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You might actually point blame at the politicians at the Cannon and Holloman quagmire.

I punched very recently. I was at the 12 year mark. It wasn't because I hated AD, leadership, or my job. In fact, I loved the job. My thing was I wanted to call my own shots, live where I wanted to live, and I had no desire to go to staff, or PCS anymore. I was ready to grow some roots. I also figured if I was going to have a bit of a pay cut for a while, now was the time to do it. (Kid's are young and I don't have much debt.) I was fortunate enough to have an ANG gig lined up in my hometown, so that will help with the $$ for a while. Plus, I didn't want to totally give up "the life" and serving in some capacity. I don't have another job quite yet, but I do believe that there will be some opportunity in the airlines coming up. Sure, it may not the "hiring boom" some are suggesting but if I am fortunate enough to land a job, I think there is a better chance to gain seniority now than there has been in quite some time... I get it, it's not a perfect industry, and I am not stupid enough to think that I'll be sitting in the right seat of a FedEx jet in a few months, but I'm pretty sure I'll find something to do... I have ZERO regrets at this point, and I'm VERY happy with the decision. I've seen my family more in the last three months than I have in the past decade. I've been hanging out at the beach, drinking, and having a hell of a summer just doing shit I like to do. Sure, there's some uncertainty ahead, but I'm confident things will be just fine without the security of AD. Hey, if the bottom completely falls out of my plan, I can just come back to AD because the manning plan is so fu%*ed up, I may even score a huge sign on bonus! Good luck to anyone else getting ready to make the decision...

What planet are you living on? Say what you want about manning and the way big blue is feeding Cannon, but the airspace, routes, and range are far better than anything else in AFSOC. Eglin range is just that "Eglin", AFSOC is far lower on the priority list. Are you really trying to tell me A-77, A-78, and B-7 are better than what they have built at Melrose? By the way, Melrose belongs to AFSOC and they set the priority. Hornet and Osprey are great routes with far more terrain than anything I've seen within 300 miles of Hurlburt. Two impact areas, tow dirt LZ's, LVA pads, and the terrain looks like where we fight. As for a west coast base, it was NOT to be closer to users, it was supposed to reduce deployment time to the Pacific. One of the great benefits of Melrose is you can bring the users to you, more head on pillow time while still getting high end training. I wonder how many of the folks that 7 day opted out of Cannon have actually been to Cannon? I heard a few Einsteins who had more than two years of remaining ADSC (including once with 4 years), are in that group. Way to make a statement and burn your bridge, you are still going to Cannon. If you been to Cannon and you hate it, so be it, but to burn a bridge on word of mouth is simply dumb. Believe it or not there are a lot of folks that actually like Cannon. Is it on the Emerald Coast, nope, but if you like camping, hunting, hiking, and an overseas unit feel then it is not a bad place to be for a few years. They just signed the privatized housing deal and 1,000 new homes are on the way over the next three years, that will make a huge difference. I fully understand no one wants to stay at Cannon forever, (actually some do, a lot of folks move their against their will and have now retired there), I hope they find a way to rotate folks around, but to bitch about it or burn a career when you've never been there is just plain stupid.

This. I always loved how low on SA the preds were in a stack. That's not to shit on the pilots, they knew their systems' limitations and worked diligently to mitigate, but sometimes it would get to be a bit much, and suddenly someone in the stack would call out moderate turbulence for no reason... But one day, those weaknesses will be overcome. Most likely once the Google's and Microsofts out there start playing. A few nerds can build a self driving car on their spare time, but a major defense contractor can't make a gradesheet program for UPT without 10 years of Beta testing? And we wonder why we're broke.

I will be within 3 years of an AD retirement when my commitment is up. I am researching my Res/ANG options. Some may think this a dumb move. I'm not saying that I am committed to that option at this point. Check of the month, TFL, sure; it's a gamble that those would still be around if I stretched my timeline out. What would be a leap of faith for me, if I instead choose to take another assignment, is that the General Changs of AFPC won't pull another TAMI-21 or in some other dumbshit way send me back to this trailer park hell again. Lesson learned. Oh yeah: $25k per year to own my ass for anything more than 3 years? No. Fucking. Way. It will take substantially more than that before I give up the option to tell Big Blue to GFY.

