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I'm an old retired fart, but I had a great Air Force Experience a couple of weeks ago. A client of my wife found out that this couple had a kid who was all ate up about flying, flew flight sims for hours, but had never been in the cockpit of a real airplane. So I volunteered to give the kid an incentive ride in my might Piper Warrior. It turned out he was a junior in college, majoring in mechanical engineering. He wanted to know all about the Air Force and wanted to hear my war stories. Of course I cleverly managed to never get shot at, but I shared some 'peace stories' with him while we stopped for a hundred dollar hamburger. Anyway, my Warrior is based at Austin Bergstrom (KAUS), and we get a lot of military transient airplanes. As we were putting the Warrior back in the hanger a black T-38 showed up in the pattern and flew a couple of overheads and then landed. As we started to walk back to the Signature terminal the Black 'BB' coded T-38 was parking right in front of us. My pax asked me if he could take a picture of this T-38. Of course I knew that nobody would care if someone took a picture of a T-38, but I said 'Why don't we ask the pilots'? So I walked over as they were climbing out of the cockpit, introduced us as 'once and future Air Force guys' and asked if we could take a picture of their jet. It was a looker I'll say that. To make a long story short, the crew were two U-2 pilots. Of course they let us take all the pictures we wanted, but more important they asked my young friend what he wanted to do in the Air Force, and he told them he wanted to be a pilot. They spent about 15 minutes telling him about pilot training, suggesting the best paths to a commission for him, and in general talking up the fun of being in the Air Force. I'm sure the guys were probably a bit tired, and in a hurry to get to Sixth Street, but to this young person they were heroes bordering on Living Gods. I really appreciated the time they took and their enthusiasm for my young friends dreams. It reminded me how cool it is that the Air Force sometimes would give you the keys to a jet plane and a gas card, and tell you bring back in one piece next Monday!

Why are some of you on this forum criticizing other people’s literal first hand observations and experiences in their lives? You don’t get to say that guys’ lack of realistic employment or career options for their spouses can’t or doesn’t impact their retention. For some people, this is the biggest issue they have with the Air Force. Im glad it’s not a factor for all of you, but I know for me and numerous other peers, it’s a huge consideration. High performing people marry high performing people. And sometimes they do it without understanding 100% of what their military career implies for both of their lives. And that’s not their fault. It’s impossible to understand the full scope of a military career until you’re there. If my wife who has 2 real masters degrees gets told one more time by the employment office she should be happy to take a NAF job - by the way the best one they had was a gym receptionist job paying 60k less than her last job - I’m probably out. And all of this happens while there are GS jobs she is qualified and interested in, but for some reason don’t utilize spouse preference. Don’t try to turn this into a single issue problem. Opinion crushing and narratives that say it’s just one thing like QoL are why now dudes can’t say that lack of compensation might also be a problem. The truth is this is a multipronged problem. We’re all on the same team here, let’s support fixing it all.

Haha. There's literally dozens of surveys and reports if you google anything pertaining to military spouse employment. https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Military Spouses in the Workplace.pdf

Guys.... It's all part of the calculus. There is no "one" issue. People are leaving because the scales simply don't favor the Air Force's side. You add it all up and that's why people punch.

I would say spouse career falls under the broader category of family stability, and for me, family stability is #2 on my list of reasons to leave. I’m not complaining, my family knows what we signed up for, but it is a contributing factor for my reasons to leave.

Tell the shoes to fuck off.

I've never heard anybody call a PRC-152 a "Hook-152". You may be thinking of the PRC-112. The Hook-112 vs PRC-112 was to differentiate the radios that had the ability to send encrypted OTH communications versus only terminal area guidance to LARS/PLS equipped radios. The GPS fix of the radio is displayed as a "Hook" symbol on programs like BirdDog. The name stuck not because of antics but because it was effective in communicating the radios capabilities to other players rather than saying PRC-112A/B/G. Crews still denoted the old PRC-90 as a "Prick-90".

You’re 100% right about the responsibility, but to scoff it has major consequences on retention and quality of those retained. The numbers favor the civilian spouse pretty quickly (year 3-5 of a career) if they are a professional who is even moderately successful. Those slightly above average performing spouses probably didn’t marry slackers, and probably went to slightly above average schools (along with their husbands). Scoffing that means that we leave it up to the numbers, and the numbers almost always win over a “quality of service” offsetting value. So I agree with you Bashi. Instead of giving $500 for certification benefits to offset hundreds of thousands in in opportunity cost (nice try but laughable), let’s just be honest and say that if you want a spouse’s career that’s worth a shit, unless you’re a doctor, nurse, teacher, or unskilled, you’ll have to sacrifice living together, a family, or both. No big deal if you and your spouse are driven to succeed. Plus, you can always get a new family.

