Leaderboard

Not disagreeing with the overall content/message of your post, but that said I've seen many solid "mission hacking"/never-worn-a-knee-pad dudes have a decent career and command a squadron and a few gone to OG+. It absolutely can be done. You may face an uphill battle if you stay mission focused, but doing so does not inherently close doors. My recommendation to any young guy is put mission first at work, don't neglect your family, and overall just do the right thing. It'll all work out...maybe you become a CC, maybe you fly for Delta after 11 years, maybe you do both in the ARC...it'll all be good no matter how it works out. As soon as you start prioritizing the rat race and neglecting the mission and your family, you're losing.

Sounds like a dumbass Capt needed to be removed from his position, given an LOR, and a CC call with the bros on WTF is acceptable and what’s not. That’s where it should have gone. Now, if the DO and up were at the naming and said nothing/let it slide, now I can see firings. Maybe that’s the case, but not what I’ve heard. Bottom line, as a CC I don’t think it would even cross my mind that one of my flt ccs would be so retarded as to name a chick C, and even more so in front of a GO. I wouldn’t be there, would find out about it afterwards, and then do the above. That’s realistic and reasonable. All of these leaders were probably at home playing with their kids when this went down - and because they were unable to telepathically sense what was about to go down in the future, jump in their Delorean, and stop the shenanigans, they got their careers ruined. My only caveat is there could be far more to the story we don’t know about, but firings for the actions of a rogue shithead flt cc alone is bullshit.

Damn shame. Wg/cc was/is a great individual. Sad to see things end on this note for him.

T-69

Splash, with your quals you've probably got a pretty good baseline. Maybe try the FAA's PHAK for a general refresher: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/

17D’s always causing trouble for 14N’s.

Complain about butt-hurt students all you want...if you don't have the SA to throttle back shenanigans when someone wearing stars walks into the bar, I submit you don't have the SA to command a squadron effectively.

