brabus

I have never personally seen an 11F patch be an exec in the last 7 years; I'm sure there's an exception somewhere, but overall I don't think crap like that happens in the CAF for the most part. Most dudes do two assignments as a patch (SQ/WG level, then OT/teach WIC/another CAF assignment for the most part) then they're off to school/staff or the guard/airlines...you can guess which one of those two categories a metric shit ton fall into.

Kenny's point is huge. I've been gone from home a cumulative 4 years out of 9 years of marriage...and I'm pretty sure that's average at best, there are many dudes who have been gone a lot more than that. Flying is awesome and I love my job, but it's not easy on the family. I *think* the ANG is better than the picture I painted, but spending YEARS (cumulative) away from family is reality over a career, regardless if you're AD or ARC. UPT is only the beginning, and almost laughably low stress/easy once you get a few years in the future and compare that to UPT. It's a great life/job for many, but not for all; make your decision being the most informed possible.

Recommend Vanguard - easy for a dude who doesn't know/want to learn a bunch regarding investing, low expense ratios, and good performing funds overall. Way better than USAA.

Incorrect, the AF is dumping a lot of effort into service life extension programs (SLEP) for 4th gen, because even "they" realize we need a lot of 4th gen around to supplement 5th gen because we'll never get to an all 5th gen force, at least in the next 30 years. We're doing it right now, and have been for months...in a shit hole country. The high end threat is real and is all over; you don't need to start WWIII with China or Russia to fly in more than AAA and IR threats.

Unless you have an I/Q form 8 in your FEF for the T-38, you were never officially qual'd in it, despite logging primary time (which is not directly related to aircraft qual).

4TH Gen fighters will be around through 2045, so we're not planning for a f22/f35 only force. Who knows what 6 Gen will end up looking like at this point.

Interesting article. However, it still reeks of the standard anti-stealth/f35 article that loves to point out a spoon rest can detect LO platforms, but chooses to ignore the multitude of capabilities these aircraft (22 and 35) have besides a low dB (and ignores the current benefits of LO we still enjoy). These are not niche aircraft like the 117, as the author incorrectly implies. Even the haters of the air dominance mafia who loathe the 15C as a single mission aircraft still should recognize the 22 is not a single role fighter in the sense the 15C is, despite the fact it's primary "traditional" missions are escort and DCA. LO still provides a useful capability, and I would agree with the author if our last two fighters were niche like the 117, but they're not, and on top of that they are far better than the air frames they're designed to replace (this does not include the claim the 35 replaces the a10).

No f8 in iff for at least the last 10 yrs as far as I know, but I heard it was such a thing in the past.

Is it for sure? There are several TDYs that are not allowed to be accompanied. I don't know about altus, but I know about others that aren't, which the AF essentially responds with "not our problem, maybe your wife and kids should live with her parents."

Can Altus be an accompanied TDY? If so, what moto said applies. If it can only be unaccompanied, there's a whole world of asspain ahead.

RUMINT is more often than you'd think. There's such a lack of fighter representation at UPT bases (i.e. line IPs are rarely fighter dudes), the AF started sending fighters XC to UPT bases for grad days so people have the chance to see a fighter, talk to a fighter pilot, etc. At least when I went through UPT, the majority of T-38 IPs were fighter guys, now they're mostly bomber and other (i.e. went through T-38s at UPT, got a C-X, now back teaching T-38s). Obviously these dudes are perfectly capable of teaching phase III, but have zero fighter experience to talk smartly to the young dudes when they're making their dream list.

For one, the FTUs are at max capacity; we cannot train b-coursers fast enough to meet what the CAF needs; so, there's only as many F-Xs as the FTUs can support. Secondly, I don't know the makeup of this class, but it's fairly likely there were at least a couple dudes who shouldn't being flying fighters, CAF shortage or not. For that reason alone, it was a good move to give the non-fighter aircraft option to ENJJPT. As far as getting "good deal heavies" that T-1 dudes "fight for," I honestly don't know what the right answer is.

Nothing around Misawa that I'm aware of - everyone pretty much picked theirs up from Mr. Lim, Darkhorse or Pops.

We used a pocket saw once, the rest of the time the SERE guy chopped wood because god forbid anyone use an axe without 69 hours of axe safety training. SERE is not hard, and is actually pretty fun if you're an outdoors type. Really no need to bring anything other than what they tell you to bring.

