hindsight2020

Since when did O-4 AD retirement become such an indignity? Don't answer that, I'm being rhetorical (as a career reservist enroute to one 😄). #winning #atleastihavechicken

Sure, I'll speak the quiet part: It's an insidious, but ultimately purposeful greening of the force, combined with inherited legacy fleet age issues. Planets align as they're destined to, and you get the swiss cheese thing and people die. Big blue has a number they're willing to tolerate while gaslighting you with bullshit SIIs; they're just not gonna tell ya what that number is. So check six, and internalize what you signed up for when you agreed to this shit. No right or wrong answer as far as quitting, but folks better understand what the they got themselves into.

We can have a conversation about VA grift without having to justify one's personal choices. When you do that, you risk falling under "lady doth protest too much", and that doesn't help your own point. IOW, don't feed into the false dichotomy. We can recognize both dynamics without having to circle our personal wagons. This is exactly why the grift persists, because legitimate claimants feel it's an encroachment on "muh benefits" to have the conversation in the first place, and the grifters take advantage of that. Stop raising strawmen like the bolded above.

In TX, you are completely exempt from property tax on your home at 100%. That's essentially trifecta in a state with no income tax. Many other examples of perverse incentive exist nationwide that promote the rampant maligning of the VA disability rating system. To suggest the criterion requires a fundamental overhaul is an understatement. But as long as people use legitimate cases as the third rail political shield for this servicemember grift, the looting will continue to worsen.

Anecdotally at least, it doesn't sound like a round off error to me. I can't stand people who cosplayed pilot for political gain (aka McBlinky), but I have no problem with people speaking the quiet parts out loud if it means we tackle the effetry. Fact is I have half a dozen anecdotes of shitbag females pulling similar stunts as was highlighted in the video (and I include join spouse chicanery in that ledger), commissioned officers included. Lotsa weasels in his Majesty's service. VA disability payment racket is another white elephant in the room, and that goes regardless of gender. My shitbag deceased uncle was one of them, 100% payments for life since getting mental health DQ at Benning during Vietnam draft. Didn't lift a finger for the rest of his life. Completely able bodied. I digress. Again, not saying it's everybody, but just like if you have to shake it more than once -- you know you're playing with it; when running out of fingers counting these weasels, well...a round-off error that is not.

College towns are on the top of the list for mil-retirement destination for us precisely for that reason. In my experience, the closest I've got to a bona fide "live and let live" construct, has been in 2 of the three college towns I've lived in. We're very much looking forward to exploring college locations as we approach my mil retire. Snowbirding is another alternative we've explored in order to ameliorate some of the political recalcitrance of both sides of the political divide. Sort of a poor man's "purple state" construct by proxy. Now, can't we all just get along? Don't answer that, I'm being rhetorical 😄

LOL. Nope. Jest aside, that question is moot. It's a distinction without a difference. The small denominator of course will make anything look "competitive". It's a small bowl, only two squadrons, belonging to the same ADCON wing. [AFRC only, don't know the status of the B-2 Guard boondoggle these days]. Well three, but the FTU doesn't hire off the street anymore, well unless you're somebody's husband or golden-key holder (aaaand I digress). Flying/rigor wise? Meh, it's just another droning-heavy job, but you build a heck of a lot less TPIC than 11M assets. Post-TFI really ruined whatever merits were left of that job, ask me how I know. As for the rest of the 'draw', I have enough SA than to have the temerity of waxing poetic to my former A-10 co-workers I Cos-played permissive "CAS" from 30,000feet. Honest day's work driving the bus. Fighter UPT board slot it is not. Good luck with the job hunt.

That's just fighter privilege bruh. 😄 Jest aside, see my comments above regarding controlled grades. BL, it ain't gonna happen for our esteemed aspiring quitter unless he does some time as a TR/DSG first.

It's very difficult to get hired as an AGR, because the O-5 AGR billets at the flight level are scarce. You cannot overgrade AGR positions as they are controlled aka an O-5 in an O-4 AGR billet. TR/DSG is much easier, since most units play the shell game of "overage", then swap people in and out of permanent positions the UMD, giving them another 2 years. Rinse and repeat. It's a risk like everything else, but for the most part it works at kicking the can down the road. ARTs have no rank restriction, but nowadays you're looking at people running back to the units, some never to return to the airline game, so the musical chairs on the full-time side have kinda stopped for a couple years. The other piece where being an O-5 already gets more complicated is the waiver of sanctuary stuff, if your unit is tracking active retirements. O-5s are generally getting close in AD time, and the units don't want to have a guy show up for the proverbial one day and boom, claim sanctuary the second he gets on a 30+ day set of MPA. Color or money and all that jazz. BL, it's not particularly exigent an ask to get hired as an O-5 TR in a flying unit. AGR is much more difficult, especially as an outsider to the unit (it's pretty much unheard of, unless the command climate is super toxic at said unit already). Hardest part is letting go of the rope. Good luck, you're not the first one nor last one to make the jump. It's gonna be alright. 😄

Except I didn't make that false dichotomy, you did. The point of my post wasn't about STEM vs social and humanities. My point was that "soft-skill" peddlers of all shades, are chock full of pseudo-intellectuals wrt middle management labor market. The Country is riddled with bullshit jobs. LinkedIn is but one exemplification of that dynamic.

