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this guy needs to be drafted.

Around the 8 year mark.

Follow up question, how is a 365 an ITDY (Indeterminate length TDY) when the tour length is known (365 days)? Pretty sure there's a system in place for that...It's a remote, short tour, PCS.

He hate us cause he ain't us...

Yeah I do think that absent a growth in resources and the authority to execute them wisely that a reduction in CAPs to execute the resources allocated now thus allowing for some margin for QoL and development of the community is the best long term COA but I doubt that the AF would either lower its force contribution beyond 60 CAPs or would be allowed to. The get-well plan sounds fine but to narrow in on the 10-1 crew to CAP ratio you have to put an asterisk and notes with that. Not all of those 10 aviators are crew dogs flying the line, just drawing on my experience in an RPA squadron from years past if you took a sample of 10 pilots from the squadron probably 5 were company grade crew dogs and the other 5 were field graders that flew occasionally as they had other duties that sometimes legitimately precluded scheduling them and sometimes RHIP. My point being is the devil is in the details and that if the AF really wants this to not be a morale and retention killing assignment(s) then it must acknowledge and program for it. As for other nations picking up some of the slack I doubt it, the political will / balls to conduct the precision HVI / signature strike mission is just not there. No one in the West wants to publicly admit that we are attempting to kill our way out of these COIN missions just not indiscriminately. Not saying that is a good or bad tactic but it does not have a noble ring to it hence the politicians keeping their distance from it if they can. Don’t mean to be all negative but just my honest opinion. If I were king for a day i would: - program 50k per year bonuses for volunteers - establish a companion trainer aircraft program - establish a sensor / JTAC to warrant officer 18X program - establish 10 new RPA ops centers on bases across US territory for QoL across time zones and I would CLOSE Creech to RPA ops - establish a policy that states any rated officer in an RPA wing holding a qualification in the primary MWS of that Wing must remain maintain within 80% of the average flight hours per pilot per month to receive flight pay or ACIP Fat chance on all of those but advocate wherever you can for what you think is right

That's what I think is being missed. They don't care about optics or messaging. They care about manning metrics. They've given up trying to keep you in. Those that want to do 20 and school and CC and NAF and 365s and XYZ will - raise or no raise. Those that don't, won't. They decided they can't buy retention so they're not trying very hard. If Maj Twelve Years is pissed and bails over $100, they don't care. They had already written him off anyway. They'll replace him with Lt Lost Way. Whether it's a suitable replacement in the real world is also not their concern. The sooner we realize how they view their Majs, the less offended you'll be at the slights. No well run business would think they can replace their middle managers with hourly unskilled labor, but Uncle Sugar is no well run business.

I’d hate to see what the O-3s got... :-D

Optics only matter if you care about second and third order effects.

What’s that word that management always uses as an excuse to decrease morale? Like when my squadron was told not to go TDY to fun places because it looks bad for us to have a good time on the road? Oh yeah. Optics. It goes both ways AF. I’m the midst of a pilot retention crisis, not paying everything that Congress authorizes you too? Bad optics.

The missions I know about are legit and I do remember the days of moving stuff around, but RPA is different. After reading this article this morning, my kids were watching Disney’s Planes. There’s a line in the movie where Dusty is arguing with Skipper about how he’s a crop duster-he’s flown thousands of miles but he has never been anywhere. All I could think of are these young 18Xs that will never get to go anywhere. I couldn’t imagine 20 yrs of this, and in constant combat ops. PM me if you want to talk

FIFY

Fair enough and I am not for using conscription willy nilly just for keeping it legal and ready if required Referring to your idea that if the people will not willingly fight in numbers sufficient to ensure their sovereignty then their nation is not worth fighting for perhaps but if they are not willing to fight I am thinking that it is more accurate that they are not worthy of liberty

i dont give a shift

There are people who voluntarily join the military for their own reasons who are getting out left and right. The last thing you want to institute is a draft of people who DIDN'T want to be in the military in the first place.

In my perfect little world that won't ever exist, if you graduate high school and enlist in the military, you get college paid for, if you want to go back in after college, you go in as an Officer. If you don't want to join the military, but you still want college paid for, you do some sort of peace corps for America. You go be a part of civil service programs all across the country, just like the military you don't get a choice where you go, then you go to college. Either way, we pull Americans out of their sheltered little lives and expose them to the rest of this country, while simultaneously serving the country and it's diverse population and needs. What does this do? Maybe after working side by side with people of different ethnicities, skin colors, religious etc, people get more tolerant. Vice just staying in their town surrounded by the same ol same ol. More buy in, more tolerance (hopefully), more leaders and generations who feel like they did something for the US and they want to protect what they invested in.

I'm not for the draft unless we are in a declared war. However, I agree with the OP that we've lost ownership of our military institutions. This is no longer your Army. Or your father's. Maybe somebody you know has a friend or relative serving, but there's no personal connection anymore. "But I support our troops." Bullshit. The executive branch has been allowed to illegally and unjustly use our military as a force abroad to improve our strategic positions, enhance our standing or ensure our participation in certain marketplaces and make tons of money for their constituent corporations for whom armed conflict of any kind is a very, very good thing. If we really supported our troops we wouldn't allow them to be wasted so capriciously. And trotted out as an advertising tool at public sporting events, a PSA for increased beer and football profits, all while allowing the public to feel reverent about their military and what it represents. They can see it, but do not have to participate in the sausage being made. Andrew Bacevich has come up with the best proposal I can think of and that is to require a certain percentage of 18 year olds to serve a two year hitch as Army Infantryman. It would act as a counterbalance to many of the problems with an all volunteer force. Most notably, if there were active duty grunts with the last name of Trump or Obama or Koch or you-get-the-picture, you can be damn sure we wouldn't be illegally invading other sovereign countries and totally disregarding international law. Slowly, over a generation, it would become our Army again. And taxpayers sure as hell aren't going to allow what's been happening continuously post 1991 to happen with their Army.

Fine. I'll fix this thread while you nerds talk about hotel pens.

His FLUG will get delayed because he was voluntold to do honor guard for six months (like our loadmasters...)

Glad to see MOB's jet get the Syrian flag on it. I figured someone with rank my find it "offensive", and stop that from happening.