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As a father of 3 who did the whole have a child while in UPT thing and then went on multiple deployments with young kids, I can’t advise to do the UPT without the family thing. I also did a tour as a UPT IP and saw the long distance relationship thing multiple times. That is a ton of stress to put on a wife and a young child. I don’t think you realize just how busy you are gonna be for 2+ years. Just wait till something goes wrong at home and you can’t be there to handle it because you are in Del Rio. My suggestion is that you guys go all in and do it as a family or don’t do it at all.

Without Gp/CCs and NAFs, the AF would struggle to "groom" HPOs to join the club. The AF is a jobs program first and foremost.

They step to the Ground Control Station. Some squadrons have those indoors, some in shipping containers outdoors, some have a mix. The MCC/OPS SUP/TOP 3 does just what they would in any other flying squadron: verifies everyone is current, on the flight orders, ORM checks out, etc. The Lt I referenced got annihilated at a naming, passed out in a supply closet and experienced a catastrophic blowout. He was still wearing his flightsuit, which helped contain the damage ... somewhat.

I’m really sick of the AF publicly shaming its people like this. Why the F would I stay in and jump through the wickets needed, at the expense of my family, only to have the AF drag my name though the mud if some A1C under my command effs something up? No thanks.

Twenty bucks is twenty bucks. I'm a sole breadwinner, man.

Copy and thanks! That's good gouge.

T-0/1/2/3 are great and all, but people up the chain have to actually be willing to waive it. On a recent "deployment" we sent up multiple reasonable waiver requests. All but one was denied by our parent command over 4 countries away. Bottom line, someone in the chain has to be willing to assume some risk (even if it is minuscule), which in our case, they clearly were not. I guess you can't be having those potential black marks on your way up the chain.

Best comment: “Horton’s, here’s a poo!”

Do it, Huggy. Make Recce Great Again.

I don’t mind if you bag on me...I understand. Lurking around here long enough, I get a tiny sense of what you guys think/feel about those of us not in the operations community. As much criticism as the 2014 RIF gets for its effect on the rated community, the MSG went through several cuts prior to that, going back to ‘05. Those cuts coincided to times when we had a ton of guys fragged out to support joint and other service missions in CENTCOM. Deploy often and long enough, and you don’t get SOS DL done or no exec jobs and you’re on the chopping block. You guys know the deal. So this negative selection of people out doing combat-related missions (traditional Air Force or not) creates the environment you see in non-OG communities today. I’ve said before there needs to be more inter-breeding and cross-pollination between Ops and Support. I love my joint job...I haven’t touched my primary area of expertise for almost 2 years and gained a whole new set of knowledge. I’ve gotten to do staff work that made its way up to NSC and POTUS (well, as a backup slide). Of course, since I made O-5 and am resurrected, they’re cutting it short to send me to...wait for it...HAF/A4. But, in the words of the warontherocks article...I’m just “happy to be here.”

Huggy if you come back on AD you should try your hand on a different aircraft. We’d love to have you in AFSOC.

My suspicion is also that big AF uses my thought process/calculations in thinking a $35K bonus is sufficient. My math is much like the "statement of military compensation" that DFAS gives you to assign dollar values to military benefits like tax free pay, commissary privileges, etc. I can easily see a budget officer doing roughly the same thought process that got me to $187K, adding $35K to that and saying: "We're offering these pilots the equivalent of $222K annually and they are still leaving! We'll never be able to pay their greedy asses enough so we should increase UPT production ASAP!"

Says the guy who spent 6 years in a Navy Hornet squadron and had a very good friend get FNAEB'd for it.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about joint jobs. They are mostly bad for a career in the AF unless timing and luck are on your side. Unless you’re a BTZ on your way to higher rank, I encourage folks to stay away from joint billets as O4/O5s (exception- if there’s a really cool job you want, go do it).

This was only announced yesterday. Not sure yet. Unlikely I'd do it. But it's worth a few brain cells to give it a look.

This... I completely agree.

The "huge financial disincentive" for working past 20 years gets thrown around a lot, but I don't think people really look at it correctly. The math isn't just "work get 50K/don't work get 150K". For a Lt Col making $150K a year, you have to compensate for tax free BAH/BAS as well as account for the 2.5% pension increase when comparing it to a civilian salary. I make $29.5K tax free, so you'd have to add in an extra $9K to account for civilian taxes to get to the same take home money. The 2.5% pension increase for a Lt Col is roughly $3.5K extra per year to the pension. That's zero risk, so using a conservative 4.5% rate of return I'd need to save $78K to equal the extra same $3.5K passive income stream. So an extra $28K ($78K - $50K pension ) needs to get added to the civilian salary to be equivalent to staying in the military an extra year. Thus, a more accurate comparison is a Lt Col retiring at 20 years would need to earn a civilian salary of $187K to break even. I'm not saying you don't make more money in the long run switching to the airlines, but you will have to account for a reduced salary for a few years even at a Legacy airline until you equal your military pay. I'd gladly stay in the military an extra 4 years if they let me fly at the FTU and I was guaranteed in writing per my contract not to be PCS'd or deployed.

