SocialD

We used to get TAMP, but that went away with when we lost the three for ones....thanks a lot Fresno!

Proof that even guys who do some seriously badass shit can still end up as the head rower in the douche canoe!

Most of my full time was on or before that timeframe, so that makes sense. I remember hearing that some of them were being cut but I believe some are still there. Obviously a special case, but the outgoing ANGRC/CC (outstanding dude!) has been out on MLOA (from DAL) for well over 10 years. When I was young and naive, I learned my lessons on "deals" from the government. It's the reason I decided to go down the part-timer path with no desire to ever go full time again, and a major reason why I don't sit alert anymore. Not enough info to say if it worked out well or not. He may have taken his slightly reduced retirement, made 7% on his bonus, landed a gig that made him a bunch more money and/or a second retirement and never had to deal with DTS again! 😁 When you look at it through the lens of a bean counter, or think of airline execs leaning on the .gov, it all makes sense. They want a full time force, they just don't want to pay for it...which I get. Kind of like when we had wildly different benefits based on whether you went vol or non-vol on non-contingency deployments (12301d vs 12304b...finally changed for the good). However, I never knew our tanker bros were getting title-10 exempt orders. I assume those are early retirement eligible? Good on ya, that's truly a great deal! How many "man-years" (can we still say that? Person-years? Human-years?) of orders does your squadron get per year? Each alert squadron gets 10 sets of orders per year. For a while some squadron got 12, but I think we're all back down to 10.

Not sure what is considered alpha or bravo alert. It's like, you stay in a facility on base 24/7 and when the horn goes off, you go running for the jets.

Well I'm guessing it's kinda like how the NGB staff takes care of themselves with USERRA exempt orders (though I heard those are getting cut as well), but the peons don't get the same. For us fighters, our alert orders are title 32 and we only get a title 10 day IF we have a real world scramble, and only for that day. I've sat alert at two other units and it's the same everywhere. They've been "talking" about getting them USERRA exempt for quite some time, but it gets shot down year after year. It's part of the reason I don't sit alert anymore.

Eh, I'm guessing we'll have a much smaller PS check this year, which if you treat it as you should (found money), it shouldn't be a big deal. If it came to that I'd think we may just stop hiring for a while. At a company meeting this week, they said they don't have plans on stopping hiring/classes anytime soon (of course...hire until you furlough lol) as we're already behind on hiring. Also, if anyone is turning their nose up at cargo haulers, they're idiots. The only reasons I didn't go there was I was called by DAL first and I live very close to a major DAL base. Honestly, if this situation is scaring you, you may not have the stomach to be in this industry. I'd expect this to be one of the many threats of the day we'll see over the coming decades. Then again, I was wrong one other time...so there's that!

If you can get a fighter (preferable single seat), go there. If you can't go fighters, find the closest ANG squadron to your home town (or wherever you want to live some day) and pick whatever plane they fly.

My opinion...you don't get that cushy consulting/board member gigs by ruffling feathers.

Only works if you don't plan on going anywhere. 75 hours but you're still technically on the hook. 50 hours and no strings attached...I'd take that all year. 50 hours is more than enough for me.

Right, the last time we put a non-fighter guy in there, he made blues monday a thing...

Party just floated the keg...we're all just losing our buzz while they tap the next keg. Man, I'd take me some of that. Vacation!

Man, we're getting screwed! It gets shot down every time we've pushed to get them exempt. No skin off my back as I don't have the time or the desire to be full time long enough to get me to an AD retirement. Must be a different pot of money 🤣.

Don't know what is considered alpha alert, but our (fighters) ONE orders are NOT currently USERRA exempt. Are your ONE orders actually exempt?

Honestly, did anyone ever really believe that this wouldn't be the case? It's like the battered wife that goes back to her abusive husband....no no, it will be different this time.

Yup, 3 of my squadron mates got the call back in 6 months and a 4th didn't get hired on his second try. One of the guys that was not hired at his legacy interview had been hired by both FedEx and UPS in the two week prior to that interview. Don't just expect to show up and take the job, unless it's AAL, if you get called down there it's basically yours to lose. By far, they had the most chill and relaxed interview I've ever done. Very few people weren't hired. That said, still show up prepared.

That's the method we used for most of last year, but then early this year we got told we had to start doing it the way Duck outlined.

It may seem that way, but I just love to complain about shit that wastes peoples time. It's not even my time really, it's the poor ARMS guy that has to do all the CMS cases. Also, these are just ADDITIONAL pay cards that they recently gave us and we don't even have to use if we don't want...I've made it the last 10 years without them just fine. Many in my squadron do not even use them because it's not worth the massive pay cut to use them. Only reason I'll even use them this year is for pre-deployment spin-up stuff. If you want to have a QOL super drinkoff wrt AD vs my lifestyle, I'm down lol.

