Jaded

Wing commanders have control over what they choose to have control over. It sounds like you have a wing commander who is choosing not to pick this battle. Sounds like the wrong decision here from the peanut gallery. My experience has been when your number one priority is taking care of your people everything else works out. People ARE separating over stuff like this, so while the USAF wins this battle (saving pennies on lodging), they're losing the war (pilot retention). O-6s with the proper priorities have enough authority to fix these issues, and are choosing not to.

That's just what I need in the f-16, another mission to be mediocre at.

Another one for NBKC. Myra McFarland did the impossible and got us a VA loan in the Fort Worth area. Super responsive, beat every other rate I got quoted, and was a pleasure to do business with. Highly recommended.

I am new, so I also have a hard time wrapping my brain around how we get paid. Thanks!

You are reducing the number of slots for career officers, but opening up those slots to officers who say, served for 6 years, got out, got an advanced degree, worked in the civilian world for a while, and who want to serve in the military again. That potentially actually reduces pressure on officers at all levels, because a single bad promotion board doesn't end your career (since you could get out and back in again.) I don't really think that the MQ-9 community is a very good example. It's a horrible train wreck of a disaster for so many reasons that simply blaming it on outsiders really paints an incomplete picture IMO. It would be cool to have more commanders who simply wanted that job, rather than see it as a stepping stone to the next job.

Fair enough. I guess I've just seen a lot more of group commanders sitting in meeting after useless meeting, and not a lot of ordering troops to their death.

I guess I don't understand how opening up leadership positions to a bigger pool is a bad idea. If a civilian wants to be the mission support group commander, I say let him or her interview against whatever O-6 was "groomed" for that position. I think this organization would be improved with some outsider perspectives in positions of authority.

Um, why is that a bad idea?

I need some assistance. I am a traditional reservist attempting to get a VA loan. My bank requires income validation, but I am having a difficult time providing documentation that adequately proves some level of minimum income. I'm an IP in the F-16, which means I fly 6 times a month and get paid around $3700 depending on the number and type of days I do. Because the reserve pay system is so ridiculous and impossible to explain, every time the loan manager looks any of this stuff up she comes up empty (for instance, the best she was able to find is that a reservist O-4 makes ~$800/mo - aka, drill weekend). Does anybody have any ideas? I've sent her an LES as well as a powerpoint slide trying to explain reserve pay. She is not the problem, but her underwriter is not accepting either and is asking for some sort of documentation showing a minimum guaranteed wage for my "part time job."

The "crisis" is not going to affect UPT drops at all, since the bottleneck is the B-course throughput. Unless, of course, A3 is successful in their quest to cut B course sorties by 40% (which, by the way, should result in more crashes, fewer airplanes in the inventory, and fewer pilots required!)

I can't ever remember a time when afsoc has had a lower retention rate than the rest of the force. I've never been in the command though, so don't know the pulse of the senior captain types.

Lol. I like this guy. He's funny. Fighter pilots trying to be popular? Air Force founded upon company men? Core value speech aimed at people worried fundamentally about the future viability of our force in general? More posts please!

Welch's policies had no teeth. "Any wing cc who uses a master's degree for strats is fired, and will submit their retirement paperwork." BAM. Problem solved. Stop trusting your mid level managers to do the right thing. They've proven that they are incapable of it.

Opportunity in disguise? You're just 3 PT failures away from being in the guard (not being serious.... But seriously)

Could I outsource all of my OPRs, award packages, staff meeting slides, and decs to India for $5k a year? Could 10 pilots pool money together to pay for someone to sit Top 3 every day?

That's what people thought in 2010 too.

There were a bunch of FAIPs passed over for major in 2011 for similar reasons. Really good dudes, really good pilots, but a "weak" record doomed them to be twice passed over captains.

Weren't there some year groups with like less than 10 people eligible for promotion in certain career fields?

"Lose your bragging rights"? Are you an O-4 or a high school student?

"I was looking for something exciting/rewarding to do..." Man... you are really going to be disappointed. The Air Force is going to improve the next time it loses a war, and not a second sooner. The Gulf War was the result of what happened after Vietnam, and we would require a similar disaster for anything to change for the better.

You realize that you guys are saying, "Their plan is not executable, and they've never followed through on their promises before, but this time it's going to be different!" I've flown with guys that returned from RPAs so I know it's possible, but they are the extreme minority from what I understand. I'm not saying you should be shitbags at work because you hate your jobs, but maybe have a realistic outlook. I wouldn't volunteer for bad deals because they're holding out the latest RPA "return to flying" carrot to you guys. Educate the young guys on the RPA force "management" that has gone on for the last nine years so they can take everything they're told with a grain of salt.

Why do you guys continue to believe anything AFPC or RPA leader tells you?

It's incredibly disappointing how easily leaders talk about breaking the adsc contract through stop loss. It shows their lack of respect for us, and their lack of concern for the long term viability of this service. A 1 sided contract is no contract at all, and should not be referred to as such. To the Lt above, don't join this organization. Get out while you can. It's seriously not worth it, and it's only going to get worse. Chang is 100% right on what the future holds. Join the guard or the reserves if you want to fly military airplanes.

I think it's scary that he'll be able to implement stop loss and avoid blame by pointing fingers at the previous administration. Welsh had nobody to blame but himself, and I'm jaded enough to think that their calculus included that consideration.

Aren't there some firms that completely waive trade fees (Schwab?) If you're at all active in your money management, I don't think usaa is very competitive. If you're a buy and hold type of person, usaa can be ok. A $10 trade on your yearly $5k Roth IRA trade is way eclipsed by whatever the expense ratio of that mutual fund or ETF is. The only reason I bring it up is that I enjoy the convenience of having a single place that keeps and tracks all of my money (though I guess Mint and Personal Capital exist for that purpose.) I would still like to see a strategy that beats buying various vanguard index ETFs and not touching them for 30 years, but I think that discussion is going on in a squadron bar thread. TL;DR: USAA mutual funds are terrible. Active traders should not use the USAA brokerage. Buy-and-holders can use the USAA brokerage with little downside.