Rusty Pipes

I agree... but your pension isn't recognition, it is compensation for services rendered

I just spoke to the Personnel Chief for the Air Force for my entire Staff Agency (we're joint) and she said she is getting tons of calls from Commanders/supervisors, but she has no clue as to what is coming other than what everyone else has read in the original release. She is quite connected on the personnel side and said the most info she can get is that based on the programs they are looking at approx 90% of the entire AF is potentially eligible for at least one of these Force Shaping measures if they implement all of the ones on the original release. In just the 5 min conversation I could tell she was pretty frustrated with the lack of info coming down as well as the timing (I think she is getting lots of "shoot the messenger" from Generals and SES types). She had heard the same thing that has been posted here that there was supposed to be some more info released tomorrow, but said that was only through friends at AFPC (i.e. nothing official). Doing it on the Thurs before lots of people start Christmas leave is not only like the late Friday afternoon White House press dump (hoping nobody will pay attention to the bad news), but it essentially cuts out two weeks for some of the expected short suspenses on whatever the first programs will be. Not that this should be surprising, but she said that she's been telling Commanders that if they have anyone with a referral EPR/OPR in their record (mentioned failed PT tests) that they would be low hanging fruit. I've been able to get some inside baseball on personnel stuff from her in the past and she is a pretty straight shooter, so if she says she doesn't have a clue as to what is coming then I think we are in for quite the roller coaster ride in the next month or two.

If you failed a PT Test in the past 3-4 years for whatever reason I'd start sending out those resumes now. So they realized they screwed up after booting out the 157 a few years back... are the guys who were offered continuation in the few years since then screwed now? I don't know what would be worse, getting the boot at 14-15 years by not being offered continuation or actually being offered continuation and accepting only to get the boot at 17+ yrs (unless they were offered early retirement).

Fair enough... especially concerning what will happen in the future with only actual selects going to school. I do apologize for pulling random numbers out of my ass, but you keep catching me at airports or out of the office with no .mil ability to get actual stats. Seriously, thanks for providing the correct numbers. Maybe it is just my community or previous bases, but the last three assignments have had multiple Intern/Olmstead/Cross Flow types so the competition for BPZ DPs was between a very select group. Maybe I worded that incorrectly... I meant during either of those 2 years where you are APZ and they don't submit a blank PRF. I understand the allocation system, but here is an example of how it sometimes doesn't work. I had just started working in the OG front office when we had an O-5 board. 4 in the Wing were eligible (relatively small group that year) so the Wing CC had 2 DPs to give and 2 of the 4 eligible were from the OG. Our guys in the OG we sharp guys... both EPs with good strats and all the right boxes checked; unfortunately for them the other 2 guys in the Wing were sitting Sq CCs in the MSG as O-4's so the Wing CC had to give the DPs to them (no arguments... everyone assumed all 4 would get picked up). Neither of the pilots got selected for O-5. This was one of the Wing CCs who said he would not consider anyone APZ for a DP and he was new (i.e. he would still be there for the next board); it was also the same board the 157 got booted... both of these guys turned in paperwork and are now O-5s in the Reserve, but both were also a hell of a lot sharper than some of the guys in the next year group who did get selected (I worked those PRFs too). Yes, timing is everything, but sometimes stats don't tell the right story. Proof? You mean other than him requesting exact completion date of AAD/PME with every OPR/PRF and sitting in Officer rack/stack meetings with him where he justifies strats for all year group/ranks in the organization on the basis of these completion dates (i.e. "Capt Snuffy can't be #1, he doesn't even have a Masters")? Granted I am not at a Wing now, but this isn't the first time I've seen this. Maybe it is a CAF/MAF thing, but Wing CCs have been briefing this "not if you have your AAD/PME, but when you got it" in the MAF for years! And this doesn't only apply to DP/Ps on PRFs either. I've had several Sq CC's that would not strat any Capt without an AAD and/or SOS complete above anyone who did have it complete. As the Chief of Stan/Eval, I argued (and lost) over one of my guys who was a Capt EP being stratted below another Capt AC on his OPR because the AC had a Masters complete and the EP was 2 classes short. There was another Sq CC at this same base when I was an OG Exec who refused to give a Sq CC strat to any Capt without an AAD. When the OG asked him why a guy went from a #1 Sq CC strat on his last OPR (from the previous Sq CC) to no strat at all, the lack of an AAD was the answer he gave him. How does that look on a PRF or to a promotion board... "Top 5%, #1 in Yr Gp, #1 Pilot... no strat, no strat..."? Looks like the kid must have done SOMETHING pretty bad to fall out of favor, right? I'll agree that it is theatrics from some, but this was the direct response from the AMC Vice to a question about a potential upcoming pilot shortage and it is a response I've heard echoed from several senior leaders (O-6 to O-9). It was refreshing to hear two 4 Stars answer the same question by saying they think we are going to have a serious problem on our hands in the near future for 11Xs in general, but especially in the 11F and RPA community. I won't call out Liquid on this because I don't recall his exact position on the matter, but Chang definitely agreed with the "we don't need you and you'll be easily replaced" sentiment. I know the MAF and CAF are two different worlds, but I think maybe the MAF is a little lagging behind on recognizing priorities that the CAF management is starting to see.

