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I don't care if we had to release 100 of those f**kers. We got our guy back. The US says it will do whatever it takes and they did.

Exactly. It's the same way we ended up with CSEL. I always think of Homer Simpson's car design when people discuss programs like LCS, CSEL, JSF, etc.

I say we come to a compromise and sit down both the A-10 and B-1 and pull out some old F-4 D's,

Don't do it unless you really need the income/tricare. AFPC screwed this up, not you. Don't let your commander/buddies corner you into "helping the squadron/community." The Air Force is so bloated, this is the only way guys will figure out what really is mission essential. Work on your resume and set up interviews, let them get ready for ORIs and barbq competitions.

Rat is in his own category.

Unfortunately I think as more of the story of his alleged capture comes out it's going to take a distinct downward trajectory...

Yep. I hope Claire Danes is ready for the debrief.

You think the machine learns lessons and you think one lowly pilot going tactical DNIF will teach that lesson? You're mistaken. They're going to delete me from the spreadsheet, put your name in, and not blink an eye. If there was nobody left to put in cell B24 and it stayed red, they'd think, "Hm, now what?" But that's not going to happen. If it starts to happen, they'll change the rules. ("We don't have enough MC-12 sensors. Extend everyone indefinitely." It happened.) No learning takes place. No shitstorm realization. In the end, the only one that feels ANY pain is you.

If anything is apparent after these past couple months is AFPC wouldn't know a shitstorm if it punched them in the face. They are a bureaucratic machine far removed from the ops tempo of the air force. They wont feel it, they'll just grab the next name on their excel spreadsheet.

They should make it like flight pay. You have to pull x number of shifts in the hole per month to be eligible. You can even do gates. Then make missileer WG/CC, OG/CC, and SQ/CCs pull those alerts to retain the incentive pay, much like we do in the flying world. And just as folks who are long-term DNIF will lose their flight pay, we also take missileer pay away from folks who go long-term medical DQ from PRP.

1. You will change your mind. It's a mere function of time and life stage. Don't fret it. The young ones want to fly helos these days after MWS day out of UPT because they don't want to get "stuck in an airframe that doesn't see action". Nothing has changed much in that regard from 50 years ago. The crusty majors and above roll their eyes and welcome a family-friendly PCS duty location, or conversely 7-day opt in order to save their families in the absence of one. The two archetypes were the same person at one moment in time, bear in mind. You will be no different unless you opt out of a family, which is perfectly fine too. 2. You're misunderstanding the exodus. Just like the retirement of the baby boomers, job replacement will not occur on a one for one basis. The jobs are GOING AWAY. The 11F shortage is an 11F head count (sts) shortage for 11F coded staff jobs, NOT an 11F cockpit shortage (i.e. false advertisement). Ergo, there is NO net vacating spot for you to jump into. You're competing for less jobs, which makes your desires MORE competitive. It's not impossible, but watching all this experience leave is not leaving you with more opportunity merely because you feel willing to go where the ones before you are running away from. Understand this difference for your own sake. It will lessen the disappointment. 3. You'll quickly come to chastise your own statement. I know you're being flippant, but you really have no concept of how old queep gets. It is fundamentally defining in the career of a flying officer, that his flying duties, in paper listed as primary duties, are in effect tertiary duties after he pins on O-3. You will not escape that (there is no WO program in the AF). The closest you will get to attain such an outcome is to be a Guard/Reservist and deal with just getting to do it on a part-time basis (even full time reserve guys are being fired too, for your SA). Understand what this means. This means they'll pay you to not get to do what you're willing to sell your soul for in order to get to do in the first place. You will reject that construct in due time, like most of those before you, and again come to chastise your own words. Look, none of this has to be accompanied by a moral adjudication either. Some kool-aid drinkers could say airline_guy is a shitbag for having such an openly disdainful attitude (by proxy) for which he took an officer oath that had nothing to do with flying airplanes. Others (myself included) would view such means to an end as an admittedly apathetic but par for the course answer in an organization that's bigger than the kool aid drinker, myself or airline_guy's, and certainly an organization who doesn't care one flying fuck about me, airline_guy or even the kool-aid drinker. The only truth I know is to keep doing something until it stops making sense or you get fired. Words I live by and it's kept me sane. What makes you a SNAP is not that you think you're willing to do things others are not (you're not btw), what makes you a SNAP is that you foresee yourself as immune from these dynamics by simpleton attitude. You're not immune and you will find out. Whether that transition is a fluid one or a life-embittering one largely depends on how much common wisdom and free internet advice you're willing to accept or dismiss today. Good luck to you either way and thank you for your service.

Every time I even hear HPO mentioned, it makes me want to go to the airlines. HPOs are not the guys you need to entice to stay in. People who actually want to become GOs are generally going to stay in because that is who they are. The people you need to convince are all the guys who want to top out at O-5, maybe O-6 if the job was right, but see the lifestyle of their commanders and DOs and don't think it sounds like something they want to be a part of. Going to wing stand up to explain to the wing commander as to why a four ship landed 20 minutes late? Getting an angry phone call from the OG because Lt X didn't properly fill out an eSSS before sending an unnecessary memo to the group? Having to tell your squadron that they are going to miss Christmas and be "deployed" for six months to a base in Korea where a third of them have already spent 12+ months because some four star wants another squadron in his command? No thanks. Fix this type of BS and the AF won't need a pilot bonus; they'll have to kick guys out because too many want to stay in. Last years change was a significant step in the right direction, but I think 2003 year group retention (or lack thereof) is going to force them to up the ante. Problem is, that would require explaining to Congress why guys who spent years getting to their dream job won't take a quarter of a million dollars to stay in that job.

HOT TASKERs!!!!!! Managers like this And this Big Blue was a great place to start out earning a good living while doing some cool flying, but the scale tipped in favor of bullshit somewhere along the way. I am loving life as a part timer. That said, the AF is as it was and always will be. It'll survive this "gutting" just fine, just like it did after the Gulf War and the 2006 VSP.