Leaderboard

What I hear is a focus on numbers, not quality. I think Goldfein was about to get there, but was cut off. All of us should be concerned about the quality of the fighting force. We're too small to sacrifice having the sharpest sword. Right now we are hemorrhaging all our experience due to retention. We can fix the production, but all those kids are going to have to relearn knowledge that resided in the experienced pilots who got forced out by QOL. Some of those kids will die needlessly. In fact, it's already happening (reference multiple crashes in SW Asia). I am a good IP. I want to stay and make a difference. I would happily sit in an FTU and teach if I didn't have the constant threat of a 365. I refuse to give the big blue the reigns and sign up for more if they refuse to respect the talent that they have. If the only thing keeping me in (in the face of that 365 threat) is money, I'm out. Simply. Remove the 1500/750 hour requirement, and I think you'll simply see more young pilots who only got one ops tour punch ASAP. Retention will only get worse. All the talk about the airlines and production being the root causes belies the fact that the USAF "leaders" have given up on keeping quality pilots because the solutions are too hard (from a staff perspective) to implement. That comes from a staff who has drawn the same conclusion. The system promotes it's own, and the men and women in those staffs got there by self promoting. In short, they are not a part of the pool of individuals fearful of 365's and family hardship because they have already placed career above everything else...that's how they got where they are. So clearly it's the airline's fault, because that's a metric they can measure and fix WAY easier vs telling CENTCOM to sod off about having a 365 Chief of Wing Exercises. They're taking the easiest road instead of fixing the root cause: Senior leadership from O-6 and above are disconnected from the line executors of the main mission of the USAF. P.S. Go to any airline hiring site and dig in, you'll find that they have hundreds if not thousands of QUALIFIED candidates that are not getting called or are being rejected at the interview because the airlines cannot afford to sacrifice on quality. I don't see that changing, even if the 1500 hour rule gets rescinded, especially as the USAF continues to produce quality pilots for them. Congrats USAF, you want to make the crowd in Delta's waiting room bigger by adding younger civilian dudes. Well done. USAF experienced pilots will still often jump ahead. High quality experience counts.

Nope, the standards are extremely high across the board. Flying any military aircraft is a privilege and honor reserved for only the most qualified (and Duck too I suppose). I’m afraid the “hopeful” kid has a lot of self improvement to do in order to be considered.

Man, they're still attacking that 1,500 hour requirement. In 2012 I was a first year regional guy and my base pay was $19,000 ($21/hr). At the same airline, it's now $37,000 ($41/hr) + $17,500 if you stay a year (somewhat pro-rated if you leave early). If nothing else this rule has forced the regionals to pay a basic living wage. This is a good thing...let's hope the military is not successful in killing this requirement.

Are all these harrumphs for ST2 for getting hammered and then going to see it? Asking for a friend...

121FS sent out video interview notifcations.

All that is required for a part timer to get a good year is 50 points (you get 15 for just being in). This is exactly what I would do if I were in my final year and AFRC/ANG tried to play these "annual" mickey mouse games of a blanket stop loss. A while back, this used to be a fairly common practice with the soon to be retired guys. No one saw it as douchery, just standard and expected. I expect that this will become a fairly common tactic once again. With the addition of the AD guys into the squadron (and their added sortie requirements), it will likely be welcomed by scheduling as we can barely get guys RAP as it is. Having said that, I wouldn't recommend the "Braveheart" approach unless you really have leadership that deserves it. LOL. EDIT: Remembering JADEDs posts a few pages back, this is what I would do if I were him.

Like Jesus said, “Let he who has not engaged in a hot ménage with 2 enlisted babes cast the first stone.”

Absolutely not saying this is the reason, but I've seen a lot of guys get too comfortable with too high of energy states during SFO's. Not the end of the world when you have two departure end cables, but suddenly you need to divert to a civilian airfield and you could have problems. Again, not saying that is what happened here, the SIB will tell us, but an emergency divert to an airfield like this is something to keep in mind next time you practice an SFO.

Nope. His cyber awareness training expired and the jet locked his account at a very inopportune moment.

Nope, but they can take 160 hours of leave for the month to do indoc and/or initial training then return to the ART world until IOE or the leave runs out. I also know SQ/CC’s are a carve out in the ART/mil leave rules.