Leaderboard

Just stop expecting me to put in 8 hours flying and 4 hours for queep, if you want to be promotable. Yes, if you pay me 50-100k more, I’ll consider working this investment banker hours job, but it won’t make me invested in the organization - it will just keep me around for a paycheck. Numerous SQ/CCs and OG/CCs have told me that the expectation is that you should be working 12 hours a day. Literally, the only point of that is so they can put a line on your OPR: “#1 Flt/CC/ADO/FGO/etc. Totally rehauled something that didn’t need to be fixed! He doesn’t care about the crushing hours, promote this man!” The truth is, I want a job where I can fly and concentrate on flying, I can either eat breakfast or dinner with my family every single day that I’m not on the road, and I can make O-5 without having to jump through hoops so I can get a decent retirement. Current Air Force active duty value proposition is sketchy at best: “Stay in! We need you to stay in to become a GP/CC and WG/CC! Did we mention that only the top 10% of you that do decide to stay will have a realistic opportunity of even having a chance at these positions? Don’t worry about that, we won’t tell you where you stand until it’s too late, but, trust me, you’re either in or you’re not at this point in your career. Oh, and 30-40% of you will either be passed over or relegated to do jobs that you never expected or wanted in a shocking response to your years of what you thought were decent performance reports? Hope you enjoy the Deid/not flying - remember, service before self and this is why you joined!” Whereas, if you join the guard, you get promoted to O-5 damn near guaranteed, fly at the same rate of active duty guys, and often don’t even have a real queep job. You don’t have to move, you’re pulling in extra money doing what you want on the side, and you have significantly more control over TDYs/Deployments. Where is the value in AD if you don’t want to, or, worse, can’t and don’t even know it, become a WG/CC or GO? I think talent management is a big deal. Personally seeing dudes I really look up to get f*@%ed without any notice I know has scared a lot of guys about to make the bonus decision. Up or out has to go. APZ needs to be a thing. HPOs as a quota have to go. Fix DOPMA. OPR/promotions have to get better so people can plan their lives. And we need to stop working just to work. Everyone is burned out and tired.

To be fair, these responsibilities can be separate. And I feel more dudes would be inclined to stay if they were. On a fighter ANG hiring board the squadron commander asked me "How would you feel knowing that you likely won't have an opportunity to be the squadron commander due to your USMC and Hornet background, as well as your year group?" "Sir, I want as much responsibility in the airplane as possible. And as little as I can get away with outside of it." He looked to his patch, then to the third member of the board and turned to me and said, "That is the best possible answer you could've given."

"Countless hours" and this is what you came up with. Please tell me you're not in a position to affect AF retention policy going forward. 😉 The reason for the pilot crisis isn't the mystery you make it out to be. Read the "Dear Boss" letter from whatever decade you prefer and you'll find your answer. Really? They leave because of added responsibility? A 4-ship FL or Mission Commander leading a Flag mission or doing the real J.O.B. in the AOR has accepted a pretty significant level of responsibility. If you think that individual is reluctant to accept an ADO, DO or CC job because of the leadership responsibilities, you truly don't understand the problem. How do you know they're "excellent officers"? There's no guarantee of that any more than there is that every pilot can be one either. One thing's for sure: "Leading men" 🙄 in the true sense (i.e. on the pointy end into actual combat) isn't going to happen in Intel or the Maintenance squadron. Taking an 8-ship into true combat isn't the same as showing up for the morning Intel PPT slide show or generating tail numbers for a 12 turn 8. The leaders required to do those jobs are not interchangeable. Until the USAF is willing to acknowledge that lost piece of very important information, it will continue to lose its best pilots and leaders. I have yet to meet a pilot who was truly a "leader of men" and can bring game to an actual combat mission, inspire his pilots to put their lives on the line and do what is require to accomplish the mission who didn't care or have a passion for flying and all that goes along with it. Tactical competence doesn't just happen save for the occasional gifted savant. Without caring or passion, a so called "officer who happens to be a pilot" will never attain that level and more importantly, understand and appreciate the mentality of those under him who are striving to achieve it. They will continue to try to deny it takes a very different officer AND pilot to fly daylight attacks on Germany, tangled with MiGs in the alley, go downtown in Pak-6 and take the fight to our enemies of the last 30 years. You don't magically create those pilots from the PC, no squadron bar, no nametag, no o-club, peacetime, make everyone feel like equal war fighters USAF. Being willing to bring game, put your life out there daily in training and combat requires a special officer and pilot. If the USAF finds a way to keep those guys around, that will be a huge step in the right direction. In the meantime, we have the ones that do dumbass things like take "Home of the Fighter Pilot" off the main gate at Nellis.