14N Guy, one of your earlier posts you mentioned that someone told you 14N Lts don't get stratted, that statement is just flat out wrong. Also, in my neck of the woods, the O-6 recently convened multiple boards to scrub CGOs and FGOs records to have a knife fight and determines which shiny pennies the unit wants to push to the next level. Pretty crazy if you ask me because we are making pushes based on people's entire records of performance and not all of the supervisors were present to fight for their guys/gals. For the young lurkers, I'll share my observations with you so you know what you are getting yourself into before you cross that blue line on the ground. It's not universally applicable but this is what I've seen in my decade plus of TIS across multiple AFSCs and serving for different levels of command. Also had a few good mentors who shared their insights with me early on. If the more experienced guys/HPOs on this board disagrees with the content below please feel free to chime in and tell me why I'm wrong. I would have made a real pyramid for you all but I'm too lazy to do that. Before I start, I will say I think I understand AF GO's logic from way back. They want to put the best/most credible GOs at the Pentagon to advocate for AF's piece of the pie, and I believe the HPO program is their solution. I can support the logic of putting the best GOs at the puzzle palace/in front of cameras but I disagree with the HPO method of picking them so early in their careers. Understand to make it far, it helps to be fit, photogenic, and articulate. This is how you catch your sponor's attention and one way to the HPO on-ramp. Before you sign on the dotted line, understand if you priority is to serve your mission/hack the mission/spread freedom all over the world, then you are "most likely" to top out at non-command O-5 (best case scenario). If your priority is to become a General officer then the rat race begins as soon as you take that oath. At the end of the day promotion is a percentage game, what's your chance of making it to the next level? O-1 to O-4 for now is free, but what you do as an O1 affects your chance of making O-5 and beyond. For the mission hackers, from day 1, be the best at your job, be a good bro/wingman, do what's "right", enjoy/take advantage of the military career, be a good parent and spouse, check the required boxes as you see fit. Promotion past O-4 will be a crapshoot for you, a lot can change but you'll be stressed out and fight to be in the top 50% of your peers for many years (if you want to fight for it). For the GO wannabes, be a DG and be stratted as many times as you can early on. DGs/#1s at commissioning source, initial training, SOS, whatever...build that strong performance record from day 1. If you get picked up as an Aide de Camp as an O-1/O-2 then you are really set. Fight for high level Exec jobs as much as you can. Your strong performance records will get you picked up for the selective assignments later on. White House jobs, high level execs, special programs. It's a snowball effect. Someone long ago told me you can afford to make mistakes as O-1/O-2, O-3 is where people hold you accountable. That's really cute if you just want to make it to O-4. It's been said on this board many times, and it's true. You should know by mid-O-3 how far your career is going to go. The HPOs know because they have been setup for success from day 1 and they see their mentors' secrets to "success." For the non-HPOs, in most cases you should strive for a MAJCOM+ staff job by mid-O-3 and/or pick a specialty path that makes you stand out and increase your chance of getting noticed. WIC, FAO, TPS (sorry Olevelo), Phoenix XXXXXX, PhD, JOCCP, CNODP, WH, SOF, green doors, and etc. Also continue to fight for Exec jobs, and If you are lucky to pick up a sponsor, he/she will tell you when to deploy. Time your assignment right so you will be eligible for in-res IDE (very difficult w/ FAO). O-4 continue to fight for the exec jobs, staff leadership positions (duty title matters!), and time your assignment right so people knows you well when you need to submit the PRFs. I hated the old SOS and ACSC by correspondence and Masters degree requirements, but now I see you can't avoid ACSC by correspondence and a Masters if you want to increase your promotion chances down the road. ACSC by correspondence done early makes you eligible for non-AF IDEs and also JPME II (volleyball and/or softball) early, which leads to fully Joint qualified even if you don't get picked up for ACSC In-Res. Masters degree is required for O-6, and if you didn't do ACSC In-Res you'd be scrambling to get a Master's degree last minute when you have less time (family and responsibilities), so might as well knock it out early on in your career if you know you want that full-bird. This will also impress your boss as a CGO and gives you a leg up against your peers. I'm in no way of promoting the young folks to be a careerist, but I want you to know the rules of the game so you can pick the right path and be at peace with yourself later on in your career. I had a better understanding of this game as a late O-3/early O-4, kind of knew my promotion % going forward and decided to put my family first. The decision solidified after the 2014 VSP/RIF debacle. I was not affected but I saw how inept the senior leaders and the O-6s were in carrying out this task. When my O-6 thanked me for educating him on the VSP/RIF details so he knows how the programs affected his folks it solidified my decision not to trust this bureaucracy to take care of me and my family. I've declined quite a few "golden opportunities" since 2014 but I'm a much happier person for it and get to "enjoy" my work while doing what's best for me and my family. Good luck to you regardless of which path you choose. Just do the right thing and don't mess with people's careers. Added: I used to hate people fight for Exec jobs, but it's actually a great learning opportunity. You'll also walk away with decent strats/pushes from a senior leader. Execs get a lot of hate because they will get that better strat/push than the mission hackers...

Thanks for the tip .

Humor me younguns, I’m in Portugal enjoying my time left and wine. With that being said, despite differences I see posted, I believe we are all wanting the best for OUR country. Many a time (1969-1972) I recall acrimonious verbal volleyball about the whys? Still we focused on Mutual Support every day. Appreciate differences of opinions, but Check each other’s 6, as we are all, or have been in the game.

Never trust anyone, let alone a GO, with a flat top.

New Ned Stark article. Argues against strats and forced distribution. However, word is AF wants to move to an Army system of top/middle/bottom third check boxes. https://warontherocks.com/2018/11/and-miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-the-air-forces-stratification-problem

As mentioned before, this thread is full of information and you can extrapolate what you want to make a custom questionare. In regards to packets, invest in bogidope’s packet evaluation.

We did these “namings” for the students at my UPT base while I was an instructor. The Sq/CC always knew when we were doing them but I never saw him or the DO. I never had any issues with them in my flights but a couple of my buddy Flt/CCs had issues with students getting arrested by SF walking back to their dorms (gmafb)and another one had an issue where one student went to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. In both cases, the Sq and Wg Commanders took care of it at the lowest level possible and life went on.

That’s Spicoli bro!

