Leaderboard

Some of you may remember some of my story over the last few years. Quick recap, even tho I was a TPS grad/instructor nav, I was RIFd in 2014. I separated, became a GS and IMA, but then had it all reversed a year later through the BCMR (basically I should have never even been eligible to meet the RIF board). I knew when I accepted coming back that I was likely eternally screwed. I got lucky and I was put in charge of a new unit and got Sq/CC equivalent on my OPR/PRF. But that didn't overcome my weird looking records with a year missing "per SECAF", and not enough strats earlier on. My IPZ was moved one year behind my peers and I was still passed over, and then passed over again last year. But in the meantime I managed to get myself into a PhD slot, so I at least had that going for me. Well, against all odds, I made it this year! Not sure what the tipping point was, although I hoped it meant even more of my APZ bros were getting selected (from the stats it doesn't sound like it). So I know it doesn't help the folks who didn't make it this year, but there is hope out there! I know I'm not the typical example, but I had enough "negative" stuff in the record that I didn't think anything would overcome it (and neither did any of senior leaders I knew, and I only ever managed to get Ps because they were afraid even a DP wouldn't be enough). Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

The biggest crock is that our strat system has become so convoluted and mystical that even with a solid #/## you still don't know where you are at. How are you 4/42 or top 20% in a board that promotes 60-70% and still now selected? It makes zero sense except that commanders have been gaming the strat system for so long that even they don't know how it works anymore.

I don't know if I'd go do far as to "slob a knob", but I'd certainly be willing to write that I was gay on a government form for $50k

The WTF thread is down the hall on the left.

The selection rate for APZ was 6.2% overall (76/1219)... APZ with a P was 3.7% (44/1176), w/ a DP 91.4% (32/35). Without a DP, it's a steep climb for APZ promotion... Chuck

Killer eyebrows!

Haha yeah. Considering that the reason I'm in this program is because the SECAF said "we need more engineering PhDs from civilian institutions", I had some hope there would be some emphasis put on it. But I figured if they did they would wait until I graduated! Thanks though! Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

I received final approval about 3 weeks from my proposed Sep date. I actually received a call from AFPC letting me know I was approved and asking me when I wanted the separation. date moved to since it was so close. I had already done TAPS and the medical appointments so I didn’t need to change the date in the end. Good luck, I know it’s stressful with everything up in the air

Checks. The rate at which the new competitive categories promote will likely go down because the AF still only needs/is authorized X number of new O-4 or O-5s per year. In the Current system, officers compete for every authorized line number. In the new system they will only compete for slots allocated to their competitive category (sts). Because smaller, support type competitive categories will have guaranteed line numbers, the result will be a lower overall selection rate (%) for the ops category. However, the goodness is that each competitive category can define what it values in its officers. Instead of competing with sitting Sq/CCs from the MSG the lead hundreds of Airmen, the ops category can place higher emphasis on things like deployments, WIC grads, etc. I personally think it’s a fair trade off because the goobers and queep monsters in Ops will more easily standout amongst the purely ops records.

Shack. A large percentage of people get a 1 or 2 strat on an eval. Mathematically, can that many people be truly ranked 1 or 2? Of course not. But commanders manipulate those numbers and if you aren’t a beneficiary, it looks like you’re an average Joe. If a commander actually has the wherewithal and ethical conscious to strat appropriately, and a good officer gets a #7/50 or something in the range, which SHOULD be a good strat, it somehow doesn’t look good. But it is good.

Anyone prefer the MINGO callsign?

Pawnman: the black box of how promotion boards work sucks. It also sucks that even a FOIA of the board instructions won’t help much. Just remember...Big Blue May not value you but there are people in your community who do. Klepto: I doubt competitive categories will help. I think there is a study in the Navy showing that the “aviator” category promotes at a lower rate than the others. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Right! You can't be scared your whole life!

Skoff

0 context on my upvote but I had to get you to 777. Glad the crew is alright.

So if I read the Navy one right, we now all have to resign for being associated with you. Me. I defended Franken when that happened, because the whole thing was sheer idiocy. But it is the logical result of the witch hunts to burn everyone who has ever made a mistake in how they treated a woman or a minority. I'd be very surprised if we don't see some of the democrats in the primary accuse others of this kind of thing. Likely from 20+ years ago. We're already seeing some of it, as Kamala Harris accused Joe Biden of having a poor civil rights track record.

Of course he's stationed at Dyess...

@GDAL and @cagg011, calm TF down, you both sound like idiotic ROTC cadets.

Considering I was someone who went through the interview circuit and was successfully picked up by a fighter unit, I’m pretty confident I have a better grasp on the the whole process than you do. When I say that getting a Master’s helps, guess what, it worked for me. Also, I know exactly what UPT is like, and I can say without a doubt it’s far more rigorous than most Master’s degrees. There’s nothing wrong with someone wanting to better themselves or what they can bring to the table. If that calls for getting a Master’s then yeah, let him go get it to offset his low undergrad GPA. He’ll make it work if he wants to interview badly enough.

I used to do this too, until a wise man told me how any safety report would read if I was involved in it......” MIP 1, Huggy 01........”. So much for privilege and safety anonymity.

NBKC Bank is located in Kansas City, and do a lot of business on the Kansas side. Let me know if I can be of help!

327 Airlift Squadron (AFRC) Our patch is a hand holding five twos of spades. Originally, we were the 2nd Combat Cargo Squadron, the cards represented the five flights of the squadron. In the game of spades, after the jokers, the two of spades is the highest trump card, therefore the five flights represented by the cards were Winners. Fast forward to when our unit was stationed at Willow Grove, an unofficial motto emerged around the patch, "if you can't win...cheat!"

My suspicion is also that big AF uses my thought process/calculations in thinking a $35K bonus is sufficient. My math is much like the "statement of military compensation" that DFAS gives you to assign dollar values to military benefits like tax free pay, commissary privileges, etc. I can easily see a budget officer doing roughly the same thought process that got me to $187K, adding $35K to that and saying: "We're offering these pilots the equivalent of $222K annually and they are still leaving! We'll never be able to pay their greedy asses enough so we should increase UPT production ASAP!"