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Next AD retention initiative: Sizzlers gift cards. This has promise...

That or give dudes something they actually care about, not a service dress picture up in the hall way and a trophy of an eagle with a $0.25 plaque. Time off, CT, X/C, DBFM, gift card to the sizzler.

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!

Good scores, don't enlist unless it's just because you want to enlist in the unit. I can tell you that timeline the recruiter is giving you is not accurate. Theoretically, you could apply right away, but that's just not how it's worked for ANY of the enlisted guys I met when I was rushing. Plus, if your tech school is in demand or if BMT is backed up, it could be over a year before you even left for training. If your minds made up, go for it. But understand that there's a 99% chance it'll be a longer delay than yours thinking. Sent from my SM-N975U using Baseops Network mobile app

your a young dude. Just keep showing up to UTAs and take every opportunity to stop by the squadron to say hello. Put your name out there. Don't be a tool and bring gifts (booze preferably). If all of the pilots are busy, don't be afraid to wonder over to the crew dawgs and wrench turners to chat with them. Their job is just as important. For one of the units that I was rushing for, I brought booze for the squadron bar and chick-fil-a for the crew dawgs. cheers

What @EvilEagle said is spot on. I only know of two former crew chief's getting picked up (from the few squadrons I've rushed and visited). Would suck to enlist and think you're going to have so much time with the pilots when you've got other duties to take care of, and you may not even have the "right personality" for the squadron you're attached to - not saying this is always the case. Like everyone else has said, don't put all your eggs in one basket.. Cast a wide net and apply EVERYWHERE; the Guard/Reserve is literally the best kept secret, and since you're 22 years old, you've got plenty of time to gain valuable experience i.e. job experience, soft skills, etc..

And there it is, crisis solved

I know a LOT of guys that have enlisted to get to know pilots and get a pilot slot. Of those I know of 3 that actually got the slot (there are more, I just don't know them). I do know at least 20 crew chiefs in my unit that joined with that plan then life got in the way. Remember, after tech school you'd still have OJT then you have CDC's and all your new tech stuff. You could end up working in phase, if you are a part timer you'd only see guys on weekends, etc. It takes a lot more time to get to know guys as a crew chief than you'd think. I definitely recommend holding off and rushing (unless you are totally stuck on your hometown unit like N730 said). What are your other scores? They all matter, not just pilot/nav.

I've known a few that have played the profile game. When they do everyone knows it and he/she loses credibility to discipline PT failures. I do think this is a good change though. We have to go back to allowing people to work out during duty hours. Its unreasonable to expect someone with a wife and 2 kids to pull 10 hour days and then spend another 90 minutes a night at the gym.

Ahhh I got ya. Well it is getting ridiculous. If they go to officer static closeouts I think they need to get rid of annuals. Award the annual based of OPR at that point. Who had the strongest OPR that year. No sense in having two systems to say the same damn thing.

It definitely doesn't benefit Aramco to remind everyone that investing there is extremely risky.

+1 for what N730 mentioned, you have all the time in the world so I would be patient and keep applying. Come to think of it, My state A-10 unit doesn't allow visits/rushing.

I'm hoping Jeff is still the great guy he was in UPT even as a 4 star. He was a classmate in UPT and the last time I spoke to him he was still grounded, but of course I'm not one of his troops. I noticed the one guy calls him Harrigan instead of his actual name. https://video.foxnews.com/v/6086258090001/#sp=show-clips

I’ve always thought of ORM as protection against leadership, not against myself. It’s a tool to signal to them that they’re putting me in a garbage situation, and even if they wanted me to I’m not going to ask for their signature. It is also useful for young pilots. Sometimes I see them lean farther forward than they should, and the thought of having to explain their plan to the squadron commander makes them second guess the necessity of flying towards thunder storms on their third sortie of the day after flying 20 days straight when it’s 106 degrees outside. Back on topic, the ops group at Dover AFB had an e-ORM on sharepoint for locals. I don’t know anyone there anymore, but it’s a lead!

Red Rocket!

After "working" the show last year and getting almost no time in Box 102, it was great to go as a spectator and just enjoy. Friday and Saturday saw spectacular weather and great flying. U-2 pilot Popeye Thomson raced in the Bi-plane class and finished third in the Gold category. The final bi-plane race was cancelled due to winds on Sunday. Too bad as he wanted to race more. U-2 pilot Nova Beaubien's plane was out this year getting the engine rebuilt, but he was asked to fly the pace plane... pretty cool! Didn't see Hacker, but I'm guessing he was working hard like he usually does, and probably got some great photos. TBirds show looked to have a few new things, and overall I enjoyed it. Glad to see them make needed changes to make it look better and keep jets in front of the crowd more. STOL drag racing has become a big deal, and it was incorporated in to Reno this year. Unfortunately, Draco crashed departing Reno today and was destroyed. Mike Patey's ok thankfully. The Crash itself is about the 6:18 point in the video. Some very good lessons in "decision making" on Mike's very humble recollection of how he ended up in this situation.

I get that you’re now part of Big Blue... but it’s poor form to comment and critique SUPT considering you did not attend....there’s something to be said for being a graduate of a course and thus being familiar with the intangibles...

You’re clueless. This is precisely what is NOT happening. I left white jet world 5 years ago and kids at CRs were regularly getting reinstated. Ones who should be washed out are simply given more training and the can is kicked down the road. In order to washout, they’re just not falling short of MIF. They’re falling short of safe. Above safe but below MIF - congrats, here are your wings. At follow-on training, we don’t have time to re-teach them basics like cross check and tac form. There’s simply not enough room in the syllabus. If they can multitask, employ, stay visual and be OK at form, they’ll pass. Still, the skillset we’re seeing now is below where it has been in the past. My unit is Guard - we’re not under the “graduate them” mandate of AD and we are washing kids out. The last one had no business even making it to FTU. He created dangerous situations every other flight. I reached back to some bros at IFF and they reluctantly admitted he was a problem child and there was debate on washing him out. They also admit that if they washed out everyone they would have 10 years ago, the grad rates would be abysmal due to what they’re getting. If you thing UPT is holding the line and follow-on training is where the ball is getting dropped, you live in a dream world.

Interesting. May be a Tapatalk thing, but everytime I post, it cuts me off half way through. I am starting to think my wife runs this forum...

Why would they not? T-1 has much more in common with a B-52 than a T-38 does Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I also have given up on the AF actually caring about fitness....as I have gone a decade struggling to get a 90 or almost fail because of the waist but can still run around a 10 min 1.5 mile (sometimes 10+, sometimes in the mid 9's). I still lose 7+ points on my score due to the waist alone. I got numb years ago to the out of shape little people getting better scores than me.

USAF PFT should not be that complicated. Push-ups Sit-ups (or timed plank) 1.5 mile run Get rid of the waist measurement!

RUMINT from the March mishap was that 4 hit 3.

There is nowhere near the level of SA and understanding that a bomber pilot/crew has, especially regarding air threats, when conducting any type of large force, deep strike scenario that requires fighter escort when compared to their fighter brethren. I’m sorry if that hurts, but it’s the truth. I witness it every day. And there is nothing particularly difficult with releasing smart weapons, particularly the GPS-guided variety.

Sounds like you've got a straight up BONER for enlisting. Looks like you've got your mind made up, why keep asking the question on here?