Leaderboard

Welcome to the profession of arms, those wings on your chest are a ticket to learn. Be a knowledge sponge, volunteer for any opportunity to learn and get better. There will always be someone better, faster, smarter than you, seek them out and learn what they know, even if they're obnoxious. Even an asshole can teach you how to not be one. Your knowledge and skill will eventually play a pivotal role in saving the lives of your squadron mates, don't let them down. But at the end of the day, your Air Force life will end, make damn sure your family is still there when you set the Air Force aside. You can be proud of what you have achieved, your family can be proud of what they've helped you achieve, I'm proud of what you've achieved. Continue to make us proud of you. Then I sit down.

Would this be the same rated leadership that bans morale patches and Friday shirts, requires reflective belt wear and empowers chiefs to parade around as uniform police? Not sure that will help.

I wonder what would happen if she put up a picture of herself at her desk.

Actually it depends how far into your UPT commitment you are. An additional ADSC for requal or IP upgrade cannot exceed your original 10 yr ADSC. See AFI 36-2107 Table 1.1. Note 1b. "b. All manned or unmanned pilots, navigators, and air battle managers who began aviation service after 30 September 1997 will not incur any additional Advanced Flying Training (AFT)/Instructor Qualification ADSCs which extend beyond 6 or 10 years as applicable, of continuous or cumulative rated service. Rated service begins at the completion of training and awarding of wings for the rated specialty. They will still incur Permanent Change of Station (PCS), Professional Military Education (PME), and other non-AFT related ADSCs."

Late 80's? That puts him flying fighters in which conflicts: Korea, Vietnam, possibly even WWII? I'm sure his stories were a real snoozefest for anyone not interested in our heritage of aerial warfare. You're probably right that one of his precious few remaining hours was wasted.

gives hope to us all!

33% correct. Your 365 vulnerability relies on 3 things: Short Tour Return Date, # of Short Tours, and Overseas Return Date -- some 365's also carry a rank requirement, but that's another story (+/- 1 rank to support). In addition, you have to have a minimum of 45 days TOS (IIRC) to be deployable, and also, if you have done an AEF deployment, you are "safe" 6 months after your return. In addition, you have to have enough retainability (ADSC) to complete your deployment and return with 30 days left. -- All of this information can be found on AEF Online thru the portal.

You can see the bleed-over into the 13S Space community as well. The commanders who have been of the CGO missile breeding baulked at the debrief process and did everything possible to sweep mistakes under the rug. Likewise, their recurring training and eval outbriefs spent more time weaseling out of their mistake rather than finding anything to learn from it. More than one officer in that room would defend the evasive actions and let it start occurring at the line-crew level. That led to a double standard where some of the 'chosen ones' would be able to dodge-duck-dip-dive-dodge a Q3 and for others not to. There in starts the breach of integrity for a commander that guts the morale of the crew force and corrupts the trust we have/had with the public we are sworn to defend (additionally: developing young officers who will some day be a commander themselves someday and continue to cycle). Likewise, the leaders who happened to be a squadron commander (a different subset than the previous paragraph) were the ones to help turn that around. Nothing made me respect my at-the-time new commander than when an evaluator tried to give the man his "due" wiggle room out of a critical error than when he stopped the entire outbrief, picked up the phone in the conference room, and called all the offices required for him to be immediately restricted until retrained. At that point, we went into an hour long debrief concerning conduct, training, and evaluation - having my personal views (that the more senior CGOs and senior leadership had told me to shove) being up in bright blue on the whiteboard was a godsend. You can bet that I would trust that man from that point on. Training and evaluation in a small squadron stopped being a recurring check and became a chance to get *better*. "Retraining" was only a bad word if it occurred multiple times for the same thing. Outbrief and debriefs were seen as (appropriately) separate events. This mission set was a bit more dynamic than the one that the missile dudes performed, but not by much. But to this day, when most of the guys around me get a new boss or commander, the question shortly come up of "How long were they in missiles?" The preconceived ass-pain being imagined from that point on is established there. Most missile folk I've met have been good dudes/dudettes who are very, very conscious of the culture they escaped from. Likewise, when they hear someone say "In missiles, we did it this way..." they understand the concerns that crosses the face on us non-missile guys. I'm not talking all day-to-day CGOs, but those who had leadership positions for a duration in the missile mission. DISCLAIMER 1: That second commander was indeed a former missile guy, but having been in some very dynamic mission sets as a 13S and a WIC grad, helped break that stereotype to me. I've been lucky with a number of good commanders who also happened to be leaders. DISCLAIMER 2: Not a missile guy - pure space bubba, inherent to my experiences and biases expressed above.

