SocialD

Glad you're finally finishing up with this stuff Duck! The more stories I see/hear about divorce, the closer I get to 99% certainty I will never get married again...I just see no real benefit of it anymore. I feel very fortunate/lucky that my divorce was easy as we didn't have anything together, she was sane and she didn't want anything.

Ya, I can't remember when the change happened, it may have been after your visit. At the most basic level, the issue is we no longer have the ability to log our own UTAs in AROWS. For the average Guardsman who are not pilots and only show up to drill every month, it's not a bid deal. But for us pilots who show up 4-5 days/month and not always on drill weekend, it's a royal pain to log/track. It used to be that I could log in and certify a UTA and that was it. Now I have to log into my email the admin folks when I made up X drill. They then have to go into AROWS and input that card. I then have to log back in and get into AROWS and sign it. Throw in the fact that for the part-timers it seems like every time we log in, we have to wait on some other update or for the email to "connect to the server" (if the network isn't down that day) and/or the admin guy being off work that day...it's often weeks later that you'll finally get back to sign that card.

This is exactly what was echoed by our finance chick. Not surprising, especially since it doesn't impact those who sit up on the staff (sts) or at DFAS. We work for them, they don't work for us... Seriously, thanks for the words. Did they give a reason why we can no longer control our own UTAs? Zero system limitations on this...one day we could could process our own UTAs, the next day we could not. When I could process my own UTAs, I never had a problem getting paid. At the end of the day, the job of the full time force (something I once was) is to ensure the part time force is trained and ready to go when we're needed. When I'm spending one of my limited work days just trying to get paid, they're seriously failing. Honestly, I used to bend over backwards to get the mission done, but when I see them just say fuck it, deal with it...I'm done with throwing them a bone. You're going to make it harder on me, fine...but don't be surprised when I blow a pay card just to get paid, or you see me not make RAP because I spent one the few days you have me, just trying to get paid.

Update: Another gotcha. Once your extra AFTPs are submitted via a CMS case, they can not process additional AFTPs until the previous CMS case is routed AND paid. One of our guys was paid this week for AFTPs that were submitted 1Sep.

It's actually worse than that. Last week I had an extensive talk about this with one of our finance chicks (who is actually damn good at her job). You can't process more than 16/qtr or 48/yr through AROWS. Once you hit those system limits, you have to open a CMS case for these to be paid out. Catch is, these CMS cases can only be processed on the 1st and 15th of the month...you can't make this shit up! You have to use digital 105s because apparently wet signatures are old fashioned and we must now digitally sign everything. We have guys whose AFTPs were submitted in July that still haven't been paid. She also said the part timer flight pay issue is not going to be fixed because they're supposedly rolling out some new pay system in January of 2021. We'll be lucky if that thing is operational by 2025. I've honestly just given up trying to keep track of the flt pay and I just hope they're doing it right. So to recap. - What used to take less than a minute with a pen/105 card, is now a 15-20 minute affair (minimum). That's if the computers are running good AND "the network" isn't down that day. - For some fucking odd reason we can no longer process our own UTA cards. - Additional AFTPs, while nice, have created a fuckton of extra work. - Flight pay is still a rusty coat hanger abortion and will be until Jan of 2021...checks in the mail. - Last week I spent pay cards just to unfuck all my rejected AFTPs. Ha, getting paid to get paid! - In my 18 years in the ANG, damn near every new "advancement," has made life harder on the DSG.

*shrugs...near the coffee pot.

Ah gotya. In the F-16 it's exactly the opposite. I'll calculate an approach speed and QC that it generally matches up, but I'm really only concentrating on holding a particular AOA (via a "staple" in the HUD).

Don't most Air Force aircraft fly AOA?

Nah, you just let your security peeps know all the countries you fly to and roll with your assigned trips. Not a big deal.

It's as inevitable as them wanting more control after a shooting.

Depends how awesome you are if you'll have time. A fellow GA nut classmate and I occasionally hung out at a local airport on the weekend and help build some planes. We became good friends with an IFF sim IP who had a few planes out there. He told us about a stud that took every award in training, AND built half an RV-8 while in UPT 😳! That said, the rest of us normal, non-water walkers didn't have much free time during the week. I will say that it did ease up toward the end of each phase, so you might be able to sneak some time then.

A much better version of the speech.

Crew Resources decides where pilots are needed based on a myriad of reasons (marketing/fleeting/etc...). Every so often the airline will have a bid for guys to move aircraft. Anything that isn't bid by current pilots is left over and then can be offered to new hire classes. After that, it's probably dolled out to newhire classes based mostly on sim availability. Within the class, you get to pick based on class seniority which is decided differently at every airline. At AAL it was based on age. At DAL it was based on your last four...the higher the number, the better.

Lol, just a bit. It's almost like she's been coached in acting (her family is full of actors) and regurgitating what others are telling her to say... Right! They found a perfect combo here, a person you "can't criticize," and parents perfectly willing to let their child be used as a puppet. In fact, I have no doubt her handlers/funders were counting on her being attacked. Her family is set to release a book next year, so I'm guessing her handlers are not the only ones who will be lining their pockets off this publicity. As always, follow the money.

