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To piggy back on the well written post above........ In my opinion, there is a lot more to pilot retention than bumping up the pay check, QOL or additional duties. Those have always been issues and have forced a percentage of pilots out. Those basics need to happen and are actually pretty easy fixes if someone in senior leadership would grow a pair, acknowledge the obvious and fix it. 365s shouldn’t be a requirement like PME. But another important but possibly intangible issue is the struggle to maintain a culture of warriors in the USAF. What seems to be a new, added problem is the attempt to move USAF away from a force lead by the actual war fighters towards what looks more like a peacetime corporation. It’s been a slow leak over the last couple of decades. I have a lot to say about this but I'm finding it tough to put some of it into a sensible message. When I entered the ranks of USAF fighter pilots, it was 1989 and although we didn't know it yet, we had reached the pinnacle of a long journey toward an extremely lethal combat air force. As a Lt, I had no part in that. I simply benefited from being exposed to some of the most hard-charging, capable fighter pilots created during the post-Carter, Cold War, Reagan years of huge military expansion, boo-coo dollars and total focus on enhancing our capability to wage war from the air. As a result, we brought serious game to the first protracted combat ops in almost 2 decades when Desert Storm kicked off. It was a truly amazing thing to be a part of. Here's where I begin to struggle to put some concepts into words: I'll do my best. I had the honor of meeting and hearing a few hours of wisdom from George "Bud" Day during ROTC field training. Five years later, he presented me (and everyone in my UPT class) with our wings, drank whiskey with us and told us amazing stories at the O-club standing among us in his mess dress and Medal of Honor. I heard similar stories from F-4, B-52 and Thud Drivers, guys with gold stars on their flight suit sleeves (anyone remember those?), read books by Broughton, Basel, Risner, Drury and many more. I and my contemporaries soaked in every bit of warrior lore and attitude we could find and experience. It was evident that it was all important. None of us needed that explained to us. We came to realize that the traditions, attitudes and perpetuation of the fighting spirit that was born out of past air wars were absolutely necessary to becoming an effective Air Force combat pilot. The simple fact is that pilots who woke up every day to begin preparations for missions like daylight bomber or fighter raids on Germany, attacking the Paul Doumer bridge, going "downtown" to Hanoi or any number of other daily tests of testicular fortitude knew there was a high chance they wouldn't see the next sunrise or if they did it would be through prison bars. If it wasn't them, then it likely was someone else in their unit with whom they shared the experience of air combat. While I don't claim anything close to that, my small exposure to what it must have been like for them came on my third combat mission. I had "that feeling" based on experiences on my first two missions and strapped on my jet with a solid, tangible feeling that I wasn't coming back. I couldn't shake it, of course I went anyway and thankfully, I was wrong. You don't do that every day, strap on a fighter or bomber, lose friends, fly RESCAP over their smoking holes, come up initial in a 3-ship that left as four without coping mechanisms. Drinking in a readily accessible squadron bar might be the most obvious, sharing stories only another warrior could understand or appreciate, raunchy fighter pilot songs, running the gauntlet of hurled whiskey glasses in a wake to mourn a fallen comrade, burning pianos, and the list goes on. To outsiders they may seem strange, stupid or unnecessary, offensive antics by fraternity brothers who are still waiting to mature into adults. We didn't have to explain ourselves in the past, but that no longer appears to be the case. But those same PC, judgmental, clueless outsiders, politicians or leaders with a lower-case "L" have no idea what it takes to willingly take on a mission like that during sustained combat operations where we potentially lose people and aircraft daily. The pilots who do are long since retired and far more have left this world. My war in 1991 lasted about 6-weeks and losses in the air were in the double digits at most. Since then, we've had a few surges but nothing that rivals the experiences of our predecessors. But that doesn't mean their combat tested traditions should be forgotten or set aside as relics of the past. The fraternal bonds of combat are indescribable and something no one can appreciate second hand. They are also absolutely necessary for a fighting force to gain the required trust in each other and be truly effective in their mission. They also don't just happen out of thin air when a squadron suddenly finds themselves launching their first combat mission. As I alluded to at the start, it's difficult to put this into a cogent message. I don't know if I have but I have no doubt many of you fellow warriors, past and present, have a general idea of what I'm trying to say. Being an effective combat pilot isn't something you just start doing the day the balloon goes up and shit gets real. Combat pilots from the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's showed us how it was done, gave us traditions to perpetuate and those were carried by the next generation of pilots into the final two decades of the 20th century. I have no doubt that today's combat pilots are doing their best to follow in the footsteps of the warriors who came before them. However, doing so is not supposed to be a struggle with the very leadership you're charged with following. We should be embracing and continuing these traditions, not throwing them aside because of someone's BS sensibilities. I guess the bottom line is this: Being a warrior, an aggressive, professional, lethal killer is not a politically correct, peacetime, 9 to 5 job. It's highly specialized and the skill set necessary to excel at it requires an extraordinary amount of resources and effort, probably more so today than ever before. Pilots attempting to attain and maintain this excellence need to be able to focus the majority of their working hours on this task. We have been fighting this battle for at least 50 years and probably will continue to do so. What is new, however, is the fact that pilots now have to prove that they and their mission are, in fact, actually different from other officers and support personnel. That they are not interchangeable and in spite of how "unfair" it might be to some, not everyone in the USAF is an actual war-fighter. No excuses are necessary for this - it's simply reality. If that offends someone - too fucking bad. You want in on it, go to UPT or shut the F.U. and support the mission. We need warriors. They don't come about using an HR department, worrying about a PC culture or who is going to be offended by the process of creating highly trained, lethal killers. Rant over - 🤬

