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Shithole of an island. Everything worth seeing in Guam can be hit in 3 weeks. After that, it's groundhog day. Be sure to hit up McKrauts for some good German beer! For morning coffee, grab a redeye from Island Girl Coffee n' Quenchers...good scenery there.

He's in the Guard, I would say it worked out pretty well for him.

2! Before, I was paying $1,200/month to live in a single family home. I bought a duplex with a little leverage, now I generate enough income to pay both of my mortgages and all of my monthly bills. This! I listened to his book while driving across the U.S., and his plan is extremely basic for most of the members of this forum. However, I think his book should be read by more Americans. It provides a good base for people so springboard off of, to other financial endeavors. As a country, I think we do a TERRIBLE job of teaching our young financial intelligence and responsibility. Unless your parents teach you, where do they get educated on this? This is one of my soapbox items.

I'll refer you back to Fuseplugs post.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2913 Any chance of this bill seeing the light of day? 12304b vs 12301d These are our choices when our squadron gets involuntarily mobilized to "deploy" to some non-contingency TSP (to do absolutely nothing). It's akin to picking between the fat chick and the ugly chick. Here is an article on the matter. What it doesn't say is that while 12301d gives you all the benefits listed in the article, it is NOT USERRA exempt (but could be with SECAF approval)...even though we are INVOLUNTARILY mobilized. https://www.arpc.afrc.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/267/Article/698148/changes-to-dod-mobilization-authority-could-impact-reservists.aspx Thanks for dropping by Baseops.

Some do, many do not. I would venture to guess that most of those who do "hide out," are commuters. No way I would go back on orders, life is "pretty darn good," as a part timer. On the contrary, the only way I would consider such an assignment is with the following; -Spang or Aviano, line IP only, no additional duties (maybe asst. scheduler), no non-vol single man "TDY/Deployments" (I'll deploy with the squadron), Mon-Thurs work week, 0700-1730 work day (debrief stops to be out the door at 17:30:01), I can take my leave whenever I want (ALL of it...in 15 or 30 day chunks), ...and I'm gonna need ~125k/yr bonus for the 3 years (I don't care that I'm still under my UPT ADSC). FWIW, my SQ/CC recently received an e-mail asking if he had guys willing to come back on active duty for an assignment (flying or staff). Oddly enough, no bites... This...all of this right here! It was one thing when we were deploying every 2-2.5 years, for 45-60 days, to go drop bombs. But now we're "deploying" every 20-22 months, for 90-110 days, to do NOTHING... Dudes are asking themselves, why they're taking HUGE pay cuts to go twiddle their thumbs on some non-relevant TSP.

Ya, they already know who they're going to hire...

I was unfortunate enough to have to spend an extra 6-9 months at UPT due to a medical issue. I just stayed put until I was was healed, then was placed into the class that was close to the point where I went DNIF.

AGR is duty location. ADOS is home of record.

I can assure you he isn't the only one exploring all options. Life changes, commanders change (big issue with some squadrons) and the Guard has drastically changed! It seems that lately, there have been quite a few dudes leave squadrons for other gigs (flying and non-flying). Take one look at where the Guard Vipers have been sent lately. Involuntarily mobilized...to go sit and do nothing. What a waste of manpower and tax dollars...I'll never understand how it's not fraud, waste and abuse. I'm not sure of the reference, but have you checked the ADSC paperwork we signed at the end of UPT? A quick google search turned up AFI 36-2001 (1.10-1.11). It may not have the answer you're looking for, but it may provide a trail to search. Have you talked to a JAG? Let us know what you find. Best of luck!

You can see them all here at the National Guard Bureau Legislative Liaison...just search section 616. Looks like the House was down with 60k and the Senate was not. Note: Didn't look through the whole bill, just CTRL-F "incentive."

Ya....kinda. I had a trip that was NOOP (not operated...worked out great, went home and got paid for it anyway)...we have some pretty loose definitions of not canceling a flight. I think as long as we operate it within 24 hours, it's not considered cancelled. Just like our "on-time" performance. Oh you aren't gonna make your push...no problem, we'll push that back 15 minutes. No matter to me...I get paid the same either way!

Very interesting play indeed. We have guys about to end a year or 2 of MLOA that are on the fence about extending...this bonus will be a big player. There are new patches resigning and going to the airlines. The Guard BS is much less than our AD counterparts, but it's still very much UP, relatively speaking.

