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What's with all the hate on the lifecycle funds? They're made up of the other funds and are balanced by a professional. Odds are very good unless you're carefully tracking the internals of each of the other funds that the allocation the lifecycle comes up with is going to be smarter than you are. I'd suggest that if you put in regular time and energy to researching, studying, and then re-balancing your portfolio, that's of course best...but if you're not committed to and educated on how to do that, the lifecycles were custom-made for you. The TSP 2050 is something like 85% made up of the pure stock funds you all are advocating (https://www.tsp.gov/InvestmentFunds/FundOptions/fundPerformance_L2050.html) and it provides just a touch of ready-made diversification against market crashes. Diversification, within reason, is advocated in all of the books that are being touted above on this page in the thread. If you're against it because you have a more aggressive mindset (more aggressive than 85% pure stock...), that's okay, but it's not the end of the world to use the things. One other point...several of you have mentioned that there are mutual funds for use in Roth IRAs with 'similar' expense ratios to TSP...the C-fund (S&P 500 tracker fund) has an expense ratio of .042%. Vanguard's S&P 500 index fund expense ratio is .17%. For those of you following along at home, that means that while Vanguard is one of the least expensive commercial companies, they still charge you *4 times as much*. Their Admiral shares (which you can access after putting 10K or more into the fund, if I recall correctly) are a lot closer (.05%), but just keep in mind that the very best deal in the commercial sector struggles and still gets beaten out by TSP. The difference in real dollars isn't necessarily huge, but it's something to remember. Also remember that USAA and other non-Vanguard, non-TSP options are going to charge you even more.

