SocialD

Get ready for drill this weekend.... https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpVNsWBD080/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

8 days a month!?!? How do they even have enough pay days for something like that? Are they forcing them to only log 1 pay card/day...if so, bail asap. I guess they don't understand the "part-time" idea behind the Guard/Reserve. I wouldn't even work in a fighter squadron that required 8 days a month. My squadron (fighters) only requires 4 days/month, but most guys do 5 or so. Most of my heavy brethren are only required to work 2 days/month. I'd recommend he try to get hired at a unit that is actually part-timer friendly, or look at an AOC or IMA gig.

Some day he'll look back on this a realize it's the best thing that ever happened to him. A contracting officer should be able to do better than a .gov job.

Already done! Got my retirement order yesterday. I just have another 1.5 months left on this activation, then I'm a ghost until my fini this summer. I'm actually quite shocked at how easy/fast the process was to apply for retirement and get my order. All told, I think I spent 10 minutes to fill out the request, then the order showed up a week later. If only the VA process was as easy...

Let me give you an example of the bullshit dealt with just this week. For context, the member is activated stateside, but away from home. This is real life in the military... Finance: Sir, one of your members has an unauthorized purchase on his GTC. Me: What did he buy? *thinking this dude went to a strip joint* Finance: He bought a fishing license with his GTC. Me: *OK this dude clearly isn't as cool as I thought, but fishing is fun too...just not as fun as strippers* Me: *laughs then thinks....oh shit, this guy is serious.* Me: Does he have per diem to cover it? Finance: Yes. Me: Ok, then what's the problem? Finance: It's not an authorized purchase location? Me: Can I authorize it as his CC? Finance: Ummm.... Me: I mean, the dude could have done a cash advance for the same amount, right? Finance: Yes Me: Then he could have walked from that ATM with said cash and bought said item, right? Finance: Yes Me: ...and that's authorized? Finance: Yes Me: ...............silence.......... Finance: ............silence............ Me: the why the fuck are we having this conversation? Finance: The purchase location on his GTC isn't authorized. Me: But an ATM at the same location would have been fine? Finance: Yes sir. Me: *stares through phone muthafuckingly* Me: How much are we talking here. Finance: $25 dollars. Me: $%$%#&#*#((# Finance: Sir? Me: OK, what do you need? Finance: I need this form filled out, which requires an investigation. Me: WTF? Over $25, that is more than covered by his per diem? Finance: Yes sir...we have to have it for the auditors. Me: Can I just send you a memo that says it's good to go? Finance: No sir, the auditor requires this form. Me: Sure, I'll just clear my schedule of that unimportant shit like flying and launch an investigation into this great travesty that will certainly bankrupt the AF! Finance: Is that some kind of joke, we weren't issued a sense of humor at finance school (ok, that part might be made up...10% rule applies). So I spent a morning "investigating" a $25 purchase, where my comments were a veiled, I can't believe you made me do this and this is basically fraud waste and abuse of my time. Meanwhile, at DAL... Stuck out in a wx event where I can't get ahold of anyone from the company, and without any approvals/questions/forms filled out (gasp). I slap my credit card down for 2 cabs and 5 hotel rooms for the crew at the nicest hotel I can find. On the way to the airport the next day, I file the receipts with a note saying that we got stuck and I procured transportation/lodging for my crew. I was never questioned and paid out within a few days. Crazy talk, I know!

Bad assumption. I'm a 717 Captain, but I do live in base for both jobs and the reserve GS game was righteous last year. The GS's have dried up significantly (while I've been on orders), but a buddy at my seniority has hasn't turned a wheel since mid December. I used to be a WB FO before rona displaced me, but I opted to upgrade rather than reinstate back to the 330. That was a good life too, I just grew tired of the 6 day trips (and the fatigue that went with it) and/or the rat race it took to avoid those long trips (mostly not available these days due to staffing in my old category). As brabus eluded to...get/stay senior and your life will be infinitely better most anything else out there. I was 13 years from an AGR retirement (after 13 years in) when I got hired at DAL, so that was never in the cards for me. I'm just not cut out for "punch a clock" style of work of full-time, it's worse than groundhog day to me...especially since most of my days are spent behind a computer and/or fighting battles that shouldn't have to be fought. On the upside, I just got my retirement order yesterday...the end is near!

Where does it say this? It's totally believable to me that DFAS could be putting out bad data, at this point in my career, I expect nothing less! But this would be an entire fuck job if this is floating around out there so someone reads it as the gospel and ends up screwed. It's extremely definitive in this brief.

Maybe I'm misreading your posts, but they way you explain it is how I always knew it to be. However, this is where the confusion lies with guys in the squadron. We received a powerpoint created by DFAS (DFAS 101 Retirement Services) provided to us by FM, that shows otherwise. They give an example where a DSG retires after 2.5 years as a LTC and 0.5 years as a COL. The examples shows that they continue in the gray area as a COL until they hit retirement age (age 60 or earlier as applicable), and that this counts toward their "high 3." It specifically says "all 36 months will be at the COL rate." This is all if you "stay affiliated" (stay in IRR) after retirement.

