Homestar

There you go again, blaming the victim... /s

Two words: lifetime annuity. That is why people sign the bonus. I'm paid six figures to fly (and do lots of other stupid stuff--see: What's wrong with the AF thread), I've already done a 365, and I get free health care. By time I can get out all my friends who were hired by airlines in the past 24 months will be excellent internal recs for me (I hope). I'm a path-of-least-resistance kind of guy.

That's a good looking airplane. Pegasus. Dumb name tho.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but ... 4. May 1982 - December 1982, student, F-16 Replacement Training Unit, MacDill AFB, Fla. 5. January 1983 - August 1985, F-16 instructor pilot and squadron scheduler, 50th Fighter Wing, Hahn Air Base, West Germany 6. August 1985 - December 1985, student, F-16 Fighter Weapons School, Nellis AFB, Nev. 7. January 1986 - December 1986, squadron and wing weapons officer, and F-16 instructor pilot, 50th Fighter Wing, Hahn AB, West Germany 8. January 1987 - July 1989, fighter weapons instructor, assistant operations officer, nuclear weapons and avionics academic instructor, assistant Chief of Standardization and Evaluation, USAF Fighter Weapons School, Nellis AFB, Nev. 9. August 1989 - July 1991, advanced program manager, Tactical Fighter Weapons Center, Nellis AFB, Nev. 10. August 1991 - July 1992, student, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

Disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about... But... It seems like the one guy I know at the RPA school house likes his life more than the guys flying missions. Maybe the goal is to get to the schoolhouse? edit: spells bro.

Wonder how that libel lawsuit works out for you?

Who is "they"?

That's not the point and you know it. The problem is inherent in the Air Force culture.

Yeah, you're probably right. But my guess is that they'd at least be commercial SEL with the instrument rating. My only point, really, is that paying enlisted/warrants 45k/yr to do the exact same job as the Major sitting next to him but making $120k/yr is just not a good solution (nor is it fair...the enlisted/warrant should be making the same pay--any union man would agree). But hey, if the Army's doing it then it must make sense, amirite?

Jeez. I must be stupid because I never make this point very well. But then, I really didn't follow much of what you just wrote, Lawman. You want enlisted to fly planes/drones? Fine. I agree that a college degree is not really all that necessary to do the job. But pay them the wage that flying planes/drones demand. Don't let the AF get away with paying some guy $45,000/yr to do what the rest of the world pays $120,000/yr to do. A proper union would never allow equal work for less pay. Hell, why do we need officers anyway?

You want enlisted flying drones? Fine. But you better get a stronger union, cause it won't take long for that enlisted man to figure out he's getting paid piss poor wages by the AF to do it. Then after his relatively short commitment is up, that enlisted man will bolt (probably with his ATP in hand, or at least a thousand hours of drone time) and join a real company that pays real wages for his technical work. Retention problem solved! Oh, wait...

Hey, don't cast aspersions on his asparagus.

I literally LOLed when I read the question about 15 year total force commitment. Dumb dumb. Money doesn't solve all problems, but it solves a lot. At the 10 year point a pilot with an ATP could make more money on the outside and not have to deploy. Until the AF corrects this it will not solve anything.

Edit to add: With DP carrying so much weight at this level, Wing Commanders are really the ones promoting people, which is probably a good thing.

So the Chinese made it so we couldn't use USB drives in any or our machines, but they still managed to steal personal data on 4 million federal employees. What's next? https://www.fedsmith.com/2015/06/05/opm-data-breach-what-you-need-to-know/

Wow. I thought it was a post-DT vector only.

The guy gets a bad rap from SERE guys who dedicate their entire careers to figuring out how they're going to evade. Sounds like he may have had a bad reputation in his F-16 community, but whenever someone talks about all the things this guy screwed up during his evasion and rescue I just remind myself that he never got caught and returned more or less safe. More than a lot of guys can say.

Hardly representative of "religion at it's finest." May as well use Communist Soviet Union as an example of how atheism can benefit humanity.

But that was because your King Air training was conducted by a commercial contractor, to ATP PTS standards, with a check airman on board, no? Or did the FAA ride along on your MC-12 INIT check?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't AFPAK HANDS a post IDE thing for career broadening? How would a '06 guy get hit with something like this when he hasn't even pinned on yet? For people interested in foreign area officer jobs post military this could be a good resume builder, but who in their right mind would want to dedicate themselves to learning, living, and loving those two countries?