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Brother, I will not argue that your view depends on where you sit and I know your community has been rode hard and put away wet, but the bitterness will not matter to anyone but you. We all face disappointment, trust me, I recently faced a big Air Force disappointment of my own and there was a simple choice, mope around or shake it off and lean into it. The Air Force is not fair...period dot...sometimes shitty people succeed, but the same can be said in the civilian sector. The Air Force is facing challenges, our shit is tired and broke, but there are still good people fighting to make a difference and we still bring an advantage to the fight that trumps anyone else on the planet. You have to control what is within your reach and if that takes you to a point where you want to get out, then I thank you for your service, you've done more than 99% of the American public and I am humbled that people like you step forward to serve. Let me offer some simple advice, do your best, accomplish the mission to the best of your ability, fight tooth and nail to take care of your people, and leave with your head held high. This chapter is almost complete for me and I want to look in the mirror when it is over with my family, my honor and dignity intact, and knowing I did my absolute best...I truly wish the same for you. PM me if you want to talk again.

What’s wrong with the Air Force? There are plenty of areas where one can point an elbow and the necessary changes aren’t going to happen overnight. Also, who says that there is anything wrong with the Air Force? There are always those that are looking to get ahead, not rock the ship and be yes men in order to advance etc. To them, there is NOTHING wrong with the Air Force. Who is the Air Force hiring to be pilots anyway? Most people that want to fly are extremely motivated, talented individuals with a beyond normal desire to compete, win and think ahead. That type of individual has PLENTY of options in 2014. Service before Self may cut it for a few individuals but for how long? The entire process of being a PILOT in the AF is broken. People: Come join an organization that will pay you less than a civilian job, move you every 2-3 years, tell you where to live and for some part, how to live. Deploy to shit holes for months on end and put the chance of divorce/family issues way beyond that of a 6-9, Monday-Friday, banker type. What’s the payoff for that awesomeness? Getting to fly military…wait, not getting fly military jets because during your 10 year commitment, you may only get 2-3 years in a fighter or spend 250-300 days away from home each year in a heavy. Then, after years of commitment and struggle head off to do something that is NOT piloting. So, score higher than other individuals trying to join the same organization, go through a gauntlet of mental/physical challenges and spend 30% of your commitment doing what you signed up for???????? WTF is right. What Doctor joins the Air Force and then gets told to be a nurse? What lawyer joins the Air Force and is then told to clerk? What Infantry officer joins the USMC and after three years gets told to be in charge of the chow hall? If you join to fly, then you should FLY. The pain in the ass to get a pilot slot is not worth NOT piloting. The same individual graduating college that can fly in the Air Force can more than likely become a DEA Special Agent. Those guys get sent to 1 office and stay there. That’s home unless you WANT to move. They get to fight the drug war almost every day and serve their country. Nobody tells them at year 3 of their career that “fun” time is over, it is time to sit at a desk and look at TPS reports. So, they serve their country, stay in one place for a career if they want to and make over $100,000 a year in journeymen status. They get specialized training in pretty neat fields, get to carry/shoot firearms and be a part of something bigger than themselves. MOST guys after hearing those options are going to choose DEA over the USAF pilot route unless Top Gun is a never ending movie in their own head. Places: Where is the great AFB that one would like to be stationed at? Ever pull out an old book showing what the USAF looked like in 1986/87 and see plenty of tiny little dots all over the globe denoting bases? Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, England. You name it and the POTENTIAL was there. Not now and the future doesn’t look any brighter. If you are an F-15E Driver, you may get based in England. Other than that, there are no “foreign” options. There may be some “nice” places to live but some real back road, no thank you stations are the majority. The choices for a B-1/B-52 driver are just exhilarating. Or, one could be a six figure, service before self, badass DEA Agent in Miami/San Francisco/Chicago/New York/Los Angeles/Phoenix etc, etc, etc. So, join the Air Force and get to see the worl…ah we mean Iraq/Afghanistan/Kuwait/Dubai/Bahrain/Diego Garcia as a change of pace when you are not boring holes in the sky over Mountain Home and 5 feet of snow. There USED to be a Myrtle Beach AFB way back when awesomeness was the norm. Imagine flying A-10s out of Myrtle Beach as a 20 something year old? Sorry kid, that’s not an option because well, that would be too much fun, or too cool or would actually be a desirable place to reside. Does BRAC even consider the fact that locations they choose SUCK big time and people actually have to live there??? How about we shut down Cannon AFB and reopen Castle as the “West Coast” AFSOC facility. Anybody rather live in California, a few hours outside of San Fran or LA as compared to the middle of New Mexico? Yeah, me neither, f#ck CA, beaches, beautiful women and something resembling a normal standard of living. Again, don’t you know you are