pawnman

So the ability to get off the track that requires you to compete for leadership opportunities is only offered to the people who have secured leadership opportunities? Ah well...maybe enough HPOs will take the bait so some of the more rational types in the other 90% of the Air Force can become commanders.

Maybe, but I think we'll benefit from commanders having a little more training than the one-week course at their MAJCOM after they get selected for command.

And then?

Not like I was going to the airlines anyway.

I'm sure his new majors will give them 110% every day at the office...

Luckily, war is a competitive sport. You only need to be better than your opponent.

It depends on the community. Ours is definitely paying for the flying skills. We have people that can't even get released for the AFPC mail robot offers...CAG to AUAB, for example. We've been told, point blank, that the only way to leave the FTU is to work a one-for-one trade with an ops unit. There is zero chance to get to a staff unless you get picked up for school. It's great if you legitimately only care about flying, but we've seen that the promotion rates for our community, and for 12B in particular, are behind the USAF average and the average in AFGSC.

The five year thing stuck out to me. I was already doing that back when we were RIFing people...5 years in my ops squadron, and I'm going on 5 years at the FTU. There are guys who have been at Dyess for going on 10 years, and being told "we can't afford to move you anywhere, the FTU is half-manned right now".

I submit that if you don't have any game against threat systems, it's even more important for you to know the effective range so you can stay the hell out of the WEZ when the lowdown is passed..

Bummer, because I was interested in the answer. I figure thousands of hours spent operating the Sniper pod might give me an in for a similar job in an unmanned aircraft for something like law enforcement or border patrol.

They always start that way.

At least doctors don't have an easy transition to similar jobs on the outside. Phew, where would we be then?

We have already had DOs in our community who are 06 year group majors.

Well, there's certainly no one-for-one job equivalent that pays $250k/year.

From way back in 2015: Air Force invokes stop loss in retirement change. Basically, they updated the regulation to allow the Air Force to deny you a retirement until you get back from your tasked deployment. You can still separate...they just won't pay your retirement.

I just wanted to be the first to welcome you to the year 2018. Almost every Ivy League school has an online program now.

I don't know, but I sure did. That's gotta count for something, right?

Ah, but is that because they choose people with an ADSC to go there, or because anyone without an ADSC says "thanks, but no thanks" and refuses the assignment?

The chump change appears to be working. And handing it out as flight pay doesn't give the Air Force what it wants - predictability. Almost every 12B I know in my community is taking the bonus at $25K/year, many for the full 9 years. The other thing to keep in mind is that all those 12X folks taking the bonus means a whole lot of 12X folks who can't 7-day opt a 365. Which should help relieve some of the bleeding, if not all of it. Any of the LAF taskers can be filled by a 12X just as easily as an 11X.

That's been my whole career. Here's hoping it stays in the 90% range next year.

Your bonus status isn't tied to your eligibility for a 365. Just deploy for at least 45 days every 5 years and it should keep you off the top of the list. I'd be curious to see which would win out in my community...the 365, or the functional refusing to release someone due to the Rated Staff Allocation Plan (or whatever it's called now)

I'm just happy they finally expanded the 12X bonus to all the dudes left out over the years. Every older WSO I know is jumping on that thing with both hands...but as we often comment here, they were already planning to stay until retirement.

Same same, but then, guys at the FTU were told that they were going to stay put for the time being. Pretty much the only way out of the FTU is to directly work a one-for-one instructor swap with an Ops squadron through the OG/CCs. But then, the functional told us the OG/CCs managed all the assignments. There wasn't a real clear answer when I asked why we're even filling out the Talent Marketplace thing if the only thing that matters is what our current OG says.

I'll be curious to see how they report the take rates. If they report them just as overall "percent who took the bonus", this year will have a significant spike because they retroactively included all the 12Xs that were left out of last years bonus. Any 12X with an ADSC that expired prior to 2017 is now eligible for a bonus (if it doesn't take them past 24 YAS). There's 4-6 years at $20K/year and 7-9 years at $25K/year, half up front. Almost every older 12B I know is jumping all over it, taking the bonus that will get them right to 20, mostly because they all planned to retire anyway. Among 12Bs in the B-1 community, those tiers (10 and 11, I think?) will have an almost 100% take rate because those guys (myself included) had already made the decision to stick around until retirement.

Back in McCain's day, you could just draft people to fill the gaps.