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Flanker 69 request low closed...

I'm retired now so my view of the cards is dated. I tired to tell a LOT of senior folks this was coming and they did not seem concerned. Towards the end you could tell they were beginning to see how serious it was but it was too late for them to make real change. I heard lot of chatter from bros on the Airstaff and Stoploss was being discussed, but I don't know if they decided on a redline. Another previous MAJCOM commander commented that stoploss was a "viable retention tool"...he is retired now and I don't know if his views shared by the other seniors...obviously we all thought he was out of his mind, you can't stoploss folks until 20 years and the message it would send would only make the situation worse.

TT, VERY interesting numbers. If the MC-130 numbers are that good then clearly Cannon is not having an impact on retention in that community, although I am curious if any of those folks had secondary ADSC from moving to the MCJ. The MC-130H draw-down is going to create a very small community of folks at one location,it will be interesting to see their retention numbers the next few years. On the C-145...technically they don't do NSAV anymore, we retired the majority of the fleet, the remaining aircraft are now in the reserves at Duke. The 6th SOS has some great folks, but they have been continuously under-resourced by commanders who did not see their value. I was in the room when one past AFSOC/CC was openly bashing them asking the crowd to name one time, just one time when they opened a door in the recent conflicts...a lot of folks were looking at each ready to speak up for several examples, but it was clear it was rhetorical and he did not want to hear a response. The C-146 is the primary NSAV aircraft and they are moving from Cannon to Duke, the active duty folks will get a two year ADSC but I know several who are taking the ADSC but NOT the ACP...they are simply counting down. While AFSOC is not YET facing the same level of hurt as the 11F community, it is on the way and somewhat exacerbated by leadership. In the room with yet another AFSOC/CC when he was told about the looming problem of pilot retention, he replied...they will stay if they are patriots and if not we don;t want them, we will just make more...I was absolutely speechless. I will be very general to protect their identity, but there are several sitting SQ/CC's who are planning to bail when their current tour is complete.

I am very curious to see the end report as well. I heard the 32% figure from a very senior 11S just yesterday, perhaps he was lumping several key 11S career field together? With gunships at 25% someone else in the 11S community must have superb retention to get the community total to 50%. On the 4/17 gunship, as I recall 2 of the 4 who took the bonus already had additional commitment for going ACJ. Regardless, it takes a long time to build a Gunship IP/EP and losing 75% of a year group is going to have second and third order effects.

A reflection of endless deployments and some VERY caustic folks getting promoted. One person in particular did a lot of damage, he refused to let a Gunship EP go to the B-2 program...so the guy got out. He refused to let a C-146 guy apply to the U-2 program...so the guy is getting out. He also refused to let a CV-22 Flight Lead apply for TPS...so that guy got out. At one point earlier this year they were 1/14 on gunship pilots. I know the shortage of 11Fs has allowed some former TAMI folks to flow back to fighters in the guard and reserve, the 11S community lost several patches to that situation. As some point this shortage is really going to snowball and require drastic measures.

I have not looked at the AFPC site lately...because I am RETIRED, but I heard today the retention rates remain ungood. In the 11S community the target ACP takes rate is 64%, the break even is 52% and the current take rate is 32%....and falling.

Next thing you know we will be changing the name of this site to nerd ops dot net or something. Bunch of script kiddies...

I went though survival school 100 years ago and we had a Lt Col flyer in our class...he had just returned to fly from a staff tour and was about to take command...curing the "audit" they discovered his record did not reflect attending Survival School so they made him go back and do it again. He was MISERABLE and made each once of us promise we would make a hundred copies of the grad cert and mail one to everyone we knew for safe keeping.

Apparently someone should mentor you on basic reading comprehension.

I think you are confusing mentorship with advocacy and sponsorship. When you say your "PRF looked pretty good"...I hope you mean because you had a record of superb performance, stratifications, contribution...not that actual way the PRF was written. Your tone seems to indicate otherwise, as in your mentor showed you how to write a grammatically perfect draft for your supervisor. I am not trying to be an asshole and yes I get it, there are still some lazy supervisors out there who take a "draft" OPR or PRF and push it forward, but the rules have become so extreme with regard to how things are worded, quoted, documented...this is really commander business and has zero to do with mentoring. Yes your mentor may help you work through goals and important boxes that must be checked for promotion, but there is FAR more to it. My concept of mentoring and what I tried to do for many people over many years was provide LIFE and Career advice that often included a dose of painful feedback. Mentoring is often more about listening than speaking and while the advice may focus on building a successful career, it should not be the only intent. I've mentored good folks through very bad times including divorce, a death in the family, PTSD and just dealing with the normal stresses of life. I escorted a very good friend to mental health when he discovered his wife was cheating on him and sat there with him for hours, she was his world and it took him down at the knees, thankfully he recovered. I've wept with parents as they processed the loss of a child. And sadly, I've sat with a son as he processed the death of his father. Mentoring is SO much more than career advice. I'll get off my high-horse now because trust me, I have fucked up just as much as I've gotten right, I just have very strong feelings on the subject mainly because any success I had as an aviator was because of two people who mentored me and demanded I be a better person and aviator. Mentorship is not perfect and sadly mentors can fail...sometimes miserably. I counted Baba Rand as a mentor for many years and when it counted most, he wasn't there. Maybe instead of asking if the system needs more mentorship, we should all just go out and do it.

What "retirement benefits" come with the rank Lt Col? It has zero impact on your retirement pay which is a straight line calculation of the average of your top three years of pay. The only impact is on your blue ID card where it says rank. I remember a philosophical discussion last year among a few bros who pinned on O-6 but wanted to bail before wearing it for three years, one wanted to retire as an O-6 because he perceived a post-AF career advantage, the others were going to the airlines. I told them the only real impact of retiring as a Lt Col was you couldn't call protocol to get a DV room on base or park in the reserved parking at the Commissary/BX...which ironically at Hurlburt has now been converted to "E-3 and below parking" to complete the pussification of the Air Force. I pinned on O-6 at 19.5 years and stayed until 26, looking back I wish I had punched at 20. Answer question #1 and do the math, do NOT be afraid of the next chapter.

