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Does it come with a sweet Rebel Alliance flightsuit and helmet like the guy in the back is wearing?

...But, you see, the problem is that GC & his cronies are trying to solve their WSO/CSO/Nav problems with UPT grads (at least indirectly), but they refuse to acknowledge that they are doing so. There were about 5,000 Navs (by this I mean Navs/CSOs/WSOs--whatever you wanna call them) in the AF in 2005. Now, we've got about 3,500. The OSS/staff/command/CAOC/deployed to Buttkrakistan to backfill Army guys/etc. workload didn't decrease by 30% over the last decade, so guess what? Pilot types have had to backfill billets that Navs might otherwise have filled. Ergo, we are trying to use UPT grads to solve the WSO problem . . . an expensive proposition that ticks people off and makes them all the more susceptible to the siren song of life outside of Big Blue. Tying this back to the ACP discussion, I find it odd that there's so much handwringing over an 11F shortage, when the pilot shortages are across all MDSs. Sticking to what I know/my parochial interests, the Nav community that's taken the biggest hit over the past decade is the 12Ms. Not surprising--with the advent GPS/better avionics, one doesn't need 'em. Problem is that 11Ms are filling billets that 12Ms would normally have filled, at the same time the civilian sector is drawing 11Ms away from active duty at substantial rates, while at the same time MAF folks are backfilling CAF & SOF billets . . . yet global airlift & tanker requirements ain't really subsided. The resulting experience loss across the board is substantial. In 2005, there were 3,500 Command Pilots in the AF. Today there are 2,100. In '05, there were 1,900 Master Navs; today, there are 600. That sure looks like a helluva brain drain--notably in the mobility community--and given the current civilian hiring picture, I don't see our ability to retain experienced aviators getting any better. While I fully understand that certain pilot communities are hurting worse than others, I can't escape the conclusion targeted bonuses for select pilot communities in FY17 ACP would be a galactically bad idea. Rant off. TT

Looks like a Rorschach Test to me.

Here's an interesting map. It sizes the counties according to population, and it shades them according to how much of a majority was won. It really shows that the nation is far more politically blended than one would expect.

Yes, the Porkins Package is a factory option, but it cuts into the useful payload.

Good luck getting AFRC to give more money. ART jobs just aren't desirable like they used to be, even with superior qual/recruitment/retention bonuses. Everyone wants MPA while their apps are in at the majors .

Gentlemen...Please Please... Stay on Target.

I'm doing it right now. I'll tell you what I did, but no guarantee it's the best or most efficient way, or hell, even the right way. Go meet your Force Management NCOIC and buy them lunch. Tell them what you're up to so they can create a folder on you and watch your progress in their 1980s database. If they're good, they can keep everyone else in line and translate common sense into MPF speak. Find the PIRR job you want. Through networking and Googling, I found a guy doing the job already, cold called him and introduced myself, asked about the job, was he happy with it, etc. He gave me his AD CC's and Reserve CC's names. I called both of them, introduced myself, told them I was interested in joining them, etc. Their main concern was making sure I wasn't a dbag, I was willing to do some work for them, and I understood this was mostly unpaid. They said lots of guys call them intending to bum, and that's not even close to possible, at least according to them. They asked for an emailed resume and some screenprints from vMPF. Nothing cosmic. They "hired" me based off a couple phone call "interview." Talk to your local Reserve recruiter. The AD CC of your PIRR unit might have a recruiter he has worked with in the past. If you're going to move (say, to your domicile), they won't talk to you until you're local. The recruiters have no way of knowing where you actually live. Just sayin. Tell them you're Guard, you're not yet scrolled, and you want to transfer to XYZ unit. You'll probably have to hold their hand a little through the process - I've been unimpressed. I think I am the first officer my recruiter has transferred. First things first, GET SCROLLED. It takes months. Make sure your recruiter starts the process yesterday so it's ready when you are. Make sure you can send encrypted emails to your recruiter. The new Guard mail.mil and the Reserve us.af.mil servers don't pay nice together. You might have to get his digital ID via some voodoo magic. I think this is how I did it. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Get-a-digital-ID-0eaa0ab9-b8a2-4a7e-828b-9bded6370b7b Start your 1288. Your recruiter will tell you what to put in each block. Route that through your Guard WG/CC, TAG, etc. Write a conditional separation MFR to your Wing CC to accompany your 1288. My SQ/CC had one on his computer, so he just changed the name, signed it, and sent it over to the Guard MPF. Wait. The 1288 will come back from your JFHQ/TAG and your Wing MPF should send this to the recruiter. He'll send everything to the RIO. Wait some more. Eventually the RIO responsible for your area will contact you either directly or through your recruiter. They'll want some ARMS stuff. They make sure your app is complete before it goes to ARPC. Recommend you talk to your RIO person (mine is an O-5) directly at least once to establish some kind of rapport. They can be pretty helpful and they can fix a lot of the Recruiter issues. Wait longer. Eventually you'll get a swear-in date, which will establish your separation date. You'll swear in to your new Reserve unit and your Guard Wing will create a separation order effective 1 day prior. Outprocess and inprocess like you have 69 times before and off you go. Good luck. It's been a school of hard knocks. Nobody really knows what they're doing. You're obviously the first guy in 30 years to do this. I hope your desired transfer date is on a distant horizon.

