brabus

Next AD retention initiative: Sizzlers gift cards. This has promise...

If I had a buck for every time an LM employee fed me bullshit, I’d be retired with a couple airplanes in a hangar next to my 1000 yd shooting range. Agree. However, still good and bad ways to do that.

Those of us actively in the program.

Which is what the chief is threatening to LM...fix your shit or I’ll rec to congress to cut the buy significantly and spend the money with Boeing.

Of course they’re always looking at and planning future upgrades/changes as technology becomes usable and we have the money to do it. F-35s rolling off the line today will be very different down the road. So again, there is no logical need to look into a replacement jet (sans Goldfein’s veiled threat to LM). New aircraft research in this case is wisely spent on 6th gen, which is entirely different than what you’re proposing.

They don’t need a new plane, they need to significantly reduce the fuck ups, timelines for delivery of future capes, etc. The product and it’s future growth are good, the management, delivery and support process of said product/future growth is what’s insanely fucked up. That’s what Goldfein is addressing.

LM has less than 180 days to fix some big stuff or else face the F-35 buy go the way of the Raptor. Hope they pull it off, but also part of me wants to see them get the massive kick in the balls they deserve.

- Unsafe decisions/actions (the type that come from a lack of airmanship that should be overcome somewhere around the first 1/3 of phase 3 UPT). Things I expect a 69 hr PPL to make/do, not a winged military pilot. - Can’t multitask, which contributes to the above. - Basic aviation GK that applies to all airplanes lacking (doesn’t understand portions of instrument flying, let alone basic aerodynamics...when you have to discuss why an action leads to a stall in the operational AF, enough said there). - Physical flying ability immature...this I attribute simply to low flight time in the training pipeline. Not something that won’t come over time, but now the AF expects kids to get these crucial, early career hours in operational assignments instead of T-X in a benign AETC environment. The risk of death, injury, breaking jets, and mission failure is far higher. Those are the big picture ones. The list could continue with more specific items. The common contributing factor is much lower amounts of flight time and skipped/rushed training events due to sliced syllabi. It’s not that young guys are less capable/smart than their predecessors, it’s that they’re getting very shorted on training opportunities combined with a far lower standard in AETC (so guys who should never have had wings have them, and guys in X jet should never have been within 6.9 nm of said jet).

Recommend starting PT to see if that helps. It has done a lot of good for myself and several bros. No guarantee it will work for you, but it’s worth your time to find out. Certainly worth exhausting that option before opting for surgery.

It violated law. Don’t like it, change the law. My personal point though was more holistic - people these days immediately blow a gasket when they read something on the internet or the news anchor tells them, with no regard for the accuracy level of the info they just received. 100% of the time a person reads something on the internet or hears it on the news, the first reaction should be, “interesting, I’ll do some research on that before I form an opinion or spread a WOM like the clap at BQZip’s mom’s house.” Instead probably over half of the pop, including smart, successful people, go full rabble rabble and spread bullshit as their first reaction. It’s not just asshat millennials in Portland that are the problem...

Copy, it will affect some people. Look at bob’s list above and tell me that it doesn’t cover the vast majority? This is a non factor for 98% (made up stat, but it makes the point) - no policy will be perfect for 100% of a group of people.

Former viper bro now working in the embassy world already crushed this WOM - according to him, only applies to children of parents who were not naturalized US citizens at the time of child’s birth. So basically this affects very few people. Another bait article completely misleading people, likely in order to incite dislike for the current administration. Standard bullshit that even smart people choose to form an immediate opinion on without doing any actual research/fact checking.

🍺

Good to hear the jelly of the month club came through.

Sounds like the O-5 board Minority Report-ed your ass. It’s all starting to make sense now...

What type of orders, permanent AGR? If so, you could walk away tomorrow with TAG approval (haven’t heard of a TAG disapproving yet). I’m not sure if the Army has separate, additional restrictions, but I’d be surprised to hear so considering state guard is service agnostic at the top. Part of your argument to help TAG approve is ensure he knows you’re simply transferring components and not all out bailing from the guard.

What commitment length do you owe to the Army? Have you signed something saying they own you for X years and you can’t leave without approval?