Sounds like a euphemism for "soft skills" sophistry. Not that's anything wrong with "fake it til you make it" middle manager cannon fodder; somebody gotta keep the cheap blazer stores afloat. 😄 As to PME, agree to disagree. I'd never put that shit on my CV. Not to say there's not a lot of waste and grift in Big Ed at the collegiate level. After all, part of the origin story of my username is in fact my running away from academia. But in general, the level of academic rigor is absolutely embarrassing for PME; again I say that with the bias of having completed graduate STEM education before I ever set foot in the military. Going through ACSC right now, this shit is irredeemable. Reminds me of the RAND and McKinsey and Co frauds I had to deal with during grad school on the non-STEM side. All hat no cattle cohort of pseudo-intellectualism.

Dude I'm in the middle of that garbage right now. I question my decision to continue with every module, and now they're subcontracting Arizona State Univ to handle the thing, so only Lord knows what the migration will do. I'm taking screenshots of my transcripts as we speak. If they short me credit, I'm quitting. Figured Iron Major suits my career aspirations well anyways lol. Cheers!

You're describing the water bro. We know the dynamics of female labor participation post 1970. We've also known about Hypergamy in Western women behavior post- labor market flooding for ages. The subtext is whether you want to pursue the reversal of the trend by coercive forces. That's what gets people defensive, high-achievement women of course included. Stop feigning neutrality, say what you really think. Are you on the "Johnny get my belt! and whip her back to the kitchen" crowd or not? 😄

Pft. Amateurs. Everybody knows you surrogate your wife's FB as a sockpuppet account.

Ditto. One of the few line items of my life that is not part of my username's origin story LOL. To be fair, watching a pair of SLUFs from the PRANG from out the chain link fence was what sparked my entire vocational interest in flying at the young age of 9. All the fighter posters in my wall as a teen were all ANG swag/merch from the hometown unit, so the ARC was a known quantity for me since day one. I was still surprised people were so relatively aloof about the ARC going through OTS and UPT. And this was in the time of flightinfo and the first days of baseops, so the internet was a thing back then already.

Again, you don't have to convince me of either position. I'm just a messenger that has heard it over and over again at pretty much all the squadrons I've been a part of, by virtue of having to manage these people's schedules. Like @SocialD highlighted, the more common complaint seems to be regarding full AD retiree falcons who happen to be management pilots and thus have (or perceive themselves to have) a bigger say/stick on these matters. At any rate, to your question, essentially they articulated the reason was in so many words, the same reason some civi-only pilots also resent ARC pilots: resentment over participation throttling/cherry-picking of relative juniority (and all the associated schedule/QOL that defines it), via rolling MLOA. Again, don't sic the cartero. 😄

I believe so. I don't have a dog in this fight either way, but the inference that pilot washouts in future management positions hold a passive aggressive grudge against mil pilots has at least been the anecdotal experience for me in some professional circles I've dabbled in. I'm not suggesting this would be the case with particular CEO and his airline pilot subordinates. Again no dog in the UAL fight. To be fair, I've also seen mil-on-mil hate from full-AD retired pilots against their dual hatted ARC/airline peers, so it's not just washouts that can hold animosity.

As I currently muddle through the trite and pathetic excuse for what passes for post-graduate academic content via PME vis a vis civilian post graduate education, they keep bringing in this toxic and narcissistic leadership themes on these recycled modules. Descriptions of senior leadership on this thread are almost plagiaristic replications, it's uncanny. "Do as I say not as I do" anyone?

So back on topic, heard SWA flushed the CJO poolies, which is not having a lot of folks feeling the "LUV" right now. Also, internal RUMINT with SW critters in my unit indicate they feel somewhat encouraged a potential aggressive early out program extended to folks as young as 57 (early retirement payout benefits not to exceed 5 years) may indeed have the kind of traction that could stave off furloughs come Oct 1. The same of course cannot be said for United, based on the latest displacement bid. On the AF side, I think it's pretty clear blue won again with their legendary "run the clock offense". Folks are jamming up against each other on the way back into Uncle Sammy's whip. On the ARC side, full time jobs are pretty much doneski, all musical chairs are full already, RPA jobs included. Major/Legacy airline guys in the sub-1000 from their respective bottom would be wise imo to pull the trigger on MLOA earlier rather than later, cuz the manday pots and staff full-time IMAs are going like hotcakes right now.