This is it. Plus transparency. Did anyone else know that not all jobs are going to be posted on MyVector? Ever. There are hundreds being held in reserve for hand-picked folks. I’m not against competitive selection, but they should still advertise the jobs and put whatever criteria they want in the description. Also, AFPAK Hands. Wtf. It’s like the symbol of all that is wrong with the AF and just hearing it disgusts me. When higher leadership is asked in public about it they always say, “Oh yeah, it’s great, but... you should meet with your Sq/CC to discuss some of the... uh... career implications.” Transparency. Just say it dude. We don’t need your closed door meetings. What do we value? It shouldn’t be the same across the board. It should depend on the job. We should match to skills not to career progression. It shouldn’t be that “this guy needs to do this job to stay on track” but rather “this person is the best for this job.” Trash the career timeline. Tie positions to rank like they do with O-9 and O-10. You want a job with more responsibility? Go for it. Apply for it. May the best person win. F*<£ your 24-yr pole year (which I just heard a General emphasize last week with respect to developing a specific person’s career) “But we can’t promote the most qualified for a job to that job!” Why not? “*computing* *wheezing* strats! *black smoke from ears* school! *uncontrollable shaking* ta ta ta timeline! nya nyanyanyanya zzzittzzzazzzait pp ppp puuuuushhh lii li liiiinnnneeesss!!! *BOOM* *Mind blown*”

If the pool went down to 3 and 2 took the bonus...the AirForce would say they met their quota

While the Guard is better, it is not a solution. The Guard is also deteriorating. It's become Active Duty Lite. However, in the Guard, when people get pissed, they simply don't show up. Try getting anything done on a base with poor morale. This is a very recent change. I cleaned out a desk drawer the other day an on top was a document that referenced Air Force Basic Doctrine: Centralized Control, Decentralized Execution. I thought, Big AF is applying this doctrine not to war fighting, but nearly every aspect of the organization. Many of the daily stressors that I hear about in the squadron pertain, in a very large part, to the ceding of control and authority to "data collection" organizations off base. Finance, Persco, Comm... I went down to the Comm Sq last week to raise hell. I sat down with a TSgt and just asked why everything seemed broken. "Lack of manpower, lack of funds, lack of authority to fix anything, higher level organizations do not respond." It was the same when I stormed over to Finance demanding answers recently. My anger turned to apathy when, through conversation, I realized it really wasn't all their fault and there was little they could do, even if my issue became their full time job. It's the same shit everywhere I go on base. People want meaning in their work that comes through giving our people the means, flexibility, and responsibility to make progress. Nearly all of that has been removed and given to central authorities. The production order comes down from on high and you merely execute. We've all been relegated to double-shift factory work and few find satisfaction in that. Trying to work through this and checking myself for both pessimism and optimism, and allowing only realism - there's no way to untangle this mess without a comprehensive overhaul that likely will not happen until the most dire of circumstances.

Need some of these. Edited bc the link wouldn’t work.