What blows my mind from the outsider perspective is bros at one base getting hired 13 step 5 + bonus and bros at another base getting hired at step 1 "no chance in hell!" on the bonus. They're the same qualification/experience level of dude (one base does the superior qual thing, the other doesn't/rarely does), but with significant pay differences in the SAME system (AFRC, so not a state thing). No wonder all my friends in the second group are madly looking for a way out of ART and into airlines, etc.

Good point - that's the way it seems, but I agree, he can't possibly be so ineffective at changing the organization he leads. Organizational change is a monumental undertaking, but he has to be able to make changes beyond the things I mentioned. Those were nice and I'm glad he made them, but, still not the sweeping changes that a shattered organization like the AF needs.

Figured this comment would come - copy, we have cancerous senior leadership (O-6 to about O-8). This group is hugely to blame for a large portion of the pain we all suffer. I'm going to venture a guess and say the CSAF doesn't have the time/capacity to go hand hold/kick every O-6 in the balls for not following his verbal/written commands explicitly. The real problem is these middle management clowns will continue the same bullshit until it's expressly not allowed in AFI. Too bad it takes years to re-write/approve large sweeping AFI changes. You can argue the CSAF should have prioritized those AFI changes higher, but I understand he most likely had bigger fish to fry and at the same time put too much trust in his senior leadership to actually lead.

No blues mondays, friday shirts, callsigns on nametags, shitcan masters required for Maj, don't do school corres AND inres, etc. I agree nothing monumental, but at least he reversed a lot of the bullshit skelator 2 gave us. The more sad part is he had to spend so much time undoing crap like that all while being drowned in bullshit forced on him by congress. Don't hold the chief down with "highest priority!" items like SAPR (as one example) and let him focus on what we actually exist for. I can't cast stones at the man, but I can cast countless at the "leadership" above him.

Free to take leave IAW whatever AFI governs it. You're not in a formal course yet, and you'll be relatively useless as a casual LT, thus easy to let go on leave. Only caveat I remember from those days was wether they would let you take leave you hadn't accrued yet - e.g. you go into a negative leave balance, but you'll make it back during UPT. I think it was SQ/CC approval required. That may also have been a Squadron/base specific thing - I wouldn't count on something like that, but doesn't hurt to ask if you find yourself in that situation.

It amazes me in this era of manning crisis (in the ARC), they still are hiring dudes at 13 step 1 and giving no bonus. So every dude in that position who comes off AD is making less money than when they left, or at least is continuing to work 60 hrs a week to match their AD pay check. From the outsider perspective, seems the ARC side needs to stop relying on "great deal, you get to fly forever and avoid pointless staff, 365s, etc" and realize despite those intangible benefits, dudes are not going to keep up the ART gig when there are countless opportunities that pay significantly more, offer same/more time at home with the family, and oh by the way they can still get their "I fly military aircraft" rocks off a few days a month as a TR. Hire everybody at a Step 5/6 and auto 25-50% retention bonus, then I think a ton more dudes will 1) Desire an ART 2) Stay and not look hard for other means of income.

Would you be able to engrave a patch on the bottle opener? At least from the F-35 picture, it looks like you might be able to get a slightly larger than a bottle cap size patch on there; maybe the opener would have to be slightly bigger? In your opinion, would the bottle opener have to be obnoxiously large in order to be both functional and have an engraved patch? Awesome looking stuff by the way!

Know a few bros who have done this type of thing, but renting. I see a lot of potential disasters happening if you go the purchase route, and that's IF you can somehow manage a 2-3 way mortgage. Rent a mansion, don't buy.

Sean - I know multiple dudes who have used the 6 month extension. A DE cannot say no when you show them the SFAR; and if they still refuse, find another DE. I would not worry one bit about it.

What Muscle said is what happened to my buddy. 50% manned/he's mission critical, so SR said don't send because of that. AFPC: "Sounds good, here's his rip for school." Here's an idea, what if we weren't obsessed with useless PME, or at the min just did it all via distant learning. This BS we call an "education" is certainly doable via distant learning at the 100% rate. In res is a jobs program for AU. The only caveat is MAYBE the small opportunities like sending a guy to a civilian school. He gets a great education, BUT much of the time I still question how useful that masters is to the AF/that officer during their AF career. The friends I have going to those opportunities are guys who will do just as well in their continued career without the additional masters.