in the military and a “Spartan” existence in the dustville areas of society is what makes this career great? Things: Ahh, the reason one joins the AF. The wonderful things it has. Awesome shiny things that go fast, upside down, blow things up, carry more weight than any civilian thing, do in flight refueling etc, etc, etc. Wait, we don’t really want to promote those things anymore. That’s not who or what we are. We need to run around on the ground with the Army shooting M4s and pretending to be Special Forces. Where are the great flying machines and the opportunity to pursue a career, blasting around God’s creation in them? What happened to all the DIFFERENT kind of jets, located all around the world? Where are the dark and mysterious F-117s and its older track star brethren the SR-71? (Still waiting for both jets replacements)… Who is flying the EF-111s and creating electronic wizardry? (Hang out with the Navy and fly EA-18Gs in far less numbers) Where are the RF-4 pilot slots and the ability to see just how low and fast one can go? (See Predator suckage) Heck, where are the replacement up to 750 F-15Cs? Where did ALL THOSE PILOT slots go? What replacement aircraft and opportunities opened up when mother Air Force canned those birds? Wait, you mean there was no real direct replacement numerically????? You mean that today I can sit in an air conditioned container rather than blast by a shacked target taking photos from my SR-71 or RF-4? Yeah, that sounds awesome. Maybe I can fly around in a U-28 or take the MC-12 career path….that is now being given to the ANG. Air Force management has decided that they don’t need or want airplanes in the Air Force. How this works out long term will be looked into by RAND. Rant almost done but just real quick for the fighter scene: F-15C: Irrelevant since 2001 and doing circles in the sky over the great USA. Anybody think about the massive waste of resources and crew this program has drained? The Tomcat boys woke up and smelt the coffee after Desert Storm. They threw away the “Fighter” only mantra, hung BOMBS on their jets and contributed like nobody’s business. In fact, they put the Hornet fellas to shame. It sure would have been nice to see the Albino contributing in the fight for the past 10 years. Think of all the great things the community and jet could have done. F-22: Awesome aircraft, awesome capability but less than 200 built. How on earth did we fumble this program? Far more capable than the F-15C and in reality it will never see the light of day because we have just enough assets to do nothing with. Shame on those that allowed this program to be whittled away, they sound like John Boehner telling me that he is going to finally “fight” Obama over the debt ceiling and producing nothing. F-16: Squeezed for all the juice in its bones. No more revamps, remakes or add on equipment is going to help this bad boy carry on in a legitimate manner over the next 10-15 years. It’s been a stellar workhorse but it needs a great replacement. The same boys that brought us the F-22 program tell me about this wonder kid F-35 in massive numbers….. F-15E: About the only asset that is in mid stride and in good order. Anyone know what the heck we are going to replace it with? Maybe we should get out in front of that now???? A-10: Great asset that everyone but its owner loves. An aircraft of opportunity to demonstrate how great the AF can be at assisting the Army/Marines and every time we turn around, the AF is trying to destroy them. The ANG would love to take the entire program. Think AD will let that happen? Not when such pearls like the MC-12 can be fought over to hand down. U-28/Predator: Are these really military assets that anyone joins to fly? Really, you wanted to be an Air Force pilot so that you can shuttle rubber dog sh*t around in a Pilatus PC-12. Is it a great mission set that is vital? Hell yes. Does it qualify in the same breath as driving an A-10 or F-15E…..NO IT DOES NOT. Somehow though, you can be first out of JSUPT and get yourself a PC-12….just like a doctor, who went to med school and makes 69 times more $$$ than you do and is home every night to bang his trophy wife. How is your family doing after spending the vast majority of your time training/deploying? The point is, since the early 90s the USAF hasn’t bought anything in large numbers other than C-17s and some C-130Js (and I could have made the same equipment comments for the AMC side of the house). Management has shut down bases and squadrons with a smile on their face and not cared one iota about the long term side effects. Well they’ve arrived. There aren’t enough pilots left, to fly the worn down relics on hand, to all the place Dr. Seuss told us about. The whole AEF idea is up the creek with no paddle and nobody at the yoke to straighten it out. In the latest round of how to fix the AF, the people in charge have decided that the A-10 needs to go bye bye along with the KC-10, MC-12 and U-2. They tell me that the Global Turd is here to stay though because “Politics” has put too much pressure on them and they can’t get rid of it. Somehow, someway though, they continue to fight the good fight against “Politics” and have the A-10 marching right off into the sunset by hook or by crook. Ahh, the great MC-12 will be saved (Army has a similar program that does the same thing) but the A-10 (no replacement), KC-10 (no replacement) and U-2 (no replacement) are off to AMARG and the scrapper. No way to hand down the A-10, KC-10 or U-2 to the ANG boys? Bueller, Bueller.......... So, Beale AFB used to be home to the SR-71, U-2 and MC-12. Great aircraft, great mission set and great piloting. Now, it will be home to the RQ-4 Global Hawk and nobody leaves the ground. Ready to pull chalks and go be a real pilot elsewhere because it is not going to happen here brother.