I think he has a point. I know a few fighter pilots who only flew because they got a pilot slot back in the day. They are fine but it’s not their passion. We have a saying that there are fighter pilots and there are pilots who fly fighters. When I see a fighter pilot General with 24 years and 1,700 hours flying time, I can usually tell what the career focus was. And f-ck you, pay me plus give me flying hours in a sweet location. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

The real way to fix this would be to have pilots simply fly and do minimal qweep, which would instead be done by dedicated support personnel embedded in the sq. Imagine flying, studying and if not on the schedule, free to hit the gym, go home etc with no guilt or fear that just doing your job is going to get you and your family screwed over come assignment time. That’s how it should be. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I like the fact that they're publicizing the blistering incompetence of the AF depot at Warner Robbins.

I am not an advocate for privatized AR, but I think privatized AR has a place in the USAF just like contract ADAIR or TES support. But this is a slippery slope. There are a lot of second and third order effects to the tanker force if we start contracting out AR. Namely, MAC, er...I mean AMC will say "let's keep all of the tanker dudes down range while contract AR accomplishes stateside AR requirements and CORONET movements to just outside the AOR." Also, I have a hard time placing such a strategic capability in the hands of contract officers and contractors. I am not sure of the most current numbers, but the RAF has a mix of "military" and non-military KC2s/3s that can fly both as military and civilian jets. IIRC, the RAF has a total of 15 jets at their disposal, but out of the 15, three or four of them would retain civilian liveries, registration numbers and would not have the AAR kit installed. And the RAF does not own the jets, it is similar to the 767 lease debacles of the 1990s. Besides the jet issue, there is a very complicated crew force mix that includes RAF Active Duty, reserves and civilian contractors that can fly the jet in different and very limited roles. So not only does the RAF not own the jets, but they may lack the capability to task jets to hack the mission down-range. Unlike the USAF, the RAF, Canadians and other militaries use their tankers to transport their forces downrange and back. So in the RAF example, a KC2 or 3 could be flying with a contract aircrew with a bunch of SAS dudes in the back bound for Muscat. The jet lands and off-loads the PAX, and now the RAF wants to put that jet into the ATO. Unfortunately they can't, and now the RAF has to fly dudes out commercial to pick up the ATO line and fly the civilians back to the UK. The Airbus-LM handshake doesn't address this issue. There's a lot of thought that needs to be put into this. Honestly, the Airbus is over-hyped and the latest Airbus-LM photo shoot is mostly political, IMHO. However, I was glad to see it. Boeing took a lot for granted, and so did USAF. Believe me, I fly the KC-135 and love it, and I'm glad we're getting another Boeing tanker, but damn it LeMay would have gone somewhere else if this shit was going down in 1955. Put a damn boom sighting window in the back of the KC-46 and tell the FAA to go fvck themselves because of airworthiness requirements. But, the USAF's current state of tankers is embarrassing. The 135 has a lot of life left, but right now the SPO is way behind the power curve to keep the jet ICW basic airspace regulations. And let's not talk about the jet's ability to survive in a near-peer threat. We are so limited in SA because MAC/SPO/USAF in general just assumed the 135 would go away. Now, it'll be 2050 before the jet retires and everyone is scrambling to figure out how to get gas to the shooters and survive tankers to fly another ATO. The KC-46 does a great job on paper in this regard. It is supposed to have the sensors, Link, etc capabilities to fly in a near-peer environment and accomplish its primary mission of AR. But right now none of that is proven. So, in the mean-time, we have to figure out how to fight a war with legacy tankers while fielding a new jet. Eventually, I truly do feel the 46 will be able to get the job done and provide SA to not only tanker crews but anyone who is on the Link. But that will leave a big gap in a strategic tanker realm. And that is where I agree with you. Put a boom and MPRS on the 777 and call it good, with a boom sighting window. The USAF will always need a strategic tanker to get fighters downrange, and that is where the KC-10 excels. The 777 can fill that role with ease, and every 135 and 46 crew dawg out there will be more than happy to consol into it, sts.

Troll is gone and posts are cleaned up. Back to a useful discussion about the flawless promotion system in the AF.....

