ViperStud

Nah, not really. I've known matmac for a decade or so; he's more of a gynandromorph. I think the WC is for Woman Clone.

That's like saying YOU don't think you're a chick because you have two arms, two legs and a butthole. No correlation - you're still a chick.

This. They know exactly what they are doing. When I nullified my additional ADSC for AFT back in 2013 - the first person I reached at AFPC responded to my request like I was asking if the sky is blue. CMS case was submitted that day and the ADSC was adjusted by the end of the week. It's not about doing what's right; it's about strong-arming people.

Some rumors are spreading in the ANG and that the AGR bonus is staying at 25k/yr even if/when the AD bonus goes up. That'd be an interesting play. AGRs deal with far less bullshit than AD counterparts yet they still are resigning their positions to get a line number. Anyone in the know have any SA?

Do you really think I can be PC enough to accomplish this, even if it was a long term goal? I'll take your bet; put some real money on it. (Details offline)

This. I kinda feel like the only only way some O-8+ types could ever end up with egg on their faces is if we are forced to stop-loss people we were just paying to get out. Alas, I know that accountability does not exist at the rank of 0-6 and above (Rat, Bull Post, Hastings, etc), so the end result would just be some good bros getting held against their will due to shitty timing. That, and the asshat leadership that got us here will continue to pin on stars. Thank Allah I'm already in the guard.

Slick, grow the F up. CH made one jab at your comment about the "retirement benefits" attached to Lt Col vs Maj and you get butthurt? I don't even know who CH is, but lurking around here for years means I know he's the kind of dude that the AF needs to clone. I respect him more for his recent comment that he'd blast right at 20 if he could do it over again - that shows humility and the ability to realize the bureaucracy will press on in spite of the best efforts of 1 or 2 or 6-9 great dudes that crack through the system. I agree with the sentiments that you've made a decision and only want reinforcement rather than honest feedback. It all comes down to Beerman's #1 question and you can't answer it. Mine was simple - regroup and take advantage of an opportunity to get my entire family within 2 hrs of each other, while simultaneously keeping open as many options as possible. I passed up $25K@9yrs for that. The irony is that my AGR bonus (pending the release) may exceed it, but that's just a chuckle-worthy story about how timing is everything. Money is no substitute for QOL; even if your decision is made already you need to realize that everyone's situation is a little different. Bitching at one of the [very respected] old guard here won't win you any street cred among this group of dudes that have already made the decisions you are pining over and moved on to bigger/better things. You can stand tall in Cabrini Green? Good for you. Get one of those asshats you feel so comfortable among to jump us who live in a non-libtard state; they'll get shot. You aren't shit to the guys here who have already been there and done that.

The rankings "hardly ever change" from the raw score, which is NOT transparent to everyone. It comes from a meeting of the commanders (i.e., the group rack-and-stack) and all you are ever told is exactly where you rank relative to everyone else. You are so naive, you just perfectly described your standard rack-and-stack. No doubt the sacred Excel file is a big input, but the CCs go to bat (or not) for their people and the result is a ranking they all agree on and release to the masses. Of course you never see everyone's raw data and the sheet used to gonk it, now why could that be? You crack me up. Every base I've been to has some kind of queep tracker. Sometimes it's a click- here Excel file, sometimes it is called a pilot resume or pilot snapshot. They are all used for input...input to the group rack and stack where all the CCs get together to rank the masses. There is subjectivity to them, which is precisely why you never see each other's raw data.

I'm sure you do, probably far more than a dude with 15 years in. GMAFB. FWIW, such a process is not the standard at other bases, particularly the base in question (Vance). That process is also far from a perfect gonkulation merit. Who decides the pts assigned to an SOS DG vs EQ check ride vs Habitat for Humanity build? I'm sure it's all perfectly weighted in a way that prioritizes the mission over queep. Curious - is everyone's score and the computation used to get it released to the masses? There is zero room for CCs to exert influence?

