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Bigred

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Posts posted by Bigred

  1. 16 hours ago, Danger41 said:

    My question is if you’re bringing pilots back, I certainly haven’t gotten the impression that B Course/TX courses are sitting around going unfilled. If they are, this is very much my Milton getting moved to the basement because I’ve been striking out right and left looking for a flying sunset tour.

    With the U-2 going away, a lot of dudes are trying to find flying jobs. The words passed to us are that a lot of ACU and B-courses have significant backlog. 
     

    Aka, a lot of the guys are staring at an AETC future. 

  2. 23 minutes ago, gearhog said:

    I’d argue a GED is more about commitment than intelligence. I was in boot camp with a bunch of really dumb kids and at that time it was tough to get a waiver to join with a GED. 

    I’m not naive to the fact that recruiting is hurting, but you might be surprised at how many high school/GED kids don’t get a 50. 

  3. I’m a weird one, but the more distracting the environment, the better I study. TV on, radio playing, etc, and I can focus and retain. 

     

    When it’s dead quiet I find my mind wanders and I get bored. Its probably also why I wasn’t ever really good at group studying because most folks didn’t like Metallics blasting at max while reciting EPs
     

     

  4. 58 minutes ago, Blue said:

    I thought the only "recent" change in MWR funding was ~35+ years ago when everything was moved to non-appropriated funds (NAF) - meaning all MWR activities had to be self-funded.

    Was there something more recent?  Or am I not understanding the history of MWR?

    I think it was the 2018 NDAA that forced those sorts of activities to become self-funded/sustainable versus being subsidized by NAF. 
     

    Shortly thereafter, several smaller bases closed their lodging because they couldn’t afford to keep them open. I don’t know what all activities were covered by that NDAA but I believe golf courses was one of them. Now, underutilized activities on base are closing.  
     

    It’s also why some Wg/CCs have tried to mandate TDY travelers stay in base lodging. I understand the reasoning but that’s in violation of the JTR and the mandate usually goes away quietly. 
     

    It’s the ultimate catch-22. Lodging jacked up prices to offset expenses but now the normal traveler that would go on base to save money (retiree, PCS folks, etc) go off base for the same cost and better facilities. The on base activities can’t fund themselves and usually can’t get funding to upgrade to match off base activities. 
     

    Not sure why Congress felt it was a good idea but it really screwed a lot of smaller bases and their ability to have services and infrastructure available all the time. 

    • Upvote 2
  5. 8 hours ago, disgruntledemployee said:

    My time at DJ, the local Navy dudes ran a Ward Room, tent at 1st, then self funded/built a hard building.  Open on Fri and Sat nights.  Me and the guys would sip drinks, play corn hole, and bust chops.  No drink limits, just a basic rule; behave.

    And most did behave, save for a P-3 dude that hit on some other unit's lady officer and got shown the door after a little physicality.  P-3 unit was banned for a month.

    My boss asked if I went to the Ward Room.  Yep, proudly.  Got some work/networking done too.  He mentioned something about drink limits and I mentioned the O-6 Scotch stash.  We all behave and that's why it works.  Our little gang had zero issues.  Treat people like adults, they often behave like adults.  Such a foreign idea to many higher ups.

    I’m actually wearing my Wardroom tshirt as I type this! That place was great, when I was there the drink ‘limits’ were supposed to be two marks on your hand. Most nights I’d go back to the connex with most of my hand covered in marks. Those bartenders were awesome.

  6. 37 minutes ago, HeloDude said:

    If that’s the case, then every Army pilot is better than you as well, which I seriously doubt.  Hovering is challenging, but so is flying a T-37 or T-6 without much flying experience.  Besides, when you’re learning to hover, you’re not making much/if any radio calls.  You’re just hovering over a certain area and unless you want to go somewhere else there’s not much to say.  Kind of like flying in a MOA until you’re ready to leave.

