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We rail against the AF for not giving us $100k a year bonuses but as you know they are restricted by what Congress authorizes. I remember a certain senator from Arizona had a big say in that. 🤷‍♂️ What I do think is totally f’d up, beyond belief, is that the AF doesn’t max out the bonus for every pilot to the $35k allowed. It’d be pennies on the dollar in their annual budget.

With A1/AFPCs wisdom, there will be a RIF/VSP/TERA before they realize they’re fvcked, and then institute a stop loss. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After retiring from airline flying @59, I consider flying my RV-8 3 times a week the pinnacle of my flying career.

Well this may be a step in the right direction for retention. So long Bagram, and good riddance!

One consideration is how do we best compare apples to apples. A doc with 6-9 years of training is what comparison in the flying world? By about 9 years in, the AF had spent probably thirty million to get me, one pilot, to where I was (experience/proficiency/capability wise). And the AF let that $30m pilot walk because they’re unwilling to pay a bonus amounting to .3%/year (assuming Rand rec of 100k/yr) of their current, total investment. $100k/yr would have been pretty damn difficult to walk away from...$35k, not even a second thought.

I'll also add that there are some serious downward pressure on doctor salaries nationwide as well. Doctors are expensive, so many healthcare systems are turning to nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, CRNAs, etc. Those can do many of the basic tasks that a doctor can, to include waiting some prescriptions, but they don't get as much training (no residency required, shorter training programs). So the healthcare system is doing what the AF is doing: quantity over quality in the production pipeline to meet demand.

I’m not sure if it’s obvious but a mil doctor doesn’t get their super high pro pays until done with residency. They get an intern/in residency pay that is akin to flight pay. They also aren’t eligible for the massive retention bonuses until all service commitments are complete AND also residency complete. Right now service commitments run 10 years for a dr that goes through USUHS and year for year on the HPSP. The HPSP has some weird quirks in it too about payback. For comparison, my roommate from the Academy went the medical route, chose orthopedic surgery as his speciality, and wouldn’t be fully qualified till about 11 years after graduation. He was also already planning to get out. That said, once fully board certified in their specialty mil drs get some serious money, it just might not come until much later in their careers. The dr bonuses are actually geared more towards drawing fully qualified doctors into the service.

The AF puts people through Med school on scholarship and they commission with as much student debt as an average military pilot. But those Drs still get their rock star pro pay while the pilot starts out with a laughably low flight pay. If we're making a purely civilian comparison, the average civilian flight university to airline pilot track likely involves a similar investment. Their school may only leave them with half the debt of a Dr, but the pilot gets paid peanuts for the next decade as he builds time and creds for that airline job. I think the career investment and income are more comparable than you let on.

Far enough out that it's not a big deal for you, but let this be a lesson to other dudes about to hit submit on their apps. Be sure that EVERYTHING is correct. A 'fix it' email is good in that it shows they looked at your app, but it also means that they probably didn't actually score it. They also may not get back around to scoring it until they've scored all the other apps in their cue, meaning that a simple omission on your app could cost you hundreds of guys getting hired in front of you. Guys that will be senior to you until they retire. It takes longer than you would think to get the app perfect, practice for your HR interview, and for Delta, study for the test. Good work getting started 2.5 years out.

Great article on Marty and Trident if you're interested in learning more about us. Happy 4th of July! Thanks for serving and letting us serve you guys! https://www.scotsmanguide.com/browse/content/martin-medve-trident-home-loans Jon

Nice feature on the MC-145B. Great looking plane in the foreign livery! https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41347/meet-the-mc-145b-wily-coyote-armed-special-ops-transport-plane

Statistics of small numbers but interesting. Vaccinated but still reading what is out there. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/heart-inflammation-after-covid-19-shots-higher-than-expected-study-us-military-2021-06-29/ Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

They probably just swapped them out for you knowing your neck and back are wrecked with that level of experience and you can’t see them anyway.

But he’s not talking about withholding medical care, he’s talking about taking from him personally against his free will, to help the person who made a poor choice. In this analogy, dumbass wrecks his bike wearing zero PPE while going 69 mph, so Prozac is pulled out of work to donate an asscheek of skin to graft onto dumbass’ fucked up body. Yeah hyperbole, but so is this entire analogy.

We’ll never be able to afford to mass enough pilots on AD for a just-in-case peer fight. Or jets, for that matter. Entire AF force structure should be inverted, with a smaller amount of highly-bonused AD guys and a larger amount of guard/reserve ready to spin up when needed. Modern jets and pilots can’t be cranked out at WW2 speeds, so I can’t see how having a larger reserve force isn’t the best way. It keeps experience around, gets us out of the constant upgrade cycle, saves jet hours, and lets pilots go out and make money for the economy rather than being a personnel drain. Not to mention the great deterrent of having a huge combat force on standby, chomping at the bit for some action. It’ll take an act of Congress, but so what.