Some serious prom night, breakfast club tear jerking soliloquies up in here.

I thought the Libs hated WallMart.

Best advice I ever got from the best leader/Commander in my career that would apply to every kid in the room.... He said that when you have your first sit down with your new Commander after arriving at an assignment and you talk about goals, expectations, etc to tell him that your goal is that when he has the toughest mission, flight, or task; you want to have your name be the first one that comes to his mind to get the job done right.

That's a kind version of what I heard from an old CMSgt. "The Air Force won't wipe your ass or change your diapers at 70. Plan accordingly."

Absolutely. One of the best pieces of mentoring I ever got was a senior Warrant about to retire saying that as much as you love this job it ends. The family you have left at the end of that is what's important.

Peyton or Eli?

Family First - Dont fuck that up! Do the ordinary things extraordinarily well. In the absence of orders, figure out what the orders should have been and execute that! Remind them that they have two ears but only one mouth. This means they would be wise to listen twice as much as they speak. Cap-10

You joined because you believe that it's the most amazing job in the history of jobs, that's true. Take time to enjoy that, seek the knowledge that makes you an expert in what you do, enjoy the walk to a dark aircraft on a dark field and the sunrise you see above the cloud deck while the masses below you curse the traffic on their drive to the desk job they've done for 30 years, realize that every person on that base you took off from is there to support you in your quest to slip the surely bounds and project that weapon in defense of freedom. Initially you will blindly follow, trusting that you are part of a well oiled, flawless machine. But slowly, one by one, you will all realize the stark truth that there is no Santa Claus: a few or maybe many of the very people and positions you put faith in to make smart decision, take care of you, and blindly follow will wreck that trust. It will become obvious to you that the very institution you initially placed on top of the high ivory tower is populated with many individuals only after self-interests, self-promotion, and self-gratification. Top cover for making tough decisions in a time sensitive environment will be reduced to witch hunting, adherence to 6900 pages of AFIs, and Monday morning quarterbacking by idiots that read about how to effectuate combat off a cereal box written by other idiots not adapt enough to make tough decisions in a time sensitive environment... You will become sully, you will realize the truth, and the dark pit in your stomach will make you ill. Realize you are not alone, your maturity is expected, & you will soon have to make a few of the biggest decisions in you life. Mainly, do you still believe you have the most amazing job in the history of jobs and is retaining that job worth the toil on your life, family, and other priorities in life? It sucks. When you do hang it up, you will miss it, because you will quickly forget the bad and only remember the good. You will realize that for every douchnozzle there are a dozen amazing Americans that you would gladly trust with your life. And regardless of what you hear, every American is indebted to you for your service regardless if they would rather reduce you to a number in a spreadsheet or an inexplicable cost that could better be used for steaks for those unwilling to earn it. But, the one thing you will always be able to control is your attitude, it will make all the difference in every situation you will face. Bloom where you are planted and don't let the bitterness of those around you affect the smile on your face when the gear comes up, the scarf whips back in the wind, and you leave the planet and all it's problems behind.

Fair?

Oh yea, it's pretty easy to go from C-17's to F-22's....that's like monday morning water-cooler stuff. All that T-38 track and IFF doesn't really have much to do with anything once you get to hawaii. Good luck! see you there!

Considering the committee hearing was 3 hours long with 6 different witnesses and 60 pages of written statements, I think I was somewhat brief.

