SocialD

I sit in on the meetings where they brief what we get...it isn't in a realm I would call "shit ton of money," at least at my little Guard base. But agree with the rest, so unless it's a ridiculously clear cut case of fraud, my care o meter is pretty low when finance freaks out over "GTC misuse." This! I get you're in the military and some freedoms are given up, but being forced to use a GTC AND having it count against your credit is insane. On the flip side, I've let my card go WAY overdue because I never put anything on it that isn't reimbursable (airline, rental/gas, hotel), and I've never once had it hit my credit. If they don't want late fees, then they need to pay it on time. I was also threatened with the "your credit will take a hit," to which I said my credit is >800, but if I do take a hit, I'll pay cash like I did for my last house.

The entire GTC program is bullshit. I've had people purchase stuff while activated that if they had just pulled cash off their card (per diem) and bought it with that cash, it wouldn't have been a problem. But since they put it on the card, it's suddenly a "big deal." Insane hypocrisy in their own rules. Another incident the dude realize it, called himself out and paid it off asap...still had to do GTC misuse paperwork because big AF want's the some butts (the misuse form). I generally scoffed the form until one day the OG texts me and says someone way up the chain isn't happy with me and wants the paperwork. So in the comments I put in that the time spent filling out this form amounts to fraud, waste and abuse. Also mentioned that this is simply the cost of doing business when you force people to have/use a GTC. Brabus is right, the SQ/CC mostly holds the hammer here, but it certainly helps to have some good top cover from the OG/CC.

I actually think a football bat is more likely to succeed, with fewer fuckups, than this bonus proposition.

LOL, I thought of the exact same thing. I think I was told in 2018 that they'd correct our flight pay when they roll out the new pay system 2020 (near future?)! Well, here it is 2023 and it's still not active. Near future must have a different meaning to them. BTW, has this years Guard bonus come out yet? What's the status on DSG's getting full flight pay? The part timer bonus that was available to like 6.9 people in the entire ANG. Cynicism is hard to get past when you've seen a career of their bullshit promises. Take everything with a massive grain of salt.

Some people simply choose to be miserable. These broads have been threatening to leave this country since before Trump was elected and I'm still waiting on them to deliver on that promise. They appear to only contribute to people being more miserable...

Did flying units actually stop wearing colored morale shirts? I will say, I'm pretty happy about the baseball cap in flight suits change. Of course the effective date is the same day my participation in the Guard goes nearly to zero as I near retirement. Thanks for nothing!

Well I think I've uncovered the reason right here. Too many good things to say about him...can't be having that type of leadership around here!

Can't argue that thinking and a tip of that hat to your retirement plan. I'm planning as if I can retire when I start to draw my guard retirement around age 57. Who knows if I will, but that's the dream. I live in a weird spot where I am 25% in the left seat (vice 60-65% as a WB FO). Lucky that everyone thinks the 717 is the worst place to be...hopefully it continues. I did spend some time as the top 10% in the right seat...hard to beat that life. Only upgraded because the seniority and for ability to drop a bunch and still top FO pay.

Just upgrade, then you don't have that pain anymore. Plus then you'd only have to work 1-3 days a month 🤣

Nothing wrong with having those things (well, maybe besides multiple ex's), if you're smart about it. But ya, too many folks raise their standard of living right up to what the make. I flew with a guy who "needed" to make 86 hours/month as a 12+ year WB B, just to stay afloat...crazy. But hey, thanks to those guys, I can do my thing and work less. On the flip side, lots of senior pilots have lived through a near 50% paycut, loss of a pension and/or a furlough. Some are in the "make hay when the sun shines," mindset, which I can certainly understand. Those of us hired since 2014 have experienced mostly great things.

As long as your TAG signs off on curtailment. Watch out for those Army TAGs...they do some weird shit. Haven't seen it happen in our state, though supposedly we had a TAG threaten to deny curtailment. Sounds like someone talked some sense into him.

This is what they'd do if they truly cared about removing bias and hiring the most qualified people. Anything that could lead to a conclusion on demographics would be masked on applications. The interviewers wouldn't see the person being interviewed and their voices would be modulated to avoid detection of any accents (tons of bias based on that). But that wouldn't meet the agenda, so it would never happen.

