Pancake
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Posts posted by Pancake
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20 hours ago, Chida said:
Obvious: you could stay DSG for another yr, blow off the AT, then retire. I haven’t done the math on whether or not this would be worth it in the end to delay retired pay by a year.
Nope. I’m burned out and my family and I are mentally prepared to retire.
In the last 2.5 years, I’ve been OG, CV and completed a SOC. Staying on for “the next job” would require another 2.5 year “commitment” and we’ve built a leadership team that’s primed to lead the wing without the instability of leadership musical chairs every 12-18 months.
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9 hours ago, MT near said:
Why didn't you just retire when you got 20 TAFMS?
A number of factors:
- Still had more to give
- COVID just hit and my airline said they were going to be half the size on the other side of the pandemic
- Wanted to keep flying fighters and deploy
- Really love the squadron/wing that I’m in
I transitioned to DSG two years after hitting TAFMS. The leadership bathtub has since caught up and it’s time for me to move on.
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51 minutes ago, Chida said:
What Scooter said above is the ticket...
Wow. After reading the article, I will not be able to retire in my current rank with a reserve retirement, either. I will retire almost exactly three years after my DOR (3 years and 5 days). I will not have 2 years of DSG service (2 years, 5 days AD, 365 days DSG).
The way it looks, there is no way I can retire in my current grade. Maybe that's ammunition for the TIG waiver, but probably not.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
Thanks for the research.
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16 hours ago, Scooter14 said:
Disclaimer: I don’t know what the “go to FSS when you’re 60” process entails, that’s a question you should ask if you decide to go that route, especially with the reduced retirement as it relates to Tricare.
Feel free to PM me if you want and congrats on the upcoming retirement!
Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network ForumsI'm going to submit the 2 year TIG waiver, but I have little optimism that it'll get approved. The funny thing about the days I did to get to two years AD TIG is that I took orders four days at a time during the week (Tue-Fri) and flew my airline trips on the weekends (Sat-Mon), completely sacrificing my family for a over a year. Our unit works four 10-hour days, so I essentially worked a full time schedule as a DSG then worked a second full-time job as an airline guy, all the while forgoing my AGR retirement (which I earned on 5 Jul 20). I did all that because us bosses were using all the AGR resources and had no full-time resources left for the O3/O4 worker bees. I gave up a lot of off days that would have gotten me a lot closer to 1095 AD days (T10 TFI MPA days), and also missed out on the last year of my pilot bonus by resigning my AGR. Basically, some real "service before self" stuff. The email from ARPC was a gut punch. But I get it. Big Blue doesn't care. Nice guys, road to hell, etc...
Words of advice:
1. ARPC is not helpful. They are "work ticket processors." They are not "the experts."
2. Big Blue does not care about you. Your unit, commander, subordinates, etc care about you. But the "Air Force" does not.
I really let my guard down approaching retirement, and Big Blue got me real good. Don't be like me kids. Maximize your resources (time and income) to serve the people you love (your family, your fellow pilots, your Guard Wing, etc).
At the end of the day, I know what I did during the extra years I stayed in, so does my family, and so does my unit. That's all that matters, regardless of what rank is on my 214. And I'm gonna throw a damn good party at June drill to celebrate all of it.
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9 hours ago, MT near said:
What is a "USERRA waiver"?
Where did you apply for this?
The SAF signed waiver allows your orders to be coded USERRA-exempt, just like “named operation” deployment orders.
Right now, the only waivers I’ve heard of getting approved are O6 command jobs. Even then, it’s 50/50. I was an AGR 11F squadron commander when mine was denied precovid and in the throws of max airline hiring.
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Asking everywhere. Maybe someone here can provide insight.
I applied for a 1 Sep 24 AGR retirement date. I will have three years TIG, however, only two years AD TIG since I became a DSG about 12 months after promotion. I've also done a bunch of MPA and ST in the last 18 months. Based on FSS and ARPC telling me I would have enough TIG to receive a regular retirement in my current rank, regardless of status, I planned and submitted my retirement. Then I got an email last week saying otherwise. Looks like I'll have to submit a waiver.
Any gouge on what a successful TIG waiver looks like? Time needed (assuming forever since it goes to SAF)? The magic words?
I was denied a USERRA waiver in 2019, but of course I don't have the documentation anymore. COVID USERRA exemption got me more AD time, but I don't have enough left to do another year of AGR (nor do we have resources or CG, and I don't want to do it at this point).
Basic info:
23 TAFMS
3 years TIG (2 years, 5 days AD TIG)
1 Sep 24 retirement date
Thanks!
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Asking everywhere. Maybe someone can provide insight.
I applied for a 1 Sep 24 AGR retirement date. I will have three years TIG, however, only two years AD TIG since I became a DSG about 12 months after promotion. I've also done a bunch of MPA and ST in the last 18 months. Based on FSS and ARPC telling me I would have enough TIG to receive a regular retirement in my current rank, regardless of status, I planned and submitted my retirement. Then I got an email last week saying otherwise. Looks like I'll have to submit a waiver.
