17D_guy

We do not. We're terrifyingly under-manned for what we're supposed to be doing. For example, in the exact same section in other orgs there's 4+ people working together on tasks. We've got 1 person, same amount of tasks and coord. It'll be interesting to see this coming week because I'm not doing anything real-world since I'm not staying longer than 12hrs. It's not the fuck-fuck exercise games. It's the fuck-fuck passive-aggressive for 2 weeks so we make family plans while getting vaguely told we're "team players." Exercises aren't surprises, just our level of effort. "So, am I working this coming weekend?" Reply, "We're team players." Got to cut out my dudes early today since they were doing nothing related to it...just being "team players." On a positive note I found out I could put in for retirement this December.

Negative. We were told we're participating in an exercise. Last time we were all in, 12 hour coverage, split amongst the minions. Found out Friday it's 12's for all 10 days straight including weekends.

Shout out to the "leaders" who said, "Staff's all in for this exercise." Then wouldn't clarify what that meant until 1500 on Friday. That clarification - 12's for 10 days straight, sorry-not sorry about your weekend plans.

This is my favorite part when people claim the military "still works" when these things come along. Sure, overseas we're still bombing people. But it's a long logistics arm back to CONUS, and there's a significant amount of that that's no longer AD. Imagine if they actually closed the CDC and Youth Center all the way. Guess CC's will just direct folks to execute those Family Care Plans...

We've got tests going on for new upgrades where we've got to send the AFOTEC testers home (AD, Civ's) and they're going to attempt to get contractors out that are already paid for to cover it.

+2. Saw this discussion taking place in our front office. JAG had to come explain how the 2-star's trip the the Puzzle Palace to brief was still on, but the 1-star's trip to officiate a retirement would have to be out of pocket if the gov't shutdown remained.

damnit... fair play, Sir.

I just need to confirm, Robber - "It's fake." (the gun) Bad Ass - "Oh well, mines is real." Robber - "I'm shot." Bad Ass - "Oh, fuck ya." He then admonishes them not to die. This is also my new fav video of all time.

Nah, he likes paying whores.

Huh, wonder how much that cost the Donald in a "donation" to the Rainbow Push Coalition.

To me, it makes perfect sense why they'd want to come here.

This is good news for us w/ tons of Amn: TL;DR - Enlisted Performance Reports are no longer required for regular Air Force Airmen in the grade of airman first class and below with less than 36 months’ Time-In-Service or Air Reserve Component Airmen below the grade of senior airman. https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1407800/air-force-saves-airmen-time-no-longer-requires-first-year-evaluations/

Preach. Until we get past the "other side is the enemy" and not someone with a differing opinion of to get things done, we're screwed. Compromise is a strength, yet we've stepped away from it in every facet. Talking Heads on TV sure don't help. Hell, we've finally had R's in both Legistlature and Executive...and still can't get stuff done. Not looking forward to the halt that'll be "Blue 2018."

Because they're actually being asked to work towards the defense of the world, versus their own backyard with our help for once. There's no oil in it, or terrorism concern. They've got little to nothing invested in that side of the world nationally. There's NOTHING in them for it economically, and we've seen how dedicated most of our euro "partners" are to freedom abroad when that's the case.

Yea, I don't know if it's location that matters some either. Family is in CA/OR/WA, so they've not taken part in the "Starve the Beast" strategy some of the other states have. Their states have taken all the Fed money, OR even threw some of it away w/ fraudulent dealing setting up the ACA website that didn't work. Don't know if that applies in your two areas of experience. It's strange, but a good balance having that side of the family. We do need some kind of reform. Having the government force me to have a transaction with a company is antithetical to freedom and our Constitution.

Generally we (military) have a very narrow viewpoint into what a lot of other citizens feel about certain things. This is further reinforced with choice of news source, and social media's echo chamber. HOw many people do you know (while active) that had legit non-service related disabilities? Some of us will, but our culture/environment isn't set up to put us in contact with individuals like that for the majority of 20-40+. I've married into the only conservative side branch of a VERY liberal family. Got one bro-in-law who's a union organizer, and 2 bro-in-laws who are legitimate hippies (ugh). ACA is very favored by most of that side of the family. Doubly so because they have chronic, genetic diseases that would otherwise keep them in poverty (wife dealt with this) or kill them as children w/o expensive, continuous treatment. Kids that have it now are doing awesome as adults, very motivated, paying taxes, etc. Even my wife who's strongly conservative has seen how it's eased the lives of her family members. Even my family that isn't military has struggled with healthcare costs and they're all very motivated and educated. We're in a very unique bubble with how we view healthcare ("free"), doubly so when we retire.

