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Gotcha…so once again, progressives prove that abortion has nothing to do with choice. Dave Chappelle said it best when he said if women can kill the baby then the man should be able to abandon them.

Or how Biden and company touts climate change as so important, but then he decides to fly to St Croix for vacation the day prior to the omnibus bill ready for his sig, which then necessitates another jet fly the bill down to St Croix so he could sign it there. He and the dems give zero fucks about climate change, they care about consolidating power and control (and money).

Easier said than done, but the sooner you can adopt a nihilist view of the AF "system," the better. Allow me to wax poetic as an old guy for a minute. I don't mean unprofessionalism towards our craft. I don't mean disrespect for your wingman. I don't even mean insubordination. If you want a masters, great. Get it. If you don't want it, don't get it. The AF might kick you out as a passed over Major at 20 years. Ok. Your check of the month will be $600 less and the gate guard might not salute you quite as crisply when you go to the commissary during retiree hour. Or don't wait around to find out and get out at 12 years. I'd encourage you to go to the ARC, but if you don't want to, don't. If the AF is a lifelong calling for you, great. If it's just a job for your 20s, great. The system doesn't care which camp you're in - it'll be just fine without you and you'll be just fine without it. Your work ethic, intelligence, and expectation of success puts you heads and shoulders above your workplace competition. Unless you go looking for that hot girl Molly, you won't end up homeless on the streets of Portland. If you're panicking about your promotion opportunities with this new bait and switch, I encourage you to go create a LinkedIn account. Seriously. Go look at who's doing ok in the world. Find and follow the people that you think have made it. Masters or not. Promotion or not. You'll be ok.

It's not about fathers abandoning children. It's about highlighting the hypocrisy with "my body right". No matter how you feel about abortion, it's legal in most states. A woman kills her unborn child for convenience and is labeled a hero. A man, who goes out for a pack of cigarettes, is a deadbeat. We've all probably done or seen worse things concerning humans than talking about abortion. If we're not evil now, we'll never be.

I recently had someone who acted like this while he was active duty contact me about a referral to my company. I told him that I wouldn't give him a referral and "good luck to his future endeavors." The shock that these types of people have when us DD-214 holders tell them to fuck off is always hilarious.

Never, ever, take advice on life after the military from someone still wearing a uniform that's on active duty. They don't know anything about it other than the standard "Well, a friend of mine told me..." response. Yes, plenty of commanders I had would scare people into staying in because they took it personally someone wanted to leave to do other things with their life. The felt those types of people were "quitting." One of the worst Group/CCs I ever had (-130 guy) at Little Rock retired a one-star and would routinely do this to people. A few months after being hired by my company the president sent out the standard fired email for this guy who was a VP..."So-and-So is no longer with this company, we wish him well in his future endeavors." The people who act this way usually severely struggle on the outside because they can't negatively influence people's careers anymore.

Damn, i unintentionally timed that perfectly. Got to the almighty BAC+ as a Captain then AAD was masked, so haven’t touched it after making O-4 and O-5. Unmasked but already have the line number so kiss my uneducated ass!

Looks like I was pretty close on the masked/unmasked iterations in my career. If the AF truly cared about you having a Masters, they'd send you to a brick and mortar school. At the very least, they'd provide time during the normal work day for you to work on it. Getting a bullshit masters from Touro online is a waste of everyone's time/money and window dressing at best. They should work on things that give you more quality time with your family, not less...

Quick question. Why is it that if a dad chooses not to be in a child’s life he is labeled a dead beat dad but when a woman, who’s the only one who can make the choice, chooses to abort a child she’s glorified under her body her choice? She’s so brave for not bringing a child into this world when she wasn’t “ready.” Can anyone answer that?

I think you may have some flawed assumptions about what JA is. The days of “you pick up the phone, you’re on the hook to fly” are long gone. JA is completely voluntary at every airline that I’m aware of and usually comes with some serious financial incentives should you decide to accept the JA assignment. At my company, it’s 150% pay. I believe others are higher. If scheduling makes it through the entire seniority list with no takers, they may be inclined to offer further incentives. Sometimes flights cancel for lack of crews when there are no takers. Over this last summer, it was not uncommon for me to get two or three JA calls in a day. My time off was more valuable to me and I don’t think I picked up a single extra trip. I have friends that did and made a LOT of money. It’s good to have choices. When your bros at SWA & elsewhere talk about being forced to work overtime, they may be referencing the fact that most airlines can keep you out past your originally scheduled return to domicile. It’s not super uncommon to be returned to base a day (or sometimes more) later than scheduled & it can be infuriating if you had hard plans on your first day off. Every contract I’m aware of discourages this practice with extra pay that ramps up quickly the longer you’re kept out. There are stories at my company about people making absolutely stupid money when they got stuck in Europe for over a week when the volcano in Iceland blew a few years back. Late arrival sucks, but at least you’re compensated for it. The other way you get “forced” into working overtime is through line construction. At my company, minimum guarantee is 75hrs per 28 day pay period. On certain fleets, you’d be hard pressed to find a line constructed below 80 hrs and we have some pushing 85, so that is sometimes considered a sort of forced overtime as well. Hope that clears things up a bit. There are obviously a lot of us here who consider our QOL to be much better than when we in the AF and time off and pay are certainly some hard metrics that support that position. Doesn’t mean we’re shitting on those who choose to stick around. On the contrary; I appreciate those who continue to serve and am sometimes in awe. I didn’t have the patience to continue. There are a lot of intangibles that might make someone decide to stay in. I don’t think the “threat” of JAs should factor into one’s decision though.