    My onwing at Whiting made me make ‘radio calls’ (internal ICS) at every corner of the hover box from my first flight in the helo. He also had me calling every bit of traffic in the pattern at Pace/Spencer as I maneuvered along the hover box. Maybe that wasn’t normal but it freaking sucked, and to do that brand new would’ve been damn near impossible.  

  7. 5 hours ago, HeloDude said:

    Ummm…the Army does it all the time.  Also, going back to straight to rotor wing only training for Air Force helo pilots is how it was always done before the mid/early 90s.

    I never said it was good or bad, I just said I couldn’t imagine trying to learn to hover while also learning to talk on the radios. Guess you’re a better pilot than me. 

  8. 2 hours ago, Biff_T said:

    There was nothing wrong with the helicopter pilots starting in fixed wing and then moving to helos.  It helps build airmanship.  It is easier to learn to fly a fixed wing then transfer to helos than it is just to start off in a jet ranger. Learning to hover takes a few extra brain bites.  It's hard to talk to ground and tower when you can barely taxi your aircraft without the fear of dieing.  And like @raimius said, 

    This. 

    Besides, flying upside down builds confidence.  

     

    I couldn’t imagine trying to talk for the first time while also learning to hover. Talk about the monkey fucking the football bat. 

  9. 52 minutes ago, tac airlifter said:

    “Impactful on partner nation real world operations” is a great way to answer my question.  Well stated.  Your next sentence is equally as true.

    unfortunately SE Asia was not important during that timeframe.  We needed folks in KNTC, needed them flying formation airdrop with AFG 208s, needed them helping Niger use ISR aircraft to patrol the border with Libya, needed them teaching the Danab rudimentary capacity in speaking to aircraft, etc. They were MIA in the many fights this nation was actively engaged in at that time.  They were exorbitantly expensive compared to other units, not skilled at integrating with other units or articulating their purpose. 
     

    You’re right they employed like an ODA.  Except Army ODAs were doing the Lords work in AFG and accepting huge risk to help ANASOC commandos increase lethality.  If the CAAs had been helping the US Military do things we needed and asked them to do, they’d still exist today.  Instead they did one off GCC requests and DOS partnerships.  Ok, that’s not nothing, but in the world of finite resources they lacked a convincing articulation of benefits provided to those paying the bill.  Combine that with some odd cultural idiosyncrasies and their fate was unsurprising.

     The fact they were staffing anything in SE Asia while the AFG AF and SMW had non-vol T-6 FAIPs attempting to instruct tactics is an unforgivable crime and the permanent shame of the CAA enterprise.

    I agree, to an extent. It wasn’t the entire squadron, it was two dudes. And they were really damn good. So it wasn’t like the entirety of the 6th was running around down there. 
     

    I can’t speak to the bigger picture wrt Air Force employment since I was an outsider looking in back then. The irony is that what they were teaching and working towards aligns almost perfectly with what big Air Force is trying to do in that AOR these days, but at that time it wasn’t CENTCOM so people were like WTF are they doing? 

    • Upvote 1
  10. 1 hour ago, tac airlifter said:

    Define "meaningful work."

    Circa 2013-2016, I personally saw them doing a lot of good things in SE Asia. It was impactful on partner nation real world operations. 
     

    In my opinion, they were such a small part of AFSOC, and they operated so far outside of the normal scope of what AFSOC does, that it was easy to downplay and overlook what they did. Having worked with both Army ODA and these guys, the CCA dudes were more like ODA in employment (FID) than what one would typically think of with AFSOC. 
     

     

  11. 11 hours ago, pawnman said:

    So...the gate months and continuous flight pay are meaningless is what I'm hearing.

    A normal set of orders is usually 36 months, and extending a year can be common. My between-the-lines interpretation is that this rule ensures a pilot doesn’t go career enhancing and decide to never go back to flying, or an aviation related billet, while being able to collect flight pay forever. 
     

     

    • Upvote 1
  12. Can't speak to the rest of her bio, but whenever I read/hear someone say "classified missions", my BS meter pegs. This is particularly true if it's a pilot that says that. 

    Guys that ran classified missions don't put that in their bio. Well, except for SEALs. Those guys get issued a literary agent when they graduate BUDs. 

