brabus

TDY enroute with dependents on your orders is the best option. Talk to your UPT SQ/CC and you’ll also have to work it through MPF. It will likely take CC interaction with MPF to make it happen, as MPF’s standard answer will be no. If you only have a matter of days between the two courses, that sounds like a solid reason to go this route. If that all works, the AF will have to provide you lodging that covers your whole family. If no TLFs available, its on you to find something off base. Ha e you looked into long term air bnb in the local area?

Not with PIC time (at least for a while until CA upgrade). He’s turbine PIC 100% of the time in fighters, and most (all?) majors apply some amount of correction factor to mil time (but none for civ time). He should be at 1500 TT/800+ turbine PIC in 5 years if all he does is fly full time fighters. With the way retirements/hiring is going, he’ll likely be pretty damn competitive at that point.

Shack. You (OP), will be a limfac to your sq, likely a long term one, if you punch to DSG 2 years after FTU. As a fighter pilot, you owe it to the team and yourself to gain more experience before going part time...I assume you don’t want to be the below average dude in the sq that’s on “secret probation, LOX, etc.” that makes dudes sigh when they see you’re in the formation. The right amount of full time years depends on the individual’s natural ability, work ethic, deployment/flag level TDY opportunities, etc. As a general ROT, I recommend you get through 4FLUG before seeking out the airlines. All that said, I get orders/tech job are not a guarantee after seasoning, but you should do your damndest to make those happen. I know it’s hard seeing a bunch of the older dudes going to the airlines and talking about how great it is, but my rec is be patient, put some hard effort into the next 5 years as a fighter pilot, and then I bet you have enough hours to get directly hired to a major, all while skipping the regionals. Final caveat: if you truly are SOL on a full time job post-seasoning (including stringing orders, temp tech, etc. together), then going to a regional that has a flow agreement with a major seems like the best option. Flows are ~50% of AALs hires, as an example.

I sold back 30 and took 60 days of terminal...I wish I’d taken 90 days of terminal. I’d take it all unless you have some really good reason to swear into the guard/reserve sooner.

Shack...and that’s the point too many people don’t understand nowadays. See Guardian’s post above - nailed it.

Do we know that anything happened worthy of punishment beyond an ass chewing? You can play devils advocate all you want, but this statement lives right in line with guilty until proven innocent, squarely where OSI and the Air Force Times loves to live . Totally possible Fargo did some unsavory shit, but I’m also not going to shit on the man and color him a dirt bag solely because of an OSI investigation that dovetailed into character assassination disseminated by the Air Force tabloid, both groups of which have very little credibility in my opinion.

I agree it’s not a stretch, but let’s also consider how many dudes have been crucified with non-existent evidence or shaky circumstantial stuff at most. What about my wife?...well if she was the type who’s vindictive, petty, and/or so over reactionary, then she probably could have been the source of 69 CDIs over the years. But she’s mature enough to not rake someone over the coals for a drunken “inappropriate hug” or whatever other overreaction our PC society loves. She also has no problem dealing with someone being an idiot immediately instead of running off to tell stories to OSI, a CC, etc. Too many have forgotten how to first address issues as their level and instead go tattling to dad as the first step. My 4 yr old daughter has better conflict resolution skills then many in our society (and military) today.

Hard no.

“Say so” is all it takes nowadays.

Did he do things exactly as described in Air Force Times? You’re putting more faith in what that POS publication says vs. a fellow pilot who many will vouch for with first hand knowledge of the man. Shack, OSI standard. I was involved in an OSI investigation once and in a similar position as your ex-wife. They threatened me with punishment, getting me kicked out of UPT, etc. if I didn’t essentially roast someone/give them what they wanted to hear. I said nothing and life went on, the other individual didn’t get fucked over, and we all lived happily ever after...except for the bloodlust OSI agents who were pissed because they lost a chance to fuck someone over. They’re a bunch of coercive scumbags and I will always be extremely skeptical of anything OSI has “extracted” from someone.

We only got one new hire into UPT in FY20...there definitely is a shortage of ANG slots. Hopefully FY21 is better.

I haven’t seen Fargo in several years, but I’ve been around him for multiple years and have never seen him do anything out of the ordinary that a shitload of other people haven’t done. Yeah he’s done standard drunk fighter pilot shit that 95% of us have done, but not things as described by the Air Force rag. I know Fuge too and trust his judgement, but this still smells a whole lot like something blown out of proportion combined with guilty until proven innocent (and by the way, nobody is going to put any effort into trying to prove innocence). Fuge was probably handed something he had no real choice on, but fuck OSI for going to such great lengths to destroy people.

Flying with other units happens all the time. How often and duration of such is wildly dependent on multiple factors and nothing anyone can predict for you. Bring it up to your sq/cc when you’re getting closer to the end of seasoning and see what he says. Going with a deploying squadron who needs manning help is your best bet for hours, tax free pay, etc.

