Danny Noonin

They are missing WHY dudes are disgruntled. I've been around a long time, as you have. There have certainly been boom and bust cycles for morale. This one is far different than what I think can fairly be called the last down cycle for pilots in the mid to late 90s. Young pups hear jack/shit about mission focus anymore. The mission is what motivates them. It's why they are here. But they hardly hear a peep about it from their leadership. That's the number one reason. Act like what they dedicate themselves to is worth your attention. All they hear about from the cake eaters is stuff like you yourself (and guys like old major chang) has said--get you masters or you clearly don't care. There are no bad assignments. You should get down on your knees every day and thank mother air force for all she has given you. Service before self after all. These fuckers have known nothing but war. They have never, ever known any semblance of stability or predicability in their whole careers. They weren't around in the good old days where we had fun. When we were captains, our career paths were stable, our deployments predictable, our promotion process was rational, there was no such thing as a 179 or God forbid a 365 other than a few remotes to Korea. We didn't face down UAV assignments. We didn't face constant rumors (and realities) of a RIF. There was a mission focus. Leaders seemingly cared that their CGOs were good in the jet. That's all that mattered to my early commanders. It's how they stratted CGOs for the most part. I swear to God I never heard a single word from a leader about a masters degree until I was a major. Not one word. Now guys are dirtbags if they haven't started one as a lieutenant. Education is king, the only problem is that no one seems to care what you study, how we'll you do or what diploma mill you go to. After all, it makes great "thinkers" yet no one seems to be allowed to think for themselves. It's party line or you're a troublemaker. See problems? Don't point them out and offer solutions. That's whining. Dudes are tired of that bullshit. So what are the "aristocrats" missing? 1) acknowledge that young pups in the AF have been run ragged. I mean really acknowledge that, not just a token half-hearted comment here or there. 2) acknowledge that there are bad deals and lose the "suck it up" and "service before self" lectures. No one respects that bullshit. You can't polish a turd. 3) Masters degree does not equal dedication or leadership potential. Stop saying that it does. Masters is required. Got it. But when it goes beyond being a yes/no at the board to being used for strats and jobs, then it's out of fucking control. The AF has absolutely lost its mind in this regard. Job performance and leadership potential should be king. They are not. 4). acknowledge that these dudes face an uncertain future with regards to promotion, assignments and RIFs unlike we ever did and it stresses them out and wears at their morale. Don't even dare compare it to uncertainties you had in your early career. You and I both know that it's not even close. I'm tired of typing now. But that's a start.

Stop with the "rape songs" bullshit already.

Ok whatever he is. Irrelevant. Someone "in his position" (based solely on his own posted credentials). By the way, he should NOT be outed. The entire nature of this forum would change if guys had to put their own names up against their banter here. Adding names makes things said "official", not merely anonymous BSing. If you guys want to hear from anyone other than young pups, then you have to allow for anonymity.

Hmmm. I agree with you in the context of the condescending "quit yer bitching" and "if you don't like it you can get the fuck out" stuff he's been saying. Hes quite out of touch for a wing cc. But in this here case, the "lurker" tossed some personal attack grenades from the cheap seats. I don't expect anyone on here to have to absorb cheap shots but not be able to respond.

What the fuck is with this "rape song" bullshit? Liquid said that three or four times now you're starting up with it. I've been in a lot of fighter squadrons and sung a lot of songs in a lot of bars in a lot of countries. NOT ONE of them has condoned, mentioned, suggested, etc, rape. Not one. Crude? Yes. Extremely so. Rape? Fuck no. The list of songs liquid said was apparently from a google search and even parroted the Wikipedia description. Most of those songs I've never heard of. The rest have lyrics that are variable (s&m, Chicago, etc) meaning that there are infinite verses possible and many are made up on the spot. So because you can do a google search and find some lyrics that some British rugby team used or in an old Vietnam songbook does not mean that those are lyrics actually sung in a fighter bar. I'm not saying that there has never been an Air Force person to sing a song that did. But to suggest that there is some culture of "rape songs" in the air force or in fighter squadrons is so fucking ignorant of the truth it's unbelievable.

Seriously? Because if there are too many pilots on AD and you let some go to the ARC where there are not too many pilots then there would no longer be too many pilots on AD yet you'd still get payback on the training and have the experienced services of those pilots available in both an operational and strategic reserve capacity. You do know that ARC guys are still on the team, right? Plus, if you believe Chang there is talk of a RIF otherwise known as non-voluntary separation. Always a winner for morale of the force. Plus, palace chase is free. If Chang is right about this "glut" of pilots, then it's a win-win. Good think we are all so educated with advanced degrees from ERAU. It creates great "thinkers" and problem solvers.

You call others "retards" while lecturing to others about the offensive, juvenile nature of 69? Interesting.

Yes the words can be changed. PRFs do not have to be verbatim from your reports. They simply summarize facts already in your record. You cannot introduce new facts (unless they occurred since your last report closed out) but you can certainly rephrase, combine data, etc. Edit: Having said that, I'm not convinced JDAM is the "wrong" term for a PRF. In my opinion, that's a common enough term that can (should) be understood by non-CAF board members or at least the meaning can be generally inferred in context (depending on how it's written). There is a fine line between writing that is so technical and acronym laden as to be unreadable or not understandable to a generic CE or personnel guy and writing that is so generalized and dumbed down so as to be completely unimpressive. I would hope that a crowd of AIR FORCE O-6s could understand a very basic weapon like JDAM. Maybe that's naive thinking. Are they telling you not to use that? If you start saying GBU-38, that's probably going to lose them, but I wouldn't think twice about using JDAM myself.