Best deployment...Tallinn, Estonia. Even better if you score it in the summer!

We have a squadron mate who has been dealing with a doozy of a DFAS fuckup from his AD time. They want him to pay nearly 10k for taxes they inappropriately paid for him, which DFAS admits to being their fuckup. They say he needs to pay them back and that he'll just get it back when he files his taxes. He's like fuck off, I'm not coughing up that cash because of your incompetence. The fight has been going for nearly 3 yeas now and he left AD 5+ years ago. I think he's already talked to his congressman, which hasn't done much. I'm not sure if you can file an IG complaint against DFAS, but I would have been there long ago. IDK, where you go next...national new outlets?

The conspiracy theories are strong with this one. You don't have to have worked for the military/government, more specifically with contracts, to know they don't give a shit about saving the tax payers money. Have you ever tried to do construction to a current building to adjust for a new requirement? We recently had to do that and the easiest/cheapest (by far) option was to simply raise the roof. Nope, sorry that is considered X type construction and apparently the money we were given was for Y type construction. So instead of simply raising the roof, they're knocking down a massive wall, breaking up the concrete floor, digging down a few feet, pouring a new floor, then rebuilding the massive wall. Apparently, when this building was built a few years back we knew that this future requirement was likely coming down the pike and knew this building wouldn't work, but we were told you can't build based on future expectations...

LOL, perfect...actually nothing to see here! It's both sad and entertaining to watch the TDS mafiosos chase their tails, trying to get Trump on every little thing. He seems to be the one holding the laser pointer while the TDS mafia is the cat.

We know you've been flying your balls off, you're tired and your morale is in the dumps...but if you guys could start staying in shittier hotels, that would be greeeaaaaatttttt. We know the allowable rate is $150/night but the Commander has his own unofficial official max rate of staying at the HOJOs... If it's within the DOD directed rate then what's the fucking problem here? Fuck this passive-aggressive, touchy-feely, TDS "perception" shit. It's either within the reg or not, if they don't like it, change the damn reg/Dodi/etc... Good stewards of the taxpayer dollars...for fucks sake. Every time I've attempted to be a good steward and save the taxpayer money, I got bent over by finance. They don't give a damn about being a good stewards.

...as long as you're not a prior-e/late rated guy. I was wrong yesterday, one of the the guys I thought was eligible is actually not able to get the bonus. He was a CE officer in our wing before going to pilot training. So exactly 1 of 39 pilots are currently eligible. ADOS, as UPT-hopeful said, are the orders we use to put guys on alert. There are other positions out there that are ADOS as well, I'm just not sure of what they are. ADOS is unique in that it as a limit of days you can continuously be on the them (1095??). After that I think you have to leave that orders status for a year, though you can go on other orders. It's been a few years, so the details are hazy. I'm probably missing a few but AGR/ADOS/ADSW/MPA/ST/AT/MEST are all various orders you may see in the ANG. Which is better depends upon the individual. IMHO, the DSG bonus would have been the best option, if they had actually opened it up to a vast majority of the part timers. I don't think we have single pilot on the one year (25k) bonus. The one year, 35k bonus would have been the most enticing, but the ANG decided they didn't need such a bonus. Most guys seem to be opting for the 4 year, 35k bonus as a hedge against any changes. You can curtail (subject to TAG approval...) if you desire to jump early, but you're at least locked in at 35k for 4 years, rather than taking 2 years and hoping they don't change the rules before you sign for an additional 2 years.

That was some downright scary reading... Too many gems in there to copy and past, here are a few that stuck out.

Well, 1 of 2 eligible pilots in my squadron has been paid. So we have that going for us, which is nice...

A military judge has bucked a two-star general by throwing out a sexual assault case against a sergeant at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. I wasn't sure if this belongs in the "what's right," "what's wrong" or the "WTF" threads. I'm not saying he's innocent, I really don't know the facts of the case. But damn, this paints a bad picture of how overboard leaders have gone to protect their asses from the Gillibrands of the world. God help anyone who simply has a sexual assault accusation made against them in this military. < 800 days to go! Some gems from the article... Seems legit... But to hell with supporting the possibly wrongly accused! Be sure his clearance is revoked, he is pulled from his work area and/or otherwise alienated! Even if it means denying the accused the right to a fair trail. If he didn't do it, he's probably a rapist in waiting anyway...right? Youngins...take note. This is the smartest thing this guy ever did. Probably not worthing exploring for this case... The following seems like the action of a sane/stable person. We should definitely NOT let them subpoena her SM, you know...to protect "the victim..."

Right...it's nearly impossible to compete when guys figure out they can get out and make significantly more whilst working significantly less. Even Guard squadrons, minus maybe the ones that are in BFE, are even struggling keep their full time jobs filled.

This sounds like an AF that cares about you...