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Because while the 365 was the best example of the problem, it was not the actual problem. A better way of putting it might be: "I'm not willing to commit to an undetermined yet assuredly significant time away from my family, for a cause that is no longer obviously patriotic, led by people who are not concerned with minimizing that time away, compensated in a way that does not recognize dissimilar contributions, in an organization that prioritizes the bureaucratic process over the operational skill set. The 365 was just a bold, underlined version of that statement I think, but plenty of tanker pilots trapped in 2-on 2-off Qatari hell will tell you it still exists in smaller dose deployments

Plus I was top-3 yesterday. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Hell, the threat of even a crappy 6 month air advisor non-flying deployment is enough to drive me off active duty. The last flying deployment was only marginally more satisfying when the jets were flyable. The sustainment phase of the never ending war gets old after countless trips to the desert. Everyone is burned out and looking for something more satisfying, more rewarding, and with greater control over their own lives. I’m not sure there’s a solution to that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got my hands on the ETP approval list from HAF/A1. A good number of guys were limited to RPA/CSO/ABM only. If you need to see it let me know. Not sure if posting FOUO here is kosher.

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.

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."

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.

It depends. By time you’re at 18.9 years you’re pretty high on the list based on STRD and in a corner where saying no and getting out has a high cost.

One thing in the PRF discussion that I haven’t seen mentioned yet: push notes. For those of you that are wondering/care where you stand in the overall rack/stack, a good way to find out before the PRFs are even signed would be to schedule time with the person directly subordinate to your senior rater. In most flying organizations, I assume your senior rater is the wing commander and the person immediately below him is your OG/CC. This needs to be, at a minimum, 6 months before PRFs are due in your wing. Honestly, to make any sort of actionable difference, it probably needs to be about a year out so that there is time to fix any perceived deficiencies in your record (i.e., get you that upgrade you are missing, that job you haven’t done, or award you haven’t got)...again, assuming you care to do so. Before that meeting, for promotion to O-5,, if you care about getting promoted and you haven’t received any documented strats in rank/grade categories (as opposed to contrived categories related to jobs/AFSCs), you are probably in bad shape and most definitely not in the running for a DP. At that point, you are trying to find figure out where you’re at in the pool of other “P’s”. I’ve been involved in more PRF processes than I care to count, and I can tell you that a critical factor in deciding how strong a middle-of-the-road guy guy gets pushed (or not) comes down to what the OG says to the Wing/CC about that person as the PRFs get sent up for review. This usually comes in the form of a push note (typically hand-written to accompany the PRF folders) that effectively says anywhere from, “This guy rocks and needs a DP to keep him going” to “This guy shows up and flies the plane well but that’s it. Solid P” to “While I know you’ll be short on DPs, this guy should be next in line because of such and such.” Almost without fail, senior raters will go with what their group commanders recommend for a person up for promotion that they don’t personally know. So, all this to say, if you know ahead of time what your OG/CC plans to say about you as PRFs are coming due, you’re going to know where you sit overall. Yes, after signed PRFs come out, you have the opportunity to meet with your Wing/CC and find out the rationale of his promotion recommendation and what you can do in the future, but honestly at that point, it is too late. Much better to find out where you stand early so that you can start planning an exit strategy or work some last ditch efforts to boost your record. I wouldn’t say that this aspect of the process is intentionally secretive, but it certainly is not well-advertised. TL/DR: find a way to talk with your group commander well before PRFs are written to find out where you stand in his/her rack/stack.

Who do I need to speak to in order to have you sit Top-3 more? I'm ready to start a letter writing campaign.

Back to back top-3 in one day Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Top-3 Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Copy-paste from the first page of this thread: I'm in the B-1. OPSTEMPO wasn't too oppressive when I was in an ops squadron...6 months deployed, a year at home. I'm still waiting to see what it will be like under Global Strike. There's a lot of options on the table regarding 3 month deployments, deploying one squadron to two geographically separated areas, rainbowing squadrons in various theaters, etc...so honestly, no one actually knows what the OPSTEMPO will look like for the next year or so [update...it looked pretty similar, with some smaller 1-month "deployments" to England]. At home, the work load is significant, but not crushing. I've been at the schoolhouse for a while, and honestly the biggest adjustment is the constant thrash that the schedule becomes when you're dealing with student lines instead of normal continuation training lines. But still, it's rare to stay much past 1800 if you're not on the night shift, and working weekends is very rare for most of us. The family life is relatively stable. There are only two bases with B-1s, so there isn't much PCSing in the early part of your career (unless you draw the ALO or UPT card). Because the community is so small, you'll quickly find people that you knew at your last assignment when you go to your next one. Almost half the people I'm at the schoolhouse with are people I deployed with from Ellsworth. The B-1 is currently undergoing the largest upgrade since the fleet was introduced. We're replacing all the green-screen CRTs with full-color LCD displays, we're opening a lot of the software to the pilots (who used to have to just trust the WSOs that things were set correctly), we're finally on Link-16, and we got some really nice upgrades to the targeting capabilities. I see the B-1 as being in service for at least the next 20 years or so, depending on how long it will take to get the B-21 online and what capabilities it eventually brings to the table. [Anyone coming to the B-1 in the future will be flying the fully-upgraded jets starting in the FTU. The first class to fly them should hit the flightline early next year] Community morale is actually pretty high in the B-1 from what I've seen, although like every other platform we are hemorraging our fair share of pilots [and WSOs]. Finally, if you go to the B-1, you want to go to Ellsworth. You'll end up back at Dyess eventually, but Ellsworth is a hidden gem tucked away in the Black Hills. There's something new to see or do almost every weekend, and the winters aren't as brutal as people like to pretend.

Can we go back to this brown boots with green bags topic? Is this a thing? If so I'm making the switch tomorrow. Fuck it, I'll do it anyways. Good talk boys!

Last I looked 2 years ago, you could PC for an earlier DOS. That could have changed.

Post of the year IMO, well said. I can see the appeal of a new OPR process with a top, middle, and bottom third hard strats (similar to how the E's do it) and static close outs. At least then you'd know where exactly you stand and shouldn't be surprised when you don't get promoted, miss out on some developmental "opportunity," or not put on a command track. I also believe the HPO system as it stands now is poisonous and creates a "haves vs the have nots" culture that disincentivises those not on the track by removing any chance of moving into meaningful higher leadership roles (if that's what one desired) while not holding those on the HPO track accountable if they screw up.

You can be the best of what’s left!

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*”

We typically have 25-30 for each drill weekend leading up to interviews and we usually try to interview no more than 5 or 6.

Going to be a long week...

143d Airlift in Rhode Island