Truth in advertising: it's a satellite J3 office down in Norfolk, not the Pentagon. If you've seen some of my past posts, you'll see I'm also not an aviator. Some mission support career fields don't place as much value on JCS positions (weird). Shiny pennies go to HAF and work tribal programs. They'll send "second-tier" guys like me to stuff like this. The flyers that we've had down here are upwardly mobile (they have all made O-6 within a year of getting here). Of the mission support folks: I came here passed over, another guy got passed over while here, several guys come here and get ROAD, and a few others are very junior majors or senior captains with a line number, so it doesn't seem to matter much. I was fortunate to have a mission-minded aviator-type help me out, and I am forever grateful.

Yes, I get that. What you don't get is that I work 5 jobs right now. Your concept of "don't work get $50k a year" doesn't really work for me. How many AF pilots out there have retired and quit working altogether, and are living high on the hog at $50-$60k per year? Instead, I look at what my 2019 income would be if I went back. I then compare that to my projected 2019 income on my current career path. VA benefits and retirement pay are subtracted, and $151,000 is added. That's not all that may change. The decision to go back might also affect the amount of money I'm making in the other jobs I'm working... and potentially open up some new opportunities I'd like to consider. I also consider the value of "quality of life"... which is going to be different for each person. Simplifying such a serious decision is never a good call.

AFI51-604 para 10 is the reference you're looking for. Emphasis added. "Only line of the AF officers with a current aeronautical rating, as defined by AFI 11-402, may command flying units (any unit that has flying, planning and directing the employment of manned and remotely piloted aircraft as their primary mission). The rated officer must hold a currently effective aeronautical rating or crewmember certification, and must be qualified for aviation service in an airframe flown by the unit to be commanded. (T-1)"

I'll take the opposite tack: Every flying squadron should have a mascot, and dogs would be serviceable. I argued for keeping a dog in the SOC at my first Reaper Squadron that could bark at Lieutenants when they stepped, but was told no because "it might poop inside". Then one of the Lt's did exactly that.

Until you get a shit stick sq/cc, that was somebodies boy, and is an untouchable HPO. Then youre fucked for 2 years.

I got this beauty today; "The MPS is currently closed for sports day and will reopen Wednesday 23 May 2018 at 0830. Due to the high volume of emails, please allow 5-10 Business Days for a response. Thank you for patience."--11th Force Support Squadron Meanwhile, I still don't have orders to make arrangements for my family. Nice.

They're at Delta with everyone else.

If true, that’s just wrong. Was hoping he would be the A3 at some point. He would have destroyed that position! Follow him anywhere for any mission because he’s a no shit credible aviator and listens to his cc’s. Downrange he was fantastic as the Exp Wg/CC. Loosely paraphrased “Im not a X/Y/X MDS guy so I’m not going to second guess you, you let me know what you need to execute and if what your being asked to do is dumb let me know I’ll take the hit and back you up”. Working for separate OPCON, it was a nice sentiment being ADCON only but he was more than willing to walk over to the O6 who did have OPCON and tell them they were jacked on my behalf. If this is all true, recommend merging it over into the “What’s wrong with the USAF” Thread.

i'm pretty big blue jaded...so just trust me that Col P is the real deal. it's telling that he led the way among wing cc's getting rid of stupid shit. he can relate to his troops... tells it like it is...and says what everyone is already thinking. cant explain it more than that...but i'd follow that dude anywhere. isn't that what we all want?

palenske is a true fucking bawse. dude is the absolute truth.

Too bad ZERO of the other WG/CCs in AFSOC had the balls to follow Palenske. Zero.

All he really needs to say is look at Col Palenske at the 1 SOW and march with him.

I just don’t understand.... How could this possibly happen? His Bio clearly states that he attended SOS in residence, ACSC by correspondence and has a Masters from the coveted “TUI University”. Mind boggling.

It’s about time AMC realize that they should stop putting non Herk guys in charge info Herk units.

Slightly blown out of proportion and passive aggressive. Nice touch. It's a waste of god damn time that benefits only the giver of the certificate to say "look at me, I'm acknowledging something". It's weak dick and lazy.

Seriously, they probably weren't even fixing anything. He probably saw them face down in their phones (verizon phones of course) and lost it.

Enjoy https://cheezburger.com/2790917/guy-live-tweets-his-buddys-marriage-imploding-and-its-horrifically-epic