Herk Driver

Yes. As the matrix is pre-decisional, it is nothing more than data at this point. I am sure not all of those AFSCs are eligible, but I feel confident that 11x and 12x are not included as they are not even included in the initial data. I have been wrong before...You can probably expect those that have overages by year group and by AFSC to be eligible and possibly a few outlyers to be included or not. The PSDM says the eligibles will be posted by 29 Jul, IIRC.

The pre-decisional matrix is posted on the link within the message. No 11X or 12X's appear to be eligible from what I saw. The window to submit is very narrow. Mandatory 1 Nov retirement date with 60-90 days of leave means terminal leave is just around the corner.

CH, totally agree. I contend that the SERBs for O-5s and O-6s and changing the law as we go will continue until cuts to the GO ranks take place and collectively they start feeling the same "pain" that the rest of the force feels. One could argue that most of the GO cuts that have taken place are smoke and mirrors (i.e. the OIF drawdown allowed billets to be reduced but no substantive changes have taken place)

So, riddle me this since you are obviously not an idiot and far more enlightened than us lowly pilot types, why is there a DE designation on the O-6 list when it is released? Note, I did not say SDE select but there is an DE designator.

Unless you are retiring in lieu of the assignment and then the rules are slightly different. You can 7-day or 3-day opt and assignment/365 and retire in lieu of if you do not have and are unwilling to obtain retainability. Of course, the ADSC or retainability issues can be waived. For example, you receive orders to CONUS base x which requires a 2 year ADSC. If you have 22 mos left til retirement you can 7-day opt the assignment and submit retirement papers. Seen it happen...was not easy due to no one at the MPF knowing what the hell the AFI says. Edit: after reviewing a few things, if you do not have retainability but your ADSC expires before the new assignments ADSC then you can retire and the 12 month window applies to the 7-day opt. If greater than 12 months then you have to request an exception to policy which is what this guy did and was approved. Applicable AFI 36-2110 para 2.30.2.2.4

The two worst pilots at my last base were dudes that were passed over O-4's just flying the line...oh, wait. They did everything they could to not only not fly the line, but they would just sit around their cushy offices in the OSS and do jack shit...YMMV. removed, looked at it again and this is correct under what I believe to be the current version of the applicable sections of Title 10.

I don't think there is a way to do it. As you are aware, the SIB is for USAF/DOD mishap prevention only. Releasing details that are privileged outside of USAF/DOD channels runs the risk of the USAF losing the ability to grant privilege and these reports becoming nothing more than an AIB and make it more difficult to get cooperation during the investigations. AIBs are for public consumption.

Yep, that's the way they do it. The C-21 that went off the runway years ago at Tallill was set to be destroyed before the Iraq departure. They removed all the important/salvagable pieces and then let it sit for multiple years. They were working on getting it blown up the summer before the withdrawal. Not worth the time or the money to do it any other way.

That is what it takes...most people are just trying to do the best they can for their people and the AF. They will take any and all feedback that they can get. Many of my bosses have always had a "trusted agent" that they could get the ground truth from. I agree that very few people are swayed by the bonus.

If you go here you can see all the current NTSB investigations. https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/current.html Quoted from the NTSB website, At least once daily during the on-scene phase of an investigation, one of the five Members of the Safety Board itself, who accompanies the team, briefs the media on the latest factual information developed by the team. While a career investigator runs the inquiry as Investigator-in-Charge, the Board Member is the primary spokesperson for the investigation. A public affairs officer also maintains contact with the media. Confirmed, factual information is released. There is no speculation over cause. Sounds like SOP.

