daynightindicator

The is this trash thread happening. This website used to be valuable information with a sprinkling of gossip and early release info. Now it’s just weirdo anti-vax and anti-pop culture shit. Stop being dumb.

Not wrong. But DE is still a discriminator.

Simplest thing folks can do if they want to maximize promotion potential for O-5 is complete DE in correspondence. It might not get you promoted, but it will certainly make sure you don’t get promoted if you skip it. This is not an endorsement of the system, just an observation.

From what I’ve heard, Gp/CCs might still be a thing, however the wings will have an A-staff. It’s a hybrid of what we have now and what the “Mountain Home experiment” looked like. Each MAJCOM will make its own decision though, so YMMV.

The batteries will degrade gracefully, so even after 10/15 years, you will only typically lose 8-12% of your total range. Tesla has an 8 year battery warranty (at least that’s what mine have had), I usually sell before then. Oh and USAA coverage for my Model S is about $1400/year - might be time to look elsewhere!

I’ve owned EVs since 2014 (2 x Teslas) and had 3 homes wired for charging. I paid an electrician to drop a 220 in the garage in each home (same outlet as an electric dryer). Cost $100-150 each time. It’s a relatively simple equation to figure out your cost comparison vs. gas. A = Miles driven per month B = Avg miles per full charge C = Battery size in KW D = Electric bill cost per KWh ((A/B) x C) x D Example, 900 miles/month, my car averages 300 miles per full charge on a 100KW batt ((900/300) x 100) x .109 = $32.70/month Apologies for derail, but it might help someone if they’re debating going electric. I have no ragrets.

Was executing a weapons test a long time ago, we were enroute to Pt Mugu range. OPSEC had us refer to the weapon as the “device” and it had to be powered up a bit prior to range entry to run BITs. We were with LA Center and they passed words from the control room over center freq: “C/S, LA Center, I have been asked to tell you to power on your device.” We joked about answering on VHF, “Center, C/S, copy message. Powering on device. May God have mercy on us all.”

Here is a great primer on how BAH is calculated. https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/Docs/perdiem/BAH-Primer.pdf Of note, it is purely based off of rental costs. The gov could care less about home prices (although they traditionally influence rental rates, so indirectly they are related).

I min ran it in about 4 months. Longest wait time is for the facilitated courses, but you can take multiple classes at once. Not sure on the limit, I was doing 2 concurrently. It’s manageable.

My take on PME in the current environment from the cheap seats... With the removal of “off-the-board” IDE/SDE designees, the playing field has leveled a bit and statistically, the average person’s (average as in “generic” not record or performance) chances of being selected improved. At the same time, the retention issues led to the relaxation of some parts of the process (no prejudice for turning it down, trading slots, etc). Tons of people picked up off the alt lists as well. It became a buyer’s market. COVID is obviously impacting the retention piece but I doubt AFPC has any idea of how that plays out long term. I think the inertia of the current situation will last at least another cycle or two. I’m not promoting or deriding PME - like anything else it’s great for some folks (break in Ops tempo, some great locations if not at Maxwell), it also brings sacrifices (multiple moves, payback tours, ADSC). In general it offers more folks an opportunity to compete for PME if they want to, and therefore more folks will be in the mix for SQ/CC opportunities as well. Promotions are facing a similar situation. I know a few folks who picked up O-6 on the most recent board without any traditional commands or res SDE. USAF is hurting for O-6s and that need will trickle down to the O-5 boards. Word on the street is that even the Colonels’ group is beginning to understand that folks’ personal preferences will need to be met (previously something they never gave an F about) in order to retain enough folks to man Pentagon desks. The aperture has widened for certain career and promotion opportunities, but like anything else, it’s totally up to the individual to weigh cost/benefit. FWIW I attended non-USAF IDE in res off the alternate board. Great year doing non-AF stuff.

Transparency varies by community and MAJCOM but realize that since WG/CC is typically a 2-year gig, you probably won’t get the tap on the shoulder until relatively close to your command timeline. Susperstars/HPOs are a different animal. I usually see on-time guys get the nod around the time they are selected for DO, and it may consist of 1) your follow on will be XX SQ/CC, 2) we are going to work hard to get you A command but we don’t know what it will be, or 3) we don’t expect to be able to get you a command. Standard AF caveats apply. I was fortunate to have a transparent leadership team and knew my future going in to my DO gig. I’ve also seen plans derailed when Gen ### decides to sponsor someone and basically directs that they get a command in a certain cycle. Someone else is usually displaced. Game plans are constantly evolving.

A few notes the SQ/CC process from the CAF side: - IDE does not automatically put you on the command list nor is it a hard prerequisite. Obviously the stats show you most CC’s were IDE folks but not all - When you apply for the board, you acknowledge being a “worldwide volunteer” - there is no way to only apply for certain commands other than the boards themselves (Hawk, CAF, etc) - CAF communities usually have “game plans” with specific folks fragged for command prior to the board. It’s one of those “if you’re in the plan, they’ll tell you” situations. Typically they will tell you NOT to apply unless you are in the plan. - CAF board applications use plain English to say “this dude is in the plan to command X SQ in the summer of XX”. It’s very straightforward. - if you’re not in the plan, you can apply, but are more likely to get picked up for a random command (deployed location or someone drops out/gets fired etc) if at all. It’s a risky move if you’re concerned about “non-desirable” commands. - The board usually selects about 2X the number of folks required. There is no guarantee at all that you will get a command. BL: Talk to an O-6 Group or Wing CC in your community and ask where you fall. They can probably help guide your decision. They also might help you get a non-flying command outside of your community if you want one.

That’s not an accurate statement Pawnman. Every community pushes their shiny pennies up the ladder quickly (hence the push for removal of BTZ to try and slow things down so our O-6s stop getting crushed by their sister service peers on joint staffs) and we all have anecdotal examples of those folks. The majority of SQ/CCs in the Bone right now are on time dudes with anywhere from 3-6 combat deployments, no aide jobs, etc. I would also guess most have over 2500 hours in the jet.

FLEA those are very good points and FWIW we are very close on many concepts you spoke about - namely getting to the root cause of why certain societal groups don’t see positive results while others do. One thing I realized reading that is that at some point, my personal definition of privilege changed from having something I “shouldn’t” have to having something someone else “doesn’t” have. That made it seem less like a personal attack on me and instead made me more interested in learning about the other persons experience. Semantics maybe, but like you said words do matter. 100% agree with addressing poverty and income inequality - by finding good policies and incentives so we can grow the pie, rather than simply redistribution of existing slices.

Agree that some people definitely use it to shame or score points...I try to avoid engaging with that stuff and I stay away from the fringe elements of both sides of the political spectrum because there’s pretty much no goodness to be had there. I think the numbers were indicating that there was something like a 6:1 chance that a black airman receives NJP as opposed to a white airman. Hopefully they investigate to see the details of why that is. For example, if you find that consistently, black airmen are punished more severely or at a higher rate for the exact same offense as white airmen, that indicates a major problem. I don’t remember hearing the stats on the promotion stuff, just that they found similar statistics indicating there may be a problem. Also, I think these issues are difficult to address because you can only get so far with policy. I’ve always believed that PRFs should go up to the board with no personal information whatsoever - just a randomly assigned number in place of all that admin stuff. However that would not address issues in stratification/OPR writing where commanders’ potential biases are captured.