What has 'improved' in the AF?

[Smokin]

I think everyone can probably come up with improvements in their respective corners of the AF.....Here's mine:

--The jet. I love and miss the A-10A but the C-model is way more capable/lethal. It continues to get better with OFP updates, TGP upgrades, and Scorpion HMS.

--LASDT. When I started flying the Hog, only WOs were qual'd to 100'AGL. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of concern about training at an altitude that we'd get slaughtered at (500'). Now, most 4FLs and IPs are 100' and most 2FL and WG are 300'. We've taken advantage of training opportunities in Alaska, Romania, DM, etc

--The 3-3 and 3-1. Better writing, better pictures, better tactics.

--Sq buildings. The last 3 squadrons I've been in have been completely remodeled. Bigger/better vault, ops desk, scheduling office, bar, etc.

--Curfew. When I was in Korea, curfew got extended from 0100 to 0300 and then dropped altogether (...not sure what it is now).

--The fighter pilot bonus.

I can think of a handful more but you can see the theme is that improvements that affect very specific groups are easy to find and oftentimes pertain to the mission. ......But the title of the thread is improvements in the *AF* which you'll find are much harder to point out .

.... and speaking of which, what examples do you have to contribute? The irony of someone bitching and whining about bitching and whining isn't lost on me.

1 am with LORs or Art 15s for those who are caught out after curfew. I prefer the older technique of using town patrol as punishment for curfew violations. The thought of having to walk around A-town sober in uniform is bad enough.

The jets are better avionics wise, but I flew more in a week in Korea back in the day than I fly now in a month. To the more important question of are we more lethal in a contested environment? Not sure.

[brabus]

To the more important question of are we more lethal in a contested environment? Not sure.

I say we are less lethal. Not because we don't have the capability, but because the required training is increasingly stymied by politicians. You can't play the probation-regression-regression-RAP-probation,etc. game, rob the AF of valuable flag level training and expect dudes to perform well in the types of contested environments we only talk about. Give dudes the chance to actually train to that stuff and our level of success will be infinitely greater.

I feel like we're heading towards the super bowl, but the general manager only allows the team to use Madden XBOX to practice and forbids real practices.

[Hacker]

To the more important question of are we more lethal in a contested environment?

>THE< vital question that very few in Big Blue seem to even know is something they should care about.

[JS]

Good points, HOSS. When asked what has improved, my first thoughts were digital signatures on papers, uniforms, and boots. But now that you mention it there are a lot of improvements with regards to our secondary tertiary reason for existing - operations:

- C-130E/H -----> C-130J

- C-141 ------> C-17

- C-5A/B/C ------> C-5M

- KC-135 --------> Block 40

- NVG ops standard for C-130 crews and a bunch of C-17 crews

And perhaps the biggest inpromement on the ops side of the house during the above changes:

- Fewer navs and FEs

Edited November 28, 2013 by JS

[AnimalMother]

I feel like we're heading towards the super bowl, but the general manager only allows the team to use Madden XBOX to practice and forbids real practices.

Except for some of us on the third and fourth string teams. I can barely fly half the monthly hours I'm allocated for my planes. Man, sure would be nice if there were some way to reallocate those hours somewhere else, or just not gratuitously throw assets where they aren't needed. Don't worry though, we've been brushing up on our double digit tactics. If by SA-10 you mean the elusive Samuel Adams 10 pack...

[Learjetter]

The huge pay raises of the late 90s-early 2000s -- mandated by Congress -- were nice.

[JS]

You just reminded me of another thing that has improved - the quality and humor of baseops.net posts, especially the quality of the animated gifs.

[Hacker]

DTS: Although it's not perfect, it's still better than spending two hours at finance for them to un-fu<k a voucher

VMPF: ^^ Same

Except back in the day the vouchers didn't get f'd up -- you turned them in at containers that were located at convenient places around base, and the pros whose job it was to process them did...and they didn't get kicked back to fix the tiniest nitnoid crap like they seem to do more recently. I can say that for about 7 or 8 years in the mid-late 90s, I never had to go to finance and have a voucher unscrewed.

[SocialD]

Except back in the day the vouchers didn't get f'd up -- you turned them in at containers that were located at convenient places around base, and the pros whose job it was to process them did...and they didn't get kicked back to fix the tiniest nitnoid crap like they seem to do more recently. I can say that for about 7 or 8 years in the mid-late 90s, I never had to go to finance and have a voucher unscrewed.

