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It amazes me in this era of manning crisis (in the ARC), they still are hiring dudes at 13 step 1 and giving no bonus. So every dude in that position who comes off AD is making less money than when they left, or at least is continuing to work 60 hrs a week to match their AD pay check. From the outsider perspective, seems the ARC side needs to stop relying on "great deal, you get to fly forever and avoid pointless staff, 365s, etc" and realize despite those intangible benefits, dudes are not going to keep up the ART gig when there are countless opportunities that pay significantly more, offer same/more time at home with the family, and oh by the way they can still get their "I fly military aircraft" rocks off a few days a month as a TR. Hire everybody at a Step 5/6 and auto 25-50% retention bonus, then I think a ton more dudes will 1) Desire an ART 2) Stay and not look hard for other means of income.

Does anyone know when the board is meeting? I haven't been able to get on mypers in the past week with all the outages to check. I helped a buddy put his package together and I'm excited to see if he gets picked up.

Chida, You may be right, especially since your source is Title 10, which should trump the AFI. What I'm looking at is AFI 36-2501. Specifically paragraph 4.1.3 that says "Officers who decline a promotion remain on the promotion list for which they were selected." Then, under Chapter 5 "Promotion Proprietary Actions", paragraph 5.5 talks about how to remove an officer from the promotion list, and to do so even if the officer declines promotion "since his or her name remains on the list." Hell, I may be in the wrong AFI, and my SA isn't big enough to search U.S. Code, so good on ya. If your info is correct, and I assume it is, it's odd that the AF would write a pub contradicting a higher authority and I'd be curious to hear from anyone who can rectify the discrepancy. Duck, Best of luck. The conscience is a great thing. It not only keeps you out of trouble, but allows you to use the AFI's to your advantage, if able, without guilt.

It's harder than you may think. Find a mil-friendly employer first, then consider dipping your toe in the entrepreneurial waters. You'll have enough on your plate going through your initial seasoning and subsequent upgrades once you get back to your unit. Just my dos pesos, but I ran my company for a year and a half while also being AGR before I made the plunge and decided to cut the cord on my orders and go back to being a part-timer. Most people in my unit thought I was nuts (was previously 8 years temp AGR and was just handed a set of full-time AGR orders that would have carried me thru retirement). At the end of the day, like anything worthwhile, you have to decide what's best for you and your own situation. It has been difficult at times, but is not impossible to do, hence my advice to get another job first. You can still consult while working for someone else as long as your employment agreement does not prohibit it. One thing you'll realize is that it helps to have those multiple income streams to either pay for unexpected expenses or that super-nice vacation. What's your engineering background? What's your location? I'm always hiring engineers. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

otsap: I don't know which of us is right. I doubt the bureaucrats would know what to do either, because of the rarity of this. I personally wouldn't recommend pressing to test on this, unless you're sure that you're OK with whichever result shakes out. One thing is for sure though: whether a subsequent board has him down as IPZ or APZ, his PRF will not be good (presumably) and the end result of that board will either be a once FOS or twice FOS.

I thought they were trying to do the opposite - turn many of the AGR positions into ARTs to save money.

I'll have to disagree with you, otsap. Look at Title 10 §14312. It says that declining a promotion is the same as failed of selection. It makes no reference to the process for having your name removed from a promotion list ex post facto, but that it will be removed. To the poster who asked about promotion to O-3 Capt, then, yes, this would work for that too, however, the MSO of 8 years might present an issue. I don't know because I haven't researched the ins/outs of 2 FOS to O-3. The exact text of the statute: (c) Effect of Declining a Promotion.— An officers name shall be removed from the promotion list and, if the officer is serving in a grade below colonel or, in the case of the Navy, captain, the officer shall be considered to have failed of selection for promotion if any of the following applies: (1) The Secretary concerned has not authorized voluntary delays of promotion under subsection (a) to the grade concerned and the officer declines to accept an appointment to a higher grade. (2) The Secretary concerned has authorized voluntary delays of promotion under subsection (a), but has denied the request of the officer for a delay of promotion and the officer then declines to accept an appointment to a higher grade. (3) The Secretary concerned has approved the request of an officer for a delay of promotion and, upon the end of the period of delay authorized in accordance with regulations prescribed under subsection (a), the officer then declines to accept an appointment to a higher grade. I realize this is written for reserve officers, and I can't find an equivalent statute in the regular officer section, so you may be right. On the other hand, if an officer declines a promotion, he will meet the next board and his status will be APZ, so what other status would that imply other than he once FOS?

Here is what you can do to get out of the regular AF absent Palace Chase. Twice Failed of Selection (2x FOS) to the next higher rank requires, by law, that the officer be separated (unless continuation is offered and accepted). ADSC is a service-level regulation and the law trumps ADSC. 1. Write a Do Not Promote me letter to the promotion board. If you do this for your APZ board, this will get your separation pay revoked, but since it's an advance on retirement pay and you intend to get a Reserve Retirement, it doesn't much matter. The law also stipulates no separation pay for an eventual separation for writing a do not promote me letter to your IPZ board, but I don't know if the AF tracks this. 2. If you make the promotion list anyway, decline the promotion. 3. If you are offered continuation upon your 2nd FOS, decline it. You won't get separation pay in this event. Doing the above will get you once failed of selection, so you'll need to fail selection a second time to get your date of separation which is normally 6 months after the public release of the selection list. You can move this to sooner, but due to bureaucratic processes any sooner than 2 months after the public release is probably too soon. You'll need to get on the scroll to get a reserve commission and that won't happen until you get a waiver. Even after you get a waiver, the scroll process can take two months. Getting on the scroll before separation will enable you to Palace Front. Since 2x FOS disqualifies you for a reserve commission, you'll need a request for waiver signed by your losing wing commander and gaining wing commander to go to the ARC, so hopefully you can do the above without burning any bridges. Since the ARC needs people these days, it shouldn't be much of a problem as long as you have a good relationship with your command. As long as you don't have a break in service between the regular AF and the ARC (i.e. you Palace Fronted), you'll meet a promotion board in the CY after your separation and probably be promoted provided you have your PME done and don't have any adverse indicators. You can also avoid having a break in service by being placed in the IRR, but this rarely happens. Many involuntarily separated officers are not placed in the IRR due to bureaucratic ineptitude. Regardless, the scroll process is required to get your reserve commission and without doing that, AFPC *will* give you a break in service and then *may* place you in the IRR. The end result is that you will meet a promotion board in the 2nd CY after your separation instead of the 1st. It's much better to go to the SELRES or ANG via Palace Front than to try to get a scroll done for the IRR. I don't know if it can be done because the gaining wing commander equivalent in the IRR may not cooperate to sign the request for waiver. From everything I've seen, the Air Force has very little interest in properly managing IRR officers. I say all this because by virtue of receiving separation pay, the law requires an officer to serve in the IRR for 3 years, but many are not placed in the IRR or are not scrolled and therefore have a break in service. Any unearned portion of a bonus already paid will be recouped. It is within their right to recoup a portion of any tuition assistance paid, but not "earned" because you didn't fulfill the ADSC, but I haven't seen this happen except for voluntary separation programs. As far as transfer of education benefits with the GI Bill, it is within their rights to revoke the benefit, but if this happens you can reinstate it in the ARC. Contrary to popular belief, there is no continuation that is forced on an officer--it is offered and then the officer either accepts or declines regardless of ADSC. sources: AFI 36-2501, AFI 36-3207, 10 U.S. Code § 1174