Karl Hungus

All good points. I'd argue that we try to identify our future leaders way too early, which results in the "leading teams and projects" arms race we see. How many opportunities has Pawnman, as a 12B (I think), had to lead teams and projects as compared to a security forces 2Lt, a finance Capt, and a contracting 1Lt? Is that a bad thing? How long was his FTU? How long was theirs? How many deployments has he been on? How many have they? I haven't heard a valid argument for why we don't separate career field management by AFSCs, other than the AF is lazy and we're all "officers first", or something. Successful organizations provide the incentives (financial and QOL) necessary to retain talent to eventually assume leadership positions. Is active duty AF doing that? Based on how many "bright and shiny pennies" (read: IDE selects) I've seen who are turning down IDE and separating for greener pastures, I have my doubts.

And AF Assistance Fund, AF Ball/Holiday Party Planning, SOS DG, Change of Command POC, fraud/waste/abuse online AAD, insert-whatever-additional-duty-bullshit-here bullets/box checking demonstrates that someone can coordinate the killing of a-holes? How about the OPR, as a reflection of your primary duty, actually allow you to talk about your primary duty? You shouldn't have to "hide" that on some Air Medal in order to backdoor its way onto your PRF. Ugh. How would I fix it? At a minimum, separate promotions by AFSC up to the O-4 level. Allow each individual AFSC to determine what's important for promotion. Perhaps bullshit and box checking and a valid AAD are important to, say, 17Ds. Then let their promotions reflect that. Perhaps deployments and combat missions/weapons employed/etc are important for a 12B. Let their promotions reflect that. Retention in a particular AFSC sucks? Combine this with targeted incentives- most likely monetary since we all know that QOL isn't improving in this never-ending "do more with less" environment. You already see this a bit- missileers getting money thrown at them to make them less miserable, 11Fs getting expanded bonus options (though it's still just 18k/year after taxes, the same since the late 1990s...), etc. 11Ms bailing left and right as the airlines hire thousands a year? Adjust the career field accordingly, and/or throw more money at them. No large civilian organization lumps all of their junior to mid-level employees together into one big pile, regardless of specialty, and then has them compete for promotion. An 11F's CGO experience could not be more different than a 17D, a finance guy, PA, Security Forces, MX, etc. Yet we treat them as equals. It doesn't make any fucking sense. So why does the AF do it this way? Because leadership is hard and time consuming. It's easier to just come up with a ridiculous one-size-fits-all career path, and pretend that all career fields are equal- "officer first!!!!1". Shifting from macro LAF promotions to micro AFSC promotions would require the AF to acknowledge that some career fields are more equal than others. And the AF absolutely HATES that fact.

So turn in a blank one. Or copy and paste bullets from a friend's. Or just make shit up, like everyone else.

The most interesting/ informative/ valuable thread on this site is about leaving the AF for the airlines. That should speak volumes about how fucked active duty AF is.

Aren't you applying for OTS or something? You'll find that the organization you're trying to join is anything but transparent.

#5: Not separating promotions by AFSC (or at least rated vs non-rated) is one of the biggest things wrong with the AF.

Last I heard it was supposed to be a 787-based cockpit. It was also supposed to have winglets and thrust reversers at one point too, so we know how that goes.

That sounds miserable.

Mind boggling, isn't it? Lot's of opportunities to make O-5, on both AD and in the ARC, that don't involve wasting a year of your life at a joke "school" in shithole Alabama. To each their own.

Yes, but it wasn't that long ago we were wasting a shitload of time on PRFs/RRFs for Lts straight out of UPT/FTU. Because, well, they had to "compete" with their MXG/MSG "peers", and heaven fucking forbid they have a blank form.

I don't see many people advocating for AFSC-specific promotion boards at the O-5 and O-6 level. At the O-1 through O-4 levels, though, it makes a hell of a lot of sense.

And if they have a prescription for said controlled medication, from their "secret" civilian doctor? What if their civilian doctor is an MD, vice their joke of an AF DO "doctor"?

LOL.

That's exactly what everyone is doing.

There is none. Perpetual war.

Very nice non-answer. Why so few McConnell eligibles? I'd hope that AFPC would have a reason. If not, that speaks volumes. In addition, will you be back here to share AFPC's thoughts on the take rate at the end of the fiscal year? No anger at all, just curious.

Florida State.

The bonus hasn't changed it's yearly payout in 15 years. How does $18k/yr in 1999 compare to $18k/yr in 2014? As has been pointed out in this thread, the people taking the bonus are ones who were gonna stay til 20 anyway. Thus, the "retention" portion of Aviation Retention Pay is a joke. How many fence-sitters consider the bonus to be a major factor in deciding to stay? The numbers at that access.afpc website suggest not many. Personally, trading some modicum of control over my life/career/etc isn't worth an $18k/yr boost that hasn't even matched inflation. That doesn't mean I'm not going to stay beyond my current commitment... I actually do like my job (for the most part) and the people I work with. If that continues then I really won't have a reason to leave, but I won't be signing my life over for the bonus in it's current form. $50k/yr after taxes and now you're talking... I could put up with some pretty shitty assignments, deployments, and associated bullshit for that. And we all know that will never happen.

LOL at the handful of people to take the FY15 bonus a year early. There's a sucker born every minute.

That will certainly help retention.

Wasn't trying to be dramatic, and I agree with your points. I've honestly seen a shift in the mindset of our best and brightest, at least in my small corner of the AF. More talented, PME/AAD complete, high strat folks are leaving or actively planning on leaving than even a few years ago. That should be a concern. Maybe that's not the case AF wide, and it will be years before AFPC has the data to back up that observation. Maybe Welsh's changes are going to cause the fence-sitters to re-think their plans. Maybe the drawdown will coincide perfectly and it'll all be seemless. Maybe it won't and we'll see a stop loss in a couple years. Either way, the machine will keep chugging along.

Everything you said is true. However, you left out something a ton of my peers are doing- getting their ATPs, networking with guard/reserve units, polishing their airline apps, and counting down the days until they can leave this organization, all in part because of how we force people to check ridiculous boxes and cast them as pariahs if they dare to desire to fly for a career. To lots of people, going to school and working a joint staff job sounds absolutely miserable.

Normally, I'd agree with you. A friend of mine was in a recent officers call with Welsh. This question was asked- how will anything change if it's just masked on the board, because surely the group and wing CCs will still use AADs as a discriminator. Supposedly Welsh turned to the OG/CC and WG/CC and said something to the effect of "what part of my guidance wasn't 100% clear?" He then went on to say that he's moving to stop tracking AADs completely (SURFs), but had no idea that the problem was this bad. We'll see.

Liquid has been quiet lately. Would be interesting to hear his thoughts on this BS.

The issue, of course, is the managers who use masters degree completion (or lack thereof) in determining who gets "good" assignments. Heaven forbid you show your cards, admit that you have zero desire to stay beyond your UPT ADSC, and tell the boss that you're not going to waste your time nor taxpayer dollars on a fraud/waste/abuse masters degree. It's easier to send that non-conformist to Preds or whatever than someone who pretends to want to be an AD O-6 someday. I'd at least recommend people get a joke of a BAC+, and ride that out if they don't want to get the whole thing.