Leaderboard

So there's got to be a better way to sell this bonus pay problem. Let's go with nice round numbers: to pay an extra $100k/year to 6900 pilots would cost a cool $690M. That's kind of a lot of money, but it's only about 0.69% of the Air Force's annual budget. Literally a drop in the bucket. Imperceptible. Budget dust. BUT! The non-flying officers and Chiefs would have a shit fit at the pay inequality ("No Comm No Bomb!", etc), and while they should be told, "When it costs $69M to produce a competent Finance Officer, I'll pay you more also," that doesn't work in the real world for troop morale. Those guys would be even more depressed and hate us even more. This has to be approached as a financial benefit. I paid extra to outfit my house with LED bulbs (experienced pilots) because in the long run I save money on the time and effort spent on buying way more incandescents (new pilots) and - most significantly - save a shit-ton of money on electricity (upgrade training). Pay $100k extra to keep your experienced pilots and save $Millions per pilot on backfill training for his/her replacement. For very simple math that only takes into account the cost of replacing your experienced guy with a new SNAP fresh from UPT, that 8 years worth of $100k bonus money would only pay for 69% of a new UPT grad. Add in the immeasurable costs of continuous upgrade training for that new guy, and the benefit is astronomical. Next consider the time lost by the experienced instructors to train new guys that could be used to refine TTPs - you get the picture. This shit is easy, but I feel like there's a glass ceiling WRT mil pay. Congress - and our own mil leaders - just can't stomach the idea of having rich military guys. I think it's a jealousy thing rather than a level-headed financial one.

Yes.

Launch and recovery for RPAs

If people are jumping between tracks, what's the point of having the tracks? "While most people I know are not completely dreading 6 month deployments, its the future of 2-3 of those on top of a year long that has them voting with their feet. You can't be in a constant state of war for so long and expect people to be gun ho supporting of the fight any longer." Bingo. I don't mind a six-month deployment, with a squadron, to actively fly and fight the war. I really have zero motivation to spend a year in Afghanistan trying to teach goat-herders about the strategic uses of airpower.

Deployed LR is where it's at. But this game is volatile. I saw a dude go through the cycle of hired-deployed-fired in about 5 weeks.

Spot on! EAA is a great deal, we have guys flying RVs, light sport homebuilts and classics such as a beautiful 1947 Howard DGA (looks brand new) and another guy with, I kid thee not, a 450 Stearman, the only flying Boeing 40 in the world and just finished restoring and now flying a 1943 Grumman Goose. I have been very active with my local EAA Young Eagle program in the last four or so years. In the time I've been involved, our chapter has flown just over 431 kids. Sent one kid the EAA Air Academy in Oshkosh, he went on to college for an Aviation Business degree with a minor in flight and just learned another kid who we gave an Eagle ride to years ago just earned the gold wings of a Coast Guard aviator. Good times inspiring the next generation of recreational and professional aviators. Just for the record, I work as a "crewchief" escorting the kid, mom/dad out to the plane and back. Being retired MX guy I don't miss the BS of active duty, but miss being around the airplanes. I however, am spending the elephant dollars to earn my PPL so maybe next season I can do some flying as well. Fun being back on the ramp even if the environment is completely different.

Puts things in perspective. Prayers for you all and the little man.

A little off topic, but I'm not sure what you propose is any different than it is now. Guys get selected for school out of their major's board are auto leadership track unless they decline (which you can do now without being a 7-day opt). Others get picked up for school on later looks and join the leadership track. Want to be on the flying track? Don't go to school. Done.

Surprised no one has mentioned starting / buying a business. Military aviation is actually a very good training ground for entrepreneurial activity - whether you realize it or not, all of us have acquired skills in calculated risk taking, assessing the enemy (competition), solving problems on the fly, task prioritization, time management, etc. Pick something you're passionate about and be your own boss. I'll bet anyone posting on this board would do much better than they imagine.

Until you address the countless useless deployment billets, and near certainty of filling a 365 no amount of money or QoL will matter much. While most people I know are not completely dreading 6 month deployments, its the future of 2-3 of those on top of a year long that has them voting with their feet. You can't be in a constant state of war for so long and expect people to be gun ho supporting of the fight any longer. Especially with no end in sight. The future is grim for service members, when I joined it already was a quagmire and now 12 years later zero has changed beyond it getting worse. You can't sell retention off of that landscape beyond a few fence sitters.

Ideally, everyone would be on the same (be good at your primary job aka flying) path until majors board at which point people would split off into a leadership v flying track. The flying track would include only squadron level and some group level necessary flying jobs (OGV.). These would be your WOs, ADOs and they would top out at 0-5 max and as DOs. Leadership track would play the Air Force game and go to school, work staff and command. I think there should be opportunities for flying track folks to jump over to the leadership track and those on the leadership track to jump over to the flying track when circumstances dictate. Not sure I would go for it for 20 years but I would seriously think twice about staying in longer.

Too bad that's about one year after most guys are eligible to separate. $50 probably isn't changing many minds