Jump to content

hindsight2020

Supreme User
  • Posts

    1,000
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    21

Everything posted by hindsight2020

  1. Why would you of all people ever bother posting in the ATP thread, ya closet airline wannabe :D /tc
  2. It's not that sweet when you consider he probably doesn't get to accrue longevity while on furlough. I don't know the contract though but that's the standard. So, longevity at 18mo a whole 13 years later, while the cat is actively trying to stay attached to the tit past 28 years of blue flavor? my guess is he doesn't care much for the UAL number... The one thing that's sweet is that someone managed to stay on USERRA-exempt orders for that long a stretch. Well played sir, well played. We had one dude get an AD retirement as a trougher, 9 extra years of piece-meal orders since they (obviously) weren't gonna let him go AGR....and he managed to keep his number at AA through the whole thing. Hate the game not the playa' kinda thing.
  3. I stopped paying attention to Liquid's quitter-hate a while ago. I can only imagine the conniption he'd have regarding an expanding Air Force Reserve structure (per the congressional report 6 months ago) in the present active duty drawdown. You know, that organization of selfish quitters who vote with their feet every day with disgusting values such as homesteading, rejection of qweep, unapologetic preference of flying over any other duty as a prerequisite for deciding to show up at all, getting a second paycheck which is less important than their civilian one, and lastly, a community of politically incorrect brotherhood built upon relative lack of turnover, which makes active duty look like a bunch of fucking 3-level equivalent JCPenney cashiers on their second week on the job. Yeah buddy, guys like him probably couldn't tell a Reservist from the Taliban judging by the traits he values. The people he decries as the problem are literally the preponderance of my recruits. And here's the sweet irony: Active Duty turns around and puts us in positions of flying support under the premise of higher aggregate experience retention we bring to the table.
  4. Is that what 4 July stood for? And here this whole time I thought it was mattress sales and getting killed by drunk drivers. At any rate, the only nationalistic holiday I've seen celebrated around my pork belly duty station has been on 5 May if you catch my drift.... :D /stirpot Happy Independence Day everybody. 'Murica... We may suck ass at futból, but we can still FUCK YOU UP.
  5. Well, gee....You think your present sense of a good deal might just not be permanent? You shot your own argument ^^^ You beat me to the post. Exactly my sentiments. I'd love what I was doing too if I got to do what I wanted. Alas, there are such things as getting buffed/tami'd/alo'd. I'm not gonna be a hypocrite and go all kool-aid and say I love my fighter and everybody oughtta love their lot in life too because I got to fly my dream airplane, today. Life is indeed a moving target. And that's alright. That's the real value of the civilian job. The option to quit when it no longer makes sense in otherwise the same sea of managerial apathy and disregard for your contributions, as an individual with an above average measure of work ethic.
  6. 1. You will change your mind. It's a mere function of time and life stage. Don't fret it. The young ones want to fly helos these days after MWS day out of UPT because they don't want to get "stuck in an airframe that doesn't see action". Nothing has changed much in that regard from 50 years ago. The crusty majors and above roll their eyes and welcome a family-friendly PCS duty location, or conversely 7-day opt in order to save their families in the absence of one. The two archetypes were the same person at one moment in time, bear in mind. You will be no different unless you opt out of a family, which is perfectly fine too. 2. You're misunderstanding the exodus. Just like the retirement of the baby boomers, job replacement will not occur on a one for one basis. The jobs are GOING AWAY. The 11F shortage is an 11F head count (sts) shortage for 11F coded staff jobs, NOT an 11F cockpit shortage (i.e. false advertisement). Ergo, there is NO net vacating spot for you to jump into. You're competing for less jobs, which makes your desires MORE competitive. It's not impossible, but watching all this experience leave is not leaving you with more opportunity merely because you feel willing to go where the ones before you are running away from. Understand this difference for your own sake. It will lessen the disappointment. 3. You'll quickly come to chastise your own statement. I know you're being flippant, but you really have no concept of how old queep gets. It is fundamentally defining in the career of a flying officer, that his flying duties, in paper listed as primary duties, are in effect tertiary duties after he pins on O-3. You will not escape that (there is no WO program in the AF). The closest you will get to attain such an outcome is to be a Guard/Reservist and deal with just getting to do it on a part-time basis (even full time reserve guys are being fired too, for your SA). Understand what this means. This means they'll pay you to not get to do what you're willing to sell your soul for in order to get to do in the first place. You will reject that construct in due time, like most of those before you, and again come to chastise your own words. Look, none of this has to be accompanied by a moral adjudication either. Some kool-aid drinkers could say airline_guy is a shitbag for having such an openly disdainful attitude (by proxy) for which he took an officer oath that had nothing to do with flying airplanes. Others (myself included) would view such means to an end as an admittedly apathetic but par for the course answer in an organization that's bigger than the kool aid drinker, myself or airline_guy's, and certainly an organization who doesn't care one flying fuck about me, airline_guy or even the kool-aid drinker. The only truth I know is to keep doing something until it stops making sense or you get fired. Words I live by and it's kept me sane. What makes you a SNAP is not that you think you're willing to do things others are not (you're not btw), what makes you a SNAP is that you foresee yourself as immune from these dynamics by simpleton attitude. You're not immune and you will find out. Whether that transition is a fluid one or a life-embittering one largely depends on how much common wisdom and free internet advice you're willing to accept or dismiss today. Good luck to you either way and thank you for your service.
