USAF Pilot

10 years ago...or yesterday? You, my brothers, are still missed!

Not a T-38 guy but FWIW... I was convinced I wanted F-16s when I started UPT and that desire evolved as I went through training. With that loss of direction I reached out to the instructor corps for their experiences on both the CAF & MAF sides. That was helpful but their knowledge was a little dated. I ended up cold calling Sq/DOs to get real time info on jet/mission life and that sealed the deal for me. Everyone I reached out to was very helpful so don't self restrict your search. In the end, everyone in my UPT class ended up liking the jet/mission they got...even the 135 guys/gals. There are some cross flow opportunities that may open up later in your career if you really want a change of pace. Good Luck!

Too many too soon...to him and his 🍻

Thinking of you this day. 🍺🍺🍺🍺

Reading is hard...

I think I heard the board results will be out on 9 June

The program actually has Capts, Majs, Lt Cols, and Cols in it.

This is the CJCS's program. I guess if you think it's a bad idea you could drop him a note...

I was going to PM Vetter for some career advice…good thing you stepped in or who knows what could have happened!

To my friends, Jeff, Mike, Aaron, and Tom, you are gone but not forgotten. Sitka 43 28 Jul 2010 @ 1823L

ADSC waiver table is up on myPers. Waived: 2 yr PCS 6 yrs of UPT GI bill to dependents + a bunch of other stuff

Can't speak to the Maj's board but the Lt Col Line of the AF just got done recently. I think those results will be telling in how much their promotion rate takes a dive. DP allocations went from 60% to 40% which leads me to believe that the promotion rates will probably also go down. It seems to reason that if Lt Col promotion rates drop by say 10-20% that the Maj's promotion rates will likely be lower too. I think promotion rates will be influx/lower than usual for all of 2014 and 2015 (except for maybe medical) as the AF tries to work its way through the current manning issues.

Hey now, it's not that bad yet!

Thought it was interesting from Fri's CMSAF Q&A that 80,000 robot emails went out notifying people they were eligiable for one or more of the voluntary programs and that about 11,000 had applied. So about 13% of the folks are looking to get out. Then he stated that of those 11,000 or so only about 6,000 we actually eligible. To which I yelled at my computer "THEN WHY DID YOU SEND THEM A ROBOT EMAIL TELLING THEM THEY WERE ELIGIBLE!?" Argh...

Yea, I read that too. I took it as just another perk for the 'Selects'. The rest of us (80% of the AF) will still have to do it in correspondence before we are competitive to go in residence. But even that might not be worth it (as far as going to school, still worth it as far as getting promoted) as AFPC announced last year that for the next three years virtually no candidates will have the chance to go to school as AFPC over produced selects compared to the number of actual school slots.

That checks with what I saw as well. From AMC-A1 promotion opportunity: LAF 75% to Lt Col LAF-J: Col 62% Lt Col 65% Maj 85% Also of note...selective continuation not guarenteed. Officers twice passed over will be continued IAW OSD policy. That policy states that if within 4 years of retirement, you'll be continued. That concerns me as many people could fall short of 4 years depending on commissioning date and what date they choose to calculate 4 years from (board date or maybe notification date?). Oh, more more gem from that A1 brief: A possible look into how AFPC rack-n-stack VSP & TERA apps. Rack-N-stack AFSC Grade TAFMSD If no ADSC, approved first then ADSC (least remaining) Time in grade (not sure if more or less is good) Time in service (not sure if more or less is good) CC's recommendation No indication as to when AFPC will start batch processing. Good Luck!

Well, AFPC just announced a 'Strategic Delay' in processing the first batch of VSP & TERA (Officer & Enlisted) as they haven't decided yet exactly who and how many to let out. No guidance was given as to when they'll start processing apps other than to say you can still apply for both programs. Go Team!

School list is out. Public release should be 12 Nov. All candidates are invited to join me at the bar. We'll be there a while so don't make any big plans...

"Delivers 200% more fuel than the KC-135" Ooo...that sounds fun. Except the max fuel load on the -10 is more than the MTOGW of the -135. Save money? Maybe. I'm going to have to unlearn all that Rapid Global Mobility/Strike stuff if they ground the fleet in 1.69 years.

Some bases have OPRs close out with Maj sel strats since the time of 'selection' was pushing two years to time of 'pin-on'. Something like "Wg's #1/40 Maj sels" I would suggest that #1/40 FGOs as a Maj is a good strat as that implies that you're competing against and performing better than other Lt Cols (Sq/CCs excluded) & possible non-command Cols.

Yea, I had the same thought so I called up AMC A1 shop and asked for an update. Apparently the schedule is hung up at Air Staff...no guess as to when it'll be released. My Wing is working on the idea that the first few boards of the year will be the same as 2013 which was pretty much the same as 2012...so there's that...I got nothing for the '05 kids who have been in limbo for going on a year + now. Good luck!

Once can get promoted early now-a-days but you'll have to wait until vying for Lt Col. I'm not aware of any way to get to Maj early as there is no Below-the-Promotion-Zone (BPZ) option on that promotion board (battle field promotion maybe?). Lt Col has 2 BPZ and 1 BPZ meaning one and two years early. In order to be competitive for that you'll need to have earn some meteoric strats (#1/100's) from your CGO time and FGO time + be a select out of your Maj's board so you can have completed school or be on your way to school by the time your Lt Col board meets. Having staff completed also helps. Chances of getting BPZ to Lt Col hover around 5% or less depending on your board (Line, Medical, JAG, etc). Good Luck!

I've heard varying themes on what 'parts' of a PRF are important and they are similar to what Liquid has said. I've also heard the push line (bottom line on a PRF) is probably the most important just like an OPR. I also think he is correct on strat'd DPs. I'll never know for sure but for my PRF I got a DP w/o a strat (i.e. My #3/20 I/APZ O-3s--Definitely Promote!) and maybe that was where I missed school. I did an unscientific poll at my Wing and discovered we spend about 20 man hours per PRF before it leaves the Wing. I find it completely soul crushing to hear that board members don't even bother to read the whole thing (also heard from others that they don't actually read the whole thing). If the PRF document isn't trusted or read completely, why do we (as an AF) even write one? What if the SR just strat'd each person meeting the board and we let AFPC pull the ROP for the member for the promotion board to review? No middle man (PRF), still have SR input via strat which could be added to the MEL in place of DP or P, board gets to see the source documents for the member (OPRs, TRs, Decs, etc).

Hmmm...By allowing a Wg/CC (Senior Rater) to check a block saying this kid's my top 10% and then sending the PRF up blank, I think, would result in pushing the "who gets to go to school" down to the Wg/CC level. Maybe the top 10% folks from Hickam are more like the 20-30% range from Travis? Isn't the purpose of DPs to create a different pile of folks that are more apt to end up selects? I haven't tried to work the math on the # of DPs for say LAF Capt to Maj board vs # of school selects but I wonder if more DPs are giving out than school slots?