You make a great point about the limitations of our knowledge. Humility is key. Foundational to one's world view is the question how the government should proceed in a low-information scenario. I default towards individual freedom, a lot of people don't, or they overstate the certainty of their position to seize moral authority they really shouldn't. FWIW, Im vaccinated, but I don't support making it mandatory right now.

Here are some examples of your “trust”… The Federal Government: The CDC: https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/502890-fauci-why-the-public-wasnt-told-to-wear-masks The NIH: https://www.foxnews.com/media/rand-paul-dr-fauci-lied-congress-china-virus-research The FDA: The same FDA which hasn’t given full approval to the vaccine and only has approved it under emergency authorization? Which is why I’m assuming the military hasn’t required it’s members to take the shot? https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/03/01/military-may-revisit-making-covid-19-vaccines-mandatory-after-fda-grants-approval.html The vaccine manufacturers: Wait, so we’re now believing everything big pharma says and does? https://newrepublic.com/article/153864/innovation-drug-price-myth State governments: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cuomo-lied-and-now-we-know-it/ar-BB1ddSqr The WHO: A tweet from the World Health Organization, January 14: “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in Wuhan, China.” https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/who-does-who-trust/ Medical professionals: https://www.wsj.com/articles/health-care-workers-say-protests-are-vital-despite-coronavirus-risks-11591790600 As for medical folks on an X-Ray, fortunately my brother literally didn’t trust an initial prognosis after a skiing accident in which x-rays didn’t show any breaks…a week later he went to a sports fitness doctor and was in surgery a few days later. If you’re not willing to get another opinion on things that concern you/doesn’t sound right, then that’s your call. My problem with you and others isn’t what you do or don’t do with your own lives, it’s that you negatively judge and put down others who don’t agree with you or see things the same way. I’m literally fine with people getting the covid shot and also fine with people not getting it. I also most definitely believe that for the vast majority of people who aren’t old and/or don’t have any underlining health issues that they’ll be just fine if they get covid. So if those same people don’t feel comfortable getting an experimental vaccine, then why insult them? And if you think people are killing grandma or whatever and still believe the WHO, then I’m assuming you’re still wearing as mask wherever you go? And if you blindly trust the government bureaucrats and politicians (yes, even if you’re on their payroll—don’t forget, we’re just the help), then I can’t help you. I have family who literally believed everything Obama and his administration said, and also have family who believed everything Trump and his administration said…fortunately I’m not in either group.

Lol. Being employed by the Fed makes me trust them way less. I see first hand now how under resourced, understaffed and incompetent the majority of offices are in the Fed every day. Just look at the What's wrong with the AF thread and speak no further.

Taz was one of my B course students. It was awesome to watch him get better and grow in the community over the years. He's missed.

Not in the AF but...what I have learned is to never stop being grateful and always realize how lucky you are. This applies across the whole spectrum of aviation. I and many others would kill to be in your position, just to teach in the T-38 and not a Piper Cherokee is a dream for me, let alone fly a fighter. Here's the thing tho...somewhere out there there's somebody dreaming they were me, wishing they had enough money just to get the opportunity to even be a "lowly" CFI, instead of mopping floors at the mall. There is not limit to how high you can reach...so long as you recognize how small you are. To be fresh out of college and flying a super sonic jet man? Pffffff, help others as best you can and just enjoy the best years of your life.

It sounds good but in reality I suspect it is more of the same from the globalist swamp- sell out your working and middle class by committing to one sided trade deals, deterrence for allies capable but unwilling to put skin in the game and sign on to agreements that others ignore or will never actually meet to win virtue points with the Davos crowd. No thanks. America First is not America Alone. It is a lot of things but mainly it is non-privileged, screwed over for the last 40 years Americans standing up for their interests in a world of aggressive competitors, fickle allies and remorseless players where the elites of their own country use their future as bargaining chips as they are cajoled and fellated by the conniving elites of other nations, particularly China, to sell them out to the false god of globalism. Angry rant complete. As to troops in Afghanistan and the authors of the article to include Mattis, it is face saving at it’s worst. Does anyone with an IQ above 75 think that Afghanistan will be anything different in 10 or 20 years with the mission as proposed continuing to whenever? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh goody, another pilot who know more about immunology than immunologists and doctors. Would you extend the same level of credence to a doctor who read about aviation on the internet? Would you believe a guy who flew jets for 20 years, or a guy who googled an article about lift and drag? Dunning Kruger on full display in this thread.