Leaderboard

Well Gents, it’s been fun but Duck is now a twice passed over Captain on his way out the door. I appreciate all of you who reached out and offered me advice throughout the years. I know that I will have a ton of questions going forward as I transition to the next step. This community is awesome and I love (most of) you guys.

The main reason top leadership got leg-swept in 2008 was because they weren't playing nice with the Army and CENTCOM's insatiable desire for RPA orbits, and wouldn't back down on 5th-Gen at a time when we were committing 150,000+ soldiers at a stretch to fight a counter-insurgency against the stone age. They replaced CSAF with a yes-man who would play ball, thus setting the service back a decade while throwing our remaining resources at the Army's insatiable appetite for ISR feeds in exchange for a GWOT participation trophy. There are a lot of separate issues that factor into the black hole we're in right now, with respect to manning, experience, and morale. But if you wanted to pick a single point along the timeline where the wheels came off, it was firing CSAF in 2008 for ignoring illiterate enemies on mopeds in order to focus on a 5th-gen war. The Minot nuke fiasco, while unsat and hugely embarrassing, made for an easy way to sell the firing, but ultimately wasn't the main driver. Hell, the pilot-in-command of the B-52 continued on her HPO track after the deal.

The best part of being an aviator is the squadron life. I heard it described once as like being in a motorcycle gang, but your mom is proud of you. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Whatever you fly is the best airplane in the Air Force.

Has there ever been a more crystal clear sign that an organization is fundamentally broken than the fact that this celebratory thread (the largest in years) is for an individual essentially getting notice he is being fired? That said, congratulations!

One of the great contradictions of U.S. military history in the early 21st century is that Bob Gates was exactly the man the DoD needed as SecDef after Rumsfeld... But was also the worst possible guy for the Air Force's long term interests. And the decision to cap F-22 productions looks worse and worse every year. Considering the Air Component + SOF + Iraqis/SDF just had to spend 2014-2017 winning back what the Land Component won in the surge of 2007-08, it is hard to say those additional RPA CAPs back then were worth it. (Because they weren't.) You also have to think Gates' couple of years as an Air Force intel officer before he joined the CIA hurt us. He was just familiar enough with us to have both a shoe-y contempt for flyers, and especially the CAF, but also enough to have the confidence to throw his weight around with us... Confidence a SecDef without a prior association with the Air Force might have lacked.

Dropping 18x unguided Mk-82s just north of Tabqa Dam last March after being told for 6 years "We'll never drop dumb bombs in combat again."

AMC is probably the most queep infested command right now. Our generals and aspiring generals wouldn’t know what a cockpit looked like anymore despite having pilot wings on their chest.

What you like the most will change based on your experience, how many times you’ve done it etc. A few hours ago I was doing a 500kt low level through the mountains for 30 min followed by 30 min 2v1 DACT. When I was young I would’ve given my left ball for that flight. Today I wanted to land, debrief early and go pick up my kids from school. After ~3,500 hours and 16.9 years, what things I look forward to flying have completely changed. I’d have traded today’s flight for an out and back to get a good meal. Overall, I’d say providing support to a TIC in the Koranghal from an alert launch was the coolest rush ever. Nothing has compared to that or come close. Killing bad guys is as cool as it sounds. My *overall favorite “rewarding job” 3 years was as a T-38 UPT IP. Right now, it’s all about lifestyle so where my family lives and work/home balance is key. Lastly, I have friends who got their #1 fighter out of UPT and were miserable. I also have friends who dreamt of being fighter pilots and got a heavy who are loving life. Have a good attitude, realize no airframe / mission is perfect and don’t be a blue kool aid drinking d-bag...it’ll work out for you. Now I’m gonna go flog myself for liking my AETC tour.

There's good flying, good traveling, and good living. Pick two.

I enjoy flying as little as possible, to give myself “white space”. White space, as I have learned from management, means time not uselessly flying, but sitting in my office doing fun things. Fun things like help a copilot come up with 60-90 bullets for an awards package that I found out about yesterday and is due by COB today. I find that using a thesaurus and using little tricks to massage more fluff into bullets in order to use all the space on every line in a desperate attempt to appease my vanity while being dishonest about the actual work we do is thrilling. Its the worst when flying gets in the way of my real job. Since flying doesn’t help me get strats, I like to avoid it to the max extent possible. I strive to plan parties, volunteer for dick-watch, support mission support troops by doing their jobs, and volunteer to help others learn to stop their inner rapist. If I do these things well, I can go home after a long days’ work, and masturbate to my OPR strats in good conscience, like a good AF officer.

I never used a recruiter, but wouldn't rule it out. As with CH, building relationships was the key to any opportunities I've had. In my case, I kept those relationships alive because I liked the people I met... it wasn't to "find a job". But the job offers that came my way were a unintended consequence of those friendships. If you're 12 months from retiring, and expect to start networking now to find a great opportunity, it will be very difficult, in my opinion. Many of the opportunities I've had were developed over relationships that went back many years.

