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That's our own fault for consistently saying "it's not about the money" for the last couple years.

Someone has to make the corn...

At least the seat worked.

I found an obscure article that just came out that might explain.........😁 Fallon, NV (AP) An American hero is back. Following a desperate call by the US Air Force and Navy for retired fighter pilots to consider returning to the cockpit, Pete Mitchell, better known as “Maverick” is returning to the skies. Turning 60 later this year, he is one of the oldest fighter pilots to answer the call. When asked if he’s concerned about being able to keep up with his younger counterparts, he quickly dispelled any doubts. “I’ve been working as an instructor at Air Combat USA”, Maverick explained. “I’m one of the most requested instructors and I always tell the customers that they can be my wingman any time…… They really like that.” Mitchell also touched on his fitness routine which involves, “A LOT of volleyball…..Just a whole bunch of volleyball.” Beyond his time in the spotlight 33-years ago, Maverick has had his share of ups and downs. There is much about his time in the Navy that has been relatively unknown to the general public. He enjoyed a storied 30-year career that began with fits and starts trying to escape the shadow of his controversial father and some misdeeds of his own. His story took a turn for the better following multiple MiG kills, a spin as a Top Gun instructor and tying the knot with his new sweetheart “Charley”. Success was his new back-seater and for the next 25 years, he lived a charmed life. However, as the twilight of his career approached, things began to unravel. Expecting to be promoted to Rear Admiral, Maverick ran into trouble when a faded polaroid surfaced and began to make its way around social media. The picture clearly showed him extending his middle finger to another country’s fighter pilot at very close range. Once it was learned that this foreign pilot was, in fact, that services first woman fighter pilot, it was just a matter of time before he was facing the first of several sexual harassment law suits. Other women fighter pilots from the United States as well as several European allies came forward with similar “me too” charges of airborne insults. “It…was just awful. I felt so marginalized and ridiculed. That kind of behavior just doesn’t belong in a fighter. We’re up there training to kill people and he just took it to an ugly place. It’s hard to see the HUD, let alone gun someone when you’re having to constantly raise your visor to blot away tears.” said a French Mirage-2000 pilot on condition of anonymity. Feeling pressure from all directions, the Navy began to re-evaluate Mitchell’s pending promotion. The final death blow came from retired Admiral, now California Senator Phillip Benjamin. Benjamin was able to build support in the Senate to disapprove the promotion. It’s unclear what his motivation was, but it apparently involved his daughter Penny and had something to do with Mitchell’s flying as the Senator was overheard saying to himself, “How’s that high-speed pass looking now, Mav?” Forced to retire at the rank of O-6 in 2010, Maverick put the Navy behind him and began to look for new career opportunities. Three unsuccessful major airline interviews were all marred by persistent inquiries by HR about the polaroid and rumors of his use of the women’s bathroom at the Miramar O-club. His attempts to deflect the questions usually involved agreeing to answer on condition of murdering the interviewer afterwards. Needless to say, Mitchell’s transition to airline flying never really left the ground. To make matters worse, it was at this time that it became readily apparent what had really been behind Charley’s overly enthusiastic pursuit of threesomes with Maverick. Unable to remain in denial any longer, their threesomes became twosomes and Pete wasn’t invited. While difficult, this period carried a silver lining simply because even he had come to admit that Charley had pretty much let herself go to the dogs. Childless, thanks to Maverick spending 4000 hours sitting 5 feet behind a 3-Kilowatt radiation source, the marriage dissolved quickly. The last 8 years haven’t passed without some difficulties for Mitchell. There have been several failed business ventures including a Karaoke Bar. Patrons typically left frustrated because there was only one song on the machine and Mitchell usually insisted on singing it with them. He does admit he took a while to adjust to civilian flying, even the mock dogfighting he now teaches at Air Combat USA. “It was tough at first”, Maverick explained. “It got better once I got them to install the locker room for the post-flight showers. A lot of good learning happens in there. I think everyone comes out a better combat pilot than when they put that towel on and walked in”. But now Maverick is ready to put that part of his life behind him and begin the re-launch of phase two of his Naval aviation career. The world is watching and MiG pilots are running scared. Look out.

You bite your commie mouth there Stalin.

This is why I don’t understand why people like goldfien. He doesn’t have a grip on the reality he is partially responsible for creating and absolutely responsible for mis managing now. He thinks money won’t help? He thinks that the sq’s are revitalized? And he’s so wrong. So completely wrong.

