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That’s the only place that would actually make sense to increase outreach. Stop all this bullshit and simply increase awareness and education on officer/pilot opportunities in areas where there is likely zero of that going on. How many tens of thousands of kids in large cities even know being a pilot in the AF is an option? How many of those kids who even slightly mention the idea are told it’s “impossible” by some civilian who doesn’t know jack shit? The same can be said for a poor, rural area. If these kids are even approached by military recruitment, it’s to enlist, and even the recruiters likely tell them flying is such a long shot they should just get it out of their minds immediately. Someone with actual SA reach out to minorities/women and tell them how very doable it is to become an officer and pilot; we’ll actually see diversity increase the right way.

This is an interesting topic to me based on an interaction I had in my earlier flying career. My sister asked me to talk to her elementary school class about being in the military and specifically about being a pilot. A lot of these kids were Native Americans, Hispanics, or really poor whites. They all looked at me like I was some alien from outer space but when I mentioned some fellow aircrew that were their particular ethnic identity, they lit up. Me, being generic white man had basically zero impact, but stories of people like them doing the job really resonated and motivated them. I try to keep this in mind when I default to the positions laid out above (with which I agree). Last point that has always intrigued me. Native Americans are the highest per capita racial group that serves in the military and have been for a very long time. Many tribes are centered on a “warrior culture” and honor military service. Why isn’t there more of a push for that demographic in the flying business? I can only think of two that I’ve known in my career (naturally both had the Callsign “Chief”). I know the raw numbers of Natives are lower than other demographics, but I just don’t see that in the rated side. https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/11/15/a-warrior-tradition-why-native-americans-continue-fighting-for-the-same-government-that-tried-to-wipe-them-out/

That's exactly the problem -- it is this kind of "begging the question", a statement that is made as fact when it has never been substantiated as being true. Immutable characteristics don't define anything about an individual's character, intelligence, skill, attitudes, etc. The layer after layer of self-selection that is required in order to find one's self in a UPT class virtually guarantees that there is a huge commonality of humanity, motivation, character, attitudes, etc., between classmates.

Every single data set surrounding COVID has garbage in it. I would bet large sums of money that the death count is the least noisy. That said, it's not a super useful piece of info unless you do something with it. Unless of course your entire goal is to scream about the really really big number and peddle fear for advertising dollars and political gain. Here's the part that a lot of people don't seem to grasp: it doesn't have to be super deadly to kill a shit load of people, it just has to infect a lot. If the regular old flu infected 50% of the population, that's over 220K dead in the US.

Dude, I totally understand where you’re coming from and I agree with what you’re saying...to a point. We cannot move forward with a shuttered economy and our kids out of school indefinitely. But the argument that the fatalities were already walking dead is problematic. This country has seen somewhere around 200k excess deaths so far this year. Yes, the vast majority of them had underlying conditions, but it was COVID that pushed them over the edge. These people would not have died had it not been to the virus. So we introduce a serious ethical dilemma when we argue that this virus should be allowed to “cull the heard”. The vulnerable are still human beings and as a society we make a big deal about the value of all human life. We don’t throw our weak and sick to the wolves. We protect them. ~60k Americans died in Vietnam and it tore the country apart. A couple thousand died on September 11 and it had a major impact on our economy and drug us into two wars. But we are going to pretend that a threat that has the potential to kill more Americans than WWII doesn’t exist? No. We need to take all reasonable precautions to protect vulnerable Americans. That doesn’t mean we shut down completely but it probably means you don’t get to go to a football game this year. For the areas of the economy most affected, we should be spending whatever necessary to ensure they are still around when we get through this thing. For individuals unable to make ends meet through no fault of their own, again we should spend whatever required to help. The debt incurred will be far outweighed by long term economic damage if we do not. I believe national government (both parties) is currently failing on all accounts.

I think you make a valid point worth considering.