Any gouge on what a successful TIG waiver looks like? Time needed (assuming forever since it goes to SAF)? The magic words?
I was denied a USERRA waiver in 2019, but of course I don't have the documentation anymore. COVID USERRA exemption got me more AD time, but I don't have enough left to do another year of AGR (nor do we have resources or CG, and I don't want to do it at this point).
Basic info:
23 TAFMS
3 years TIG (2 years, 5 days AD TIG)
1 Sep 24 retirement date
Thanks!
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Maybe someone can provide insight.
I applied for a 1 Sep 24 AGR retirement date. I will have three years TIG, however, only two years AD TIG since I became a DSG about 12 months after promotion. I've also done a bunch of MPA and ST in the last 18 months. Based on FSS and ARPC telling me I would have enough TIG to receive a regular retirement in my current rank, regardless of status, I planned and submitted my retirement. Then I got an email last week saying otherwise. Looks like I'll have to submit a waiver.
Any gouge on what a successful TIG waiver looks like? Time needed (assuming forever since it goes to SAF)? The magic words?
I was denied a USERRA waiver in 2019, but of course I don't have the documentation anymore. COVID USERRA exemption got me more AD time, but I don't have enough left to do another year of AGR (nor do we have resources or CG, and I don't want to do it at this point).
Basic info:
23 TAFMS
3 years TIG (2 years, 5 days AD TIG)
1 Sep 24 retirement date
Thanks!
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Do not miss AD at all. Love the Guard. Been mostly AGR and now DSG. New to international airline flying and really liking it.
Best job combo in the world has got to be DSG Guard pilot and widebody FO.
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2 hours ago, guineapigfury said:
I expect they'd have to pay back training costs. Paying off UPT would be a whole next level of student debt.
Pay back? Just get hired by a Guard unit and drop 7-8 years of mil leave on this job. Commissioning through MEST is all USERRA exempt. That alone is at least 5-6 years. Then you still have 5 years of USERRA time to burn through.
Meanwhile, you gain your pay increases, steps, and really, after being gone for 10 years who’s going to remember you still have an 8 year commitment? (btw, I suspect there’s no such thing as a GS “commitment.” Military, yes. GS, no.)
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1 hour ago, Blue said:
Agreed, some of the logic and statements seem suspect. I wish the author provided more sources, or at least more background. Hence my ask if anyone in the A-10 community could corroborate any of the claims.
His statements on the A-10 depot work for example. He jumps around from claiming it's an issue of parts, then an issue of manpower that leaves the depot with about half the throughput they need for the A-10 line. That's a pretty significant claim, with not much more than some hand-waving as a source.
For me, it's not so much the question of tactical relevance of the A-10. It's more the question of to what extent is the Air Force going against the will of Congress to starve the A-10 fleet out of existence.
The depot folks are leaving for other programs because they feel there isn’t job security in the A-10 enterprise.
Industry doesn’t want to invest in programs with unpredictable longevity.
My perspective is that current AF leadership is as or more supportive of the A-10 in their 4+1 construct as any in my AF career.
The A-10 draws an emotional response, however, this is about the right mix of 4th, 4.5th, 5th, NGAD, etc. AF leadership has been very transparent about their future fighter construct and as far as I can tell they’re following through as advertised.
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28 minutes ago, Clark Griswold said:
So I saw this quote from the ACC chief in AFA's magazine:
China is our…pacing threat. If we’re going to keep pace with what they’re doing … you’re not going to do it by refurbishing a fleet of 40-year-old, single-mission, 210-knot airplanes. You’re just not, regardless of how much they’re loved and the great performance they’ve done.
- Gen. Mark D. Kelly, commander, Air Combat Command, offering his view of the long-term effectiveness ofkeeping the A-10 in the combat air forces, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Life Cycle Industry Days streaming seminar, Aug. 3.
He has a point and with that I'm not saying the other side doesn't have a point on preserving the A-10.
But are we really talking about preserving single mission / focused mission set squadrons? The A-10 is a unique platform in the mix that ACC has a single focus, ditto for the F-15C I guess.
Would the A-10 community make a better case if they pursued recapitalization vs refurbishing the A-10? New airplane same mission focus vs keeping the Hog?
New platform could defeat the arguments against their survivability in a contested environment and relevance to the big fight scenarios.
The question is: “where can we accept mission risk?”
Can we accept a capability gap in supporting the Army in a contested tank-on-tank land battle? How likely is that scenario? What other capabilities do we sacrifice to sustain the A-10? What unique capability does the A-10 bring to the most likely scenarios that other platforms don’t? Is the A-10 so unique that only it can fight the COIN fight, considering AGR-20/GBU-49/GBU-54/Hellfire and the flying hour cost compared to, say, an A-29, which I presume can employ most “COIN weapons?” Will the defense industry support a logistics train for such a small (and becoming niche) fleet? At what cost? Does the A-10 have a role in the homeland defense mission? How does the A-10 fit into networked warfare such as JADC2?
