What's wrong with the Air Force?

[Swizzle]

39 minutes ago, Pooter said:

Totally off topic but I spent 9 hours writing 1206's for annual awards today for people who don't event want them. That is more hours than I have flight time in the last two months, and I am (supposedly) a CMR instructor pilot in the CAF.

We are going to lose the next war. 

 

[Prosuper]

On 1/25/2023 at 9:04 PM, filthy_liar said:

Yea, you brought up a lot of good points there. My ex was personnel/services.  Her perspective on senior NCOs is 180 from mine.  Unlike me she was dropped into some kind of an enormous flight as a 2lLt.  And her first sq command as a major was at Kunsan where they dealt with all kinds of crap that I didn't have to deal with when I sat in the seat.  But even then after the earloads of here's what happened today, it was always "My chief advised me to do this." And when I got in the seat I figured - this isn't that hard, here's what we're going to do.  I didn't need a chief or a SMSgt.  Didn't need any sergeant.

In case I don't log in tomorrow, I've been murdered by ProSuper.

I'm still trying to figure out why I had mx officers. Here have some rope, let me know if you need some more. Dang! what happened to that guy, he was only here two weeks, Darn! I didn't even know his name. Only thing he said to me I'm a Cal Berkley Graduate and I'm smarter than you. Boy Howdy did he impress the shit out of me.

The only ones I ever needed were O-5's and above. If I was King of the USAF, my plan was how Chuck Yeager started his career as a commissioned officer. He started as rated mx officer who flew all the FCF's and OCF's. Maybe it should go to the way the Naval Ops sq does it, pilots have to do leadership on the ground by leading mx troops. If your name was on the side of the jet, it was your responsibility to write the Crew Chiefs EPR and make sure he gets an end of tour medal. Rated Majors would run mx and hopefully by the time they get their own CC job they understand health of the fleet and just not sortie count.

MX and Cop Sq's are huge and have very busy First Sgt's, if you know you know, historically those guys are treated like shit and are pounded with constant extended 12 hour shifts with no days off. Which to leads to why they are always undermanned because no one reenlists, the enlistee raises his hand the first time, but his family reenlists. Also bring back Warrant Officer, that way a technically shit hot E-5 or E-6 doesn't have to eat shit from the Top 3 so they get a decent board score.

I retired an E-7 but I knew I would never be a Chief due to that I could never get off the flight line. Most of my fellow senior E's were nothing but backstabbing apple polishers, they were given jobs off the flight line just to get them out of the workflow because they suck. Unfortunately, they were the ones who made Chief due to showing they had diverse career broadening assignments, in reality they were getting moved every 6 months due to effing up that section they had to move them. Plus, their EPR was written in way that he was a water walker and not the Charlie foxtrot he was. The good ones were kept on the line and were manipulated by the Chiefs to make sure they stayed on the line making the Wing King money. 

My only shot of getting off the line was interviewing for a Wing Safety job. My incentive was a slot for the NTSB crash investigation course if I got that job. The Vice Wing CC interviewed me and told me then to report back Monday. This was a Thursday and started doing PCA paperwork. Friday morning get called into the Chiefs office, got told you're not going anywhere. He told me point blank you will be on that flight line with a brick and schedule to make sure we make that schedule. I'm sure if I was milk toast maintainer, I would have gotten that job because the guy who got it sure was.

[Guest nsplayr]

7 hours ago, Pooter said:

Totally off topic but I spent 9 hours writing 1206's for annual awards today for people who don't event want them. That is more hours than I have flight time in the last two months, and I am (supposedly) a CMR instructor pilot in the CAF.

We are going to lose the next war. 