Danger is right; I know some great leaders who, due to poor luck and timing, have a lot of fighter time and no combat time. It is not a reflection on them as pilots or bros, but rather AFPC not syncing them up with deploying squadrons...life isn’t fair. As far as Combo, well she’s avoided Q3s because wing/cc wouldn’t let the SEFE give her one. And then she became a SEFE...zero cred.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/new-years-eve-swingers-party-upsets-hotel-guest-theres-crazies-in-the-hot-tub This is what happens when the average family man runs into U-2 pilots in Sacremento on New Years. A guest who only identified himself as Huggy said, “we offered to let his wife and 18 yr old daughter join in; I don’t get why he was so upset, we were just trying to be inclusive...just can’t make some people happy.”

Second powder...good skiing with the kids and good mil discount. It’s a bit of a drive though if you’re hard up on staying in SLC every night. Never skied Solitude, but looks like they’re about the same cost and closer to SLC. Looks nice on the drive past, not sure how it is for beginning kids.

to Pyro. Hopefully the Rats are working on a fund for his kids.

As a LT I was barely making over minimum wage, all while married, spending 1.5 yrs away from home, and doing shit that was hazardous to my life expectancy. The manager at the restaurant I worked at in high school was making more than me. And that’s as an officer. Not complaining, but pointing out how ludicrous this article is. Then again, if they specifically were talking about the non-support group that spends 25 hrs week actually working, but work is defined as fucking it away whole sale with little effort attached, they’d be on to something.

Agreed. I’ve worked with great Army bros who get it at about the O-3/E-6 level and below. Get above their level and you hit mostly full retard land with zero comprehension of how to manage and use air effectively, efficiently, and safely. It’s like watching children with no SA bicker and attempt to assert dominance over others, all while ignoring any and all inputs from the adults who actually have SA. The Army needs a large cultural shift to employ weaponized fixed wing effectively, efficiently, and perhaps even safely (but I think the last one isn’t much of a hump for them to get past). FWIW from my outsider perspective, this is all a much smaller issue in SOF (minus the 160th issues mentioned above...yep, that was nice).

Be the best SNACKO the world has ever seen.

Totally agree there are many scenarios where datalink, etc. is a min force requirement. I’m with you, but I would still like young guys to show up with more general air sense, the ability to know where other things are by comm/time and bull/map correlation (e.g. decent geospatial awareness of the AO without having the answer on a screen), and better multi-tasking ability (especially with degraded/denied blue capes). I bet the IFF/UPT syllabus could change to leverage what tools they have to grow those types of skills. For example, I’ll probably never do a lowat ingress to 10/20 pop again, but maybe, given the tools they have available, that’s the best way for IFF to put the pressure on a guy and make him Mx SA on 3 other aircraft while executing threat reactions, making radio calls and maneuvering in 3D to not hit the ground and accurately fly the attack. The tactic is not exportable to an F-35, but the holistic lessons of geospatial awareness and multi-tasking under stress is. Now that shit is funny!

Concur overall. But it was a good laugh in the bar after a hot pit F-35 sortie where no datalink worked and I flew visual “old school” tactics the whole time. We mostly joked about how all of the Lts would have rolled inverted and ejected had they been in that situation. Tailoring needs to happen, with less focus on archaic syllabus items, BUT there is still value in some baseline fighter pilot skills...the young guys rage with all the Gucci shit working, but they flounder when their technology pacifier is taken away. And it’s not their fault, they weren’t afforded the opportunity to build those baseline skills like we were; now they have to build them in the CAF.

Shack on coffee! Of course the assumption is someone has a grinder. I don’t leave home without mine...bullshit coffee is for ISIS. I’d also avoid Halloween candy. I think in general dudes will really appreciate home baked goods and more substantial/healthy food like bars, decent trail mix, etc. I don’t know anyone who was pumped to find 2 yr old airheads or a dental office free toothbrush.

Perhaps. And yeah there’s some hyperbole in there, but I still remember the SOS exercise on promo boards when every non-pilot immediately tossed aside the pilot in favor of non-ops PRFs...simply because all the ops-related stuff on said PRF was foreign to them, thus they put more subjective weight on what they knew - volunteer stuff, CGO of the year award, etc. Granted it’s just captains, but people don’t change that much: case in point, the total lack of ops SA was very evident in a MSG type squadron/cc I had deployed once. As a “fast burning” O5 who probably some day would sit on a board, she had no more SA on the ops side of the AF than the Capt shoes in my SOS class. So, board composition is still a factor, albeit maybe not the #1 to be concerned about.

So we still have some shoe clerk who knows jack shit about flying and puts no score emphasis on WIC, #1 IP, flying combat related awards/rankings, etc. They’ll still be putting emphasis on bullshit that doesn’t have to do with flying jets and killing bad guys. Not a whole lot different from what it has been. At least you won’t compete against the PA officer who has a shitload of time to projo and volunteer for a ton of stuff while doing their second masters.