These questions are being asked about all fighters, Fourth and Fifth Gen.
The exquisitely upgraded A-10 has been the world champ at fighting wars in accessible battle spaces for the past 30 years.
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43 minutes ago, DUNBAR said:
I have a hard time believing, however, that somewhere, somehow, there wasn't a better COA than this. I want to believe that with approx 10K troops and a few fighter squadrons, we could have held Kabul/Bagram and a few cities in perpetuity as a sanctuary for those who didn't want to live under these lunatics, especially the women. Yeah, being there forever sucks, and it's expensive, but there's a lot to be said for having a huge spec ops footprint right there in the belly of the beast.
This. 100% this.
The alternative is a peer competitor filling the vacuum in our absence, influencing the region with their geopolitical values.
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1 hour ago, ClearedHot said:
Should we have left, in my opinion no.
Well said.
Tactically, Afghanistan was lost on the very first battle. Strategically, it’s never been more important than now. In the 14 years between my first and last deployment there, nothing changed, except China became more influential.
Our biggest weakness is our cultural intolerance to play the long game. This is the root cause of all of our military losses.
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2 hours ago, RedEye1911 said:
There was never anything to gain in Afghanistan.
Really? I wonder why the Chinese want in so bad. And I’m not talking natural resources.
In time, we’ll lament leaving, ostensibly giving complete freedom of movement to the Chinese, from Iran to North Korea.
Geopolitics evolves. The COIN mission was a never-ending failure that should have pivoted a decade ago. Afghanistan, frankly, is more important to US National security today than ever before, and we just handed it over to our number one peer challenger.
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Like Mike Waltz, having deployed there a few times myself, I have mixed emotions.
God bless all those lost; US, coalition, and Afghan civilians.
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2 hours ago, Newb said:
Are greenslips a type of premium flying?
Yes. Double pay.
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On 8/15/2020 at 11:04 AM, Scooter14 said:
Bottom line:
Heavy - Heavy = Easy
Fighter - Heavy = Easy
Heavy - Fighter = not EasyThe Guard gets one T-38 transition per year. If you didn’t fly T-38s in UPT and get hired by a fighter unit, that means you won the lottery and the T-38 slot is likely yours.
Requires lots of precoord with NGB, but can be done.
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On 8/15/2020 at 10:48 AM, D-ron said:
Otherwise they have to find and pay for a training slot for you.
Huh?
I’ve heard this misnomer a number of times. Who has to pay for what?
If you get hired by a fighter unit and are not qualified in their jet, that means they like you and are willing to request/use a IQ/TX resource to get you qualified. There is no “pay for you.” The only “pay” is the use of an allocated IQ/TX resource that the unit projected they would need in the previous 1 or 2 FYs. Sometimes the Guard gets more resources that they need, sometimes not enough. Timing is everything and there is no justice.
But, no. A unit doesn’t “pay” to send someone to IQ/TX training. Although, it does pay to be nice to CR.
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1 hour ago, FourFans130 said:
- If you're separating for AFRC/ANG, engage with the in-service recruiter (ISR) ASAP. Things like getting on the scroll for a AFRC commission can take three months.
WTF is this scroll? I jumped to the Guard 8 years ago and all my AD commanders warned me about getting “scrolled.” Is it like the “9th hole at 9?” Nobody, FSS, recruiting, nobody on my base knows what “the scroll” is.
Please educate me.
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No factor. Be ready to talk about the lessons you learned from the experience (we all suffer setbacks, it’s important to get back up and keep working towards your goals, empathy to people going through difficult times, etc.). It’s not about your flying performance, it’s about how you handled the aftermath.
If you’re doing well in your current jet, you’ll be fine with respect to getting hired at a major... in two or more years.
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On 4/18/2020 at 6:39 PM, M2 said:
Damn, hot chick didn't age well! Pissed off girlfriend isn't looking too shabby, though!
I always thought the two girls were twins. That was the irony of the picture.
These are clearly not the same people that are in the original photo.
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On 4/12/2020 at 2:07 PM, disgruntledemployee said:
Complaining Checklist
So I've been keeping up with my airline's pilot forum, doing what any newb should do, stay quiet and listen. But I'm getting quite tired of the "us vs union vs them vs us," "pay me," and etc. attitudes. And tired of the "gross mismanagement" talk like anyone would ever fathom that air traffic would fall 95% for months to come. I've already concluded that there will be displacements and furloughs this fall, barring any further gov't assistance (but now they want to change this latest deal to 70% grant/30% loan). I'd love to see a 3 Musketeer attitude, but way too much hate/distrust/anger/negativity. I think I'll look into that truck driving school...
Wait. Are you talking about airline pilot forums or Air Force pilot forums?
Baseops. APC Forums. Same same. Pilots sport bitching about pay, unfair treatment, and how leadership/management doesn’t know how to run an organization.
Post retirement part-time military job
in General Discussion
Posted
It’s called indispensability, and word on the strips is it’s only being approved for O6s rising to O7.