Agreed! I've been in over 12 years and only switched to DTS in late 2011. Not once did I ever have a problem with my orders/tickets/reservations, until I started using DTS. I carried a travel voucher on the trip and logged shit as I went. When I got home, I just dropped it off at finance and was always paid pretty fast.

Since I've started using DTS, more often than not something is fucked up. Hell, a few weeks ago I ended up with no airline ticket there or home (ended up non-revving out since i had no time to contact SATO), and my rental car had 3 different reservations. My authorization wasn't approved until a week after my TDY (I created it about 1.5 weeks prior). When we had the Debit card, I got so accustom to not having funds loaded that I just left my per diem on my card so I knew I could always get tickets/ hotels.

There is a special place in hell for whoever thought up DTS (right beside the creator of JMPS)!

[SocialD]

Guess I should add what I think has improved. Aside from various updates to the jet...I can more easily access my flight records at home (via the portal), which makes it easier to update my airline apps.

[Prosuper]

Safety CBT's have don't add anything or turn off the audience, I think we should change it up a little bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5xPV27MxkF8

[Gravedigger]

I can more easily access my flight records at home (via the portal), which makes it easier to update my airline apps.

You must work for Liquid.

Everything about the space ops business has improved under Gen Shelton and Gen Welsh. From the simple stuff like getting rid of flight suits and leather jackets, to the career field management (3-year tours and cutting ties with missiles), scrapping the ridiculous medical standards and paperwork and leaving it up to you and the mission commander to determine if you can pull ops, huge changes to IQT/MQT, and all of that while bringing on a lot of new systems and capabilities and during budget struggles. From my corner of the world, the last 3 years have been constant improvement. Hopefully the rest of you will be able to say the same in a few years.

[B.M.]

Hoss,

You got me! You asked what I thought was improved, not what was important, and I answered. Well played strawman argument.

And excellent gif!

[go_cubbies22]

Things that have made my life easier since I've been in (2005).

-logging in with my CAC instead of some ridiculous 15 digit password that needed to be changed every 6 months

-tying my CAC to AF portal, vMPF, myPay, ADLS, and so on instead of passwords for each one with ridiculous requirements

-AFnet migration from about a year ago that allows me to check my email on any AF computer w/o webmail and gives access to my share drives

-Sharepoint

As far as any improvements directly related to Gen Welsh, the only one is no Blues Monday. After meeting him and hearing him speak, I do still have hope that he will make some improvements. I personally think all of his time has been consumed by dealing with Sequestration, budget issues, govt shutdown, and congress over sexual assault that he has not had time to deal with other stuff.

Edited November 29, 2013 by go_cubbies22

[ClearedHot]

-AFnet migration from about a year ago that allows me to check my email on any AF computer w/o webmail and gives access to my share drives

Really...

[zach braff]

Things that have made my life easier since I've been in (2005).

-logging in with my CAC instead of some ridiculous 15 digit password that needed to be changed every 6 months

-tying my CAC to AF portal, vMPF, myPay, ADLS, and so on instead of passwords for each one with ridiculous requirements

-AFnet migration from about a year ago that allows me to check my email on any AF computer w/o webmail and gives access to my share drives

-Sharepoint

As far as any improvements directly related to Gen Welsh, the only one is no Blues Monday. After meeting him and hearing him speak, I do still have hope that he will make some improvements. I personally think all of his time has been consumed by dealing with Sequestration, budget issues, govt shutdown, and congress over sexual assault that he has not had time to deal with other stuff.

So all the improvements seen since 2005 are comm-related. Incidentally, I entered the AF as a comm officer in 2005. Yeah, that makes sense then I guess. Hehe.

zb

[pawnman]

Except for some of us on the third and fourth string teams. I can barely fly half the monthly hours I'm allocated for my planes. Man, sure would be nice if there were some way to reallocate those hours somewhere else, or just not gratuitously throw assets where they aren't needed. Don't worry though, we've been brushing up on our double digit tactics. If by SA-10 you mean the elusive Samuel Adams 10 pack...

It's fine, you'll burn those hours through September to avoid selling them back.

[Rusty Pipes]

I do like electronic pubs. Being able to do a search in a 300+ page document can be quite handy.

Getting rid of ASBC.