To pile on, the net loss of pilots is only part of the story. In my mind, the even graver issue is the hemorrhaging of highly experienced pilots--which has been ongoing for some time now. A reasonable proxy for experience is looking at how many Command Pilots and Master Navs the AF has; after all, it ain't that hard to reach that milestone, if one has even a remotely ops-credible flying career and bothers to stay in until the min 15 yrs of rated service. Per the data in RAW, we had almost 2,800 Command Pilots at the end of FY08; ten years later, we have barely 2,100. In the same time, the number of Master Navs dropped from 1,300 to less than 600. If you go back a little further, in FY04, we had almost 3,700 Command Pilots and 1,900 Master Navs. Clearly, we've had a massive brain drain over the past decade and a half or so. So, doing math in public, we have as many as 2,900 Senior Pilots and/or Navs filling command, staff, or Wg/OG flying billets that a decade and a half ago would've been filled by more deeply experienced Command/Master aviators. Conclusions? (1) You shouldn't be surprised by questionable rated management decisions, when AF commanders and their staffs are largely devoid of experience (2) To the extent that recent mishaps are due to crew inexperience, you can count on things getting even worse. Commanders gotta have their flyers on staffs; units will continue to get robbed of experienced aviators, leaving flying units ever-younger TT

This is a ploy somehow for the AF to get more money for something. Present a self induced crisis to Congress and say the solution is more funding.

I get irritated when I hear the Air Force talk to the airlines about a problem big blue created

Seems like an awesome mission. Also interested in the MC-130 question.. although I’m just a slick pilot with two years on my ADSC..

My local base has three squadrons that I was rushing, and they all had different opinions on this. They all understood I would apply and hang out with people from all three local squadrons, but one chief pilot was of the opinion that if you weren't applying everywhere else, it was an indication you weren't actually that motivated to join the reserve. The other two CP's thought this was crazy and that if you were local/established in the area, believed in the mission, and got along great with the group why would you apply elsewhere (unless you were turned down). I ended up not applying elsewhere, sticking to my guns on why I loved it there so much, and still getting picked up at the next boards. I strongly believe that everyone's background and circumstances are different, and as long as you don't act like a tool, you won't be seen that way.

I was recently selected by a guard unit, and much of my success came from this thread alone. So, I thought I would return the favor. The board was made up of 5 pilots, ranging from Captain to Lt Col. The most important thing for them was how well we would fit in with their squadron, since our backgrounds/resumes were all outstanding and could get us to pilot training alone. Below are the interview questions: Tell us about yourself.Name these aircraft (15 or so, ranging from heavies to foreign fighters).Favorite movie?Why the interest in becoming a military aviator, other than it's a cool career?What are the challenges of becoming an F-16 pilot, and how will you handle them?Explain what you do for your civilian job (I am not in the aviation industry).What would you do for a living after seasoning?Favorite drink?Do you own any guns?Did you play any sports growing up? What was your favorite?When was the last time you flew? What did you do?Are you aware you will deploy?Are you aware you may be tasked with gunning down an airliner and killing civilians?When was a time your judgement was questioned?Tell us about our mission/what we do.Any questions or concerns for us?

