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I'm with LJ. I hate the AF, but I love my job (the tactical part at least). It's alarming the amount of piss poor managers we have and all the bullshit big blue happily shovels on us. I can't wait for the day to be freed from all this, live where I want, etc. My family can't wait either. That said, I would never tell a dude to not go for it and crush his dreams about how shitty this place is and it's not even worth a second glance. The truth is most, if not all of us, have had the opportunity to do some awesome things; things that are unmatched by 98% of people in this world. It may be about that time for many of us to GTFO this burning shitpie of a ship, but that doesn't mean new guys yet to even open a Dash 1 can't have their own awesome experiences, despite the mega shitton of worthless assholes that run amok in this organization. They will most likely also be ready to put a shotgun in their mouth after 6-9 years and will be pumped for the chance to VSP out of the 2025 version of the AF, but that's fine. They'll have some great times, do some good shit and in the grand scheme of things probably have a way better decade than compared to working at IBM 9-5. The AF is a disaster and terribly mismanaged, but the flying is fun as hell and worth it, at least for a bit. When you try to tell me the flying sucks and was NEVER worth at least the 6-9 years you did it, really think about it; I bet you come up with at least some good times and at the very minimum, a solid aviation foundation from which to jump into the civilian world. And honestly tell us you seriously regret setting foot in a military aircraft and wished you'd never walked on a flightline and instead had been sitting at a desk all these years, punching yourself in the sack. I know what I'd rather do.

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, dependents, etc.) pharmacy copays for Rx's filled outside the MTF will increase beging CY15, but it hasn't been determined how much the cost increase will be. The idea is to minimize off-base TriCare usage and maximize MTF use. Pay raise locked at 1% (instead of 1.8%) for all Enlisted and O-1 to O-6. O-7+ pay is frozen for FY15. BAH frozen until inflation/economy reaches 95% of cost of living for that zip code/assignment location. Grandfathers personnel who join the military on or before 31 Dec 2015 to receive normal retirement rates vice the CPI -1. This is great news for recent recruits and prospective DEP'rs. Previous law was retroactive only back to 1 Jan 2014. $39M for additional Air Force infrastructure in the Pacific. Rumor mill is that most of it is going to Anderson AFB/Guam. $5.8B for JSF acquisition for all DOD. How many that shakes out to go to the Air Force is still indeterminate. If current cost over-runs remain consistent, we'll probably end up with half an engine, a re-furbished F-16 ejection seat, and a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator. $1B for E-2D, $1.5B for KC-46Am and $1.4B C-130 acquisition. Also, the A-10, U-2, and AWACS can't be retired (yet). Additionally, A-10 funding increased by $256M and AWACS increased by $35M. $48M for C-130 AMP and Engine upgrades, and prohibits any use of funds to investigate retiring the C-130. BRAC hasn't actually been approved, however funding is approved to inventory and investigate a future BRAC. Plans and recommendations for a BRAC must be submitted by the SECDEF to the HASC/SASC before FY 2016. My guess is we'll see the start of an actual BRAC in FY 2017. These funds can also be used to recommend closing infrastructure (not a full installation, just individual structures) early if it is determined to be an excess. Money used for BRAC research is shared between base modernizations (new housing, energy conservation upgrades, etc.) $500M to train foreign governments, specifically in coordination with withdrawal from Afghanistan, but other sites as well. DOD personnel travel budgets cut by $75M. TDY's and PCS's will continue to be more infrequent. Prevents the Navy from investigating or pursuing the retirement of the USS George Washington. FY15 End Strengths will be: Army - 490,000 (30K less than FY14) Navy - 323,600 (unchanged from FY14) Marine Corps - 184,100 (6.1K less than FY14) The Air Force - 311,220 (16.4K less than FY14) Force Management Programs authorized through Dec 2018 at the discretion of the individual services, meaning AFPC will continue to cock-up its' programs for another 3.5 years. Authorizes the SECDEF to purchase/exchange land with Arlington, VA to enlarge the National Cemetary, potentially to include the Air Force memorial. Caps annual pay for retired generals/flag officers to $181.5K. This was kinda a runaway problem as some retired officers were getting more pay than when they were AD due to various bonuses and benefits. Glad to see this was capped.

We fly helos?

