Pancake

It’s called indispensability, and word on the strips is it’s only being approved for O6s rising to O7.

Nope. I’m burned out and my family and I are mentally prepared to retire. In the last 2.5 years, I’ve been OG, CV and completed a SOC. Staying on for “the next job” would require another 2.5 year “commitment” and we’ve built a leadership team that’s primed to lead the wing without the instability of leadership musical chairs every 12-18 months.

A number of factors: - Still had more to give - COVID just hit and my airline said they were going to be half the size on the other side of the pandemic - Wanted to keep flying fighters and deploy - Really love the squadron/wing that I’m in I transitioned to DSG two years after hitting TAFMS. The leadership bathtub has since caught up and it’s time for me to move on.

Wow. After reading the article, I will not be able to retire in my current rank with a reserve retirement, either. I will retire almost exactly three years after my DOR (3 years and 5 days). I will not have 2 years of DSG service (2 years, 5 days AD, 365 days DSG). The way it looks, there is no way I can retire in my current grade. Maybe that's ammunition for the TIG waiver, but probably not. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the research.

I'm going to submit the 2 year TIG waiver, but I have little optimism that it'll get approved. The funny thing about the days I did to get to two years AD TIG is that I took orders four days at a time during the week (Tue-Fri) and flew my airline trips on the weekends (Sat-Mon), completely sacrificing my family for a over a year. Our unit works four 10-hour days, so I essentially worked a full time schedule as a DSG then worked a second full-time job as an airline guy, all the while forgoing my AGR retirement (which I earned on 5 Jul 20). I did all that because us bosses were using all the AGR resources and had no full-time resources left for the O3/O4 worker bees. I gave up a lot of off days that would have gotten me a lot closer to 1095 AD days (T10 TFI MPA days), and also missed out on the last year of my pilot bonus by resigning my AGR. Basically, some real "service before self" stuff. The email from ARPC was a gut punch. But I get it. Big Blue doesn't care. Nice guys, road to hell, etc... Words of advice: 1. ARPC is not helpful. They are "work ticket processors." They are not "the experts." 2. Big Blue does not care about you. Your unit, commander, subordinates, etc care about you. But the "Air Force" does not. I really let my guard down approaching retirement, and Big Blue got me real good. Don't be like me kids. Maximize your resources (time and income) to serve the people you love (your family, your fellow pilots, your Guard Wing, etc). At the end of the day, I know what I did during the extra years I stayed in, so does my family, and so does my unit. That's all that matters, regardless of what rank is on my 214. And I'm gonna throw a damn good party at June drill to celebrate all of it.

The SAF signed waiver allows your orders to be coded USERRA-exempt, just like “named operation” deployment orders. Right now, the only waivers I’ve heard of getting approved are O6 command jobs. Even then, it’s 50/50. I was an AGR 11F squadron commander when mine was denied precovid and in the throws of max airline hiring.

Asking everywhere. Maybe someone here can provide insight. I applied for a 1 Sep 24 AGR retirement date. I will have three years TIG, however, only two years AD TIG since I became a DSG about 12 months after promotion. I've also done a bunch of MPA and ST in the last 18 months. Based on FSS and ARPC telling me I would have enough TIG to receive a regular retirement in my current rank, regardless of status, I planned and submitted my retirement. Then I got an email last week saying otherwise. Looks like I'll have to submit a waiver. Any gouge on what a successful TIG waiver looks like? Time needed (assuming forever since it goes to SAF)? The magic words? I was denied a USERRA waiver in 2019, but of course I don't have the documentation anymore. COVID USERRA exemption got me more AD time, but I don't have enough left to do another year of AGR (nor do we have resources or CG, and I don't want to do it at this point). Basic info: 23 TAFMS 3 years TIG (2 years, 5 days AD TIG) 1 Sep 24 retirement date Thanks!