  7. How's the EMS job market for rotorheads? I hear the pay is crappy coming down from the govt teet. Otherwise I'd think that kind of work would have a high level of job satisfaction (again if it wasn't for the pay). Offshore-shuttling people I hear pays bueno, with accompanying roughneck 14 on 14 off schedules. It's probably a more lasting job than EMS outfits though. No queep. Yep, we all wish.
  8. Exactly. You played the hand the same way I would have.Early bird gets the worm, and a preemptive PC application worked in this case. By the time these guys get around to submitting their plan B PC application all they'll have in the matrix is a big red middle finger. Game's Chess, it ain't checkers.
  9. biggest UPT mistake? Not dumping my girlfriend (ex wife now) before going...Now all the graduation pictures are ruined for me. She wasn't even hot, god damn it.
  10. Well I don't know Bob, how much do you make currently? If you're currently active duty and an O-4 or higher, then not. even. close. For your SA the GS-12 step 1 gig without SSR or special locality pay (i.e. just the basic locality pay of 15%) is basically a 68K job, of which 100% of it is taxable. A TR gig assuming min running (48 UTA 48 TP and 15 AT) for an O-3 is around 25K gross. So 93K gross where pretty much all of it except the portion of AT that is BAH (and type II at that) is taxable. Also remember that thanks to those asshole "raise the ladder below me" baby boomers, the pension contribution as a GS went up to 4.4% of your check versus the previous 0.8% for the same retirement benefit. Oh and as a GS you are disqualified from enrolling in TRS (Tricare reserve select) instead being opted for FEHB, which offers more expensive civilian plans that cover less. Yeah buddy. bottom line? AD junior O-3 takes home more than you and a junior O-3 doesn't gross anywhere near 95K. It's an ok living, aside from living in UPT locations, but it's at least a 15-20K/yr paycut from active duty money when accounting for taxable differences. O-4 and above delta? it's off the charts. WTF would you want to do such a despondent thing as a young person though? That's the one question I have for you. I'll give you this, it's an easy transition gig to attain as someone just separating/getting kicked out while in his/her white jet tour, but it's something that's not particularly desirable or sought after amongst young people who feel they have options. The opportunity cost of homesteading in a upt locale as a civilian/TR is just horrendous for QOL, for the majority of people. At least in AD they parole you after 4. I'm the last guy looking for an airline job right now, but if simming as a civilian in DelEnimbus was my only alternative, I'd be chasing airline dreams so hard it'd make my wife's head spin. Actually, I know what I'd be doing, because I was doing it 5 years ago...Straight up troughing with no civilian job. It's not as much money as sim/tr combo but at least I don't want to gouge my eyeballs out for 8 hours everyday. The obvious upside is of course, colocated civilian and mil gigs, which can only otherwise be attained if you were an ART or a defense contractor whose contract happens to be colocated in your TR base. The other upside is that the job is monkey stupid easy, but it is boring and in equally crappy location. No way I'd stick my family in these crapholes for straight GS-12 money. That's me though. Sim jobs are decent for retirement money. For family raising or "prospering as a 30-something" money, you'd be leaving a lot of income and QOL on the table by pursuing such a thing. But hey, your life.Good luck to you.
  11. It depends on what you want to do post-retirement. An airline seniority number now plus a TR gig is a much better affair for QOL than attempting to start the junior airline drudgery in your late 40s. Plus considering the eventual hiring uptick, it'll be much better for pay and furlough protection to start now rather than 10 years later. You also have a TR gig to protect your turbine currency and source of income while going through the lean years at the airline. Not so with the AGR, though you will have a retirement check, which saves your bacon but doesn't keep you in the air. Now, if airlines are not your cup o tea, then yeah, AGR beats the hell out of most civilian employment, most particularly ART. Actually, for people who value living in their "good ol town" more than what they do for a living, the ART becomes desirable. They get to stay employed in the same "good ol town" until civilian MRA whereas a retiring AGR could feasibly be economically forced to look for a second career away from the Guard/Res hometown in order to retain income parity (most Guard/Res locations are not in cosmopolitan locations with competitive civilian jobs). ART is an outright paycut from AGR and I'd never resort to such insular life views, but to each their own. It's also interesting to note that there's a TON of AGRs right now jumping ship back to the airlines or as they get class dates; rolling the dice on getting the man to curtail them. So clearly there's plenty of people who don't think uncle Sam's tit is the bee's knees. BTW I'm AGR too. The devil really is in the details.
