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The AF has no clue about what it's about to face in the next decade. It has this idea that there will always be pilots to fill billets at will. The airlines are just now starting to hire at an unprecedented rate. At the same time all the high time OEF/OIF/etc veterans are reaching the end of their commitments around the time they would be hot for a staff gig. You can't send a brand new UPT grad to staff, so even increasing schoolhouse output won't fix the pilot manning problems the AF is just starting to see. It's not a matter of money either, just look at the take rate on the bonus. They're going to have to fundamentally change the way they do business if they want to successfully compete with the airlines for the experienced pilots that both organizations are seeking. The AF finds itself at a huge disadvantage at this realm. Airlines are completely in control of what they do with their company, whereas the AF is beholden to congress and POTUS taskings.

Thanks for putting in all the work to keeping the forums going, dude. Rich would be proud.

In AFGSC the Huey crews regularly take missile maintenance personnel out to the sites to conduct short notice or after-hours repairs. The 341st Missile Wing’s ICBM complex in Montana is 13,000+ square miles and some sites take almost a 4 hour drive to reach, one way, hence the need for helicopters to provide security and support. Off-base convoys are used to transport the weapons from the sites to base in order for maintenance to be performed on the warheads. The helicopter squadrons regularly run into crew duty day issues on these long sorties due to the length of drive and ETIC times for the required maintenance actions at the site. For this reason a crew is usually designated to show six or so hours later than the primary crews to ensure that the convoy always had helicopter support. One bright, shining spring day I was scheduled to fly an instrument/EP sortie with a relatively new co-pilot. We were also scheduled to provide backup for the weapons convoy that was heading out to one of the furthest sites in the complex. We completed the training sortie without too many issues, an easy 2.5 with multiple beans logged and returned to the squadron to catch up on the standard Missile Wing queep. About an hour after we landed we got word that the convoy was delayed two hours due to MX, standard. Thirty minutes later the Ops Sup got a call from MOC requesting helicopter support for the affected site. A critical part forgot to be packed in the van the night before and the convoy wouldn’t be able to leave the site without it. Without a helicopter flight MMX would be forced to drive four hours to the site, deliver the part, as well as drive four hours back. This of course would exponentially increase the duty days of 14 aircrew and 100+ maintenance/security personnel currently sitting at said site awaiting the part. Our crew started to spin up for the mission; coordinating with MOC to determine the personnel and gear required, pre-flighted the aircraft, and other aircrew duties to be ready to turn blades as soon as the maintenance personnel got to the squadron. When the two maintenance guys arrived they were carrying their “critical component” in a pelican case the size of a hardback novel. We strapped in, cranked engines, and were in the air in ten minutes. The site was plugged into our trusty-rusty GPS and preceded Vne direct at a blistering 110 knots. As we were flying across rural Montana at 100 feet we started to converse with the airmen in the back. Neither of them had been in a helicopter before and we tried to make it the best flight that we could. The weather was warm enough that we could pin open the doors so they could get the best view of the countryside. We couldn’t deviate to sightsee too much because we had somewhere to be but on the return trip we would have plenty of gas to “explore the space” if you will. Almost an hour later we arrived on scene and landed right outside the launch facility gate. Both airmen ran out, threw the pelican case over the fence and ran back, and we pulled pitch with less than two minutes spent on the ground. We headed south into the mountains and started to show the airmen what a 9,000 pound, 45-year old Huey could do. Yanking and banking at 50 feet through the coulees and mountains is the best part of the job and we tried to put on a good show for the passengers. They were both sitting sideways in the alcove seats and with each bank and pull they would either see ground or sky but not much in-between. If you’re not ready it can be disorienting very quickly. We always brief the passengers to tell us when they’re getting sick so we can mellow out and they can fetch a barf-bag or let their symptoms settle. Many passengers though try and fight it as long as they can and when they notify the