ChatGPT is your friend if you're not naturally a fast/good writer. It actually writes OPR bullets decently well too FWIW!

https://chat.openai.com/chat?__cf_chl_tk=V88BMIuijuogiyXcV1k9NlD92Ejq6vAwVhZ973JmnrY-1674822321-0-gaNycGzNCJE

Examples:

• Flew 300+ combat hrs with exceptional proficiency, guaranteed success in high-priority missions & target neutralization
• Planned & executed large-scale INDOPACOM exercise, unique strategic impact, trained multiple coalition units & improved readiness

Obviously they're not perfect, but if you need to write a bunch of stuff of low-average quickly it is a great tool. With the narrative format being used more and more, it'll be even better.

[SocialD]

7 hours ago, Pooter said:

Totally off topic but I spent 9 hours writing 1206's for annual awards today for people who don't event want them. That is more hours than I have flight time in the last two months, and I am (supposedly) a CMR instructor pilot in the CAF.

We are going to lose the next war. 

 

I feel this so much right now.  In the last week, I've probably spent 9+ hours just trying to get a single PRF through the wickets for a promotion board.  The DOD about lost a .gov laptop through the window (yeetus computus!). 

I could write a page or two on how all the issues in this process are great metaphor for how we're doing.  Small example, I call the phone number that the rejection e-mail told me to call for help.  They say, "oh sorry, we can't help you with that issue and we can't transfer you to the people who can, you must go through mypers (which means you can't talk to a human)."  WTF, why even list the number!?   

In other news, anyone know a fix date so our e-mail doesn't lock up/shut down every time I accidentally mouse over the persons name?  Or a fix date on when my flight pay will actually pay out correctly...in 2018, I was told it would be 2020, so we got that going for us!  

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

- Flew 300+ combat hrs with exceptional proficiency, guaranteed success in high-priority missions & target neutralization

 

Don't you mean...

 

-Flew 330 cbt hrs w/excptnl prof; gurnt'd success in high-prof msns & tgt neutr'ztion; 100% CMDREUCOM obj met!

 

[FLEA]

6 hours ago, nsplayr said:

ChatGPT is your friend if you're not naturally a fast/good writer. It actually writes OPR bullets decently well too FWIW!

https://chat.openai.com/chat?__cf_chl_tk=V88BMIuijuogiyXcV1k9NlD92Ejq6vAwVhZ973JmnrY-1674822321-0-gaNycGzNCJE

Examples:

• Flew 300+ combat hrs with exceptional proficiency, guaranteed success in high-priority missions & target neutralization
• Planned & executed large-scale INDOPACOM exercise, unique strategic impact, trained multiple coalition units & improved readiness

Obviously they're not perfect, but if you need to write a bunch of stuff of low-average quickly it is a great tool. With the narrative format being used more and more, it'll be even better.

You know I meant to make a post about this at some point but bravo, you got to it first. AI is the future gents. Get on board now or get left in the dirt. All of these higher ed teachers in the social sciences who are pushing back against students not writing their own papers are about to be out of jobs in 5-10 years. 

[Pooter]

1 hour ago, FLEA said:

You know I meant to make a post about this at some point but bravo, you got to it first. AI is the future gents. Get on board now or get left in the dirt. All of these higher ed teachers in the social sciences who are pushing back against students not writing their own papers are about to be out of jobs in 5-10 years. 

@nsplayr are you guys at all concerned with chatgpt asking you to verify with your cell phone # ? Seems sketchy to me especially because I already verified an email. I've been super interested in the platform for a while now but giving away my cell number to an open source AI program gives me serious heebie-jeebies

[Guest nsplayr]

53 minutes ago, Pooter said:

@nsplayr are you guys at all concerned with chatgpt asking you to verify with your cell phone # ? Seems sketchy to me especially because I already verified an email. I've been super interested in the platform for a while now but giving away my cell number to an open source AI program gives me serious heebie-jeebies

It doesn't bother me at least after understanding the purpose of why a company would do that.

Phone number verification is much stronger to ensure you are a real person and not a bot. It's super easy to generate tons of free email addresses, sign up for accounts, overwhelm the service, DDOS, etc. Although phone number can also be had in a similar way, it's not quite as easy as email addresses and anything that uses 2FA is more protected than a simple email/password login.

