Rifleman96

I love how they continue to twist the truth to make it seem like women perform at the same level as the guys who actually kick the doors down. These women are merely in a support role just like any other soldier/airman/sailor that is attached to a SOF unit in a support capacity.

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That is all up to speculation. The crossflow board was meant primarily to fill and develop the RPA world with an initial group of pilots. It just so happens that one good result is a few guys being released back to CAF/MAF/SOF needs other than RPA. The AF has said that the assignment freeze is over, so hopefully this will just become a one tour thing for guys from previous MWS's and they can get normal assignments afterwards.

The original plan is for the crossflow board to occur every 6 months. We haven't heard any news of the date for the next board. But since everybody that has been released will not be moving until no earlier than Jan/Feb '12, I can see them pushing it out to a year. Only one more board should be necessary to cover previous MWS guys for release. After that it is primarily UPT guys that, according to Big Blue, will move onto a real aircraft, expect them to start moving beginning in 2013. (Most UPT guys aren't holding their breath for the AF to uphold their word)

What's wrong with that, who cares if he will be pinning on capt by the end of the month. Gotta check the boxes right? Touche

We were told the earliest we might start seeing movement could be Jan-Feb '12 timeframe. We can attribute that to the current surge because of the crap in Libya.

2! And congrats to any other parolees out there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my parole board that will hopefully occur this fall as previously advertised.

I don't know the specifics of how it was divided but the numbers support that some lucky individuals will be leaving creech. The assignments have not been decided yet. All that is known is that pilots have been id'd to be released to their previous MAJCOM for reassignment. Now it is a waiting game to see when the assignments will drop.

Today, AFPC released the results of the RPA Crossflow Board. Our WG/CC will discuss the actual numbers with us tomorrow. But I know of at least one dude who has been released back to AMC for a move in FY12. I do know that it was only about 10% that were released out of the 500+ eligible.

Do you not have any leave left to request terminal leave? If you do, I would recommend that route.

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They also put in a 24 month period to the 4 pt tests. My interpretation of this new policy is so that the AF can keep a general enlisted guy or shoe clerk officer for the majority of their initial commitment. All assumption, but AF probably figures most people let themselves get out of shape after about 2 yrs and then they start failing. Now that dude/dudette has another 2 yrs to pass or will be shown the door, allowing them to fulfill the majority of their committment. Then the AF is also getting rid of the "fatties" that would be a drain on the military healthcare system for the next 20+ yrs.

RIP, Maj Winters

There is an entire list of reasons why pilots despise UAVs. Most have nothing to do with ego. 1. Stuck in a box w/o windows on the ground instead of the open skies. (I'm not a fan of all the psycho-babble, but this does have negative psychological effects) 2. Most dangerous part of the job is the drive to work 3. Pretty much no job satisfaction/pride. It is now just a pay check. 4. Almost no challenge at all in operating the UAV, that's why all the other branches utilize enlisted (not knocking enlisted, I was one, but it doesn't require much training) 5. Monetary drop in earningsdue to almost zero TDY's, and deploying once every three years. I understand that we joined for reasons more than just pay. But it is demoralizing when our peers from our previous/desired mws's are making extra from all the above opportunities. 6. 365 days of the yr for up to 4 yrs + are in a box with no break, no downtime, no real weekends. Only the scheduled days off, and the little bit of leave that gets approved. 7. All positions in UAV's are now a numbers game, the numbers game was one of the things that I really hated in the army, and now we're to that. 8. Currently there isn't much in the civilian world for UAV operators. It is basically exactly like becoming an infantryman that has no real skills that apply to the civilian world except for other gov't agencies. And those will fill up fast once ADSC are reached beginning later this year. 9. This does not foster any form of the term leadership. It is all management. Our UPT guys are going to be well behind the power curve when/if they hit the real flight line. 10. Senior AF leadership has no clue of how to take care of the current pilots in UAV's. They claim that they want breadth in their officers, 11. Pilots have no idea of what their future holds at all, AF leadership has finally come up with a plan with the Crossflow Board. 12. A good portion of the time UAV's play back of the bus when supporting ops, goes back to lack of job satisfaction. 13. As the future looks to be pulling away from kinetic wars it will be more ISR centric, "burning holes in the sky", w/ no reason having a rated officer there for the lack of kinetic possibility. I understand the importance of UAV's more than most. I was an enlisted infantry paratrooper way back in the day. I am still good friends with almost all of them including the platoon sergeant (SFC Patterson) that was shown in Restrepo. So I have a deeply vested interest that the UAV community does all it can to support the guys on the ground. But I know the manner in which we have organized our UAV manning is completely incorrect and wreaks of fraud, waste and abuse. I won't just complain. It has been discussed before, but I believe the optimum workforce for AF UAV's would be to mirror the Army Aviation manning. The backbone of the operators would be warrant officers and you have your 18U's that provide the "leadership" needed to manage the squadrons. That is a compromise from what I truly believe, instead of WO's it should be enlisted guys operating them. I have heard it come straight from senior AF leadership's mouth that he does not except the idea of WO's. That comes from a complete ignorance of what it really does entail in operating UAV's. I suggest that you keep your uninformed opinions to yourself until you are actually operating them. Now I will say that the 18u's do enjoy the msn. However that comes from a completely different perspective. AIRBORNE!