I was unfortunate enough to have to spend an extra 6-9 months at UPT due to a medical issue. I just stayed put until I was was healed, then was placed into the class that was close to the point where I went DNIF.

Illinois, my favorite electoral map this year, is a current Democratic stronghold. Let's play a couple guessing games: 1. Where is the city with some of the strictest gun laws located? 2. Where is the city with one of the highest gun-related murder rates in the US is located? HINT: One city is the answer to both questions - sometimes nicknamed "Chiraq" for it's warzone-like atmosphere.

Nice thread derail going on here. A 4-ship doing OCA works as a single unit with their radar assignments and what not. Same concept as a crew airplane, just spread to 4, single seat jets. And if you think you're some higher level thinker because you're a single seat guy, ride along in a family model Viper doing CAS or something. All that chatter going on the aux isn't discussing why Dez Bryant is a dumpster fire for a fantasy football team this year. It's the same conversation going on amongst a crew on an ICS about how to accomplish the mission. On that note, ask the original Weasels back in Vietnam if they would've rather unloaded the "noise maker" in favor of more gas. And those gibs literally mean Extra Weight Onboard (EWO).

What he said, and if you're on orders for more than 30 days before you get hurt they CANNOT take you off orders.

As a Guardsman/Reservist on long-tour orders, if you get hurt while on orders and it's determined to be a Line Of Duty injury (VERY IMPORTANT), you'll stay on orders until you're healed.

Fellas, I said systemically, we as a service, should weigh the desires of the officer lower than the performance/potential of the officer and the needs of the service. Good or not, this is what we do in all things... Further, it is an incorrect assumption that the board can choose to promote or not promote any individual officer. We don't know the cutoff, the number to be promoted, or any of that data. We simply score the record as it sits. We do not know that all 7.5's get promoted and 7.0's do not. So we cannot just give every letter writer a 6.5 to ensure we honor the wishes of that officer above all other criteria. We also ensure every record gets a fair shake with the split system to resolve such differences in scores. It would be a shame if a board member saw the letter as the first thing in the pile and scored 6.5 and didn't even look at the rest of the record. Same with please promote me--should member just score 10.0 without looking at the rest of the record? Of course not. So..the officer's DESIRES as written in a letter to the board are of LESS concern than the rest of the record. I never said the service should promote someone who doesn't want promotion. I said that person's desires were weighed as equal to someone who DID want promotion but had a lousy record. I also said I don't remember ever hearing that a letter writer was forced to accept promotion. I'm also saying that if you permit someone to DQ himself before consideration that's a bad thing. Look at the bigger picture for a second. The up or out system has a few drawbacks. But it also makes long term career paths possible, ensures a quality force, and attracts the determined, adventerous, hungry kind of person we want to attract into Service. Do you want to serve in an organization that doesn't care about career paths and individual growth? That's the postal service or DMV, or any other civil bureaucracy. Up or out makes room for younguns. It sustains the all-volunteer aspect (you can still refuse promotion). By ensuring EVERY record gets looked at at specific intervals we try to ensure the best performers who demonstrate the potential to serve in the higher grade get a fair shake. Im sure some of these concepts are also codified in the officer promotion reg. Does SOS not cover the promotion process anymore? Don't you get to score actual records and discuss all these theories in class? It used to be so. Probably have some federally-mandated social justice training instead. PM me if you want to tell me I'm a f.u.c.k.in' idiot. Definitely PM me with your thoughts after you sit a board or two.