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I'm doubting he's a Major. The willfull cluelessness, unwillingness to listen to those actually doing the job, beclowning himself on an online forum, vomiting blue koolaid nonsense on officership and being stupid enough to volunteer for RPAs all point to 2 Lt.

Better yet, park them in garden spots and spread them all out 4-5 timezones apart. Boom! No one has to work nights. No more shift work.

I believe the proper verbiage for his chosen technique is the "Care Bear Stare".

Somewhere, a shoeclerk's cranium is exploding at the sight of those rolled-up sleeves...

You had the opportunity to STFU, and you stiff armed it. You have no fing clue what you're talking about. Leadership, flying, or UAVs. You sound like the biggest whining child ever, and no one wants to listen to preaching from a toddler.

"Several years"... ha! There won't be anyone left except Lt's and Capt's in several years. As far as ART bonuses go, some units are offering them now, but not many pilots are taking them. One big issue is that the bonus money needs to come out of the units' civ pay pot, which means less on-the-spot bonuses and temp-ART positions for the entire unit. We don't get extra money from NGB for bonuses. It all comes down to this: It ain't all about the money. You can go to one of the "Big 3" legacy carriers or even SWA and make $140,000 a year by your 4th or 5th year. The thing to realize is that the airlines value your time so greatly that they're willing to pay you $120+ an hour for your time. What does a GS-13 make per hour? $50, but you work 200 hours per month instead of 75. Or you can sit short call reserve an hour from the airport and possibly get the whole month off. Jesus H, I don't think I'd know what to do with myself with a month off while getting paid and what's that you say? When I do work, I only have to worry about flying an airplane for a few days with no queep or pushing a pencil? Sold... it's not about money. It's about QOL/flexibility and while noone should have joined the military for supurb QOL/flexibility, it gets old getting shit on all the time and sooner or later, people are going to walk. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

According to PM, I was too subtle. I was using the term shipmate in one of two ways:

Think of how many permanent schedulers, planners, training managers, equipment custodians, building custodians, deployment managers, records managers, voting reps, security managers, resource advisors, purchase card holders, and DTS reviewers we could hire for 60k per year...

Oh good an O-4 that's going to be shuttled up to the group/wing or ADO is really the "great reinforcements" that the guys getting crushed on the line need help from. I feel even worse that not only will you probably provide no relief but also will be some leadership position having demonstrated such great "leadership" views here on this board. But hey you're probably going to go far with the mentality you have since you're just drinking the blue koolaid by the gallon.

STFU! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So they would rather QOL suffer instead of hiring people to do the qweep, sounds about right

Dude, I threw you a bit of a lifeline. I commend your positive attitude but you need to heed the advice to stfu and listen. Experienced guys are giving their gripes, don't discount them. I'm loving my USAF experience but I see dudes getting railed all around me so as someone who is happy, take it from me, there is a lot of truth being spoken here. Whether you dig it or not, you'll find out. But don't talk shit to experienced guys because whether you agree or not, you have Zero real insight. And don't ever ever EVER go spouting officer first at the pleasure of the president officer ship 101 outside ROTC or the shoe clerk 0900 PT session. I can't begin to tell you what a d-bag your post made you sound like. But keep up the great attitude. Best of luck.

It's a step in the right direction, but actually falls a little short of the rumors our CCs heard at NGB recently. Rumint: tiered bonus of X/yr for pilots, Y/yr for IPs and Z/yr for patches, with amounts approaching $100k at the top end. The attached warning was that it was "several years" down the road. Technician rumint: ~30% bonuses (comprised of 3 components) with quicker implementation because 2/3 of the mechanisms are already in place. I still think the AD piece won't make the numbers right without changes directly affecting QOL - bring back CSS, hire full-time/full-function schedulers, eliminate BS staff & deployed billets, etc. Even at $60k/yr, the airlines still make more financial sense. Also, there is a lot more than money driving people to the airlines. That all being said, at least big blue is listening...well actually - reacting. "Listening" would mean a lot of this would have been done 4 years ago. Yep, they're reacting. Heed the warning though, young ones - everything points to the fact that HAF is doing this begrudgingly and way too late. If our resident staff weenie Chang really does pass an accurate picture of what his bosses think, numbers on Excel files are far more important than substantive QOL improvements. In the meantime, expect a lot more 1.X% raises and deployments.

Chang is Butters... BUTTERS IS CHANG!!

I love the irony of the situation Big Blue finds itself in. For a decade, rated retention was an afterthought; airlines weren't hiring, the economy went south and they enjoyed ~2 years where no pilots could get out. During that timeframe queep mounted as CSS troops were cut and flying hours were slashed. At the tail end of it all they reward the military with pathetic 1.X% raises and lower BAH. Their attempt to recapitalize the fleet (JSF shitshow) is falling squarely on the shoulders of AD troops. Almost as if on cue, the economy finds its footing, airlines start hiring like gangbusters and every ANG/Res unit is looking for good people. There is actual movement on bonuses for technicians and the AGRs will likely partake in whatever boost their AD counterparts get. AD has competition both from airlines and a RC that may have decent bonuses to offer. Sorry, Big Blue - timing is everything.

