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I walk every time...even when parked on Oscar or Pappa row (which is a looong way from our ops building). Why? Because it takes trans no-shit 15-20 minutes to get a bus to our airplane..I can be back in the building by then. I give kudos to our MX troops because for the most part, they work pretty damn hard. As for ferrying parts to the flightline, I've got TONS of stories where the MX troop was sitting around waiting for the part, telling me "it's just a 10 minute fix, but they are waiting on the part..." 2 hours later, he's got the part in hand. As for bus drivers...my favorite trans story: I planned an exercise for our crews to prepare for the upcoming ORI. We were to do some ATSO drills out at the CE facility with flash-bangs, and have them brief in their MOPP gear. Normally, trans sent two buses for the crews...a bus for the Loadmasters and FEs, and then later a bus for the pilots and navs. My intent was to do all the briefings in their gear at the CE facility and have trans bus them to the aircraft at the normal time (so not to screw up trans' schedule). I called about a week out and said "hey, we're still going to go with the same two buses at the same times, but instead of picking them up at the squadron, I need you to pick them up at the CE facility (which was right down the road)". Response? "Sir, we can't do that because we're undermanned, and you didn't coordinate with us to support an exercise". Me: "OK, well you guys aren't in the exercise...I just need the same two buses, at the same two times, to pick up the same people, just at a different location" Trans: "Sorry, you don't understand, we are way undermanned and we can't do it. You'll just have to have us pick you up at the squadron" Me: "Right. Let me ask you a question...why does changing the pick up location change your manning situation?" Trans: "Because we didn't plan for it" Me: "OK, let me talk to your NCOIC" I spoke with the NCOIC and got the same story...sorry, we're undermanned and can't support your change of pick up location. Ditto with the OIC (a young 1LT). So I re-attack and get our chief of XP (Lt Col) to make a call to their Squadron Commander....from my boss, he said the Trans Sq/CC reluctantly agreed to change the pick up location. WTF??? This in addition to a plethora of finance screw ups, cops trying to arrest me and my toddler kids on the flightline (while I was in a flight suit with line badge...and yes, I had authorization to take them out there), and comm ing up my email box to where I couldn't get email for over a week...just the tip of the iceberg. If there was this level of incompetence in the flying/mx world, we'd be losing jets weekly if not daily. And the most frustrating part...the USAF leadership is catering to the "lets make the support people feel like they are the mission" mentality.

Glad you're entertained. Maybe we're bitching because it's repeatedly getting fucked up? I'm currently broke off station and have one duty day upon returning before I deploy again. What are the chances I'll get paid correctly for my TDY? History tells me 0% chance of finance getting it right the first time. So I pay out of pocket for the entire time I'm gone and hope I'll be reimbursed next year when I come home. I've lost a lot of money over the years because I'm simply too busy doing the job to walk into finance and un-fuck what they can't get right. This thread is proof that I'm not alone. Based on the tone of your post I'm guessing your one of the support types? Hope you're proud of standing in the way of dudes doing the mission.

Sorry that I have not written in a few days - I have been on one of those multi-stop, min-turn, aggravating, week-long TDY's. And yes, there were problems at every stop. Stop one - Prime Knight doesn't work as advertised. Have to wait several hours for trans and billeting arrangements (after a 6 hour flight/9 hour day) and the hotel still does not have our non-A's. Stop two - we have to pick up our own rental cars and then head to the hotel. The hotel does not have our non-A's, and we can't check in until 3:00PM. This is at 0800 in the morning, after 8 hours of flying and a 12 hour day, so we have to wait around in our uniforms for another 5 hours. Stop three - not that bad. We had a hotel reservation and trans waiting, it just took the hotel an hour or so to check us in, and they didn't have the non-A's yet, plus they charged us too high a rate (not the Air Force's fault this time). It was at this third stop that Finance Guy must have tracked my IP address and radioed home about my postings on baseops.net. I just happened to check my latest LES while at the above hotel only to discover that I apparently "oversold" 2 days leave a year ago and they are withholding money to pay the nearly $2000 debt. I called home and they explain to me about overselling the 2 days of leave. I told him if I owed $2000 for selling 2 days of leave too many, then I must be making $1000/day in salary. I quickly conceded the $2K for the oversold leave as long as he would pay me $1000/day for every man-day thereafter that I perform. This obviously blew his mind and he told me to simply not submit any pay documents until they figure this out because it will keep deducting pay until the debt is paid off (I am a reservist, as you can probably tell). Finance Guy's friends strike again when I am told that the above rental car was not on my orders and that I will not get reimbursed for it. Even though the Mission Commander ordered the Aircraft Commander who ordered me to get the rental car, all because it was necessary for the mission. Plus my approving official signed the voucher, but that is not good enough. Now I have to go through a week of ass-pain to get the orders changed and resubmit my voucher, all the while delaying my other source of income, travel pay, for a few more weeks. So to sum up - no, the 2 hours in billeting is not the "real" problem. It is the fact that I take a few weeks out of my civilian life to serve my country and I have to go through multiple 24+hour days without sleep and/or messed up billeting arrangements, I wind up owing the government money for working for them for 2 weeks, and I can't get my travel expenses reimbursed because my word, the word of my mission commander, aircraft commander, and approving official is not enough to get my $200 mission-essential rental car reimbursed. So I return home a little poorer then I left, all the while I still have a mortgage and other bills to pay that I was kind of counting on the Air Force money to cover. I guess this is what emergency savings accounts were for, and thankfully I can dip into mine again this time to pay my bills. That, my friend, is part of the "real" problem. And I want everyone to know that I am not complaining here (I guess I complaining here on the message board, but I am not complaining in person) because I know this is how the "system" works and serving my country is more important than trying to fight everyone's little empire in the Air Force. I simply wanted to explain to you some of the things that are frustrating for myself and many other fliers here in the hopes that you may be able to provide some feedback to others to try and fix the broken parts of the system.

