hindsight2020
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Posts posted by hindsight2020
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So what is it that's keeping the Guard such a "good deal"? The State funds keeping the AD mentality out or something else?
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.
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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.
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when bases close? If in one-trick pony towns then yeah, might as well mail the keys to the bank. It's called the music stops without a musical chair. This is not just a dynamic seen during military closings, when energy sector tanks, these remote locales lose population overnight and the local housing market crashes.
I'd never get caught dead owning property in places like Clovis NM. If I couldn't find rentals, I'd just set up the family in the proverbial Lubbock and geo-bash. Seriously.
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So no shit, I'm putting together some thoughts for an upcoming graduation speech at UPT. Didn't volunteer for the opportunity, was asked and agreed. What advice would you give to the 2nd Lts earning their wings in the next few months? Keep it clean, constructive and not too sarcastic. They haven't earned the right to be cynical yet. And their moms and fiancés will be there.
Take care of each other, deployed or in garrison. Take advantage of every flying opportunity afforded to you. Like my old squadron commander told me when I asked him as a young CGO what participation he wanted out of me in the office: "Son, I want you to fly fly FLY!". Min run the qweep. Understand you're already doing more for the Country than 90% do. Take control of your training. And lastly, have a plan-B always in hand because in the end timing and luck takes care the rest, assignments and retention included. Take chances, don't look back.These are the best years of your life.
That's what I would say. Bonus points if you can keep yourself from uttering some bullshit about the one-way Core Values senior leadership is guilty of pandering with.
Good luck with the firings, Bob.
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It really blows my mind that so many actually do take the bonus.
Honestly? That's easy.
i) They live way the fuck above their means (their wives demand it).
ii) They were gonna attempt to stay in anyways (and don't kid yourself, that's a mere corollary of i ).
Over at the other airline forum there's a couple of retired mobility O-5 bitching about not being able to make ends meet on retired mil pay and regional FO pay. One went so far to admit he needed an additional 5K above his retired pay (4K) in order to make black for his particular family situation. 9K to cover the expenditures column of the ledger, every month. LOL. You tell me why people take such a piddly bonus to lose all control.
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I know at least one retired O-5 who did better than his friend that retired as an O-6. I plan to talk to that O-5(ret) during my exit strategy development. As he said, he's making "silly money." He also said, given what he makes he has no question as to why defense programs cost so much these days. Yes, I'm a hypocrite.
Don't worry. We're all rent seekers in this life...
/cynic
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Let me make it easy for these congresscritters. Listen real good Congress, I'll go slow: I ain't doing any of this shit for a 401k and I ain't doing any of this shit for a benefit payout a day later than the day I stop doing the job, right ricky tick. Comprende? I'll curtail/torpedo my PT test twice the next day. I have options and my identity is not married to this uniform. Plan accordingly.
Signed,
~A financially literate servicemember who can count with his fingers.
It's not rocket surgery, Congress. Good for the goose good for the gander, color-by-numbers type of shit. And good luck recruiting my son. See how that works?
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Not saying the Sq/CC above was not clueless..she was. However, this is a much bigger issue than a handful of crappy subordinate commanders at the ICBM wings...
Clearly, the foundation in nukes is corroded and in need of redefinition.
K
Dismantle the Triad. Remove the bombers, downsize the silos. Subs are a go.
Done. 6900 less people on PRP, the morale of entire cities just went up by orders of magnitude. Next....
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Judging by all the fielded calls we're handled these past two weeks asking about Reserve employment, I'm convinced you fuckers are gonna crash MyPers when that window opens up. Gonna make the healtcare.gov website look like Fiber Optic Broadband by comparison. Welcome back to 1992 everybody.
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You said it brother. As small a community as we are in the grand scheme of things, your best bet is just to call around the units. I'm sure they're somewhat spun up on the happenings of your specific airframe and are probably targeting certain individuals for TR billets. I'm not really sure how that formal program works but I sincerely doubt it would facilitate the overbilleting you seek in order to get hired in the unit that you happen to want. I'm afraid it always comes down to good ol networking. Keep knocking on doors, someone's bound to hire ya. I'm surprised your leadership is letting you guys flail like that. I would expect a lot of referrals to be coming out of you guys commander's office. Good luck.
