di1630

Interesting stuff. If Britain leaves, Scotland may revote on their succession plans. Economically it might be painful in the short term but I think the Brits would be better off long term if they left. The remaining EU would be weaker in all aspects.

Why was he fired?

Bingo...our generals aren't advocating/using resources correctly. We send B-1's at a cost of $69k plus per flight hour to do XCAS in Afghanistan. After 15 yrs, we should have 6-9 sq's of A-29's doing that stuff. Instead our inept leadership wants to do it with F-35's because they learned Cold War techno-strategy at PME but can't critically think/adapt. If our generals were held accountable like civilian company management, they'd all he fired for severe incompetence or in jail for defrauding shareholders (aka taxpayers in this case).

More sh-t about career development....you'd think our mission was to produce generals and compete jointly by Chang's take. Personally, I'd rather get some competent leadership who knows how to win fights vs make rank by getting "pushed through the career pipeline" Currently our leaders cannot: -Effectively manage personnel -Efficiently procure new weapons systems -Retain most valuable talent -Formulate a winning strategy in the Middle East -Understand the most used mission set in the past 20 years (CAS) But damn, they did a helluva job making rank.

There's also a video out there I saw a while ago. Narrated by the F-16 pilot who was flying at 100ft and clipped the trees. "How low will you go" I think was the name.

Chang, I did my 69 page masters thesis 5 yrs ago on how to retain RPA pilots. I surveyed about 50 of them. Your data and mine seem to conflict. Listen Chang, I've never flown an RPA, I love my AF/country, you name it. I would have stayed in without a bonus so listen to someone who is not your bitter dissenter. I've had buddies go to RPA's who were some of the most upbeat, positive dudes I ever met. They took the assignment and I remember their fini flights...none were USAF RPA haters. One guy was excited. 5 yrs later, 100% of them are out. The stories they told me of shift work, denied career opportunities, horrid family life etc. made me appreciate my 179. Chang, I urge you and other leaders to get in touch with the "actual" pulse of the USAF. There is a huge disconnect somewhere with what you are seeing vs the reality of things. Despite your assumption, this forum is a pretty good cross section of what I hear in sq bars across airframes and the USAF from all ranks and backgrounds (no this is not just a pilot problem).

JOINT TIME IS NOT REQUIRED TO BE A GOOD LEADER. NATO is a shitshow, and our services still are full of generals who would rather stamp their name on a pet project than kick our enemies asses. The best future Generals have already left for the airlines.

Lighten up there Francis, friendly joke. I have led the single seat, single jet-engine/tail lifestyle where I went running for high key when I hit a bird.

Highly doubt it would simply be an issue of running tanks dry. That being said (Causal factor) Mishap aircraft was a delicate single engine F-16 "lawn dart"

Chuck, quals....experience, school, only SOS in-Res, others by correspondence. Here's my point and example. I dg'd sos for essentially boozing and going to the gym for 5 weeks. It was a vacation. That meaningless DG essentially set me up for career bullets and perks I earned for nothing special. All I actually learned was why shoe clerks had their well deserved reputation. Going to SOS/ACSC you name it, to be a "leader" is like getting a 4-yr feminist literature degree and thinking you'll be competitive in the workforce. What does this PME education produce? I can't seem to distinguish any of the grads have a greater tactical or strategic viewpoint....nor leadership ability. The leaders the USAF needs do not need school to be USAF leaders.

All these schools, what a waste of time/resources to pull an operator away for a year. We have leadership that can't lead, procure, strategize, manage resources etc. I'd abolish every school we have as they are self-licking ice cream cones of mediocrity.

Sad that someone who finished #2 in his class in UPT feels like he "misprioritized" during UPT due to a pt test failure. This is what the USAF focuses on folks. And then wonders why the good people leave.

Just one more piece of BS tipping the scales. Problem is that the talent the USAF needs to retain is generally skilled/educated...and those people generally marry similar people. My wife has to work jobs at 1/3 the pay of what she'd get using her degree in an established career. Also, what about the loss of equity/stability we deal with moving every 2yrs and 8 mos? Sorry, I am generally a critic of lavish benefits but this is BS. Send the wrong message to young airman also about maximizing financial efficiency (roommate/living below means). Oh, I forgot, financial efficiency and the USAF are like oil and water.