You're adorable. Second statement is irrelevant - FAIPs are requested by and will continue to go to all platforms for various reasons. Plus, Jaded is right. Hey, let's sprinkle a little quick-clot on that gushing artery...everything will be fine! Your first statement shows a complete lack of understanding of the assignment process. Rankings derived from "merit" vs the "rack-and-stack" are two very different things. Merit is an objective measure. UPT MASS scores are close to merit (factoring in daily rides, checkrides, test scores) but even they contain some subjectivity (Flight CC ranking) which can swing rankings. The rack-and-stack is an extremely subjective system that considers CGOQ/Y awards, progress towards advanced degrees (yes, it still gets factored in by many CCs), PME completion, volunteering, self-improvement, etc. There are some flying factors (checkrides, daily contributions) but generally the additional duties reign supreme. FAIPs are rack-and-stacked by their CCs and, ultimately, the OG. Commanders love to be fellated; many allow such actions (or personality clashes & PFAs) to cloud their judgment when ranking people. You come off sounding like a complete ass kisser who probably commands little respect from your peers.

This. UPT is/was one of the last places where true merit made up the bulk of assignments. It pisses people off, and rightfully so, when this doesn't happen and the underlying reason is someone (even a CC) with an agenda or axe to grind. This DBag was an agenda-driven blue Kool-Aid pusher - even went so far as to say, verbatim, that he would FAIP a female solely because of the benefit it would bring to the SQ and overall culture. I'm not sure what came of that given that I left shortly after he took over, but imagine if a student found out that the reason she was FAIPed had to do solely with her reproductive hardware. I'm not sure if a FAIP assignment is universally seen as good or bad, but if it's bad then that's a pretty serious mistake in today's AF. In most cases I advise people to suck it up because ups and downs were a known quantity when we signed up; there were certainly no airframe, assignment or QOL guarantees. This is one of the cases where an asshat completely intervened to fulfill his own PFA; frustration is justified.

Must have been one Viper tour, IFF, aide-de-camp, school, nerd school, staff, then to Vance for touch-and-go as DO and his command. Based on his age in the community his ops tour was only an RCH before mine. The top 50-75% on he VMLs were staying in the jet. Didn't do well in the viper world but found someone to latch onto and paved a way for himself regardless. I'm more sympathetic to the overspeeds and his vast collection of overrun landings. The dual compressor stall was the true display of negative airmanship. Never should have continued the mnvr to begin with, but heading out the top of the MOA in a -38 (with all we know about those engines) and thinking the right thing to do at high AOA is to rip the throttles to idle and yank back on the stick, thus spiking AOA with those laughably small/blunt intakes? Think about it, that dude gives people checkrides.

Technically the viper, but to his credit he didn't even really claim it because it was only one assignment. One of his only conversations with me where I had to give him some credit. From what I recall, his assignments: FAIP, one Viper tour, aide-de-camp, school, nerd school, staff, then to Vance for touch-and-go as DO and his command. There was a late rate thrown in there for either post-USAFA (surprise) masters or something. That timeline reflects everything that is wrong with how we groom leaders: no operational experience, never credible in an MWS, several non-CAF/MAF assignments; he's basically a career ball-washer. Take a dude like that, thrust him into a flying command and its no surprise when he self-induces a dual compressor stall going out the top of the airspace and almost loses one of the jets. Complete shitshow.

I was an IP there not too long ago. The SQ/CC is a PC, uber-religious SASS grad with zero credibility in the jet and squadron. Said FAIP was a great dude with an old-school fighter pilot mentality. PC principal had an opportunity to screw over something he sees as bad for the new-age AF and acted on it. Need proof? My first interaction with this CC was immediately after returning from Afghanistan. He showed up while I was deployed for a brief stint as DO. I sat down across a desk from him and he said two words, then paused, reached across the table, fondled my zipper and sat back down. Before he continued he said "sorry that was too low had to fix it, where were we?" It's like he read the handbook on how to lose credibility in a flying squadron in the shortest amount of time and followed it diligently. Doesn't help that he's a clown in the airplane after all the exec, school and staff time. Too bad there is no recourse for shit leadership.