I'm sure the CBT will curb drinking at colleges. It's worked so well at stopping sexual assaults in the military.

I am not too worried about being replaced by these things anytime too soon. Anyone that is familiar with these UAV's understands their actual capabilities and limitations. While the media and retard Generals wet themselves over these RC toys, their use and contribution still pales in comparison to manned aircraft. The one great advantage they do offer is loiter time. Ask anyone who has a ton of experience down range how many near mid-air's they have had with these RC airplanes. Look at the crash rates per sortie for UAV's. It is atrocious and it has not improved. Something as simple as a failed alternator will take these tinker toys down. Pay attention to these toys when dudes on the ground are getting shot at; they're too busy staring at the ######ing wings because god forbid a $5 million dollar aircraft encounter a few clouds or some trace icing. They fall out of the sky. Of course they won't tell that they're staring at wings, because they are only talking on the internet chat room. See how many of these three letter agency UAV's can't even talk to ATC because the radios suck balls. Finally, ask around and see if anyone else has experienced the random "hellfire going off through the stack" bullshit. Aside from the accidents and deaths that will be associated with these shitballs falling out of the sky, flying them in the NAS will be entertaining because the truths will come out. Problem is, exactly what is the purpose for this? I don't remember them staring at many things we didn't plan to attack or kill.

I believe it. Bad enough when you're gone all year, but at least the wife (job/amenities) and kid (school) are provided for in desirable and populated Florida. But, gone all year AND the family has to do without happiness or prosperity in Clovis,NM? Fat chance, Bonus Bob. The AF really fucked AFSOC mission readiness with the Cannon quagmire...

Good on you for getting the upper hand on the situation - anyone with half a brain would do the same thing Along with your YGBSM part, I can see the other end of the spectrum on this: A prior E who doesn't qualify for the bonus (has more than 16 TAFMS at ADSC completion) will probably get a 365 instead of a bonus to persuade his/her decision to stay to retirement.............what does someone do in that situation? 1. Take the 365 (win for AF) or 2. Punch (yay, no retirement for you! Also win for AF) Probably part of GC's "we got this" BS...........Uggh

Can say I've never heard of that. First, as mentioned above, this is privatized housing so essentially the same a renting an apartment. Dependents being with you has NO affect on your lodging entitlement--so they are dead wrong on what they told you. So get a copy of the lease and/or rent receipts and use that as the receipt/support and they should reimburse up to the cost of a single VOQ room--which should be about $53.25/night. You should also be able to do a lost receipt form for the rent, but I'm sure the company should have no problem getting you some kind of document to show you paid the monthly rental amount. In rental situations you do not need the daily itemized receipt. FG

No way he was any type of aircrew. Period. Next pithy Liquid banter, please. Perfect lil emperor has no clothes avatar, too.

Yep, I'll be submitting my Palace Chase paperwork in a week and a half (which will get denied), and then I will keep applying until it's approved or my ADSC is up anyway.

Those uniforms look similar to the first iteration of the ABU. Back to the flag...so the US military (particularly the Navy and Marines) have a long history of flying the Gadsden Flag and Navy Jack, for around 250 years. Now because some unofficial political movement unofficially used that flag at rallies for, oh, the past 4-5 years, any future use of the flag now constitutes a political agenda? FWIW I saw Navy personnel wearing both flag patches on their Multi-cams in theater...uh oh! Better go tell the they are promoting a political party!!

You mean theres a tiny paragraph about the tea party at the very end of a long and detailed wiki article about the overall history of the flag? I'm convinced.

No, that wasn't a problem with him (and everyone with the same gear had the same issue; hence SPINS dictating a certain altitude associated with that system). He actually published a NOTAM at ORBD that all C130 departure and arrivals would be filmed by a camera crew because he thought we flew too low and didn't approve of us banking past 30 degrees. Didn't believe our patch who explained to him what we were doing and how we were trained & couldnt understand why a 105k H3 flew a different departure than a 155k E. Each day he would review any departures his E9 (tape monitor) thought were too 'tactical' involving speeds, altitudes or bank angles he was uncomfortable with and would subsequently chew out the crew. I have first hand experience with this process... But no hard feelings.