crew it’s usually too late. Unfortunately for the airmen on the left this was the case. He was barely able to get out a “slow it down” before he let it go. Fortunately though it was not too forceful and he made all of his lunch, leftover spaghetti squash casserole, in the bag. He tied it off and the FE jettisoned it to prevent it from being a FOD or biohazard. We mellowed out the flying as we cleared the mountains and re-entered the prairie. The airmen on the right ragged on his buddy for yarking persistently begging us to fly lower and turn tighter. After 20 minutes of this we relented and the left airman insisted that he was good and he promised that it wouldn’t happen again. The FE gave him another barf bag just in case and we started to have some fun. Ten minutes and many, many ridge crossings and whifferdills later, we asked how our passengers were doing. Both gave enthusiastic thumbs up so we decided to kick it up a notch. I took the controls and executed an aggressive, for a Huey at least, climb to 3000 feet AGL to set up for a spiral descent. A well-executed spiral descent will be at 60-80 degrees of bank, 2-ish Gs, and generate over 6,000 FPM rate of descent. The recovery will begin a few hundred feet above the ground and recover at 100-150 feet and 90 knots. Like the Chuck Yeager I emulated in those UPT standups 4 years prior I executed the first one like a boss. Rotor stayed loaded, VSI pegged out, and the blades popped so much on the recovery that Wagner would have been roused from the dead to conduct a zombie orchestra had he been buried outside of Lewistown, MT. Naturally the maintenance guys were excited for their afternoon roller coaster and asked for another. I gave the controls back to the co-pilot for his attempt. Now I had flown with this co-pilot before and tried to refine his spiral descents from a Maverick-stuck-in-the-jet-wash flat spin into something that wouldn’t make me fearful of mast-bumping from the near zero-G flight conditions. As we climbed back to altitude we checked with the passengers to ensure that they were feeling peachy and would be okay enduring the crushing G-forces. They again gave their A-OK and the co-pilot perched off the top and started his descent. Immediately things went wonky. The aircraft jerked and shuddered; unloading and reloading from the numerous rotor checks, throttle cracks, and overbanks as I tried to talk him through the maneuver execution. About three turns into the descent we were back into the flat spin headed out to sea. We spent the next 2000 feet of Class G airspace coaxing the aircraft back into parameters. As the radar altimeter passed through 700 feet he finally got the aircraft into a passable maneuver and we recovered about 300 feet above the ground. As we rolled out I saw what looked like grass trimmings flying around the cockpit and cabin. Only these grass trimmings stuck to the windshield and instruments glass. It was at this time that the FE began cursing repeatedly at us and Amn Snuffy in the left alcove. Unbeknownst to us in the cockpit, Amn Snuffy did not enjoy the co-pilots attempt at the maneuver. The erratic aircraft control and sub 1G flight did not sit well with his remaining lunch casserole. He attempted to get to the bag but the urges came on too fast to get it untied. As he puked the recirculating slipstream in the alcove, coupled with the unloaded flight condition kept his vomit in suspended animation in front of his face. As the copilot attempted to control the situation with a rotor check, the G-onset crashed this amorphous blob into his lap and aerosolized the chewed spaghetti squash into a green-out in the cabin of the helicopter. Every surface and object that was exposed including the pubs bags, helmet bags, and our FE was covered in half-inch pieces of Mrs. Amn Snuffy’s Thursday night meal. Luckily the smell wasn’t as bad as the cleanup would be. In the next 30 minutes all of the vomit dried and caked to whatever space it was currently occupying. After we landed and were hover-taxiing to parking we briefed both airmen on the proper etiquette and expectations for physiological incidents on the aircraft. The co-pilot and I shut down the aircraft as the FE ran to the phase-dock and returned with a pressure washer. They spent the next hour spraying the floor and scrubbing the inside of every nook and cranny of the aircraft, not to mention the bags and maintenance kits that were still caked in vomit particles. While they were cleaning we asked them what they thought of their afternoon. Even though they were covered in vomit and soaking wet from the pressure washer they said that they had the best afternoon yet in the ICBM world. Especially since their fellow MMX buddies still had 2.5 of driving left before they got back to base. Makes you appreciate that even the worst day of flying is still better than an afternoon in missiles.

