brabus

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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.

The Joe special.

Everyone deploys and nobody has a clue what the next ten years will entail. Go for the mission/location that appeals to you, and don’t worry about the rest.

you can submit paperwork a year out from requested date, or at least that’s what it was a few years ago. I think more accurately you could submit earlier, but AFPC won’t even look at it until at most a year out. However, this is almost 4 year old gouge, so worth further verification.

Hey Pop Sci, “badass” means...never mind.

M2, you must have one hell of a VPN/browser history cleaner...what the hell were you searching on the dark web to find this!

You can transfer at the end of your navy commitment into the guard/reserve, or you can fully separate with honorable discharge and then subsequently join the guard/reserve later. I’ve seen it done multiple times, but sorry, can’t point you to exact reg. That said, I’m talking about guys who were rated pilots in the Navy. I’m not sure if you can do another formal flying course after washing out of another...at least without a waiver. Your first step is find a unit that will entertain hiring you for a UPT slot, which will likely be very difficult. I don’t think any fighter unit would even consider it, can’t speak for heavy units. If you are able to convince a unit it’s worth the risk to send you to UPT, they will help you navigate the required paperwork to make it happen.

I get what you’re saying huggy, but as one example, me having to bust a guy on an MQT ride because he literally can’t fly his jet safely AND employ it, and this is after he has passed UPT, IFF, and FTU. That is an epic systemic failure. I don’t think any of us blame the bros on the line, it’s the SQ/CCs on up who prioritize green slides over product quality, who refuse to acknowledge the problem, who ultimately are responsible for the bullshit product they churn out today (and its not that young guys suck, it’s that they are not getting the instruction and learning opportunity they need). I’m not saying all new guys are terrible, but there’s an alarmingly high rate of new guys who absolutely would not have made it to the CAF years ago,

IFF has 5 busts and you’re out (well, at least that’s the way it used to be). The reality is current phase 3 likely sets a majority of studs up for IFF washout if IFF actually had the same standard as 10+ years ago. So, it’s not accurate to say it’s all IFF’s fault...at minimum it’s 50/50 between the two, and if you include the entire AETC spectrum, blame can probably be set about 75% towards UPT/IFF and 25% at the FTU. That’s one “customer’s” opinion of the AETC product.

I started to go soft on my opinion of this a while ago because honestly I don’t want to see my wingman until initial...don’t really care about tac formation, etc. I said. Well, that was an easy opinion to have when I’d spent over 3 years flying with only weapons officers and highly experienced IPs. I went back to the CAF and couldn’t believe the lack of capability I saw in the young guys...not their fault, as I quickly realized how shitty AETC was doing at producing a quality product. I then spent months of my time teaching basic fighter pilot shit to these guys, including just calling off tactical training for 15 min as I did tac turns and rejoins with a kid who was struggling...great dude, but what the fuck is going on when I had to prioritize basic flying training over tac training in MQT? Talked to a couple of my counterparts around the CAF, and they had literally the exact same story to tell. The reduction of fighter IPs in UPT combined with reduced syllabi and UPT/IFF/FTU not washing out studs has created a significant safety and combat capability problem. So 11Ms aren’t the root cause, but it is one of the more significant contributing factors.

No TAMP, fucked up pay, fucked up GI bill, etc. Nothing that can’t mostly be overcome eventually, but how much time are you wanting to spend over a months long period at FM and MPF pulling your hair out wanting to throat punch the idiot behind the desk? Maybe you get lucky and don’t experience that, but why risk it? In the end it’s signing paperwork, so if no shit it’s either swear in or go to indoc, talk to your unit and see what they’re willing to do (backdate paperwork, etc.)

Whatever you do, make sure you swear in to the guard the next day after your last day on AD...have a plan to make it happen, including a day of mil leave if required. That’s not something you want to screw up. Also, I’m guessing you will likely find a work week you can in process that’s in between Indoc and training, between training and first IOE ride, etc.

Anyone know if I can use the remaining amount of my available (unused) VA loan to finance a garage/shop build on my property? I currently have a VA loan for my house. I’m also failing at google this morning. Edit: For clarity, I used $424K in 2017 (Max at the time), but looks like the new limit is $484K...so does that mean I can use the difference to pay for the garage? Also, would I pay another VA funding fee?