hindsight2020

A-fuckin'men. Remember boys, this is Shawshank: We're allll innocent here ;)

Rare is immaterial. Competitive. Not a difference without distinction either, if you're getting close to 30 years of age.

FIGMO! Congrats dude. Enjoy the check. Now make these next 4 years count! We do kindly ask you don't chuck your office chair out the SQ/CC window, the next peon will need it. :D

I thought Jodie would do that for you in any event....common courtesy and shit.

Yeah, one my greater disillusionments with my Air Force "career" is the engrained airframe stovepiping handed down upon you on drop night. It's like fucking AIDS, one bad night and you're fucked for life. I figure it would do a lot for people's retention if you could experience a lot more airframe mobility in one's career. I about got cured from flying for the military altogether after 4 years of BUFFoonery; that airplane/mission put me to sleep. If it wasn't for the trainer I'm flying now I'd probably would have quit. Once they baptize you with an AFSC and you want to fly something else people act like you're asking for a goddamn Constitutional Amendment. I hear the Navy is a little better in this regard, but have no concrete proof of it. Special flying programs would be cool too. Catching the 3 wire on a carrier would be a sweet entry on the ol logbook. I know, it's not supposed to be Burger King. But 10 years of the same 3 day-old microwaved Whopper Jr. you didn't order would make anyone crazy though. LOL

There's no fighter pilot shortage, never will. There's plenty of qualified heavy drivers who simply didn't get a shot (timing and luck). In the Navy this isn't blasphemy, in the Air Force it is. Who knows the fuck why.

..and better schools and dining and entertainment and access to medical services and airports and...well you get the point. I'd triple turn with a smile on my face in order to provide my family with that leg-up.

holy goddamn revival batman. Yeah brother, IPs have always been GS-13 with a Special salary table that puts GS-12s (ACs) and GS-13s (IPs) at 30% bump of base salary, in lieu of locality pay. Locality pay in the common AF shithole locations is your standard national non-high-COL rate of 15% of base salary. So in essence, for shithole non-high-COL locations, a GS-13 pilot instructor is getting a 15% bump in salary (30%= 15% above the standard 15% he/she would otherwise get with locality pay) versus a straight GS civil servant whose occupational series does not qualify him for the special salary table. ....Color coded speak, since I know you knuckle draggin pilot types do math hard: You're getting paid less than an AGR, taxed at a higher rate, working longer every day for the same money and getting a crappier retirement. But if you don't want to do the airlines, it's better than fry cook or starting over at a college graduate salary in your 40s with a kid and a fat wife who lost her money maker a decade ago. Come to think of it. I thought you were an ART? Shouldn't you know this shit already?

Squadron bro of mine is in process of switching from AF Reserve T-6s to Navy SELRES T-6Bs, but he's going to Corpus, not P-cola. Same deal though, much better town QOL wise and the aforementioned Navy flying/training culture. #winning. It helped him he was already current/qualified in the T-6 and thus the B model "qual course" is literally doing a couple of rides in the B and a NATOPS check. None of the formalized AF faggotry known as PIT, to be sure. The Navy has their money problems to be sure, and I've heard some bullshit about Navy Reserves (Marines) doing individual involuntary mobilizations (fuck that shit), but all in all you can't beat some of the Navy locations.

Nope. It's the basic tenet of a culture that doesn't view the volunteer's desire to 1) exclusively pursue their primary duty, and 2)to do so in the company of peers who feel the same way in a traditional-cultural politically incorrect social environment of brotherhood-in-arms in such pejorative light. The rest of the cultural differences that distinguish the QOL between AD and the ARC are but mere corollaries of that basic principle. ADCON is the legal measure that allows the ARC component to get away with it. Remove that, and the culture is quickly usurped by Active Duty. The problem with the latter is that since there is no formalized economic incentive to tolerate an antagonistic culture in the Reserves (the incentive is mainly cultural) like there is in the Active Duty, the proposition of retaining quality personnel on a formula of Active duty life with Reserve pay is an immediate non-starter. Active Duty arrogantly assumes that the ARC will be there in its present capacity even in the presence of their cultural takeover. They base all their economies of scale regarding expanded reservist numbers base and participation on the assumption of such supposed inelasticity. They are of course, fatally wrong. They don't care of course, as AD is a virus, spreading and infecting cancer into healthy organisms, until there's nothing left. People in the Reserves are largely folks with options, generally unafraid to combine civilian employment exigencies into their military voluntary service. They are generally not a group of people to find themselves economically bound/dependent to the shit sandwiches of a dismissive and ungrateful military employer. They get enough of that as civilians to know better than to pigeonholes themselves that way. It may seem like hyperbole to an Active Duty koolaid drinker, to witness a Reservist quit over cultural issues, but he would be wrong. It isn't hyperbole, it's the reason said Reservist probably left Active duty for Reserve life in the first place. Many have, and many will if these changes come to pass. The remainder will be an inexperienced hollow force of young guys who resemble AD in every way except they don't get paid like Active Duty. This of course, will never materialize. Even young people without experience to leverage, can count with their fingers. You want to change the paradigm? Flip the culture over. Make Active Duty a place where flying your ass off and going home without people fucking with you in garrison, is not viewed pejoratively. A place where the few who will end up at the top do the practice bleeding. That will never happen of course, this place jumped the shark a long ass time ago. Contrary to popular belief, money's got dick to do with it. Most independently wealthy individuals I've met in my professional and academic life, have in fact been Reservists. Active Duty is clueless.