Until you get in an accident. The form is a method of CYA - do you think the same people who have a hard-on for filling it out are not going to torch you if something happens AND you didn't fill out their dipshit form?

Just because you haven't experienced what others may have, doesn't make their stories untrue. I simply passed what my OG said. Makes him look bad, and dilutes the concept of service before self. Too bad that to some in leadership, that indeed has become a "do as I say, not as I do" line of thinking for them, and some have either bastardized what that phrase should mean, or have twisted it to their own self-serving ends. People experience what they experience, and its their right to feel the way they do. You have good units, bad units, and everything in-between. So while threatening to punch someone in the face and throw them out of your bar (or heritage room or whatever the hell latest retarded nomenclature is for it), while all Billy Badass sounding, isn't very productive and will serve to do nothing but get your ass VFR direct into pointless trouble, especially in todays AF. Live and let live. Not everywhere in the AF is the perfect place/wing/squadron that you've apparently been experiencing in your 15 years, so allow that there are actually different experiences out there, shocked as you may be to hear that, that run the full spectrum. As I said, there are good places, and there are bad places, and everything in between. For me, I looked at it like this: You have two buckets: the worthwhile bucket, and the bullshit bucket. Whichever one fills up first, will determine what you need to do, and it's different for everyone. In my case, the worthwhile bucket was hovering somewhere around 45%, while the bullshit bucket was overflowing. So, I made my desires known come assignment time with less than a year left on my ADSC. Offered to meet them halfway with assignments, but was at a point where just going to whatever craphole was just not going to work out for me after all this time of doing just that. There comes a time when the service can't be everything and all things. That sentiment wasn't appreciated, so 7 day was actually now an option. And I took it. Good experience, good training, but too much BS as time went on, having come in in the early 90s, to where it just wasn't worth it: the BS bucket remained overflowing. So, have a nice day AF. Our respective ends of our contract are met. That's how contracts work.

What is a boots on the ramp policy? I've heard it before, but have no clue what it means...

Any AF flyer that ever thinks they'll want the ATP oughta test by August. This is more important than your Masters, Lt.

I've heard that before, but 1) The SGLI will always be paid and 2) They have to prove gross negligence to even consider that. It's designed for the dude who goes out and gets in a fight and knows he'll both be injured, but he has insurance and the other guy doesn't so he'll be ok in the end. I'm sick of hearing that threat for motorcycle riders, it's 100% false.

Your first thought is that it's a guy? Whatever primes your pump, dude.

Marry it.

Reverse OODA loop. Decide, Act, Observe and Orient. By the time the process is complete we can't remember the lessons we learned ie: Pilots are going to drop papers, pilots want out, its like there is no binder on the A1 shelf that says "2011 VSP/RIF Continuity." We're the best because when push comes to shove we can kill people, and break things better than most other Air Forces due to superior technology, resources and training. There is a theory about service before self, I am actually borrowing it from a buddy, in short, it was convenient to switch the model from "sorry about xyz assignment, it is the needs of the Air Force." In this situation the Air Force was both the cause and effect of a less than desirable duty assignment. Haul in "service before self," and the Air Force can effectively hand you something you don't like while smiling and telling you how great it is and acting like you are delusional when you don't like it. In the end, the person is the cause and effect of a crappy deal. I have to believe that in the beginning "service before self" was intended to provide MOTIVATION to our institution not as a means to CONVICT each other.

Or just throw caution to the wind and just go...29B or not

For those who missed it: https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/is-the-f-35-worth-it/

Take your logic and piss off!

If morons like this applied their efforts to morale and the wingman concept, it would be much more successful at preventing DUI, sexual assault, etc. cases than the 68 to 70 pointless rules they think will make them look good to the bosses.

As long as you're all set ....

I'm sure happy that I can pay for that