No wonder Liquid and Chang have been so quiet lately!

IIRC the last RIF was just a percentage cut across the board without AFSC exemptions. Is this something that is mandated by policy or can A1 tailor a RIF with whatever exemptions they direct (11X, 12X, etc)? What was released seems quite broad. Very little would surprise me these days, but if they didn't learn the lesson of cutting the 157 through non-continuation a few years ago and start to RIF any 11X with 15 plus years that was offered and accepted continuation... wow! I think they can technically do that, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong... I don't want to pass any bad info on here.

There is a difference between paying into a pool to cover something that you may not need vs. paying into a pool for something that you can't possibly need. A 60 yr old man getting a personal policy cannot possibly use pre-natal care coverage nor have a need to cover himself for ovarian issues. It can't possibly work without the mandate getting the healthy young people with less money to pay for both the older sick people with more money as well as the rest of the already sick people who aren't paying anything. Not only is it wealth redistribution, it's health redistribution! Overall it isn't cheaper healthcare, it isn't better healthcare and it doesn't mean there will be less people without healthcare coverage... it is just different people without healthcare coverage. Those with plenty of money will still be able to pay to see their Doctor at the hospital of their choice... we are just redefining what a Cadillac plan is to those who can afford it!

It's not being a dick and I understand everything you are saying, but it isn't entirely realistic based on how the structure is really set up. I'm just basing this on my various years of working for Bosses at the decision making level of who does or doesn't get DPs (OG/CC and higher) where I was involved in the process which has probably been for 5-6 different boards. As far as getting a DP BPZ goes, unless you are the AF Intern type or the Homestead scholar or (insert whatever fast burner program you want here) you are not part of the conversation at your typical Base. I'd say that of those who are technically eligible as BPZ, 95% are not even considered... and that's fine. For those in that 5% range the question isn't if, but when they will get promoted. For those 2 years APZ (again, only the experience I've had working the process) none of them were realistically considered. In fact two different O-6's I've worked for said they would push hard for a DP for a few APZs, but their boss told them straight up that nobody APZ would be considered in their DP allocation and they would not fight for an additional DP at an MLR for anyone APZ. Are they technically considered, yes... but reality is something different. That leaves you with your one shot IPZ... and if you say that your bottom 25% are those who checked their boxes later than the other guys then I will buy that theory, but I will tell you that the organization that I work for has the decision making O-6 using the date of AAD completion (the actual date, not whether you have one or not) as a top criteria for DP/P... and he strats accordingly. This isn't sport bitching and I don't know the perfect solution, but I do see it as an upcoming problem for the pilot force. Maybe it’s a dedicated APZ DP based on percentages, maybe it’s a realistic 2-3 year window to compete (seems to work for the E's as well as the old way to select candidates for school). I don't think it is rank for incentive, but bonuses and daily threats against retirement/pension benefits aren't exactly enticing pilots to stay these days either. The only dog I have in this hunt is looking at our pilot force (both MAF/CAF) that is bleeding experience at an alarming rate and even with a "good guy" sitting as CSAF who seems to get it, we are still having O-6s through O-8s making queep a defining quality of what makes a good Officer. Less than a year ago I sat in a briefing with the now recently retired AMC/CV who came right out and said, "I don't need pilots, I can train any kid off the street to be a pilot... I need Officers; and if you don't like that you can quit…you will be easily replaced." I hate to break it to you, but unless that MX or LRS Officer you have left over randomly knows how to fly an F-16 or a C-130... you need pilots... and you are REALLY going to need those gray beard pilots! You know, the ones that you have beaten the hell out of for the past 12 years that you said you didn't need and would easily replace. I just don't want to see future Class A's that they try to blame on training or basic pilot error while they ignore the experience level of guys they are losing due to queep. Of course we need well rounded Officers from every AFSC, but at some point we need to remember that we are the "Air" Force and stop sacrificing the mission (i.e. losing needed experienced pilots) for political correctness. We all know you have your top 10% and your bottom 10% that define themselves with the other 80% relatively close in comparison... I guess I'm just saying we need to take another look as to how we define that cut off in making that 75%.