http://www.afforums.com/index.php?threads/rex-the-engineer.15323/ This stuff is pure gold. Here's a sample: THE ADVENTURES OF REX THE WONDER ENGINEER: REX and the BREAKAWAY It's a bold, bright sunny day out on AR 8A-B. The KC-10 and crew are finishing up their 3rd hour of straight receiver AR, hurtling around the two short tracks like it's a ing NASCAR oval, with no passing allowed. Rex, the Wonder Engineer, is on his 7th local in two weeks, and his nineteenth hour of receiver AR this month. Leading this perverted race is a wore-out E model, with the pride of the Raggedy-Ass Militia as crew. Rex stirs slowly from a sound sleep as Joe, the infamous numb-nuts boomer, former hero of SAC, pokes him with greasy, tobacco stained finger. Rex's eyes bolt open as he hears the IP, Capt Bank, yelling at him from the right seat. "Engineer! We don't have a ready light here, is there a problem?" "in' A right, there's a problem", blurts old Joe, "in' old wore out engineer boy is a-sleepin' on the goddamn job again." Rex stares blankly at the FE panel. Then he turns to Joe and pokes him in the upper layer of gut-fat, hard, with his 0.5 MM lead pencil. "OOOWWW!!, goddamn, Rex, you mother-er, I'll kick yer old wore out flow-bar ass, you......." "TIME OUT!!" Yells the PUP idiot in the left seat. "What are you guys doing back there?" The PUP, a typical jerk-off professional copilot with an attitude, thinks he's in charge, now that he's playing AC. His name is Capt Corn. Rex calls him the Great Cornholio. When Rex is awake. Like he is now, with two goddamn finger-pilots barking at him; he quickly assesses the situation, and takes the appropriate action. "HEY!, What the is all this yelling about?", Screams Rex, "Time-the- OUT!!" Rex violently punches the AR reset button and a "Ready" light appears magically on the windshield post. "There!, Goddammit, anyway, Jesus ing Christ! I been back here strapped into this ing seat for 3 mother-ing hours. Ain't even had a chance to PISS, and you bastards are yelling at me! What the , OVER??" Joe looks amused, kind of like a cow looks as it's shitting all over itself. Capt Bank, who a year ago was a new banked copilot, who's now the squadron's senior IP, is looking for his sunglasses. The Great Cornholio is unaware that he has established a rather high rate of closure with the wood-burning tanker, and Rex is unstrapping. "Hold everything, you sky warriors, I gotta go drop off a message to TACC." Rex jumps out of the seat and disappears into the cabin. Capt Corn sort of stabilizes the Extender in a position somewhere within a hundred feet of pre-contact, and then starts babbling like the idiot he is. "Dammit. This is ed. I've had with Rex's shit. When we get back, I'm going to bring up that bastard on charges. Insubordination. Dereliction of Duty. Sleeping on duty. Failure to shit prior to flight!......." Joe hocks up a tobacco glob into his paper cup, ejecting a little spittle over the rim to land on Capt Corn's helmet back, right onto his stupid ATC class patch. He speaks. "Cap'n, you ain't a-gonna do shit to Rex. The new Commander and him are best buddies, whiskey partners, see, and Rex saved the OG Commander's ass back in the 141, and the Wing Commander, well, him and Rex were runnin' partners back at Clark, and Rex got him treatment for the clap back in '82 afore the general's wife found out...and that ain't all...In fact,...." "OK, Joe, shut up! I got it. I'll get that bastard somehow......" Capt Corn is spitting all over his microphone..Capt Bank is looking for the sandwich that his dear wife made for him that morning, and once again the two aircraft are closing. Fast. As Joe searches his greasy helmet bag for more chew, and Capt Cornholio is blinded by tears of rage, whilst the mildly retarded Capt Bank is reading the sweet note his wife put in his Darth Vader character lunch-box, the KC-135 Boomer, who has just gotten done with his cigarette, and is stubbing out on the ashtray he's kept for 35 years of flying, sees approaching doom, and keys his mike: "HOLY SHIT BREAKAWAYBREAKAWAYBREAKAWAY!!!!" The Great Cornolio looks up from the INS and sees the words : HIGH SPEED BOOM less than a foot from the windscreen. And the boom is up as far as it will fly. Then comes the push. Capt Corn shoves the yoke eight inches forward in a half second, resulting, you might guess, in a less than text-book separation. A full negative 1G world now awaits them. Joe screams and pisses himself, and everything not tied town in the airplane, including Rex, is slammed against the ceiling. In an instant, the now-bent Extender shoots through the bottom of the block at 17,000 FPM, 18 degrees nose low. Panic ensues while the IP wastes time turning on the flight director switches, and farting around with the vert-speed wheel. He also remembers the beacon lights. Good monkey boy! As the abused and twisted wide-body slashes through 18,000 feet, Joe dutifully calls "Thousand to transition!" Capt Bank finally sees his sorry life flash before his eyes and realizes that they are over the Mt Shasta area, calls "I got the airplane" and loads the poor Douglas up like a shit-stained Saudi in his dad's new F-15. The Boeing Boomer later claims to have seen vapor trails from the wing and horizontal stabilizer tips. Fighter pilots are conditioned and accustomed to pulling multiple G loads on a daily basis. They are proud of their physical strength and ability to operate effectively under conditions of extreme loads. Too bad they're are such assholes. But no fighter pilot anywhere, ever, has pulled 5 Gs on plastic shitter seat. Rex did it, and survived. Aerospace Medical geeks from all over the world have studied his case, and all agreed that only an iron-ass engineer like Rex possessed the physical strength of ass, and the sheer power with the straining maneuver, to survive such an event. Rex's ass is permanently stained with blue shitter-water, not from the push-over, but the high-G pull, which caused his ass to actually stretch out all the way into the metal bowl, which naturally, was coated in blue water and shit. The following is the actual radio transmission between Travis Command Post and the ill-fated local, Spazz 61: Travis Command Post = TCP Spazz 61=61 61: Travis Command Post, Spazz 61 TCP: Go ahead, Spazz 61 61: We are inbound your station. Code 2, requesting ambulance and latrine service upon landing. TCP: State reason for ambulance, and pass on maintenance writeups, over. 61: Well, uh, we got an engineer that's all covered in latrine water, and....uh...stand by fer writeups......uh, we might should have a fire hose standing by....to wash off this here engineer, he's all covered in....uh...excrement and piss, over. TCP: Spazz 61, say again......did not copy...did not understand....Say again over...please pass writeups..... 61: Dang it! ain't anyone listening down there? Like I told ya afore, my engineer's all covered in shit, godammit, and if you want to know the in' whole story right here on the goddamn air, well, my gosh dang pilot boys are sittin' in bags of shit, and I done pissed in my dang drawers, too.....how copy command post..... TCP: Spazz 61 please pass writeups and any DVs on Board? Over.......... This was the last transmission. The airplane landed without incident after 16 touch and goes. The Great Cornholio did not bring up charges on Rex. Capt Bank found his sunglasses imbedded in his fat ass when he got home. Joe went to Crusty's, still in his pissed-stained coveralls, and awaited Rex, who was released from DGMC after ingesting 4 valiums and undergoing a thorough probing by the hobbyists at the flight surgeon's office. Rex did not utter a single word for over 6 days after the flight. NEXT: REX GOES TO THE FLIGHT SURGEON TO GET OFF DNIF.