Huggy, although the line is extremely thin, technically we did not negotiate with terrorists on this. The Taliban is a political party, so much so that they even hold seats in the Afghan parliament. Al-Qaeda are terrorists who the Taliban likes to harbor because they agree with what they are doing. I see no difference between negotiating with the Taliban or negotiating with the Iranian or Pakistani government. Both of them are quite good at harboring terrorists as well. As for releasing the detainees, only history will be able to tell if that was a good move or not. These guys could be so screwed up after their detention that they would go crazy if they hurt an ant...or they could mastermind the next 9/11. As for now, as an American Armed Forces member, I have to believe what they did was in the best interest of the Sgt. And the country. Without that belief, my effectiveness as a fighting member is severely degraded. God, I hope I am right.

Finally, a place people actually want to go to.

Cliff notes all the way baby. I scored higher on the tests than my buddy who only did the reading. Imagine that.

Panthers back to Spang?

Est. 2012

It's a self-licking ice cream cone too. Part of the problem is many of the bad managers don't know they're bad managers. I'd wager very few guys (even shoes) wake up in the morning & think "I'm going to be a shitpump today at work!" They're taking the taskers their bosses give them, and carrying them out like they've seen their bosses in the past do. We only know what we've been taught & have been exposed to, so the odds of a endless cycle of bullshit grow exponentially with every generation... Like the plague.

That is the price you pay for being a niners fan. I got it all back every year because I live in Seattle with a real football team.

Only Big Blue could make a dream job suck. The problem is that this CAN be fixed. SQ "managers" need to become leaders and need to grab their sack and rid their units of unnecessary processes and/or jobs. USE your people to help in this reduction. I am sure that this reduction would be viewed favorably within the unit with the exception of a few glass-licking shoes who live and breathe meaningless crap. In my previous job, I got an email of a list of all the additional duties in the unit. Of a 100-person squadron, there were 330 additional duties... This alone says enough. Do we really need 8 SharePoint content managers, 10 SAPR reps, 5 unit vehicle monitors, 10 booster club reps, 20 unit training managers, etc., etc., etc. This list can go on and on and most units are like this. I see every day the sheer amount of time that is wasted on unnecessary work that is more often than not emphasized more than primary duties. Furthermore, regulation...too much of it. It's to the point where we add more regs than what we take away and it continues to get exponentially worse. Even the folks that are supposedly the experts at their jobs do not know EVERY SINGLE REGULATION in their job. So therefore, we as a force are breaking regs every day. There is a reason why my CC told me he is frustrated that the people he thought would be getting out aren't. THIS is why I am separating from the Air Force. Corporate and civilian America has queep BS, sure, but they also understand efficiency and work productivity. Oh yeah, no more worthless SAPR stand down days that do nothing more than make us want to ram our head through a wall as well. Talk about resiliency.

Sad to see AWACS is still being funded. What a worthless piece of junk.

LOL... "Ground commanders feel more secure knowing the BACN is flying overhead. You are saving lives"

Don't be giving us these lies...Susan Rice already said he served with 'honor and distinction'. And she's pretty smart--she was one of the first people to tell Americans that the Benghazi attacks were the result of a Youtube video.

A little harsh for a dude that is excited about the possibility isn't it? I'm all about getting his eyes wide open, but crushing a dude's spirit because we are old, crusty, cynical bastards that are pissed at the AF isn't the right way to do it.

Please...I went through ROTC and that was like a douche assembly line. They're everywhere.

Pretty clear that the WG/CC wanted this guy gone for some reason and this just provided him the opportunity to do it. The whole thing is just one case after another of "well we can twist this to somehow be against the rules even though it's something that literally everyone else does, we're going to use it to you up."

In the end, we don't get to decide who is legitimate or not, despite what we say. Those who rule do so at the consent of the governed, either by design or implicit. Afghanistan is a 3rd world shit hole, and will operate and be governed like a 3rd world shit hole. No amount of money/lives/hope spent will change that until the people of that country want it to be something else and are willing to stand up and fight. Bergdahl back is a good thing, he may or may not be a deserter/dirtbag/disturbed dude, but he's our guy. We reserve the right to pass judgement, no one else. What happens after, I don't really care about. I'm more interested in ensuring the institution keeps faith with those isolated. I can only hope that those dirt-bags released are kept on a short leash, with a game of catch with a Hellfire on the other end.

My personal favorite part from the article If you F up because of our unclear guidance, and even if your peers do it, it's still your fault.

