pawnman

FB implied that only 12X's who had an ADSC expiring in 2017 were eligible. I haven't seen it via any official channels. Seems to make perfect sense to me...retain pilots to about year 15, and CSOs to year 10-11.

MREs for every meal!

Well, the promotion increments have dropped to about half of what they were...so I assume it's to keep the same general timeline between the board and actual promotion dates.

"Sir, can you give me just a minute? I have to talk to these medical folks about a prescription". Or, just give a guy the cold shoulder, not only making him think YOU are an asshole, but giving him a poor impression of the service overall. Way to get involved with the community.

I feel like there's something in here about blaming the victim...

We'll do what we've always done in large-scale conflicts - relax the recruiting standards until we have enough people.

Wait, I'm REQUIRED to wear sunglasses in the aircraft now? News to me. It's one thing to meet impact resistance while deployed on a convoy...it's a different thing to use impact-resistance as justification at a UPT base stateside.

Policy letters have their place. At least if I have a SQ/CC policy letter to point to, the RA won't push back when I request a certain kind of gear. I agree that you don't need a policy letter for everything...but they have their place. Sometimes it's less for the people inside the squadron and more for those throwing stones from the outside.

Agreed. The recent uptick in people being picked up above-the-zone gives me a little hope that the Air Force is following the guidance of rating the records, not the year groups. Some people are fast burners, others take longer to develop. In my personal opinion, the year group construct is a self-inflicted wound that just continues to bleed...in this case, bleeding talent to the airlines and other outside jobs.

We've got C-130s. ATC is there 24/7. So is WX and AMOPS. AFE is there to support the flying schedule...if the last line lands at 0100, then there's AFE troops there until 0200. If the first line steps at 0400, then AFE is there at 0400. I'm just curious how we have two entire groups, and multiple squadrons within the MSG, that can make this happen, but finance and MPF are "too precious" to work a weekend or stay late a couple nights a week until they get caught up. Believe me, I know about medical. They are the worst offenders with this kind of thing.

No, we're talking about how you refuse to make your guys work 1 minute past 1630, but how it's acceptable for the entire OG, MXG, SFS, and Fire Department to work 24/7.

They never answer.

Working people an extra hour isn't "running them into the ground". You should spend some time on the flight line. The MX folks have some choice words for your office-dwelling 9-to-5ers.

So you're willing to let the mission fail to "protect your people"? This is why non-flyers almost never get command of a wing. Because the flyers know it isn't acceptable to tell POTUS "Sorry sir, we won't be launching those strikes today...Capt Snuffy has a class after work, and Maj Donut has to pick up his kid from the CDC by 5pm".

Financial issues are a huge driver of suicides. So, when your guys knock off early on Friday for PT instead of unfucking A1C Snuffy's pay, and he can't make the rent, and he kills himself over the weekend...then yes, people do lose their lives. All so "your troops" didn't have to be exposed to one minute of overwork "because it's too stressful".

Because when I go to the comm building, there's a giant sign that says "closed for squadron function".

We still have that in an ops squadron. Turns out it's useful to have someone who can bring things to/from the aircraft, or take a phone call, or schedule some airspace. I did that job as a Lt...it was a rotating duty, like Ops Sup. And it did more to build my knowledge and experience regarding ETICs, turn times, priority, jet availability, and the like than flying for a year ever did.

Having watched passed over majors get RIF'd just a few years ago, I would certainly prefer to have a defined path to retirement instead of "well, we're short on people for now, so you can continue...oh, looks like we're over manned, get out. Too bad you served 17 years, but no retirement for you".

I think you've got the right idea. This is what the Navy does, BTW...you are a flyer and also an OIC for a MX or LRS or similar shop, including all the enlisted guys that fall under it.

We've been using JMPS for years.

Counter-argument - I could do a finance officer's job with a week of OJT. How long would it take him to do my job?

I was waiting for the second half of the story, where you removed him from the SQ/All emails and he berated you for not keeping him in the loop.

Not even. I wrote my papers at a level that matched my freshman year of college and passed with flying colors.

I can tell you that 12B for B-52 was 56%, for B-1 47%. Overall 12X was 61%. I've just seen the stats from the FB page our functional started, no idea about the other 12X fields.

So, just saw elsewhere that the overall rate to Lt Col was 72.1%. (unofficial, of course). But what was disheartening to me, personally, was that the rate for 12B was about 50% (56% for B-52, 47% for B-1). This, despite the fact that every B-52 and B-1 squadron is short more 12Bs than 11Bs. I guess they're already starting to phase us out for the B-21.