guineapigfury

Well played.

The goal should be 3 weeks so that aircrew don't automatically go noncurrent.

The real savings aren't in turning Os into Es, but Es into Civs on the support side. All those finance and MSG airmen who can accomplish 100% of their tasks from a computer: turn em into GS-whatevers. 30 years to retirement is perfectly reasonable for clerks, and we can stop paying for GI Bill, TA, PCS costs, etc. As an added bonus, you'll reduce turnover and thus make them more efficient since they'll just repeat the same tasks for a couple decades in a row. Also, if they aren't in uniform I bet we'll find a way to leave them at home for the next fight, saving on deployment costs.

I went through UPT at Vance in 07-08, and we did have some AFSOC guy come give us a brief about U-28s. One time thing as far as I know, but an effort was made. However, word quickly filtered back that the mission was significantly less awesome than briefed. I don't know if that was true or not, but RUMINT and stories from their IPs is all most UPT students have prior to assignment night. There were no U-28 pilots among the IPs so RUMINT was all we had.

I think we've done this before.

Touche.

You'd have grievous morale issues because the O would be "stealing their shot". Also, I call the CAOC frequently, and I've yet to be impressed.

I bet his cellmate will take care of it at no expense to the taxpayer.

I feel bad for you guys joining these days. Letting people sign a 10 year contract, then leaving them unemployed for 6 months is unconscionable. However, you have just learned an important lesson in how the AF treats people. If you're ever in a position to change this sort of bullshit, do it. I hope you find health insurance for you and your wife. Good luck at UPT.

The other side of the coin is that otherwise good dudes start to go off track once they get sold down the river to RPAs. It's a constant struggle to not give in to apathy in the RPA business. Things guys would never do out of concern for their career (on and off duty) gradually become acceptable risks because that future career looks blighted and the only rank you aspire to be promoted to is "Mr".

At OAKN, most guys just buy 1 for 20 dollars on the boardwalk.

Three cheers for the parachute shop!

Sadly, this needs to be taken into consideration.

I saw people wash out of ASBC, stupidity has no floor other than rock bottom.

I currently work with a few of these, and the difference there is that the standard is retiring as a Captain and they will let their pilots focus solely on flying if that's what they want.

That's the one I was thinking of. Thanks for helping the new guys, my life would have been much easier if someone had done the same thing for me.

I suspect he uses multiples in a particular game and gives them away as mementos to who he played with. Sort of like how a president will use multiple pens to sign an important piece of legislation, then distribute them to people who were involved in passing that legislation. Or they might be dodgeballs to be used in a game between the POTUS Allstars vs Average Joes, televised on ESPN8 ... the Ocho.

This is a retention issue, not a fairness one. The military encourages you to get married. Guys get married. Now that they have the added responsibilites that come with a wife and kids they are less likely to leave the service for the unknown of the civilian world. Now the military gets to pick who it wants to keep rather than being to stuck with those who stay. Crafty.

Let me guess, they sent an email to your old email address after you PCSed. I've had that one happen. The talent level in most Finance shops is too low to handle the level of power they have. No money should ever be deducted from a servicemember's paycheck without the member's consent or Squadron Commander's approval. Your Squadron CC, not the Finance CC. Zero dollar fix that could be implemented tomorrow.

Students sharing lodging on cross countries was the standard when I went through UPT in 2007-2008. Be glad that there is still TDY at all and that they aren't issuing you MREs instead of paying you per diem. You sometimes share rooms on real world TDYs, so I don't see what the big deal is. Also, if students are whining about this, they need to have their attitudes recalibrated.

C130 Driver, sounds like you'll be fine. Chairfly, study, and MAKE SURE YOU GET ENOUGH SLEEP. Chairfly means sitting in a chair and going through the entire sorty. Say every radio call, get one of those giant T-6 cockpit printouts and touch every switch at the right point in the checklist. When you get to a maneuver whether it be a loop or pulling closed in the pattern, recite the parameters to yourself. Study: Know the boldface and ops limits cold before you start academics and you'll be ahead of the game. Once you get that giant stack of pubs, put together the In Flight Guide and then memorize the VFR pattern for both runways and the auxiliary airfield. The first part of your training is very landing pattern centered. I forget the title of the pub, but there is one with all the parameters for everything and techniques as well. This book is your friend. Always take notes during debrief. It shows respect to the IP, and white paper remembers better than gray matter (especially after your second event of the day). It always shocked me to see guys sitting there in front of the desk with nothing to write on. You'll learn less and look like a jackass, so don't be that guy. According to our base historian, the washout rate for UPT has held steady at around 6%. My class of about 30 lost 3, which was a little high. 1 Medical DQ not related to flying and 1 each in T-6s and T-1s for not being able to land the airplane. So stay in that top 94% and you'll probably be fine. Good luck.

If someone has info on this that's better than RUMINT, I hope they're passing it to the appropriate authorities. I think watching a few guys with chickens or stars on their shoulders PCS to Leavenworth while incurring a 20 year ADSC would set a useful example to their peers.

I had a sim instructor at Vance who crawled away from one.

There are probably several male tambourine players, flautists and jazz dancers stampeding, or at least sashaying rapidly, in your general direction leaving behind them only a Roadrunner style cartoon dust cloud and tell-tale trail of sequins. Be careful what you wish for, even if it is legal now.

Good. Servicemembers should get that sort of stuff from the internet, like normal people.