I met the board as the Deputy IG, so at the Wing, with a P. 5/10 eligibles. I made my peace with being a major for the rest of my career soon after I got passed over the first time. I am definitely not in the 1% of people who are going to get promoted APZ with a P. I got a nice assignment now...that's all I can ask for. I can be done volunteering for one-off projects and additional duties trying to earn a strat...just do my job, to the best of my ability, and let the young'uns knife fight over strats.

So it's not full segregation, they're just robbing the diversity from the surrounding classes to make one super diverse class.. Sounds like this is going to accomplish a lot

I'll bite on this (for context my wife and kids are all Native American, I've spent enough time on the Rez and one of our family members is the Director of the BIA so I've been able to learn a little bit about this ). What it comes down to is that many native populations are 1) extremely underprivileged - a lot of the communities struggle with just basic access to running water, schools, etc. And 2) the tribal populations have also been diluted significantly due to things like the residential schools, theft of children and people leaving "the rez". WRT #1, when your community can't give you the same baseline opportunities as say your average middle american WASP community then it's a naturally steeper funnel to climb out of. So you just get raw fewer numbers of people who are even remotely capable of getting selected for UPT by that age - I'm not saying Natives can't hack it but that often they start behind the goal post instead of at the kickoff line in terms of opportunities and the resources just aren't there to foster the the natural talents/inclinations/traits that Natives might have that would normally make them a great candidate had they grown up in other circumstances. The actual talent of many Native individuals I've met is impressive though - they are naturally extremely brave, sharp and witty. It's no coincidence that our tribe (Mohawk) is known for their steel workers - guys who built the Empire State Building without harnesses, ropes or anything - literally just scaled steel into the sky and then did roll call at the bar end of the day and cheered to the men who fell that day. Some real courage and skill. WRT #2, a combination of the residential schools and skin leaving the rez in search of better opportunity has ultimately bred out / white washed the Native population. From what I have seen and learned, there literally just aren't even the raw numbers to make this a viable recruiting opportunity. By the way this is not even to speak to ancillary points like the cultural challenges of the drugs, gambling, smugling and gangs that often funnel young Natives onto the wrong path (which itself is actually not a Native problem but one that 19th/20th century Americans have given them). I think when you have a competing source of work/recreation that also would help the USAF focusing on Native communities. By the way huge props to you for identifying and recommending Natives for this, a lot of people wouldn't even think twice about this group of people who has given so much to our Nation and really got the shit end of the stick in so many ways.

Just be glad he didn't say air lines.

I think racial segregation is a bad idea, ultimately destructive to unit cohesion and will degrade combat capability. Also curious if washouts from this class will “wash back” into regular UPT.

Going to stop you right their. Aerial Delivery, or rather “Air Drop,” cannot be taught to proficiency in a sim. Add in RF threats and other real world factors...forget it. Anyone who advocates for such is asking for numerous mishaps. AMC at large is not fucking airline training. It is no wonder most of the CAF scoffs at us.

PTN is experimental. Why hold a wash out against someone when it’s an unproven program?

Ok, that’s more normal. But I also think you change your outreach to kids and recruiting so you get to those numbers without doctoring the classes.

2030: Units exclusively made up of transgender women of color

I just graduated from SUPT-H in June. If anyone has any questions regarding the Helicopter track feel free to ask here.

Ahh, is that not one of the ideas of making a training program extremely tough, to get individuals to work as a team from different back grounds to achieve a common objective despite their differences? Most of my class had similar skin pigments besides the internationals, beyond that many of us had very few similarities, yet we had little trouble studying together and bonded over embracing the suck. I have no problems with the intent of getting more quality candidates from different back grounds and groups, but the execution is poor. If your aren’t helping someone that fought tooth and nail for their chance at their dream job because of their skin color, genitalia, sexuality or whatever then GTFO. And that’s a two way street. The middle eastern guys with a different flag on their shoulder, different skin color, and different accent had no issues hanging out and studying with us while we drank beer and ate bbq. If you can’t get along and be a adult with other Americans working toward a common goal of getting your wings you probably are going to struggle.