Keeping on. What's it going to do without all these pilots? Already offered my AFSC a bonus because retention sucks. Point was about the lack of feedback.

Ah, Indeed. But there's other quals and teams that get no recognition otherwise. Mistype there. SCIF...and no badges outside.

So, an interesting thing from the non-bag wearing ops world. We have a bunch of legit keyboard ninjas that roll around in my area. Since Skeletor took off all the ABU bling there's been little to distinguish legit cyber-operator from staff douches (me). Newish development, there's special tabs that go on individuals badge holders showing what cyber ops team they're from, if they've finished CNODP, or WIC. Cool colors, with Sq/Unit flash. All very military heritage like. I fully support it because we should have separate recognition for the actual mission hackers (pun intended).

Red dot.

Even then there's a lack of feedback to allow people to make informed decisions. Never strat'd below 2 in any assignment. I rx'd a wing strat (5/380) at my last base at the 6 yr mark. Come to staff (sold as a "good job to get in Ops community"), no strat on last OPR despite running (and being recognized for) several DoD level programs, and CGOTY for div, blah blah blah. Not selected by recent DT for a leadership position which I'd openly been asked about by the Generals where I wanted to go. Absolutely zero feedback about OPR, or future. Actually, that's not true, I was told first that "someone didn't take care of me" and then I didn't have enough high level strats, so it was inappropriate to get a NAF strat yet. Motherfuckers think I'm inclined to have a "all others" kinda career, they're sorely mistaken.

Always funny to me that we'd have junior cyber Amn crap on our admin troops when the admin bros/chicks do that above. Getting CSS' back, and admin troops actually knowledgeable about ops/ops support is one of the best things the service has done to fix Skeletor's nonsense.

Merry Christmas you filthy animals. A mod should probably move this conversation to the Cyber thread, but I'll give my brief thoughts here, then expand there if moved. No, cyber should not be a separate service right now. Probably not for another decade. Most of the Sr Leaders are former Comm-O's who jerk themselves off about being operators, without instilling operational discipline in their units. You ever have a flying Grp/Sq CC not do what was ordered by an operational CC/NAF and not get kicked in the dick? Happens all the time in Cyber. I will say Ops is Ops, and a Ops minded cyber-bro should be able to figure out how to plan/lead a conventional mission, just the same for a flier planning a cyber mission. I've watched Wedge do it, it's about enabling the team...not the individual. Cyber is very much a team sport. As is now, Offensive/Defensive Cyber as a SOCOM like force makes most sense. DoDIN-Ops (AFNET) needs to die in a fire. Our cybersecurity is both better (AF operators) and worse (PMO's, acquisitions) than you'd think. Most younger cyber guys thinks it needs to be a separate force, most older don't seem to care. There's a good band of us around the '07-'11 year groups that see it the way I mentioned above.

How was Skeletor good for the service at large?

Concur with all this. Had mine done and to the front office for rack/stack in line with normal AF bureaucracy timelines: Grp 2 months early + Wing 2 months early = on time. RUMINT - had a local leader sit on the board and that's what was mentioned as well. ALL records were reviewed for each member. This is happening more and more in Cyber as well. We've seen a ton of LtCol's/Col just bounce. Once guy in the run for much higher rank punched as a 1-star (family issues), same for a Col offered a Wing. Former Sq CC just made O6, frocked 6 months early and she said she was very non-competitive from a historical Comm/Cyber perspective. Our promotion rates are discussed as awful overall compared to the rest of the AF and historically. I have no proof of it, however a former CSAF mentioned it on a "listening tour." So the question of retention for us, doubly so with a very high proportion of prior-E's, is do you want to stick around and hope all that gets corrected? Doubtful, we're now seeing more Intel take over cyber Ops spots and we've got a MAF guy (not hating) slotted to CC one of our Ops Sq's. That's not even considering how bad Big Blue FUCKED the enterprise from about 2009 until last year.