Sorry, but this really gets under my skin...dudes need to sack up...you want your bosses to listen to you but you always blame the environment as to why you cannot provide feedback. Having been a Sq/CC, I am sure there are dudes who were "afraid" to come see me, but from the looks of my overcrowded calendar, there were just as many, if not more, who were ready, willing and able to come sit down and chat about anything under the sun, including telling me where they thought things were going terribly wrong. What you are saying is that the Sq/CC is damned if he does do an interview and damned if he doesn't. Maybe it won't help the one guy who decided to get out but if there are systemic issues at that Commanders level then he can do something to fix them for the next guy, right? Change things to make the organization better? Stop with the pissing and moaning about how no one listens. I have never had a boss that was not willing to listen in more than 12 assignments. We may not have seen eye to eye and when we sat behind closed doors, they knew exactly where I was coming from. Sometimes they changed things, sometimes they didn't. I did not want a bunch of Yes, men in my organization. However, we all have to remember that some decisions are made for the betterment of the AF and the unit and when they do individual bitches take a back seat. Other times, that is not the case.

As others have said, you have to mask the information so that no one can use it for any part of the PRF process. You cannot have it on a SURF for the Sq/CC or raters to utilize for rack/stack purposes and then the SR is only told not to use it. Big proponent of PME at all levels...implementation in the AF needs to be addressed, but yes. AAD...one could argue either way, but really should be needs of the AF based and a pilot with an AAD versus an engineer with an AAD are separate animals.

Yes, NTSB is about finding the causes but also about reassuring the flying public...you will never see this from an AF Safety investigation. Bingo... Like I said, not directly relatated but a chance for the J community to take away a nugget from an accident.

So what part of the statement do you disagree with? That JMATS pushes automation or that it is to the detriment of stick and rudder skills? Edit: I am not saying that this has led to any mishaps at this point, but there are multiple overspeeds, etc that can be directly attributed to automation mis-management.

Not sure how you get that. That just says that he received more than $8K and they had only attempted to recoup about half of it. The article says that he was a Shirt for his last five years (60 mos, give or take). Special duty pay for a Shirt, IIRC, is/was $150/mo. My simple math says that he earned an extra $9K assuming that he was a designated Shirt during that entire 60 mos.

Unrelated to this thread directly, but the C-130J teaches and pushes the automation from the get go as well...to the detriment of basic stick and rudder skills.

Each SR gets a set number of DPs for BTZ and a set number for IPZ/APZ (combined). Any DP given to an APZ comes out of hide. Seen it happen one time with a guy that was just flat out better qualified than the next IPZ guy. The APZ guy got picked up...he was passed over multiple times. I cannot speak as to why the one look IPZ...I will say that when the BTZ went away for O-4, I think that most people welcomed the relief that it brought from the same issues that you have discussed in this forum (especially when coupled with the move to drive down pin-on times to O-4 from around 12 years to 9.5-10 years). I think that what senior leaders missed is that when you push the O-4 board to that pin-on time and then you bring back the requirement for the AAD that you push back when a guy has to start the AAD and create the second and third order effects that have been discussed in this thread. On another note, I know that one SR has used 942 data before when allocating his DPs. Not sure how you quantify the same type of job performance for those MSG and other non-ops types when doing so.

I have, which is why I am asking. I am wondering how pervasive it is, or if this was an anomaly.

Has anyone seen SR's reviewing FEFs (942's) during the PRF writing/review?

Not trying to make excuses for anyone. I was out of AMC around the timeframe that you are referencing, so slightly unfamiliar. I know that the AMC unit at Dyess had 17 officers RIF'd and that was quite a catalyst for some of what you are talking about.

Many things caused this...I think many Commanders got a wake up call with the RIF results (among other things) and wanted to make sure their people knew the "rules" to the game.

You stuck around long enough to figure out the difference here...for that, thank you. Toxic whiner = cancer in your squadron...everyone should want to get rid of it and make the place better

No argument that some words fall on deaf ears...I am saying that there are some good dudes out there trying to do the "right thing" and trying to make a difference in their corner of the world. That is all you can control is your part of Big Blue. Institutional changes take more time. Liquid apparently effected change in his corner of the world, i.e. the guy who got school. Wg/CCs and Sq/CCs can effect change and so can each one of you. My rack and stack did NOT have all the folks with completed AADs at the top and that is what happened with the final version of events. Did I get everything that I wanted? No, but I was able to shape the results and for what I believed to be a better end product. Maybe I am missing it, but this defeatist attitude really gets under my skin.