    • Upvote 2
  13. 18 hours ago, Dapper Dan Man said:

     


    I think we need to challenge the “AF can’t afford those dollar figures” rhetoric way more than we do. So many times we hear this from flag officers, leaders, or policy makers and take it at face value without really putting that reasoning to the test.

    The AF could afford those dollar figures if they could successfully advocate with lawmakers to reallocate resources they already have on the books. The AF can afford plenty, but the problem is what they’re allowed to spend it on. Physicians receive bonuses in amounts that might actually get a pilot to stay, yet where is the advocacy for that? Is there a doctor shortage in the Air Force that we’re just not talking about?

    Or, the AF could produce less pilots and put that savings into retaining their experienced ones. Even if the cost of putting one person through UPT and FTU averaged only $2M, the AF could instead put that towards retention and pay 20 pilots $100,000 right now to stay. This isn’t earth shattering stuff…anyone who’s taken an HR class can tell you that hiring, onboarding, and training are some of the most expensive parts of running your company.

    The AF is on record saying that they’d rather produce talent than retain talent, even though that’s the more fiscally irresponsible option. I think if we challenged this line of thinking and brought attention to it with lawmakers, they’d be more open to revising the NDAA and compelling the AF to come up with resource allocation options (and therefore bonus options) that would actually entice people to stay.

    Write your congressmen.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

     

    To be fair, the AF can’t give anything higher than 50k, that’s limited by law and requires some waivers from a few undersecretary’s that deal with finance/personnel.

    All that said, from what I understand, there’s nothing that limits the Air Force from offering something like a three year, 50k per year contract. I’d be willing to bet the take rate would actually be higher if there was a 3 year option. 

  14. 5 hours ago, Pooter said:

    And the craziest part is your BOP time hacks as soon as you sign the paper but the ADSC is tacked on the end after your UPT one expires. 

    And it’s BOP in name only. They make it clear that as soon as the AF needs to move you, they will. The ADSC goes away but what’s the point of the program if the AF can just say sorry but you gotta move. 

  15. On 8/16/2023 at 12:48 PM, Danger41 said:

    The updated uniform reg stated that only coyote brown undershirts will be worn and got rid of the colored morale shirt. I legitimately think most people either didn’t read it or don’t care because I’ve seen zero change. Which is good.

    I still maintain that the way it reads, you only need a coyote shirt if you’re going to have undershirts with logos on them. Otherwise all colors are good.

    I’m a dirty sea lawyer and unfortunately my reasoning didn’t convince the vice. 

     

    • Haha 1
  16. 2 hours ago, The46IsntThatBad said:

    Generally speaking, how picky is the hiring board on flying history? When I was a young copilot I had an overzealous EP that gave me a couple downgrades on an inst/qual check - my only checkride with bad marks, and zero Q2/Q3s (so far 🙂 ). I've had a handful of clean check rides since then. Is that a clean kill on an application?

    Downgrades don't tend to be an issue, especially if it was when you were a young copilot. As jice said, don't sweat it. 

    • Like 1
  17. 18 hours ago, gearhog said:

    What about serving today is better than 10-20 years ago? Why do you think it will remain the same or improve for someone who joins today?

    Better quality of life (paternity leave is one example). Better pay. Housing and dorms vastly improved from when I lived in the barracks. 
     

    No sequestration of flight hours. Parts that are actually available. 
     

    JFIRE and JCAS being incorporated across all branches vs individual branches having their own CAS methods. 

     

    That’s an example from admin, ops, and tactics. I can keep going.

     

    I laugh when people say ‘what’s better than 10-20 years ago’. My dad enlisted in the late 70s, he said he got slapped around. I enlisted in the late 90s, didn’t get hit but we lived in moldy ass barracks and had no hot water. Kids these days think it sucks they have to field day the barracks.

     

    Life was always ‘better 10-20 years ago’. When people say that I ask them to actually, seriously, look at what was going on then versus now. 

    • Like 1
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    • Upvote 2
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