The entire conversation is just so sickening. We are talking about mothers being able to kill their babies and if they don’t then the father being able to abandon them. These conversations slowly creep along until you are drowning in evil and don’t even recognize it.

I think this is a bit of an oversimplification of the issue. Operations of any large bureaucracy - particularly those that don’t work for profit - are remarkably similar in their shifting-wind policies and tolerance of ridiculousness, inefficiency, etc. But again, this shift is no surprise to anyone who’s watched things change over the last 20 years. If you’re caught in the middle, it sucks. Maybe this change is the last change. Maybe the long safe play is to just get one. I dunno. I copy on voting with your feet/not taking the bonus/not staying/etc. The USAF hasn’t demonstrated it’s serious about retaining pilots yet IMHO. Having seen the impacts of things like this at both the squadron and the staff levels, I’ll tell you each camp is convinced they’re in the right (that there’s a crisis/that there’s no crisis in retention)… Which contributes to fluctuating policies such as masters degrees… I was part of the “gotta have a masters or you won’t get promoted” cohort in the early 2000s. Got the first one via sacrifice of weekends to AMU in 2011. Enjoyed it for the most part but it was a time suck, even for a book nerd like me. Got sent to IDE and got another (had the opportunity to write about something of high interest, ended up publishing…) Got picked up for ASG and got another. Got picked up for SDE and got another. …. But what’s one do with four masters degrees? Retire and write? TBD. I appreciate the opportunity, but can’t argue in good faith that it’s an experience everyone should have. Chuck

get a masters to better your resume and employment opportunities/compensation on the outside don't get it just to make rank.

Exactly. I think part of it is that they can see retroactively who has masters and who doesn’t and they are pissed how many o4 selects don’t have it and they slugged through getting a check the box degree to be eligible to go to ACSC in-res just to get ANOTHER check the box degree and they are mad that the rest of us chose more time with family/primary duties than some Liberty University bs Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Apparently there’s also an AIR FORCE/ALL distro you could try out.

covid and climate change are power grabs of enormous scale

No way in hell I’m giving the USAF my OnlyFans subscriber content for free.

You described me most of the last 3 years. When the bonus comes out around Mar/Apr, you can sign for any length of bonus as long as you are on full time orders at the time of bonus application (this includes DSGs currently on orders). The only factor to consider is it’s WG/CC approval to allow your bonus length to exceed your current order length. What this amounts to is the WG/CC is saying give him the X year bonus because we’re confident he’ll be on full time orders for that length of time (it’s irrelevant how many sets of orders are strung together to add up to the total time, including AT days). Of course the member has to understand in the event of curtailing orders/the promised orders don’t show up, they may be subject to bonus payback depending if they’ve done the min years or not. That’s spelled out clearly in the bonus announcement. I think you’re fucked on any retro action if you were thinking about that.

had a sq/cc say that to my face 1 month out from terminal leave. "how does it feel to be a quitter" he wasn't joking. jokes on him though. how commanders say that to men/women who have given up 12 years of their life is the epitome of tone deaf

That would involve getting a legitimate masters from an actual legitimate school, which most people don't have time to do or aren't willing to do.

Great question. You SHOULD be able to do that (after the fact), but that would be logical and I'm not sure the AF has advanced that far lol. We give bonuses to DSG's who take a year+ set of ADOS (alert) orders. But if the orders are flowing a quarter at a time, I'm not sure how that works. You have me interested, I'll ask around next week.

