ViperStud

Fortunately, I think we actually have this part covered. If a meaningful shooting match broke out, so many of the experienced bros would drop Mil Leave and be chomping at the bit to kill sh!theads for the USA. I know I would. I'm not talking about another "Operation Deny Christmas" that our inept politicians seem to seek out, but if a real shooting match happened, commercial travel would take a crap and the bros would get shit done. For this reason, I think the steady-state "peacetime" ops of the AF are actually the more complicated challenge.

While technically that's correct, once someone becomes "hot" for a remote that still doesn't mean they'll get tasked with one. AFPC won't slip someone already on a VML or fragged for school soon, they'll simply find the next unlucky dude for the 365. Also, high-vis hand-picked short tours (general's aide, etc) are typically ID'd a little further out and, once matched to a specific person, keep them safe from the random 365 tasking. A bright & shiny won't be derailed from their mentor's game plan simply because the STRD/TAFMS math made them "hot" on the 365 list.

When my porch dude told me I was top 10 before I separated a few years back, he was careful to note that over half of those dudes ahead of me could be protected at any given time: school, staff, PCS, aide-de-camp, etc. Keeping the Hippos moving frequently between those duties protects them. When they are vulnerable, a pepper-grinder deployment is often loaded even if several months out to keep said dude for even getting consideration for a BS 365. The process is anything but objective.

Somehow I doubt this. I was bros with my porch guy and he told me (in 2013, almost 4 yrs ago) that I was top 10 of Viper majors with a 2003 STRD. I realize you're talking all-AF, not just Viper guys. Can it really still be that far back?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/google-hr-boss-advise-prevent-best-people-quitting-human-resources-tips-tricks-a7676731.html Interesting insight from leadership at a massively successful company - one that has to answer to people (shareholders) in a way the AF does not. When your superiors answer to no one but a revolving door (on ~4 year schedules) of bereaucrats playing their own cards in the political arena, is it any surprise the system lacks true leadership? His first point is far more poignant when you subtly replace "with" with "for" and his second point is spot-on: reference AFPAK hands, meaningless 365s, straight quotation marks, OPR/EPR hell - the list goes on and on.

I know Chang is just a troll staff weenie, but it does show how out of touch these morons really are with the bulk of us. Spend 2/4 years in the biggest shithole on the planet with no real strategic endgame, just so you can rub elbows with a bunch of O-6s, most of whom got there by sacrificing credibility and warrior ethos in favor of exec jobs and coattail riding. And he sells it like it's a GOOD thing!?! We have some truly clueless management.

It's pretty simple. Management waged a war against a culture and won. Some things needed to go, but many others got swept up in the moment. Here we are, years later, and so many of us see this as just another job. When you mort so many good cultural aspects and we end up viewing this as just another 9-5er, don't be surprised when people leave for a better 9-5er. A generation of spineless PC enablers (masqueraded as leaders) created this situation. Now they can live with with the aftermath.

Ok I'm being totally selfish but would stop-loss affect AGRs at all? Right now, AGRs are curtailing orders once hired by the airlines. If stop-loss somehow prevented that - um....gamechanger.

No, He's not. I'm mostly in Karl's camp but the bonus does keep a few people in: fence-sitters and path of least resistance types that might have had an ok opportunity on the outside. More importantly it keeps them (and the ones that would have stayed past initial commitment regardless) predictable for a period of time. Many would 7-day opt a shit deal without a bonus; the bonus eliminates that option by tagging them with an ADSC. I get it; it's cool to talk about how if everything were great in the AF no one would care about the bonus, but that's hyperbole. Our pay/rank system is antiquated. I'm worth more to the AF as an 11F than a similar-aged SkyCop, LRS officer or personellist. So are doctors, lawyers and other career fields that are incentivized. Once the wide-eyed 20-something ideals of slaughtering ISIS and fighting for your country grow old and you've got a family to love and provide for, financial stability and QOL start to trump kicking ass for most. Sure, some (a few) would be overcome with pride to work for our organization if it were really top-notch and they'd do it for pennies on the dollar. Most would not.

IS that only one pencil on his left arm?!? Hope he didn't FOD out the cockpit!

If they do that it's an insult to everyone. I mean, just offer the most you can; things aren't going to get better. Apparently the RC AGR bonus will only go up to 30k. There was a push from some dipshit leaders at NGB to eliminate it totally, citing the idea that the "golden ticket" AGR positions didn't need a bonus. Funny, we've had two quit in the past 6 months for the airlines. Leadership: still fvcking clueless.

Story?

Well, given that we don't have our boyfriend in the backseat to run the targeting pod for us.... Did we just skip ahead to ANOTHER phase of schwantz measuring? You're welcome.

