brabus

Considering your age, I recommend applying to heavy units as well; you have very little time to rush, get an interview, and get hired (at least without an age waiver). Take the first job offer you get and don't look back. Fighters are great, but will you be OK with never flying any mil aircraft if you aren't hired by a fighter squadron?

I especially like the ANG’s approach of offering $35K to permanent AGRs, but only offering $15K to anyone else on full time orders. AGRs need to be retained, sure, but you’re going to convince a bunch of DSGs to take multi-year orders to be the exact same as a perm AGR for al intents and purposes, with $20K less? Yep, makes sense.

Gotcha - follow on question, why would you sign a 5 year GS contract...job security?

Has AFRC stopped getting seasoning orders for new guys out of FTU...i.e. why would you willingly accept a GS-11 job? Is it simply for a "guaranteed" job beyond the normal 2 years of seasoning or do seasoning orders no longer exists for AFRC? I find the latter hard to believe, but not impossible (i.e. I can't imagine they can provide no seasoning and legally "force" a new guy into a civilian GS job).

My opinion - Don't go enlisted when you're college complete / near to it. You know what you want and time is currently on your side. Enlisting for MAYBE a minimal increase in hiring preference is not worth the couple years you just set yourself back. It makes more sense for someone heading to college/early in college who also wants help paying for school. I think most units will hire off the street for the right guy...some put more weight on in-house interviewees, but it's not a guarantee they'll be hired or an off-the-street guy won't be hired. Apply everywhere, regardless of what rumors you've heard about off the street hiring, etc. For Stearman's question - if you're young and dead set on chasing fighters, then skip applying to heavies for now. When you're starting to get closer to the age limit, throw heavies into the app mix. If you apply for both right now and just want to go to UPT ASAP, then I'd take the first job offer and don't look back. I wouldn't apply yet to heavies if you already know in your heart you're going to ditch their job offer in favor of a FS offering a similarly timed job. Technique only.

True about the AFTPs - my basic point is the math is not necessarily as simple as ART pay + allotted AFTP/AT = year gross. Lot of variables (alert options or not? Availability of orders to scab together 31+ days or < 30?, etc.). The more important part is the buy back consid - good to hear you can get it refunded, I didn’t know that. But, still better to never go down that road in such a case.

For those reading, keep in mind you only get 120 hours of mil leave, so any DSG work done after 3 weeks worth of work is not double dipping - the math may not be as simple as ART pay chart + DSG pay = Gross Pay. You may actually make less from your ART job than the chart (but maybe in the big picture make more if you were on extended MPA, etc. orders). Only consider this if you seriously think you're going to be an ART for the long term, retire, and understand you won't collect until around 57-60 yrs old. That buy back is a terrible idea if there's even a half way chance you'll not be a permanent ART in a couple years (i.e. take an AGR position in the future and get to a 20 yr AD retirement). If the latter happens, you would have been significantly better off putting that money in an investment vehicle. I think it was a much better deal in the past when getting an AGR retirement was very difficult and the airlines weren't hiring. Bottom line, recommend any new ART give it some time and make sure long term ART is what you want before you make this move. I think you have a couple years to make the decision before the option is off the table.

So why do people not like PBS (so I've read)? It seems like a nice ability to list all of your desired trip criteria, then get some % of your list based on seniority. Seems like it allows for more customizability of trips vs. having to choose between pre-determined, monthly schedules, though it does seem like more up front effort required.

I don't think there is a financial justification for staying past 20, you do it because you have a desire to continue serving/flying that is more important than maxing out your pay for the period of time you go past 20. To each their own.

In my experience the majority of RAs don't care - the conservative route is use the GTC for the big items like airfare, lodging, rental car. More risk if you use personal card for those things, but still over all pretty low risk. FWIW, 13 years and a metric shitload of TDYs (with friends in the same boat) and I don't know a single one who got in trouble for using their personal card on a multitude of things. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but overall threat is very low. What's your risk tolerance?

It never hurts to apply as long as you meet the requirements (if you don't, then not worth your effort). If you do go to the interview, at minimum it's good experience/practice for future interviews, or maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised by a job offer.

If that's good enough for Hillary, its good enough for us!

I don't think they can force you to accept the 3 yr accompanied, but if you choose to do 2 yr unaccompanied the AF won't pay for your wife to move over. Other considerations are how it may or may not affect weight allowance for HHG shipment, whether you collect OHA or BAH at your wife's CONUS location, live on vs. off base, etc. Is the assignment location really that terrible you guys don't want to do 3 years?

No. Most guys use them in one chunk to cover a multi-week TDY, want to work a couple weeks straight at home station doing normal stuff (flying, etc.). There's not specific things you're required to do on AT, its just days meant to enable you to do whatever training is required for your job. We get 36 AFTPs per year, max of 16 per quarter, but I just do 3 per month to keep it simple. You cannot use those when on any type of AD orders (including UTA...so no double dipping on drill weekend). I think there are guys out there getting more AFTPs, but I'm not sure if that's Res vs. ANG, state dependent, etc. You normally burn 4 UTA periods per month (assuming the unit does traditional drill schedule of one per month). If you miss a drill weekend, for example you're on AD orders at Red Flag that month, then you can make up those UTA periods at any point before or after your AD orders. Your math is generally close, pre tax. I don't think Flight Pay is actually $1K (just congressionally approved, AF chose to keep it lower). If I'm wrong, someone correct me. $25-30K is about what you can plan on for part-time pay. EDIT: SocialD cleared it up, I get 36 AFTPs because I'm a technician and not a DSG.