2x namings for my class, one in each phase. No outsiders/phones allowed in and doors were locked. Multiple female students/IPs there whose opening move was to go extreme early, which set the boundaries for the night. Was fun/funny as hell for all and a good bit of stress relief that had us at points nearly passing out with drunken laughter at the expense of both us and our IPs. There were actual fighter pilots involved and this was nearly 10 years ago, so maybe that’s the difference. Fuck I’m old.

Further evidence of the pussification of the American military. This is definitely going to help retention.

His flat top is not amused with your lack of faith.

I gotta say. I loved the shit out of the 87th as a stud. I thought the IPs were great. The instruction was great. I was treated like an actual human being and dudes took a huge amount of stock and pride in the outcome of your training. I left there and, with very very very few exceptions, I'd buy a night's worth of rounds for every single dude/dudette I flew with there. But lets face it. There were some serious shenanigans going on.

Hello all. I'm in the unusual position of retaking the AFOQT, 14 years after my first testing and 11.5 years after commissioning. Apparently my scores "didn't transfer over" and/or were invalidated with the format change a few years ago. ISO general tips, lessons learned, or mst-have study guide recs. The first time around I did well on the academic measures, decent on Nav (93) and not great on Pilot (79); at the time I knew almost nothing about flying and wasn't going for a Pilot slot. Hoping I can bring up my P score at least by virtue of nearly 10 years as a Nav plus a PPL and some private instrument training. Any advice appreciated!

No. That is Delta ramp.

All I know is that I certainly wouldn't tolerate some stranger calling a female squadron mate a demeaning slang term for female anatomy... Why the fuck would I tolerate it out of the people who are supposed to be her wingmen? I don't know what part the senior leaders had in this, if any...I suspect they just got caught up in it. But holy hell, if this is what the SQ/CC was letting happen, he deserves everything coming to him.

They set up a GoFundMe for the family and funeral: https://www.gofundme.com/lay-seth-quotjethroquot-nehring-to-rest

Wait for it...

The 177 Fighter Wing in Atlantic City will be having a hiring board for Undergraduate Pilot Training candidates seeking to fly the F-16 1-2 June 2019. Packages are due 15 April 2019. Please reference the below website for details. https://www.177fw.ang.af.mil/Units/Careers/ Please send all questions to: usaf.nj.177-fw.mbx.177-fw-upt@mail.mil Thanks.

Solid post panch. Need to publish that to AFROTC dets and save a lot of folks a lot of time/anxiety.

I stand corrected. Holy shit I can’t imagine the dearth of SA that leads to that. Dumbass must feel great; literally contributed to 3 dudes getting fired. This is precisely why I told my boss a while back that I refuse to act as mayor ever again. Like a fvckin SOF tour.

Paul Tibbets IV would disagree...

Since it happened on Halloween, does that make it a purge?

Have you ever been invited to someone’s home for dinner? There is etiquette involved.

Maybe the airman...should stop fucking the husbands of her coworkers?

First, you have a screening process, it's called "Aircraft Commander Upgrade." ANYBODY can sit right seat in a gunpig, the transition to the left is the discriminator. Second, the full pressure suit.

Pumps got stuck on, huh...that's interesting.

You're a fucking idiot.

So I guess the take-away here is that if you got a couple mediocre OPRs as a captain, don't bother growing or improving because it won't matter anyway.

Not sure it was the right thing or not, but I had several questions prepared to ask them about the unit and the mission. They seemed to like that I had some thought out questions to ask. In my opinion it shows that you are genuinely interested in them and what they do/ more in-depth knowledge of what you may be doing in the future.

The only time I will even consider squeezing into the old uniform (it's been almost a decade since I retired) would be a military event in which I have a role. For example, I commissioned my nephew last year when he graduated from college. It was an extremely proud moment for me, and I made sure I could fit into my service dress for it. However, for anything else, I will wear the appropriate civilian attire. Plus, that way I don't have to shave! Cheers! M2

Mongo, It doesn't end with BQ6.

nice straw man argument with yourself. continue with stuck mic it's entertaining me greatly you're right...about the extent of your knowledge is how you'd act in said situation. and it ends there.

you're on guard