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You’re 100% spot on. I spoke with Chief Wright recently and was underwhelmed. He genuinely believes that quote. Results don’t matter, only attitude. It’s based on the theory that a proper attitude will eventually produce results, but he can’t articulate that and within a bureaucracy lacking accountability the quote is correct on its surface. Gents, the USAF will not improve the way it treats people. It doesn’t care about you. They hear your comments, and don’t care enough to pay you better or change their policies. People on these forums are generally aircrew with a culture of caring about results. The Air Force does not care about your results and they don’t care that you care about results. They just want you to act happy and smile and have a thin waist, they do not care if you lose wars. The sooner you grasp the nature of our service culture the sooner you can be at peace with your decisions within it, or your decision to leave it.

Please don’t rush to judgment on the Mueller report, people! We need to wait and hear the opinions of Alyssa Milano and Robert De Niro before we can draw a final conclusion! 😂

The director of the ACTF will be doing an AMA on Reddit on 4 April.

If your still waiting on the AF to address retention I have some ocean front property in Oklahoma to sell you. Anyone heard from the ACTF in the last 6 months? I think they may have given up after the 69 initiatives bumper sticker that never went anywhere. Based on recent testimony from AF management to the Hill even despite the T-6 OBOGS issues we still produced 1211 pilots last year and with increased production are on track to meet 95% of pilot manning by FY 22-23. I find it hard to believe myself, but seems to resonant on the Hill. I keep hoping the AF will ask for larger bonus/incentive authority for aviators, but magic 8 ball says “outlook not good.” I cringe to think about overall aviation experience levels 6-10 years from now if all we do is continue to focus on growing our way out of this. Unfortanately, mishaps are a lagging indicator and will have 2-3 different CSAFs by then, so why worry about it now?

Chief Wright posted this quote on his FB and now I understand the AF’s pilot shortage strategy! “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

Depending on how this is played, could be a HUUUGGEE gift for 2020. People that pull this shit cheat though, and I’ve heard some strange things are going down in FL right now. The Demo’s have proved they are a bunch of whiney bitches grasping at straws with no new or real ideas (of this world) that Americans aren’t buying, “Hate Trump” isn’t a platform, but it seems to be theirs, keep it up, hope they do! Banning planes is a good idea.

This seems to be the AF’s official position on the pilot shortage. I have never understood it. Guardian nailed it with “best way to fill a bucket with holes is to pour more water in.” Looking at this from a money standpoint, I don’t see how the AF gets away with it. They’re going to spend millions over 2-3 years to make a single rookie pilot, but they can’t spend more than 35K a year to retain an experienced one. If I was in the CSAF’s shoes, I would march straight to the hill and demand a revision to the law to let me pay my people more. “I’m going to dial down production, and use the extra resources to retain. This is a money allocation problem, not an ‘I need more money problem.’ It makes no sense to spend 50 times the money to make a product than you could spend to retain one with 10 times as much experience.” If that could be realized, a six figure bonus would be reasonable. Make that an option, I bet you’ll see a lot more folks consider staying in. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I know plenty of former wrestlers with cauliflower ear who are pilots. I wouldn’t worry about it if you’ve already got it. If you don’t have it, might as well prevent it.

So to summarize, if you’re at the end of your commitment and you like what you’re doing and where your career is going and the lifestyle fits your family, sign the bonus and enjoy the ride. If not, there is no miraculous turn around on the horizon, punch and be proud of your service. The future fix is production, higher ups are looking at the data and it’s too long gone to pump resources in the outflow to right that ship. They are betting ops tempo turns down and the pivot to near peer brings more tdys and training to places that aren’t a worthless sandbox so us sheep don’t complain as much. All those things that tactical level value ie experience gained from real world application is just an FTL or K code on a spread sheet to them. Need more? Waive the requirements increase production. Production solutions stands as the easiest to them and most profitable to the defense industry and will be the mantra as long as they have a budget friendly to them.

It’s going to wither and die regardless. Locked in to 20 when the AF can change the playbook without telling you? It’s a poorly designed program all around. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Seems like if you cared about your scores then you wouldn't think twice about paying a little up front for stuff that could land your dream job. YMMV

It's just a gift that keeps on giving

Agree, as someone approaching the next higher age bracket, I can attest to how much aging occurs from 30-39. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I love to know the best way to fix a bucket with many holes in it is to pour more water in.

VR. That what is replacing experience. That and the “we will accept all risks”

Well this post didn't age well...

Unknown, but regardless, doesn't it make sense to wear ear/cranium protection? One concussion, one ruptured ear drum, etc. may be all it takes to DQ you from flying. This is like when I finally decided in college to stop doing big jumps, etc. on snowboards after watching a few guys get pretty jacked up...wasn't worth more than my dreams of flying.

actually, the maxofacial shield was designed originally for the frontenters, to mitigate smaking your face on the cyclic in the event of a crash. Only a bene for the backenders as mentioned above, and it's also great to keep the dust out of your face when doing brownouts with doors off (all crew positions). you've been hanging out with Ralph Royce too much