Vprdrvr69

I barely remember the fun times you speak of. Bitter is a bit of an understatement; I'm pretty much at a point where I just down right fukking hate the USAF, or at least those responsible for the endless ass raping me and my buddies have endured. I just watched the latest round of 365's occur- to dudes that already have done far more than their fair share. I took TAMI in stride, but it has been straight downhill since. My boxes are checked, my promotion is there, my AAD is complete, my flying credentials are more impressive than most senior leadership. My USAF future is so bright, but you couldn't fukking pay me enough devil money to stay one goddamn day longer than I have to. This USAF will be an interesting place, because everyone I know approaching their ADSC's feels the same way. Either we 'Stop Loss', or we shit can a lot of iron to create available pilots. Which will it be because we all know that the USAF is so completely unable to resolve this problem.

Many FTU's will count for those 9 credits and SOS in res does get you 3 more ( all elective). Be advised though, after one class you will have the 15 credits but this will not get you a Bac+. I tried this and denied. I would rec ERAU over some of the other fly-by night jobs out there but it is pricey! So glad my degree is done.

I think Eisenhower had that pretty much summed up half a century ago. If only we would listen to wisdom...and learn from history and our past mistakes. Instead, we're doomed to repeat them. Yep, looks and smells like WMD to me; here we go again.

Results are in. I surpassed my sample size goal of 25% and need to get to work on my project. I will try to keep this simple. Total TAMI-21 Victims= Approx 150; Total Surveyed= 42 (about 30% sample size, even split between AFSOC/RPA bubbas) Results will be displayed in this format: AFSOC/ RPA What community did you get TAMId from? Fighter (71%/86%) Bomber (29%/14%) What is your current pilot qualification level?AC (10%/14%) IP (33%/29%) EP (57%/57%) How many opportunities are there to go back to your original MWS (or to a manned aircraft for RPA pilots)?Many (0/0) Few (0/5%) Almost zero (100%/95%) How many years of ADSC do you have remaining?1 (5%/5%) 2 (19%/ 38%) 3 (76%/52%) 4+ (5%/5%) Are you staying on active duty in the USAF when your ADSC expires? Yes (0/0) No (48%/67%) Depends on next assignment (52%/33%) How is pilot retention in your current unit? [*]Great (0/0) [*]Fair (19%/14%) [*]Poor (24%/29%) [*]Pilots are leaving at any/all opportunities (57%/57%) Do you expect pilot retention to suffer more as a result of TAMI guys leaving AD? [*]Absolutely (86%/76%) [*]Possibly (10%/5%) [*]Neutral (4%/0) [*]No impact on retention (0/ 19%) If you plan on separating, what motivators might entice you to stay on active duty (select all that apply)? [*]Assignment back to orig. MWS (or manned aircraft for RPA dudes) (19 replies out of 42 total) [*]Increase in Aviation Continuation Pay (13 replies out of 42) [*]Weak economy or lack of jobs outside of the USAF (13 out of 42 total) [*]I am leaving the USAF when my ADSC expires regardless (16 replies out of 42 total). That is the bulk of it, in raw unfiltered form. Pretty impressive work on behalf of the USAF personnel management team. You took some of the best and the brightest, fukked them over to fix a short term problem and completely depleted the value of these long term resources to the USAF. I laugh every time I hear someone say that "our people are our most valuable resource". Actions speak louder than words. Considering how well the USAF is maintaining its most senior and qualified pilots, I am sure nobody will notice when many of the IP's and EP's leave in 2-3 years. Not sure about the RPA world, but at my last unit about 75% of the EPs were TAMI guys. Well, looks like the only fix is for TAMI guys to get back to fighters and the ACP to go up substantially- neither of which will happen. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to fill the survey out as well as the comments I received via PM.