This. When I got hired I happened to have interviews with two carriers at roughly the same time. One pax and one cargo. I chose to go to the cargo operator in part due to lower susceptibility to economic downturns. But if the pax carrier had called a month ahead of the other, I would’ve ended up there and never looked back. Seniority is EVERYTHING at the airlines and even one number can make the difference between a long and prosperous career and misery. The advice that was given to me was: Apply to all of the operators you think you might be happy working for and dance with the first girl that says yes. That’ll always be good advice. It’s a crazy, volatile industry. For some of us, it’s the only thing we could ever imagine doing and worth the potential pain. I wish the best for everyone involved in it and hope the recovery happens soon and puts us all in a stronger position than before. Hang in there guys. Things WILL get better.

Slightly more information: https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/accomack-county/plane-crash-reported-in-accomack-county-monday/ No peanut jokes, please.

You know, you said "In the long wrong" when the correct phrase is "In the long run." Surprised no one pointed that out to you yet.

We grunts who fought the COIN fight down below appreciate the TIC service.

Well we unfortunately got it while TDY to a known rona hotspot, because we're "essential," due to an upcoming deployment. Truth is, we actually likely got it from a fellow squadron mate that thought what he was feeling was so mild that he didn't think it was actually rona. But I digress.... So how long do we keep this up? One month? One year? One decade? What if we don't get a vaccine, we just do this for the rest of our existence? How about we do what some of our local places are doing...providing shopping/office hours (or days) for those at a heightened risk. Point is, a vast majority of us will be just fine and can continue to keep things going. This isn't the military, you don't punished everyone just because one person shits their pants. Funny you bring up being self sufficient. Thanks to all this shit, the main (big name chain) grocery store in my home county just shut down. I'm from the sticks and this was pretty much the sole source of groceries for the entire county. It was the only place in the county that had the option for "click list" level of shopping...meaning they could order online, pull up, people load groceries in their trunk and leave. Now they'll all have to either get their groceries from the super expensive "corner store," or drive 30 miles out of the county to next best option. Great so now, not only does the next town over have it's locals shopping their, they'll have a whole other counties worth of people going there...social distancing shouldn't be a problem at all...

They’ll probably live life in the squadron as a minority like they live most of their lives as a minority. I imagine no change, but I’m not a minority so I couldn’t say for certain

I'd recommend we get back to a daily lives. Wear our masks, wash our hands and keep on, keeping on. If you have 2 or more the "comorbid" conditions then you probably need to be more cautious and stay home. That doesn't mean we all stay home and be scared of our own shadows. Despite wearing my mask/washing my hands, as well as everyone around me doing he same thanks to the current rules in place, I currently have the rona. A few days of mild body aches and a mild fever and I'm back to normal, the same for my 2 other squadron mates who currently have it. No matter what you do we'll likely all end up with it sooner or later. Let's stop driving our economy into the ground over this thing and get the train back on the tracks. If someone loses their job, their home or their marriage and commits suicide, do they get counted in the covid deaths?

Cargo vs Pax aside, this is a great example of timing is everything. I'll never push any of the young guys in the squadron toward the airlines/cargo jobs, as it's not for everyone and certainly has it's ups/downs. That said, I'll do my best to give them the most sound advice I can and answer questions on how much I like/dislike the career...and I really do love my job. I feel the most important piece of advice I give is that if you think you'll ever want to jump to the airlines/cargo, then the earlier you make that decision, the better. Stop fucking opining at a temporary pay cut or whatifing everything. If you don't like it you can always quit, but you can never go back and get a better seniority number. I had a few squadron mates who knew they wanted to do it, but took forever to pull the trigger or kicked the can because they "didn't have time" to fill out the application. For one, the difference is likely keeping my WB FO gig in base vs commuting to NB FO reserve in NYC and only missing furlough by 10 pilots. Even if I don't keep my WB FO gig, I'll be in the top 15% of my seat (read picking my schedules/vacation/days off) vs being in the bottom 10% or commuting. Timing is everything, and of course, better lucky than good. Obviously this assumes you're not near an AGR retirement as that changes the dynamic a bit. As far as the cargo vs pax, I'm glad my cargo brethren haven't been negative impacted by this situation. I'd happily be at FDX/UPS if they had called first, but I ended up at DAL. Truth is though, we really have no idea where any of these companies will end up and/or what threats lie ahead for each industry...we all have our boogeymen out there. I'll still recommend to go with the first one that calls, THEN if one calls that allows you to live in base, you have a decision to make. Obviously right now that decision is easy, but the pax carriers will come back. Very few things will increase your QOL like living in base at your job...as has been said on here numerous times, it's like having a completely different job. I understand that it's not always a realistic option (keep momma happy), but it's a decision that shouldn't be taken lightly. If you absolutely must live in Hays, KS, then ya, cargo is probably a better choice for their better options for deviate dh. Just realize that anything can change with the next contract or next shift in business plans. Either way, in the long run, you really can't go wrong...hopefully lol. Best of luck to us all.

