BFM this

NSFW pics in 3, 2...

WHAT? I said "with all due respect".

That sounds like Air Force standard for over complicating the simple.

+\- still an option if you click the heart

In 2010 I was told that I'd received an assignment to RPAs. At the time, I was told that RPAs would be a "one way door": that I would likely never get a traditional flying assignment going forward.. Let's suppose that I would have a choice between the following two options: A) I could participate in a dual qual program, where there would be ____ available to fly 1.5 times per week while I was in RPAs. All else would remain the same. B) With my orders, I would be loaded into a TX to return to my grey-tail jet in FY+4yrs, reflected on my orders. I'd take B, hands down. Two of the three hypotheticals that you state are RPA, and the idea of having an ACE or companion trainer program in RPAs is not new. However, two points: first, while in an RPA assignment, it's a full time gig. Whether in lean times and you're spending large chunks of time as seat meat so that your bros can take leave, or when big blue starts to scratch the surface of adequate manning, leaving time to get in the vault, develop some skills in a CT setting, etc., it deserves full time attention, just like ALO, DAO, white jets, etc. Let me go for a day so that I can go do AHC in the MOA or at best pew-pew some .50 cal into the rags, and that's a day that my bro can't take leave, or at the very least that the mission suffers. Second, an ACE or companion trainer at RPAs wouldn't have sweetened the bitter pill of the "one way door" mantra being peddled by HHQ. The only antidote to that was when guys started getting jets (TAMI, UPT-d, everybody) in 2013. Time out of the cockpit is not a new concept. You're introduced to the idea in your commissioning source: remember the career progression pyramid that includes a "broadening" tour somewhere. That pyramid also showed that broadening is followed by a return to ops. Here's the rub: big blue hasn't been budgeting for a return to ops, at least not in the decade that I've been paying attention. Everyone departing for some gig out of the jet always had the same concern: having to "compete" for a TX to get back in the jet. "TX slots very limited, likely only available for leadership, Chief of Safety, or BNR this cycle. Korea will be the highest Pk for all others,..." Remember that boilerplate caveat on the Fighter Porch page in the portal? That's what folks saw (likely the first thing they looked at) when they had orders in hand to ALO/RPA/AETC/Staff, and it set the tone--it sent a value message to those that big blue NEEDED for the task on their orders. Takeaways for Big Blue: 1) If you're not planning on a TX for every "broadening" bill paid, then you will reap what you sow for failure to adequately plan. It's nothing more than paying off one credit card with another. 2) Pulling the CPIP punch at 10.0 crews/CAP? Fuck you, Big Blue. Standby for another round of soul searching (RAND, CBO, CPIP-II report) in 4-6 years. You never learn: until an RPA squadron is staffed and put on the same battle rhythm as any other AF squadron, the rest is all BS eyewash. 3) Someday, you'll need 11x's to help out and/or broaden in areas that might be fenced off today. When that time comes, if some A1 good idea fairy utters the idea of a "one way door", act swiftly and surely. Crush that idea in the crib, and quietly (or fuck it, publicly and loudly) remove said nearsighted dipshit from any remote chance of doing damage in the future--allow them to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Nah, that's about Bexar Co standard.

WOM. AFI11-202V1 2.2. Requalification Training. 2.2.1. Unqualified up to 39 months at the end of a non-flying assignment, or up to 51 months at the end of any active flying assignment. Complete training in all delinquent items (as applicable), additional training as directed by the squadron commander, and a requalification evaluation IAW AFI 11-202 Vol 2 and AFI 11-2MDS Vol 2. An ETCA formal school flying training course (TX-3) satisfies this requalification requirement, if specified in the applicable AFI 11-2MDS Vol 1. 2.2.2. Unqualified 39 or more months at the end of a non-flying assignment, or 51 or more months at the end of any active flying assignment, up to 8 Years. Complete the appropriate ETCA formal school flying training course (TX-2) and a flight evaluation IAW AFI 11-202 Vol 2 and AFI 11-2MDS Vol 2. 2.2.3. Unqualified in MDS Over 8 Years. Complete the appropriate ETCA formal school flying training (TX-1) and a flight evaluation IAW AFI 11-202 Vol 2 and AFI 11- 2MDS Vol 2. Don't know if MDS specific V1s are any more restrictive.

If that's the case, then there's a failure somewhere in either the chain of command, the functional, the individual, or all of the above. One dude I knew who wanted to remain RPA had to lobby pretty strong to recat. This was when the 11F storm was cresting the horizon; porch didn't want to let him go. Or, dudes that are still (unwillingly) in droneville could be there as an easy bill payer for the porch, which again would be a foul, imo. Regardless, if they are still there, they are way beyond their commitment, and have had ample opportunity to exercise their prerogative options--at this point, big blue is not chaining them there against their will.

Huh? TAMI dudes were flowed back out to their jets about the same timeframe as the first UPT directs. ...unless they re-cat'ed

Enjoy https://cheezburger.com/2790917/guy-live-tweets-his-buddys-marriage-imploding-and-its-horrifically-epic

Or just give them a call. Their number should be in the FCG.

Huh...never would have guessed.

Wow, stubborn motor. Marines had something similar about 20yrs ago in a unit I was in. IIRC (second hand, wasn't on board the plane) one blade tossed itself about a half mile away, and the rest of the hub shelled itself, peppering the cockpit with fragments.

Correct

We'd be well served if a few more CCs took cue.

Irregardless (Siri auto-completed, btw), if the word gets used enough, it will gain normalcy. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/normalcy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

Sad part is that he's diluted his brand by his own actions. He had an enviable pile of credibility: here, on his own site, social media, all of it. But then again, he wasn't the first down that road.

Twoop

I certainly wasn't laughing at your analysis. The Schadenfreude is another thing I grew up in Illinois. The Daleys, Madigans, Vrdolyak, Braun. Blajogevich and Obama were outliers on the same bell curve of players. Illinois is reaping what has been sown over the decades. Racing toward pairity with its sister city Detroit. That Puerto Rico is in a much better situation is not surprising at all. At leas they have a thriving tourism industry to milk. That's not going away anytime soon.

I already put money down on our new swimming pool

I'm not sure y'all are tracking. There's occasional thousandaires elected to congress. They almost invariably leave as millionaires. Remember the STOCK act? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

This made me laugh.

All very logical and well put. But not how it's going to play out I'm afraid. Management wants their dancing bear center stage, pronto. At least that's the drumbeats I'm hearing. We'll see.

It's not just about the money. Money is in line with the rest of the issues plaguing this job. Money is just the easiest, most tangible, identifiable symptom of a broader malaise. My thesis is this: if there was a way to graph other QoL (home and work) indicators, they would roughly correlate. We are paid substantially less than we were roughly twenty years ago, in two specific categories: 1) Flight pay 2) ACP Both of those pays have remained stagnant to inflation for over two decades. $1k / $35k doesn't nearly cover the spread. If those two pays were at least adjusted for inflation, the remaining issues would at least change in perspective. But until that happens, we are essentially negotiating low cost items. Pushing sleeves up? Ancillary duties? Fewer/clickable CBTs? These are just low/no cost gimmes.

Interns