Chuck17

PM or give a hint on your airframe. There are other ways, they may not be pretty/easy/conventional but they exist… and I may know a guy… Chuck

Yikes. “How are we supposed to train with all these monthly training meetings!? The nerve!” Chuck

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/03/22/army-4-star-who-pressured-panel-help-career-of-unfit-officer-suspended-facing-pentagon-investigation.html?amp The Army has their own way of doing things, that’s for sure… Chuck

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-charleston-fired/ A couple of 628ABW kills at CHS with the standard reasoning… What was bad enough to take out SEL, Sq/CC, Grp/CC?! Chuck

Ugh - Barno. He's in the same book with Bobby Farley... Tell me you're a two dimensional thinking ground pounding outta depth rube without telling me. Nevermind, it's in the title of the article. There is no such thing as "air littorals" - that'sa made up subdivision nonsense term used by those incapable of thinking over the next hill, and used to justify imaginary lines of control ON THE GROUND on some map. There's just "air"... Thats the whole point of the USAF. F-35's countering drones? WTF dude. While everyone is scrambling to try and counter the drone threat, I'd offer if there's one service that's not ready to counter drone warfare, its the crunchies on the ground. Not the ADA guys mind you, but the infantry platoons that will be at the pointy-home-built-drone-end of the spear... Don't waste your time -- Schools love touting their retired three stars, whether they are capable of rigorous objective unbiased thought or not. Chuck

Standing by for another round of O6 command selection in which no less than a half-dozen-newly-selected wing commanders and vice wing commanders will by mystified (and somehow pissed) that they popped for a UPT O6 command because they were FAIPs once. Happens every time (somehow)... Chuck

11X colonels are also manned at just over 90%, so this isn't a huge shock, really. 12X are +120%. That said, I watched 13x O6 selects that I know personally bow out and retire over the last 18 months, some prior to but most just after just after pin on. There were barely 300 selects on my board - and I don't know that many people! So long as airline hiring continues, folks will walk away for a line number - its just a reality. More will go at the 24 year mark - for a variety of reasons, mostly because they hit TIG - leaving fewer choices for Wing Command and General Officer... Quite a difference from 10-ish years ago. Chuck

The way of the future. Dont be shocked when AFSOC somehow gets nutrolled into this sacred cow slaughter... LOTS of folks will be running for the exits. OBTW, they've also realized that the USAF isn't only made up of "service-retained" assets, so the wunderkind working on this one still have a big question mark on some of those platforms and communities. It's a mess but the good thing is the homework is due in January, so Im sure it'll be fully baked by then (s). Im sure it'll be fine. Chuck

https://www.expeditionarycenter.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/438550/621st-contingency-response-wing/ The 621st MSOS is comprised of Air Mobility Liaison Officers (AMLO) and Expeditionary Air Ground Liaison Elements (EAGLE) who provide air mobility expertise to Army/Marine/Special Operations units at the Regiment, Division and Corps levels. Dispersed across 20 locations and 16 time zones, AMLOs of the 621st MSOS are fully embedded with their aligned joint units to support any exercise, deployment or contingency. AMLO operating locations include: Joint Base MDL, New Jersey; Fort Drum, New York; Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Fort Stewart and Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Campbell; Fort Carson, Colorado; Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; Camp Pendleton, California; Fort Hood, Fort Bliss, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Grafenwohr and Wiesbaden, Germany; Vicenza, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Republic of Korea.

I pin on next week. In the 2022 YG, they promoted 307 LAF-A’s, still the largest AFSC group… and I know a solid bakers dozen 11X’s personally that are walking or have walked away right as they pinned on or just prior. And I don’t know that many people! As has been said, stay or go, make the choice for YOU. I chose to stay because my wife is still in (ANG), we’ve got young kids who are flexible, my folks are in good health, and there’s command opportunity and the chance to maybe fly again - and I have no desire to be an airline pilot. But I tell you, I’ve never in my time thought about being done as much as I have in the last two years. Don’t make a snap decision, but be ready for anything. And if you stay, you’ll be surprised at the opportunity/responsibility thrown your way. 24 years (post group command) is the real cliff in old guy retention… So long as you make the right choice for you and your family, you can’t go wrong. Chuck

Lots of traffic in the W-areas off NC Coast all of a sudden… Chuck

I think this is a bit of an oversimplification of the issue. Operations of any large bureaucracy - particularly those that don’t work for profit - are remarkably similar in their shifting-wind policies and tolerance of ridiculousness, inefficiency, etc. But again, this shift is no surprise to anyone who’s watched things change over the last 20 years. If you’re caught in the middle, it sucks. Maybe this change is the last change. Maybe the long safe play is to just get one. I dunno. I copy on voting with your feet/not taking the bonus/not staying/etc. The USAF hasn’t demonstrated it’s serious about retaining pilots yet IMHO. Having seen the impacts of things like this at both the squadron and the staff levels, I’ll tell you each camp is convinced they’re in the right (that there’s a crisis/that there’s no crisis in retention)… Which contributes to fluctuating policies such as masters degrees… I was part of the “gotta have a masters or you won’t get promoted” cohort in the early 2000s. Got the first one via sacrifice of weekends to AMU in 2011. Enjoyed it for the most part but it was a time suck, even for a book nerd like me. Got sent to IDE and got another (had the opportunity to write about something of high interest, ended up publishing…) Got picked up for ASG and got another. Got picked up for SDE and got another. …. But what’s one do with four masters degrees? Retire and write? TBD. I appreciate the opportunity, but can’t argue in good faith that it’s an experience everyone should have. Chuck

