SocialD

Well technically speaking, all our deployments, including TSPs, are group involuntary mobilizations (not just Bama). However, not every pilot is required to go, we just have to fill the trip, which could even come from outside help. The individual just gets to decide if they want to go voluntary or involuntary...which is like picking between the fat one or the the ugly one (wrt to benefits received). Also, if you look outside of ops, there are actually quite a few individual involuntary mobilizations. We've recently had troops from Supply, Medical, CE and likely soon a Chief, get mobilized for 6 months to a year. On the plus side, they leave it up to the base to decide who goes from that section, and they're usually filled with a volunteer.

Ehh...I guess it depends upon your leadership. I can assure you, you will never see a pilot being a green dot facilitator in our squadron. We have a MSgt, ops admin chick for that. She also does A LOT of DTS, orders generation, and many other things that make our lives easier. Pretty much worth her weight in gold.

This is an easy 4 step process I follow. 1. Don't have a wife. 2. Send all your married friends as many videos/pics of naked chicks, as you can. 3. Enjoy being single. 4. Give zero fucks about the wives club or what they think.

As you said, it depends. At DAL, it varies wildly by base and aircraft, depending on the staffing. Aside from certain holidays, I'm easily able to drop or swap my trips/reserve days, in the winter. In the summer it can be a little harder (sts), again depending on staffing. It's much easier on my WB than it was on the NB. Some categories are staffed well and it's super easy, while others are perpetually short and almost impossible (cough...NYC). We have quite a few avenues to adjust your schedule. You can just drop trips, as long as there are enough reserves. You can swap trips with open time (trips with no pilots). You can swap trips with friends, or just have them take it off your line. You can also post it on a board for anyone to pickup. It was eye watering watching my SWA buddies manipulate their schedules, even when very junior.

The way I understand it, is that you could have 7200 "retire" points and still not qualify for a AD retirement. Log into vMPF and go to your points summary that has the breakdown by year. It has multiple columns like IDT, AD, Retire and Total. You need the AD column to total 7,200 to get a full AD retirement. Anything short of that and you get a Guard retirement at 60 which will be calculated off the number in your retire column. At least that's the way it was explained to me. This is all from a briefing many years ago so don't quote me on this. I also think, once you hit 7200 AD points, they count all the points in your "retire" column, toward that retirement, which could be a bit higher.

Fair enough, I had the exact opposite experience. Whatever works.

If they want me full time, I'll need a 80k+/yr bonus. Aside from that, a TX is the last thing I want to do at this point in my career. Also, being full time blows! Wrt northern teir LFE opportunities, the only upside to Volk complex is that it's range is right in the center of the airspace and it's relatively close to MSN. Other than that it's kinda of a restrictive airspace. Selfridge seems like a much better fit for that. The Alpena complex is massive and has much better airspace. For those who haven't operated out of Alpena, it's actually a pretty awesome place in the spring-fall. Plus, The River Club!!! If those walls could talk... But who am I kidding, politics win the day every time. *Not a Selfridge guy.

Nailed it! Out of curiosity, what made you pick those locations? Montgomery I get, they have access to over water ranges and are close to other 5th Gen assets. However, I can't understand WI at all. They're airspace isn't very good and you have to juke and jive around noise sensitive areas to get to initial (funny enough, much like VT). Last time I was there, you couldn't even do patterns due to noise complaints. I have no desire to fly the 35 and even if my squadron had been on the list, I would have done everything possible to stick with the Viper until retirement. They want 3 years full time, after a TX, for that thing...good luck getting that out of your part timers. Anyway, there are a few other squadrons that make so much more sense than WI. I shouldn't be surprised, tactical considerations be damned, politics clearly with the day.

The pilots hold the power of allowing PBS on property or not, and what you're talking about is contract language and computer code. What if PBS built your line (how YOU wanted...not the company), THEN as the final step, added in vacation and dropped everything it touched? Would PBS still be ass? Under LOT, the company builds the trips and the lines of time...under PBS the company builds the trips and the pilot builds the line. On reserve, I have found PBS to be great. At 93% in my seat, I was able to get all weekends off in Jan, and was able to limit my on call days to 4 day blocks. Given that the shortest trips are 3 days, but a majority are >4 days (and they're not easily broken up), I have ensured there is just a short window they can use me in each block. This was definitely not possible under LOT, unless you were SUPER senior and even then, under AALs lines I saw, there was nothing like this.

