Leaderboard

In his defense, it's about time a CGO came out (STS) and said it in public, because his "leadership" probably doesn't give a damn. I applaud him for having the balls to use his real name and stating something that many of us agree with. He's the opposite of Col (s) Tater Tots.

Jalepeno Popcorn, we're building a bar in my squadron, my SQ/CC gives a fuck, flight pay even though I fly robots, I haven't polished a boot since 2007, no more Blues Monday, and Schwartz doesn't work here any more.

There's one thing that I think needs to be understood in all this (and this will kind of bleed into the Force Shaping and Pilot Bonus threads)--and that is demographics. In my estimation, it has more to do with the mess the Air Force finds itself in than individual leaders' decisions. Here goes: - Leader selection: -- Our current batch of Air Force four-stars entered the Air Force between 1976-1980, and our current O-6s entered generally between 1983-1991 (pin-on somewhere around 22 years & stay as late as 30 yrs) -- Peak hiring in the last hiring boom was between 1996-2000ish -- What this means to me: Our current four-stars hit 20-year retirement eligibility, and our much of our current O-6 leadership hit bonus eligibility in the midst of the hiring boom and stayed in, while their peers were getting out in droves -- What this means to me is that Big Blue had a smaller pool of candidates from which to select future senior leaders, and it is quite possible that there was a decrease in quality as a result. Dudes that might have stayed in and made the Air Force a better place pulled chocks instead Note: I have no solid evidence of this, but choosing leaders from a smaller "gene pool" has to have a qualitative impact Looking forward: - Baby boomers are hitting age 65 in ever-increasing numbers; the peak of the Baby Boom was in 1961 (4.3 million--will hit 65 in 2026), so they'll be leaving huge holes in the workforce well into the future (for we pilots, as we know this translates into significant hiring) - At the same time Boomer retirements accelerate, those Air Force officers who were born in the worst of the Baby Bust years (lowest births in 1973, with only 3.14 million) will hit 20-year retirement eligibility (born in approx '73, commissioned in approx '95, retirement eligible in '15) - The year groups in and around the '95 year groups were ones in which Big Blue grossly underproduced pilots--and in particular produced way too few 11Ms To sum up: - In the next several years, rapidly increasing demand (most importantly pilots in our example, but they'll need experience across disciplines and industries) will be met by some of the lowest numbers of recently-retired Air Force pilots (and in particular mobility pilots) in many years - Historically high demand will meet historically low supply, which will lead the majority of those who stuck it out 20 yr retirement to walk into the readily-available airline--and other--jobs out there. Given the inevitably small (sts) number of pilots that bother to stay in past 20 yrs and thus meet their O-6 boards, how much quality control do you think Big Blue is going to have? If the bumpy ride we've had in the Air Force over the past several years is in any way due to poor quality control (driven by low numbers of folks who stayed in during the late-90s as stated above), then we're in for a really bumpy ride over the next decade and a half or so. - I guess the good news is that if you're a 15-20 year O-5 type and you've played the game reasonably well over the past several years, you'll have a historically good chance at making O-6. You won't have any competent minions (read grey beard O-4/O-5 types), since they'll find much greener pastures outside of the Air Force, you won't have any money for your organization, and you'll deal with senior leadership that for the most part has destroyed institutional morale . . . but you'll have some really cool, shiny birds on your shoulders. Good luck with that. I hope we get some combination of competent/inspirational leaders and useful bonuses to ensure that we retain what leadership talent we have. Rant off. Edited for a math error

translation: nope.

Anyone seen this article yet? Large detail on the AAD/Promotion process. https://truemilitaryintelligence.com/node/4

Dude, I get it...honestly, I do. I don't envy anybody who has health problems or has family members with health problems. But seriously...why is it the government's job to force a business to give said family member something and then force taxpayers to cover the difference in cost? It comes down to what you think the government should be and should do. If all these people want to 'help other people', then why didn't they just do it of their own free will? The 40-45% of the population who support Obamacare could have raised millions (potentially billions) of dollars in order to help the less fortunate and they could have done so without forcing people to pay for someone else's misfortune. I know, I know...I'm 'heartless' or 'mean'. In reality, I hate forced charity, whereas politicians are very charitable with other people's money. If a church (or any other organization, religious or not, that people want to voluntarily belong to) that I voluntarily decide to go to has a member who is truly needing help, then the leadership of that organization can request money from its members to help pay for what needs to be done. What we have now is a bunch of politicians (on both sides) that campaign on how they will take money from those who have it in order to give to those who do not have it...in exchange for votes, because if they can't get elected, then they can't perform the wealth redistribution. Politicians want you to rely on the State, not to rely on each other.

As long as you're all set ....

