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Fellas - thoughts: A lot of you are leaving - a lot of you are IPs and highly qualified for leadership or other positions of significance in the company.... We all know that Sr. Leadership gets fed certain amounts of info, or reads info posted here. It's a way to get the pulse... I'd suggest starting a thread with the intent of stating, in plain English, your numbered reasons for wanting to voluntarily leave the force. Do not let it get out of control. Do not stoop to a ritual bitch-fest. Keep the snark and sarcasm to a minimum. Keep your egos in check and write calmly for the rest of us(them) to see. Maybe your true message (vote with your feet) can be heard by someone who will someday make a difference. I'd like to talk to each of you, but there is more to be gained from the group as a mosaic. Please consider the above. Cheers! Chuck

I wanted to be an Air Force pilot my entire life and if you asked anyone that knew me back in AFROTC they would tell you I would stay in for a full career. However once I got into the "real" Air Force I found the focus in C-17s to be about anything but flying. I was never talked to by management about my last tactical approach but about how I was an "embarrassment" for not having my zippers zipped to the appropriate length etc. Thinking that it must be an AMC thing I headed over to T-6s to see if the grass was greener. However it was anything but. Regardless of how hard I worked as a USEM or Chief of Programming I was given second class treatment by our fighter centric management who were the castoffs from the F-15 community. Fear, sarcasm, and intimidation are their tactics in managing a squadron as I came to find out. They looked after their bro network and literally couldn't care about any of my goals or desires to become A PIT instructor FCF pilot you name it. The kicker was my squadron commander directly lied to my face about how I was not selected for 2+2 because of time on station when in reality he never pushed my application beyond the squadron level. I wish the next assignment would mean an improvement however seeing the calibre of the people the Air Force Deems fit for command leads me to believe that VSP is the best option for me The Air Force has helped me out as an aviator in so many ways but it's time to move on with a new phase of my life where I decide who I want to work for, where I want to live and how I wish to live.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend the MCAS Cherry Point Air Show as a photographer. Thought I'd add a couple of shots. (Have literally hundreds more, it was that good a weekend...) I know a lot of you fly, sometimes almost daily, but I'm a crew chief, long out off of the flightline (and I feel pretty privileged that you guys let me stumble through the Base Ops door now and then.) I never got an incentive flight during my time - probably wasn't in long enough to really deserve one - and have to admit for the years I was on the flightline, and pretty much even since, I've wondered - dreamed about - where my airplane went, what my pilot saw and what they did after they left chocks each day. Well, Saturday at Cherry Point my number was called and I strapped in to the back seat of Art Nalls' Aero L-39 Albatros. (Art's a retired USMC Lt.Col. and current civilian Sea Harrier owner and pilot.) Also learned that the most empowering, yet most concerning phrase I've ever heard, is "Ok Mike, you've got the airplane." Sure I know the mechanics of the flight controls, I've been imagining them since I was ten, but in that one moment I was flying, not just riding, but flying. While each of our steep turns, aileron and barrel rolls both reminded me of famous people, his, completely easy and smooth like Bob Hoover, and mine, well let's just say Ray Charles and we'll leave it at that. But it was thirty minutes that I'll never forget if I live to be a hundred. It was magic, I can't even think of words to describe it, and after all of these years, just with that short view of "the other side", I understand. Not sure I'll ever look at things quite the same way again. Mike Aero L-39 Albatros .5 Hours

Chuck: thats a good idea, but since I got approved, I have had 50+ Air Force members congratulate me, including my Sq/CC and DO. I had ONE person ask me why I wanted to get out. I think people know whats wrong.

Good question. Who wants to go through 6 more months of getting jerked around if they aren't going to cut any more? However, the SECAF's recent words allude to more cuts than what we are seeing right now. We had discussion a while back about the limited funds available for Force Shaping this fiscal year. The budget is much larger next year. I'm not sure we can rely on AFPC to update the matrices in time for the next VSP window so I have no idea what to do. The uncertainty over the past few months almost made my wife kill me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TERA approved 11M (130J) @LRF UPT ADSC 2017 06 year group Just over 19 yrs total with my E time Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Selling leave = basic pay Taking terminal = basic pay + BAH + BAS + Tricare benefits for the duration I know which one I'd take.

Chim - I hear you, and I'm one of the first to say thanks for what you've done, what you've endured. Let me put this another way, and show you why I'm asking for something like this: few vehicles existed to collect this kinda data when the same thing happened in 2006. Maybe no one really cared... I'm an amateur historian, and I constantly run into interview subjects who thought that their story was not worth telling, that nothing could be gleaned from their experience, or that their experience was so common - why bother? (Particularly the WWII generation). I also find myself constantly asking "why" something happened, with no primary sources to consult... So, instead of assuming that everyone knows what is wrong (I do), or focusing on how many people have congratulated you vs. asked why you were leaving, maybe consider that your leaving is in itself a monumental occasion, or at the very least part of one. Many voices are louder than one, even if they say the same thing. My response to your quip about knowing what is wrong is, "Yeah, no shit. And nothing will change or get better..." At the very least if you tell people what is wrong, why you left, there is some documentation of it, other than an approved VSP application message on a faceless message board. Or, ignore the idea altogether - I have a thick enough skin, it won't bother me. But don't engage, say "people know what is wrong" and thus say everything and nothing at the same time. A simple "Fuck it, I'm out" would suffice. Chuck

Chizz, H or J? Not to get too deep into this but I think this will make a big difference, if anyone is paying attention. After the last VSP debacle, I would hope that we figured out we couldn't let out all the IPs. I think we will make the same mistakes again. I hope I am wrong. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Still not sure on the rationale about how these are being handed out; have any 11M C-130(H/J) individuals got a confirmed vsp response yet? We seem to be lacking in confirmed notifications compared to pretty much every other 11M airframe.

Black or red...

There are a couple of us still hanging on to a small amount of hope, mostly bomber pilots I think.

No - this is much, much worse. Still, I am happy for the folks headed out - getting what you want in life is important. And timing is everything... Chuck Edit: For a point of clarification: this will be worse in the C-17 community, who will have now endured two force reductions which have decimated the IP ranks since its inception, one in 2006, now one in 2014 (and a minor one in 1999). Though years apart, the cumulative effects of starting a community between 1994-1999, the outflow of IPs in 1999, constant mobility operations without any letup between 2001-2006, the VSP debacle of 2006, the expansion of the community 2006-2010, its organ-donor relationship with the RPA community, and now its inevitable retraction (CHS and TCM will each lose a squadron - sorry Pathfinders and Food Lions), and the 2014 VSP have taken quite the toll on the active duty force - not sustainable. Training is down, experience is down, morale is down. Picking up the pieces will not be easy given the compound interest of the problem at hand. Fly safe dudes, watch your asses.

I was totally fucking around when I said that last night... Approved! 2005 11M Just under 2 years UPT ADSC when I separate. Altus got cleaned out today.

Yeah, I say the same thing all the time. All those Master's Degrees out there and no one can figure this shit out? Money well spent for sure... (Yeah, I finally got an AAD line in there!)

A C-17 FTU IP retired the other day. This was a pretty good list of things he learned in the USAF, which he showed at his retirement.