If dudes haven't been in AETC and are thinking CAF attached, two different ball games. In AETC an attached guy could fly 2x sometimes 3x per day if they want. And if they don't, they finally have a reason not to get abused by the scheduler. Plus, having a wg level job in AETC gets you the same surf duty title with 69% less work than CAF when it comes promotion time.

Dude, I threw you a bit of a lifeline. I commend your positive attitude but you need to heed the advice to stfu and listen. Experienced guys are giving their gripes, don't discount them. I'm loving my USAF experience but I see dudes getting railed all around me so as someone who is happy, take it from me, there is a lot of truth being spoken here. Whether you dig it or not, you'll find out. But don't talk shit to experienced guys because whether you agree or not, you have Zero real insight. And don't ever ever EVER go spouting officer first at the pleasure of the president officer ship 101 outside ROTC or the shoe clerk 0900 PT session. I can't begin to tell you what a d-bag your post made you sound like. But keep up the great attitude. Best of luck.

Why crush a dude with a great attitude? I get that dudes are pissed and bitter but let him figure it out on his own. I did an assignment where two people before me didn't like it. Friends warned me off about it for both my career and family. For them it was no good. For my career aspirations and family life it was terrific. Ilovescotch....there's a fine line between being naive and uninformed. Keep the great attitude but heed the warnings on this forum.

You are right Chang! One of the things that kept me in was the stuff I can only do here. But doing PME in-res has near-ZERO impact on creating actual leaders. The good leaders in the USAF usually have been good leaders their whole life. Unfortunately the USAF thinks sending someone to Maxwell is a magic leadership ticket and had weak metrics for finding its real leaders. That's why people are jumping ship. The guys I would have followed into WW3 as a LT have jumped ship. Sadly, many of the guys I thought were risk adverse ass kissing d-bags with zero natural leadership talent went to school and are on their way to running things.

Why does anyone other than the careerists want to do school in-Res? Has the USAF brainwashing worked to make you think going to one of these schools will make you a better leader/further your career that much? For F's sake, pass. If you were on the fence about getting, being sent away for a year non-flying doing f-all should only push you more. "Yeah but it's great family life"....you can simply stop doing the BS at home station to do that as well.

Jeeezus, stop loss? What a mess us pilots have talked about for 6-9+ years. I just checked the 9 May acp update....most takers were 2015....hardly any signed up late. I have very little faith the fence-sitters are giving up $69 per day in lost bonus to hold out until last minute so I'm betting rates don't change a lot.

A long while ago before Kenny Powers even had wet dreams about being a FAIP there was a BFM shootout with 15E's, C's, 16's and hogs. You didn't know what you were fighting til the merge, heaters and guns only. Hogs took 2nd place behind c models. There's something to be said about a 2k turn radius, hi turn rate and 480 flares. Not to mention a gun that has you in a wez when you think it's outside max range.

If NATO needed to fight, they'd have a hard time getting fighters there because they'd need to deconflict the their air show schedules first. Make no mistake. If the US didn't stop it, Putin could roll into Europe no problem.

Fearmycessna, don't listen to these naysayers. First off the USAF needs new F-15's. We simply are unable to keep up with the current air to air workload that modern ops demands of our resources. You probably haven't seen the latest dogfighting stats from the Middle East or heard some of the F-15C recent war stories but I urge you to seek them out. Fascinating stuff. You have correctly figured out that an important aspect of Air to Air is looks. That's why the F-14 was such a damn fine dog fighter. Turned on a dime with those wings swept back. So I'd like to see maybe a variable wing F-15 with canted tales. With a sick paint job, shark teeth on the front with skull and crossbones on the tails.

Instead of retiring, is it possible to leave AD to a guard/reserve unit?

My jet has no flight control check per checklist except for the efcs bit....but I sure as hell do one every time before I release brakes. "Flight controls free and correct" since my first flying lesson.

Dude, I hate to sound like a dick, but if staying in the viper and going to WIC was realistically in the cards for you, you probably would have stayed in the viper to have a look vs going to AETC. I only speak this nonsense because when I was in 38s we had a viper guy show up and he'd talk about how he should have gone to WIC, his great UPT and FLUG performance etc. only to get screwed by the VML and get stuck with all us sub-par CAF rejects because AFPC screwed up. You can imagine how well everyone liked him. Advice: go to AETC with a great attitude, kick ass, go back to the CAF and climb back on up. 3 yrs goes by quick, and with a good attitude, it can be a very fun and rewarding assignment.