As long as you don't expect to go from Little Rock to a fire in 6-9 months, you can probably get there eventually. After MAFFS 7, they tightened up the experience minimums. Either way, MAFFS is a fraction of the mission so make sure you're joining wanting to do the Herk mission. You'll do a lot more of that than fires, even once you have the experience for MAFFS.

To be fair, with dark blue thread or hi-glare chrome, a lot of them look the same from 6-9 feet. I wonder if a lot of folks in career field X know any of the symbolism behind that badge. Or what weapons systems are based at their base and what they do. And more importantly: how they contribute (or detract) from getting the mission of winning our nations wars.

Quite the opposite, man.

+1 to what HeloDude and Hoss said. Significant details are being left out. A - washed out during slackademics, WTFO?!? B - non-concurrence for a washout that allegedly had nothing to do with safety of flight or stick/rudder skills. I’ve seen non-concurrence only once; there were significant mitigating factors and it was a BS personal vendetta. There’s more to this story.

Get real bro the airlines sucking everyone up (sts) is what’s causing the retention problem. Always has and always will. Maybe momma not keeping a job is on the list of factors...but I don’t think it cracks the top 3.

No I don’t.

Give me a break. You join to serve. Your wife didn’t join. Copy they have a retention problem. It’s not caused by civilian spouse job problems. Let’s focus on the real issues

They may not have a responsibility, but they better start considering it if they want to retain anyone after their ADSC.

Yeah, I couldn’t imagine flying around in a tiny 737 for 10 hours. Must be real uncomfortable lol

When I call guys to offer the job I give them a window to make a commitment. (usually 30 days or so) I expect people are interviewing at other places. Once someone commits you can bet your bottom dollar that if they have a change of heart I'll be calling their new commander to inform him of that persons lack of moral fiber (and I've had calls about people the other way as well). Just be honest, if you are good enough to get the job it won't matter. Knowing that we weren't someone's first choice wouldn't stop me from offering them a job if they were the best candidate.

I'll caveat the follow with the fact that this is my personal opinion and not necessarily how others will view it, so take it for what it's worth... I've sat on numerous ANG UPT interview boards and been in the military long enough to know that you are the only one looking out for you. Interview at both and see what happens. If you get both, then you'll have a decision to make and I would go with the one that fits you best. We completely understand that we may not always be the first choice of everyone, but I will still pick the best possible candidate. Personally, I respect the honesty if a candidate is upfront about their desires, but I also understand if they hold their cards close. Either way, that's why we pick an alternate. Best of luck!

Some really solid points in this article, should be required reading for all FOGOs Not Every Officer Wants to Be a General https://www.wsj.com/articles/not-every-officer-wants-to-be-a-general-11558390890

This, we should have stuck to blue thread like the BDU and ABU. Looks different, has some heritage, etc... but leave it on an OCP background.

Valid for a kill, kill called

Nope, but my unmarried ass has a sugar momma who is an engineer holding it down in a great place to live and work. She has a great career and neither one of us sacrificed our goals or careers. When I walk into a room with her I am very proud of her accomplishments because she builds highways and bridges across the state that everyone utilizes. 🤣 Can you say the same thing when you walk into the room with your old lady or does she jet toward the punch bowl just to get away from you?

You are speaking from an officer perspective, speaking of which you are vastly out of touch. Don't speak for everyone. Most enlisted live paycheck to paycheck. Additional income is necessary at times. As a prior, you can save your ass off and still not get ahead. I'm not even married.

Posting trashy photos here is kind of a bash against women. I don't know that lady, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't need you posting photos of her past here. Have a bit more respect. That is someone's wife, daughter, or she may not be on this earth anymore. Who knows. If you are going to try and bash people wives or girlfriends who have successful careers despite loving a military man with their own successful career, then I highly suggest you look at the state of your marriage. Maybe there is some jealousy shrouded in your posts because your significant others Uber job just can't pay the bills anymore. She should stop giving out so many free rides, but at least when you PCS she will always have work.

I’ll throw a grenade here, but the fact that you put (sts) behind a comment like that is also part of the culture/retention problem. It’s the same thing as flying in the 60s at Nellis and hearing all of the Air Force call it the ‘container’ vice ‘box’, or ‘Hook-152’ vice ‘prick-152’. Flame away, but from the outside looking in, that’s an obvious contributor.

I didn’t say that was ‘the’ reason why, but part of it.