The CSAF at least makes some effort to keep mission focused and take care of people. I understand that that job probably has 100+ things competing for attention on any given day. So, he gets points there.

E-Pubs have their downside too. I very much like the convenience of searching, but so does the young guy who doesn't actually know what is on those other 300+ pages. I think it has led to an unintended lowering of GK among aircrew (especially young aircrew), but agree that overall it has more pluses than minuses.

[Champ Kind]

E-Pubs have their downside too. I very much like the convenience of searching, but so does the young guy who doesn't actually know what is on those other 300+ pages. I think it has led to an unintended lowering of GK among aircrew (especially young aircrew), but agree that overall it has more pluses than minuses.

Agreed 100%

[Rusty Pipes]

As far as any improvements directly related to Gen Welsh, the only one is no Blues Monday. After meeting him and hearing him speak, I do still have hope that he will make some improvements. I personally think all of his time has been consumed by dealing with Sequestration, budget issues, govt shutdown, and congress over sexual assault that he has not had time to deal with other stuff.

I get that everyone likes Welsh (I do too), but why does everyone keep making this excuse for him? I don't expect him to be personally figuring out the queep problem, but how about if he takes one of the dozens of created General Officer billets since 9/11 and have them answer the mail on the very same e-mail he sent out as USAFE Commander. I know one or two 1 Stars (former bosses or Commanders who are actually good guys) who would LOVE to get the green light with the CSAF top cover to eliminate 90% of this crap in about a week!!! Could you imagine how morale would go through the roof if he did this? I had an old boss that is a 1 Star now and did this on his own at the Base level when he was the Manas Wing CC and the guy was a rock star out there! CSAF doesn't need to do this personally, he just needs to make sure someone is doing it and that they are doing it in his name.

[Bender]

-AFnet migration from about a year ago that allows me to check my email on any AF computer w/o webmail and gives access to my share drives

That's strange...the AFnet migration has happened to me twice inside the span of the last year and all it's ever done is prevent me from checking my email and shared drives on the domains I'm a part of. That is, of course, easily rectified within a 1-2 week timeframe...it takes time, after all, it's the first time we've done this...here.

Sometimes I feel like other's desire to improve something than isn't actually broken is the real problem. One man's improvement is another man's irritation. We do this over and over until it's barely recognizable anymore. That said, I'm sure I'll look back 30 years later and remember the AF it the way my father looked back on his time in the army...Remember the good people, a few of the bad...the rest just is what it was, it was far from perfect, but it didn't really change the outcome all that much.

Speaking of a CSAF: While I think it's good to reflect on all changes to see if they had their intended effect, there is very little changeable within a large organization that will bear immediate fruits that are substantive and/or important. I do not doubt that there are senior leaders that struggle to find them everyday. The problem is that those changes set in motion are rarely kept in motion once individuals move on. It's hard enough to champion change when it's your idea, it's much harder when it's another's.

As far as what I think has improved? Not much. It's different, sure...but improved, not really. I don't particularly think it needs to either. If anything, I'd let the O-4 and O-5's that haven't had the pleasure have some of my deployments. Let's just revamp all of it...I'll write up a BBP...there, now it's time to PCS. You got the stick now, Bobby. *right in the trash can, too much work*

This thread is not my favorite (although the fat kid falling through the long jump pit did make me smile),

Bendy

[SocialD]

You must work for Liquid.

Haha, well played! Actually, both my WG/CC and OG/CC are airline pilots (on mil leave). I just like to be able to access my flight records at home...makes things much easier for me. There is plenty of airline talk in my squadron, to include all of our EPs (on just got hired at Delta, all of the other have their apps in). Good luck trying to give a ground eval because we're talking airlines...you'll probably get laughed out of the room.

[nrodgsxr]

I'm forever grateful that Gen Welsh commuted my life sentence to Creech. Everything else seems like small potatoes after seriously facing the possibility of never flying an AF jet again.

it's funny how drones can put everything into perspective

[Prosuper]

Well at least your not in the Army as a company commander, this poor guy thought the same way I did when I was a flight chief with a bunch of knuckleheads who did not get it. http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/11/outgoing-company-commander-hate/

[StoleIt]

Well at least your not in the Army as a company commander, this poor guy thought the same way I did when I was a flight chief with a bunch of knuckleheads who did not get it. http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/11/outgoing-company-commander-hate/

It's the Duffleblog...