  12. As a reserve baby, hell NO, I would never give up a good civilian job to go active duty. To each their own.
  13. A-fuckin'men. Remember boys, this is Shawshank: We're allll innocent here ;)
  14. Rare is immaterial. Competitive. Not a difference without distinction either, if you're getting close to 30 years of age.
  15. FIGMO! Congrats dude. Enjoy the check. Now make these next 4 years count! We do kindly ask you don't chuck your office chair out the SQ/CC window, the next peon will need it. :D
  16. I thought Jodie would do that for you in any event....common courtesy and shit.
  17. Yeah, one my greater disillusionments with my Air Force "career" is the engrained airframe stovepiping handed down upon you on drop night. It's like fucking AIDS, one bad night and you're fucked for life. I figure it would do a lot for people's retention if you could experience a lot more airframe mobility in one's career. I about got cured from flying for the military altogether after 4 years of BUFFoonery; that airplane/mission put me to sleep. If it wasn't for the trainer I'm flying now I'd probably would have quit. Once they baptize you with an AFSC and you want to fly something else people act like you're asking for a goddamn Constitutional Amendment. I hear the Navy is a little better in this regard, but have no concrete proof of it. Special flying programs would be cool too. Catching the 3 wire on a carrier would be a sweet entry on the ol logbook. I know, it's not supposed to be Burger King. But 10 years of the same 3 day-old microwaved Whopper Jr. you didn't order would make anyone crazy though. LOL
  18. There's no fighter pilot shortage, never will. There's plenty of qualified heavy drivers who simply didn't get a shot (timing and luck). In the Navy this isn't blasphemy, in the Air Force it is. Who knows the fuck why.
  19. ..and better schools and dining and entertainment and access to medical services and airports and...well you get the point. I'd triple turn with a smile on my face in order to provide my family with that leg-up.
  20. holy goddamn revival batman. Yeah brother, IPs have always been GS-13 with a Special salary table that puts GS-12s (ACs) and GS-13s (IPs) at 30% bump of base salary, in lieu of locality pay. Locality pay in the common AF shithole locations is your standard national non-high-COL rate of 15% of base salary. So in essence, for shithole non-high-COL locations, a GS-13 pilot instructor is getting a 15% bump in salary (30%= 15% above the standard 15% he/she would otherwise get with locality pay) versus a straight GS civil servant whose occupational series does not qualify him for the special salary table. ....Color coded speak, since I know you knuckle draggin pilot types do math hard: You're getting paid less than an AGR, taxed at a higher rate, working longer every day for the same money and getting a crappier retirement. But if you don't want to do the airlines, it's better than fry cook or starting over at a college graduate salary in your 40s with a kid and a fat wife who lost her money maker a decade ago. Come to think of it. I thought you were an ART? Shouldn't you know this shit already?
  21. Squadron bro of mine is in process of switching from AF Reserve T-6s to Navy SELRES T-6Bs, but he's going to Corpus, not P-cola. Same deal though, much better town QOL wise and the aforementioned Navy flying/training culture. #winning. It helped him he was already current/qualified in the T-6 and thus the B model "qual course" is literally doing a couple of rides in the B and a NATOPS check. None of the formalized AF faggotry known as PIT, to be sure. The Navy has their money problems to be sure, and I've heard some bullshit about Navy Reserves (Marines) doing individual involuntary mobilizations (fuck that shit), but all in all you can't beat some of the Navy locations.