Below are my somewhat brief interpretations of the recent Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing on military retirement ( http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/recent-changes-to-the-us-military-retirement-system ). 25:30 - Chairman Levin appears fairly determined to repeal the COLA cut. 28:15 - Sen Inhofe is also dedicated to at least pursuing grandfathering if not repeal. 40:30 - ADM Winnefeld encourages grandfathering existing benefits at this time, and then pursuing curtailment/adjustments later after more study (COLA-cuts remaining an option). Essentially, he recommends not increasing any benefits for the indefinite future because our current compensation is well above the absolute minimum and money saved would be much better spent on equipment and training, because we're so darn good at spending that money efficiently. 47:30 - Dep SECDEF Fox also prefers essentially freezing benefits at current levels and then considering fundamental, radical changes. She recommends viewing AD compensation and retirement benefits as two separate halves that can have somewhat independent solutions. Changes to retirement benefits likely won't be pursued by the DoD until after the MCRM report is published. 52:00 - Conjecture of where to pay for repeal of COLA, which costs about $6B. Are you serious? Congress pulled benefits to pay for non-DoD programs and spending goals. Why do retirees need to find the money that Congress spent? Pull from DoD totals, but not other retiree programs. 1:00:00 - Dep SECDEF Fox nearly repeats the sentiments of ADM Winnefeld at 40:30. 1:03:00 Sen Manchin recommends actually performing the audit the DoD before cutting retirement benefits. The DoD has been required to perform an annual audit for the last decade, but it has never actually done one. We have no genuine, verified report of exactly how money is spent despite the congressional mandate to do it. Apparently the Marine Corps passed an audit recently, but they are the only ones to ever do it, and only just now. The DoD Comptroller actually doesn't anticipate we can complete an audit until 2017. Sen Manchin apparently is a fucking genious and deserves a damn medal. 1:05:00 - Dep SECDEF Fox & ADM winnefild cite Sen Inhofe's graphic that auditing and spending corrections would be a small portion of total spending and are dwarfed by personnel costs. I'm gonna call that bullshit, as the later testimonies by the lobbying groups prove. Also, nearly every contracting program in existence is specifically designed to bilk the budget. Until contracting is fixed, this is wasted time, which Sen Manchin also addresses. Christ, Sen Manchin is a goddamn brainiac. Lastly, Sen Manchin recommends further usage of the Guard to reduce AD budgeting. 1:10:00 - Sen McCain heavily stresses and promotes grandfathering existing personnel. God-bless that crotchety, old man. 1:15:00 - Putting it all together, TriCare will probably the main pressure point and will get some major cuts at some point in the future. 1:20:00 Sen Wicker correctly emphasizes the negative impact of COLA-cuts. He also does a good job at not getting more support from the DoD for not pushing for repealing the cuts for all personnel (not just medical-retirees, survivors, other exempt, etc.). This guy gets it and remembers the lies that were part of the sequestration and Affordable Care Act promises. 1:27:30 Sen Kaine again agrees to repeal COLA-cuts, then defends the BBA because its the first real budget weve had in four years. I see both sides of the argument, but it was still a bad rush job, and its fairly indefensible. He has some good bi-partisanship approaches, in that its really spineless rhetoric. 1:35:15 Sen Ayotte repeats that nobody in DoD, SASC, HASC, etc. were consulted, and totally disagrees with Sen Kaine. Shes usually pretty opinionated (remember the A-10 and SECAF James confirmation?), but I at least agree with her here. She then hammers the effect of a highly mobile military career and the difficulty in the post-service work career. Shes pretty on-point with the differences in retirement against a normal civilian life and why military benefits are justified. Also, she briefly mentions the O-7+ retirement plans that are astoundingly generous, but doesnt elaborate too much. GO pay should really be heavily scrutinized (and cut) in my opinion. 1:44:00 Sen Reed is pretty boring and doesnt say anything new or interesting. 1:52:15 Sen Fischer asks if the DoD has consulted any lobbying / consulting groups. ADM Winnefeld states they havent coordinated anything yet. Sen Fischer recommends coordination first. 1:56:00 - Dep SECDEF Fox states AD compensation freezes will be a part of FY2015. 2:04:00 - Sen Hagan favors grandfathering. 2:06:30 Sen Graham mirrors Sen Kaines sentiments of getting a budget done. He then pushes for coordination with interest groups. He keeps assuming personnel costs account for half of the total DoD Budget (something many groups dispute). 2:11:00 Sen Graham wants an assessment what percent of GDP is spent on DoD. He believes we need some version of heavy cost-cutting to DoD budget continue for the next 10 years (or so). His approach is not terribly friendly to the DoD. 2:14:15 - Sen Blumenthal also supports immediate repeal. 2:21:45 - Sen Vitter highlights that only the military retirees had a cut to benefits and no other federal retirees (namely civilians) had any cuts. Good point. 2:23:30 - Sen King is split on whether the undebated budget was a good idea, as he opposes the COLA cuts, but is also surprised that a budget was indeed passed. 2:57:00 - The woman sitting behind Dr. Chu is astoundingly unattractive. I just needed to comment on that. 2:59:15 Sen Levin again urges for repeal. 3:00:00 - The interest groups state that they each have met with the MCRM at least once and are pleased with the membership of the commission. Sen Levin encourages that any organization which hasnt yet meet with the commission be given that chance. 3:06:00 - Sen Inhofe brings a quick unique discussion about prioritization of retirement pay/benefits and national defense priorities. I wont try to summarize it here, but if you are considering watching it, it is certainly worth a few minutes of your time. 3:15:30 - Sen Ayotte opens with the same comment as Sen Vitter, how only the military gets the cut and nobody else. The witnesses comment on the numerous other past and proposed cuts to benefits, primarily in medical care/TriCare. Good comments by Sen Ayotte. 3:26:00 - God, that woman is ugly. 3:28:00 Sen Graham comments on the value of e-mails and other communication to Congressmen heavily sways focus and opinions of those congressmen. He then defends the existing retirement benefits as a fair and that it should not be cut. He lastly asks the groups to meet with Senators not on the SASC to discuss the impacts of sequestration on personnel readiness. Continuation of above: The written statements below are heavily abridged as many of the arguments are repeated multiple times through other statements and testimony. You can read the full statements via the links below, but know that most are pretty long. http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Fox-Winnefeld_01-28-141.pdf http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Tilelli_01-28-14.pdf Holy shit, this is a great testimony. Anybody AD officer who isnt an MOAA isnt a member should be. This guy has certainly earned the support.

