pcola

Good article. Author does a great job of renewing focus on what many quickly lose sight of. Its important to remember the savagery of the enemy. I liked how he related Japan in WWII to the current threat:

95% of the smack-talking pilots on this forum are more worried about records that are competitive for airline gigs. Check out the "Leaving the AF for the Airlines" thread for starters. Get over yourself, nobody around here gives 2 shits about your ideal career track.

SWA, DAL, AA, Alaskan, Hawaiian...

Wait - this was you that got RIFd? Un-fucking-believable that they RIFd TPS grads. How much did they spend to send you to that school? Who the fuck is making these idiotic decisions, anyway? Geezus fuckin christ. Well, enjoy your baller job on the outside.

I think I'd take the window at Hickam over the container at Cannon. At least I'd still have a view. To each his own though.

What's a DSG bonus? Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Don't forget the Malaria pills. And maybe throw in some iodine pills for good measure. What could go wrong? Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

. I did the U of I MEng degree. It's free if you qualify for the IL Veterans Grant. Look into it if you think you might qualify. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Did mine in Amsterdam while stationed at ETAR back in '09. But I've heard they've since gone to ROBD training instead. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

My $ is on the same ACP as last year. Remember, it may look like a retention tool, but is more accurately described as a planning tool. They'll never get pilots to accept ADSCs for nothing, and it's impossible for these clowns to manage the force with 100% free agents beyond the 11-12 year point. They need the stability the ADSCs provide in the FM process. It's not about getting the appropriate number of pilots to stay as much as it's about having the advantage of planning for the future with the ADSC tool. IMHO... Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

If you have the lifelong dream of flying AF jets, apply for every opportunity out there. Especially AD. You have to realize that while there are certainly never a shortage of things to bitch about on AD, the majority of dudes on here making the most noise don't know any different - most have no experience outside of AD. Most of them don't realize that at least part of their problems reside within themselves, and that they will eventually be just as dissatisfied as a civilian. I've been enlisted, a min wage civilian, a traditional college student, a civilian professional (Engineer), and AD AF for the last 10 years. Trust me, the AF isn't as broken as most around here think it is. Yes, there are issues, but that's life. All the things you mentioned are real benefits of this job that are hard to find elsewhere, and they make the BS worthwhile, at least manageable for 10 years. While I'm not looking to stay beyond my 20, I have no regrets about leaving a good paying, stable civilian job for AD. Good luck.

Hey, look on the bright side - At least somebody actually read that giant wall of gibberish you posted! I gave up after the first paragraph.

Best idea yet. Go to 100% online. Then allow the select few to do the small schools programs or AFIT for the tech types. Save boatloads while still developing that next CSAF.

Disclaimer up front - I'm not one of the "great ones," so really, WTF do I know? You said you appreciate the flight level perspective. I can give you the Wing level perspective, having been at AMC's largest wing for almost 5 years with jobs at the OG and Wg levels: The great dudes aren't getting out because it's hard. They are getting out because they are capable of recognizing the zugzwang. The great dudes that I've known see right through the box checking bullshit and call it for what it is: a system doomed for failure. I know a guy that somehow came out as a select without a single credit hour of Master's work done. Subsequently, he was told he had to do IDE correspondence and get a box checking Masters or he'd miss out on IDE "opportunities" and end up at ACSC on the 3rd look. He obligingly started TUI and dropped after one semester because it was a ridiculous waste of time. He's now a reservist and a Southwest pilot. That is just one story of dozens (just those who I personally know) where the ridiculous nature of the AF queep are driving dudes out the door. As has been pointed out on here many times, this system is a self-feeding fire. You can't hope to get into a position to change it without getting burnt along the way. None of the great ones are afraid of hard work, but most are smart enough to recognize a losing hand and fold before betting the house.

I stand corrected! Huggy, any chance you want to head out to DC and talk some sense into these knuckleheads in Congress/the pentagon before they make yet another horrible decision? And whereTF is Garamendi? He was all over it at the first hint of retiring the KC-10. He's already met with Gen Selva (AMC/CC), toured the KC-10, and has made several public statements about what a bad decision it would be. I haven't heard a peep from him about them possibly decimating Beale's purpose for existing (3/4 airframes gone by 2016!)

