Motofalcon

I have seen this, but also thought it was tied to the “large” vs “small” sq - for what I know, those fields have the designation (which is why you’ll see awards for “Top Small SF Sq” or “Best Large CE Sq”). So folks would be a CC of a small sq as a Maj, then go on to command a large unit sts as a LtCol. Still means multiple commands, which I would bet is a love/hate kinda thing, either you love commanding and want to keep doing it, or you hate it and are forced into it by your AFSC.

In my little corner of the viper world I haven’t seen a maj as a CC, but I have seen O5s who finish their 1-year command tour at Kunsan get asked by big blue if they would like to command a squadron again.

As proud as I am of being a proper single-seat, single-engine, single-tail fighter pilot… I can give respect where respect is due. You’ll never hear me say it out loud in a public forum or at a Flag, but I know Eagle drivers are goddamn good at their job, and I wholeheartedly hope they are my escort team lead on night 1, no matter the theatre. I am proud to be 4G4L with them - 4th Gen 4 Life!!! Happy Birthday fellas!

Actually, what he said (from the article you linked) was: "Every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status. Anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to mask no matter where they work, test one or two times a week to see if they've acquired Covid, socially distance, and generally will not be allowed to travel for work," So the vaccine is NOT mandatory, but if you don’t get vaccinated you will still have to mask and be tested regularly, along with no work travel/TDYs. Which is already how some bases were operating before this statement was made.

My data is about 6.9 years old, but I was able to get a full-up Masters in Mechanical Engineering through Colorado State University, 100% distance learning. They may now have an aero program? They accepted TA, AND at the time I was “attending” a generous benefactor was offering scholarships to military personnel/vets that maintained a high enough GPA; between those two programs it was 100% paid for.

Shack. His other fb post from earlier seemed worthwhile at face value, especially the phrase about not saying “our punks suck” but actually trying to find the solution to make them not suck. Sounds great, I’m on board (I mean, I’ll still tell them they suck, but also have the resources to make them better.) Then he comes to visit the viper FTU and continually pushes the 6 month syllabus, fully acknowledging that it shortchanges our wingmen and puts more of a training burden on the CAF (overall reducing our tactical ability as a fighting force), but that is overlooked because we MUST produce our way out of this shortage. When all the pieces are put together, it’s the same message that all GOs are pushing, “We value you, but not enough to pay you more, listen to your suggestions to improve, or make any large changes to your quality of life. But we will publicly say we value you! That and your sense of duty should be enough.” To me, it seems like the conversation goes like this: AF: “Please stay, Major Instructor Pilot! We need your experience and IPness! You and your millions of dollars of training are really valuable to us!” Aircrew: “Well, okay, but can you maybe fix this one thing? (Insert your instructional fix here - pay, promotion, ops tempo, etc). Because I like serving, but this one thing is making it difficult for me and/or my family.” AF: “No. Stay or go, we don’t care.” ??????

“I can’t think of a worse scenario than staying because of the money.“ Isn’t...isn’t that the point of the bonus? It’s an incentive to get people to stay who otherwise would leave? The stay/leave pro-con scales are tipped just enough and they literally stay for the money?

Speaking of stress and flying training - I’m not on the facebooks, but I recently heard of a video from either AETC or 19AF that was “selling” the new UPT program/mentality/mindset that was low/zero stress, to include the phrase “no more helmet fires!” You guys/gals seen it? I’ve heard the page is full of comments calling BS for all the same reasons above and that stress in training is important... Things like this make me think having a Facebook would be worth it, but I still haven’t pulled the trigger - Maybe it’s time...

Sorry, can’t help with the non-offering/holding back of continuation, but as far as the 5-year promotion window, I don’t think that will be a factor for a bit. I got an email from the WG/CC that says “the USAF is not implementing the 5-look window for officer promotions for at least the next two years.” Which I guess means that now you only get three looks for promotion? Your former in the zone and 1 & 2 above the zone; I’m tracking that the next O-5 board will look at 07, 06, and 05 year groups. *with the caveat that the board is not supposed to use year group/time in service/time in grade as a discriminator (ie there are no more zones, just three looks) but who knows if the board really follows that.

Well we just started a 4-8 week night phase (all dependent on student performance), so you may be in luck!

Not in the 2.69 years I’ve been at Luke, but it sounds like it worked well and I wish they would bring it back. Get a bunch of reps in a short time period, because seeing something multiple times is good, but seeing it multiple times in rapid succession is even better. This could especially be helpful for Holloman - us at Luke at least have the 161st Guard bubbas out of PHX that we can work with pretty easily (our normal AR tracks are also their local sorties). Not to say we haven’t graduated a student without them ever seeing a tanker, but it’s rare...

“...promote the general welfare...” is probably the catchall. Is it good if Americans are healthy? Yes. Is it good if Americans are wealthy? Yes. I’m not saying that everyone just gets to be rich because America is rich (a la UAE), but to me, healthcare is like the road system. We all pay for it, some people happen to use it more than others, it helps us all. Isn’t that the point of government? To help the majority of the populace?

Fingertip, yes; form landing, no. Why? Short answer (and applies to 4th and 5th gen) - Aerial refueling in the weather. Gotta fly close without killing everyone. Long answer - Fingertip isn’t used tactically, but it is a good skill to have, as I have simply rejoined my wingman to fingertip to get through a cloud layer as opposed to drag him to radar trail only to have him rejoin 6-9k’ later (when going to/from the airspace in 2+2 route or even offset container it’s a lot faster to rejoin to 1/2 and 3/4 in fingertip with 3 maintaining radar trail, rather than string the whole 4-ship out). Note: this is when the weather is good enough to depart/recover VMC but a layer is between you and the airspace. You can easily depart in trail, but to go to trail on RTB only to rejoin under the weather for initial is a lot of comm and work. They are both right answers, it’s just nice to have the option of rejoining two versus waiting for a “tied saddled” call. Also, being able to fly close in order to accomplish a BD check without scaring everyone else in the formation is desired. Finally, beyond looking good up initial (but tac arrivals at 500KCAS are also cool), being close is required when you have to do that formation approach through the weather - which is really the only time you NEED to do a form approach (but not landing).

Fingers crossed...my last acsc course finishes a week before the original board date. If it slips, maybe I can actually get “complete” on my SURF/OPB...