One can only volunteer for so long before real life happens. Serving was actually pretty easy when single. With family came the realization that life isn't all about me and what I want to do, or where I want to serve, but that I also need to provide my wife and kids with the best life that I have the opportunity to provide them. I am not saying that life is necessarily better outside of the AF for everyone, because it depends on each person's specific circumstances, but for everyone, at some point the AF necessarily stops becoming service and starts becoming a job when you are suddenly given the responsibility to put other people in your life who depend on you first. You can't responsibly raise your hand to volunteer for whatever it is you feel is important when your family, your wife and your kids, are asking you to volunteer to be the best husband and father that they'll ever have. Again, each person's circumstances vary, but family should still change one's priorities and will affect one's ability to "serve" without other considerations. Now, I think most people would place an existential threat to our nation over many of their family's needs, at least in the short term, but what we are finding is that few are willing to place current operations, pay, QOL, etc. over their family's short-term, much less long-term well-being, or dare I say it, prosperity. I think wiser use of the military, improvements to the system, comparable QOL, and competitive pay would change many people's minds and would allow them to continue to serve while also giving them a greater opportunity to feel like they did right by their family as they lie on their deathbed and take their final breath.

1) Take a look at Freakonomics, perhaps the economics of drug dealers/crack cocaine... (and no, there is not a 1-1 comparison between drug dealers and fighter pilots). When you ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up, a few typical answers include - fire fighter, cop, fighter pilot... the first 2 typically or traditionally don't pay well. Why? Read Freakonomics. 2) Now thankfully you'll never be able to demonstrate this, but if you could - go down to the local fire house and find the first non-fire fighter (NFF) there and tell them (and the rest of the fire fighters) that the NFFs are just as important as the Fire Fighters... that their high school diploma and 2 weeks of OJT is as important as the years of training, studying, testing, learning, working out, and fighting to be luck enough to get an interview and to do well on the exam and to make it through probation, etc... that the fire fighter went through... then give the NFF a patch, even call them a "fighter", give them awards/medals/promote them for doing stuff that seems important in the station while the real work/sacrifice is being done on location, put them in charge of the fire house because you have to be "Fair" to everyone. Tell them that they can take 2 hours for lunch, 8 hours every other Tuesday to get better at their job because they don't have time to get better at it while they're doing it, tell them 9-3 is pretty decent work hours... then tell the fire fighters that, sorry we don't have enough of you so it will be 36 on/12 off, sorry if we put you away wet and put you back in before you can go home and see the family (you know they love their job, that they live for it, so why make life better for them?). Make up tremendous amounts of accolades for crap that means nothing and give it to the NFFs with great pomp and circumstance because we're all equal. Oh and their jobs? those jobs that NFFs do that are meant to support the fire fighters? Yeah, let them write instructions/rules that pretty much puts the responsibility on the fire fighters. When the fire fighters come back after a 36 hour blaze, delirious from the excitement and exhaustion, wanting to celebrate with their fellow fire fighters - force them to let the NFFs be a part of it. When they push it up too much - criticize them and kick them out for frivolous reason. Don't allow them back into the station until their uniform meets regulations,. When they save 3 kids but step on a cat - make sure you publicly flog them for it... when the NFF fails to show up on time for weeks on end and never gets the job done, be sure to do nothing about it. Obviously a bit black and white/extreme example... there are plenty of non-fighter pilots (myself included) in the AF that do amazing and incredible things for the fight and deserve the accolades and spoils (not myself) and this is not a bashing of support roles... this is an attempt to show you were the rot started. You/they/we can try to fix the symptoms (is it $, is it additional duties, etc.) but until you address the rot - the dis-mantling of (for lack of a better term) the glory, prestige, and respect that goes with a professional doing a professional job, that takes probably a decade to get good at (including a degree or 2, USAFA, ROTC, UPT, IFF, etc...) WE WILL NEVER FIX IT. Do they want medals and be on the front page news? No - they want the respect/honor for doing what they do, something the AF stopped doing a long time ago. There are important roles everywhere, I have no doubt that we need 99% of the people in the AF to do the job... but I can not think of another organization in the world that would try so hard to put everyone in the same lime light, all the time. What if Taylor Swift had all the roadies, ushers, back up singers come up and be on stage for every performance and give them a microphone? Do we diminish their jobs if we don't? To some extent everyone is replaceable, but I'm guessing there are not too many fire fighters serving excessively long commitments to be fire fighters. I have a few in my family, some of the most humble/honest/best people I know... I have never once heard them complain about being a fire fighter... why is that? 3) Fighter pilots are just the first and most prolific demographic... the rest of the pilots, the rest of the pointy-end-of-the-spear isn't far behind, add to them the maintainers, engineers, doctors, nurses, and any other professional that would be treated as a professional outside of the AF... appreciated for their knowledge, years of education, years of sacrifice to get where they are, etc... they'll be gone too, unless/until there is another recession.