Should somebody tell Hagel all the 50-year-old U2s were retired years ago? The current ones were built in the '80s...

Yes, I've heard as much...

No double dipping PME is a great initiative, and an idea that I'm sure we've all had. It definitely passes the common sense check. But, there has to be a better way of doing it than saying you can't knock out correspondence until after your 3rd look. Especially now that the trend is that no candidates are going in-res. OK - if you are a select, you are ineligible for correspondence - done. Makes perfect sense. Candidates, though, should still be allowed to accomplish as their schedule fits. Personal story: I have 0 (zero!) desire to spend a year of my remaining 6 at Maxwell or any other non-flying gig. I don't want to go in-res, but I'd like to make O-5. Given that, I know that correspondence is a requirement for me. But I want to do it on my own terms/timeline. I like the idea that I have several years to get it done (shit, I've already been enrolled for more than a year and have only done 4/12 "classes") and I wouldn't want to have to wait until after third look non-select to get started, when we all know I'm not going to school. I can't be the only one... Like I said, great initiative, but there has to be a better way to execute.

F'in Classic! Thanks for the blast from the past. This classic email deserves its own thread for posterity, not page 269 of the WTF thread. BTW, I believe an email like that going viral today would probably get someone fired or counseled. There's no room for "telling it like it is" in today's kinder/gentler AF. In fact, some on this very forum have called it "toxic." What a shame.

Nice. My money is on a bunch of sorry-ass French pervert homo 'staches that are in strict compliance with AFI 36-WTF-ever.

Good info. You can speed this up slightly by signing up for and completing the next self paced course in the sequence while waiting on your applied course to start. For instance, you finished Leadership and Command and signed up for Applied L&C. While waiting the two weeks for the class to start, you can sign up and complete National Security. I found out about it and ops checked it by enrolling in both, but then I got lazy and never worked on the Natl Security one. I guess someone more motivated than I could speed up the process that way.

Allow me to quote myself here. Not even the slightest bit surprised that A1 has fooked this all to hell. Shame on all of you that were fooled twice.

True. My stepdad is a CIO of a major state pension plan and has been in the industry for >30 years. He finally finished his CFA about 8ish years ago, and failed level II multiple times along the way. He is certainly no dummy - the CFA is one legit certification. Which is why I was impressed that flyjetz did it in his spare time. If you aren't sure if you want a CFA vs CFP, then the CFA is probably not for you. Not even in the same ballpark.

Yes, I am very familiar with the verbiage in 36-2110 (one becomes intimately familiar with this reg when they've just been schwacked with a 365, trust me.) And what you just posted makes my point exactly. To me, this sentence "based on number of short tours, short tour return date (STRD) and overseas duty selection date (ODSD)" implies that the ODSD is actually a discriminator of equal consequence as compared to the short tour. This is NOT the case. You can have an ODSD of YESTERDAY and it won't matter if you have 0 short tours and your STRD is older than everybody else's. Its all in the interpretation, and unfortunately, the boss and I both had it wrong until AFPC was kind enough to explain.

I guess you aren't missing anything…maybe I was the only dumbass. Regardless, I want to make sure that people understand that the ODSD essentially does nothing for you WRT 365 selection. What Herk Driver says is usually golden. However when he said: "If you looked further, they were getting tagged in order of STRD (none of them had OSRD or a previous short tour)," it made me think that he was treating the ODSD as a discriminator and I wanted to clarify that it really isn't. Regardless of your ODSD, you will always be tagged in order of STRD (unless you have more than 1 short tour.) I can't imagine a situation where two guys that both qualify for the same ITDY have the same number of short tours and also happen to have the same STRD and then actually have the ODSD come into play as a tie breaker. In other words, forget all about your ODSD, it does nothing for you. Maybe that's evident to most people and I'm a retard (quite possible,) but to me it was not.