Fair enough and rather than starting another round of Heavy v Fighter version 69,000 I will agree some T-1 trained could do it, some couldn't (sts) , I would just add that it would be the majority of T-1 guys and not the minority could rise to the challenge.... Sidebar, SUPT should end and the USAF return to UPT, coming up on 19 years in Big Blue and flying over 17, it (SUPT) is having a pernicious effect of creating and us vs them culture, I feel like it is always there and it just screws things up. Two cents paid.

Very telling that a “what’s right with the AF” thread quickly sank into stories of what’s wrong. The organization is broken, and no one below O-6 is causal. Some are contributing.

From RAF Banter .... If the Americans had to drop the A-Bomb in the 21st century...

So, AMC standard?

It sounds like he is, whether he honestly believes it or not.

It's a standard PFT...sit in a big tube and do several breathing loops. Then take some albuterol and do some more. Good results? Move on to the MCT. Bad results? May or may not do the MCT. May just stop right there with a DQ. Used to be the WP pulmonologist had discretion whether or not to do the MCT. Then she apparently changed the policy 18 months ago or so and now requires the MCT for everyone who ever had any mention of asthma, even if PFT is great, and even if a pulmonologist determined an erroneous initial pediatrician asthma dx. Here's the best part: pass the PFT/MCT and are "normal," you still have to get a permanent waiver for something you never had (the flight docs there have discretion to dismiss it altogether and pass you with no waiver, or do the waiver. I got the waiver and it sounds like that's the norm). Not a huge deal, but a system that requires a waiver for something someone never had is a flawed system imo. I flew in another service for 8 years with no waivers, lived by a burn pit for a year and a half, lived in very dusty environments, went through gas chambers, went though many "asthma rich" environments with cold weather, allergies, and high physical activity (e.g. ranger school), with no breathing difficulty, but got to experience the "asthma" testing and waiver process at wright patt for my FCI. Can't really prepare for it, unless you go to a civilian pulmonologist and take the test to see how you react to it before going to WP. The research I've done on MCTs make it look like it's a great test to confirm someone doesn't have asthma/RAD if they pass, but not a great test to confirm someone does have asthma/RAD. Apparently a chunk of the normal population (non-symptomatic, non-asthmatic) can fail the MCT, but not be symptomatic to "normal" asthma/RAD stimuli (cold/allergy/exercise). Seems like a case of the AF DQing more people than it needs to, but I'm no doctor. Good luck.

This seems like a horrible idea to me for a lot of reasons. My upside down flying stopped after Tweets and I was never really great at it anyway. Which explains why I tracked T-1s. Until the AF gets out of the “specialized” part of SUPT it seems like it’s locked into the current paradigm. I mean, I like jalapeño popcorn. But not for breakfast.

On the other hand, what's a guy supposed to believe when literally every time he sit downs to get the ground truth he is told that money won't help?

Just be sure you have the funds to pay it off at the end of the month because you know it'll take at least 60-90 days for your voucher to pay out.

If you want a fighter slot, go rush fighter units and try to sell yourself accordingly. Exhaust all your options in the time you have. If you don't get good feedback or get hired between now and TFOT dates, either try to delay TFOT or take the bird in the hand and go with heavies. Flying heavies is better than not flying. If it comes up in conversation while rushing, sure, tell them you got hired by your unit, but your real desire is to fly fighters, you have told your leadership that, and that's why you are out rushing. That wouldn't be the first thing out of my mouth though. I'm quite sure if you told them you are enlisted in such and such unit, the follow-on question will be "did you apply for a UPT slot in that unit?" By getting hired there, it shows that 1) they are willing to send you to UPT after knowing you and 2) you still want fighters, even though your home unit doesn't have them. Could help. But if you immediately throw that out there, could come across as a douche.

So let me get this straight--over the last 50--60 years, healthcare in the US has only become more regulated (at both the state and federal level), and yet your solution to something (that has only gotten worse in your opinion) is to further regulate it. And as for our "healthcare system"--we don't have a "system", and that is a good thing. We have a US Postal "System" (which is inefficient), DMV "systems" (which is very inefficient and really sucks), a social security "retirement system" (which is scheduled to go bust), etc. As for poor people not having the money to be able to see as good of a pediatrician as my family?--well, I bring more value to society than a poor person. The laws of economics never lie. Oh and and as far as using Medicare as a good example of a "quasi-healthcare system", it is also scheduled to go bust even soon than predicted. So thanks but not thanks... https://nypost.com/2018/06/05/medicare-social-security-running-out-of-money-faster-than-expected/

To summarize the responses so far...