How F-d is an organization where a dude asks not to promote and gets congratulated for not doing so. Congrats man.

I don’t know yet about continuation. My Commander called me late Friday night. He said that a letter was supposed to be attached to the email he got about my passover but MPF forgot to attach it. He said we will talk Monday. Thanks again guys. I feel like I just won the lottery.

Been there. Did they not offer continuation? I got continued on AD then Palace Fronted and made it first time in the Reserve. Highly recommend that option if you can find a unit. Feel free to hit me up if you have questions.

Fucking awesome.

Especially if it is a stand alone unit. No active duty to be seen. If it is a TFI, they usually are as bad if not worse than active duty because not only do you have your unit expectations to live up to. You have the active duty’s brow beating as well. But at least you don’t have to move or do involuntary 365’s. Oh wait. That’s coming to a guard and reserve unit near you now. TFI sucks.

From my experience most of the opportunities come from networking. I was contacted by several recruiters when I retired but they were conducting confidential retained searches. One led to a series of interviews for a very high-level position that I ultimately decided against. The job market is hot right now and I would not work with a recruiter who wants to charge you anything.

Now there is one more gone! Congrats Duck.....

Awesome Duck. Glad it worked out!

It’s a toss up between scuba diving in Curaçao, driving around Western Europe, or drinking Mai Tais in Waikiki. I wasn’t built to fly, but I sure was built to go TDY!

Congratulations Duck.... it's much better on this side. If you don't have your airline applications ready to publish, get on it ASAP. Let me know if you have any questions on the 2x passed over process.

Congrats man! I have a feeling you’ll be missed (in your real life squadron.)

KEND 18-11 T-38: T-6 FAIP F-15E Seymour Johnson F-16 Kelly F-22 Tyndall E-3 Tinker C-130J Dyess F-5 Kenya T-1: T-1 FAIP C-17 Hickam C-17 x2 Charleston C-17 McGuire C-17 McChord C-5 Travis KC-135 Kadena KC-135 x2 Fairchild C-130J Yakota LC-130 NY ANG C-130J Keesler AFRC MC-12 OKC ANG C-130H New Castle ANG

Congrats Duck

My wing is going to announce on Monday. I have heard of at least one APZ that got told he made it already.

Viperstud your 100% correct and no matter how much I try to tell dudes that not only is the grass greener in the guard and reserve it's lush and soft, they're skeptical. AD does a great job brainwashing folks that 1. They can't make it in the civilian sector. And 2. If they join the guard/reserves they can never get an AD retirement. Both are patently false.

You mean like the Wing and Group commanders having nearly 0 to do with some misplaced nukes at a Ammunitions Squadron? Colonel Emig, the commander of the 5th Bomb Wing, Colonel Lundell, the commander of the 5th Maintenance Group at Minot, and Colonel Westhauser, the commander of Barksdale's 2d Operations Group were relieved of their commands or positions and reassigned.

Its even worse, since the pointy-nosed Generals are the ones who are leading the AF into the ditch in the first place.

Being the first US military aircraft to ever land at a certain uncontrolled airfield in Afghanistan, bringing in medical supplies and personnel after a natural disaster... while an AC-130 was overhead ready to take down anyone that flinched.

Please point out where I said anything negative regarding Trump trying to work with NK. In fact, you'll find I gave Trump a kudo for his part in getting NK to the table. I don't have an issue with the salute, just like I didn't have an issue with Obama's bow, unlike the hypocrites here who are ok with their guy showing respect but not Obama. As far as my charity giving, it varies by year on what I can afford to give. This last year was substantially lower due to the cost of the divorce lawyer. But on average of say it's around $500 a year.

Urgent medevac. Nothing clarifies your purpose like saving a life. It can leave you wholly spent because giving anything less than perfection is not an option, but is worth it. ...formation combat airdrop and down range dirt LZs are a close second.

Unfortunately our operations in Afghanistan have mandated that minimum requirement into stone.... You know because pushing the envelope on aircraft performance well past the current bench marks is way easier than say.... making a bigger f’ing FARP with a few extra T-walls and not surrounding them with OA254 antennas so you can make a VMC approach/takeoff.

With or without dinosaur puppet?

The vast majority of recruiters I've worked with on the civilian side have been colossal wastes of time. However, if you find a good one they are worth the pain & time you put in to finding them. The good ones have strong relationships with hiring managers within companies and can easily put you on top of the piles of resumes. That's how I got my current position. The flip side is that they make money by putting you in a position, so sometimes they're pushing for the easiest/quickest way to do that. I've seen recruiters try to pressure people into lateral moves for less money or into bad companies/positions. In my experience, finding a good recruiter is almost as much work as landing a good job but can be worth it.

You bite your commie mouth there Stalin.

Someone has to make the corn...

Legit... Break, break... I've seen that guy somewhere before...that one in the top photo.

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.