Political posturing and garbage. You know how we got Durant back, direct negotiation with a non state actor (ie warlords). You know how we got our guys back who got lost in a Humvee in Bosnia, Jessie Jackson went their with the support and backing of he state dept. we have negotiated before and we will again. We negotiated to get our men back after Vietnam, including the ones that gave aid and comfort to the enemy for favors. We do that because they are our citizens and nobody else's. This political bickering on "it'll endanger troops," and "it's against long standing policy," is exactly that, bickering. We do not put a price on the lives of our citizens. To do so sets a precedent that there is a price we won't pay. How do we tell our service members or our civilians supporting us that there is a limit to the price we will pay to get you home. Is the Rated aircrew an worth 4 Taliban LTs? Is the Truck driver only worth an IED emplacer? What are you worth, what am I worth? I'm sure everybody here is familiar with all the stupidity of Ogrady's actions as an isolated person. Despite that we risked how many lives to bring him home because that's our part of the bargain. What happens when we tell them "nah you keep that guy Bergdahl he was an idiot/traitor/coward/etc and we don't want him back." Now you set a precedent that some people aren't worth it to us. What happens to the crew chief that isn't a high enough rank to be important, or the lone kid who wandered too far off an OP taking a piss and gets rolled up. Now they aren't worth keeping alive and instead are only worth a bullet (or worse).

He's back. And to those thinking we don't negotiate with terrorists or anybody else it's a movie line not a reality. The state department does it under the table all the time. We did it for Durant in Somalia, we did it for guys we know broke the faith in Vietnam. The important precedent is the enemy will never have to sit there and think "will this guy be worth anything to them or should I just kill him," when it's the next guy. Would I rather a dozen snake eaters come get him in the middle of the night, absolutely but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. What he did or didn't do, that will come out a the debrief. What happens because of it will play out after all the political show is over. The important thing is we are deciding the fate of one of our own and not some goat fucking shit head in some god forsaken shithole village. It's like the rule of I can hit my kids... You do it and I will f'ing murder you.

I'm glad he's back. I'm very unhappy that in doing so, we just validated that we will, in fact, negotiate with terrorists, and in doing so we put a price on every American's head.

I'd say the five years he spent in captivity were more than enough punishment for his alleged screw-ups. Welcome back.

Not really, prisoner swaps are about as old as war itself. Presumably we've gotten all the intel we're going to get out of the 5 we released, so getting Bergdahl back is playing our cards well. Hopefully this is a leading indicator that the Obama administration is serious about getting us the fuck out of Afghanistan.

Unfortunately I think as more of the story of his alleged capture comes out it's going to take a distinct downward trajectory...

Brings new meaning to the joke "does a bear shit in the woods...?"

1. You will change your mind. It's a mere function of time and life stage. Don't fret it. The young ones want to fly helos these days after MWS day out of UPT because they don't want to get "stuck in an airframe that doesn't see action". Nothing has changed much in that regard from 50 years ago. The crusty majors and above roll their eyes and welcome a family-friendly PCS duty location, or conversely 7-day opt in order to save their families in the absence of one. The two archetypes were the same person at one moment in time, bear in mind. You will be no different unless you opt out of a family, which is perfectly fine too. 2. You're misunderstanding the exodus. Just like the retirement of the baby boomers, job replacement will not occur on a one for one basis. The jobs are GOING AWAY. The 11F shortage is an 11F head count (sts) shortage for 11F coded staff jobs, NOT an 11F cockpit shortage (i.e. false advertisement). Ergo, there is NO net vacating spot for you to jump into. You're competing for less jobs, which makes your desires MORE competitive. It's not impossible, but watching all this experience leave is not leaving you with more opportunity merely because you feel willing to go where the ones before you are running away from. Understand this difference for your own sake. It will lessen the disappointment. 3. You'll quickly come to chastise your own statement. I know you're being flippant, but you really have no concept of how old queep gets. It is fundamentally defining in the career of a flying officer, that his flying duties, in paper listed as primary duties, are in effect tertiary duties after he pins on O-3. You will not escape that (there is no WO program in the AF). The closest you will get to attain such an outcome is to be a Guard/Reservist and deal with just getting to do it on a part-time basis (even full time reserve guys are being fired too, for your SA). Understand what this means. This means they'll pay you to not get to do what you're willing to sell your soul for in order to get to do in the first place. You will reject that construct in due time, like most of those before you, and again come to chastise your own words. Look, none of this has to be accompanied by a moral adjudication either. Some kool-aid drinkers could say airline_guy is a shitbag for having such an openly disdainful attitude (by proxy) for which he took an officer oath that had nothing to do with flying airplanes. Others (myself included) would view such means to an end as an admittedly apathetic but par for the course answer in an organization that's bigger than the kool aid drinker, myself or airline_guy's, and certainly an organization who doesn't care one flying fuck about me, airline_guy or even the kool-aid drinker. The only truth I know is to keep doing something until it stops making sense or you get fired. Words I live by and it's kept me sane. What makes you a SNAP is not that you think you're willing to do things others are not (you're not btw), what makes you a SNAP is that you foresee yourself as immune from these dynamics by simpleton attitude. You're not immune and you will find out. Whether that transition is a fluid one or a life-embittering one largely depends on how much common wisdom and free internet advice you're willing to accept or dismiss today. Good luck to you either way and thank you for your service.