If I remember correctly, I verified my openAI account with my Google Voice number (which is free), since I tend to do that rather than giving out my personal number whenever I remember to obscurate it a little bit.

[tac airlifter]

16 hours ago, Pooter said:

Totally off topic but I spent 9 hours writing 1206's for annual awards today for people who don't event want them. That is more hours than I have flight time in the last two months, and I am (supposedly) a CMR instructor pilot in the CAF.

We are going to lose the next war. 

We lost the last one, but GOs weren’t  fired so the organization already forgot. 
 

To me the worst part of 1206s is lack of feedback.  I spent hundreds of hours trying to get folks recognized and never received feedback on why they were or were not the chosen one.  Our processes can’t work with shitty/toxic GOs running them, and we’ll never convince inspiring officers to stay unless we treat them better.  Which we can’t do because we’re managed by shitty/toxic GOs…. The downward spiral is tragic.  

[dream big]

20 hours ago, Prosuper said:

I'm still trying to figure out why I had mx officers. Here have some rope, let me know if you need some more. Dang! what happened to that guy, he was only here two weeks, Darn! I didn't even know his name. Only thing he said to me I'm a Cal Berkley Graduate and I'm smarter than you. Boy Howdy did he impress the shit out of me.

The only ones I ever needed were O-5's and above. If I was King of the USAF, my plan was how Chuck Yeager started his career as a commissioned officer. He started as rated mx officer who flew all the FCF's and OCF's. Maybe it should go to the way the Naval Ops sq does it, pilots have to do leadership on the ground by leading mx troops. If your name was on the side of the jet, it was your responsibility to write the Crew Chiefs EPR and make sure he gets an end of tour medal. Rated Majors would run mx and hopefully by the time they get their own CC job they understand health of the fleet and just not sortie count.

MX and Cop Sq's are huge and have very busy First Sgt's, if you know you know, historically those guys are treated like shit and are pounded with constant extended 12 hour shifts with no days off. Which to leads to why they are always undermanned because no one reenlists, the enlistee raises his hand the first time, but his family reenlists. Also bring back Warrant Officer, that way a technically shit hot E-5 or E-6 doesn't have to eat shit from the Top 3 so they get a decent board score.

I retired an E-7 but I knew I would never be a Chief due to that I could never get off the flight line. Most of my fellow senior E's were nothing but backstabbing apple polishers, they were given jobs off the flight line just to get them out of the workflow because they suck. Unfortunately, they were the ones who made Chief due to showing they had diverse career broadening assignments, in reality they were getting moved every 6 months due to effing up that section they had to move them. Plus, their EPR was written in way that he was a water walker and not the Charlie foxtrot he was. The good ones were kept on the line and were manipulated by the Chiefs to make sure they stayed on the line making the Wing King money. 

My only shot of getting off the line was interviewing for a Wing Safety job. My incentive was a slot for the NTSB crash investigation course if I got that job. The Vice Wing CC interviewed me and told me then to report back Monday. This was a Thursday and started doing PCA paperwork. Friday morning get called into the Chiefs office, got told you're not going anywhere. He told me point blank you will be on that flight line with a brick and schedule to make sure we make that schedule. I'm sure if I was milk toast maintainer, I would have gotten that job because the guy who got it sure was.

Been saying this for years. Want to improve QOL for maintainers? Get rid of the AMXS and PCA everyone to the flying squadron. Marines and Navy have no problem with this model. 0-4 leadership position is MX OIC as a pilot. Not sure if it would make sense to fuse the MXS side as well. In any case, along those lines, I say get rid of all Groups and transition to an A-Staff model where Squadrons report directly to the Wing. I believe Mt Home and some other bases have already done that. My army coworkers look at my sideways when I tell them we have 0-6 Group Commanders and 0-6 Wing Commanders. 