Honestly, I can't even imagine working 15 days/month at the airline. Homie do play that game...12 days is about my max. Much prefer to be down around 6-9. In base reserve or line holder, dropping trips is where it's at. Life's too short to be working that much, especially at our pay rates.

Oh FFS, I wasn't even drunk! But that's pretty funny right there! Get off my lawn!

I'm a life-long DSG, just stuck in a full timer body right because of an activation. I'll soon be back to living the good life as a DSG for a few months until I retire. Even still, our FLT/CC's are all DSG's (by design) and still write almost all of the OPR's, I just verify and sign lol. The new myEval system will be my predecessors problem. But 100% agree with your sentiment!

When's that POS turning back on? We're feverishly trying to get our OPR's done and in the system before the new one goes live (again...). We're "a bit" behind because we chose to scoff them until they figured out wtf they were gonna do with that coat hangar abortion that is myeval. On another note, why do we even do an OPR every year, especially in the Guard? At least at my squadron, almost noone does any assignments (staff/NGB/etc...) off-station, we all know who should go where/when, so it seriously has no bearing on anything we do. I think every 3-5 year OPR's would suffice. Ever tried to write an OPR for a part timer who does exactly what is asked of a part timer and nothing more (most of our part timers have no other duties than flying)? "Makes his sorties....most months...." This is actually one of the nice things for the ARC units, at least mine. We're fairly evenly spread on rank, though we have about 1/4 the Captains as we do Maj and LT Col, which are even split. Rather than having dates strewn about the year, it's a bit more manageable knowing exactly when they all close out. Generally many of the items we have to deal with in the ARC and a royal PITA because it's designed by the AD, who doesn't think about our considerations. So this is finally one our favor...though, based on your example above, it further points out why we shouldn't be required to have the same setup as the AD.

Story time... One drill weekend circa 2014/2015, half the squadron is piled on a bus headed to some off-base training. I was a still in my first year at DAL and I didn't really talk much airline talk in the squadron unless asked. On the bus ride out, someone asks me something about DAL, so I answered. Suddenly, two of our full timers (so self pro-claimed, "never airline" types...) come unglued and bitch me out for talking airline talk. Until I saw their reaction to my laugh, I thought they were joking because I was simply answering a question. They were legit pissed and kept yelling...at which point I told them how, when, where and why they could go fuck themselves. The closest I've ever come to throwing a punch at work actually. I was a prior-e with one of them, so it threw me off guard. Anywho, fast forward a few years and those two fuckheads are flying for the airlines. I'm sitting in a briefing room, prepping for a sortie and I hear them chattering around the corner about airlines. I peak my ugly mug around the corner with a smug ass look and ask them to keep the airline chatter down, I'm trying to prep tactical shit here. It's certainly not for everyone, but Brabus is right, for many years of our careers we've been conditioned against airlines. I guess that's why it's referenced so much now. Don't worry, it will stop in the next down turn... Break Break Some people need their work to give them a sense of purpose and a feeling doing something meaningful, which is great. This U-2 gig seems like a great deal for someone like that. Then there are people like me who do the airlines because it's the best money I can make, in the least amount of time away from home. I've got way too many things I want to do outside of work...no purpose needed for me. Not many places are going to be ok with me dropping my schedule and not showing up for the month lol. I'd rather spend my time traveling with the frau, volunteering at the local aviation museum and flying my own planes. Neither is right...someone will be happy with this U-2 gig for sure.

I've only ever heard of one unit that had a distance requirement and it certainly wasn't for alert. We have alert on our base (fighters), but I can't imagine having a distance requirement. Many years ago, an OG/CC made a push for this, but he couldn't find a legal way to institute such a policy. Thankfully that dude was 100% by the book and since he couldn't find legal grounds to make it happen, he gave up. In all actuality, it isn't a big deal for my squadron because 95%+ of the squadron lives within 10 miles of the base, with a vast majority of those living within 5 miles. We're an odd spot where the area near the airport is actually the nicest part of the city.