On similar lines, can anyone back me up on this? If a DSG/TR retires after only a year as an O-5, their retirement paperwork will show O-4 (who really cares). However, since they live in the "grey area" and continue to accumulate years of service until they hit retirement age, their retirement pay is still all based completely off O-5 rates...right?

Meanwhile, we'll fry someone who served honorably for 20+ years for piddly bullshit.

So there I was, back in Afghanistan over a decade after my first trip in country. Not an American outside the wire, ROE so strict that pretty much all we could do is watch shit happen... JAGs/Engagement authority scared of their own shadows. Complete waste of money/assets, not to mention our time/morale. 6 months later, we dumped that place faster that your crazy ex-gf that keyed your car. Many who hadn't thought much of going to the airlines decided to make that jump because of that trip. The end.

Don't do the math on how much money we spent killing a dude in a mud hut in the middle of nowhere Afghanistan.

Ah ok, didn't realize there was a difference with the medical exemption guys as we just have religious exemption guys. Here's hoping you have plenty of time before your next "year" to get a good year now. Even more so, I hope they just go back and give you credit for that year.

Wait, were the people who didn't get the shot NOT supposed to be working over the last few years? You know, asking for a friend... Fuse, were you not allowed to drill/work? I know of one squadron would have had to cease operations if all their pilots who didn't vax weren't allowed to work. Either way, I hope you get your 50 points/good year. Best of luck! In other news...if these fucksticks would have just used the least bit of common sense and let my dude fly 6-9 more rides, I'd have full up wingman about to enter the FLUG. I guess we can't underestimate the zeal in which some commanders will take to persecute anyone who dared question this bullshit. Now that 6-9 rides is costing them an entire B-Course lol. It's in the job description!

Do they get Berets? That alone would allow me to live my best life!

Not to my knowledge, as that's exactly what I'm doing this year. Yes it would limit what you can put in your 401k with another employer this year because your 402(g) limit ($22,500 this year), which encompasses 401k and TSP. Your 401k contributions and TSP contributions combined, can not exceed the 402(g) limit. So if you maxed it out, it would keep you from putting into your 401k at a new employer, but it does not stop the company from putting in their contributions since their contributions are subject to the 415(c) limit of $66,000. Depending on who you go to work for, you may still have the option to contribution to your retirement plan up to the $66,000 limit. As an example, at DAL we have an "after-tax" option, which would allow me to contribute more to my Delta Pilot Savings Plan if I wanted.

Do yourself a favor and stop pondering...

I feel this so much right now. In the last week, I've probably spent 9+ hours just trying to get a single PRF through the wickets for a promotion board. The DOD about lost a .gov laptop through the window (yeetus computus!). I could write a page or two on how all the issues in this process are great metaphor for how we're doing. Small example, I call the phone number that the rejection e-mail told me to call for help. They say, "oh sorry, we can't help you with that issue and we can't transfer you to the people who can, you must go through mypers (which means you can't talk to a human)." WTF, why even list the number!? In other news, anyone know a fix date so our e-mail doesn't lock up/shut down every time I accidentally mouse over the persons name? Or a fix date on when my flight pay will actually pay out correctly...in 2018, I was told it would be 2020, so we got that going for us! Don't you mean... -Flew 330 cbt hrs w/excptnl prof; gurnt'd success in high-prof msns & tgt neutr'ztion; 100% CMDREUCOM obj met!

I bet every time he speaks on live TV, his Chief of Staff/Staffers hold their breath with their fingers crossed.

This has been a pretty common misconception by many of my squadron mates. The only ones who come back on orders, are the guys who are within 5 years of their 20. The rest have gotten a taste of the QOL and are now DSGs for life. It's funny is seeing the "I'm never going to the airline" types, especially the ones who gave airline guys shit, who are now DSG for life because of how good the QOL is for them. Unfortunately, I had to go on orders in early December and I forgot how bad being full time sucks. I've worked more in the last two months than I did in the last 5 months of 2022 at Delta...never mind the massive pay hit. I guess if all I did was show up, fly and go home, it wouldn't be terrible. But I don't think people realize how much of life in the military is fighting one self-imposed (by the AF) roadblock after another. It's completely maddening and what makes me dread getting up and going to work almost every day right now. It's something you don't grasp until you have a job where all you have to do is fly and you're not constantly fighting just to get basic shit done. Then the huge added benefit is that you don't take work home with you! The end of these orders can't get here fast enough! I'm nothing close to a weapons officer, but "it depends..." My recommendation to all our young guys is that if you even think you may to the airlines at some point, I'd get hired ASAP because seniority is everything. If you're within 5 years of a 20 year retirement, depending on how far you'll go for orders, then I'd imagine it wouldn't be all that hard to get to 20 while out on MLOA. Lots of orders floating around the system...ask Brabus

Every time this thread resurfaces, I quickly check it to see if I get to retire a few months early! Guess I'll keep going to work a little while longer...

You had me until you said "tech that sits alert." Woof!

He's not wrong though.

To busy enjoy the nice little sidebar going on lol. Ya, had the makings of a Tenerife type disaster. Lots of blame to go around between the controllers and the AAL flight. JFK is shitshow on good days and I'm so glad my plane doesn't go to NYC anymore. That's actually one of the many reasons I stay put.

These were made up a while back based on the 18/5/4/4. MEC is being briefed on the TA today and will release TA information later tonight.