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This thread is not gonna help our case in Congress fellas....and they read this site apparently...
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Ha, that cat has been out of bag for years...as evidenced by the high amount of AD guys rushing the squadron wanting an AGR job.
That certainly a change during my tenure. When I was a FNG civilian outsider the proposition of anyone AD rolling into an AGR without doing a solid stint as a TR first would get them laughed out the building. I suppose those dynamics would always be normalcy for a unit that has trouble keeping folks around (for another thread)...
I know all too well things are changing, but is this a Reserve thing? I have yet to hear any rumblings about needing a masters or in-residence (unless you want to go places...stars). My post should have just said no in-residence at all. I think the last guy we sent in-res was in 2004 and that's because he wanted the orders, and he did not do SOS in correspondence prior to going. If they want the full timers to get a masters they had better start providing some Tuition Assistance. You can forget it as far as part timers are concerned.
I haven't looked into it since I happened to be Master's complete before I ever joined the military in any capacity (trust me, getting that master's had NOTHING to do with military promotability, that was one random happenstance) but I think AGRs get TA. ARTs I don't think do, but ARTs get promoted like TRs, for that is what they fundamentally are on the mil side of their billet. Meaning they probably don't need it versus AGRs.
I cringe to think what discriminators are going to look like for TRs in the next five years for O-5.
ETA: and yes, this is all recent AD Lite (AFRC) faggotry I speak for. I have no idea how the Bureau of "you burned all your IDT, see ya next year.....yes I know it's June" aka the Guard, works as of late regarding these matters.
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Supposedly, according to them. There's always another side to that story. Maybe that's what put them on the bottom of a rack&stack, maybe it's not. I personally haven't witnessed the star-player-turned-dirtbag scenario because of a vsp application.
Are you new? I've seen worse out of a Palace Chase application, and that's not even getting out completely or asking for money. You must be trolling.
ETA: Porkchop's advice is spot on, you must have that 7-day opt grenade on standby before making these check calls at the AD table. 7 day-opt is like a VISA card, don't leave home without it.
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I have a feeling that she and Liquid know each other....
carnally?....
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As Danny said, you pick AGR. Just add....not move if you don't want, no non-voluntary 365s, heck no non-vul deployments (unless they start activating us), no masters requirement, no in-correspondence prior to in-residence, etc...
Things are changing on that front I'm afraid...
When I was AGR, I was offered a technician job three times, no bid- just move over. Three times I was told...."Just so you know, there's no guarantee for continued funding. Being a technician offers stability and job security."
I respectfully declined each time. Now I'm just a Dumb Shit Guardsman, but that's by my own choice. YMMV, but if they are offering AGR, I would jump on it like Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball vs. being a technician.
The ART conversions continue to be the flavor of the decade for AFRC and though we've escaped the conversion implementation so far, I can't in good conscience assume that a newhire AGR will ever see the other side of the 20 year tunnel. This info for training use only, not to be used for navigation....
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Judging by the profile of those I've known get rif'd the last time, any kind of uif in your record, or current personality clash with your current cc, and you're prob right fucked. On the plus side, getting RIF'd could be the best thing to happen for your personal life, as I've seen a RIF guy going from getting the pink slip to turning around and scoring an AGR gig and receive the pilot bonus three years ahead of his normal eligibility year, which also means he gets to keep his invol sep pay in retirement. Talk about #winning #FuckBlue.
For those with the motivation, provided they're good dudes and they're getting the boot for wrong place wrong time type actions by unfavorable cc's, the ARC is waiting to absorb them so they can end up where they probably were going to be much more vocationally happy in the first place. Same goes for those looking for airline jobs, the ARC network is better than active duty IMO.
Merry Christmas and remember, if you do everything with the honest internalization that everything ends, life is a hell of a lot more liberating.
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Negatives to this model are1) it's not in San Antonio
Yep, jest aside, you just called the emperor naked.
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Someone should look into that.
Add navs with a criminal justice degree to that list...