Just got word here, UPT!!!! Best of luck to all still waiting for results, and congrats to the other selectees.

Moved from Vance a few months back (spent 5 years there) and I didn't live on base but quite a few friends did, so I'll be speaking on what I saw. The married UPT houses (with great exception) were nothing special, 2-3 bedrooms with garage and/or carport. Decent sized, but not huge. All houses have their own back yard that is medium sized, lots of parks and a few dog parks on base though to help mitigate this. The base is small so you can walk to pretty much everywhere you want pretty easily (read drunk stumble back from the club). There are 2 blocks or so of newer housing, no idea who those go to (besides the obvious O-6's), had a pair of friends from UPT who lucked into them but besides that pretty much everyone else I knew lived in the standard older house. Maintenance seemed okay, never really heard any complaints about it. @MooseClub, if you're an O-4 I would live off base. Vance is small so there isn't a lot offered on base for the family. Reasonable housing can be found pretty much anywhere North and West of the base (avoid everything east of Van Buren). Anywhere in town is at most a 10-15 minute drive or less.

Love it. Maybe when I get as much experience in the Air Force as you fellas, I'll think differently.

UPT Select! My CC came into my office and brought the O-6 with him and said “What have you done!? Congratulations UPT Select!” Good luck to everyone who hasn’t found out yet. Also, if you don’t get news you wanted to hear, use it for motivation to apply again next year!

UPT select! Congrats to all the others and good luck to anyone who hasn’t heard yet. This was my second time applying and my PCSM was a 93 I think, PPL and just over 100hrs private hours.

Got notified real late tonight on a swing shift from my CC that I'm heading to URT. Good luck everyone waiting for their senior leadership to grab results.

You can’t post that you have the list in hand then not share... I don’t care who tells me I can act surprised and I’ll still be depressed if it’s bad news. JUST TELL ME!!! Also, congrats to you and the others who are selects!

I can almost envision the <2G out relying on everything except kinetics to stay alive

Anyone know how many applications were submitted?

Wow, 90 is lower than I thought, I was guessing 110-120.

List in hand, here’s the numbers: UPT: 90 (10 ENJJPT) URT: 20 UCT: 10 UABMT: 30 Alt: 10 I was a UPT select, congrats to the rest out there! Best of luck to those who haven’t heard yet!

A missile truck with an assload of green stars on it.

Congrats everyone! After a painful wait, my CC just called me asked why I left early (I'm on nights); he said that must just be my UPT select swagger kicking in! I'm in!

And the very worst people I’ve worked for have been crossflow dudes. The point? As was said, Heuristics are bullshit; judge the individual. *break break* ... and curtail the Phoenix Reach program. You want to fix shit in AMC then stop the fixation on guys who know little about a lot, and start building expertise. While there’s value in having SOME breadth, save the generalism for the generals. AMCs obsession with breadth baffles me (and pretty much everyone outside AMC). I’ve watched guys my entire career pursue “broadening” over expertise - and actually tout how little they know about how many things as some kinda strength... THAT is bullshit (and there are more than a few nauseating general officers out there spewing the same nonsense). Truly oblivious and out of their depth... When the balloon goes up you don’t call in the generalists. Chuck

^so true. There is so much about the the AF that is so out of date it’s just sad. The way we promote, pay, incentivize, move, etc. Like several of us told a two star traveling around a year or so ago trying to find a way to solve pilots jumping ship - it just comes down to the way you treat people. Admittedly that’s a broad statement and encompasses many things. But when people are made to feel like simple undervalued cogs in the machine...well that just isn’t how you should handle some of the most highly trained and educated folks out there. I’m afraid there’s a great many things the entire military does that have fallen behind society and the way talented people expect to be treated and valued. Saying “people are our most valuable assets” in one moment and then treating them like cogs the next, all in the name of “needs of the AF”, well it simply doesn’t justify that kind of treatment to many people and I believe that pool of folks is only going to grow as time goes on with younger generations. People (especially talented) simply don’t want to be treated that way, in addition to having so little control of their lives in the mil, as Genghis John points out.

There is so much info people don’t know, nor will they ever.

Doubtful, stupid usually stays that way.