[emoji445]Rocky Top you’ll always be home sweet home to me, good ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee[emoji445] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh no, pick away I undoubtedly deserve it hands down. Gave me chills when you mentioned the “D” word. I remember our crew being handed AC’s and off to the inflatables we went decades ago. I shuddered when we timed out many moons ago at the “D” on an Atlas run. Then we were driven down to “Doha the City” or whatever to a fantastic hotel - definitely no complaints there. Called my buds at the base to let them know I had 2 extra rooms attached come on down, they miserably replied: off base requests must be submitted 72hrs prior. A for effort, F for affect…

It also affects me zero as well as I don’t have a masters and made o4 last year too Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

God forbid people spend their time focused on tactical proficiency. It's sad because I joined the Air Force because the patriotism, camaraderie, and mission resonated with me. The longer I stay in the more the Air Force pulls me away from those things. FWIW, this masters policy affects me zero percent. I have a masters, made major last year and have no plans to stick around 1 second past my 10 year adsc. But it's the latest in a litany of tone deaf policies that have nothing to do with winning the war that we look increasingly likely to lose, while also leaving a sour taste in everyone's mouth. The HAF level leadership has been so bad for the last 5-10 years that if I wasn't an ardent subscriber of Occam's razor, I'd suspect sabotage.

I’ve heard a couple talk that way personally, and it seems the higher in rank the official, the more full of shit they are on this line. Many are not telling guys there’s nothing, but rather overselling the AF. The last batch are actually fully transparent about the fuckery and openly admit the pros of outside options. No judgment on staying in, but I have seen a lot of guys stay in because they’re afraid of the unknown and taking the leap of faith. I want guys to stay in for other reasons, not for that.

I did a little research and found the following over the course of my career. Of note, each time it changed per CSAF or SECAF, there it was always heralded as “That’s a great idea!” as if it were something that had never been tried. ?-2004 visible 2005-2008 masked 2008-2014 visible 2015-2022 masked 2023-? Visible

Not to mention when it is time to pass results, they don't even tell you via email or mail or anything direct. They notify your CoC, when your commander eventually tells you. I mean, it makes sense the commander should know if he's losing a guy but still...

So which technical degrees specifically are they rewarding? I know the memo said not to get one just to check a box but without more details that's what it looks like to me. Does ACSC count as a masters for these purposes or will you need a masters just to apply for ACSC in correspondence to then be able to apply for ACSC in residence to then have a chance at planning the Christmas party?

I really wish there was an "exit feedback form" we could fill out to let our "leadership" know some of the reasons why we are leaving. It would be cheaper and more accurate than all the RAND studies, IMO. Not that anyone would care...but at the very least it would be cathartic and it could be something our civilian elected officials could use to hold the senior military officers accountable for mismanaging their personnel so badly.

What if I told you throwing up our hands and just saying the USAF "is fickle" is precisely the kind of leadership that got us in a huge retention problem in the first place. We're all well aware AF policy swings back and forth like a pendulum, but it doesn't have to be that way. I'm glad you can put up with it and had what sounds like a really solid career. But I (and the vast majority of my year group) don't plan on sticking around long enough to find out how many useless masters the Air Force will give us after for some reason requiring you already have one.

Could they have rolled this out gradually, with a year or two notice? Of course they could have. But no. Happy new year, get fucked, policy effective in 3 days.

Russia rolling out the big missiles...big inflatable missiles.

Hub-and-Spoke can centralize a schedule disruption at a hub (e.g., DEN for UAL) by re-routing to other hubs (ORD, IAH, etc.). The point-to-point model has a much harder time recovering from a mass disruption (e.g., aircraft going DEN - MDW - PHL - BOS is cancelled at DEN, which then dominos cancels the remainder of the points). The cancellations using point-to-point isn't normally a big deal until you have a massive weather system, fueling issues at DEN, now causing hundreds of cancellations and SWA's antiquated scheduling software that can't keep up the demand.

And along the getting rid of the wife theme, here's a new tactic: Get her arrested for catching you cheating. Now he's the "victim", brilliant. https://www.foxnews.com/us/woman-arrested-south-carolina-airport-after-attacking-husband-over-indecent-photos-his-phone-police

I'm offended by dragons. Especially if I'm not in on the joke. "Offended" is a word that has given many weak insignificant people a way to feel strong and important.

That “whistleblower” seems like a grade A douche.

Better than sending 11Ms to work 11F staff jobs. At least 18X should know a little something about ACC. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Or they could go work on the staff at ACC, freeing up experienced pilots to go back to their aircraft! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not that I disagree with the overall idea by any means, but UPT (all bases are 2.5 at this point) is backed up across the board with the "normal" amount of studs. Zero chance the bases could support a huge migration of 18X folk. Not sure I would want a fast track TX course into flying either, I will gladly take flight hours and additional training. Just my 2 pennies.

Anyone who is surprised or feels betrayed by this development hasn’t been paying attention. Sorry gents, as soon as they rolled out the “masking” umpty years ago there were plenty of old heads who said not to trust that things wouldn’t change once again. The USAF is fickle. It’s not a shock. Do your school. Or don’t. It’ll work out either way. The USAF payed for FOUR - count’em - 4x masters degrees for me. I (still) only need one, and even that is arguable. YMMV. Chuck