Might be showing my (or her) age here but is Cathy Rico still in charge of UPT orders? Either way, if you haven't already done so, reach out and explain your situation to whomever hands out orders from NGB these days. They may say no, but then again they may have something available for you. In the grand scheme of things they don't really care when (within reason) or where you go, just that they plug you into a class date. I received a call from Cathy's assistant one day who gave me the option of Columbus, Laughlin or Sheppard, with dates spread out over 4 months. I took Sheppard because it was the first date available. My info is dated circa 2005ish so take it FWIW. I'd actually consider the trade to be 180 from your example. Having been to both towns, I'd take Laughlin over Vance in a heartbeat. Lake Amistad, New Braunfels, Austin, Hill country are all much better than...OKC.

One other gem I forgot to mention is that they didn't take any TSP contributions out of extra pay cards. I have every possible pay type set to 70%+ contributions and it still didn't make my contributions for me. So we got that going for us, which is nice...

Apparently our finance was to busy to answer any one of the 4 or 5 numbers I called numerous times throughout the day, but out OG says the additional pay cards are still a thing. Could it be that local finance means they're not actually processing them and they mean you need to go through the CMS case process? Right now the process is that I input an AFTP into AROWS, then I send an e-mail to our ARMS NCOIC, and (ONLY on the 1st or 15th of the month) can he input a CMS case for each pay card. Then sometime in the next 3 or 4 months I get paid. Don't forget they'll fuck up the withholdings and you'll be taxed anywhere from 30-40%. But this is a non-issue "because you'll just get it back when you do your taxes..." Love me some free loans to uncle sam. I was paid out for all of mine last FY. Great waste of man hours but the only way to get paid these additional pay cards. This year, I plan on just doing all the additional AFTPs in one quarter and submitting them all at once. This seems to be about the least amount of ass pain for our ARMS guy. Reference above (plus another sad incident I found out about today)...I take back the nice things I said about finance.

Ok so you made me question things and I just took another look. In a rare instance that I'll stick up for our finance, they seem to be getting it right. So what I'm getting paid with each pay card is ACIP of $21.67/pay card, which is the equivalent of the old rate of $650/month. Then a few days later I get another pay card (labeled AVIP/DIR Com SP) of $11.66/pay card that makes up the difference and brings me up to the equivalent of $1000/month. So on my cursory look, it appears they have it nailed down, but I'll be sure to send out a message to the guys to make sure theirs is correct. In defense of finance, they're just trying to play the shit hand they've been dealt. A SMSgt in finance (who really knows her shit), when I asked when this would be fixed, said they've been told that they're just going to have to deal with it until the new finance system is rolled out sometime in 2021...

I haven't heard anything about them not processing our additional AFTPs. But when I did process those additional AFTPs it took over 3 months for them to pay it out. My plan going forward is just to do all the additional AFTPs at one time so they can all be processed at once and lessen the pain! I'll ask around on Monday. Welcome to the part timers world...our flight pay has been fucked for the last 2ish years. I've all but given up on trying to keep up and just hope they're doing it right.

I was hired at AAL and DAL with 950 hours in the Viper and about 1,750 hours total. A few of my squadron mates were hired at just over 1,500 hours in fighters. If you meet the mins then low hours are not a problem.

Lol, I feel like this deserves it's own thread. Our base doesn't work Fridays, so our "Friday shirt" is actually a Thursday shirt. Of course we launch most of our X/Cs or squadron TDYs on a Thursday, so we get lots of double takes when we land at an AD base.

Ya, there are some dudes doing some pretty drastic things just to fatten up their W2s. That said, many of the "strategies, gimmicks and premium flying" can often make you way more money while working the same, if not less...maybe not your bro-in-law money though lol. My "gimmick" has me working the same number of days (12), 2 fewer nights away from home (8) and makes me $4-6k/month more than if I just accepted my originally assigned schedule. Some months I don't feel like working as much, so I'll knock off one of those trips, work 3 fewer days and only take a $1,500 hit in pay from my originally assigned schedule. Some guys in my category go to the other extreme and instead of work 2 x 6-day trips (originally assigned schedule), will try to pick up additional trips and try to get as close to 100 hours as possible. Those dudes are working an additional 6 days and only making an additional $2-3k over my strategy. They will likely end up in an early grave. They won't employ my strategy of dropping my entire schedule and pickup up more efficient trips because they're too scared of coming up short. Better for me since they're usually senior to me.