General Chang

Rusty and bonus apologists, You have to take a step back and look at this the way we see it here at the P-gon- from a "Big Blue" perspective- not popular, I know, but to make any sense of this, you have to take the personal emotion out of it. 1. We do not need pilot O-4's and O-5's at the 20+ year point to stay in. Especially -11Ms. Period. We are and will be way too fat for years to come. In fact, the sooner they retire, the sooner the FGO officer "glut" can start to unplug, and we can get the promotion cycles back on-track. 2. In general, we do not need more -11M's to stay in. Whether or not the airline hiring bonanza occurs is irrelevant at this point in time. Even if the mass exodus kicks off in 2017, the evidence simply does not exist right now to warrant an overreaction on the Air Force's part. Devil's advocate- the airline hiring boom happens in 2017. The Air Force is late to correct. No biggie- the Air Force will fix it with money at that time. Big blue has "fixed" these problems in the past, each and every time, and it will do so again in the future. Contrary to popular belief, the fix will cost less than throwing away bonus money for years and years with no quantifiable return for that money. 3. We (the AF) are in a fiscal nightmare right now. Partially created by our own doing, partly from sequestration. As a result, we're really taking a look at needs vs. wants. That's a very, very good thing. It's a self-examination that should have been happening all along, but nobody cared when money was flowing. Everything (bonuses, personnel cuts, aircraft adds, base closures) MUST begin and end with the money. 4. Reiteration of several previous posts- pilots, you are not entitled to a bonus. Ever. In fact, I'm surprised the following didn't gain traction at the puzzle palace: FY2013 - No bonus for initial eligibles over the 15 year point on 30 Sep 13 - No bonus for -11Ms - Same $25K/5 for all other -11's After the initial outrage and relative purge of this year's -11M class, the Air Force could have come back with the following: FY2014 - No bonus for initial eligibles over the 16 year point on 30 Sep 14 (same as the rule just released) - Reinstate $25K/5 for -11Ms; maintain this for everyone except -11Fs - 11Fs $25K/7 This novel idea has the advantage of weeding out a glut of FGO's, making every class on the backside (FY14, FY15, etc) feel special that they're even getting any bonus, AND being much cheaper for the AF. Before the spears come out, yes, I understand it kills one class year of -11Ms, but it would help pilot retention overall, the Air Force would save money in the long run, and like I said, future pilots would feel quite "special" for getting a bonus at all. Final words- it amazes me how many people on this site talk about "people they know" who are getting out ASAP; the numbers simply don't back that up. How can the Pentagon and Randolph use anything but the quantitative data they're pulling down? They can't, they won't, and you know it. Leadership cannot simply go with a "gut feel" when spending the taxpayers dollars. Military pay is generous, health care is extremely generous, retirement for life is ridiculously generous--the masses will not exit for feeling slighted by the bonus/bonus rules, and leadership knows that. Heck, wait until you hear about the personnel cuts coming in FY2014. The Air Force has been extremely generous with this year's bonus for every pilot- leadership could have chosen to skin this cat as oulined above, but they didn't, and 2001/2002 pilots who are eligible this year should be grateful with hat in hand. Enough realism- probably more than most of you can handle. Let the spears fly.