I was fortunate enough to be offered the UPT slot yesterday from the 114th Fighter Wing, my home base where I've been a traditional Crew Chief for almost 6 years. I wanted to post this while everything was fresh in my mind, as I type this my hands are still shaking!!! Social (Friday evening before the interview) - started at 1730, showed up at 1800 because I'm from out of town and currently student teach and communicated this with the squadron so they knew. This is a great chance to show face and get to know the squadron if you are from outside the unit. As soon as I got there the SQ/CC had the applicants introduce themselves and to just put us on the spot...Big hint if this happens to you, be humble and don't go for laughs. Many of the applicants did this and it made them just look like they didn't appreciate their current jobs with some of their responses. Main points here: be humble, be brief, don't be the center of attention, and if your going to drink a beer don't spill it, especially in front of one of the board pilots like some dude did... Interview (Saturday) First to go that day at 0730, all dressed up in my blues and I must say I was looking good! Showed up 15 min prior and the board was still getting set up. One of the enlisted personnel sat down next to me where I was waiting and we talked until I was called in. This was really big in calming me down and I owe her a lot! Then the door opened and out stepped one of the pilots and said that they were ready for me and it was game on! I stepped in and reported to the SQ/CC (head of the board) with a salute and reporting statement, if you are in the military I STRONGLY recommend that you report in. It gave me confidence and showed them I meant business. Just think if everyone else reports in and you don't, do you want to be that one??? Board included 4 pilots, all Lt. Cols...SQ/CC, DO (patch), Flight Commander, and Weapons Officer (obviously a patch). Questions... 1. Tell us about yourself/why the F-16? 2. Why do you think you will be successful at UPT? 3. Greatest accomplishment or event in your life you are really proud of? 4. Greatest failure, and what did you learn from it? 5. How do you feel about being deployed for extended periods of time and how will your family handle it? 6. Using the F-16 to kill someone/responsible for civilian deaths? 7. The spot you are applying for is part time, so what are you going to do after training? 8. If you are not selected, what are you going to do? 9. Asked me about flying experience and how much I've been able to do lately with my student teaching 10. This was the point that I think they would ask about any weak points in your application, the SQ/CC said I had a real solid application and asked if the board had any follow up questions...he then turned to me and asked if I had any and I said no. I thanked the board for giving me this tremendous opportunity and looked every one of them in the eye and said "There's a reason why I drive 200 miles one way every drill and have done so for the past 6 years...I really want this job" it was spontaneous and came from the heart. The SQ/CC said that was it then and good job, I stood up and saluted, shook their hands and was on my way. Sunday (my selection day!) I was running on about 0 hours of sleep the past couple of days and was totally running on adrenaline. After the launch I went over to ops around 1100 and sat down in one of the offices and chatted with a couple pilots. After about 15 min or so, one of the board pilots stepped in and said he needed to ask me a question and to follow him (my heart was freaking pounding). He led me to the office where the interview was, opened the door and there sat the SQ/CC and DO. They stood up as I walked to the table and the commander shuffled some papers and said, "Just looking over some stuff here and have just one question for you, we were wondering if you wanted to be the next fighter pilot in the wing?" I was shaking so hard I about fell over. We talked for a bit and that was that...the best day of my life! How I prepared for the interview... Looked at this website and came up with bullet points of things I wanted to cover for EVERY question I could find. I wasn't going to leave anything to chance, I was coming ready to play ball (I even had a couple crew chief jokes handy). Being a member of the unit is almost a must for getting hired by a guard unit, I applaud those who can do it coming off the street. I can't stress enough you need to prepare for the questions and be able to address EVERY weakness in your app and explain it. Getting hired by a guard unit doesn't mean that you need to be in the 99% of every test you have taken (my highest score was a 92 and my lowest was a 60). Scores aren't everything, they are looking for someone who they will be able to work with for many years. I strongly recommend first looking at units in your area and getting to know them any way you can, best suggestion if you are young is to enlist while in college. For me my interview wasn't just that day, it was the past 6 years I had in the unit and it showed I was dedicated to serving with them...good luck to you all in your journey in becoming a United States Air Force Pilot! Feel free to pm me for additional questions.