You are so full of shit. FHPs are NOT healthy, they're terrible. Our jets are broke, B-Course syllabi have been slashed multiple times with too much training kicked to a broken/underfunded CAF (not the FTU bros' fault, it's management's fault) and every year the new guy is less prepared for combat because he gets shafted on quality flying training. Us "old" guys can hang on because we have enough experience to fall back on; luckily when we were young everything hadn't completely imploded yet. I have seen entire squadrons who I would rate as below average - it's not the bros' fault, its the fact the squadron is full of young, inexperienced dudes who are trying their best, but big AF refuses to give them the tools required to succeed. WO's and the couple "real" IPs in the squadron slave to fight the uphill battle and get their guys ready, but even their 75 hr work weeks aren't enough because again, management has taken so much from them in terms of ability to provide adequate training. Those same squadrons are hemorrhaging experience at an astronomical rate for all the reasons mentioned elsewhere. Not an RPA guy, but I think it's fairly safe to say very few of them give a shit about leading the "community of the future." You managers might think that, but it's not true. Home more? Maybe they don't deploy to the extent that many of us do, but they're living in not very desirable locations, many doing a job they were involuntarily forced into, and from what I've read here, they do some fairly rough work schedules. RPAs provide a lot of capability in specific situations, but just because they do doesn't mean you have happy people operating them. These are statements of fact, not emotion. I cannot comprehend why you and other senior leadership refuse to see these simple facts and listen to your people who are the ones in the trenches. You don't like to think so, but the reality is your O-5 and below people out there in the CAF, MAF, AFSOC have much higher SA than you do on the day to day realities. That's not an insult, it's just how it is...some day I might be the old guy sitting somewhere, but if that day comes, I will rely on the guys below me to shoot me straight and provide recommendations...and I won't scoff them. That's a trait of good leadership I have seen growing up in this AF. You guys have a job to do which involves thinking on a strategic level. But it is extremely naive and a complete failure of leadership to ignore everything you get from the tactical level. Your flippant attitude towards anyone "below you" and how "we" could not possibly have any idea on what's good/bad in the AF because we don't have stars or whatever your metric for "credibility," is the primary reason we're all telling you to off and getting out. Many good dudes at the tactical level would stay and help solve the problems, but its clear senior leadership doesn't give a shit and will never listen to us, even when we're screaming the answer in your ear. You're right on one thing, there will most likely be a continuous supply of 20 yrs olds ready to sign anything to fly. But that makes this already hollow force just become worse and worse until some day we just hope we can keep up with the ability of Sudan's AF. Hyperbole a bit, but the point is valid.

No, I'm suggesting you quit with the sense of entitlement. You serve at the pleasure of the president. Right now, the president, via the chain of command, wants you in RPAs. So try and make the most of it. You want airplanes. Too bad. It's not about you. Some of us are trying to help by volunteering. Maybe we can get some more, if we don't talk about RPAs as being a leper colony. That's all I'm saying. This shit should be obvious. We're supposed to be officers. This is leadership 101.

It's not a democracy, that's what you need to figure out. I know we're pilots, and bitching is what we as a community do...all the goddamn time. But bitching will get you nowhere. Either vote by leaving when able, or stay and get promoted so you can try and make your small contribution to solve the problem. Whether or not you are unhappy is secondary to the mission. That's just the way it has to be. When possible, leadership should fight for quality of life. But mission comes first, always has. Let's change the attitude and talk up the good parts of the job. I'm a pilot, i'm used to the bitching. But everyone else looks at us and wonders what our problem is. Again, $150k/yr to fly droids overseas from the safety of our computer screens, blowing bad guys up every once in a while. No, it doesnt set you up too well for that cush airline job in the sky. Too bad. I'm a taxpayer, and I frankly don't give a shit if you don't get that airline job. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the country is unemployed, underemployed and/or living in their parents basement. Get some perspective. Nobody owes you anything. The air force doesnt owe you an airplane to fly. That's the truth. Deal with it.

Oklahomans, our state will be in good hands. Adam Pugh, a former ABM, is running for State Senate based on his illustrious career as an ABM. He's so awesome that he still refers to himself as "Captain" years after his gallant service. Check out his pics on his website. He is so proud of his fake (ABM) wings, that he still wears them on his suit jacket. Also... he must have stolen someone's helmet for that glamour shot. Or maybe he kept his when he washed out of UPT. https://www.pughforsenate.com

No, I agree that it's hard to smile when eating a shit sandwich, if that's truly what it is. I can't deny the terrible locations. From what I've heard, long hours as well. There are clearly valid downsides to RPAs. But is it not true that there's at least a few upsides? There's got to be some mission satisfaction... It's been my experience that sarcasm is rarely if ever productive. It attracts the ire of leadership because it solves nothing, and yet is so toxic to morale and unit cohesion. It's the self licking ice cream cone where Bros start trying to one up each other to see who can make the more outlandish sarcastic comments. That's the black mold to avoid at all costs, in my opinion. There's ways to provide constructive criticism. I understand those ways haven't paid dividends yet. The answer isn't sarcasm. Let's figure out how we can make it suck less. Who knows, there COULD be more like me who never considered RPAs because we were always told through the bro network that it was the worst thing on the planet, to be avoided at all costs. I've talked to seasoned RPA guys. No, it's not all gum drops and rainbows. But there are some plusses to the job. You guys are kicking more ass than 99% of the rest of us, and you get to stay home. True, you do lose your bragging rights, and if that's important to you then join the rest of us who don't fly A-10s.