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Sir, If your grandson wants to pursue the USAF pilot life, PLEASE help him find a fighter guard unit. Great resource.... https://bogidope.com/ There are a bunch of students in SUPT right now that are “off the street” guard and reserve members. In the good old days, you had to enlist in the guard or reserve and maybe, eventually, post bachelors degree, your guard or reserve unit would send you to a commissioning source and then UPT. Not any more. SUPT has numerous newly minted guard or reserve 2LTs. All of these kids I have spoken with had at least a private pilot certificate (many had their private and instrument rating) before they applied to several guard units. Bottom line, active-duty is a clown show. Go Guard.

I wonder if the Air Force truely saw this train wreck coming 15 years ago or not. Beating the snot out of our equipment, our people and going out of its way to kill all things morale in the operational units has had a devastating effect on all aspects of our service from UPT through senior levels of command. Very sad. People will talk with their feet. Deploy UPT IP's to make coffee and update slides and they'll eventually walk (they are doing it now). These are dudes looking for a "break" before they go back to an operational assignment (or won't after they separate). So... it is a lose/lose situation for the AF.

Received a slot with the 183rd in Jackson. Thanks for all of the advice . Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

They like guys who don’t know how to flare or put the gear down? Bold safety strategy cotton, let’s see if it pays off...

Same. ‘08-12 timeframe had some of the worst drops ever since the 90’s on the -38 side. And they wonder why those year groups are leaving... Second someone else’s post below about going Guard/Reserves rather than AD. FWIW, I got to teach Gen Holmes’ son when he came through UPT a few years ago...he was going straight into a fighter Guard unit. The COMACC 4-star’s son didn’t go the AD route like his father did. Let that sink in for a minute.

Yep. I am one of those guys. Flew 38s and got caught up in some of the worst drops since the bank happened. Some of my buddies never flew a manned USAF aircraft after pilot training. Still an awesome career path but don’t have high expectations and you won’t be disappointed. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I just received my acceptance letter and a phone call from the 183rd AS in Jackson, MS. Thanks for all of the advice divulged on this forum. Got a slot! Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Excellent article. https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/going-direct-how-people-are-talking-about-the-b-17-crash-at-bradley-airport/

It doesn’t change the calculus. The calculus, for reference: all non-flying deployments filled by rated personnel that could be filled by a non-rated person is a BS deployment.

UPT is undermanned. CAF is undermanned, at least with experience. I hear ROK Viper squadrons have mostly wingmen; IPs and FLs fly daily. FTUs are undermanned, people are bailing and we’re making IPs out of people we shouldn’t - small note, the 500hr requirement to enter the Viper IPUG just got changed to 400hrs in the new Vol1. Turns out we don’t have an “experience” problem if we simply redefine what it is to be experienced. I’m 100% in concurrence that we need to nuke any and all PowerPoint/coffee-ranger taskings. I worked a pounder gig and did all the paperwork to turn it into a non-rated position with my CC’s approval - only for him to get cold feet at the end, IMHO because he was staring down a CDI and didn’t want to rock the boat. I was frustrated beyond belief. That being said, deploying is what we do as military peeps. Every person on a BS profile, protected for IDE/SDE/exec, golden boy or in an AETC safe space essentially ups the OPSTEMPO for the bros not in such a position. Think about that for a sec. Your “little corner” of the AF that’s protected from deployments? GMAFB, we’ve all had our instances of the best laid plans getting turned upside down. It’s the nature of AD - we deploy. Want real protection/stability? Punch and join the AFRES or ANG.

What types of deployments would that be? Quick Devils Advocate, but why should UPT bros be exempt from deployments? It’s another entire MAJCOM full of people to help share the burden. I know UPT production is super important, but isn’t doing/enabling combat missions the #1 thing in the AF? I suspect those deployments are probably to al Udeid to make coffee and update slides for 6 months though... Standing by for spears.

WOW! Good to see all of the comments. I’ve seen DEOCS where only a small sample size actually left comments and they weren’t as verbose as these. I cannot imagine the climate that created this. Good on the people for taking the DEOCS seriously. And this, hopefully, proves to the masses that DEOCS are read and they do have an impact. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app