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Long rant incoming. You don't seriously believe the Air Force will ever let the tail wag the dog, do you? Name me one time in history where someone said "wow we're going to have a problem with retention, we're going to dial things back for a bit". The fact is, especially as officers, we've grown accustomed to a certain quality of life that has been guaranteed for multiple years, and they're banking on the fact that enough people will be too afraid to risk that QoL as a civilian, but don't have the foresight to know what's coming down the road. Timing-wise, let me say this -- from FY1972 to FY1976 the Air Force dropped 20,000 officers and 220k enlisted. From FY1990 to FY1995, it dropped another 22,000 officers and 113k enlisted. We currently have 30k fewer people in the Air Force than from when we started this war. And that's when we were under complete GOP control for most of a decade that was more than happy to skyrocket DoD spending to record levels. Now, the military is beset on all sides by people who want to slow, stop, and eventually reverse the amount of money we spend on defense. But we don't want to lose defense capability. Where do you find the savings? Personnel. We're [allegedly] drawing down in Iraq, and the end of surging in Afghanistan is looming over the horizon in 2014. If you're not expecting another huge active duty cut in the next 3-5 years, then you haven't been paying attention to history and current trends. Fighter guys will keep going to UAVs and non-flying assignments, because there are simply fewer squadrons around to go to. What, you didn't realize this when they went from 8 fighter assignments per class at UPT down to 2? And that they went from 0 UAVs up to 3-4 per class? And when they sent a bunch of AFSOC guys to fucking Clovis and still kept deploying them 200 days a year? And when they deployed a bunch of AMC guys so much that people actually start volunteering for UAVs to escape the madness? How is this even a surprise? It's a long-term, insidious, and most likely unintentional-yet-I-like-where-this-is-going rebalancing of the force. Why should we bother retaining expensive, high maintenance pilots who are tired of deploying, when we can replace them with wide-eyed newbies who we can deploy until they drop? And then, keep enough experienced guys who are just happy enough taking one more assignment in a cockpit, that they won't ever complain? This ensures that we have a just-enough-qualified cadre for the F-35, and a bunch of prior experienced fighter guys that are still on the payroll for the future, but are solving the UAV issue in the present term. Furthermore, all the benefits we as a military service currently enjoy came from veterans and sympathetic lawmakers fighting for it. The GI bill, the even better post-9/11 GI bill, educational assistance, military retirement (remember REDUX? it wasn't THAT long ago). These things were fought for by vet lawmakers for vets. Well, those people are dying off and retiring slowly, but surely. We're exporting this whole "military service" thing to a very specific, and very small portion of the American population. Look at the people who remember what it was like in the Cold War, honestly appreciate your service, and would give you the shirt off their back to keep you warm. I bet most of them have gray hair. And as time marches on, they will get fewer and farther between. Look at the current President, and his likely Republican challengers for 2012, not a single goddamn day of military service amongst ANYONE besides Ron Paul. But there sure as hell are a lot of J.D.'s. And you think this is going to get better? In 2000 we talked about how good it was back in 1990. In 2011 we all talk about how good it was in 2000. And in 2020 we'll talk about how good we had it back in 2010. Change is the only constant you can depend on, and it won't be for the better. We're governed by men of rhetoric, not action. They will proclaim their support of the military loudly, take a PR-sanitized tour of your deployed base with their American flag jumpsuit, and then deploy your stupid gullible ass to another war without thought or care for what you're giving up, while simultaneously gutting 1) your ability to do your job, 2) pay, and 3) benefits to make room for super high-tech procurement contracts so that they can win votes back home. Below these men of rhetoric are generals who have already banked their 19k a month retirement check and follow-on CEO position at a defense contractor, many of whom will not hesitate to RIF you or deploy you so that their excel spreadsheet macro turns green, and it makes their masters happy. As it goes down from star to eagle to oak leaf to bar to stripe, it will get bastardized into "well these are the boss' orders, we have to do our duty", and so, the game continues. I guess what I'm trying to say here, is that we should get rid of this misconception that aviators have any leverage whatsoever with things like retention. I know everyone thinks "well if they keep screwing with us, we'll all leave and show them who really has the power", but, honestly, that's just wishful thinking. And, even worse, a lot of people think "well if I just play the game, I'll get taken care of", leading to an attitude where you'll casually throw your own people under the bus just to keep that quality of life you have. The situation will continue to erode, so I guess my advice is to protect yourself and your families from the looming storm ahead, but don't forget to take care of your fellow servicemembers and vets, because nobody else will.

A photo from the bin Laden funeral was released by the US Navy today...

