Leaderboard

The Rand Report was painful to read. The BL being the Airlines have no incentive to cooperate with the broke dick USAF. Fast tracking regional dudes seems appealing until you realize flying an Embraer from Valdosta to Atlanta 3 times a day has little transferability at least to the CAF. It seems the CSAF and HAF folks fail to realize is all people really want is choice and control of their life. I think the renovations to the retirement program will completely change some of these manning problems with folks not holding out for the 20 year carrot. I'd also change the ADSC for UPT back to 6 years, maybe 8 years if we also move to a 4-5 year PCS cycle. That gives someone a chance to make IP/AC in their MWS first assignment and go to another OPs for WIC/TPS consideration or ALFA to finish out their commitment. The WIC/TPS commitment will lock in folks to another gate at 10 or 12 years of service, which could be incentivized with the bonus. For the majority of AD pilots, at that 6-8 year point you need to make a choice, do I have enough hours for an ATP and go Airline/ARC route or take another assignment. Unfortunately, FAIPs would have to make the decision at the end of their first OPs assignment. With the 20 year retirement off the table we need to shift to a more frequent decision gate concept at 6, 10, 14, and 20 year points. The bonus would still be useful, but I think you're getting the folks that were going to stay for 20 years anyways. You could also incentivize the bonus to specific missions vice AFSC wide (ie. UPT, RPA, PIT), since you will have more frequent turnover and earlier departures from AD. While the turnover of this proposed system may be more frequent, giving your folks more choice and control in their life should help improve service morale to something north of pretty darn good.

I feel like the AF is going to go for the opposite and push for a 13 year UPT ADSC.