Day 1 of a two week trip to Davis-Monthan, I'm first out the gate, and roll onto the runway as the sun is cresting the horizon (TDY squadrons lose the BMGR scheduling war). The controller says, "time to wake up the complainers, cleared for takeoff..." Turns out a PW229, makes A LOT of noise on a cold, calm, quiet Tucson morning. Within 20 minutes of our first takeoffs (8-ship), we have numerous noise complaints. After talking with the DM folks, they say the biggest complainers are former milItary. "...I was in 20 years and I know how they're supposed to fly..." I think they said in the 2 weeks we were there, they had more noise complaints than the previous 6-9 months. One of the great things about being at a stand alone Guard squadron is the locals love us! I stopped at a coffee ship on my way to work and had someone walk up a say they had a complaint! He says, you don't fly low enough, fast enough or loud enough over my house...then he buys my coffee. Small town, hard working, blue collar Americans...gotta love them!

It sure is a good thing they shut down the B-Course at Springfield. I think, about the time they needed more training capacity in the mid-late 2000s, Springfield flew their last jet out of dodge.

They'll start farming more out to Guard squadrons and put the burden on us to get them experienced. We already have one AD guy and I expect we'll see more in the near future. Problem is, all our IPs, and flight leads are going to the airlines too. Oh and I'm sure we'll get the mx guys, to help with sortie generation, any day now. Check is in the mail...

3 weeks is WAY too long. Brabus, has a great idea and would be perfect. Ok, you won't shorten it back to two weeks? Then don't get all pissed off and push back when we say we're going to need a swap out. Many of us still have an alert mission to man, this eats up a lot of manpower. No swaps = same full timers flying RF year after year. Good luck getting part timers to drop a whole month of mil leave for a RF, especially when many are losing big $$$$ to do so.

My class/flt leader in AF SERE was a former Marine Harrier Pilot that was hired to fly Hogs in the ANG. This was circa 2009. As you can imagine his give a fuck factor was pretty low...can't say that I blame him. Hope you can get this waived, that was beyond ridiculous.

The Big Short. Worth it! It's to bad this is being overshadowed by Star Wars, I thought it was very well. I have the book but never got around to reading it, so I can't compare the two.

Unless you're in the Guard/Reserve. For the newly minted ARC types, the grandfather only runs until the end of your current order. So you have to keep extending your current order to keep the old rate. +11%...this brings me back to 2014 rates. For 2015, in my area, O-4 w/dependents went up and w/o dependents with down...hatin' on the single guys! BAH type II was actually more than standard BAH for an O-4 w/o dependents.

Just make sure it's >83' AGL over my house!!! For any fellow NPR planet money nerds, there is a whole podcast dedicated to this subject.

There are two types of people in my squadron who have a masters...former active duty guys and guys who have them for their civilian employment. Recently, we received a memo about needed a masters to make O-6... PME is mandatory, but I don't think we've had anyone go in-residence since the early 2000s, and I think that was just because he wanted to get out of dodge for a few weeks.

I wonder if they'll open up extra pay days for us to complete the OLMP... Not that I have any desire to make O-6, 20 year can't get here fast enough!

We are well on our way to becoming AD. We have gone from 30 day deployments to 120-180 days. We have at least one wing with a active duty Wing Commander. Almost all Guard fighter units will have 1-5 active duty pilots in them, starting later this year (if they don't already). We are deploying Guard squadrons...just to deploy (cough...TSP). I have seen pressure being applied for our young guys to go SOS in-residence (how do we have money for this). Our OPRs have become downright ridiculous! How the fuck do you make an part timer OPR sound good enough to compete against a full time AD guy...they sure are trying! Rumblings of making a masters a requirement for O-6. I could go on and on. They are now sending Guard fighter squadrons on TSP. Deploying us to go fly CT, while they deploy another squadron to the desert. Otherwise put, deploying two squadrons to do the work of one. Deploy us to go drop bombs on shitheads, no problem. But deploy us to go fly CT, while you deploy another squadron to drop bombs, now you have a problem. You have now taken a bunch of part timers who would normally freely volunteer to deploy and turned them into ones that say, activate me. Of note, as the law currently is written, we are not USERRA exempt on TSP. Nothing like a non-voluntary trip counting against your five years of USERRA protection. As has already been said, the path we are taking leads to horrible attrition and losing what makes the Guard so great...experience!

A CFI certificate is valid for 24 calendar months. You can renew via a few different methods. In this case, you can renew it by proving that within the last 12 months (ie...not send something in every 12 months), you served in some capacity as a instructor for the Air Force. So as long as you still hold your instructor qual and actually fly, then you should be good to go. Edit: If you are no longer a military instructor, you can also renew it via a Flight instructor refresh course (FIRC). I have used the online FIRC from American Flyers 4 times now and have only paid once. Pretty decent deal, considering many other companies charge you ~$100 every two years. https://www.americanflyers.net/cfi_renewal.htm