General Discussion

Anyone have any recent first or second hand experience retiring and then joining the reserves or guard. I heard of one or two people doing this since I first heard of the program advertised around 2007, but wasn't sure if there were any more recent examples. Wondering what the pain level might be for approval these days. I know the financial benefits might be negligible for doing it.

I thought the state of the union address from the President was awesome! I have a question though for those of you in uniform. I noticed that the five or six men dressed in uniform didn't applaud as much as everyone else did (not that I think that's bad). However, they did applaud on a few topics that involved military matters etc. I did think that all the applauding and standing up and down did get a little tiresome, but hey the President was doing a great job. My question is, is when do the men in uniform know when to applaud/stand and when not to? They did everything as a whole body, whether it was applauding or keeping silent, hands folded in their laps. Anyway, just …

Saw some interesting bits in the new 2015 NDAA just passed by the House and now going to the Senate. These changes are almost definitely going to be signed into law by the President. The number of AD Enlisted Aides in the entire DOD will be restricted to 300 (current level) OR double the number of AD O-10's plus one each for the number of O-9's, whichever is less. So currently there are around 300 Enlisted Aides for the 165 O-9's and O-10's, but that will shrink to around 245. There are currently about 80 Air Force Enlisted Aides. If our portion remains consistent, that should shrink to about 67, or 13 people doing a real job again in FY15. Non-AD (retirees, depen…

Did anybody else catch this? https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/12/twitter-account-for-us-central-command-hacked-filled-with-pro-isis-messages/ Apparently CENTCOM had their Twitter account hacked.

By The Associated Press FILE - This Feb. 2, 2012 file photo shows CIA Director David Petraeus testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. Petraeus has resigned because of an extramarital affair. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File) WASHINGTON — David Petraeus has resigned as director of the CIA after admitting he had an extramarital affair. According to his letter of resignation, Petraeus asked President Barack Obama on Thursday to allow him to resign, and on Friday the president accepted. Petraeus said in a statement that he had shown "extremely poor judgment" in having an affair.

Anyone have a time frame? I flew with the upcoming Wing King (currently the Vice at Kadena) and he said this was in the works. https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/raf-mildenhall-to-close-amid-other-europe-consolidations-1.322825

Just wondering if the T38 IP's at these bases were U-2 and B-2 pilots or if they are strictly T-38 IP's , and if they are where do they usually come from ???UPT bases or from MWS's thanx for the help. and do they still fly A model or did they get the c model ?????//

Hey folks, I'm trying to start back up GuardReserveJobs.com. I realize it used to be a great central resource for units looking to hire and people looking to get hired. I've rebuilt the site, and I'm hopeful for a decent amount of traffic. What I could really use is the word of mouth network to spread the request for units to post job offers and for people to post their resumes. Thanks in advance for helping me to rebuild what used to be a great resource for folks fed up with active duty life and for ANG/Reserve units!

Long read... But well worth it. "The most curious thing about our four defeats in Fourth Generation WarLebanon, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistanis the utter silence in the American officer corps. Defeat in Vietnam bred a generation of military reformers Today, the landscape is barren. Not a military voice is heard calling for thoughtful, substantive change. Just more money, please."

Discuss...

Did I miss this posted somewhere? If so, please delete. Otherwise, what is the backstory since the article doesn't say much, other than the standard loss of confidence. https://m.military.com/daily-news/2014/12/30/spangdahlem-wing-commander-relieved-of-duty.html?ESRC=airforce-a.nl

I'll be down at Randolph for nav training in early June. I'm wondering if anybody knows what the current BAH rate is. It could really help me out while I'm looking for possible places to stay online. Also, for those of you who had to live off base at your first duty location and had no aquaintances in the area, did you live alone or with a roommate? Is permissive TDY enough time to find a roommate? I can see some definite advantages to living with a roommate who is going through nav training at the same time, but I don't know if its worth the hassle of finding one and hoping they are a good one. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Edit: There are alr…

I was a passenger on a cross country flight the other night, and happened to look out the window at just the right time to see the ISS whizzing by. It got me wondering whether pilots who fly often, especially just before sunrise or after sunset, see a lot of satellites.

