brabus

As a very general statement, you'll likely get to have more life experiences outside of "home" on AD in terms of living in other countries/states, mixing up the assignment type, etc. But, there's a whole lot of bullshit that comes along with that. It was great when I was young and didn't have kids, but by the time my oldest was 4, I didn't want to spend another day on AD. There are a lot of opportunities in the ARC to fill random jobs in USAFE, etc. So the adventure and moving around can still happen, it's just not automatic - you'll have to put in the effort to seek out opportunities and make them happen. The best part - you'll only do it under your own free will and more or less on your timeline. That kind of power to make the choice is worth a lot...there is no such choice on AD.

I don’t think that’s happening as much as the rumors say...I know a lot of ARC bros who are Capt/young Maj getting hired at delta and the rest of the big ones (including a couple at fed ex). I’m not surprised either, take the emotion out of it and by the numbers it doesn’t make sense for a company to bypass high quality applicants for anti-USERRA reasons.

I don't disagree with you, 5 years is a long time to immediately bail on your new employer. From a macro level though, does a few guys doing this really have much of an effect when there's 14K+ pilots on the payroll? Reality is you're talking about maybe 1% of the pilots at a given major doing something like that. Emotions aside, that's pretty inconsequential. Add on the fact many ARC pilots are well qualified for these jobs - does an airline want to pass on those caliber of individuals because they might execute a plan like this (not to mention they've secured a guy for 25-30 years after his hiatus)? To be clear, I'm not going down this road now or in the future, but it does seem like this topic can be emotionally blown out of proportion, especially when guys are taking mil leave to fill badly needed positions (and not just throwing mil leave around simply to avoid holiday flying, etc.). At my unit there are dudes on mil leave without a lot of time at the airline, but they are doing critical jobs that frankly we'd be in a very tough spot if they hadn't come back full time - that's what USERRA is for, why should they be judged because they came back after 1 year?

But in this specific line of discussion, those U.S. idiots who major it art and are washing dishes screwed themselves and it's their mess to clean up (financially), as it should be. In Europe those same idiots who chose an art degree and are now washing dishes got a free ride courtesy of the tax payers. As a taxpayer, the hell if I'm paying for an art or history degree, I will however be OK if some of my taxes pay for somebody to become an electrician, plumber, etc. That's technical training that will directly benefit society and they'll contribute to the work force in a manner consistent with their education (vs. getting an expensive, useless degree and only contributing to the labor market in the same manner a high school student could).

Don't suck up extra charges, do what di said. If someone asks at the front desk, just tell them your family isn't with you anymore...unless you think that will result in them saying they have room for you alone? Them being there should have zero bearing on you getting full lodging rate and BAH...it's not illegal for them to visit you.

The academics are not that hard, but do require effort. I've seen engineers not do great because they over-think the shit out of things; of course I've seen many do great. Most people usually blow off steam Fri night through Sun afternoon, then do some studying for a few hours on Sun. Or maybe millennials these days just show up on Mon morning asking to be spoon fed everything because there was no time to study on Sunday since skinny jean shopping took longer than expected.

Scores are obviously great; work on the flying part ASAP, even if it means taking out a loan to pay for it. If you can add a PPL to your app (or at least show you have X hours and expect to finish your PPL on Y date) and write a good cover letter, I think you will likely get some interviews. To the MJ part - when asked the question about "have you ever...," the response is "yes (and here's what I learned from that mistake, which made me a better xyz...)" not "yes, I did 5 times." There's a subtle, but important difference in those answers. In addition to that, seek out potential squadrons and go for some visits if you can afford to. Even 1 visit on a drill weekend before the hiring board weekend can make a big difference. Also at your age, I suggest you cast a wide net and go with whoever offers you a UPT slot first. Don't limit yourself to only a couple squadrons. Fighters are great, but consider non-fighters as well...I am biased and will tell you fighters are where it's at, but flying just about anything is awesome in its own way and way better than not flying anything.

This is only my perception and perhaps its incorrect on the broader scale, but I don't get the feeling (yet), the ANG is running into issues of "having to" hire duds because there's no one else (not just based on my SQ, but others I know as well). But, seems like this is more of an issue in AFRC. Why?