I don't. Honestly, if it were up to me, we wouldn't have them. FAIPs are fine when used among an experienced instructor corps who can moderate their lack of operational experience. They excel at what they know...and to a generally terrible job at teaching what they don't. When I was an IFF IP, one of my jobs was managing tracking the graduation-vs-washout statistics for the two IFF squadrons at Moody. For two straight years, there was a notably higher washout rate of students who had graduated from Vance vs any of the other winging pipelines. I participated in an IEP to Vance that was sort of a fact-finding expedition to see what was going on there. What we found was that at the time (04-05 timeframe) there were a large number of FAIPs and reduced contingent of IPs who were fresh from the CAF. We observed a number of things being taught that were poor technique and contrary to what was going to be expected of IFF students. When we asked some of the IPs (FAIPs and a couple of bomber-background IPs) why they were teaching what they did, they answered, "this is how they do it out in the CAF..." Further digging revealed that it had been a lot of FAIPs teaching FAIPs these techniques, and a lot of misunderstood 3rdhand "knowledge" leading to it. Furthermore, there weren't enough experienced IPs to call their bluff. So, again, it was not a talent issue, it was an experience issue.

Oh boy, imagine the salt/ineffectiveness that will result from 13-15 year (15-16 commissioned) majors.

Unfortunately, in order for someone to learn how to be a good wingman, their teacher needs to have some idea of what that means. That's not about talent, that's about experience.

Behind on FHP and green dot, more time required for UCI prep - there will be no weekends for the next month to support the wings priorities. Oh and remember guys, we care about families! Also, you're deploying for 6 months in 34 days, sorry not sorry we didnt factor that in...

Don't think that applies to every T-1 guy, but I still remember a sizeable difference between most of my 38 IPs (all fighter/bomber, couple FAIPs) and my phase 2 IPs (all non-CAF). Certainly not in bromanship, but yes in flying ability and in several cases, instructional ability. The two tracks/mentality are not significantly similar that one can excel at teaching either. My 38 IPs probably would have been shitty T-1 IPs. Secondly, yes I think most guys could pass PIT and teach basic 38 stuff. But the mentality difference, lack of CAF experience, etc. is not growing that student to be ready for IFF and the CAF squadron that lies beyond.

Have you all actually seen progress with "revitalizing the squadrons?" The main thing I've seen is copilot's with less flight time on arrival, and transferring additional duties to the front office--along with more aircrew because we don't actually have any admin troops.

Everyone used to fly t-38s anyway. Not a huge deal IMO. Kids just learning how to be a good admin wingman.

J6...so not Air Forces fault. Whew...

“Kwast and his instructors succeeded in “carving out a rather significant portion of the syllabus,” finding ways to incorporate new technologies and methods of instruction and overhaul how the Air Force builds new pilots without sacrificing standards, Goldfein said.” Just saying you’re not sacrificing standards doesn’t make it so. You can’t slash 20% of the training and say you’re producing the same product.

Goldfien thinks we are all volunteers and thus it doesn’t matter if we are pilots or not. Hence bonuses won’t really matter. We want to be motivated to follow non monetarily. At least that what his quotes seem to point at.

Bet that's going to get a bit schwetty...

I think Goldfein is genuine in his desire to revitalize the squadrons. However, I think he undervalues the impact a real bonus would have on retention.

Certainly no one will die because of this glorious decision

I mean, it hasn't always worked out in the past...see the discussion on the forum below around June 3 regarding the former 375 AMW/CC:

IF you haven't looked at 12 years of emails to this point, you never would have.

These guys are great, definitely award material. I also think it's possible they could be used as an "example", but that's only with my tin-foil hat on.

Spoo approves.

Putting two and two together here...was the OG/CC responsible for this the same WG/CC that just got shit-canned at Dyess?

Well in my little reserve world I was just told that we are "required" to wear the OCPs over the tan bags now.....even if the crew wants to wear bags....

For whatever reason, I never hear the proposal of increasing the pilot commitment. Let's say we move it to 15 years or even 20. Of course a number of people will say hell no but I wouldn't be surprised if the AF reached their SUPT recruiting goals. In the 1950s, it was 3 yrs and a degree wasn't a requirement. Then in the 60s, a degree requirement was established and 4 yrs for SUPT. In 70s to 5yrs then to 6yrs. 80s went to 8yrs and in the 90s to 10 years. The AF NEVER has a problem of recruiting pilots. Keeping them in during an airline hiring boom is the primary issue. One other major problem in keeping pilots is that most are single when joining and marry during their commitment. The spouse becomes a key player in their decision making, and the family comes in second place during his/her military career development unfortunately. In addition to a number of changes in the near future in helping retention, they need to seriously consider increasing the pilot commitment even to 20 years. You can't logically compete with the airline industry in quality of life and income for pilots. If the USAF wants to meet their pilot numbers, increase the commitment. Enough young people will bite on the increased SUPT commitment especially after viewing Top Gun 2 Maverick.