  22. Nope. It's the basic tenet of a culture that doesn't view the volunteer's desire to 1) exclusively pursue their primary duty, and 2)to do so in the company of peers who feel the same way in a traditional-cultural politically incorrect social environment of brotherhood-in-arms in such pejorative light. The rest of the cultural differences that distinguish the QOL between AD and the ARC are but mere corollaries of that basic principle. ADCON is the legal measure that allows the ARC component to get away with it. Remove that, and the culture is quickly usurped by Active Duty. The problem with the latter is that since there is no formalized economic incentive to tolerate an antagonistic culture in the Reserves (the incentive is mainly cultural) like there is in the Active Duty, the proposition of retaining quality personnel on a formula of Active duty life with Reserve pay is an immediate non-starter. Active Duty arrogantly assumes that the ARC will be there in its present capacity even in the presence of their cultural takeover. They base all their economies of scale regarding expanded reservist numbers base and participation on the assumption of such supposed inelasticity. They are of course, fatally wrong. They don't care of course, as AD is a virus, spreading and infecting cancer into healthy organisms, until there's nothing left. People in the Reserves are largely folks with options, generally unafraid to combine civilian employment exigencies into their military voluntary service. They are generally not a group of people to find themselves economically bound/dependent to the shit sandwiches of a dismissive and ungrateful military employer. They get enough of that as civilians to know better than to pigeonholes themselves that way. It may seem like hyperbole to an Active Duty koolaid drinker, to witness a Reservist quit over cultural issues, but he would be wrong. It isn't hyperbole, it's the reason said Reservist probably left Active duty for Reserve life in the first place. Many have, and many will if these changes come to pass. The remainder will be an inexperienced hollow force of young guys who resemble AD in every way except they don't get paid like Active Duty. This of course, will never materialize. Even young people without experience to leverage, can count with their fingers. You want to change the paradigm? Flip the culture over. Make Active Duty a place where flying your ass off and going home without people fucking with you in garrison, is not viewed pejoratively. A place where the few who will end up at the top do the practice bleeding. That will never happen of course, this place jumped the shark a long ass time ago. Contrary to popular belief, money's got dick to do with it. Most independently wealthy individuals I've met in my professional and academic life, have in fact been Reservists. Active Duty is clueless.
  23. Dude. This report is bad. There's some huge game-changing nuggets in there for those who care about life after Active Duty service... Page 32: Recommendation to DISESTABLISH the Air Force Reserve Command, along with disbanding ARC numbered AFs, wings and squadrons. Um, WTFO? You've GOT to be shitting me. Then they go in great detail about the establishment of these so called i-Wings. If you care about divesting yourself from Active Duty stupidity in your attempt at flying military jets for a living, iWings is the last thing you want to work under. It's a complex spider-web of memorandums of agreement/understanding (MOA/MOU) that keeps this teeter-totter from flipping over in the current form, but I'll stick to the punchline. Here's the important thing you AD bubbas need to grasp about your own perception of QOL in the Reserves in the context of this report: It all hinges on a little known word called ADCON. ADCON is what allows those "corner-cutting Reservists" your leadership winces at, the ability to say "NO" to the bullshit while continuing to fly Air Force jets for a paycut. ADCON is what allows Reservists to protect their flying and personnel records when Active Duty Commanders wish to railroad individuals merely because they control the iron on the ramp and reservists don't toe the line. ADCON is the kevlar behind the MAJCOM velcro patch Reservists wear every day. It is not surprising the AF wishes to disband that MAJCOM entirely. ADCON (not to be confused with OPCON) is what this report repeatedly slams as the source of inefficiency within the current landscape of component associations, commonly known as Total Force Integration/Enterprise (TFI/TFE). For the uninitiated, these are your.. 1) Active Associates (Reserve leadership, iron and work rules, Active duty rent-a-bodies; aka a good deal) 2) Classic Associates (Active duty leadership, iron and work rules, Reserve rent-a-bodies; aka a bad deal) and 3) Guard Associates (Guard and AFRC leadership, iron and work rules; aka the best deal going, short of stand alone Guard or Reserve units). The report seeks to recommend stripping the AFRC from exercising ADCON by disbanding the command, leaving that responsibility fully within the spectrum of Active Duty Commanders. FUCK. THAT. SHIT. Understand what this means: Active Duty life for a part-time paycheck. Forget QOL, forget good flying assignments. Forget reprieve from Active duty qweep. The iWing is the full and ultimate takeover of Reserve discretion. Honestly, if that is to come to fruition, you don't really want to stick around the military. At that point you either fight to get your pension check in Active Duty and suck that buffalo a nickle a herd if you can stomach it, or you make a clean break for the airlines or civilian life. Because I tell you this much, active duty life for a reserve paycheck is something that's NOT gonna gain any traction with the financially literate, the talented and educated; i.e. those with options. You don't want to stick around the rejects that will sand-crab their way into tenures in this newly formed expanded active-duty controlled "associate" abortion. Holy shit I can't believe that report is real. Beginning of the end folks, if these recommendations come to pass. Baby boomers lucked out. Mother fuckers are shutting it all down with their own retirements and departure from military and civil service. Born 20 years too late....Fuck. Oh well, it was a good run. I'd count myself lucky if I can finish my watered down retirement under FERS licking stamps at the post office. Good thing I'm putting the wife through nursing school, we're gonna need that income.
×
×
  • Create New...