Asking everywhere. Maybe someone can provide insight. I applied for a 1 Sep 24 AGR retirement date. I will have three years TIG, however, only two years AD TIG since I became a DSG about 12 months after promotion. I've also done a bunch of MPA and ST in the last 18 months. Based on FSS and ARPC telling me I would have enough TIG to receive a regular retirement in my current rank, regardless of status, I planned and submitted my retirement. Then I got an email last week saying otherwise. Looks like I'll have to submit a waiver. Any gouge on what a successful TIG waiver looks like? Time needed (assuming forever since it goes to SAF)? The magic words? I was denied a USERRA waiver in 2019, but of course I don't have the documentation anymore. COVID USERRA exemption got me more AD time, but I don't have enough left to do another year of AGR (nor do we have resources or CG, and I don't want to do it at this point). Basic info: 23 TAFMS 3 years TIG (2 years, 5 days AD TIG) 1 Sep 24 retirement date Thanks!

Maybe someone can provide insight. I applied for a 1 Sep 24 AGR retirement date. I will have three years TIG, however, only two years AD TIG since I became a DSG about 12 months after promotion. I've also done a bunch of MPA and ST in the last 18 months. Based on FSS and ARPC telling me I would have enough TIG to receive a regular retirement in my current rank, regardless of status, I planned and submitted my retirement. Then I got an email last week saying otherwise. Looks like I'll have to submit a waiver. Any gouge on what a successful TIG waiver looks like? Time needed (assuming forever since it goes to SAF)? The magic words? I was denied a USERRA waiver in 2019, but of course I don't have the documentation anymore. COVID USERRA exemption got me more AD time, but I don't have enough left to do another year of AGR (nor do we have resources or CG, and I don't want to do it at this point). Basic info: 23 TAFMS 3 years TIG (2 years, 5 days AD TIG) 1 Sep 24 retirement date Thanks!

Do not miss AD at all. Love the Guard. Been mostly AGR and now DSG. New to international airline flying and really liking it. Best job combo in the world has got to be DSG Guard pilot and widebody FO.

Pay back? Just get hired by a Guard unit and drop 7-8 years of mil leave on this job. Commissioning through MEST is all USERRA exempt. That alone is at least 5-6 years. Then you still have 5 years of USERRA time to burn through. Meanwhile, you gain your pay increases, steps, and really, after being gone for 10 years who’s going to remember you still have an 8 year commitment? (btw, I suspect there’s no such thing as a GS “commitment.” Military, yes. GS, no.)

The depot folks are leaving for other programs because they feel there isn’t job security in the A-10 enterprise. Industry doesn’t want to invest in programs with unpredictable longevity. My perspective is that current AF leadership is as or more supportive of the A-10 in their 4+1 construct as any in my AF career. The A-10 draws an emotional response, however, this is about the right mix of 4th, 4.5th, 5th, NGAD, etc. AF leadership has been very transparent about their future fighter construct and as far as I can tell they’re following through as advertised.

The question is: “where can we accept mission risk?” Can we accept a capability gap in supporting the Army in a contested tank-on-tank land battle? How likely is that scenario? What other capabilities do we sacrifice to sustain the A-10? What unique capability does the A-10 bring to the most likely scenarios that other platforms don’t? Is the A-10 so unique that only it can fight the COIN fight, considering AGR-20/GBU-49/GBU-54/Hellfire and the flying hour cost compared to, say, an A-29, which I presume can employ most “COIN weapons?” Will the defense industry support a logistics train for such a small (and becoming niche) fleet? At what cost? Does the A-10 have a role in the homeland defense mission? How does the A-10 fit into networked warfare such as JADC2? These questions are being asked about all fighters, Fourth and Fifth Gen. The exquisitely upgraded A-10 has been the world champ at fighting wars in accessible battle spaces for the past 30 years.

This. 100% this. The alternative is a peer competitor filling the vacuum in our absence, influencing the region with their geopolitical values.

RCH871