I don't think I know anyone who feels bad for the Air Force regarding manning woes. I feel plenty for the airmen who suffer the consequences of moronic decisions made by the Air Force.

My favorite part of that class was when the instructor asked the class if it's ever OK to call a woman a bitch. One guy immediately said (very loudly), "Yeah. If she's being a bitch." I about lost it.

One of the comments to the most recent article posted: Right now this seems to be an Active Duty issue. But the real question is there really a sexual assault culture in the Air Force or is this just a wedge issue being pushed by the special interest groups? I ran across some interesting data from a DOD IG audit of cases from 2014. Air Force had 328 opened 2012 and closed in 2013. The main victim and subject (accused) age groups was 18 to 29, 70% junior enlisted. Both victim and subject had consumed voluntarily an intoxicating substance at a rate of 45 to 50 percent, basically both were probably impaired. At this time total force with civilians was 486000 and AD female population 58,560. Now the data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics for the same age groups focuses on females per 1000 students/nonstudents they show a rate of 6.1/7.6 per 1000 sexually assaulted. Using this model the Air Force had a sexual assault rate of 5.6 per 1000. The main theme running through both reports was intoxicant use by both victim and subject. As far as the Air Force is concerned Wingman may be not doing their jobs and looking out for their fellow Airmen. But our culture is on the whole is stronger than the civilian world." The commenter makes a great point.

How the fuck does someone fail an SOS assignment?

I'd like to use my "phone a friend" to call Paul Harvey.

yep - it would / would have been great but what should have been a straightforward Urgent Operation Need turned into a food fight and another fumble... So let's see 100 LAARs at 15 mil a copy comes to 1.5 billion and then x 4 for life cycle cost (WAG) comes to 6 billion then for about 20 years of flying service (conservative service life). Assume you keep 50 deployed and fly 200 hours a day, will just double a WAG of a per flight hour cost of $1000 and say it costs $2000 when deployed figuring the logistics footprint. That's $400,000 per day and that's a lot of ISR, Overwatch, CAS, Patrol, etc... Now to do that same 200 hours with 4th Generation fighter or A-10 at an average of $30,000 per flight hour in theatre and that's 6 million a day. That's not even trying to figure in the cost to AR some of those missions and cost of in / out of theatre movements. So in one year, to fly the 4th Gen it was about 2.2 billion and to fly the LAARs it was 146 million, difference of about 2.05 billion, you just paid for the LAAR acquisition in one year and every year after that's just bonus. Now I know that is just a linear extrapolation and the savings would take several FYs to realize as the spin up costs at first would be steep but had the AF had the foresight or the DoD to just admit around March of 04 that we were in protracted COIN / Occupation-Pacification operations in two widely separated and expensive (logistically) theaters to operate in and that we need to field appropriately scaled and sustainable systems to fight long wars, we would have the money for nice things like T-X, LRSB, etc... Oh well, rant complete and we've moved on since then but still just another missed opportunity...

If I had to choose the dominant religion of Air Force officers, it would be non-religious. I'm sure many of us believe in the Christian God, but no one brings it up. I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've heard someone talking about Christianity at work. If a Muslim airman were ever discriminated against, it would be because they were religious in general, not because they were a member of the wrong religion. As far as race goes: same. Nobody gives a shit. The US military is probably one of the world's most diverse organizations without the newest diversity push. Only 10% of Army officers are black? Well, the US population is 13% black. Sounds about right, and nobody treats them any differently. The most important criteria for how well someone fits in, at least in an Air Force flying squadron, is still 1. How much of a bro you are and 2. Whether or not you're any good in the jet.

My favorite color is red.

