ViperStud

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.

Keep digging. Bro of mine got tagged for a 365 with a tighter window than you and used two things to punt it - retirement date set and I'm 69% sure the other was a min on 30 days required between deployment return and retirement date. There was some talk of shortening the deployment but they just tagged some other poor soul. If the deployment gets you back by he beginning of March, methinks you're screwed. I've never even heard a rumor about leftover leave coming into play if it's a 365. If it's a 6-monther then the bobs will just say you have plenty of time beforehand to make leave manageable. Congrats on separating, even if it is that far out. Join the club; the grass really is greener.

Nope. Willie is a pipe dream. No base/infractructure there anymore, it's a busy airport, it's been completely encroached on and the MOAs here are quite saturated already. The chances of Willie standing up ARE about the same as Hartsfield or JFK. What are we going to do, acquire land and build a base around it somehow?

Yeah I heard it was down to Willie, Hartsfield and JFK. IMhO, all are equally probable.

Never. Think AD is going to let recall dudes climb the corporate ladder as DOs and CCs? Try flight commander, chief of training, UDM or (if lucky) line IP. The dudes i knew who bit in the past were never put in position to compete for leadership. Two buddies were part of a rated recall at a previous assignment. I don't know all the details, but one went 4 years without a deployment and the other went downrange once - a volunteer because he got a nice type rating out of it. Both said that no deployments was a condition of their recall that they "negotiated" with AFPC. Bottom line - things like this would have to be on the table. I'm thrilled that I got out, as are the others I know. If big blue calls, and the bros say they'll listen if they return with promotion, big bonus, assignment preference (maybe top 3) and protection from non-flying deployments...some will bite. Especially dudes that already have line numbers.

This. Our hiring boards generally have far more qualified applicants than positions. Enlisting in the unit is far from a sure path to flying. I was AD for 12+ before I punched to the guard and I was treated well. Sometimes it was because I worked hard; sometimes it was because I was lucky. AD has screwed some people; they have every right to be disappointed and you read some of their stories here. ANG/AFRES has screwed people too. AD benefits: If you apply to OTS you can know if you are going to UPT before you even join. If going ROTC, they can pay a ton for college; they did for me. Also: job security, the ability to see a lot of the country and the world, you'll also finish your commitment with enough hours to be competitive for the airlines. Drawbacks: job security comes with a 10+ yr commitment. You give up control or your airframe and you could (very small chance overall) end up in droids for a bit. Guard benefits: More control over airframe/location. Drawbacks: less job security, fewer years/hours means you're not competitive for the majors after training/seasoning, and oh by the way I've seen units get BRAC'd. I've also seen dudes near the end of the pipeline that have to move around to find orders. That looks unlikely for the next few years but remember, everything is cyclical. This hiring spree will curtail at some point; how soon and how much is anyone's guess. AD is in the shitter now but in several years, some policy changes and pay increases could change things a bit. You need to think about some of the factors above, along with others, and figure out which are more important to you. Me personally - I'm happy to homestead now in the ANG starting a family, but the ability to move and see the world as a younger dude was great on AD. Dudes ran for the airlines in the late 90s and are now. They were also begging for orders after 2001. Fighters dropped like crazy when I went through and now, in between we've seen 38 grads go to AWACS and droids. Shit changes; don't make decisions assuming the status quo is a given.

If there was any remaining doubt, this post essentially proves he's a Comm weenie Capt butt-hurt that the office Lt is dating a pilot instead of him. Stop feeding the troll, guys.