olevelo

I love the editor's note at the end. "At the time of publication this officer had accepted a job as a military officer recruiter for a corporate talent management company."

Affirm, there's generally one USAF helo pilot in each USNTPS class. Occasionally we send an engineer there as well. The only helo flying USAF TPS studs get is on field trips to Pax and other places, and lately an R-44 has been coming out for each class as well.

The guard and reserve will still have slicks for awhile, but it's hard to say how long "awhile" is. Definitely no future for slicks in active duty. There's only a couple units left already and they RIFd most of us. The J units won't go away any time soon but there's not a lot of options for CSOs in the part time world right now. Keesler (WC) and Harrisburg (EC) are the only ones, unless some of the HC units have started flying Js already. I think Kirtland has some slots for instructors at the schoolhouse, but they'll want for HC/MC guys if possible.

Those numbers only include the AF selects (although you do have a Marine listed). The other 3 will be some combination of Navy/Marine and foreign students. If I wasn't on terminal leave I could verify the final numbers (although the no-shit final list probably won't be done til May/June due to last minute swaps and such). But class size is holding steady at 20 for now, down from 24 for a few years. I've never looked at the hard numbers, but from empirical evidence, for rated folks I'd say about 40-60% have a technical masters, and about 80-85% have a masters period. Maybe a little higher for both. The AFIT option is good for those that don't. For non-rated it's about 99% with a technical masters. There's always a couple that squeak in but it's harder and harder to get in without it. The majority of those have AFIT degrees.

When I was there several years ago, the guy in that billet flew (CSO...I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same position). Not a lot, so I assume he was pretty busy doing something, although I have no idea what! The day to day was over at the OSS so not around the squadron a lot. But he got to go on pretty much every exercise so that was a pretty good deal. I think I heard he just made O-6 too.

Oh c'mon, you know I win! TPS grad CSO, sole staff instructor CSO at TPS, qualified on multiple AFSOC platforms including the AC-J (who gave the first ever checkride on the AC-J? This guy!). RIFd. And hey look, my AFSC is on the stressed career fields list a few posts back! Oh, and right after I got notified, they assigned one of new grad RC-135 CSOs to a C-130 unit. Left hand, meet right hand.

I toured this a few months ago during a visit to Scaled Composites. It is ridiculously huge. Pictures just don't do it justice. We also got to fly the sim (no time for all of us to get in the seat though so I just observed). If this works it's going to be awesome.

Yeah, when I was here the first time in 2010 the road to the gate was wide open. Then last year I came back, and they installed medians between every lane and put about 20 curves in to slow the traffic down. What the curves actually do is make it impossible to tell which lane is short when you're approaching before the medians start so you have to just pick a lane and pray.

Hahahaha! But seriously, I have to commend this dude for starting out with a post just below the suspect line to draw us all in, and then instantly being able to hit every troll mark at once. Not easy.

There's also something satisfying about tracking a moving target with the sensor/laser, and then watch it explode thanks to the pickle you did sometime before.

Don't get me started on the retardedness that is the West Gate. Who thought it was a good idea to put concrete medians between all the lanes so no one can change lanes, and you end up stuck in a lane with 15 cars while the other two have 3 each?!

I actually live close to his first suggestion, J and 50th. I love it (well love might be a strong word!), especially compared to living on base. No kids though, so school wasn't a factor. The Quartz Hill schools are the "best". It's really not that much further from here...5-10 minutes depending on exactly where. All of the advice for staying west of the 14 is sound advice. Subscribe to the Antelope Valley Times on facebook and you'll see. Overall crime has gone down the last few years though. I prefer my area over Palmdale. It's only 10 minutes to get to everything there, without the congestion. It's 35 minutes door to flight line for me, and it's an easy drive, cruise control all the way. Believe me, a few months ago before I PCS'd back here I never thought I'd consider voluntarily taking a civilian job here, but here I am!

Awesome that's good to hear!

On a related note, for anyone who separated during the year and then joined the Guard or Reserves, did you receive separate W-2's or one with all of your military pay? My concern is making sure they're separate because my Reserve pay will be as a California resident (if I stay). And also if I happen to drill in May, prior to receiving my final pay, who knows how DFAS will screw that up!

