jrizzell

Unfortunately meeting your O-5 board with anything other than a DP checked PRF essentially boils down to a coin flip; probably less, but I haven’t looked at AFPC stats recently. It’s a kick to the junk when you thought you “checked” all the boxes, but still end up in the P bucket. Just remember promotions don’t define you, they just open up different career paths.

For all the smoke and mirrors and “changes” to the system, this is really what it always boils down to. If you’re able to get that DP as an APZ major, looking at past statistics, you’ll be extremely competitive. May the odds be ever in your favor!

As a member of the Teamsters Union before my life in the USAF; this type of attitude is what “Union” organizations routinely sound like. Especially with old heads who’ve seen management screw the workers. Enjoy the bitching, and don’t side with Bobs..

First assignment was in Alaska, and I was in same Squadron with Kevin and Julie. He was just a great dude; this is heartbreaking for their family. Certainly makes the entire pandemic feels a little closer to home...

Unfortunately those of us APZ types are at the mercy of their SRs “personal preference” when it comes to how you PRF is presented. It always bothered me having to complete one, then seeing it leave blank

Of the 330,000 odd people serving in the active duty Air Force, I’m betting the number of people growing beards and wearing turbans is quite low. If you’ve sworn the oath to defend the US, then I really could careless if your religious beliefs expect you to wear a turban or beard. Times change, and unless those actions affect their job performance, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Earning Gate month is tied to your UMD billet (pay attention to API codes in 11-401) and if you’re actively flying. If you’re assigned to an active flying billet and don't log a flight every three months, you then could “lose” a month. Flight pay is tied to being medically qualified. As long as you’re not DNIF longer than 365 days, or miss your annual Flight PHA you’ll receive your flight pay. If you’ve earned the appropriate number of OFDA time, you will continue to receive your flight pay in a staff or non-flying billet. If applicable, there are waivers for missing your OFDA “gates”.

If you’re the SQ/CC sitting in the back seat when this happens, I can absolutely see why he was fired. He’s supposed to be the adult leadership...

What a a fantastic resource; glad to see some effort is being made to support the mental welfare of operators who have been at the frontline of a new type of warfare.

I feel like we’ve only begun to see the onslaught of PTSD for those individuals whose who operates weaponized RPA’s. It would be surreal to routinely track and ultimately kill someone during a sortie, then have to drive home but “hey don’t forget milk and bread” for the family. That type of dynamic could absolutely mess with an individuals psyche. I hope the Air Force can provide something, besides lip service, for them

Bingo

So what I’ve learned is that if your wife says someone grabbed my ass, we have men who would need 2 or 3 other witnesses, plus texts messages confirming the act, before she’s to be believed...

An OG/CC rubbed his dick against another mans wife ass, at a work related event. That’s not “odd”, it’s 100% wrong. As a member of Wing leadership, this man SHOULD have common sense enough to recognize appropriate social boundaries...Let’s not make this into a “one mistake Air Force” argument, he retired as an O-6 without facing any UCMJ charges.

Promotion is pretty cut and dry, put yourself in the best position to get a DP. Even after all the new changes, it still going to be determined by DP or P. You can absolutely buck the system and choose not to do the things the “Air Force” deems important, and there will be a handful of people who make it. But until upper management, who’ve all succeeded using the box checking mantra retires, then that’s the battlefield. Good luck, may the odds be ever in your favor!

I know the default public answer will be “Americans did this”; but I’m betting money that this was an accidental shoot down by Iranian IADS... Honestly though, a f’in Ukrainian airline, and they’re not turning over the black box to Boeing or US for examination, this is such a surreal time.

This is not an apples to apples comparison...SOCOM/CC isn’t the leader of an organization that routinely kills and maims foreign soldiers and civilians using terroristic tactics. If you lead an attack on a sovereign nations embassy, they’re going to be consequences...Unfortunately we’ve injected ourselves into the ME, and after this, getting out will be much more challenging.

All of these changes are great ideas, and overdue. At the end of the day it’s still going to come down to DP or P. If you have one, you’re pretty much set. If you don’t, it’s a coin flip. How these choose to allocate and distribute those designations will be the real test of the “fairness” of the new system.

But this means we’ll have boots on the ground indefinitely. We’ve injected ourselves into a region that’s been fighting each other for 1000’s of years over who they think was Muhammad’s rightful successor....This is a losing battle, but a geopolitical crisis that we ultimately created ourselves.

As an APZ guy, the vast majority of Commanders won’t waste their DP’s on us once we’ve missed our chance. I don’t know how this will change that...after you don’t get promoted, we unfortunately aren’t who leadership is focusing on anymore.

Did anyone think we had a legitimate plan to “win” in Afghanistan??? We’ve been spilling our blood there for almost 20 years and still don’t have a coherent strategy. The US should have pulled out all our shit, the day after we killed Bin Laden.

During my younger days while stationed in Alaska, Leave in conjunction with a TDY, was invaluable when headed to the lower 48 for the Sim. Having the Leave approved, and then visiting CTO office to tailor my ticket was pretty painless. Just make sure your amended travel wasn’t more expensive than original cost.

If you’ve seen the stats, one of the discriminators for people making General was being Below the Zone to O-5 and O-6. I’m curious how this works “upstream”. Hopefully this whole shift is a change for the better...

This is so f’ed up. I know details are still unknown, but 3 people were murdered after just going to work on a Friday, at a US training base...

Sure, just make sure you enable your Macros [emoji106]

I absolutely agree with you that the Air Force SHOULD promote more pilots, but I’m not holding my breath that they actually will implement an effective plan in a way it would actually help out the problem. From the article: Kelly said that the “overall promotion board process for officers will remain the same. “We don’t want to change that at all, and we’re not changing it, But instead of competing against airmen from some 40 other Air Force specialty codes, Kelly said, “officers will be competing against a much smaller cohort of officers that are in jobs closer to their own.” To me, that doesn’t sound like they’re looking to just promote all the pilots...