SocialD

I get what you're saying, and agree to an extent. But having lived both lives, I understand how much better it can be. When I was full time, I didn't realize how much it consumed my life. We give up things that the vast majority of the U.S. couldn't fathom, because we think it's normal...it is not. I don't shit on them for staying, you're right, someone has to do it...or they could rotate to the airline then back onto orders as desired. Shit will get done eventually. However, I'll certainly show them how much better my life is now vs. when I was full time. Lots of squadron mates who said they'd never go to the airlines, are now at the airlines and are kicking themselves for not going earlier.

Then there is my squadron where, for the last 4 or 5 years, we'd ONLY hire you if you were willing to take an AGR gig (we don't technicians anymore) for 2-3 years. We had no room for DSG's. Lately, we tend to turn back nearly a years worth of orders every year (or let other positions on base use them)....that's after giving a years worth of orders to guest help for alert. I think we're on track to do the same this year as well. Turns out, when you live close to a major hub of an air line in which 40% of your squadron is employed, unless they're within 5 of their 20, few guys want long term orders. This isn't to take away from your post, I'm truly happy to hear guys are enjoying AD. It's more to add clarity about opportunities in the ANG. Overseas opportunities appear to be aplenty right now in the ANG. We have one guy who will likely spend 3ish years in USAFE on MPA days to get him across the finish line to a retirement. We have another guy taking a few months of orders in Hickam, and we were told it could be up to year (possibly indefinite orders) if wanted. I know 4 other dudes working long term orders OCONUS (mostly USAFE). There seems to be a bunch of other full time CONUS orders opportunities as well (cough...brabus...). In the ANG, you also have the BAO gig, which can be a legit opportunity for the family to experience a sleepy overseas assignment. If I hadn't been trying to get hours ASAP for the airlines, I'd have gladly done the BAO gig for our state partner...2-3 years in Budapest doesn't sound all that bad. I know another guy who did 2-3 years in Tallinn, Estonia who had a ball. Having spent 3+ months in Tallinn, I'd have gladly spent 3+ years there.

I found a pic of the guy.

One classmate has done a single ops tour and has spent the rest of his career bouncing between Luke and Eglin. I think he's going to extend/PCA at Eglin to finish his 20. I get why he stays, hard to leave when you've been shielded from deployments most of your career and the ops tempo is pretty decent. The rest who have done ops to ops, all bailed to the ANG or just got out after their UPT ADSC. I have multiple examples of these two tales and they all pretty much have the same result. ...a tale of two careers. Break break 1. Airline guys within 5 years of their 20. 2. Airline guys who commute. The bonus takers in my squadron fall into the two categories above. The guys in the number 1 category would have stayed regardless of the bonus. The $50k may have swayed a guy that falls into the the #2 category, though I think his cross country commute to ANC has more to do with that. PM sent

Yes, without much thought, I can think of 3...Died, Djibouti and somewhere else in the middle east. 2 of them were within 2 years of 20. It's out, not good enough. Big bonus (3 years) = $50k, small bonus = $30k.

In his defense, they also said my early retirement submission in VPC would "seamlessly transition to myFSS"...nearly 5 months and still waiting (historically has taken a few weeks). As of yesterday they are still "working out some bugs, check back later." Hopefully that "later" is before I retire at the end of the month.

Herein lies one of my biggest issues with the .gov/military as a whole. Little to no room for interpretation of intent. I became painfully aware of this as the DETCO of a recent activation. You're not allowed to do what everyone fully understands and agrees is the obvious/right thing to do. BUT because it's a one off situation, none of the FM/JAG/Senior leader weenies are willing to take even the smallest amount of risk, because it's "coloring between the lines." It didn't specifically state we could do it, so we make life painful on everyone and do the most illogical COA. Also, my point still stands. When I said "high level leadership," that extends to those above HAF.

Pfft, forced to do the same with my enlisted girlfriends...you don't see me asking for a celebration month for my persecution!

Let this be a lesson to you young punks who still think they care about you. This is what high level leadership thinks of you. They don't care enough to roll out a bonus before the 9th month of the FY. Make your decisions accordingly.

Same! Agreed with Huggy on lecturing, but I'll certainly offer my opinion to other looking in. However, I won't feel bad for their plight after they just spent the pond crossing me telling me how they've been a WB Capt since 38, showing pics of their Porsche, Seneca (and Bonanza), their 200k+ backyard pool (house near a famous beach), their apartment in AMS...then lectured me on how we should support age 67 because they "need" the next two years. These people exist!

It depends.... Fly your schedule and go home, it's probably a safe bet. Min sked kinda of guy and/or drop liberally and it's a bit high. Hustle and fly premium and it's quite low. Also profit sharing can skew the data a bit. Min reserve guarantee (DAL) of 72 hours actually shacks the pay rate x 1,000 formula. Min line guarantee of 65 hours = pay rate x 900ish. Pooter offers sage advice above. I always advise guys budget on min line guarantee (or less) and use the rest as found money to pay for kids college, buy toys, hookers/blow, etc... I keep my budget much lower than 65 hours, but I don't have kids and have a fair amount of rental income. This made going from 330FO to 717FO a stress free event during rona. I saw dudes freaking out because they "needed" to get 85 hours at 330 rates to maintain their budget....yikes! I'm trying to dig through years with little MLOA, but it's all a bit hazy. Here are some real numbers for your data collection. Actually, over on APC there is a year end pay thread every year. Some guys get all butt hurt about it being a dick measuring contest, but I've always found it to be useful data if they give you deets. I've always been jobs where anyone was free to see how much I'm paid, so talking pay has never bothered me. 2022 - Pay rate Jan - Mar = $167/hr, Apr - Oct = $247/hr. I only worked half of November before going on long term MLOA. Worked the premium trip game pretty hard for 6 of those months but dropped liberally in July. Ended at $261k + $42k in 401k. 20/21 - Too difficult to guess because of a deployment and down time from rona. 2019 - Pay rate was $208/hr. Almost no premium, but hustled a little for more efficient trips. Ended with $236k + 38K in 401k.

Pentagon loses $85 million in F-35 parts... But by gawd, you had better not accidentally use your GTC (while activated) to purchase something that your per diem more than covers! 🙄

We had a dude who said no to the jab and was sent home with like 6 rides remaining in the B-Course. So now, instead of having 4-ship flight lead, he's headed back to start the B-Course over again...what was the cost to the AF on that boneheaded move to not let him finish? One of the more gratifying things I did as a SQ/CC, was sign the paperwork to wash his UIF clean and send him back to training.

I think they're busy at work designing the next software that will make life even harder on the force (pex 2.0, dts 6.9, mypay 2020???). We have a few guys trying to retire right now and myFSS certainly isn't helping their blood pressure. I'm within a month of retirement and thankfully I submitted, and received, my retirement order before the switchover. But now I'm trying to get my early retirement stuff finalized before I lose my CAC, but something that only took a few weeks years ago, now is on month 4. Reason? myFSS switchover (supposedly). Yay, "advancement..." How is myEval 2.0 working out? I've said it numerous times on here, very few "improvements" the AF has rolled out over my 22 years has actually helped me. Mostly it's just dumped the duties of others onto me and has caused me to spend more and more time doing admin, and less time on my real job. Get off my lawn!

I didn't think the F2F was all that crazy in the Tweet, and found the RMI to be helpful in visualizing the whole thing. Now that J2 on the bottom right...WTF was that instrument actually for? I don't think I found it useful for anything.