if you DOR and separate? Think long and hard about that. The airline hiring pendulum has swung back the other way from 1,500 hour wonders getting hired at the legacies. Once you get through pilot training, it is a different AF, and flying is (usually) awesome. You're in an exceptionally competitive program...study hard, let it ride. My gut says stick with it. My $0.02 is you'll regret it if you hang up the flightsuit.

I won't dox myself either but I'm very familiar with the happenings at CBM. Do not DOR because you have to wait longer than anticipated to start training. I think that would be a monumental mistake. Yes the IPT situation sucks for the non-IPT folks but at the end of the day it's just time. I went through the pipeline before the IPT stuff started and it was still a 6-12 month wait between arrival at CBM and starting T-6 academics. Outside of IPT I don't think this is remotely true. UPT is not like civilian training at all - that's the problem with IPT.