"Flying T-1s doesn't close doors" - incorrect. Dude, this isn't about fighters vs heavies, it's about reality. It's impossible to compare performance between different track 3 paths, but it's pretty fair to say we want people with the highest potential to at least have the option to fly fighters. Our 4th gen fighters particularly are very task saturating. One of the reasons that some studs were stiff-arming 38s for a while had to do with the relative high threat of droids. That had to be fixed. The pendulum has swung to a point where those same studs have the option to take a shot at fighters but not be "punished" for taking that chance if they don't excel. The 135 or 17 is still a possibility. That's not a bad thing.

Maybe someone in a position of power is actually thinking, and making sure that there's an incentive for strong swimmers to strive for T-38s. That's a good thing. I've been an IP in 3 USAF aircraft: fighter, trainer and heavy(ish) - BACN. We want the strong swimmers in fighters. If a little social engineering is required to ruffle the feathers of a few millennials seeking the path of least resistance to a C-17 at CHS, possibly motivating them to strive to be the best, so be it.

It's called title 5. Think technician minus the dual-status part, so no drill or AFTPs, etc. They exist in a limited quantity, for example at Edwards. In my little corner of the guard it comes up every once in a while. Leadership hems and haws about how hard it will be to discipline someone with no Mil rank, as if they'd be hiring dudes from off the street. Hell, it might take ACTUAL leadership to corral them. Also without the additional $30k of mil pay the GS13 pay kinda sucks. Things are gonna have to get a lot worse before title 5 gains traction. It's unfortunate. It would be a good thing but man the system to implement it is limited and leadership is scared shitless of it.

There is risk in having only humans in the loop (EgyptAir, Germanwings), but there is a different kind of risk having a dataling that can no-shit take over. Think any state-sponsored group could crack the datalink? i know this is James Bond shit, but think of a well-intentioned pilot in the aircraft being taken out of the loop while the fail-safe datalink "saves the day." Didn't we learn shit from 2001 and the Terminator movies?

For the Vance bubbas - did they get the Woodring runway extension done? Is that how they are getting 38 dudes to fly 7 days? Sounds friggin miserable. I hope leadership is taking care of the IP cadre to make sure they get 2/week off. I was teaching at Luke when we had dudes waiting a year for FTU back in 2009/10, and that was before we closed 2 SQs there. This has dumpster fire written all over it.

Hmmmm I'm heading out for a 3-monther in a few months, reduced perdiem rates apply. I think I'll be ok since it's not a direct reimbursement of lodging costs but rather a flat rate. That being said, hopefully the complaint train schwacks this one before too long as well. WTF are these shit leaders thinking? Without backing in the JTR these gestapo tactics do not go unchecked.

One IG complaint should do it. Usually I despise the IG because they are spring-loaded to side with CCs. In this case they're violating federal guidelines. If Fingers is legit, someone needs to lose their job. Ball's in your court, Big Blue.

Couldn't have said it better and this is why I think "asshat" is still a valid moniker. I've yet to see the 6-9 contractors hired in my corner of the fighter world (granted, ANG) and we're starting to really hemmorhage dudes. If the 1500-hr rule is pursued full-bore without other meaningful changes being put in place, it feels a lot like trying to address the problem by ignoring the root causes.

TT, you're way off base on this one. I understand how this can be perceived as an administrative move to shore up numbers. The problem is that when your means to do so is to alienate the people you claim to care about the most, we are smart enough to see through it. We've been talking about crap leadership in the AF for many years - managers who get where they are by filling squares and walking over people. When a new boss takes over and opts to fight this battle before meaningfully addressing the myriad of reasons that we're running for the door, we will rightfully assess that he's another asshat incapable of righting the ship. I hope Congress laughs in his face.

I'm kinda looking forward to seeing video of Goldfein suggesting this to congress. They laughed at the requested bonus hike and told the AF to get its shit out of the street. Now he wants to change a rule born from the Colgan mishap in a sad attempt to make it harder for mil pilots to have options? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The other one they pulled, the separations girl at MPF at least, was that AETC tours were controlled tours. The way she tried to explain it, that made it basically a 3 year ADSC even though I didn't have an ADSC. She tried to tell me they could keep me even though I was a free agent. I did the research and showed her the AFPAM (not AFI) governing controlled tours. Like every other reg, it's needlessly obscure about some things just to give shoe clerks the chance to screw you. In the end I basically just had to tell her to pound and and sign the form saying I'd been "counseled" by the SSgt about the benefits I was giving up by separating. What a fvcking joke of a system. Thankfully, once you hit submit on the separation request it goes right to AFPC. Local idiots don't get involved. Had the orders within a week. I was pleasantly shocked.

Few years back, no one knew. I was told training + 3 years, but they didn't know whether it was scheduled or actual PIT dates. Then it was 4 years encompassing PIT. I ended up getting pulled back to the Viper early, then separated anyway to join the guard. No one could give me a straight answer.