I speak Jive and Caveman, let me translate: Me like watches. Me have friend. Friend scared fly with me. Friend no want eject so me get watch.

A bit of the rest of the story from the traffic stop guy. https://news.yahoo.com/video/philadelphia-traffic-stop-caught-video-034331274.html

Not nearly as bad as you describe, 17D_Guy, but the closest thing I've seen are flying units co-located with NAF/AOC/MAJCOM on the same base. Lines get blurry real quick when you have anyone from any of those higher echelons calling the flying squadron tasking them outside of the normal chain. Examples: A3V calling/emailing squadron stan/eval directly. AOC/AMD Plans calling squadron tactics asking for "help". Not that I've ever experienced this first hand, but I hear the list can go on and on. By the way, I still don't know what a NAF does in the first place... still waiting for a good answer on that one.

I speak jive... "Are there any watch aficionados (that fly in Martin-Baker equipped aircraft) who encounter crewmembers who are hesitant to fly with them.?"

I delved into the world of 1911. I like, a lot.

^This. Try explaining to the IG why having something like "unlimited potential" on your push is effectively a career killer.

I don't either. I haven't read the manual or been exposed to any of the concepts talked about in the article. Falls into the "who cares what this study says" category. When the findings and recommendations impact training or policy, I might care.

Shack They beat Big Blue at their game. Applaud it. I was excited for the 10% of my SOS class that did not do correspondence first. They won. When you see someone succeeding playing by their own rules, get excited. We need more people who buck the system and are willing to die on just the right hill. A lack of courage isn't being afraid, but conformity.

Both Arnold & Spaatz served as execs, went to school, did their staff time, and still had time to be effective combat leaders.

Regarding recent O-4 board--higher promo % overall (92), but lower school select % (16). Masking grad school info had the desired result: for the bottom 20% of bubbas with a P, they competed on their official records. Officers from non-ops career fields have 5 distinct advantages in both the competition for DPs and the O-4 board itself: 1) 100% have been Flight Commanders and supervised other people, which is not the case in ops. I expect that the non-selects for O-4 were not cycled through the Mickey Mouse flight command positions (A/B/C Flt vs DOV, DOT, etc) in their ops squadrons; 2) Non-ops have spent their entire careers trying to articulate their value to the broader AF. Everyone has an important role to play, but It is more of a stretch that a FSS 1Lt advances the national interests of the US than the officers in the OG. Every CGOM/CGOQ/CGOY/functional awards package requires them to think about and to justify their operational-to-strategic impact that is assumed away by many operators. 3) Ops bubbas do not get the same credit for deployed experience. Most non-ops folks have deployed to IZ and Afghan, while many (not all) ops frames supported from bases in other countries. Similar to #2 above, ops records--OPRs & citations--often use MDS-specific language and assume that the reader knows both the mission sets as well as the officer's role in that mission. 4) Ops communities have trouble weeding out folks due to ADSCs. Non-ops career fields have more weed-out options due to the shorter ADSC. 5) Competing for O-4 from a staff billet. Smaller pool of officers for strats/DPs, but their Sr Raters will probably be FO/GOs. Grad school, SOS, performance in combat was not masked for the Sr Rater/Wg CC to give out DPs to the top 75% or to fight for folks on the bubble at the MLR.

I have a difficult time understanding privilege. I define it as a psychological weight when you are a member of a significant and obvious minority. In the Air Force, there would be white, male, and Christian privilege. But what can I do about the psychological weight of someone else? Where you have significant minorities--gender, race, religion--our AF community contains large elements that are prejudiced against them. That prejudice sometimes manifests in obvious or subtle discrimination. It is the discriminatory actions that are the real problem, and we must be aggressive in finding and rooting it out. Bias, prejudice, and privilege are good to understand as the foundation for later discrimination, but I don't think we can do much about them. People can think and believe in whatever crazy nonsense that they want; it is taking action on them that becomes a serious problem for the rest of us.