So now we get to the real reason that AF decided to ban any websites that have posted the wikileaks.

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I guess you missed the "or" portion between requirement 1 and requirement 2. And they are already claiming high retention rate for the past two years (the transition from 8yr to 10 yr commitments).

6 yrs. And I am a complete proponent for it. They do just as well or just as bad as any of the UPT guys that come here.

Beware of the flying trampolines!

For all active duty UAV, holidays do not exist. Very little office work time, that can be good or bad. Cannon, 12hr shifts. Creech, 8hr shifts (correct me if I'm wrong). Very difficult to plan leave. You can reserve leave a year out but still won't know if you are getting it until one week prior. You can probably do a 3 yr assignment and only deploy one time. Adding another location. It is a step up from the other two. You can get away with just one or two deployments in 3 - 4 yr period.

I primarily recommended the longer FTU to squash any concerns of those of you out there who are still flying. So that you know the people operating the UAV's have a strong foundation on tactical airspace. I would like to see the FTU pumping out quality products instead of the standard gap fillers. It would make for safer operations. You're right on the dual-qual. It is just a pipe-dream, like hoping to go back to a real aircraft after this assignment. The cost alone, would be too much to spread all the resources required throughout the nation's bases.

Q1. An emphatic NO! Q2. Just about the same as anywhere if not a little less. Q3. It's low because we're always in crew rest. And we get guys who have DUI's from other airframes. Q4. I know of a NAV/UAV Pilot who will be re-enlisting getting that fun little bonus. We won't really start to see a retention rate until 2011 when a large number of guys come up on their ADSC. A question, what do you mean by UAV only pilots. UPT grads or just BETA's? When comparing UPT graduates and Beta test pilots they are both on the same playing field as far as general airspace SA. We are currently just trying to plug a hole with a fast fix. If we could do it right, UAV training would last just as long as UPT. That way you can spend a lot more time to properly train dudes. If we can train JTACs/ATC types (enlisted) to understand airspace than I believe that non-upt officers can learn it. I will go even further by promoting Warrant Officers in as the backbone force behind UAV ops. Putting trust and faith in the ability and "professionalism" in our enlisted force to get the job done produced accomplished pilots like (Ret) Brig Gen Chuck Yeager. It's only going to get bigger. The UAV career field is stifling for the junior officers in my opinion. Apparently UAV officers are already given special consideration at a promotion board because of the lack of opportunity for avenues of advancement/improvement. If we could have the UAV field somewhat mirror Army Aviation then it would give those officers a better chance for career broadening. I second the idea of spreading out the GCS's to allow sharing the load. I recommend we spread it out to two on every base and dual qual everybody. Operating the UAV takes very little brain power and I think people at the different bases could cycle through every-so-often. Fly the real aircraft a couple months then spend a month operating the UAV. In my opinion it takes very little airmanship to do this job. I am fully confident that the 11B1P (MOS) Specialist "Rifleman96" would be able to handle the same job as 11U3A Capt "Rifleman96", the only difference is a piece of paper and another set of wings on the chest.

And saddest at the same time.

To educate you, it was supposed to be a standard 2,3,or now 4 yr tour. But the power's that be continue to change their minds about the number of necessary CAP's provided to ground forces. Only because ground forces' appetite for UAV's is insatiable. And, in my opinion, the AF is still fighting for relevancy (money) in the current wars. This never-ending increase has caused AFPC to freeze people in only the UAV community "for now." The freeze lift has been shifted to the right 3 times now, currently until 30 Sep 2011. And I expect to see it shifted to the right more. I, personally, am predicting a real stop-loss on the UAV pilots in 2012. My prediction is based on the fact that quite a few UAV pilots will be coming up to the end of the 10 yr ADSC w/o any option of returning to a real aircraft. I'm sure there will be a number of UAV pilots that will stay in, but I'm predicting the majority will decide to punch. This large exodus of people could possibly lead to a stop loss w/i the UAV community. The only way to leave the squadron right now is via retirement, ADSC, or go to a UAV schoolhouse. It has been passed along that if you are in UAV's for 5 yrs or more you are done. And if you do two UAV assignments you are also done (locked). And to continue spewing out my opinion. I would like to compare UAV operation to being Infantry. They are both geared towards a specific mission and are vital to the military fight. But they have almost zero relevance to a regular civilian job. The most you could do is research and development for some company working with UAV's. But for the most part if you want to continue in those professions outside of the military you are limited to 3-lettered organizations and a few other gov't agencies. At least in the Infantry you are leading, guiding and mentoring troops. UAV's, not so much. I welcome any "feedback." I'm starting a betting pool on the month that they start the stop-loss. My money is on July 2012.

I'll probably get flamed for this. But the concept for saluting in the PTU is not that difficult. The Army has been doing it for a long time w/o much of a problem. Yes we will have to deal with the growing pains of it, i.e. REMF Lt's. I don't know about you, but I have fun telling those individuals to pound sand and to get their head out of the butt.