So, every Wg/CC and below should give up and quit? Why are you still posting?

I will add to the pile...(posting while drinking, so bear with me) Dudes, i hear what you are saying...no one wants to hear that they are not measuring up to the pack or that they are falling behind. Some on here are in that group and some are not. You know who you are. Let me say up front that box checking for the sake of box checking is bullshit, but there are times when you need to shut up and color to benefit yourself. For example, doing SOS in correspondence, in case you are not able to attend in residence, due to mission requirements, is probably something that should be done. Requiring a dude to do correspondence before being considered for residence is BS. However, mission requirements may preclude a dude from going so I am going to encourage people to get correspondence completed so they don't inadvertantly screw themselves. On a side note, I get a little more pissed everytime that someone gets on here and perpetuates the argument that all the good dudes get out and the AF is left with those guys that cannot fight their way out of a wet paper sack. Everyday the AF loses some of the shitbags and some of the good dudes. Everyday. Everyone has different reasons to stay and to go. Sometimes, Commanders help people out the door because they don't need to be in our AF anymore. Everyone is a tough decision and they are all getting screwed (if you listen to them). I would caution you to not assume that you know the full story when normally all you have is your buddies bitching about how he got screwed by the man. In fairness, I acknowledge that the system is not perfect and that some dudes get screwed over while others skate. However, the idea that all Sq/CC's are BTZ dudes that are only pleasuring their bosses daily and none of them are out there trying to fix their part of the world is 100% inaccurate. Realize Sq/CC's have bosses just like you do and their sphere of influence is relatively small. Sometimes they sit behind closed doors for hours discussing (arguing) with their bosses about certain problems. In the end, when decisions are reached, they do their jobs by carrying out those decisions without bitching to those junior to them. You will never know what happened behind the scenes, but rest assured there are dudes out there fighting the good fight. They do not always win. Back to the topic at hand, I loath the way the AF values AADs. I have no problem with the AF asking me to accomplish PME. IMO, we should all strive to be the best at our jobs and we should all strive to learn more about our service and accomplish PME when required. Some of you will disagree with that and that is OK. On a personal note, I never did SOS in correspondence...I went in residence. In retrospect, that was a mistake as I nearly did not have an opportunity to attend due to a PCS and retraining as I was late-rated. In my case, it worked out. I was fortunate to be an IDE select and was at the early stages of the "practice bleeding" memo signed by the AF/A1, Lt Gen Brady. Against my Sq/CC's advice, I choose to roll the dice by not doing ACSC in correspondence or an AAD. I chose to be the best I could at flying and leading people. Fortunately, it worked out for me and I got both PME and my AAD through IDE in my last look. Continuing to do the best you can at your JOB is still the best thing you can do to make yourself valuable to the AF, IMHO. Later, I was fortunate enough to be promoted and was an SDE select. I did learn my lesson and did correspondence SDE since I knew the end of the road was approaching if I did not. Some of you have probably figured out who I am by this point and my history of posts. That is OK. Some of you have read my other posts and whether you agree with everything I support on this sight, or in real life, you will learn that you will always get the straight scoop from me. I have noticed that many of you just want to rage against the machine. Some want to bitch just because you know the AF will never get all of it right. However, there are so many ways for dudes to succeed in the AF. Regardless of what I read here, I do not agree that there is only one way for a guy to succeed or that there is only one path for a guy to follow to make it to Sq/CC or higher. Set your goals and work hard. Put the mission first and stop being mired in the qweep. I always expected my Sq/CCs to be able to wade through the qweep and be the shit shield so that I could do my J-O-B. But, I also knew that I had an obligation to help him by keeping the BS off his plate and not attracting negative attention to myself or my crew and/or handling those situations at my level when possible. I have not always seen this happen...on either side. There are oppotunities out there for all of us.