As usual Beerman has some sage advice, you really have to answer question #1 before wasting any brain bytes on the other stuff. I would suggest you ask yourself where you want to be in ten years and work backwards from there. If your end state is an airline job then mathematically and economically you would be best served to retire as soon as possible, line numbers are everything at the airlines and getting the the airlines a two years sooner could make a HUGE difference in quality of life. It makes me sick to my stomach to hear you doubt you'll make Lt Col because you don't have any mentorship, the system is completely broken when the average bro feels like this. Given the growing shortage of AF pilots, I would think most will make Lt Col, it appears the pilot exodus is accelerating at all levels. I just heard the promotion opportunity to O-6 on the next board has been raised to 55%. Given other indicators I think other promotion rates will increase as well. In a perfect world, where are in you in ten years?

Tracking and came to the same conclusion...The supplemental packages for my family cost more than the entire Tricare prime fee. We are lucky to live near two major regional military hospitals so unless I am missing something it doesn't make sense to purchase the supplemental.

Anyone have particular experience (good/bad) with the Tricare supplemental packages? I've looked at the MOAA and VFW plans but not sure which way to go. We are staying Prime for now while I get a bulging disc fixed and my wife has a torn rotator cuff repaired...after that we are thinking of going standard. Any feedback/examples appreciated.

Flyby Shack.

Shack, we have little control...it is sickening how high some of the most basic and mundane decisions are pushed just to CYA. For a service that has the tenet "Centralized Control, Decentralized Execution." the service takes great pride in throwing that out the window at every opportunity. My first real clash with the system occurred when I was a squadron commander. I was given the AFPC commanders hotline which was a direct number a G series commander could call to work real people issues. The officer side was fairly straight forward in that I knew the lanes I could work to impact a person's career and assignment options. The enlisted side was a complete abomination. Long story short, I was manned at 63% on the enlisted side and I had a guy who had been in the unit for two years and had some family issues (his dad was terminally ill),...suddenly they wanted to move him to the AOC and replace him with a line Instructor from the critically manned ops unit. I found out the ops unit was going to get a long-term DNIF guy coming back from overseas. I talked to the other two squadron commanders and we all agreed, let the ops guy keep the much needed instructor, let me keep my guy who was doing three critical jobs outside his own (and I could manage his schedule to take leave to be with his dad), and send the DNIF guy to the AOC...makes sense right...not to the "E-9s" at AFPC. I got a few days of push back and finally called the head E-9 functional to explain the situation and ask for some common sense. His reply..."Sirrrrrr, the Air Force Enlisted Assignment process is far to big for you to take a personal interest in someone." I lost it...Why the FUCK am I a Commander if I can't take an interest in my people! I elevated it all the way through the Wing/CC and I LOST. We are broken...LEAVE while you can.

The Air Force does NOT care about you, they care about increased health care costs as it impacts the bottomline. The way the seniors spew the core values is ohhh sooo Ironic given the lasted indicators. Internal memos calling to relax standards at Fighter RTUs...relax PT standards...what next...drug standards. The way we manage people is absolutely laughable.

I knew him well and bought into his BS when he was a Colonel. He gave some great speeches when he was the Commandant of the Weapons School and acted as if he genuinely cared, turns out it was nothing but empty words. Get out...as soon as you can...seriously, run for the door while you still have an option, it is only going to get worse.

Further proof of how broken the Air Force is... https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/960240/general-officer-announcement Try to destroy people based on a text....have it overturned and STILL make GO. Baba Rand continues to disappoint.

The setups are far to canned...Move the Red Air Tanker...nothing like a fist fight all the way west just to have Red literally roll inverted off the boom and call a kill on you 30 seconds later.

I would not.

MULTIPLE studies, papers, proposals with great merit considered and CRUSHED by senior leadership over the past 12 years. The math is OVERWHELMINGLY in favor of a lite attack platform that would provide more CAS capability, help with absorption, help season and solve a host of other problems, but the all jet 5th gen mafia ran a genocide operation to kill any serious consideration. I was personally threatened (career wise), insulted, chastised and nearly banished on several occasions by VERY senior USAF officers. The truly sickening part, we could have had a highly suitable aircraft in the field YEARS ago for pennies on the dollar.

I have a good bud who flew Vipers in the ANG THEN went to med School. He loved doing both but eventually had to quit flying, he is a surgeon and it requires huge commitment...he is CONSTANTLY complaining about the costs of things like malpractice insurance so the numbers for 30+ airline career, especially in the current environment, made be better on the flying side.

I was accepted and passed on med school to go to UPT...broke my mom's heart in doing so. Looking back after 26 years, if I had it to do over again, you SNAPs would be calling me Dr CH...actually you wouldn't be calling me as I would ignoring all of you and concentrating on the boob job I was going to do in the morning.

1. Not designed for high aspect BFM,,,and while not meant to be a replacement for the A-10 it is faster. 2. I actually agree with two cockpits, as noted not just a replacement for the A-10 and FMS considerations come to mind that make two cockpits a necessity. 3. Sort of...again not meant for air to air but other sensors (GMTI and a few other toys), will greatly add to SA for CAS. 4. Design work in progress to ad air refueling. 5. True, but then neither does the AT-6 you prefer...pods are a solution for both but strongly prefer an internal gun. 6. Not true...threat warning piece an easy add and being worked, ECM is the bigger show-stopper in my opinion, but that too is being looked at.