Board doesnt see PT scores. If someone had a referral OPR for PT failures, the OPR was seen. It counted the same as any other referral for a documented failure to meet standards...but there weren't that many folks with referrals. It helped soften the score reduction when the OPR after the referral was an excellent one. It hurt a score when there were more than one referral or the subsequent OPRS sucked.

You can almost set your watch by the personnel PIO, it used to be every 5 years (ish) the AF would be at the top or bottom of the cycle, everyone get out or please everyone stay in, the only thing I have noticed different than when I came in back in the late 90's is that the frequency is now about every 3 years... the PIO that AFPC and A1 induce just gets worse as they keep moving the stick from full aft to full forward while simultaneously going idle to military, the stick being RIF boards and the throttles being the bonuses or lack thereof... they use personnel tools with opposite effects one right after each other making the frequency shorter and the amplitude higher If you could have an hour to explain the concept of control and performance to A1, that might help but as most of them (that I have met) have no operational experience, have been in personnel all of their carriers and think it is just a spreadsheet to be manipulated at will, you will continue to get arbitrary / clueless / no real strategy just reaction to the problem du jour force structure decisions or God forbid, A3 asserts itself and we structure the AF around ops Get that long term orders check book out and call the Guard / Reserves, if you offered 3+ years of orders or back on AD to get that last 5 years or whatever they need to get in the check of the month club, you would get takers... if this CSAF wants to fix one problem (of many) before the new guy (or gal) takes the controls then focus on this ant and burn it up Did some bar napkin math and I bet you could get 3500 bodies (even split of O's and E's) for 3 years with all costs included (including PCS, TDY and training) for 3 years for about $1.5 billion, less if you expand at RPA Guard / Reserve bases, that kicks the can down the road but shit take a step in the right direction, spend the money, get rid of a problem hemorrhaging our credibility to manage this mission The easy part is figuring whose ricebowl to steal from... not

Retention is bad now, bad enough for the CSAF to publicly admit his shit is in the street. We will have a better picture on the problem by late 2018 when the 18Xers start hitting the end of their ADSCs in large numbers. The data point to watch for will be dudes with approximately 7 years service. These are your dudes who joined up to specifically fly RPAs. If Big Blue can't retain them, the RPA enterprise is officially fucked. Surveys indicate we should expect retention somewhere in the neighborhood of 30%. On the plus side, there should be lucrative opportunities for contractors for the foreseeable future. On the Active Duty side of the house I expect this problem will get worse before it gets even worse.

Argo, are you going to provide any counter-argument, or just lurk in the shadows and down vote every post that doesn't fit the desired narrative? Standard SJW response is to yell and act offended while offering no logical reason for doing so. Our country has created a generation of retards. http://youtu.be/9IEFD_JVYd0