Get ready for drill this weekend.... https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpVNsWBD080/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

8 days a month!?!? How do they even have enough pay days for something like that? Are they forcing them to only log 1 pay card/day...if so, bail asap. I guess they don't understand the "part-time" idea behind the Guard/Reserve. I wouldn't even work in a fighter squadron that required 8 days a month. My squadron (fighters) only requires 4 days/month, but most guys do 5 or so. Most of my heavy brethren are only required to work 2 days/month. I'd recommend he try to get hired at a unit that is actually part-timer friendly, or look at an AOC or IMA gig.

Some day he'll look back on this a realize it's the best thing that ever happened to him. A contracting officer should be able to do better than a .gov job.

Already done! Got my retirement order yesterday. I just have another 1.5 months left on this activation, then I'm a ghost until my fini this summer. I'm actually quite shocked at how easy/fast the process was to apply for retirement and get my order. All told, I think I spent 10 minutes to fill out the request, then the order showed up a week later. If only the VA process was as easy...

Let me give you an example of the bullshit dealt with just this week. For context, the member is activated stateside, but away from home. This is real life in the military... Finance: Sir, one of your members has an unauthorized purchase on his GTC. Me: What did he buy? *thinking this dude went to a strip joint* Finance: He bought a fishing license with his GTC. Me: *OK this dude clearly isn't as cool as I thought, but fishing is fun too...just not as fun as strippers* Me: *laughs then thinks....oh shit, this guy is serious.* Me: Does he have per diem to cover it? Finance: Yes. Me: Ok, then what's the problem? Finance: It's not an authorized purchase location? Me: Can I authorize it as his CC? Finance: Ummm.... Me: I mean, the dude could have done a cash advance for the same amount, right? Finance: Yes Me: Then he could have walked from that ATM with said cash and bought said item, right? Finance: Yes Me: ...and that's authorized? Finance: Yes Me: ...............silence.......... Finance: ............silence............ Me: the why the fuck are we having this conversation? Finance: The purchase location on his GTC isn't authorized. Me: But an ATM at the same location would have been fine? Finance: Yes sir. Me: *stares through phone muthafuckingly* Me: How much are we talking here. Finance: $25 dollars. Me: $%$%#&#*#((# Finance: Sir? Me: OK, what do you need? Finance: I need this form filled out, which requires an investigation. Me: WTF? Over $25, that is more than covered by his per diem? Finance: Yes sir...we have to have it for the auditors. Me: Can I just send you a memo that says it's good to go? Finance: No sir, the auditor requires this form. Me: Sure, I'll just clear my schedule of that unimportant shit like flying and launch an investigation into this great travesty that will certainly bankrupt the AF! Finance: Is that some kind of joke, we weren't issued a sense of humor at finance school (ok, that part might be made up...10% rule applies). So I spent a morning "investigating" a $25 purchase, where my comments were a veiled, I can't believe you made me do this and this is basically fraud waste and abuse of my time. Meanwhile, at DAL... Stuck out in a wx event where I can't get ahold of anyone from the company, and without any approvals/questions/forms filled out (gasp). I slap my credit card down for 2 cabs and 5 hotel rooms for the crew at the nicest hotel I can find. On the way to the airport the next day, I file the receipts with a note saying that we got stuck and I procured transportation/lodging for my crew. I was never questioned and paid out within a few days. Crazy talk, I know!

Bad assumption. I'm a 717 Captain, but I do live in base for both jobs and the reserve GS game was righteous last year. The GS's have dried up significantly (while I've been on orders), but a buddy at my seniority has hasn't turned a wheel since mid December. I used to be a WB FO before rona displaced me, but I opted to upgrade rather than reinstate back to the 330. That was a good life too, I just grew tired of the 6 day trips (and the fatigue that went with it) and/or the rat race it took to avoid those long trips (mostly not available these days due to staffing in my old category). As brabus eluded to...get/stay senior and your life will be infinitely better most anything else out there. I was 13 years from an AGR retirement (after 13 years in) when I got hired at DAL, so that was never in the cards for me. I'm just not cut out for "punch a clock" style of work of full-time, it's worse than groundhog day to me...especially since most of my days are spent behind a computer and/or fighting battles that shouldn't have to be fought. On the upside, I just got my retirement order yesterday...the end is near!

Where does it say this? It's totally believable to me that DFAS could be putting out bad data, at this point in my career, I expect nothing less! But this would be an entire fuck job if this is floating around out there so someone reads it as the gospel and ends up screwed. It's extremely definitive in this brief.