I think CG was just referring to UPT familiarization. Proficiency would be a very tough ask from a UPT syllabus, especially considering the different 3-1/3-3 TTPs for yet-to-be assigned MDSs. I agree that a more focused look at tactical event execution that incorporates energy management, positional SA, and those go/no-go checkpoints during execution will better prepare studs for what the FTUs will expect from them. After sitting in on Gen Holmes' last road show about UPT (PTN, 2.5, or whatever we're on now), it sounds like there are lot of unconventional approaches and just general experimentation in the works. I know I don't envy being in the position that our UPT IPs are in.

Because we all trust big Air Force to be 100% objective and act with integrity and not undermine the standards for metrics or “diversity.” Nope, not at all.

This is the first of I've heard/seen people coming to DLF from UPT Next. It's also the first I've even heard of anyone washing out of Next. My class is the one right behind the "innovation flight" where they're testing UPT 2.5 and we already have 2 people who got washed back. The students are not a fan of it at all.

They do. We did away with black t-shirts and now everyone graduates UPT.

My two cents as a first generation immigrant, this is a stupid idea. I'd imagine you'd want classes to have the opportunity to get viewpoints and bond with minorities, not throw them all in one class and separate them. I get that the AF demographics aren't representative of the population as a whole in the Air Force but how does this change anything? They should focus on outreach, I never considered joining until I was a senior in college and it was by chance I had a professor who was a retired AF Officer. They should also streamline the recruiting process for OTS. I was a non-select the 1st time I applied and after I got picked up the second time around, it took 1.5 years from application to attending OTS which is quicker then most. Some people don't have the luxury of waiting around 6 months for a board decision then waiting to go to OTS.

And here I was thinking the point of UPT was to produce military pilots...

I don't envy the position those instructors will be put in. Washing someone out of that class for performance will be next to impossible, but don't worry, leadership will still insist they aren't changing the standard. And god forbid a student in that class develops an attitude problem. You might have to use your white male privilege to mansplain to them why they're on Mil Cap. But I think the real travesty here is what this is going to do to the students who did not ask to be in this class. UPT is hard enough without being forced into a contrived social justice experiment. And like it or not, the stink of being in the woke test case class will stick with these students long after their time in UPT.. much like the VR babies our wonderful banzai flights are churning out. I really resent that leadership is foisting their political insecurities on these young officers right as they start their careers. To the students: good luck, study hard, and fly safe. Try not to let this political nonsense distract you. To leadership: I cannot wait to watch this inevitable PR sh*tstorm blow up in your face.

Wouldn’t surprise me. Our priorities as a service and DOD is putting us on a clear tragedy our to lose the next major war. I wish I was saying that jokingly but I’m genuinely concerned about our time honored capabilities to fly, fight and win.

It’s a few years old, but I finally got around to watching the Senna documentary on Netflix (I believe?) and it was well worth the 2 hours of runtime. Good insight into the transition that F1 went through during the late 80’s, early 90’s.

Total military time is about 7,300 hours. 4,100 sorties.