Nailed it. I just went though this. Got orders with a RNLTD within 1 year of the end of my commitment, did the 7-day option, got sent on the assignment anyways. It will be 11.9 months boots on the ground at my assignment, not counting terminal leave (~80 days). May have to do one last deployment that will basically prevent me from taking all that leave as terminal because, as herk driver said, terminal leave is at the discretion of your commander. I would not recommend this path for many; I lucked out and have a great SQ/CC who isn't holding it against guys with DOSs, YMMV. Pro tip: don't "burn the bridge" if the assignment will add less than a year to your commitment.

He is not referring to the open and closed books...stay in your lane C-17 dude, for you know not what you speak.

Cheerleader also serves in the Air Force. http://fxn.ws/1bepywI

When I was at COT some old fighter pilot in his late 80s came to talk to us-a bunch of medics, attorneys, and chaplains. At the end of his allocated hour at least 75% of the room was fast asleep-they don't call Boyd Auditorium the big red bed for nothing.

He flew F-86s in Korea. It wasn't a total loss-some of the nurses bought his book he was hawking because they felt sorry for him. On another note, when I was still in MX and had to babysit a static display KC-135 on wing open house day it really bothered me when cops or CE dudes from our wing had to ask me what kind of plane it was. You're in an Air Refueling Wing-chances are it's a tanker.