Leaderboard

Being an exec has NOTHING to do with leadership potential. My wife was an exec, and damn good, much better than the pilots (all top notch people) she was an exec with. Guess why? Because she had worked in college as a secretary. An exec position is nothin more than a glorified secretary. Sure, you are asked the occasional input by your boss, but that could come from anyone else, you are just the easiest to ask. In the end, being an exec, DS etc, is nothing more than a secretary job where you get the education of watching a dysfunctional bureaucratic organization like the USAF work its magic thanks to hardworking tactical operators and gobs of cash and resources. If the USAF started promoting people it needed to be leaders instead of the bullied high schooler who finally got a taste of power in ROTC and learned if he kissed enough ass and filled squares he could someday be in charge. We'd have less Chang's, less people making exec and worthless schools a goal and more warrior minded leaders who gave a shit about things other than their rise in the ranks of big blue.

If this were results for SNCO, you couldn't make it to the AF Portal welcome screen without clicking past the splash page. Us lowly Colonel and Major selects can't even access the public release. Saying something isn't it?

0 + (100% of 0) = 0.

I was an OG exec. It was a shit ton of work, but I gained more "leadership" experience from that job than from any other job I've had. Giving direct feedback to squadron commanders as a Captain can be a challenging leadership experience. It's also interesting to see how decisions are made and implemented at all levels. My former boss is now a GO, so that doesn't hurt either. I don't know how other organizations work, but I've never seen an exec picked for secretarial experience. In my experience, squadrons typically nominate quality people for execdom. I know that's not the case everywhere, but damn people sure are cynical about execs around here.

The Grand Budapest Hotel. Worth it. Funniest shit I've seen in a long time...

He will at least deserve a worthy citation - Napoleon Tanerite distinguished himself for exceptionally valorous action in the face of overwhelming self delusion and rambling as the baseops designated footage recorder at the 15-69 class graduation ceremony. In the face of ultimate Queep, and surviving unbearable commentary, Tanerite overcame insurmountable odds - filming 6.9 minutes of wasted breath. His remarkable performance and selfless commitment to his Brothers-in-Arms undoubtedly ensured future generations of Air Force aviators could appreciate and ridicule the epic failure of 'he who's name will not be spoken' for eternity, thus preserving Air Force honor. His performance reflects the highest tradition of Air Force Pilot standards and reflects great credit upon himself, baseops.net, and your mother.

Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In Big February 2015 Newsletter Hello World War 2 & jet aircraft fans – You are invited to drop by Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In https://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com to view our exciting February selection of seven exciting films streaming over the Web in broadband, including three premiers. As always, all of the videos showing on our web site are for your free viewing pleasure. Please help "spread the word" by liking us on Facebook! My thanks to BaseOps for permission to post here. Now showing in February "At the Matinee" at Zeno's Drive-In. Free admission! https://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/MATINEE.html *“Last Bomb” Outtakes: B-29s & P-51s & more (Exclusive- Restored Color + SFX) NEW Recently discovered silent reel of outtakes, expanded scenes, and new footage from the Academy Award winning World War 2 B-29 classic, "The Last Bomb." Includes never before seen footage showing a B-29 engine repair facility on Saipan, expanded scenes showing General Curtis Le May and XX Bomber Command planning a mission to Tokyo, inside the cockpit photos from an actual B-29 mission and more I've added much real sound effects taken B-29s,P-51s and 50 cals. machine guns. And there's a big bonus for fighter fans. The section of the original film that shows P-51 Mustang squadrons ranging over the Japanese mainland after targets of opportunity is expanded , yielding some of the most exciting color gun camera footage we have seen from World War 2. *The General George S Patton Story - Narrated by Ronald Reagan. NEW Restored Get the full story of George Patton, from his graduation from West Point through his untimely death right after World War 2. Patton was a key figure in developing the principles of armored warfare. A brilliant tactician and a controversial leader he led American forces to victory in campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, across France, in the Battle of the Bulge and then deep into Germany . * The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam (Restored Color) NEW -- digitally restored The Black Horse Regiment” was a uniquely independent unit, functioning as an armored fist, re-enforcing other units in battle and in a wide variety of other roles including convoy escort through enemy infested territory and jungle clearing. East of Saigon in III Corps, they were responsible for numerous firsts that you'll see used in combat, including developing armored vehicles for local conditions like the ACAV Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle, a an essential upgrade of the M133 APC with much better armor, additional weaponry & steel shields to protect gunners. The 11th were also the first to operate the Army's innovative new M551 Sheridan AR/AAV light tank. *354th Fighter Group P-51 "Mustang Pioneers" (Exclusive Documentary - Restored Color) This is an updated revision of a documentary I created 6 years ago with added sound effects and exclusive footage of Lt. B W Carr climbing out of a captured German FW 190 fighter . I digitally restored the color, added graphics and music etc. Rare color film of the legendary 354 Fighter Group, with over 700 Kills, the highest scoring American unit in Europe. You'll see great aces like G.T. Eagleston and B.W. Carr at work and at play in their newly captured base in Germany in Spring, 1945, only a few months before war's end. Amazing color gun camera film! *The Bulge: The Battle at St Vith This remarkable documentary combines eyewitness testimony from an all star cast of key participants on both sides of a critical engagement in the Battle of the Bulge with outstanding archival footage, detailed maps, and a return to revisit the actual terrain where each phase of battle was fought. * School for Danger: SOE & French Resistance Fight the German Occupation - Restored 1945 This is one the most exciting World War 2 espionage films you'll see. What's unique is that the characters play themselves performing the roles they executed during World War 2 -- from British secret agents to French Resistance fighters to special mission RAF pilots and operational commanders. *The Fleet that came to Stay Kamikaze attacks off Okinawa 1945 In March, 1945, the US Army, Navy and Marines, with the support of the British Pacific Fleet, launched "Operation Iceberg" against the Japanese Island of Okinawa, in the Ryukus,The Japanese flew 1,900 sorties, sinking dozens of Allied ships and killing more than 5,000 U.S. sailors at the cost of 1,465 kamikaze planes. 2,200 other Japanese and 763 U.S. aircraft were also destroyed during the battle "Operation Iceberg" against the Japanese Island of Okinawa, in the Ryukus,The Japanese flew 1,900 sorties, sinking dozens of Allied ships and killing more than 5,000 U.S. sailors at the cost of 1,465 kamikaze planes. 2,200 other Japanese and 763 U.S. aircraft were also destroyed during the battle. We also show 1940-45 vintage WWII Army & Navy films and pilot's manuals on how to fly the F4U, F6F, P-38, P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51, P-61, TBF/TBM, AT-6/SNJ, B-17, B-24, B-25, A-20, A-26, B-26, B-29, and Stearman N2S. Alert! - don't miss the F-86, B-47 & B-58! Zeno Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In World War II Aviation Videos Playing Online 24/7 https://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com Zeno’s Flight Shop Aircraft DVDs https://www.zenosflightshop.com Now on Twitter @ZenosWarbirds Web Videos: B-29s, P-51s. 11th ACR, Patton, Espionage, Kamikazes & more