This is what is wrong with the AF. The AF has been trying to make everyone feel like some kind of warrior for a long time now. We have the creed and now another stupid motto. They are trying to make everyone even. Everyone is a warrior. This is a large part of why the shoe clerk feels like he has power. So which of the Fly, Fight or Win part of the slogan does the shoe clerk fit into? I don't know about you, but I take warriors to work. That is what we do in the Herc. I am no warrior. Last time I checked I am not kicking in doors in some village in Afghanistan. To me, those are the warriors.

I'm gonna feed the troll! Fvck you if you think I should do differently I'm at a lovely little airbase in the southwestern US and no it's not Dyess, I don't know how many times we(the squadron) call (trans dispatch not CP) well over an hour ahead of requested pick up time. We are not a busy base and Trans is and has been atleast 20 minutes late to pick us up at the squadron. At bus time we call dispatch back and get "we were never called" or some other BS excuse. I'd walk but it's well over a mile each way and carrying all my shiite I refuse to do it! Seriously, take some personal pride and pride in your job and get us, the "Air" part of the Air Force to do our job. This isn't the Trans Force or the Personnel Force or the Shoe Force! FML cheers

Frankly, I really don't give a shit. I didn't join the Air Force because of a motto. If I wanted sharp uniforms and a meaningful motto, I would have joined the Marines.

Clearly you do big guy. Oh, by the way, little FF (fun fact) for ya: not everything you need is at the parts store when there's a redball. Part of my PME? Fuckin' A right it was.

I was a non-flyer in a LRS and a MXS before I retrained and became a flyer. I know what Supply personnel do, and it's not much. Might be a reason why a majority of your careerfield (like others) are being contracted out.

You want Intel? - in the continuing quest to do more with less, the Air Force cuts manpower from all the wrong places (orderly room, MPF, finance, comm, etc.) We flyers realize that we have less support on base from support agencies, we get it. We can go without being paid, without our computers working, without our orders being correct or without our records being updated prior to promotion boards. We can go without our family separation pay, combat pay, flight pay, you name it. We can spend an extra hour or two after landing waiting for a bus or waiting for billeting arrangements to end an 18hr day. We are doing more with less...less service from our supporting agencies. And we are doing more... We get the job done and support the troops on the ground no matter what - proud to serve. What do you do?

Uh no we don't. I'm not a cargo flyer... You know what they say about ASSumptions.

Intel 3 yrs old is still pretty good, seems the guys in the onesies bitch about the same thing.....repeatedly. It's actually entertaining.

Close...but no cigar....V-Ops. And if you want to say we don't do much.....that's fine, keep telling yourself that. And talk about being replaced...can't replace me with a UAV.

You said it best yourself there, when time critical. Not everyone shops at the Air Craft Parts store on the flight line....so, perhaps you don't recall as much as you think you do. No worries, and so quick with the profanity.....was that part of your PME? Of course it wasn't. Meanwhile go have a smoke and calm down.....I have more threads to troll....

Let's just say this shoe clerk makes sure parts that fix the plane get to the mechanics, and I have the dubious pleasure of trucking the onesies to their air craft. It's quite a disappointment to see how the flying community views the rest of AF.

And that's where your feelings are misplaced. Crews walk because Command Post forgot to call, no ,matter where I have been CP has been the weak link in crew pick up. So if you walked, give those guys a shout and ask them WTF? Becareful calling them, they record all phone calls. Out bound crew? Did your Ops office call for crew pickup? I assure you we are more than just bus drivers. But then any cargo flyer is a bus driver.....so see we have alot in common.