BFM this

Adding another parallel anecdote to help illustrate the culture hurdle: In a former life I flew on Marine KC-130s. Our flight engineers, aside from ensuring that the landing gear was lowered, were also taxi qual'd. No shit: depending on the field that we were broken at, they would do all of the usual coord with ground and tower, and do high power engine runs (on the active, if that's all that was available). Ok, so with that story, let's hear from our AF Herk brethren: would the AF taxi qual a FE? ETA: Lawman, I agree with you. Enlisted could operate these things just fine, alongside O's, yet still within their managerial lanes. Boundaries would likely be required regarding mission sets, weapons employment, etc., but I still think it would be worthwhile. Change is often resisted because as soon as you allow change, someone is tacitly admitting that the old paradigm was wrong. Case in point: for years I didn't think that I could fly Mil because of the 20/20 eyesight requirement. ...until it changed to 20/70, then it was game-on. But that begs the questions: what was the reasoning behind the legacy requirement, and how much talent flowed under the bridge through the years because of it?

VMFA-112 in Ft Worth? Great location, and they always seemed like a good bunch.

Accounting for the speed of the treadmill

Takeaways: "This whole 18x concept is brand new--just stared last fiscal quarter, hasn't had time to mature, uhhh, rabble rabble rabble..." "Thou shalt not speak ill of the boss's sacred cow" "Seriously guys, even if you have experience in the field, if it's not along party lines, can it."

Jumped the shark

Then one day, a cyber guy will be in charge, signalling the end of the Space Mafia reign.

That sounds really convenient. Good thing too, because that prediction of a flying car in every garage from, what, 50 years ago(?) worked out real well. Keep shuckin that snake oil, Mr. CEO.

On second thought, definitely get married. Show them who's boss.

Don't need to be a qualified IP before you step to HMN. I know this because some of the folks my sq sent to HMN were not in the IPUG que before they left... While I empathize with the conundrum, this is wholly the AF's doing. This is the second time in less than a decade that the AF has had to gut the line units to plus up the FTU, so that they can then ramp up output. But that was just an accident, and it only happened twice... Hopefully, in addition to doubling down on bad ideas, the AF takes this opportunity to ramp up some meaningful 18X production. That's the long term fix--rated presence among a core field of 18X'ers. There will never be enough 11's to fill the need, especially with the wave of the future going to less #'s of gold plated airframes on the ramp. But with more 18X'ers, there should be more that percolate to the top (WIC, school, etc.)--enough to at some point allow the weak swimmers to be culled from the herd [*gasp* adhering to actual standards?].

Maybe if the Air Force walked the talk. There is already a mechanism in place to provide a steady flow of rated talent: the ALFA tour construct. How about getting guys after their first tour, and getting them back to their jet? Better yet, how about getting some of the folks already in the field a chance to get back. I'm under no delusions here: I led a charmed existence as an 11F--that's the only reason that I'm not sitting in NM and I have a manned Form-8. My comments were about repeating bad ideas: UPT direct tops that list. Yes, this is productive, but this will incur a short term cost to the units as they shoulder the spike in the FTU bill. How about planning further out, so we're not repeating past mistakes?

Not sure if I'm following your question, but it's kind of like your company commander turning to you and saying: "Buck up, Soldier. It will work this time, I'm sure of it!" ...oh, and he's telling you that while you're getting off the boat at Gallipoli.

Words fail me. UPT direct was a worse idea than the "one way door" mantra peddled when I got my assignment. The AF's inability to turn the simplest of Lessons Learned into practice is breathtaking.

No, there was a correction for a while. Starting around 2013, unless you recatted or went to WIC, you got an assignment out of RPAs as an 11F. But like everyone else, I see big AF about to ignore its recent lessons learned.

My grandad used to say "the world needs ditch-diggers too". In this case, the world needs seat-meat for transit and ISR orbit management, too. MCC's know who they need to pay attention to more than others.

There were several initiatives outlined in those "RPA talking points" that had me scratching my head. If you noticed, it also said they were exploring the idea of UPT direct… Again. Learning is hard.

If I were a bettin man, I'd speculate there's a WIC paper about exactly that.

I ran into a couple of bros from San Antonio at a restaurant after they just finished with their ATP. That restaurant was in Memphis. There may be options near San Antonio. I know that there were options up in the FL panhandle while I was ast Moody, but I chose to drive the 8 hours to Starkville, MS. Go where the intel leads you.

I think he was one of the sensor operators I worked with...

And in doing so, they would have negotiated away Marine Air. It's the only reason that there are any Marine fixed wing--they demand a niche that no one else will touch.

That's not how the cross flow has worked previously. You'd target T-38 grads who are 2-3 years into their first ops assignment and offer them a shot at IFF. No worse off than FAIPs.

Which is interesting, because, as I read it, it should have gone that way. As in, the Captain should have said: "Ima let you finish, general, but I will take the court martial now, thanks"

AMRAAM delivery truck.

Someone ought to have a conversation with the Jolly community about sensor ball Class-A's.

July of next year is going to be a bad time to have a light twin go in for an annual

T38 to heavies is helping to pay the phase-3 UPT bill, thereby indirectly helping the current 11F problem.