Dude. This report is bad. There's some huge game-changing nuggets in there for those who care about life after Active Duty service... Page 32: Recommendation to DISESTABLISH the Air Force Reserve Command, along with disbanding ARC numbered AFs, wings and squadrons. Um, WTFO? You've GOT to be shitting me. Then they go in great detail about the establishment of these so called i-Wings. If you care about divesting yourself from Active Duty stupidity in your attempt at flying military jets for a living, iWings is the last thing you want to work under. It's a complex spider-web of memorandums of agreement/understanding (MOA/MOU) that keeps this teeter-totter from flipping over in the current form, but I'll stick to the punchline. Here's the important thing you AD bubbas need to grasp about your own perception of QOL in the Reserves in the context of this report: It all hinges on a little known word called ADCON. ADCON is what allows those "corner-cutting Reservists" your leadership winces at, the ability to say "NO" to the bullshit while continuing to fly Air Force jets for a paycut. ADCON is what allows Reservists to protect their flying and personnel records when Active Duty Commanders wish to railroad individuals merely because they control the iron on the ramp and reservists don't toe the line. ADCON is the kevlar behind the MAJCOM velcro patch Reservists wear every day. It is not surprising the AF wishes to disband that MAJCOM entirely. ADCON (not to be confused with OPCON) is what this report repeatedly slams as the source of inefficiency within the current landscape of component associations, commonly known as Total Force Integration/Enterprise (TFI/TFE). For the uninitiated, these are your.. 1) Active Associates (Reserve leadership, iron and work rules, Active duty rent-a-bodies; aka a good deal) 2) Classic Associates (Active duty leadership, iron and work rules, Reserve rent-a-bodies; aka a bad deal) and 3) Guard Associates (Guard and AFRC leadership, iron and work rules; aka the best deal going, short of stand alone Guard or Reserve units). The report seeks to recommend stripping the AFRC from exercising ADCON by disbanding the command, leaving that responsibility fully within the spectrum of Active Duty Commanders. FUCK. THAT. SHIT. Understand what this means: Active Duty life for a part-time paycheck. Forget QOL, forget good flying assignments. Forget reprieve from Active duty qweep. The iWing is the full and ultimate takeover of Reserve discretion. Honestly, if that is to come to fruition, you don't really want to stick around the military. At that point you either fight to get your pension check in Active Duty and suck that buffalo a nickle a herd if you can stomach it, or you make a clean break for the airlines or civilian life. Because I tell you this much, active duty life for a reserve paycheck is something that's NOT gonna gain any traction with the financially literate, the talented and educated; i.e. those with options. You don't want to stick around the rejects that will sand-crab their way into tenures in this newly formed expanded active-duty controlled "associate" abortion. Holy shit I can't believe that report is real. Beginning of the end folks, if these recommendations come to pass. Baby boomers lucked out. Mother fuckers are shutting it all down with their own retirements and departure from military and civil service. Born 20 years too late....Fuck. Oh well, it was a good run. I'd count myself lucky if I can finish my watered down retirement under FERS licking stamps at the post office. Good thing I'm putting the wife through nursing school, we're gonna need that income.

...

when bases close? If in one-trick pony towns then yeah, might as well mail the keys to the bank. It's called the music stops without a musical chair. This is not just a dynamic seen during military closings, when energy sector tanks, these remote locales lose population overnight and the local housing market crashes. I'd never get caught dead owning property in places like Clovis NM. If I couldn't find rentals, I'd just set up the family in the proverbial Lubbock and geo-bash. Seriously.

