Bigred

After flying 14 different types of aircraft over almost 16 years, I’ve learned everyone flies circles, just at different altitudes. My advice is to pick something that lets you blow something up at the end of said circle.

Sounds like someone just logged some combat time.

Yup, last movement was 19 June, last day checked for myPers was 7 August.

I’ve been in the Air Force now for a year, so still fairly ‘new’. The ops/Mx split has been the toughest to get used to. At one point in my time in the Navy, as a normal flying pilot, I was previously in charge of the entire squadron maintenance department involving 15 aircraft and roughly 200 people. At other times, even when I wasn’t working directly in Mx, I’d still interact with the maintainers daily because they were in the same halls, their shops were right next to mine. It helped to bridge the gap. Now, I’ve found it extremely difficult to get a maintainer to open up and talk other than ‘yes sir, no sir’ in the current AF construct. My takeaway is that the split hurts by-in by the maintainers. All they see are flyers when they come to brief/debrief, or at the bottle brief. When maintainers have to pull 12 hour shifts it can really help morale when they understand what the mission is, or when they actually know the aircrew more than just as another dude in a green bag. Pilots aren’t some mythical creatures, but we do think and approach situations a lot differently than maintenance officers do, and I think that variability and more frequent interaction would help morale. Combining ops/Mx wouldn’t cure all of the issues (here’s looking at you, OPSEC CBTs...) but it would help.

Just looked at the tracker, updated 7 Aug. Still sitting at SECAF level. Taking a swag, but I wonder if it was held up to let the new CSAF approve the list.

Pretty sure the select message comes out prior to Senate confirmation. No one can actually pin on O-5 until the list is confirmed.

Some of the old heads around Mildenhall were talking about this yesterday, said that Spang move had been discussed for the better part of a decade. Not quite as long as the now-defunct plan to move the tankers to Germany, but I found it interesting because it seems like some folks think this Spang move is out of the blue.

That answers the question!

Getting my dress uniforms together, two questions. 1) The AFI says mini or full size wings on the mess dress. Is it a faux pax to wear full size wings on the mess dress? The mini Air Force wings and mini Navy wings aren’t the same size so it just looks kinda odd. 2) What’s the deal with the combat readiness medal? I was combat deployment qualified on my platform in the Navy in 2008 and as I was in a combat unit until I switched over to the AF in 2019, I never let that qual lapse. Does that time carry over?

Last year it took me Sep-Feb, so right at 6 months. My orders had me there for 5, so got delayed a month.

I’ve flown a few helicopters there and each time we would try and keep something, something small and inconspicuous. Each time I got an email or phone call asking for it back. I dunno how they do it for big aircraft but the three helos I took there, contractors were literally waiting with the marshaller for the rotors to stop spinning. They were like vultures and started disconnecting and pulling stuff off the helo as we were still there doing post flight and getting our stuff out of the cabin.

‘Mildenhall model’, if approved, is doing away with the groups, creating a pseudo A-staff under the wing, and moving some maintenance back into the ops squadron. It’s basically what I saw in the Navy for 15 years, and it does have goods and bads, but if it pushes some waiver authority and go/no-go decisions to the SQ/CC level, it’ll be a really good thing.

So (almost) two months since board adjournment and only through Air Staff...odds we see results prior to 1 Oct?

Since they’ve done away with BZ picks, are you looking for IZ/AZ split? Otherwise, I think the selection categories make the statistics pretty cut and dry.

Counts as part of HHG. I don’t have the reference but that’s how it played out for me.

Postal PPM is a thing. I did it conus to OCONUS. As long it’s mailed through the USPS, totally legit. The govt will reimburse you for a flat rate for the weight of stuff being shipped.

Got the same email. Bros in the office say it’s a sweet deal, I’ve been gone so much over the past few years otherwise I’d probably put in for it too.

Anyone know or have a contact at AFPC that deals with promotions? Can send to my .mil if needed.

My kids have watched his YouTube channel for awhile. Dude is funny and brilliant.

Seems like it but I dunno for sure.

Tracker on myPers says it convened on 4 May but hasn’t been updated to reflect adjournment.

Nope, transferred to active duty but I’m OCONUS so I’m avoiding the true AMC shenanigans for now. Just gotta play the long con and make it to retirement.

I’m jealous of you having 19 months between deployments.

When I flew the 60 I was able to fly 1v1 against an -18. I could out turn him all day and if I flew low and directly at him, he couldn’t get a gun kill without going uncomfortably nose low. In the debrief he said he’d just drop a bomb on me and if I climbed to avoid frag he’d shoot me with his gun.

Doesn’t affect me personally but I’m hearing dudes that were enroute to OCONUS are getting rerouted to CONUS bases. If so, talk about getting a kick in the nuts, thinking you get 3 years in Europe but instead you get three years in McConnel!