I have far less personal experience in Europe than many on this site, but in the time I've spent there on various TDYs talking to my counterparts, its loud and clear their system is not great. What di1630 is saying is on par with what my counterparts have said during those trips. One example was a Maj who was considering going to school (similar to us going to a civilian school for ACSC), but to even get a basic apartment was nearly unaffordable...on a Major's salary. Taking his family wasn't even in the equation, they would have to stay on their bum fuck island in the middle of nowhere - no other option was remotely affordable. Not a single pilot I talked to had much, if anything, to say in terms of, "Yeah that sucks, BUT let me tell you about all of the awesome things I get from my government for paying 69% in taxes!" There's a reason many of those dudes would love to take an opportunity to teach at ENJPPT or fly F-4s at Holloman. Seriously, Wichita Falls and Alamogordo are AMAZING opportunities they salivate over...if that doesn't tell you something, I can't help you. Bottom line, life in Scandinavia is not that great for most people. Yes they are proud of their country, history, etc. and don't love everything about America (makes sense), but pragmatically opportunity (including better QOL) is significantly greater in America than their home countries. To the school debate - I think it makes sense to divert tax money away from bullshit like Welfare and use it to send people to technical schools. I agree with others here, that is not socialism, and honestly makes sense. I don't think diverting money to pay for Joe Blow to go to UT, UCLA, etc. makes sense - I have a real problem with higher education costs/the product you get these days anyways. Up the technical school game - there are very good careers one can have going that route. For example, my neighbor is a master electrician and lives on par with me as a Maj...so my two degrees aren't doing much for me over his technical training (in terms of purchasing power). I don't care about that, just pointing out the ridiculous stigma that if you don't go to a 4 yr college, you'll be flipping burgers the rest of our life.

Same - the only negative was how much time it took to make it, then put all my paper logbook info into it. Once caught up, all I do is grab my phone after a sortie and put in the info before debrief starts...lives in the cloud. There's unlimited customizability for future flying and I don't pay a cent for it.

Valid, and I believe there will be a total transition (other than those close enough to tech retirement it doesn't make sense). But NGB and HRO are crazy if they think many dudes won't just say fuck it and go airlines vs. working another year for a 30% pay cut under a terrible system. They could retain more full time dudes, but they're dragging it out and losing a lot of experience in the process.

Heard we are only getting 2 transitions for FY19...4 of us currently who would take one. Instead of giving us 4 and getting 100% take rate, 1-2 dudes will be quitting shortly...good work NGB.

Unit generally won't care about you being traditional while service out your PC commitment. What they likely will care about is you skipping out of seasoning (or a portion of). These are very general statements, it depends on the leadership and their personal viewpoints, how much seasoning you're skipping out of (90% or the last month?), etc.

Does FF give any discounts to mil (for personal use, not for a work account)?

The NDAA authorized 3000 conversions for the ANG, not sure about the AFRES, but I imagine it's similar. Who knows how those will be dolled out across the country, but rumor here is we'll get ~4 pilots converted in FY20. However I've been in long enough to trust the AF very little, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Summer of 19.

These annoyances can be avoided by simply wearing normal workout clothes. They don't know if youre mil or contractor.

Current 4th gen already compliment the 5th gen; as long as funding is appropriately provided to continued development of vipers and both eagle variants (not hogs, because that'd be treason), well be OK with 4th gen mass supplementing smaller numbers of 5th gen. The big question is if the CFGs will allocate the funding required to keep our 4th gen fleet advancing at the required rate.

Don't need to provide a receipt for less than $70. Claim as taxi on voucher. Problem circumvented (albeit not solved long term as you pointed out). Why did you guys lose variations authorized?

Same. I've seen many LTs the past few years who are well below average, on a secret LOX post-MQT, would never in a million years got 38s let alone a fighter 5 years ago, etc. The current AETC average product is shit. The naturally talented do great, the average guys are below average in the CAF, and the "old days" slightly below average guy is a .1 away from killing himself and/or someone else every day. This is what we have right now with guys who have hundreds of hours and have been through far more training. What are we going to get when the bottom 1/3 types are pushed through a gutted program? I acknowledge tech increase will narrow the gap and likely out perform status quo UPT teaching methods to an extent, but it will not close the gap with the wreckless amount of slashed training time. I sincerely hope this experiment breeds some awesome increase in instructional/learning capability to be implemented in UPT/IFF, but not seen as a full replacement.

They had to have flown more than 30 hrs in 6 months, that'd be about 3 sorties per month if true. Please tell me that's a typo. Going from barely being able to find your own ass in a T-6 straight to a $90M jet with 40K thrust where a brand new wingman is expected to have the SA/decision making ability of a 4th gen flight lead...yep this is going to work well.

Agree with Hoss - we switched to standard for the last 3 years of my AD time...kicking myself for not doing it earlier. Prime is bullshit. Unfortunately for my situation now, there's not a whole lot of places where I live who take Tricare, so our options are limited, but not necessarily bad.

I know, I was also being sarcastic and making joke.

Contrary to popular belief, stupid questions do exist.

Set a DOS immediately and hope it is registered in the AFPC system prior to you receiving an email. Had a friend in a similar situation - he didn’t have a cranium’s up like you, just so happened he set his DOS a few days prior to receiving the deployment notification. They initially said he had to go, but he immediately got out of it when he pointed out there was a DOS in the system that was prior to the date he would return from the deployment.