Has anyone tried taking an FAA test at the Advanced Instrument School in Oklahoma City? I'm trying to take my Military Comp test for commercial license and heard it's free to take it through the USAF. Looking to save a hundred bucks or so, and the POC listed hasn't returned/answered my calls.

The Montana Air National Guard is holding a pilot board again. Packets must be recieved by 15 February 2015. See the attachment here for all the info or check out the wing's homepage and follow the link in the bottom right hand corner for the announcement letter. Thanks! 120thairliftwing.ang.af.mil 2015 UPT Application Procedures (rev).doc

I don't like to call dudes out, but one of our regular Base Ops contributors made a nice save the other day. Well done buddy, glad you're safe! Maybe we can get him to chime in and give us the lowdown! https://www.ksla.com/story/27624967/small-plane-crashes-in-red-river-in-shreveport SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Over a dozen emergency personnel responded to the scene of a plane crash. Shreveport police tell KSLA News 12 that a small single engine plane reported a mechanical failure just after 1:00 Sunday afternoon. Authorities say the plane made an emergency landing into the Red River about a half a mile north of Shreveport's Downtown Airport. Mark Crawford …

Can't believe Sony is pulling this because of the threats. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30528772

So we've got 2 POVs we're going to ship back to CONUS here in a few months. Suffice to say all the people moving right now have put me off of using the company the gubment's contracted with. I've dug through the JFTR, but just looking to see if I can double up with a personally contracted company and be reimbursed for the cost of the single car. Similar to personal procurement of tickets. Thanks.

Split from Track Select thread so as to not have it be buried, with update on the article. Best part of the night was the student who got cancer....pulled from training for 15 months...beat cancer...came back, kicked ass, got a Raptor. Fucking awesome.

Champ Kind has been lurking the board for more than a decade giving good advice to the young 'uns, so he has been upgraded to moderator.

So the new USAF captain board just posted their results and many of us believe there were some mistakes made. There are people who were wash backs in flight school who got promoted and others who graduated in the top half of their flight school class and top of their FTU class who were nonselected. There is a certain airframe in which everyone at that schoolhouse when the packages were sent in was nonselected. My understanding is that a promotion board cannot discriminate based on the job. A promotion board has to select based on job performance while a retention board can discriminate based on the job. Maybe there was a paperwork issue out of that FTU? Has anyone had exp…

In case you've made it to this board, you find a growing number of military docs frustrated by interruptions in training, long deployments, in between dealing with the machine and all its paperwork/PME/AAD (this is not a typo, BTZ LT Col requires an AAD not your MD) and nurse commanders who scream and yell and throw clip boards. I invite you to peruse: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=72

I just received an email from finance that because of my entry date I am eligible for a $30,000 Career Status Bonus (CSB) because I am entering my 15th year and I entered the service during the REDUX years (40%x High3) I have the choice to turn down the Bonus and be on the High 3 plan (50%xHigh3). Ordinarily, I would opt for the High 3 plan and reject the bonus...that said... If the AF decides to non-continue twice passed over Majors like they did in 2011, (which I think is about a 30% possibility in 2013-an educated guess only, I have nothing to back this up) and I reject the CSB then I am basically giving up 30000 that I could use for any number of th…

When I called, the rep said it was in response to incomplete DFAS info. It's well past the normal 3 year statute of limitations. Anybody else dealt with this?

Although this link is to a story about AF issues with innovation (I will not attempt to comment on its validity or the author since there are many experts here on both), this is something we talk about across the services. Is being a “free thinker” a personality liability? We all have personal biases and want the way in which makes our living to be the most relevant, but are we going to lose our military edge because we cannot look for answers that may not support theses biases? What are your thoughts? https://omnifeed.com/article/ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/12/03/a_pilot_speaks_the_usaf_is_harder_on_internal_ideas_than_it_is_on_evil_insurgents_ac_130#./a_pi…