Take care of each other, deployed or in garrison. Take advantage of every flying opportunity afforded to you. Like my old squadron commander told me when I asked him as a young CGO what participation he wanted out of me in the office: "Son, I want you to fly fly FLY!". Min run the qweep. Understand you're already doing more for the Country than 90% do. Take control of your training. And lastly, have a plan-B always in hand because in the end timing and luck takes care the rest, assignments and retention included. Take chances, don't look back.These are the best years of your life. That's what I would say. Bonus points if you can keep yourself from uttering some bullshit about the one-way Core Values senior leadership is guilty of pandering with. Good luck with the firings, Bob.

Honestly? That's easy. i) They live way the fuck above their means (their wives demand it). ii) They were gonna attempt to stay in anyways (and don't kid yourself, that's a mere corollary of i ). Over at the other airline forum there's a couple of retired mobility O-5 bitching about not being able to make ends meet on retired mil pay and regional FO pay. One went so far to admit he needed an additional 5K above his retired pay (4K) in order to make black for his particular family situation. 9K to cover the expenditures column of the ledger, every month. LOL. You tell me why people take such a piddly bonus to lose all control.

Don't worry. We're all rent seekers in this life... /cynic

Let me make it easy for these congresscritters. Listen real good Congress, I'll go slow: I ain't doing any of this shit for a 401k and I ain't doing any of this shit for a benefit payout a day later than the day I stop doing the job, right ricky tick. Comprende? I'll curtail/torpedo my PT test twice the next day. I have options and my identity is not married to this uniform. Plan accordingly. Signed, ~A financially literate servicemember who can count with his fingers. It's not rocket surgery, Congress. Good for the goose good for the gander, color-by-numbers type of shit. And good luck recruiting my son. See how that works?

Dismantle the Triad. Remove the bombers, downsize the silos. Subs are a go. Done. 6900 less people on PRP, the morale of entire cities just went up by orders of magnitude. Next....

Judging by all the fielded calls we're handled these past two weeks asking about Reserve employment, I'm convinced you fuckers are gonna crash MyPers when that window opens up. Gonna make the healtcare.gov website look like Fiber Optic Broadband by comparison. Welcome back to 1992 everybody.

You said it brother. As small a community as we are in the grand scheme of things, your best bet is just to call around the units. I'm sure they're somewhat spun up on the happenings of your specific airframe and are probably targeting certain individuals for TR billets. I'm not really sure how that formal program works but I sincerely doubt it would facilitate the overbilleting you seek in order to get hired in the unit that you happen to want. I'm afraid it always comes down to good ol networking. Keep knocking on doors, someone's bound to hire ya. I'm surprised your leadership is letting you guys flail like that. I would expect a lot of referrals to be coming out of you guys commander's office. Good luck.

This thread is not gonna help our case in Congress fellas....and they read this site apparently...

That certainly a change during my tenure. When I was a FNG civilian outsider the proposition of anyone AD rolling into an AGR without doing a solid stint as a TR first would get them laughed out the building. I suppose those dynamics would always be normalcy for a unit that has trouble keeping folks around (for another thread)... I haven't looked into it since I happened to be Master's complete before I ever joined the military in any capacity (trust me, getting that master's had NOTHING to do with military promotability, that was one random happenstance) but I think AGRs get TA. ARTs I don't think do, but ARTs get promoted like TRs, for that is what they fundamentally are on the mil side of their billet. Meaning they probably don't need it versus AGRs. I cringe to think what discriminators are going to look like for TRs in the next five years for O-5. ETA: and yes, this is all recent AD Lite (AFRC) faggotry I speak for. I have no idea how the Bureau of "you burned all your IDT, see ya next year.....yes I know it's June" aka the Guard, works as of late regarding these matters.

Are you new? I've seen worse out of a Palace Chase application, and that's not even getting out completely or asking for money. You must be trolling. ETA: Porkchop's advice is spot on, you must have that 7-day opt grenade on standby before making these check calls at the AD table. 7 day-opt is like a VISA card, don't leave home without it.

carnally?....

Things are changing on that front I'm afraid... The ART conversions continue to be the flavor of the decade for AFRC and though we've escaped the conversion implementation so far, I can't in good conscience assume that a newhire AGR will ever see the other side of the 20 year tunnel. This info for training use only, not to be used for navigation....