New AFRC policy is for 3 year AGR tours, not 4. And a very large number of AGR billets will convert to ART on 1 Oct 14. Everyone thought that push died when Stenner left but turns out he got it into the 15 POM before he retired.

It's a horrible idea. Horrible. 12 hour days are standard. Add travel time, etc and your pup won't be able to go out for 13-ish hour stretches every day. Which is a foul. After UPT, you're going to be deployed/TDY all the time. Sometimes with little/no notice. That's just life in the AF. What are you going to do with the dog then? You can't just count on driving the dog over to your parents house while you're gone...you have no idea where you're going to live. And do not--do fucking not--be the asshole who asks his buddy's wife to take care of your dog for you while you're at work/TDY/deployed. Until you figure out your life, not just during UPT but after, forget about the dog.

Tours at the guard bureau and alert are different animals I think. Can't speak to that. I'm talking about being on active duty paid for man days (MPA) which is where the majority of ARC guys build up active duty time. To get put on MPA there is a CMAS approval process done by the active duty and one of the things they look at is sanctuary (being above 18 years of active duty credit). They won't approve for anyone inside sanctuary for the most part unless you sign a sanctuary waiver...and I've seen them not even offer that waiver. They don't want you to get an active duty retirement! I say again, they don't want you to get an active duty retirement. It neutralizes one of the advantages of having an ARC (cost). And it's active duty's money Look at it this way: a retirement is an enormous bill. What is the world going to look like in 8-10 years? Will the MAF be so busy that the ARC is activated all the time? More specifically, will they be so busy that they need to activate the specific ARC dudes who are really close to costing a fortune or can they get by with just the other ARC guys? Can it happen? Yes. In theory. But as the budget slims down I would bet serious money against it. Obviously there are exceptions. I'm saying all this because I hear idiots (I'm talking about you RTB) talking about getting out at 16-18 years all the time acting as though they'll still get an active retirement as a part timer no problem, but it will just take a few extra years. After all, they've heard about is from their cousin's uncle's brother's friend who saw ferris bueller pass out at a 31 flavors last night. What few right now seem to understand is that the calculus has fundamentally and drastically changed in only the last two years on this as OCO money dried up and budget frugality became real. Retirements are expensive.

Dudes DO NOT think that you can get out of active duty to be a part timer and still get an active duty retirement. I know it is theoretically possible and I know it has happened in the past. But I'm telling you that it is a serious long shot any more. There are actually checks in the system to try and prevent that from happening now.

Ah yes, the "someone has it worse than you" argument. Always a winner.

But yet you think it's a good idea to show people the door at 18 years. How can you not see how that will go down as being a disaster in the long run?

Ironic that personnel geeks don't understand people at all.

Gen...Other than you completely misunderstanding what BCan was saying, that was a good post. Dudes may not what to hear what you're saying, but with regard to what the bonus is/does it was solid. Stick to that stuff please and you'll be useful to the young pups around here. The minute you start questioning the motivations, service or values of young dudes who have faced more time away from home, career instability, and uncertain futures (over their entire careers not just for short term issues like in other points of our AF history) based solely on your interpretations of their Internet venting, then you are right the fuck out of line. Keep posting please but have SA.

An yes, the old core values argument. Always a winner. So you're clearly morally opposed to any bonus to anyone for any reason, right? Because true "service before self" shouldn't require a bonus for pilots, re-enlistment bonuses, specialty pays, etc. So per your argument, those bonuses are fundamentally in contrast with the foundational values of our service. Get a grip buddy. See, you do just fine when you stick to facts. Might be time to take your own advice re: emotion and stop throwing spears at dudes and their values. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about in that regard. Thanks

Fuck off. The facts you've presented are good. The bullshit condescending commentary shows that you're an out of touch douchebag. I say this as a dude who got out and now is back in full time and happy about it.

Maybe the pork falcon is different but in the Mighty Eagle the reflection off of the colored patches was all over the canopy. Made it annoying trying to do VLO. Easy fix. No patches. To each their own.

Some do, some don't. Most I flew with flew without. I took patches off because I couldn't stand the glare off of the inside of the canopy.

I realize you got left out and it sucks. But the bonus is a management tool. Seems to me that most guys with 16+ years have incentive enough to stay for another 4 years...a likely seven figure retirement package, sts. Some guys may get out at that point, but not many. So I can see why they would not offer the bonus to dudes that far along. I actually think it's a smart management decision considering limited resources to throw at the problem. I say that while also fully acknowledging that it sucks for guys in your position. If you or anyone else is so pissed off at the AF that you would get out at 16+ years then go for it. But let the emotions settle and do some serious thinking before you do, since you'll be leaving an enormous amount of retirement money/benefits on the table. One more assignment and you'll get paid to breathe for the rest of your life. That's better than any bonus.

All of the core function teams at ACC are led by a colonel. PR is no different than any other core function in that regard. And show me a single mission set in the AF that is "adequately supported" right now.

It was him. He already blogged about it. http://www.pickyourbattles.net/2013/06/m2-traitor-from-baseopsnet.html?m=1

Probably not, but you have to do the math for yourself based on your own numbers. That's a pretty good spread between rate and APR, so there are some costs associated with that loan. You'd have to figure out what they are, how you'd pay for them (are they paid at closing or rolled into the loan), the opportunity cost for not having that money (the closing costs/fees) to invest elsewhere, and how many years would it take you to break even considering your monthly payment savings vs your costs. Then make the call whether its worth fronting the money and/or extending your loan to save approx $33 per $100K in loan you have. Edit: if you decide you might want to do that, definitely shop around! Different lenders will have far different costs for that rate.

Never gets old. Oh, wait...