[MCO]

4 hours ago, dream big said:

Been saying this for years. Want to improve QOL for maintainers? Get rid of the AMXS and PCA everyone to the flying squadron. Marines and Navy have no problem with this model. 0-4 leadership position is MX OIC as a pilot. Not sure if it would make sense to fuse the MXS side as well. In any case, along those lines, I say get rid of all Groups and transition to an A-Staff model where Squadrons report directly to the Wing. I believe Mt Home and some other bases have already done that. My army coworkers look at my sideways when I tell them we have 0-6 Group Commanders and 0-6 Wing Commanders. 

Your Army buddies also command as Captains. I don’t disagree with your logic but it’s not totally apples to apples. Without group command we potentially have GOs with 4 total years in command. We would need to change more than just getting rid of groups I thinks. Longer or more commands possibly.

[Muscle2002]

6 minutes ago, MCO said:

Your Army buddies also command as Captains. I don’t disagree with your logic but it’s not totally apples to apples. Without group command we potentially have GOs with 4 total years in command. We would need to change more than just getting rid of groups I thinks. Longer or more commands possibly.

Even now, we have GOs and senior O6s with less than four years of command time. I know a few who did a quick one-year squadron command tour, followed later with a one-year wing vice commander stint, and then wing command.

[MCO]

1 hour ago, Muscle2002 said:

Even now, we have GOs and senior O6s with less than four years of command time. I know a few who did a quick one-year squadron command tour, followed later with a one-year wing vice commander stint, and then wing command.

Great point actually. Get rid of group command and potentially a 1 year EOSS then 2 years as wing king and that’s it.

Edited January 28, 2023 by MCO

[Prosuper]

1 hour ago, MCO said:

Great point actually. Get rid of group command and potentially a 1 year EOSS then 2 years as wing king and that’s it.

But from non rated officers in all the support functions they get leadership roles with enlisted troops when they are 2Lt's to until they get passed over for Major and leave as Capt.'s. This flying stuff really screws up more than it helps.

[MCO]

1 hour ago, Prosuper said:

But from non rated officers in all the support functions they get leadership roles with enlisted troops when they are 2Lt's to until they get passed over for Major and leave as Capt.'s. This flying stuff really screws up more than it helps.

Sure. I’d argue flyers also get leadership as Lts and Capts. I’d say better leadership, but they don’t learn how to manage a squadron as well as the support side. Those arguments elicit a lot of feelings though.

[filthy_liar]

On 1/27/2023 at 5:46 AM, Prosuper said:

I'm still trying to figure out why I had mx officers. Here have some rope, let me know if you need some more. Dang! what happened to that guy, he was only here two weeks, Darn! I didn't even know his name. Only thing he said to me I'm a Cal Berkley Graduate and I'm smarter than you. Boy Howdy did he impress the shit out of me.

The only ones I ever needed were O-5's and above. If I was King of the USAF, my plan was how Chuck Yeager started his career as a commissioned officer. He started as rated mx officer who flew all the FCF's and OCF's. Maybe it should go to the way the Naval Ops sq does it, pilots have to do leadership on the ground by leading mx troops. If your name was on the side of the jet, it was your responsibility to write the Crew Chiefs EPR and make sure he gets an end of tour medal. Rated Majors would run mx and hopefully by the time they get their own CC job they understand health of the fleet and just not sortie count.

MX and Cop Sq's are huge and have very busy First Sgt's, if you know you know, historically those guys are treated like shit and are pounded with constant extended 12 hour shifts with no days off. Which to leads to why they are always undermanned because no one reenlists, the enlistee raises his hand the first time, but his family reenlists. Also bring back Warrant Officer, that way a technically shit hot E-5 or E-6 doesn't have to eat shit from the Top 3 so they get a decent board score.

I retired an E-7 but I knew I would never be a Chief due to that I could never get off the flight line. Most of my fellow senior E's were nothing but backstabbing apple polishers, they were given jobs off the flight line just to get them out of the workflow because they suck. Unfortunately, they were the ones who made Chief due to showing they had diverse career broadening assignments, in reality they were getting moved every 6 months due to effing up that section they had to move them. Plus, their EPR was written in way that he was a water walker and not the Charlie foxtrot he was. The good ones were kept on the line and were manipulated by the Chiefs to make sure they stayed on the line making the Wing King money. 