Interviewed with the 114th FW in April 2012. (Its a little late, but I forgot that I did this little write up till now) Showed up at about 0840. They welcomed me at the door and walked me to the interview room. Three pilots on the board. They thought I was at 1000 so I kind of caught them off guard. Sat down at the table, very relaxed atmosphere. They did a good job at calming me down (I was freaking out on the inside before hand). Started with asking me if I had been through a board before, I said no so they told me how the interview was going to go. The first question was the standard "Tell us a little about yourself". How do I feel about using the F-16 to kill someone. Asked about a time when I found myself in a difficult situation and how I dealt with it. I used a time when I took off from Santa Fe and found myself in clouds, at night, over mountains, ice forming on my 172. Then they asked what I learned from that situation. Asked about my grades (They sucked..i mean really sucked for my first half of college)and what happened. I talked about how I grew up and made a huge turnaround and started making deans list (with the exception of calculus, they got a laugh out of that). They joked about how could I possibly not have a single infraction on my driving/criminal record. I told them I though I had gotten a ticket for an accident a long time ago, but I think they go away after a while. I have been a competitive swimmer my whole life, and was training for the 2012 Olympic Trials so they asked me a few questions about that and what my schedule would be like if I made the team (I had to explain that I had ZERO chance of making the team). We talked about swimming for a few minutes and that was pretty much it. They asked if I had any questions, any real questions, not the one or two that most people write down just so they can say they have a them, DON'T DO THAT. I said I didn't have any (A current AGR pilot made me throw away my piece of paper with my two or three questions the day before the interview). I thanked them for giving me this incredible opportunity, told them "I really want this job" (yes, I actually said it) and thanked them again. Shook hands and was on my way. One of the pilots walked out with me and we talked a little more (he went to school in the same town that I fly skydivers). After that, I got a hold of a crew chief that I knew and he let me tag along with him for the day. Got to watch launches and recoveries, they had two fini flights that day too, ate lunch with everyone and went to the retirement party for the fini flight guys. Got to meet and talk to a lot of the pilots. I must have done something right because I got a phone call around 1700 the next day saying that I had been selected!!! I am living proof that you don't need to be a 4.0 student, or have some incredible resume to get selected. Be Confident, but be yourself. You are going to be flying with these dudes for the next 20 years, so why try to be someone you're not. If you don't fit in, then move on to the next unit. Study for your interview! Have an idea of how you would answer various questions but don't have them scripted out. Be yourself and stick around. Meet everyone you possibly can (Officers and Enlisted, remember the enlisted guys are the ones making sure your jet is safe)and get a feel for the unit (you have to like it if you want to work there). Don't turn down any invitation and don't be afraid to look stupid, one guy joked with me when I fist walked in "We're not buying whatever you're selling". You are standing out in a good way. The more I was there, the more I wanted the job. I am still in shock that they want me to fly an F-16.

I'm all for more transparency. They advertised that Talent Marketplace thing (which, to be honest, does seem like a real step up from the old ADP)...but then a bunch of folks, myself included, were removed from the VML and not even able to submit preferences because the functional already knew AFPC couldn't afford to move us.

What’s wrong with the Air Force? Why can’t the Air Force change? I spent a lot of time soul searching this question: What is wrong with the Air Force? I spent countless hours wondering why the Air Force has a “pilot crisis”. I think about my fellow officers who separate at 11 to 12 years of service who are only 8-9 years away from retirement. Is active duty Air Force really that bad to prevent a pilot from continuing to retirement? Especially considering that pilot at the end of a UPT commitment is over half way there. Why can’t Air Force leadership change policy to snap us out of the rut we are in? I think I know the answer. Air Force has "Officers who happen to be Pilots" and "Pilots who happen to be Officers." Those two don’t understand each other. There are individuals who join the Air Force to fly airplanes. The “pilot who happens to be an officer” is only an officer because that’s what the Air Force requires of them to fly airplanes. If the Air Force required its pilots to be a warrant officer, the “pilots who happen to be officers” would all be warrant officers. This is a majority of the Air Force pilots. They will leave the organization because of the leadership responsibilities placed upon them at the end of their UPT commitment. There is also a group of "officers who happen to also be pilots". Those officers are excellent officers but would have been just as content to be a maintenance officer, or an intelligence officer. Those officers are here to be officers and lead men. The “officer who happens to be a pilot” doesn’t care about flying. He doesn’t have a true passion for aviation. The officer who happens to be a pilot will not retire or separate after their commitment ends and become an airline pilot. He or she will continue service to 20 years and beyond. The “officer who happen to be a pilot” will become a senior Air Force leader. That officer will make the rules and values for the organization. They will continue in service and say "officer first, pilot second" The "officer who happens to be a pilot" will drive the pilot who is an officer to separate at 10 years or 20 and join an airline.