I would've liked to put that question in there, but I ran out of options with survey monkey because I refused to sign up and pay the $$$ (that's why I had to have 2 surveys). You are right though, things needs to be spelled out very clearly because even with this data being so easy to analyze, if it were presented to AFPC they wouldn't understand a word of it or why it is what it is. When I was at SOS the O-6 commander from AFPC briefed to us all about personnel issues (including the VSP at that time). She stood by her statement that getting the incredible opportunity to go fly UAVs and leave your fighter MWS was exactly like back in the 70's when guys had to go fly the F-16 or B-1! I had to have her comment on that one after the brief and she stood by it 100%. Absolutely clueless and had no reply to why well over 69% of the applicants for VSP were younger pilots. It made sense that personnelist was her third job specialty since joining the AF. Hopefully she has found a fourth by now; I'm sure she's been promoted. For everyone that has completed the survey, thank you for your time. I will post the results back here in about two weeks when I close it out and compile the data for easier viewing. It's entertaining as hell and even worse (for the USAF) than I thought, if that's possible.

As part of my graduate capstone project, I have decided to analyze part of the USAF's broken personnel management system. Specifically, I am exploring the potential long-term effects of TAMI-21 (being a victim of this dirty whore myself) on pilot retention. Below, are links to surveymonkey.com for either RPA TAMI dudes or AFSOC TAMI dudes. The survey is one page and should take less than 2 minutes. Most of the TAMI guys that I know are in AFSOC and have already completed the survey. I am really seeking more surveys from the RPA community. Any help that you guys can provide in either completing the survey, or forwarding it to TAMI victims will be much appreciated. After you take the survey, you will see the running results (which perhaps need to be forwarded far up the USAF chain). For all non-survey participants, I will post the results here within two weeks for discussion. RPA link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NJ9MCKS AFSOC link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NQTW2VM

I guess this is how they will fix the coming fighter pilot shortfall! God knows if it weren't for the first Top Gun most of us would've never joined; best damn recruiting movie ever!

Speaking of the WG/CC and rumors, I've got one that needs verifying being as I am thousands of miles away, and missed it first hand. As many of you are aware, we lost four of Americas finest just 9 days ago. The wing was sending an aircraft to carry spouses and families to one of the funerals. The very close girlfriend, who lived with that fallen hero, was initially on the pax manifest. She is also very close with many of the spouses (and the one closest to the fallen for which the funeral was being held). Rumor has it, the WG/CC refused to sign the pax manifest because she was on it (not married) and she had to find other transportation. From what I heard, one of the SQ/CC's stood up like any moral person would, and offered to buy the ticket for her. Sad thing is, this story is probably spot on. Anyone in the know, please validate. It certainly is amazing the examples being set. Thankfully I have my own moral guide and envisionment of what a leader should be.

This poll certainly got my attention. I have been polling and theorizing about this for years. I have concluded there must be a stop loss on pilots in about 3-4 years, as too many folks have already punched (mentally) and are just waiting for the ADSC to expire. When I was a punk, I was one of the most dedicated, here for 20 no way about it types. The way things are going, I am in the "depends on my next assignment category" as well. If I end up at Cannon divorced, alone and flying Predators- I'm done! I had a life and career on the outside and fully understand the "real world"; things are different and not handed to you on a platter- it is what you make of it for better or worse. No guarantees, no reflective belts and no safety net. The big thing the poll points out is the "depends category" and the fact that 40% are leaning that way. What is the trend for next assignments guys? Shitty assignments with even shittier locations, coupled with an extra serving of long deployments, stress and bullshit! Now, take away some incentives like ACP. See where that gets us... I read this poll as 40-80% are leaning towards telling AD to pound sand when the 10 year ADSC is up. Leadership, pay attention.