My only shot of getting off the line was interviewing for a Wing Safety job. My incentive was a slot for the NTSB crash investigation course if I got that job. The Vice Wing CC interviewed me and told me then to report back Monday. This was a Thursday and started doing PCA paperwork. Friday morning get called into the Chiefs office, got told you're not going anywhere. He told me point blank you will be on that flight line with a brick and schedule to make sure we make that schedule. I'm sure if I was milk toast maintainer, I would have gotten that job because the guy who got it sure was.

I'm ok.  I have not been slotted by Prosuper.  

[Prosuper]

9 hours ago, filthy_liar said:

I'm ok.  I have not been slotted by Prosuper.  

Guys who know me really think I'm a nice guy who is too brutally honest. 

[BFM this]

On 1/28/2023 at 2:25 AM, dream big said:

Been saying this for years. Want to improve QOL for maintainers? Get rid of the AMXS and PCA everyone to the flying squadron. Marines and Navy have no problem with this model. 0-4 leadership position is MX OIC as a pilot. 

Maybe.

Way back in the Peace Dividend days, I showed up to my first Marine Squadron, and days after I arrived my roomies (maintainers) started pulling 12/6’s.  Why were they doing 12/6’s, you ask?  Well, it’s because when the Skipper said in a staff meeting that he wanted Mx on 12/7’s, someone slipped him a note that said can’t do that…

Edited January 30, 2023 by BFM this

[uhhello]

I worked as a crew chief under FS commanders and AMXS commanders.  FS days were much better if only for the simple fact that you're only getting fucked by one group of leadership versus under the AMXS you got fucked twice over. 

[Pooter]

Here's a fun evals update for you. Hopefully it will be transparent to most people but if you have a lot of subordinates or if you're blessed with a queep lord position like me, get ready for a reaming. All of these OPR changes coming down the pike this year.

-A new form

-narrative format

-Static close outs (ever wanted all your captains to close out on the same day?! What a great way to spread out the work)

but wait there's more!!

Stay tuned for the imminent relaunch of:

Myeval 2, electric horse abortion boogaloo

Can't wait to spend all year figuring out how to hit this moving target.. rather than actually getting better at hitting real moving targets. 
 

/EndExecRant

[FLEA]

26 minutes ago, Pooter said:

Here's a fun evals update for you. Hopefully it will be transparent to most people but if you have a lot of subordinates or if you're blessed with a queep lord position like me, get ready for a reaming. All of these OPR changes coming down the pike this year.

-A new form

-narrative format

-Static close outs (ever wanted all your captains to close out on the same day?! What a great way to spread out the work)

but wait there's more!!

Stay tuned for the imminent relaunch of:

Myeval 2, electric horse abortion boogaloo

Can't wait to spend all year figuring out how to hit this moving target.. rather than actually getting better at hitting real moving targets. 
 

/EndExecRant

Don't worry, youll just have to do a legacy AF707 and a new myEval report just to ensure a report is written on the closeout date. Man, glad I got my DD-214 this year =D

[Pooter]

35 minutes ago, FLEA said:

Don't worry, youll just have to do a legacy AF707 and a new myEval report just to ensure a report is written on the closeout date. Man, glad I got my DD-214 this year =D

you're not joking.. my base is still un-f-ing OPRs that were stranded in limbo when they euthanized myeval v1 last year.  But don't worry let's bring that train wreck back along with a litany of formatting and process changes. 

The old way wasn't good by any stretch, but it's amazing how when we change/revamp something its almost exclusively for the worse. 

[dream big]

2 hours ago, Pooter said:

Here's a fun evals update for you. Hopefully it will be transparent to most people but if you have a lot of subordinates or if you're blessed with a queep lord position like me, get ready for a reaming. All of these OPR changes coming down the pike this year.