There was no assignment or string of assignments offered that could have kept me in (they tried). Of course there are some that will be motivated by that, but in general the bullshit outweighs any good deal assignment...and then you add that to what joe said above. Yeah no thanks AD.

It was a simple, broad statement to make a point...and yes, vectored at the general audience here. Do I think I’m more important than a CCT, the guys I literally trust my life with to ensure my jet is good to go, the O/D cyber guys who are doing an incredibly important job, etc...no, I’d put us on parity. My point was the AF should not simply disregard the MSG/MDG and treat them like shit, but the AF should happily acknowledging operators of jets, PRC-152s and Off/Def keyboards are the ones fighting the wars, and everything else is support. Support should not get the same priority as ops, period. So when some support guy bitches about something, “noted Snuffy” should be the reply, not “oh no, well my first priority as a leader is to make sure nobody is butt hurt, so I’ll bow to your low SA complaint/request, even though I know it will interfere with my pilots’ ability to effectively do their mission.” We are the only branch who is full retard on this. Leaders don’t need to be assholes about it, but what ops (or their direct supporters) need to get the mission done with least amount of barriers is more important than the flavor of the week the MSG is bitching about.

Had an OG say pretty much that, ask me what he could do to keep me, offered up good ideas, etc. I appreciated him truly valuing my contribution and trying in earnest to make things different so I’d stay. If there were more leaders like him, we wouldn’t have half these issues. So far he hasn’t been fired as a wing/cc, so maybe there’s some hope.

Hard truth: low chances at fighters in the ARC (scores, age, LOR sources meh); recommend open the aperture to heavies with a side of attitude change. Or you can not fly jets at all and keep riding the real estate desk to retirement, your call.

1. Start saying no to dumb shit that doesn’t enhance the flying mission or breaks the squadron either personnel and/or materiel wise. 2. COCOMS need to be told go fuck themselves by their air counterparts when they ask for unnecessary stuff/people. 3. Every “good idea” from a shoe that takes time away from my day to do my primary job and does nothing to further the mission needs to be smashed before wing standup even ends. 4. Nobody is equal; be unapologetic about aircrew being more important to the mission than finance (doesn’t mean they’re not an important part, but the rack and stack of priority jobs to the mission is clear). Just because Amn snuffy is excited to go TDY for 2 months because he hasn’t been in years, doesn’t mean I should be, seeing as I’ve already been TDY 6 months so far this year. Shitty leadership sweeps that under the rug and placates to butt hurt snuffy when he laments pilots being prima donnas because they want to do 2 week swap outs and he doesn’t get to. Good leadership says “STFU and color snuffy” and lets pilots do the swap outs. 5. Fight for every possible way to reward people and increase QOL. Example: Shitty leadership could easily give bonuses, but personally decide not to because of some twisted personal view. If it’s legal, do it, no questions asked! Example: shitty leadership who pushes people to work arbitrary 12-14 hr days instead of saying “go home as soon as your day’s work is done.” I could go on, but what all of these things have in common is showing value to your people and their mission. Workers who feel valued (intrinsically or monetarily) and feel unrestricted in accomplishing their mission will have far higher job satisfaction. Here’s why this won’t happen in the AF - any leader who takes all this to heart will be fired tomorrow and replaced by a dickless yes man. The AF doesn’t want solutions or men with change on their mind, they want a carbon copy of the same dipshits who have been running the ship into the rocks for decades. Change is bad, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Sorry pawnman, they don’t hire dirt bags and child abusers. Feel free to check back in once you go to school in residence and haven't said fuck in front of your daughter for at least 6.9 months.

How many of them have strafed danger close at night in the mountains, how many of them have landed at a blacked out LZ under fire, how many of them have faced incredible risk to self for the sake of the mission/a bro in trouble? Hell, on a normal training sortie I face about 1000 times more risk than a doc doing something that they couldn’t even fathom doing. Both groups of people are smart, but to act like flying is somehow easier or less important (especially in the mil) is pure dumbassery. General, you’re clueless. He’s not only bad at “comparative” math, he’s showing how much he/the AF values experience and everything you’ve done/sacrificed for the previous 12 years...which is not much. Overall, fail and par for the course.