This. The equivalence would be people expecting their car insurance to cover a new battery, tire rotation, oil changes, car washes, etc...but to not cost more than they're already paying (actually they want it to cost less). Oh, and while they're at it...Obamacare would allow the equivalent of you being able to not have collision insurance, you then wreck your car into a tree, and then you can call and get an insurance program after the fact that replaces your vehicle. This is not how insurance works. The only way Obamacare could even 'somewhat' work would be to raise everybody's rates (because you don't have a choice now) to cover the increased risk pool/procedures that the insurance must cover and to raise taxes/fees to pay for the subsidies of poor people when their rates increase as well. I also love how the insurance companies will get a federal bailout if they don't make a certain profit.

We will all politely now back up, and get off of your lawn.

Allah Ack-BOOM! Fox News has labeled this Darwin winner, "Teacher of the Year"

Unmasking advanced education for promotions has always seemed like a bad idea to me. I finally decided to write an op-ed on the subject and it got picked up by the Baltimore Sun. I am wondering if anyone really thinks this policy is good for the Air Force and why it has not been changed if almost everyone I know thinks it's an abomination. Here is the article. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-air-force-degrees-20140204,0,2245525.story

I think a better pre-existing analogy would be one's driving record. If you show up at GEICO with a horrible driving history and accidents I think it's fair that you pay higher premiums. The problem with health insurance is that it's used for routine care and not for catastrophic medical care.

I get it, that's a "he's old" joke. Fuck you.

There's always some car insurance company out there, but you're likely to pay a lot more. That's how insurance works...if you have a pre-existing condition, you are a higher financial risk for the insurance company. I'm glad your loved ones are able to get the care they need under ACA, I'm just curious why you think your neighbors should have to pay for it.

There was a much better article published in the ASPJ in 2011 that talked about the AAD problem...

Honestly I think as long as you have it before getting orders to go to IFS, you can make it work. The problem is making sure the right people know you have it, but that should be a relatively small hurdle (in theory, it IS AFPC) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dude, I pointed out how a Kirtland AETC training wing does not follow this policy, and Vance was listed as another. So I don't see this as being 'very rare' as you described when it comes to a 'no-mileage' restriction in AETC. Others can chime in with the other AETC units if they'd like. As for Goodfellow, I have yet to comment on what they do as I haven't got a clue. I don't doubt the shenanigans you mention are true, but it's not some massive AETC conspiracy with how they treat everybody in a training course and their pass policy. Hell, even Gravedigger disagreed with you with his experience of the AETC Spaceworld. As for the 29B's...sorry man, we've all had to deal with them as they've been around at least since the early 2000's (and probably earlier). Have you taught in AETC or just been a student? I used to brief the new students on the AETC no-tobacco policy during duty hours and told them to be smart about it. Now you're on to something...much better than 'It is an AETC thing' and 'very rare'. There are young guys who read these posts and there's no point in throwing up things that aren't true. And for the record man, it does suck that the guys at Goodfellow are being a bunch of tools. As I used to tell my students back when I was in AETC, to put it in their critiques and remember the things they didn't like when they're sitting in the instructor chair one day. This too will pass. Bendy--I wanted to add a pic of 2 half-naked chicks pulling each other's hair, but I didn't want to be the one making the thread NSFW. So here you go!

Pretty sure someone already posted a link to it here. Nice self-props.

Kirtland 58 SOW units had the same thing. This is nothing cosmic as it's in the leave AFI (ie no distance restriction on a pass). I'm not trying to bust your balls on purpose each time, but you throw out a lot of information in which your assumptions turn out to not be accurate. Notice how I never comment on what Goodfellow does because I have never been there. Hopefully there is some learning going on here.

Yeah, because people have so much trouble getting car, homeowner's, and life insurance without the government footing the bill.

If I were a pilot and saw that #18 on the list I would GTFO. If a company in the real world put producing their product as priority #18 they'd be out of business within a year.

Everything I've heard out of that base puts it in a class of its own. I've known several people that have gone through various mx school houses at Sheppard at the past year (both E and O) and no one has relayed any stories that come anywhere close to the intel lunacy. Plenty of standard Airmen Eternally Treated like Children crap, but there's a colossal difference between "normal AETC" stupidity like making a Lt fill out a 29B to go to Dallas and making a Lt Col fill out a 29B to drive 5 miles outside of town. The closest thing I can think of that I've heard of would be when a certain TRW/CC a few years back got all pissy pants that some Ammo dudes were making fun of his son at a softball game and banned the Ammo team from playing in the base league, but that was just one shitty senior leader. All the shit I've heard from that hellhole indicates that it's a pervasive culture of idiocy that infects all the cadre there.

I think we can close the thread now. When flying is #18 of 19......that's what wrong with the Air Force.

As an LT, remember: It's always better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

White House delays health insurance mandate for medium-sized employers until 2016 The joke continues.

The one thing they do here that is a surprisingly positive rule, we are allowed to go anywhere as long as we fill out a turn by turn 29B for the weekend. I can go to Miami for a four day weekend as long as I am back by 2200 the night before training. That is a rare plus for AETC. All the other bases I have been to have a 300 mile radius or less.