Heads up, big blue - it's about money, QOL, time at home and stability. You lose on all counts. More medals? GFY

This. In my corner of the world in the ANG, the rumored tech bonuses are stalling and rumors are circulating about more AGR slots. The problem is that rumors don't recruit people, actual positions with $ tied to them recruit people. Even our leadership has flat-out stated that the train needs to full-up crash into us before meaningful change will happen. The catch-22 is this: dudes with birds and stars on their shoulders need to actually say "no" and cut classes. They need to Ops CNX or MND lines regularly to show we are broken. Doing this will crush their metrics, however, and hurt their chances of promotion. It's in leadership's best personal interest to chug along on fumes rather than let the system start to show cracks, which is ironically required to enact any meaningful change. Why is NGB going to throw a boatload of cash or AD going to commit a bunch of billets (AGRs) to a problem they've yet so see can't be handled with current means/measures? This catch-22 exists in both the RC and AD and it takes a truly dynamic leader to break the mold and act on foresight rather than just react to problems. We don't have a lot of those kind of leaders, and the ones who fit the bill likely got out to work for less dysfunctional companies.

3. If I had kids in high school now I would steer them away. It'll be many years until I have kids in that position and things can change over a decade or two. Maybe by that military will recover to a point where I would be happy to see them go in that direction, but F-NO if it were now.

There's a more compelling argument (fact, depending on who you know who was in on the latest POM discussion) that the C-models are next out the door after the Hog. Single mission, replacement already IOC and killin it, haven't hit a pickle button in anger for 13+ yrs, etc. Lets be real here.

I went through the same thought process back in UPT, even filled out two dream sheets the day of. Fortunately I'm straight so it was a no-brainer which one to turn in when I had the gun to my head. I cannot imagine anything else at this point. Imagine having a fvcking WSO as your SQ/CC. That's not some kind of hyperbole in an after-school special to scare people away from drinking beer. It really happens!

We're in uncharted territory so no one know how long it will last. The last time I saw this much flail we ended up (due to our poor leadership not realizing the ramifications of closing FTU squadrons) with dudes waiting 14 months between UPT and the B-Course. The result? We didn't drop a single Viper for a year in order to clear the backlog. History has a bad little habit of repeating itself, especially when you are cursed with management that isn't smart enough to learn from the past and react accordingly. Sound like anyone we know?

Not so fast. There is a "signing bonus" that they are literally so unable to enact that they are putting dudes on MPA days to wait it out until it happens. The rest of the initiatives to make up the +30% have stalled. Also, no one is offering only temp-tech positions because basically every unit has open full-time tech positions. They're a bad deal and in this market are not competitive. The NGB is asleep if they think they'll fill the tech force while the airlines are offering better compensation, QOL, schedule and long-term viability. Unfortunately, leadership is so fvcking stupid that they'll let us continue to bleed and wonder why people don't want to work for the govt until they are 58+. They are clueless.

Not really dude. That ship has sailed for a lot of squadrons.

Doesn't the AD version of the bonus have verbiage that limits the big bonus to initial eligibles only, meaning that those eligible in FY16 (and declined) won't qualify for the big money in the FY17 program? My point is this - someone mentioned that there are likely holdouts waiting for it to go up but it doesn't work that way. I thought that an eligible pilot passing on 25/yr in FY16 would make them ineligible for the big money in FY17. Of course, they could always change the wording. So far though, I thought they put a gun to your head the first time you were eligible. Sucks to have graduated from UPT in Sept of '06 when your bros graduated only a few weeks later in Oct.

I think a lot of what happens is we grow up. Bright-eyed LTs become husbands and dads and start thinking about life after the AF and making more little league games. Priorities change as we get older and the AF can't control that.

The difference between girlfriend and wife is as significant as the difference between having her accompany you or expect you to fly/drive a few hours to see her. On one end of the spectrum is the wife accompanying you to UPT and at the other end of the spectrum there's the girlfriend (not even fiancé) expecting you to do the bulk of the travel in a long-distance relationship. Let's just label those two ends of the spectrum as good and bad, respectively. I saw lots of good examples flourish in UPT. If you know she's THE keeper, she probably needs a ring. If you're not willing to do that, you've already answered your own question but just haven't yet come to grips with that answer. I'm with Hoss. I know a lot of divorced dudes, but none that (after seeing the world for far more than a 2-month abroad program) pine for the one that got away - especially one they weren't willing to commit to at the time when it mattered most. The amount of emotional and personal growth/change that takes place from college graduation to becoming a flight lead or AC is an order of magnitude greater than any growing up you did in college. There are many stories of college sweethearts that last forever, but if you want to maximize your chances for marriage success - wait until that maturation process runs its course.