Tail rotor vibe checks and main rotor track and balance may be tedious but it's a lot less queepy then making sure the correct UEM posters are in the squadron and that the staff meeting slides are updated. Plus when it gets released you have actually accomplished something rather than making a stoplight chart green.

I'll bite, even though I might have a few contrary opinions. The Air Force didn't drive me out with their micro or macro personnel decisions, management actions or culture changes. I chose to get out because I'm ready re-assert control of where I live and where I spend each night, plain and simple. Flying has been fun at times and monotonous at others, but in the end, the benefits of a flying career don't outweigh the costs for me personally. As far as the Air Force queep, I fully expect to find a new but different set of queep at whatever company eventually hires me. I don't believe the grass is really greener on any particular lawn, just different shades of green. The Air Force at least makes a rough attempt to establish a meritocracy, and gets it right a lot. (Flame on) There's a plethora of individual examples of the system not working, but in my decade in the Air Force, I never saw a suggestion for a better ranking system that truly made sense across the board. Objectively and subjectively grading people simultaneously is damn near impossible, but differentiation has to occur somehow. Unlike the civilian world, I wasn't looked down upon because I didn't go to an Ivy League college out of high school. I also never had to put up with the douche-bag son of the company president who's untouchable or the insufferable hot chick who's sleeping her way up the ladder. There's bullshit everywhere. The trick is to mentally rise above the mess and still perform. I finally saw the light on my path about a year ago when I was thinking about the book The Five Love Languages. Since BODN is a macho-centric forum, I'll spare everyone the intricate details, but if you really want to learn more about how you personally relate to others, read the book. My top three methods of connection required me to be in the presence of the other people who meant something to me. So I finally realized I would be an idiot to pursue a civilian aviation career or continue in the military, as I'm guaranteed to be absent from "home" and the people I care for at least half of my life in either pursuit. Why would I knowingly accept a situation where I know I personally don't thrive? So in the end I gave up my promotion and school slot and I'm punching. I'm studying for the GMAT now and I'll go to the highest tier business school that will admit me and then I'm moving back to my home state. I'll still be running just as hard as I was in uniform, just in different directions and I'll have the backing of a community that remains stable. I'll finally mentally stretch out and form real roots. Can't wait... In closing, I actually don't understand all of the "congratulations" people are passing around. I'm glad those who got VSP got what they wanted, but we haven't "accomplished" anything more than those who didn't get VSP. We got lucky. Lucky that big blue needs to downsize now and lucky that our names were picked from the hat. As much as I'm excited to control my own destiny again, I also can't shake the feeling that I'm quitting and leaving my country's service before my agreed-upon obligation is fulfilled. I will accomplish something someday (hopefully soon) that warrants a "congratulations" but I don't feel like accepting the VSP falls into that category. (again, flame on)

I don't care if we had to release 100 of those f**kers. We got our guy back. The US says it will do whatever it takes and they did.

I agree. But you still bring him up on charges, sentence him to 'time served' (which would just be a no-confinement judgement with it made explicit as to why the judgement included no confinement) and a bad conduct/dishonorable discharge. But I wouldn't be surprised to see him gracefully moved along with all the commensurate lifelong medical care and benefits that will come along with a normal discharge, plus a lump sum of back salary that he earned at a rank he was promoted to while in captivity. A slap in the face to those who put their lives on the line to try and get him back.