Pretty "*cheap" to keep, from a *certified perspective anyways. I've owned a Warrior II in the past and now own a post-'72 Arrow II (retractable 200hp full back seat version of the hershey bar PA-28 sub-variant) going on 8 years. PM me if interested on more details, not gonna get into the reasons I own the type over other types on here. All that said, I'm no type-cult member. My reasons for owning the type are rather transactional. If your mission is 2 seats or less, I'd forget these spam cans and go experimental every day of the week and twice on sunday. In the interest of brevity I'll digress on the reasons. You can PM me for those too. Good luck!

IMO your assessment of the condition of this micro-fleet is hyperbolic. The only tangent where I somewhat part company with @HuggyU2 is the seat argument. Retrofitting a measly orphaned detachment of tutors with basic martin bakers, a seat already afforded to and serviced by the Canadians on their entire CT-156 fleet (our T-6 II) is not an economic indignity. They chose to cheap out. That said, I'm not suggesting they need Hornets, at all. I am curious as to what you think should be in order here. All that said, the pilot punched out too late for the old seats, the video is clear as day on that. There was plenty of time to punch out in the envelope of the old seat; that was a decision-making error, that wasn't on the airplane. Unfortunately it cost the pax her life, and maybe the pilot's medical ability to strap into another airplane again, maybe even walk. So I split the baby on this one. Are the snowbirds toast? They don't have to be. It's a matter of financial appetite as to whether or not they keep their show team. If they're that tight that they can't either put two dozen MB seats on those spam cans, or alternatively spare half a detachment of CT-155s to keep the show going, then I guess they don't need the recruitment shtick all that badly. Time will tell.

Those seats tho...... You gotta get out before stall or sink develops, especially on these non-zero-zero dino seats. That was a wicked belated punch for those seats (assuming stock seats for the Tutor). They even got one full turn as the airplane post-stall-gyrated. Yikes. Envelopes are paltry as it is on them. I know people kvetch about RCP vis on the martin bakers on the 38, but I love working with that seat on the C model, just as I did on the T-6. Condolences to the affected families. RIP.

In the simplest terms yes. It's of course more nuanced than that, but to your question of downward displacement (both in seat, equipment, and yes even domicile) you got the right idea. Like I said it's nuanced, because there's also fleet capacity shuffling which affects the net effect of said displacement on an usually smaller fleet total than pre-furloughs, but again, you're in the ballpark. That's why you hear some folks utter the words "there are worse things than getting furloughed", and they're not being ironic when they're implying not getting furloughed can be worse. Being the QOL/schedule plug in your late40s/50s is one such of those insinuations. A lot of people don't have the stomach for that kind of scheduling reset in what is supposed to be the highest grossing years of their lives, and usually their highest overhead years (for the ones with children who are hitting college). It's also the reason many late 40s/50s career changers stuck in the regionals when these musical chairs stop, decide to exit the industry outright. In essence, they don't have the luxury of time to endure that collegiate quality of life over the pedestrian opulent luxuries like weekends offs, that they could attain in their measly 30s in a different industry. Which is why when people say the job is not for everybody, I find it a heavily understated utterance. On the other side of the silver linings spectrum, you had many mil pilots in the lost decade made absolute bank by attaining an active duty retirement they thought they had left on the table, by virtue of being furloughed. Coming back to airlines with true free agency courtesy of that check and lifetime universal healthcare well before the age of 65. Of course, a few decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze after 7 years of being home every night in the ARC, and just bypassed the airline recalls anyways and never returned. Others did return for a little then bailed when it was convenient for whatever they had going on at the time. How people cope with those lifestyle displacements in middle age is a very personal thing, since it relies a lot on people's life stage and what's going on at home, and the composition of the home of course. Good luck to all.

Agreed on all counts. And indeed, they have the cabin volumetrics overweight Americans want, and for some, outright need. But at those prices they are still hen's teeth in the retail market. This downturn will further protract their prevalence in the market outright. If the rank and file GA recreational market had to wait until they could spend housing money on a 2 seater (nevermind those of us who could, but don't do as a matter of principle), there'd be no recreational piston market, even for the standards of our current moribund one. The need to build in itself continues to be a hindrance to the market of course. Otherwise you and I would already own one each. Thankfully, there's old RV-6s and 7s on resale.