I'm a trougher in the Reserves, and NO, people aren't pulling down 50K 'easy'. The previous poster caveat was that his unit has an alert commitment. He also is still in training, so he's going by what his bubbas at the unit are selling him. A year makes a lot of difference between what they tell you is the case when you interview and what the overarching reality is when you work that first day after MQT nearly 2 years later. At any rate, alert commitments, full time support of AD MAJCOM contingencies et al, allow a healthy money pot to be accessible to the supporting RC units and their members. This is not the case for all tanker/fighter units though. Your financial success as a bum will be directly dependent upon the airframe you fly, the mission assigned within that airframe, the amount of other bums in your unit attempting to do what you're doing at the same time, the state of affairs among the airline crowd (the furloughed O-4/5s) and your willingness to be away from home to get paid. The best way to find that information out is to talk to the bums in your unit and getting the skinny. The money may be skosh and that sure as hell should be a consideration prior to getting into said unit. Bumming is not for the faint of heart. In general you'll make around 60-70% of what your regAF counterpart gets paid and you'll put more days a month than they do. Multiple weekends a month is not out of the ordinary. There's no sick leave or worker's comp. You get sick a week and can't fly/show up? You don't get paid period. It's freelance work at its rudest. 60% of senior Capt doesn't sound bad, 60% of 2LT and now you're grazing non-technical hourly wages at the local factory, and you're a freggin' mil pilot. I've known Viper pilots do the mexican house antic, 3 to a house 'cause one works for Eagle and makes jack, the other can't get Lowes to take him seriously when he puts -16 driver on his resume, and neither can get a cotton-pickin' manday at the unit. Now, all that said, none of us had to ask for a day off to go off to wherever for a week. Every day you're unemployed is a day you have off, so might as well look at it glass half-full. As a bum, you're getting paid in the ability to say NO to the AD BS. You know, relocations, deployments and disco-belt shenanigans. Now, with the advent of TFI even that apparent benefit seems to no longer hold true, but I'll leave that out of the scope of this thread. Historically, fighter guys have a tough time getting enough days out of the unit to bum successfully. Getting on full time orders for a year to go to asscrackistan doesn't count as bumming either. Bumming is how much money you can pull without having a civilian job and no continuous orders over 30 consecutive days (hence no paid tricare, no leave accrual, no BAH type I). MQT is also not bumming. Everybody gets UPT, FTU, MQT (to varying degrees). Bumming starts when your unit starts feeding you out of their RPA pot and not on the AD MAJCOM MPA money (i.e. the devil's money). I made 45K taxable income last year, which is probably closer to 50K when accounting for the fact that my mil pay include tax-free fractionals of BAH and BAS. That was working 2-3 weekends a month, 3-4 mandays a week (which is way above average to the Guard weekly allowance), averaging about 2-4 more days a month at work than my regAF buddies. For my rank that's about 65% of what they make. I wouldn't call this 'easy' money. Conversely, one of my squadron mates, higher rank by about 1.5 years, spends half his year playing warrior with PACAF and is on full time orders for the duration of that stint. Great, that kid probably pulled about 65-70K. But he was gone as much as his regAF counters were and they still outearned him by about 10%, and they got more leave and medical allowance than he did. So as you can see it's a scale and not a set number. I made 65% and got to carnally know my wife on my own time and when it damn well pleased me. He made 90% and was gone more than AD and missed Thanksgiving, Xmas, the anniversary and Easter, and I sure hope nobody got to carnally know his pretty thing of a wife in his absence; and this is as a "Reservist" mind you. That opportunity cost sucks in my book, but to each their own. So I do think it's possible to clear 45-50K as an LT bumming, but it's burning weekends, and may be outright impossible in units without a decent money pot or with too many bums fighting for the same money. At that point it becomes a choice of either accepting being gone to get paid, or not. Which is kinda AD in nature, and that's really not why I got into the Reserves for. YMMV. If I were you I would do myself a favor and do a long-term look and gut check as to why you would want to pursue bumming. My experience is that long term, bumming outright sucks as a financial plan and is a bad idea. The vast majority of us are doing this to get in line for a full-time position at the unit because we value homesteading and it's probably the only other way we're going to attain a six figure income after vesting our lives into a particular profession in some of the garden variety Guard/Reserve locales where these units are located at. Locations where outside of niche fields or medical, people ain't making jack for money. Alternatively, some people bum to offset an eroding airline industry, either following a furlough or anticipating one. Whatever the situation, all these men and women have probably agreed said status would be temporary. I know too many folks getting into the unit behind me come with expectations of 250K houses and $1000 between two car payments, snicker and pant heavily at the indignity of attempting to fulfill these "expectations" on the grace of whatever bumming they could get out of the unit. That's nothing but piss poor planning. So most do an honest assessment of how long they would be willing to bum for, and if financial landscapes do not change within the time their household could have a tolerance for bumming, they opt out or pursue civilian employment elsewhere and usually leave the unit for another unit closer to the civi employer where they could still min run and get their 48 UTA, 48 TPs and 14/15 AT. I suggest you do that math TODAY versus the day you start bumming at the squadron and your wife gets indignated 'cause your 'job' ain't bringing in half what y'all need to be set like she thought life after college "is supposed to be". That full time job may come in two years, or it could take upwards of five and now you're behind the eight ball financially compared to your age peer group, and your wife is pissed. Good luck to you.

Seriously??? Guys, keep your head down, do your absolute best where you're planted, and multiple exec jobs will seek you out. Keep doing well, and you'll continue on to higher-level exec and aide jobs over multiple years. And yes, schools and promotions will follow. The AF only sends their best to these jobs; hence, the rewards at the end of the rainbow.