I stay with my parents, my brother, my cousin, my girlfriend rent free... I live on base... I stay in my RV in a Walmart parking lot or at the Base Fam Camp. I know what you are saying and my response is the extreme, but the point is that Obamacare removed choice from the equation. If I don't like the taxes in one county I can move to another. If I don't like the taxes in one State I can move to another... with Obamacare I don't have that option.

Actually, competition would be allowing insurance companies selling policies taylored to individual needs. Wrong... prior to Obamacare you had the choice of whether or not you wanted to purchase healthcare. I'm not sure where you live, but where I live the government doesn't mandate that I own a home... that is a choice too. If I don't like the tax rates in New Jersey I can move to Texas.

You're forgetting a little something with your analogy here... while you may be paying for hurricane insurance in Nebraska that you will never file a claim on, there will be lots of people on the coast in North Carolina and South Carolina filing claims for hurricane damage that aren't paying anything for their insurance, yet the insurance company is still paying on their claims.

Call me cynical, but this was a mathematical failure from the beginning... whether or not that was by design is a completely different discussion. The success of the ACA depends 100% on the healthy 18-35 yr olds signing up for and paying for coverage that they won't use and don't need. But then they said that you can stay on your parent's plan until you are 26 which wipes out almost half of that source of income to the Gov't. So then you have only the 27-35 yr old demographic that has the choice to sign up or pay the penalty. Simply set up your tax deductions so that you don't get a tax return and you take care of the "pay the penalty" part because the only way under the current law for them to collect the penalty is by withholding it from your tax return. With most existing plans on the exchanges the 27-35 yr old group will pay between $1200-2000 a year for their plan with an average of a $6000 yearly deductible... so essentially before you "really" have any health insurance you need to pay $8000 out of pocket. Who would do that... especially if you were making less than $50K per year? Most of the "sickness" you'll see at that age can be fixed with $20 off the shelf meds from CVS or Walgreens. Add on the fact that since you now can't be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition, now you can simply not sign up for coverage until you are sick and you can't be turned away if any major illness hits. 1) Set up a public option for those with pre-existing conditions 2) Disassociate healthcare insurance from your job (if a company wants to keep it as part of a compensation package then that is their call) 3) Allow insurance companies to sell coverage across State lines like auto/homeowners/life insurance... this will allow for true competition and drive down prices 4) Allow tax free health savings accounts for those who would like to participate

The whole system doesn't make sense if you ask me. BPZ and APZ are less than 1%, so essentially you have one chance to get promoted. Each Wing CC gets one BPZ DP to give, they should do the same for APZ as well. Having worked in the front office at the Group, Wing and on GO's Staff, every single time I was there for a board there was an O-6 or GO scratching his head wondering how the hell at least one person didn't get selected. You know they aren't going to use a DP on an APZ guy (extremely rare) and statistically you have a 0% chance of making O-5 with a P APZ... so what is the incentive for a pilot passed over as a Major to do anything but breathe and log IP time for the next 6+ years? I don't mean to cross threads here, but if you look at the new pay scale for the US Air/AA merger in 2017 you can START at $93K as a first year FO! Is that check of the month club worth sticking around to lose 6+ yrs of seniority when you can switch patches and pin on O-5 within 2 yrs across the street at the Res or Guard Sq? I know several of the 157 from a few years ago... every one of them is now an O-5 and many of them just got the call from SWA or United (some from both) in the past month. The pendulum is swinging very quickly back in favor of the pilots... too bad the shoes and the box checking Yes Men have their faces too buried in the Power Point slides for "Pride Month" to figure it out. Talking to my old boss who is now a 1 Star and has sat on a few promotion boards; sending up a blank PRF and an APZ PRF with just a P is the same thing... they essentially go into a separate pile and are not even considered. For the past 10+ yrs Big Blue just assumed that they had these folks (pilots) until 20 either way (and they were right)... that may not be a good assumption anymore.