Tucson sounds like they have shit well dialed in, and I know a few other units do as well. But, word to the wise, this is one end of the spectrum and there are other units (reserve and ANG) who have terrible technician deals. The problem usually lies with the wing and/or HRO, not OG and down. So do your research at prospective units before you dive blindly in, some are not good deals (but may still be the right short term decision to get your family where you want them).

Yeah you may be right. I was referring to only 11Fs and didn't account for individual support AFSCs deploying (which I know our unit has done). I am curious if our guys were forced; haven't heard that, but less likely I would compared to an 11F bro. So have there be any AFRC 11F dudes (in a flying squadron) get non-vol'd to a mob IA? Understand all the 1288 discussion and 11th hour volunteer examples, but still wondering if no shit this has happened in an AFRC fighter squadron or on the MAF side for that matter. I think its important to clarify for guys reading this thread who may be considering guard and/or reserve about 100% non-vol deployments (especially non-AFSC mob IAs) vs. guys forced to make a decision between deployment or leave. I think the latter is a very different animal, because there are guys who will say they were put in that position and it was total bullshit, but then you find out they were told they had to deploy the full 60 days (flying) and not 30 days like they wanted. Yeah, I'm not really feeling bad for that guy...you did volunteer to fly in support of real world operations, right? That all said, good points made on the sinking AFRC; if they don't back down after "running the pool dry" like you talked about, they are fucked for years. At least the ANG isn't there yet, but like everyone has said, it could change for the worse at any point. If that day comes, like you have alluded to, myself and 90% of my friends will have no problem walking out the door immediately.

Still haven't heard of a true, forced deployment for any ANG or AFRC fighter guy (in a fighter squadron; not in AETC, on staff, etc.) That's not a 100% statement it hasn't happened, but we're a small community and I find it nearly impossible to believe such a thing would not make its way through the entire community in a matter of days if that happened. I certainly have heard rumors, but then every single one turns out to be either completely false or worst case, the dude was given an ultimatum of deploy or stop flying for that unit (so still not forced to go, just forced to make a difficult choice).

Evil - You think its an NGB leadership problem or more local leadership (i.e. WG/CC can push back enough to stop this shit...assuming they're good leaders and not willing to do bullshit things to make a star). To be fully transparent, nobody at Bama was forced to go - they may have been told you're done flying here if you don't go, but nobody was forced against their will; they all made the decision to go, even if only to continue flying in the unit, but that was still a choice (not that I'm saying it's an easy choice, it was still a shitty position to be put in by leadership).

This seems to be mostly an issue at true TFI units (i.e. ARC unit doesn't own any iron, AD at said base does), and mostly at AFR (not ANG); is that a mostly accurate observation based on your guys' experiences/knowledge? Are there any "regular" ANG units (own their own iron/completely separate from AD) that forced deployments have occurred at? And to add fuel on the fire, I don't think you can legitimately say a deployment is forced if leadership gave you the, "if you don't go, you can't fly here anymore"...you do have a choice in this situation, albeit a bullshit situation created from dickless leadership if said deployment is not your primary job.

You know who doesn't do forced 365s or useless 179s...the guard and the airlines. Run!

Using his success in business over his life, I'd say he mostly knows how to push the right buttons to get the desired results. I don't think he'd be where he is if it was all just being "stupid lucky." His personality, demeanor, actions, etc. are a long ways off from what is typically expected in a "real" politician, but as Brick said, that's probably exactly what we needed at this point in our history. The "standard" politicians have given us shit (on both sides of the aisle), so why the fuck would the people want to elect another "standard politician?" I'm all for wrecking the political class in our country - we need to get back to what the founders wanted and away from this horrible "career politician" bullshit. Despite Trump's off color personality and questionable words/actions at times, I hope he has started the movement to bring this country back to the people and out of the hands of the unspoken "ruling class" (e.g. wealthy, career politicians).

Yep, so what I said - He never said we're getting a 10% raise. What he was wrong on was the "no raise in 10 years" and "one of the biggest raises." Although maybe (I don't care enough to do the math) with the new standard deduction this may be the most take home pay increase for a lot of mil...but that's not what he specifically said, so not a defending him, just a thought. Also, Brick fucking nailed it.

Offering an unbiased observation: his exact words were "I said make it 10!" when referring to others saying lesser numbers during a discussion. That may be entirely accurate, so he's probably not lying that he said that. I didn't see any quote that said, "you guys are getting a 10% raise" or "I just gave you guys a 10% raise." He was stating his opinion that we should get a 10% raise. Completely agree his words are not crystal clear and his MO of speaking off the cuff like he's in the bar with his bros does not work well for communication at the presidential level. He's dead wrong that the military hasn't received a raise in 10 years. He could have accurately said we've had an extremely paltry raise over the last 10 years (relative to inflation). It's not much of a raise when your 10 year average barely covers inflation.

There are a lot of 179 non-flying jobs that are bullshit and useless - we've all seen jobs that can take an A1C 15 min per week to accomplish, but the AF deploys two Capts to fill the position for 179. Almost worse is the ineptitude of how they fill certain positions, e.g. deploying an F-35 guy to BAF to do the SE job that could be done by a SE guy who flies any of the 5+ airframes that fly out of there on a regular basis (same example, but OSS/DO...seen both). They're so retarded they made a flying deployed job into a non-flying deployed job. Shit like that is what pisses people off and needs to be stopped. 365s aside, bullshit like this pushes people to make the sensible decision to skip bonuses and/or punch at first opportunity. Deploy us to do our primary job and contribute to the war in a meaningful way, but don't lie to our face and tell us powerpointing or filling out TPS reports once a week is a worthwhile contribution in anyone's book outside of the hardcore koolaid drinkers who have long since lost any ability to rationally think.