This one was too funny and well written not to pass on to the rest of the baseops.net communuty. This could probably go in the "Leadership at the Deid" thread, or even the "I Hate Reflective Belts" thread, but since it is from Iraq and deals with combat showers, I figgered I'd piss the mods off and start a new thread for it. Names obscured to protect the innocent.

I guess you missed the humor in the post I was responding to. Or maybe you're just jealous I thought of it first. Don't worry...I've got one for your OPR too. - Keen inability to discern sarcasm and humor makes him an excellent candidate for (fill in appropriate level of PME) in residence--Appoint president of CGOC for life!

Says the guy who flew a jet with titanium armor, bulletproof glass, and the ability to shoot back. What are us tanker toads going to do...drop a frozen pizza on them?? Please don't lump all tanker guys into the same pile. There are some of us out there who have A/Rd well below 5000' AGL, at night, without any special equipment (or totally awesome "Black World" patches that you see at the 'Deid ) in order to maximize the A-10s time on task/target...because the guys on the ground needed it. "Oh, nothing Marge. Just a little incident involving THE BOOGEYMAN! None of this would have happened if you had been here to keep me from acting stupid!"

We have created a tourist site in Abbottabad. There's something positive you can spin Pakistan!

I think there's credit due all around. The folks who gave the order and carried out the mission would not have been in a position to do so if there wasn't groundwork laid ahead of time. The desire to bring a ruthless killer to justice can and does transcend partisan politics.

I haven't been in all that long, I'm getting ready to start the 4th year of my first actual flying assignment, but I learned something pretty early on that I tell everyone. It's sort of become my motto: The Air Force was the absolute best that it ever will be on the day that you joined. I don't mean that as it's new and cool, I mean that in the fact that there will be dozens of changes, and none of them are good. I challenged a bunch of the guys in my squadron to come up with one good change that's happened to the Air Force since they joined, the only one anybody could come up with... now we can walk and talk on the phone at the same time. Seriously, think about it.

Most accounts say either a back up helicopter was used when the first went down or there were more than two helicopters to begin with.

All T-6 studs take note!!! If you dork something up, blame it on the OBOGS and be sure to tell your IP that you "do not recall the incident".

I can't speak for my fighter brethren, but I know the B-1 community has just lost 6-9 senior instructor/evaluator WSOs who got out right at their ADSC. Why? Well, when we got home from our last deployment, we walked into a series of monthly OREs...including Saturday training that wasn't part of an ORE, but designed to get us ready for an ORE. After six months away from my family, my wing saw fit to deny multiple leave requests and weekends. Meh, part of the job, right? Well, I'm on my second 6 month deployment, and when I get home, we're all going TDY to Dyess because of some runway construction project at Ellsworth. And when we get home from that, we get to do some more OREs in preparation for a phase I ORI. Perhaps I'm a little cynical...but I sort of feel like the fact that my squadron, including 300+ MX guys, deployed successfully, and the fact that our sister squadron will have deployed successfully before we can go home, meets the intent of a Phase I ORI. Instead, I expect leave requests to be denied again, I expect to once again miss my daughter's birthday since I'll be TDY 2000 miles away, and I expect that I'm going to lose several weekends home with my family before I deploy over the holidays again. If I'm really lucky, I won't be chastised for having "too much" use-or-lose leave. Your "Dear Boss" letter pretty much covers it. We've been doing more with less for so long, those of us who are left behind are burned out.

Also conjecture. Edit to add: awesome video of Obama's alternate speech from Sunday night.

IRT to the PC-ness and the rest of the minutia we are bombarded with that has nothing to do with learning how to kill people well, here is an excellent quote, albeit describing service academy folks but widely applicable to the warrior ethos in all of the armed forces that seems to be getting sucked out of our souls at a rapid rate. Midshipmen and cadets remain stronger and more aggressive than their male counterparts at civilian schools. They eagerly play sports such as rugby, boxing, karate, lacrosse, and football. They drive fast cars, usually sports cars. They play hard. They drink hard. They are physical, often abusive among each other. They are not trying to prove their manhood: they are celebrating their masculinity. They are competitive, often vulgar, and tough, and every citizen who may someday send a friend or relative into war should rejoice, because combat is competitive, vulgar, and tough, and they will be leading men in combat. --Admiral James Webb

I know Sleepynav, and he's bottom 5%. I keed, I keed! :)

Pretty good...other than the 2 term feces. If we elect that numbnuts for 2 terms, America really is FUBAR.

Most of these cannot be answered in a non SIPR format.

Tool alert! I'm sure you were "just joking" but I'm appalled at the tools who talk about opr fodder in a time like this. The ppl who deserve the recognition aren't out looking for it.

I've heard myself saying this exact same phrase before around 2003...