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I think we all agree that from a qualitative point of view, PIT adds nothing. I'm sure people currently loving the hell out of a San Antonio duty station would scream bloody murder and fight that notion, but if you ask the rank and file at UPT, nobody has anything positive to say about the place. That's not a dig against the dudes, but let's face it. The program is pretty mickey mouse.
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It's not that the person doesn't know ahead of time if they are a new hire, although it seems like some folks were not grandfathered into what they signed up for and we'll see how it's implemented on the civilian side.
Here's how I think most employees would see it:
Bill is a GS-13 program manager working for Agency X. His annual salary is $95K. He has worked at Agency X for 5 years and contributes 0.8% of that $95K into FERS every year, or $760 per year. If Bill works for the Feds for the next $25 years, he will have paid in $19,000. For argument's sake no promotions, step increases, etc. for simplicity's sake.
Fred is a GS-13 program manager who shares an office with Bill at Agency X. His annual salary is $95K. He was hired on 6 Jan 2014 (hypothetically falling under the new rules if the budget deal passes). He will contribute 4.4% of that $95K into FERS every year, which is $4,180 per year. If Fred stays on with the Feds for 25 years, he will have contributed $104,500 for the exact same FERS annuity that Bill receives. Same assumptions as above.
That is real money and OBTW unlike the changes for military retirements, these changes take effect day 1 in each employees paycheck. Bill's before-tax but after-FERS take home is $7,853 per month. Fred's is $7,568.
Fred, congrats on your new job and all, I'm sure you're gonna work out great, but you get to do the exact same work as your office mate Bill and you will make $285 less per month every month for the entirety of your career.
So as an O-3 who most likely makes IVO what Fred and Bill make, would you want to do the same job you're doing now for $285 less per month?
It's not that the sky is falling, but when you want to raise revenues from a small group of people (Feds, military retirees, or even both groups combined), the pain for each individual person is significant. Anyone with half a brain making $95K annually can figure out how to make it work for $285 per month less, just like any mil retiree with half a brain can make it work with less growth in their expected COLA increases. Neither of those changes are good policy or things I support, don't get me wrong.
My entire argument in the first place was just to demonstrate to clouseau that the Fed civilians were indeed getting the shaft right along side mil retirees, and I'd argue more so since the cuts are felt immediately and affect every federal civilian regardless of whether they ever end up drawing that FERS annuity at retirement. To the ~83% of military members who will never retire, the cuts being proposed will not affect them whatsoever and even those who plan on retiring, you likely have years to adjust your plans rather than seeing $285 extra dollars taken out of your Feb 1 2014 O-3 paycheck.
Man that is a fucking shaft for the new hire FERS employees. I can only imagine what a newly pinned on O-3 would act like if he was told his deductions are going up to the tune of 4.4% for the same benefit, effective right meow. It would make a T-37 sound like a soft whisper in the wind.
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Uh, I'm a current PIT IP and haven't even heard a whisper on this? If this is the case -- BONUS! Teaching folks who already have a clue -- awesome.
The irony.
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For those currently in the service who would theoretically be "grandfathered," at a minimum I would expect a change in either how they calculate retirement pay like nixing high-three and making it a high-five with a kick in the nuts, or change WHEN you actually start collecting (age 50+). Either way, we're going to get less than what we expected. Count on it....
Nah. That's not grandfathering. That's straight up fucking you, and at least for me, it would incentivize me to pull an immediate curtailment out of the AGR program and into the airlines or an ART position, where I can continue to earn a full time-paycheck while I wait for the retirement annuity to kick in. For AD, it would mean a mass exodus which would absolutely require stop loss to avert. It would be a panic. It ain't gonna happen that way.
The way these things usually get rolled, if civil service is any indication (specifically the CSRS-to-FERS transition), is that they shaft the new hire into the new system. They won't have the political capital to change it for someone already in.
I'm not trying to be an aloof polyanna but I don't see them straight-fuckin the current batch into a Reserve retirement payout date system while mid-career. I'm personally not worried.
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Nah, Academy chicks...oh shit that might as well be dudes. Unregard.
NAS Whiting training info
in General Discussion
Posted
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.