Leaderboard

Point well taken. That does put a different spin on things: - Barely over half of those pilots in the year's group of eligibles who loved RPAs enough to willingly recat to 11U have signed up for the bonus . . . and based on zero new takers in the last month, it is unlikely substantially more will. Not good news for a community the Air Force is growing - The three manned pilot communities primarily responsible for filling RPA billets (11B, 11F, & 11M) have the lowest take rates thus far Too bad AFPC doesn't break down take 11x take rates between those filling RPA billets and those filling the standard flying/staff billets for their respective communities. Sure glad the Air Force is expanding its RPA operation. While necessary, it's coming at a huge cost. Like I've hinted at in a different thread, ground commanders are more than happy to keep screaming for ever-more air (especially RPA) support, because it doesn't cost them anything. When air leaders provide support, they get little credit--it's our job. When they say no, we're outta Schlitz, the ground guys get to complain about Air Force nonsupport. TT

Multiple PT test failures. Consider gaining weight to keep things plausible. 4 Fails could be accomplished in 9 months if you take the full 90 days between retakes. There's no separation pay if you go that route.

Fail every PT test and you should get released (with some sort of separation pay)

Desperation is a stinky cologne...

One important rule to remember in life, but especially in the investment world, is that free research is almost always worth what you paid for it. With a few incredibly rare exceptions (like Mike Burry posting on Yahoo message boards) anybody who is smart enough and provides useful insight in their research will demand to be paid for that research. I would be wary of any free newsletter pitching stock "research" and I use that term loosely. Also, before you listen to anybody who claims they saw the financial crisis coming before it happened you should stop and ask yourself, why is this person not worth hundreds of millions of dollars and why are they still writing for an online newsletter? I'm a big believer that smart individuals with discipline and research can outperform the market over time. However the more time I spend working in finance the more I believe that most individuals are better off with low cost, broad coverage index funds or ETFs. If you have a full-time job it is highly unlikely you will have the time to really do the due diligence necessary to outperform the averages. Jim Cramer's 1 hour per week is a bullshit number, you're competing against people who spend 60-80 hours/week doing research and for every share you buy because you think it is cheap somebody is selling it to you who thinks it is expensive. If you are going to run the risk of a concentrated portfolio of just a few names you need to know them inside and out. Not just read the news but understand the accounting, how will those things you read about flow through the three statements, how will it effect the multiple being applied, which multiple is the right multiple for this business, where are we in the cycle. If you don't have the time to really understand a few businesses completely then you need to diversify to lower your risk and if you're doing that you might as well just own an index fund.

Exactly. The AF considers you "ready" to attend IDE as soon as you're selected for Major, hence the reason you can sign up for it in correspondence as soon as you're a select.

This post made me think of this from Good Morning Vietnam

Not directly on topic, but applies to the discussion I think. Last UTA, my Reserve base just had a visit from the AFRC/A3 to brief the ARTs on retention. The picture did not look good, and they are bouncing any potential ideas to (1) keep the current ARTs attracted to stay, and (2) continue attracting potential baby ARTs. The core problem from my perspective is a simple numbers game. The older ARTs who already have 20+ years of federal service are doing the math (adding 1% for each additional year to the already secured civilian retirement vs. starting an airline career in their 40s). The potential new ARTs are doing even more lopsided calculations where they'd had to stick it out for 20 years as an ART to realize any retirement, vs the beauty of starting an airline career possibly in their late 20s. There is no golden carrot that a government job could possible offer that counters becoming a millionaire while progressively working less for more money. As a former Active Duty pilot, I'll say that the great thing (which totally works against AFRC) about the Reserves is the openness in which we discuss careers options that ACTUALLY benefit ourselves and our families. We have airline cockpit posters up all over the squadron, most of the TRs fly for major airline X, the TR squadron commanders are airline guys. So the discussion about doing what's best for your family is open and honest. On AD, these conversations do not exist. Every pilot with the potential to jump is playing those cards close to the vest until the very end due to overbearing leadership forcing everyone to project a false facade of loyalty to the company. It's total bullshit, with fake "support" coming from AD commanders that everyone knows is not genuine. There is not one person in my Reserve unit that would ever say "Oh, FedEx just called you? Before you take the interview, let's talk about how wonderful your ART job is and the impact on the unit if you left." All (including commanders) would actually say "You're an idiot if you don't take the interview and the job if offered. That's what I would do."