viper154

Indeed it does.

Unrelated to above,I am doing sport bitching here, but this is what is wrong with the AF. I got non vol UPT direct to RPAs. So be it, needs of the AF, undermanned career field blah blah blah. Holloman was a shit show, but they are undermanned and over worked, so be it. I have now been at my operarional base for 4 months, with about 15 other pilots/sensors that have been here just as long, if not longer. We have done ONE sim in 4 months. ing ONE sim, no flights. How can you justify sending manned pilots you just spent $1.2 million a pop to train to drones, and having them sit on their ass. Rant off. Back to my whisky.

I'll caveat that with the Cannon perspective, place sucks, hours suck, morale is eh, but in the current envirement strikes happen very frequently, so if your into population control this is the pace to be. We also have the LRE squadron, 1 to 1 deployments, some decent TDYs. Standard work days, weekends off, but they currently are AFSOCs most deployed squadron, so they are gone a lot.

So I can't ask their gender indenity but I have to refer to them by their desired gender, and they don't have to tell me what gender they ID with. Why am I not surprised.

Not suprised. Holloman was backed up before the manning push. I was there 180 days, only worked about 70 of them. With the classes at Randolph for the 18x ers almost doublimg in size and 6 UPT guys every six weeks, the new classes at Holloman were beimg told 8-9 months to complete the couse.

The first couple classes of us that got UPT direct are rather savvy on the AF bs. There is a pretty general concensus that we will do the job asked of us to the best of our ability, but sucking the blue D and volunteering for shit deals for hope of a jet latter is not something most of us are not willing to do. We already got the rug yanked once and know this could very well be a empty promise. Especially with nothing paper. We we heard the recat rumors as well. As discussed earlier in the thread, seems like manning should be better in the RPA world in the next 2 years. With the manned pilot shortage continuing in a tailspin hopefully it will allow us to get out. Key to success is to get back manned before 2019 when all the 18x guys start punching. I would expect less than 5% of them to stay leaving us right back in the current RPA manning shit show.

Bro, do you even pilot? But for real, I'm fairly sure you are General Chang. Do currently have any rated hours of any kind in a AF jet? If you do, please amuse us with your resume. If not, go back to your desk, and come back to the forum after you have spent time in your air frame. This is a place for professional military aviators (and those interested in the job) to come and converse/interact about the job. If you think this is place we come to argue with newbs about leadership/core values and our attitudes outside the work environment you are mistaken. If your looking to start trouble or argue, or not heed the advice of the guys on here that have been there, done that, and have the shirt take your ROTC classroom bs talking points over to the YouTube comments section on the AF recruiting videos.

I'm calling it. GC is is ILS. ILS is most likely a AFPC officer that was butt hurt about not getting a rated slot out of his commissioning source. Now he finally has a chance for his "wings" and is sipping the blue kool aid a little to much. Being in AFPC he has plenty of time to post on here while he takes his 2 hour lunch and works a few hours a day.

Been eying this for awhile, wife finally got it for me for our anniversary. Sig Sauer 1911 Emperor Scorpion. First impressions are very good. More to follow.

My bad, my SAPR training and HR CBT are both overdue.

I'll get you a hurt feelings report.

I would kick the kid who said something in the balls. Then I would tell your supervisor you in fact do not have a lease signed and are looking at places, and you will be more than happy to provide a copy of signed lease with date signed if it's a issue. Anyone gives you shit I would march my ass straight to the IG office.

I know someone who just PCS there with his wife. Their pictures of the beach, swimming in blue water, and drinking tropical fruity drinks make me think I would much rather PCS my family there than my current dust covered, toxic tap water, drug/crime infested location of Clovis.

The mission seems rewarding, and for my wants and desires I got a good deal going to the unit I'm heading too. That being said I want to go back manned, if I get shafted so be it, I love to fly. How do Guard/Reserve units look at guys that got passed over but otherwise have a clean/decent record?

It's a A tour for us. It's coded so on VMPF. I had a instructor call our functional last year when I left my UPT base and AFPC confirmed that, and that after 3 years we all have the option to do as we please with in reason. As discussed in the other thread, all the intial 18x guys commitments are up in 2019, and us first round direct guys would also be up. If AFPC can foresee that shit show all going down I can see them shafting us. But as we know AFPC is a reactive force, so I think the guys that can get out before mid 2019 have a honest shot of flying again

Question for the older guys, probably a better career related thread to place this but it's semi relative. I'm a UPT direct guy hoping to go back manned after my tour is up (ya ya might not happen, we've beat that horse already). Because of all the delays with sequester and typical AF BS, it took me 8 months to go on AD after commissioning, another 7 months casual waiting to start UPT, finished UPT on time, and when everything is all said and done a year to get fully qualified in the MQ-9. That being said, I have my training report from UPT, and I won't have my first OPR until I'm a Capt. IF the 3 year tour is honored (ya ya don't kill my hope) by the time I get IQ in the manned follow on I'm going to be going up for my major board with two training reports and 2 maybe 3 OPRs. Is taking the time going backed manned going to be career killer? I have no problem being a 20 yr major or going guard after my 10, but I would like to be realistic on my expectations.