Wow thanks for the first hand info. What was their basis for trying to collect your active duty pay?! It's very clear they don't have a right to that. For the separation pay, did you overlap with a civilian job at the end of your active duty time or did you have a gap so that your residency wouldn't start yet, or at least there was no overlap in pay that could be taxed? Thanks!

You have seen all the news about trying to retire the A-10 right? You really want to bet your future on a unit that flies an aircraft that may not be here next year, much less in 6-9 years when you finally finish your part time degree? I'm with the others, go to college and do ROTC. I was an OTS guy myself, but if I had actually planned on joining I would've gone for the ROTC scholarship and maybe not still be paying off my loans 14 years later. There is something to be said for being free from the shackles of the military for as long as possible, but you'll have a MUCH better chance of actually getting a pilot slot through ROTC than betting on OTS.

I should clarify that I live here now, but I haven't done any of the "become a resident" stuff like registering vehicles or drivers licenses. That being said, from what I can tell, California considers you a resident when you move here for "non-temporary purposes". But none of their information or examples cover a case where a military person is already here as a non-resident and then stays. On the retirement front, yes that's true, but it's also true in every other state. I have no desire to give any money to this state, but sometimes your options are limited if there's certain jobs you want. Oh I just realized what you meant about the retirement. That's not true. If you're no longer a resident of California then they can't tax you. The issue is if you maintain any residency here then they'll come after you. And they make it clear that it's very easy to still have a claim to residency here. Owning rental property here and then moving away isn't a great idea.

The problem is I'm already in California as I'm stationed here, and won't be moving if I take the job the here. I could wait to start the new job after I get paid, but then I'm losing out on potentially up to two months of pay at the new job! This is pretty dumb...

They're saying up to 20 days after separation date to get final pay and everything. Was your separation pay, final pay, and sold leave all lumped together? Finance said they would be, but seems like I've heard otherwise from others.

Yeah, I figured the first answer would be to talk to an accountant! That's what the internet is for! :) One good thing is I found that California considers you a full year resident if you were a resident for more than 9 months...that's good because since my separation isn't until 30 April, it's easy to make the case I'm not a resident until at least 1 May. Although I could see them disputing that if I start a GS job before then! And again the concern is I won't receive my final/separation pay until mid-to-late May, so it gets into the "is it when you earned it or when you received it" issue.

Does anyone have any experience with receiving separation pay and moving from a state with no taxes to one with? I've seen various discussions about people receiving their pay after the new year so they get to put it on the next year's taxes, which implies when you receive it is what matters, not when it was earned? The issue I may have is I'm currently a Florida resident with no state taxes, but may take a job in California, and start before my separation date, or at least before I receive my final pay with separation pay. So looking at partial year tax laws, I would pay California taxes on the new job, and not my other military pay for the year...but what about the overlapping pay? Between separation pay, final check, and sold leave, we're talking about around $120k so I definitely don't want to give 10% of that to California! Do I have to wait to start my new job until after I've received my final pay, or am I overthinking it? On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm assuming that for my new Reserve job I'll now have to pay California taxes now?

If you have a technical background, your best bet might be in the test world. More as an engineer than as a CSO. Even as a TPS grad CSO and knowing where to look it's been next to impossible to find any test CSO jobs. And even as an engineer it can be tough if you're not a grad, but not impossible. Having aviation experience is big. At my potential Reserve unit, a lot of the CSO's are airline pilots on the outside. Including the last commander.

Because selects were awesome lieutenants who worked hard for DG at SOS, and were recognized as such as 8-9 captains on their O-4 board. So someone else said they were shit-hot, therefore they must still be shit-hot, so I'll go ahead and rank them highly and feel they're deserving of the opportunities to push them farther.

As of last year (or maybe this year, depending on how you look at it), selects are no longer allowed to register for correspondence unless they've been selected for an in-residence program that requires it. At least that's what was supposed to happen. Candidates can register as soon as they have a line number still.

Thanks. That sounds pretty similar to the info I got from my pending Reserve unit. Luckily I'm a known commodity to them as I flew with them while AD and so they're still willing to give me the chance. No IMA experience around??