Hmmm... seems to be a trend in the C-17 community with crossflows. Maybe if we stopped associating crew qualification with career progression we wouldn't be having so many issues.

I get that everyone likes Welsh (I do too), but why does everyone keep making this excuse for him? I don't expect him to be personally figuring out the queep problem, but how about if he takes one of the dozens of created General Officer billets since 9/11 and have them answer the mail on the very same e-mail he sent out as USAFE Commander. I know one or two 1 Stars (former bosses or Commanders who are actually good guys) who would LOVE to get the green light with the CSAF top cover to eliminate 90% of this crap in about a week!!! Could you imagine how morale would go through the roof if he did this? I had an old boss that is a 1 Star now and did this on his own at the Base level when he was the Manas Wing CC and the guy was a rock star out there! CSAF doesn't need to do this personally, he just needs to make sure someone is doing it and that they are doing it in his name.

E-Pubs have their downside too. I very much like the convenience of searching, but so does the young guy who doesn't actually know what is on those other 300+ pages. I think it has led to an unintended lowering of GK among aircrew (especially young aircrew), but agree that overall it has more pluses than minuses.

Take away flight pay… yeah, that should do wonders for retention!

I legitimately trust that the current CSAF is looking out for us... Unfortunately it doesn't look like he can make too many institutional changes (sad that the CSAF can't actually do that), but at least with him at the helm I don't feel like he is adding to the mayhem. We all bitch on here about the AF management holding leadership positions, but I think we have a legit Leader sitting in the office right now who genuinely wants the AF to get out of its own way and trusts his young Officers to actually lead. What sucks is that I think we have almost a universally minded group of clones from the O-6 to O-8 level that will nod and smile when he gives motivational speeches, but in reality they are just waiting him out until another manager takes over.

The other big factor in that is the School issue... as of now, essentially if you weren't a promotion board select then you aren't going. I have a few buds who are sitting Sq CCs and say it has been pretty tough to keep those guys motivated, especially when they are seeing all their buds getting the call from SWA, UAL, etc in the past few months. I understand the reasoning for making that change, but it may become an unintended retention barrier for pilots.

Agreed that is comparing stats to nothing, but in the past 2 weeks I've had 3 buds get hired by SWA and 3 hired by UA... and those were just the random post I happened to see on Facebook! All were active duty and all were MAF... only 1 of 6 were not eligible for the ACP this year, but he actually turned it down last year. Obviously anecdotal and not a "stat", but that sure as hell wasn't happening last year and the "hiring boom" (cue Butters) hasn't even started yet. They will be able to absorb this a little bit in the next year or so by not sending pilots to staff and PCSing guys from Staff back to flying, but that is a just a band aid. I'd say the next few years are going to be rough on the AF pilot community... hard to argue against that. Big Blue better get creative and they'd better do it fast... calling Chang... oh, Chang... has anyone heard from Chang?!?

Nothing wrong there at all... and maybe I didn't completely explain it. He would start the checkride brief saying that there were certain minimum requirements that needed to be met and if I wanted to do just those minimums and hop out of the seat then that was up to me, but he thought that was a complete waste. I had already flown with the guy a bunch of times and he said he knew I could fly the jet, so he said the check ride was basically a formality... what he considered "more of a validation of our training program". He didn't want to waste valuable training time and I didn't want to waste a second flying with him where I wasn't learning something. He said he could just sit there and shut up while holding me to the standard tolerances of altitude, airspeed, etc... or instead of +10/-5 on the airspeed or +/-100 feet in the VFR pattern he'd give me +5/-0 or airspeed and +/-25 feet in the VFR pattern (but only grading me against the actual standard) and give me shit if I couldn't meet the stricter window and bet beers on if I could meet them or not. I'd finish my AR mins in the anchor and then he'd say, "Hey Dude... let’s ask them to do a 360 with auto-pilot off for each of us and whoever stays with straight Capt's bars the longest is owed a beer!" He was never a dick even when beating you up and I never even really felt like I was on a checkride with him. Everyone wanted to be this guy and only hoped someday to be even close to as good as he was in the jet. If someone were struggling that day or weren't the type who could handle what he could dish out he knew to back off and changed the tone accordingly... he was the epitome of the Crew Dawg! As far as the patches go, like I said, it got a lot better in the last few years before I headed off to staff. I'm a MAF guy and I think (actually I know) that originally the program attracted a lot of the Fighter Pilot wannabes... the guys who on the long trip across the pond would always talk about how they "should have got a T-38, but the dickhead flight commander didn't like me" or some shit like that. You know, the ones who said they were #8 in Tweets and there were only 7 T-38s in the drop. They would come back and start pointing with their elbows, 69 everything, so to speak after everything they said... nothing wrong with that in the CAF world, but that just doesn't fly in the MAF. Don't get me wrong, they were good pilots and it was definitely a tough program, but there was a definite "I'm better than you" attitude from a lot of them. I'm not sure what caused the shift, but I know the few non-douche patches started their own recruiting for the program and we started getting more of the guys who were credible... the guy who actually was #1 or 2 in his UPT class, but just didn't like pulling Gs or wearing a mask. It was a pretty rapid change... I'd say only 3-4 WIC classes of the "right" guys going through and their continued recruitment. I'm sure some douches still get through, but I've seen lots of my former co-pilots in the past year or two post a graduation day patch on FB and the vast majority definitely fall into the "humble, approachable, credible" category. I think they are getting it right for the most part these days.