You don't even need the dish. That signal from the states goes a long way before it gets beemed up to space. A small building with the required comm, maintainers, security and a flight doc can get the job done, doesn't sound like a lot but the comm trail for these things is huge

Figured as much. I know some of our foreign friends that fly US RPA products have very special rules about how they can conduct ops. I lost a lot of the details in translation and this probably isent the place to discuss them any further. Reguardless, basing options that aren't in the desert and near decent population centers here conus would help some of my gripes. I can deal with some BS if where I live doesn't suck the D. I don't think locations are going to get any better for the foreseeable future. The current bases congressional districts fight like hell to keep them there, and despite our gripes and QOL complaints our elected officials are going to do everything possible to keep jobs in their districts. I think what we are going to see is a couple of squadrons get stood up at other locations the CSAF talked about late last year. Just enough to say they did something but not enough to help those who didn't get a golden ticket and help the masses. My solution is to transition more of the RPA enterprise to the guard. I think there are enough old guys past 10 but still far enough away from 20 out there that would trade there AD cockpit/queep for a full time guard GCS to finish out their time. Maybe I'm wrong and it's just the scotch talking.

I couldn't agree more, the job still ain't the best, but if the AF could get us some better locations, better hours, and treat it as a true A tour with a legit hope of going to back to a cockpit after the 1 tour was up I (and I think many others) would do the job without us kicking and screaming the entire way.

There is no sense of entitlement going on here. We're not asking for dream assignments to the beach or only to work between the hours of 9-5 M-F. We want to do the job we trained years to do and the taxpayer payed millions to fund. As a tax payer you should be pissed the AF is taking assets it spent tens of million to train and sending them to a job that could be done by 18x ers that cost probably 5% of what a manned pilot cost to train. How do you think that army SF or Navy seal reacts when they get sent to a desk job? They get bitter and pissed. No offense but flying a RPA isent that difficult. Also, get a sense of perspective. This is a online forum where we can vent and sport bitch. When/If you make it a operational squadron you will see that many of us put on our happy face, go to work and hack the mish. Life isent always sun shine and rainbows. Stop being a douche

Policy was impimented by the OG/CC. FYI in my limited interaction with him he was a superdouche. Probably buds with Chang. Choose your battles wisely. Unless your are willing/have the resources/rank to to T off and fight the good fight I recommend you keep your head down and look up some good microwave recipes for the 6-9+ months you will be there. (no joke) I could write a book on the problems with that place, lodging is the least of your worries, especially if you aren't a new guy. Your frustration meter will be pegged the entirety of your stay.

We understand, it's like being lost in the wilderness with two broken legs. We understand we probably will never get out, but the hope that over next hill is a town with the brewery and strip club are what keep us going. Don't kill my brewery and strip club dreams The current ops tempo does a pretty good job at "educating" the young guys. As said above, about 6 months on the line and that cherry "I'm here to help" attitude turns into the salty bitterness. Hence the minimal numbers of guys that are going to stay in 2 years when the commitments start coming up.

Hope. And maybe some luck. It's the only thing that keeps me from saying F it, just not show up one day and living under the overpass.

Reason to be cautiously optimistic. As one of the recent UPT directs it makes me hopeful. I think if you can get out early you have a chance of escaping. As said above, I have heard the AF is expecting something like 40%+ of the initial 18x ers to stay. From my small corner and limited experience, that number is going to be closer to 2-3%. I think this projection is probably based on the assumption people are going to get through the pipeline on time, I can promise you Holloman is turning into more of a shit show everyday. I was lucky and got out almost on time but the majority of folks are graduating a month or two late, and the classes that just showed were told to expect that to increase by several months. Also keep in mind the amount of CAPs were reduced to up pipeline production. Soon as the pencil pushers see green numbers those CAPs are going to go back up. Sounds like it might be worth shot to try and volunteer get a bomber or ISR gig Either way, I wish you luck, hopefully we are all someday back in a real jet.

Oh really? Glad you plan on honoring that "promise" you just sold to 100+ UPT grads and stuck them in the box. Glad your plan to fix the manning issue is to screw over the pilots you non vol'd to RPAs. That should really help the morale. Hope your star stabs you in the jugular on your way to work tomorrow. If you are who you say you are.