joe1234

Well, I'm not a fighter guy, but does it involve not irreparably fucking up your own training pipeline manning so hardcore that you have to get a bunch of MAF guys to come and bail you out? Is that lesson covered in IFF? I wouldn't know, because I never went.

Skeptical about any of this. There's basically two Air Forces, the operation itself, and the bureacracy that exists to perpetuate itself first (and support the operation second). I can't imagine the bureacracy willingly giving up even a tiny slice of power in favor of improving the operation. I mean, the operation is literally in danger of failing due to a labor shortage because the bureaucracy is that powerful and unwilling to change. No way this plan sticks.

They won't revoke it all at once. They'll chip at it little by little, along with Tricare to the point where it becomes imperceptible to the general public.

You sure about that? But also, it won't get you in the left seat of a widebody making 350k+/year for 10+ years. Again, some people can stomach the risk and some can't. Do what's best for you and yours.

True, but having a low seniority number at a legacy airline makes life much easier too. Every time I see a guy break down the math of staying vs. going, they always come out much farther ahead by getting out ASAP. Like investing, you go with the risk you can tolerate.

Overhead bin space.

I've never bought that line of reasoning. I think it's more about the fact that it's pretty f*cked up to turn down a massive improvement in income and quality of life to drag your family from base to base, suffering through deployments and taking a massive paycut just because you want to wear a bag and go fast.

One you dudes is already retired and the other is about to retire. As long as they direct deposit your pension on time every month, who fucking cares what happens to the Air Force? Just......let go already.

Airplanes. Even if they somehow figured out who I was, it wouldn't matter since I don't even do this. I'm just saying it can be done, and it's legal. But since your moral compass is strong, my question to you is, is it okay to drop a trip because you don't like a layover or it's hard to commute, as long as you don't pick up a premium trip?

That's day-for-day. You can actually make way more money if you live in base with your domicile and your guard unit. Strategically drop mil leave to clear out your schedule (especially useful if junior) and then pick up efficient premium trips in open time.

I saw that thread on TPN. Knowing how the MAF works, they'll take a bunch of half-trained zero airmanship copilots and throw them with brand new "99% of my hours are in the desert" aircraft commanders, and class A a few more jets before figuring out it's a bad idea. At least I can personally be my own safety margin, so Team Joe is taken care of.... but I feel sorry for the sweaties constantly having to deal with the blind leading the blind.

Air Force management has finally achieved its apotheosis in incompetence when it has both a massive pilot shortage and a shortage of hours flown by the pilots it does have. At this point they should just change the Air Force song to Yakety Sax and give all the planes back to the Army.

Yeah, it certainly feels that way when half the line flyers in your squadron get non-vol'd to deployments and stupid AFPAK hands bullshit, while the other half are ladder climbing bitches eagerly volunteering for wing exec, aide-de-camp, and Phoenix whatever bullshit, leaving you and like 3 other dudes to fly the entire schedule. Glad I'm out, haha.

I imagine part of it is that they over-produced mobility pilots for a few years, back when maybe only 4-5 guys in a class of 30 drop T-38's, combined with sending a bunch of T-38 trained dudes to heavies. 11M has been overmanned for a long, long time.

This is an interesting conversation. The answer is, if you're in Okinawa, you're just a pawn in a much bigger game being played. The government of Japan wants us there but has to placate the Okinawans and convince their own citizens to look the other way. Committing a crime -- any crime -- makes them lose face. So, the U.S. does curfews and punishments. It saves face at the cost of pissing off the pawns who justifiably bitch about it being unfair, but they are pawns and who gives a shit what pawns think. You guys complain about bad management and poor leaders, but the truth of the matter is, the vast majority of the military will eat shit and ask for seconds no matter how badly you treat them. You can't be that shocked that most leaders will take advantage of that fact.

It is very common Perhaps not in the circles that you run in, but there are tons of guys doing anything they can to escape from Big Blue. The desperation is real. We're not just making it up.

