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FBomb

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Posts posted by FBomb

  1. Just something I thought of the other day when I read the article about how miraculously the personnel cuts aren't going to be as bad as first thought - What's to stop someone from applying for the VSP/TERA multiple times until the window is closed? I'm afraid there will be plenty to VSP, or that this whole process was just a shakedown to scare Congress into easing the budget pressure and those who tried to bail will be left with every shitty deal over the remainder of our ADSC. I knew that was possible before I hit submit on my VSP application, but if it gets returned here shortly I think my next action will be to immediately resubmit. Maybe someone at AFPC will hit the wrong button the second time...

    That article you're referencing was on AF Times, and I haven't seen that info on reducing from 25,000 anywhere else. I'm wondering if they got what SecAF said correct, their interpretations on Gen Welsh's masters degree comments from last weeks AFA conference are totally out of phase with what he said.

    http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20140227/CAREERS03/302270013/Welsh-Master-s-degree-required-soon-colonels

  2. Expectation management?

    "Secretary expects personnel cuts to be less severe than previously estimated"

    http://mobile.airforcetimes.com/article/20140226/NEWS/302260031

    We were also told that folks would be let go voluntarily, and that didn't happen. We were told twice passed folks would basically not be denied TERA, and that didn't happen. I'm not holding my breath on this one given the overall dismal outlook for the FY15 proposal and the fact it has little chance of passing congress as is. I'll believe this one when I see it.

  3. Excerpt from new article on af.mil w/SecAF's perspective on force management:

    "She feels the Air Force’s No. 1 priority, above aircraft, weapons or equipment, is its people. 'Having the right people in the right job at the right time, who are trained and developed should be our number one priority.' The Secretary added that, 'taking care of people means to me recruiting, retaining and reshaping our force, so that we have the right people in the right jobs for the immediate future, as well as thinking ahead to the longer term. We are going to be smaller. We will be going through a force-shaping set of procedures, which will include mostly voluntary measures. We may do some involuntary as well, but this will be a big deal over the next year or two.' "

    http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/473409/secaf-outlines-top-priorities-during-state-of-af-address.aspx

  4. He didn't really make a lot of sense.

    For intermediate service school, or senior service school, don't take it by correspondence. In fact we're going to keep you from taking it by correspondence. Just wait and get it done when you go.

    What if you don't get to go? A 6-9 week SOS course is one thing, year long IDE/SDE is another.

  5. I think they announced that via the board schedule for 2014 which does not include a board for the '06 group. Future year "estimated timelines" on the AFPC site show all Capt year groups pushed back a year for the O-4 board.

    Back to topic - I still haven't got the RIF delay mail via my official chain or MPF, but plenty of buddies forwarding the info.

    zb

    The speed of the email's transmission seems tied to what MAJCOM you are in. There are two on my base, my unit received the email around 1400 EST. A friend of mine is a section commander working in the other MAJCOM, by COB today they did not have the email from AFPC.

  6. Wouldn't that be great? Get retained by the RIF board and then immediately passed over for promotion…there'll have to be a few...

    I'm an '03 guy, and thats exactly what happened in '11. The boards were less than 8 weeks apart if I remember correctly. We were notified 4 weeks after the RIF about our retention status, 6 months for the official promotion results.

  7. Anyone know offhand if the senior rater is technically required to write the rrf? As in, I'm trying to vsp; I know damn good and well it won't get approved, so then I want to get RIFd. In such a scenario, I have zero incentive/motivation to write my own rrf.

    Any tips on what/how to write it - the only caveat being that I need to get it through the Sq/Gp and Wg without having it sent back so I can do it again.

    Already been told "Please consider this a resubmission of my vsp application" is a nonstarter.

    You can actually write a letter to the board asking to not be retained. Somewhere earlier in this topic is a link to the AFPCI that covers RIFs, and it specifically allows the RIF board members to consider a "do not retain me" letter if you are that determined.

  8. "made it clear that money, not ADSC commitments, would be the driving factor for how many folks would be let go voluntarily."

    To be fair, not waiving the service commitments that are payback for > $1M in training IS a budget/money decision...

    Replacing pilots takes a lot more time, $$$, and wear and tear on aging resources than it does to train most other (dare I say ALL) soldiers in the military.

    Yes, ADSC's do in some way equate to dollars. However, there are many year groups where there is no way that any of the UPT ADSCs have been completed, and yet significant numbers of pilots have been ID'd for elimination. Why then are UPT ADSCs not being waived? Because Big Blue never intended to let people go voluntarily (i.e. see 2011 RIF), it was just empty words.

  9. Given all that I have learned from you all, I wanted to share some tidbits that I have come across. Take them for what they're worth. This week in our staff meeting, our FSS/CC said that officer VSP packages will not be reviewed for at least two weeks. Apparently the Chief heard you all. The VSP packages are being held up while a package routes through A1 to look at waiving ADSCs for UPT. Finally someone realized that it isn't fair to have a blanket denial for VSP and then subject folks to the RIF. That's not saying that UPT ADSC's will be waived, but it is being looked at by the Air Staff.

    I hope the Chief is getting involved, but quite frankly, at this point even if he corrects things his credibility is out the window. Last December he and his "director of force management policy" made it clear that money, not ADSC commitments, would be the driving factor for how many folks would be let go voluntarily.

    From the Air Force Times article linked below:

    ' “We’d love to get all this done by voluntary force shaping measures over a period of time. If we have the leeway based on budget decisions to do that, we’ll go that route,” Welsh said Dec. 13. '

    ' “This has pretty much every tool in our toolkit at our disposal, both voluntary and involuntary,” said Brig. Gen. Gina Grosso, director of force management policy, in an interview. “Our strategy is to use the max use of voluntary programs that we can. Everywhere where we’ve been able to incentivize people to leave monetarily, we’re going to.” '

    http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20131216/CAREERS/312160016/Leaders-push-voluntary-exits-trim-force

    The fact now is he's only involved because the officer corps has called BS on his public comments.

  10. So if I'm reading all of this right, the AF is now afraid of losing pilots to the airlines in the near term, and subsequently they shut down almost every avenue of voluntary separation, save for PC. This, combined with the uncertainty of who might actually get RIF'd later this year is effectively blackmailing 11M's into the guard/reserves by threatening AD stop loss (and thus jeopardizing a career in industry).

  11. As far as DE goes, candidates aren't going to school for the foreseeable future.

    Spot on. I have one of my DT's members in my unit, and the DT gets one candidate per year now to send to PME or give in-res credit. That means you have to be the #1 candidate out of three year groups to get picked up.

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