I am not quite sure where to start. I am not going to pick apart this thread with attacks on comments (or members- CAVEMAN) or rebut everything that has been pointed out; many of you see the light. I reference the report often because it is open source and unclass. I have been preaching about how Fuc$ed up our air capes are/ will be for quite a while- My bitching fires up everytime I hear people complaining about the F-22 or the F-35. This report is (for the most part) SPOT ON! Pretty scary but also pretty damn accurate (and it is unclass). One topic that it does not speak to is EA. Everybody talks about fighters as though everything is riding on the aircraft itself. Not only are our 4th Gen fleets old as sh!t and in near states of disrepair- but how are the technological capes (the shit on board) when compared to these NEW and much more advanced 4th gen jets being produced in large numbers. The report touched on radars and illustrate the disadvantages we could face. What about EA? Seems to me that when we dumped our funding into stealth, other countries pumped up there EA at exponential levels. Everybody else has some pretty fancy crap and lots of it is even integrated on the aircraft (what a novel idea- I bet it doesn't even get cold soaked). I noticed in the pic the nice 9-M's hanging on the Viper performing ONE (sounds familiar to me). That is a pretty effective weapon especially against non-fighter targets in the CONUS. So is this our air superiority fighter when Venezuela strolls across the borter with a formation of Flanker variants? Or are we even going to see the F'in thing on our radar? Or are we even going to be there due to all our Guard units being Brac'd and our other resources being too busy or mismanaged? On an offensive note, how well are these legacy aircraft (I know, they may not all be but this is an open forum) going to fare when the baseline threat is a Flanker with 100% EA! Not to mention many countries will flat out outnumber us! We tend to allow ourselves to be vulnerable for reasons I don't understand. We spent a decade with inferior IR (9M) technology knowing we would lose that fight if encountered. Now (like the report illustrates) we have all of our ducks in the AMRAAM when their are similar capes out there (PL-12, also in the report). Why do we do this to ourselves? On a similar note, why was 9/11 a fuc%ing surprise??? Unfortunately, I think the only way this problem will be resolved is for someone to kick us square in the nuts! Otherwise, the powers that be will continue to send every fighter pilot to a pred, boneyard fighters by the dozens and continue the warrior effort by designing yet another PT uniform or redesigning the service dress. Maybe we can have an entire Airforce fleet of modified civilian airplanes; this would reduce the R&D costs significantly...The USAF is missing the point and reports like this should make an impact- but it won't! I could go on and on (and will but not here) but it only angers me. I took an oath to defend this great county and yet I sit back and watch decisions being made that are crippling us or putting our country at risk. It flat out pisses me off yet there is jack shi% I can do about it. Maybe our aircraft should just rejoin with the army (and we can fully scrap the F-22 and F-35) and leave the space and cyber stuff for the air force (or rename it space force). I think that is about where we are at. As far as the fight we are encountering today, we lack enough flexibility to do what needs to be done. Eight years of chasing TB through Afghanistan and we still don't have an aircraft that caters to IW yet we will fly other fighters (that may cost over $13k hour) to pursue the enemy. My concern here is, we are not going to get more fighters, lets not kill the ones we have, lets adapt to the fight. Thoughts and spears always welcome...

Not to rain on everybody's parade, but I would not recommend buying in Navarre unless you financially cannot afford to buy in a few of the other areas. I have lived in numerous parts across the southern US and was sick of trailer parks and dollar stores when I moved here; that was my impression of Navarre. It reminded me more of lower Alabama than a vacation paradise that I was expecting. I would look into areas like Destin, Bluewater Bay (Niceville) and possibly parts of Okaloosa Isl. In addition, many dudes are buying right outside of Hurlburt (I believe it is classified as Mary Esther) in a small new home subdivision- it's not too bad. You are going to pay more to live out of Navarre, but you may enjoy things like golf courses, marinas, restaurants, nightlife, proximity to kick ass beaches (Destin) and better resale. Like the other post said, they can keep on building in Navarre. That is true, and that does not help resale value. Your land will be worth far less than your house. Not to mention, I have heard of a lack of HOA's. Many people hate them; I hate when my neighbor parks in his fu*&ing yard! HOA's can be a benefit and I personally like them. In addition, while Navarre schools may be better than many in the southern US, the public schools in Bluewater and Destin parallel any private school I have seen and are in the top 3 schools for Fl year after year (for those reading with kids). JSF will be finding its way to Eglin in the coming years and this will boost values and demand even more (just watch out for ValP). Talk to some realtors in each area (rec. Bob Booker with C21 in Niceville- awesome dude with REAL experience) and get their opinions before you buy. Believe it or not, the commute from other areas is not as bad as you might think. You can get from the Mid-Bay bridge (between Destin and Bluewater Bay) to Hurlburt in 35 mintues and day of the week all the time. Ask folks in Navarre how long it takes to get home in rush hour or on Friday afternoon. Furthermore, ask how many fatal car/ MX wrecks they have seen on 98. The other post regarding Militarybyowner.com is spot on. That site is awesome- I have used it on both sides of rentals and it is great!