Maybe I'm skeptical, but I think this is just a way to keep the rank chasers "on the hook" until a little later down the road. So, instead of finding out if you're going to be a fast burner like 1 year before your commitment ends and bail, you stay in and find out once you've signed the bonus and they already own you. Not that I'm sympathetic, since rank chasers can all go get fucked. I'm just surprised it hasn't happened earlier.

You can't change USERRA, but you can change who even gets orders in the first place. There's nothing stopping the Air Force from, say, denying long term orders to a name that appears on a legacy seniority list.

I get that it's the military, and pissing contests/butthurt fragile egos/red tape dominate the entire way of life, but.... why can't we just have flyers/ops be in charge of flying and running wars and battle staffs, and then have support guys dickfight each other over school, volunteer crap, and high vis non operational staff gigs. Its the bullshit fake equality that needs to go. Anyone who no-shit flies, fights, plans, runs, or deters the air war needs to be put in one box (where their worth is measured in ability to contribute to the war), and the people-herders need to be put in another box and be measured by their ability to support the mission. Do that, and I promise you, you would see more young flyers burning the midnight oil to come up with insane new innovative ways to win wars, rather than writing bullshit essays for a degree that has no relevance to their job.

Honestly that was my biggest problem. Being told over and over again that we're all the same and contribute equally. I'm not saying pilots have to be treated like divas, but when you're competing a 11F and a loggie in the same bucket, and then pass over the fighter dude who was 1000x more costly to train in the name of fairness, then your flying organization is hopelessly fucked. That would be like a hospital firing neurosurgeons and cardiologists to make room for more accountants and HR people because they had more volunteer hours and face time with the administration. The brass is starting to painfully admit that the line pilots are their rainmakers. Hopefully the young dudes get a better deal than we got. But I do reserve the right to take such joy and happiness in seeing these generals squirm and suffer in the process.

I'd say we're about prototype plus 20 years out from single/zero pilot ops, and the reason is that the airlines have far too much capital already invested in their current fleets that it would take about 25 years to feasibly cycle those new jets out. I'd imagine it would take at least 10 years from the prototype stage just to get it on a production line, 5 years of extensive testing and government certification, and then 5 more years for it to prove itself viable commercially. More than likely you will see LCC's/regionals/cargo with smaller, cheaper jets/retrofits to prove the concept as profitable. The successful ones will get flying contracted out by the legacies as they put the hammer on unions to gradually allow scope to erode. I think ETOPS flying might be much more difficult to get certified with 1 or 0 pilot flying, though. Too risky for the lack of divert options over a vast ocean.

DOPMA was passed in 1980. Since then, the Air Force has had to increase the pilot commitment to an absurdly long 10 years (1999 or 2000) due to the fact that the attractiveness of a full military career has absolutely plummeted. If it was still 6 years, this wouldn't be a problem, but the rather than fix the problem, the military just used the AFI as a hammer to keep people longer. When you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

The aforementioned method of getting out early absolutely works. And continuation requires a positive, written response from the member. In other words, once twice passed over, only the non-selectee can stop the separation process by agreeing to continuation. Oh and you also get invol sep benefits, other than the pay. So, TAMP, 2 years of commissary/BX access, 3 weeks PTDY, the right to file for unemployment, etc.

I've been searching for the answer to this, but the internet seems 100% focused on initial accessions instead of guys who transfer from AD to reserves. Basically, let's say a pilot gets out and goes guard or reserve -- what is their obligation to stay in (assuming no formal training schools, etc)? Is there a time commitment, or is it like putting in a two weeks' notice and saying bye? Also, is it possible to get forced to stay in? Like, if I was planning on staying at a unit for 2-3 years, marked the end date down on my calendar and was definitely transferring no matter what happened, and all of a sudden something gets kicked off and we're activated, am I now forced to go on that deployment despite previous plans of severing ties completely?

This quote basically sums up the reason I'm getting out. I'm content to indirectly watch the AF implode through my friends' Facebook posts, all while from the safety of my snuggly DD-214 blanket.