Anyone who is surprised or feels betrayed by this development hasn’t been paying attention. Sorry gents, as soon as they rolled out the “masking” umpty years ago there were plenty of old heads who said not to trust that things wouldn’t change once again. The USAF is fickle. It’s not a shock. Do your school. Or don’t. It’ll work out either way. The USAF payed for FOUR - count’em - 4x masters degrees for me. I (still) only need one, and even that is arguable. YMMV. Chuck

Referencing who - specifically - here? Wing leadership? GOs? Staff Colonels? Just curious. It’s fair to say the messaging on this one has been low-key to borderline insufficient. PA was held back after the initial knee jerk “wtf” on the interwebs. But the fantastic (as in “bizarre”) suspecting on the commands motivations for this being made in the bozo-verse of retired grey-beards and airline bros is really wild. Ten years ago they told us - then demo’d - C-17s flying (essentially) fingertip across the ocean to save on gas… Ten years before that there were barely any crews outside of AFSOC qualled on NVGs… Some advances materialize, some are just demos… Eat some fiber and enjoy the show. To your other point - the USAF has its head so far in the sand re: pilot shortages it’s staggering. I’ve sat on both sides of this debate, but the shortages aren’t going away and no, it isn’t getting any better. Time to act on - not study (again…) - the problem. But that has nothing - zero - to do with this demo in the 46. Chuck

Everytime Im about to quit this site because I think Im old/out of touch a thread like this comes along and Baseops TOTALLY REDEEMS ITSELF.... This files nicely alongside the "I almost served..." stories I've heard... Good for a laugh. Chuck

Not to worry - the (checks notes...) AMC Commander's got the read on what the actual operational personnel in the service consider "the mission" ... (I think this is a great turn of messaging for the command by the way) https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3167080/win-or-die-amc-commander-presents-mobility-manifesto/ "The world turned upside down..." Chuck

I think it says something HUGE that he was picked for the AMC/CC job. That guy was ready to retire and surf in Hawaii... What's more: show me one of the last half-dozen AMC/CC's who could muster combat-oriented USAF mobility vision that guy's been able to illuminate in the last year. Few could, or (in some cases) would. For too long AMC leadership's been coasting along on the backs of mobility airmen with a "You know the great thing about the MAF is you dont have to do anything or change anything" attitude...(an actual quote from an actual now-retired 4-star AMC/CC).... Because the airmen and the jets always perform. Maybe Mini wasnt the first of his kind, but he was brought in because he thinks different - and different is good. It highlights the need for deliberate development at every level, all the way to the top. For far too long there's been a "Build-a-General" program in the MAF that's tried to make everyone broad - minimally experienced in a lot of things - namely to make A1's job easier putting people in places (an actual quote from a former A1KB chief). Expertise? Didnt matter. "We need generalists!" Tripe. Non-thinking lazy personnel program garbage... Moreso, it's the complete opposite of the way the rest of the USAF works. When I see my CAF peers knowing who is going to replace them, and who's going to replace THEM, and what weapons system they came from - and compare it to the "next up" way we've been picking MAF leadership, it's staggering. That said, retention also plays a huge part, I get that - not everyone that we'd like to see stay decides to do so. But times are changing... I'm not saying scrap what we do and copy the CAF, but I am saying we've been off track, and are correcting back to centerline. I know there are good people and programs doing just that - we've still got a ways to go. Chuck

Meh I don’t give the air staff so much credit… Chuck

Gotta be some kinda record for the system… seems like this board just got done like what mid-March? Three and a half months is wicked fast. Hope they keep that standard going. Waiting sucks. Chuck

This and this! I think we managed to salvage this exchange by arriving at almost the same point from two years apart… In the end, the directed COA… I give it a 8/10, would argue with CH again. Chuck

And yet, I never said I did. Dude - We’ve done exactly what they set out to do two years ago, in the manner that the confluence of factors showed was the most likely path TWO YEARS AGO. Acknowledge allllllllll the additional everything that’s transpired since. My original post, which you for whatever reason called inaccurate/false, stated plainly near the exact goddamn list of factors in this decision the A3 and CSAF said - verbatim. No doubt they’re viable alternatives. No doubt there’s better performance. Every doubt existed then as now in the ability of the service to turn it quickly. I’m not in that business any longer so you’ve got the ups on me for analysis of alternatives. Then again I never said I knew what happened last week either! Chuck

That’s cool - I was in the room when it was talked through bruh, and that was going on two years ago… But go on and “old guy knows better” the shit outta this one for us. Chuck

This decision is a confluence... 1. There's a need. 2. There's a need for something relatively/comparatively quick/cheap. 3. There's a CSAF that had plenty of time/experience in RAAF Wedgetails when he was the PACAF/CC. 4. There's a COMACC who sees it the same as the CSAF. This is the directed COA, because anything else will take too long to PPBE/AOA/Acquire/Build/Test. It's not cosmic. It's not nefarious. It's the only choice we really have when considering the other Clydesdales in the stable sucking up all the funding at the same time... B-21, NGAD, GBSD, KC-46/F-35... to say nothing of the fact that we have zero C-5M/C-17 replacement airlifters in the development process, so it'll be another 30 years before the Galaxy/Globemaster replacements hit the ramp... Considering the whole picture, getting the Wedgetail is a win. Chuck

Official release is 11 April, but AFPC sent it out to the MPFs already.... PSDM # is 22-30. Shoot me a govt email and I'll forward (FOUO). Chuck

Ha yeah no kidding - things changed in the six months since I made that comment, so, good point... I guess I had too much focus on the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the historical evidence of reduced defense budgets under democratic leadership... Chuck