-A new form

-narrative format

-Static close outs (ever wanted all your captains to close out on the same day?! What a great way to spread out the work)

but wait there's more!!

Stay tuned for the imminent relaunch of:

Myeval 2, electric horse abortion boogaloo

Can't wait to spend all year figuring out how to hit this moving target.. rather than actually getting better at hitting real moving targets. 
 

/EndExecRant

I think narrative only and static close out dates are good changes. Narrative only will cut down in the amount of work perfecting that bullet that no one will read. Static close outs, at least you can plan your workload surges. It should also reduce the amount of strat gamesmanship as well.

MyEval 0-2.0? Complete cluster fuck. 

[Pooter]

7 minutes ago, dream big said:

I think narrative only and static close out dates are good changes. Narrative only will cut down in the amount of work perfecting that bullet that no one will read. Static close outs, at least you can plan your workload surges. It should also reduce the amount of strat gamesmanship as well.

MyEval 0-2.0? Complete cluster fuck. 

Except the narrative has a character counter so now we just have to gnats ass the character count instead of the line spacing. I trust we'll find a way to make it awful too. At least there was bullet buddy for the previous OPR forms that would auto lengthen or shorten bullets for you. Now I have to think of actual English words to shack the character count? No thank you 
 

As for the static close out, I'd personally prefer an even workload spread around rather than the all out shitstorm the captain close out is gonna be. Maybe it'll work out nice some orgs but in my experience flying ops squadrons are ~75% captains, none of whom ever lead turn their OPR with enough time. 

[SocialD]

7 hours ago, Pooter said:

Here's a fun evals update for you. Hopefully it will be transparent to most people but if you have a lot of subordinates or if you're blessed with a queep lord position like me, get ready for a reaming. All of these OPR changes coming down the pike this year.

-A new form

-narrative format

-Static close outs (ever wanted all your captains to close out on the same day?! What a great way to spread out the work)

but wait there's more!!

Stay tuned for the imminent relaunch of:

Myeval 2, electric horse abortion boogaloo

Can't wait to spend all year figuring out how to hit this moving target.. rather than actually getting better at hitting real moving targets. 
 

/EndExecRant

 

 

When's that POS turning back on?  We're feverishly trying to get our OPR's done and in the system before the new one goes live (again...).  We're "a bit" behind because we chose to scoff them until they figured out wtf they were gonna do with that coat hangar abortion that is myeval. 

 

On another note, why do we even do an OPR every year, especially in the Guard?  At least at my squadron, almost noone does any assignments (staff/NGB/etc...) off-station, we all know who should go where/when, so it seriously has no bearing on anything we do.  I think every 3-5 year OPR's would suffice.  Ever tried to write an OPR for a part timer who does exactly what is asked of a part timer and nothing more (most of our part timers have no other duties than flying)?   "Makes his sorties....most months...."  

 

 

4 hours ago, Pooter said:

As for the static close out, I'd personally prefer an even workload spread around rather than the all out shitstorm the captain close out is gonna be. Maybe it'll work out nice some orgs but in my experience flying ops squadrons are ~75% captains, none of whom ever lead turn their OPR with enough time. 

 

 

This is actually one of the nice things for the ARC units, at least mine.  We're fairly evenly spread on rank, though we have about 1/4 the Captains as we do Maj and LT Col, which are even split.  Rather than having dates strewn about the year, it's a bit more manageable knowing exactly when they all close out.  Generally many of the items we have to deal with in the ARC and a royal PITA because it's designed by the AD, who doesn't think about our considerations.  So this is finally one our favor...though, based on your example above, it further points out why we shouldn't be required to have the same setup as the AD.  

[brabus]

6 hours ago, Pooter said:

At least there was bullet buddy for the previous OPR forms that would auto lengthen or shorten bullets for you

What!?!?! And here I was back in the day walking uphill both ways in 6.9’ of snow to go write OPRs the old fashioned way. Character count - the AF just can’t help itself, it has to make everything as retarded as possible.