As someone who has bid under line of time (albeit briefly) and now PBS, I would take PBS every time. I have found it far superior to LOT wrt to the individual scheduling. When I was at AAL, I basically had to pick between a number of equally shitty short call reserve lines. Under PBS, I have much more control over days off, and the number of on call days in a block. Coverage does suck but is a necessary evil, and can be kept under control wth some contract language. I'm not sure of AALs PBS, but our coverage does honor seniority. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way, but it's usually a result of an underlying conflict (FAR117, etc..). A decent portion of my QOL you mention (for DAL), is based on having PBS. The huge downside for pilots, is it's efficiency. This means, without proper contract language, fewer pilots on the seniority list. Other than that, I agree that AAL has a long way to go wrt QOL issues.

When I was a full timer (5+ years), I set aside time for that stuff because I damn sure wasn't doing it on my own time. Some months I met rap, some months I didn't, some tasks were pushed off a day or two and obviously some could not. Strangely enough, the wheels kept on turning and Squadron still functioned. Then again, there is a reason I left for the airlines and haven't looked back. I am thankful for, but do not envy the full-timers that remain, they are doing WAY to much work with far too few assets (and pay).

For the Guard bubbas out there, you'll be good if you're an AGR. However, not so for any of you Guard bums who jump from order to order, even if there isn't a break between sets. At least that's how it went down for me back in the 2012ish time frame. I came off a set of orders on one day and went right back onto another set the following day and the next paycheck my BAH was the new, lower rate, yay... That year the w/o dependent dropped ~$90, while the w/ dependent went up ~$150. In my area my BAH rate went up $3 while the w/dependent rate went up ~$100. Jealous assholes hating on the single crowd!

Ehh, just do ACSC while logging pay cards at the base or while on orders.

That's right! Us single guys still have families, that's why we get that family separation pay like the married guys...

Not Hacker, but scope is THE most important section of a contract (it's section #1 for a reason). It's the section that lays out what flying MUST be done by company pilots and what can be farmed out to regional/joint venture carriers. Without it, or with crappy scope, the company can farm out the flying to whomever they wish. On one end of the scope spectrum you have SWA, who has pretty solid scope. From my understanding, EVERY passenger who buys a southwest ticket is flown by Southwest pilots. However, a person who buys a Delta ticket to say Copenhagen (I just ran a orbitz search) could end up flying on one of our regional carriers to ORD then Air France to CPH. A ticket sold by Delta and not once are they being flown by a Delta pilot. All the carriers (except SWA), have some form of give on scope, some more than others. For the big-3, selling top end scope means fewer WB pilots, thus fewer of the highest paying jobs, and fewer pilots in general. If/when you get to an airline and the union starts talking about selling scope for pay rates...be VERY weary. Doing so can mean stagnation in your current seat or even maybe never seeing the left seat of that WB.

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Quit over SOS? I did the old SOS, and I've heard the new one is a royal pain, but wait until you start ACSC...this shit is terrible! Anyway, lots of other shit needs solved prior to this. Given that Guard guys go to OTS now, as opposed to AMS, I doubt you'll be blazing any trails to decouple ARC PME from AD. Most of the Captains in my squadron have given up and gone in-residence (prior to last year, I think the last pilot we had go in-residence was 2002ish). The full timers ended up enjoyed the break from the squadron. If you don't want to do SOS, you could always ROPMA, we've had a few go that route. Even saw a guy that didn't do SOS or ACSC an still made Lt Col last year.

No raise for this DSG. I talked to one of our sharp finance NCOs, who I've trusted since my SrA days, and she said a fix is being worked and is well above her pay grade. She mentioned that AGRs and Active duty guys are good, but anyone on short term (ADOS type) orders and DSGs have not been fixed yet. She's updated weekly on the progress and hopes that it will automatically back pay us, if not they'll have to do it manually...

Ehh, they have a pill for that these days...right?

What a fucked up way of saying "thanks for your service."

Lol, right! They could start by not sending ARC Fighter squadrons on these bullshit TSPs, to go sit and do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Use us to supplement the AD on deployments to actual combat ops and give the AD squadrons a break/spread out their deployments.

My understanding is that our spare iPad will be assigned to each jet and kept at the ops desk. 1COs will ensure they're charged and kept up to date an handed out at step. I could be off on that, my discussion with OGV was a few drinks in before a roll call.

Political leadership 101: When you can't do something meaningful, do something visible.

First In Jawbreaker Horse Soldiers If you haven't read them, they are 3 great books that cover the first few months of the war in Afghanistan. First In was written by the first CIA officer on the ground in the days following 9/11, and Jawbreaker was written by his replacement. They cover the killing of Mike Spann and the friendly fire incident during the Battle of Qala-I-Jangi, to name a few. All 3 books have some overlap but tell some amazing stories.

Still no pay bump for this ANG guy. That's great, a good finance is worth their weight in gold! I wish I could say the same about our finance. I just wish I could go back to the days of paper vouchers, paper 105s, etc...