Jughead

Many of these topics have been discussed here piecemeal before, but my Google-fu has failed to turn up any dedicated thread. I know we have many retirees & separatees (current or imminent), so hopefully this thread will be value-added. So, I've dropped my papers--I get promoted to "Mister" on 1 July. So far, the retirement outprocessing stuff has been a lot like a PCS, just more painful. I think I've got my brain wrapped around most of it so far, with a couple of glaring exceptions. I'm hoping some of the ORFs who have gone before me can help me work out the best answer(s) for myself & my wife. Particulars: retiring as an O-5 with 21 yrs, 8 mos; married / no kids; I'm 44, wife is 45; no real debt aside from mortgages, no real health issues ("yet") for either of us. Wife makes more money than I do (score!!). Questions: Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP): seems like a no-brainer for a retiree whose spouse is much younger or with young kids or a single-earner household; not so obvious in our case. Is it worth 6.5% of my pension to "bet" that I'll pre-decease my wife by enough to "pay back" those premiums at 55% a month...? I don't know how to gauge if this is worth it or not.... Health insurance: so far, from what I'm seeing, Tricare looks like a pretty good deal*. I look at health care from a catastrophic coverage viewpoint, and a $3,000 / year cap may be painful, but it won't wipe us out. Wife's coverage through work seems both more expensive & lesser coverage (though, of course, with both in place, the non-premium out of pocket would be reduced). [ETA: I've deliberately left off anything about my post-retirement employer-sponsered health care, since I don't have anything concrete lined up yet; eventually, that will also have to be weighed with the rest of this.] So: Is focusing on the annual cap a sound approach, or am I missing the big picture? Keep the wife's coverage or dump it? How best to judge? Standard or Prime? We won't be living particularly close to a base, so Standard seems the way to go; yes/no?? How to judge Dental coverage? Wife's plan has optional dental through Delta Dental (same as Tricare), for less than half the premium, so that seems like a no-brainer. Missing anything? [*]Veterans' Group Life Insurance: seems like a no-brainer not to use this in our circumstance; yes/no? * I'm certainly sympathetic to the "foul" cries of previous generations who were promised free health care for life (but who must now pay deductibles & co-pays), but since I've never consciously counted myself in that group, I can't get too worked up over it. No doubt I'll run into other questions along the way, but these are the ones that've got me stymied so far. Appreciate any help from the ORFs or any knowledgeable youngsters...!

Work smarter, not harder...? So, if you could spend 20% of your salary to get someone else to do your CBTs & other office queep for you... wouldn't you?? EDIT: format

OK, fine--but, that's not what you (rather ignorantly) said. What you said was: [the second sentence of which I quoted]. So, you "find" PT failures be symptomatic of bigger issues, and have "very rarely" seen people fail who are otherwise squared away. I submit that you're basing your "findings" on a rather small sample size. We are showing some screwed up people the door with a PT failure as the mechanism to do so, no doubt--but we're also depriving ourselves of some talented folks who, for whatever reason, can't pass the PT test. Have you honestly never met anyone who's got his shit together, can max the pushups & situps without breaking a sweat and can do the run in a decent time... but whose waist is >39" and therefore an auto-fail...? Call me back when you know some more people over 30....

Choke yourself.

That's exactly my point. More accurately, that was Spoo's point. My Google-fu is failing me, but I seem to recall Spoo posting a "WTF?" comment about that when the circumstances of the policy rescission (ie , response to a question at a "town hall"-type meeting) were announced....

I agree with your overall point, but I also still agree with Spoo's point about how he "announced" it in the context of "Well, *I* never made such a policy...," implying that any previous CSAF policy not explicitly cited by an incoming CSAF is void.... That was an uncharacteristically wishy-washy move.

Any real emphasis on giving credit for real-world tasking when/where applicable to the mission set being evaluated...?

So... keep your 15-round mags, be sure to fire at least 8 rounds at any intruder, and when the cops show up, show them your magazine with only 7 rounds in it. No problem. "2" on the "what is happening?" sentiment....

Ah--that's my confusion. I thought powered lift refered to (what's properly called) powered parachute. Google is my friend; thanks for setting me straight.

Wow. Same category as the guy with the parachute & a big fan strapped to his back? Sounds like a disconnect to me....

I'm far enough in the process of my own retirement that I can confirm that you *DO* accrue leave, at the same 2.5 days / month, during terminal leave. I don't live in gov't quarters, but my scanning of the entitlement stuff I've gotten so far supports what you said re BAH.

Idle curiosity only: what type of time does one log, from the FAA's point of view, when flying a tilt-rotor? I would have assumed rotory-wing, but your post indicates otherwise...?

This last part quoted for truth--to an even greater degree than the rest of your post. One need look no further than the AAD nonsense for a concrete example of that. My "mediocre career" has peaked well below yours (i.e., it's not self-deprecating for me to use that phrase), yet even so I can claim some of the experiences you note. When I was a DO, it never ceased to amaze me how little my folks understood the difference between implenting higher-ups' policies vs coming up with my own practice bleeding ideas... until I remembered how many stupid policies I'd seen DOs implement when I was I captain that I put in the "what's that dumbass thinking now?" file. Good on you for fighting those fights, and I hope your rise in the organization continues to the level where you can directly make a difference.

Some news agencies in Texas are following suit from their New York counterparts and publishing gun owners' addresses...:

Apparently, the FAA needed their own

I hope no one here drinks Bailey's; if you do, don't order it in a bar in Cameroon....

Yes, because the hydraulics see the bulk of the mods to turn a KC into an RC....

Public (though perhaps not "publicized") knowledge for over two years now. We've been training the Brit crews at the RJ schoolhouse since about two years ago, we have exchange officers in both countries' units, and we've been flying blended crews to gain the Brits some experience.

I don't recall reading about any container ships sinking in the Gulf recently... and, sure as shit you didn't get your arsenal aboard anything smaller!!

See... I told you guys this was a democracy!!

Top Gun in 3D So, is a flat spin out to sea still "flat" in 3D...? I'm confused....

Yeah, but, are any of the wives midgets themselves...?

Dude... no "SPOILER ALERT"??? Foul!! Now you've ruined it for me....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGvu3sOBwBk EDIT: Does embedding on this site really need to be such a PITA...?