Leaderboard

I think you are confusing mentorship with advocacy and sponsorship. When you say your "PRF looked pretty good"...I hope you mean because you had a record of superb performance, stratifications, contribution...not that actual way the PRF was written. Your tone seems to indicate otherwise, as in your mentor showed you how to write a grammatically perfect draft for your supervisor. I am not trying to be an asshole and yes I get it, there are still some lazy supervisors out there who take a "draft" OPR or PRF and push it forward, but the rules have become so extreme with regard to how things are worded, quoted, documented...this is really commander business and has zero to do with mentoring. Yes your mentor may help you work through goals and important boxes that must be checked for promotion, but there is FAR more to it. My concept of mentoring and what I tried to do for many people over many years was provide LIFE and Career advice that often included a dose of painful feedback. Mentoring is often more about listening than speaking and while the advice may focus on building a successful career, it should not be the only intent. I've mentored good folks through very bad times including divorce, a death in the family, PTSD and just dealing with the normal stresses of life. I escorted a very good friend to mental health when he discovered his wife was cheating on him and sat there with him for hours, she was his world and it took him down at the knees, thankfully he recovered. I've wept with parents as they processed the loss of a child. And sadly, I've sat with a son as he processed the death of his father. Mentoring is SO much more than career advice. I'll get off my high-horse now because trust me, I have fucked up just as much as I've gotten right, I just have very strong feelings on the subject mainly because any success I had as an aviator was because of two people who mentored me and demanded I be a better person and aviator. Mentorship is not perfect and sadly mentors can fail...sometimes miserably. I counted Baba Rand as a mentor for many years and when it counted most, he wasn't there. Maybe instead of asking if the system needs more mentorship, we should all just go out and do it.

Bingo. There's literally nothing to see here. Millions of NPS Airmen have gone through tech school without being able to drink in their dorms. The only real story is that Tony Carr's once excellent blog has devolved into a mouthpiece for the whiners.

Apparently someone should mentor you on basic reading comprehension.

CH , I think your version of mentoring properly acknowledges that the air force is more than just a job - it's a huge part of a person's life. Navigating through life trials is made more difficult by the military, and leaders who recognize this and attempt to mitigate some of those negative effects can have profound impacts on not just a person's career, but their life. Really well said, and I hope other people read your thoughts and take them to heart.

Maybe...or maybe he tried to sensationalize a "nothing to see here moment" when he wrote that a major single-handedly repealed the 21st amendment and reinstated prohibition. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Drinking bourbon from the skulls of vanquished enemies after a day of strafing downtown Raqqa in my open canopy P-51. Obviously.

How do you go from asking for advice on the bonus to attacking the advice you solicited as it doesn't pertain to chi-town street cred? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On the other hand...I got sage counsel from a trusted Wing CV when I was finishing UPT, then again as a young Major-select. Had I followed those mentors directions, I probably would've still made O6 and had high profile jobs and school along the way. As it was, I chose to follow my personal desires (no staff, no school, no Phoenix Eagle) keep flying and choose locations and jobs I liked and made a difference doing (in my mind, at least). Mentors should show you the normal glidepath, but they also owe you at least ATIS at the alternates. I tried to illustrate normal paths, then get the truth of my mentoree's desires, then advise on how to make each of those things happen...and let the choice be theirs, then I pushed in that direction.

The other half of mentoring is the person being mentored has to been willing to listen and apply the advice they received. I got some great mentoring from a 1-star (then BGen Keltz) but like a dumbass, I didn't listen and now I'll retire as an O-5 instead of as an O-6... I've always tried to mentor people coming up behind up and help them learn from my mistakes but the "take-the-advice" rate only seems to be about 50/50.

Ha. But of course, you can just use :30 of your airline salary to pay for the most expensive room downtown instead of staying on base on the occasions that you need a place to stay in a military town. But that's another story. CH - what airline did you wind up with?

code 3, 1 write-up...

Hookers and blow

Let me qualify the following by mentioning that I was a T-38 FAIP. That means that my opinion - while informed on the topic - is also biased because I believe that I am fvcking awesome. Deal with it. I think we need FAIPs at UPT, and UPT would be a worse-off place without them. Sure, there are plenty of LTs walking the halls of any UPT base, and there are plenty of those LTs that can get shouldered with some bitch work around the squadron. But really, those cats are students in a challenging course, and their time needs to be protected by their flight commander and other leadership to make sure they spend their time and focus in the right place: Mastering the basic flight admin they won't have the time to learn later. So, because those LT studs definitely CANNOT be tasked with many of the things around any SQ that you'd normally give to a LT or young Capt wingman in a CAF squadron, someone has to be there to pick up the slack. This is where your young FAIPs come in, and this is also why being a FAIP has some pretty awesome and pretty not-so-awesome aspects. You can (and absolutely SHOULD) fly and instruct your fvcking ASS off as a FAIP. On the other hand, you're going to get some shit duties around the squadron, and you'll probably be working longer hours than your average fresh-from-the-CAF 4FL Viper/Eagle guy who's now flying white jets. That's ok...that CAF dude needs a little break. Now, because FAIPs end up a bit behind the power curve when they hit the CAF, they gotta be wise to this and have good leadership show them how to be prepared for later. Personal/professional goals might be easier to accomplish in that AETC assignment than later in the CAF. Developing winning habit patterns related to basic admin, study, and work ethic pay big dividends later. LISTENING WELL to the older dudes from the CAF and internalizing their lessons can be huge. These things enable a FAIP to hit IFF, RTU, MQT, and beyond with the basic skill set that will ensure success. It goes without saying that squandering that time as a FAIP will bring one to the opposite extreme. So my advice to FAIPs is this: Don't think that anyone (you, the USAF, your career as a pilot) has hit the big PAUSE button the moment you graduated UPT. While your UPT bros are off doing fun and amazing shit, don't forget that they are growing as pilots and as professional officers. YOU MUST ALSO GROW. Find ways to do that in the situation you've been given, don't slack, and always keep your scope open and set to long range search so you're prepared for the next step of your flying career. Do all that while flying your ass off and you'll be fine.