I'll tip my hat to you guys at McConnell... I've been up there a few times in a few different airframes and between the 50 non-altitude reporting bug smashers squawking 1200 filling up my TCAS and the 25 different airfields within about 10 miles of the Base I'm amazed this doesn't happen more often! I've had several co-pilots call visual saying they have the field in sight and then start heading to the wrong airport... and that is even with the magic still pointing them to the correct one!

I'd say the ratio on this is probably the opposite... at least in my community. The problem is that the 10% are typically over the top douches and the only guys who get stuck with them are either getting non-notice checks or aren't smart enough to learn how to "EP shop" when they know they have a checkride due. Hell, I have 6 Form 8s in a row in my FEF with the same EP's name on it! He was a gray beard passed over O-4 who was the best pilot I've ever flown with... he'd wear you out on a checkride, but I can honestly say every single one of them was actually fun and I learned something new every time I flew with the guy even on those check rides. I based my entire attitude as an EP on my experiences with him. We had a bad run in the community also where all the commanders were automatically making every WIC grad an EP... and unfortunately at the time it seemed that they were exclusively accepting only complete pricks to WIC! When I managed to take over a Sq Stan Eval shop I was successful at convincing 2 commanders that patch wearers should not be EPs. Reason being that these guys were supposed to be our technical and tactical experts in the jet and I was getting lots of feedback over the years from our young guys that they would never approach the WIC guys with questions because they were worried about showing the WIC EP how "little they knew" about the jet in comparison... and they were right because these prick patch wearing EPs spent a good portion of their time filling out Q-3 paperwork on co-pilots and young ACs. Luckily there seemed to be a shift in who started going to WIC in our community and we got a couple really good guys as patches who wholeheartedly agreed that they would rather be just IPs who were approachable which was definitely noticeable in the tactical knowledge of our younger guys because of it. We went from guys going tactical DNIF when they saw they were flying with a patch on a local in my old Sq to guys fighting to get on the schedule to fly with them in the new one.

Not directed at you nsplayr... Just want to point out a little bit of the obvious here, but if I recall... the ATP questions that I studied were actually about being A FUCKING PILOT!!!!! So if I am reading Liquid right, as a pilot it is completely appropriate to sit around the pilot office on the clock and plan the Christmas Party, set up the Habitat For Humanity project, study for my online MBA, write my own quarterly awards package, plan the Wing Picnic, work the OG Change of Command and create PowerPoint slides for the Daedalians Golf tournament... but quizzing some of your fellow pilots on questions that actually have something to do with being an actual pilot should be met with retribution? And you wonder why every pilot coming up on their ADSC has Sheppard Air saved to their favorites on every computer they use in the Squadron??? You seem to infer that you have the Chief's ear... (pssst) tell him we aren't bored with anything other than queep and senior managers who just don't get it!

I had several buddies just get the call from Southwest yesterday and today and several more who got the call from United in the past 2 weeks. None of them were bored due to sequestration. I think The SecAF and CSAF need to not only worry about the guys thinking about leaving, they also to need to worry about the guys who just left the AF! I have at least a dozen good buddies who were hired by Majors in the past year who definitely still have the ears of those mid-level Capts with 3-4 yrs left on their ADSC who were their co-pilots. They are screaming a very loud, "Get the hell off Active Duty ASAP and come fly for (insert Airline here)!" People can say that the grass is always greener, but I can promise you one thing... the grass is definitely greener than sand.