FlyFastLiveSlow

The only way to reduce assaults is to find perpetrators, prosecute, and discharge them. No amount of education will change these people. Who the F goes to bat for them?

Cut more planes. Our fleet is the oldest it's ever been. The F-35 is probably a POS, but the answer is to build better planes, not hold on to old ones. Congress is holding on to Hercs and A-10's to save jobs in their states. Nothing is irreplaceable. The only way to get new planes is to get rid of old planes. Look at the number of platforms we fielded between 1945 to 1980 compared to 1980 to present. Technology is supposed to be developing more rapidly, but we're stuck with outdated equipment. It's time to be innovative again. We all should be writing our congressmen and urging them to support cuts to our oldest platforms.

Please let this still be true. I'm headed to Mildenhall and my chamber expires in 6 months!

I haven't either. But when did the bro network become a bad thing? What's wrong with building relationships based on a common interest or background? Some call it networking. I live on a small base, but I know every academy grad from O-1 to O-6. A bunch of my friends are also pilots. And I have drinking buddies. And cigar aficionados.

PII fix question...if I print it as a PDF and password protect it, can it be read by the cyber dorks?

TERA disapproved last Thurs. '99 11M KC-135, no ADSCs. Congrats to those who won their freedom and good luck to the VSPers. It'll be interesting to see how this place looks next year.

So are they opening another round of TERA on the 15th or not?

Except VSP and TERA are separate offices. Apparently TERA only has like 4 people working there (retirements) and the added workload is hugely delaying regular retirements. TFSC said they are getting almost as many calls from angry normal retirements pulled into the swirling TERA cesspool as TERA hopefuls looking to get released from this prison on planet bullshit.

The difference is in quality of life and pay. At my first squadron, folks would volunteer for a short tour or pred to get assignment of choice following. Also the bonus was much better. I know a few that received 3 different bonuses. Looks like this will be the first yea in how long there's no pilot bonus? I can read between those lines. Things will change for the better, but it will be years not months.

According to what AFPC released, 15 Apr-3 May. No word on what the retirement date will be set at. Normally it's supposed to be at least 120 days, hence the previous 1 Apr notification deadline for a 1 Aug retirement date. It's maddening that they've only notified 66 officers out of around 600 eligible and they are opening a new round next week. Still, I think TERA is the best deal in the AF right now.

Called the TFSC today and they said 300 got the glitch email. They're working to fix those now and then will get back to the rest of the TERA apps. Good news for those that got the take-back email, but another delay for those still waiting on an answer.

He's right of course. Drones are more economical and they don't place a pilots life at risk. However, removing the danger from combat aviation kinda sucks the fun out of it. A Prius is safe and economical, but I won't drive one. I'm sure Grand Theft Auto is fun, but I'd rather run my M3 any day. Manned combat aviation is less than 100 years old and probably won't make 200. This will be an exclusive club. Not quite the same as dudes that have walked on the moon, but there have been soldiers and sailers for thousands of years.

I called the TFSC and they sent an inquiry to the retirements section as to why notification didn't come out by the yesterday deadline. I got a BS answer of we'll hopefully notify MOST people in the next few days. It was a crap answer, but it was at least asked to the retirements office at AFPC. If you'd like to do something, call the TFSC and submit a status check. Hopefully they'll be flooded today.

Just got the same email. PSDM says complete by 1 Apr. Guess they are already planning ahead for their eventual failure. Shock.

I also just got the quit bugging us email. Went to my .mil account. I guess that's just another unintelligible status update from the transparent world of AFPC.

For all the talk about ADSC waiver authority, you'd think there would be a lot of approvals for folks without an ADSC. On the TERA side, I haven't seen any approvals for O's in the 15-18 year group. What the H is holding this up? You've been called, show your cards or fold already. And 365's for folks that applied for VSP is just petty...

So this year you get checks for life, next year kicked out for free. It will be interesting how they justify that. I think TERA is the best deal the AF has come up with in years. My fingers have never been crossed so hard...

I disagree. I've called multiple times. I'm not mean to the call center person, but I do ask tough questions. I call and am on speakerphone hold for 20 minutes while surfing the net. I hope those phones ring constantly. Waiting until 1 Apr for something that's going to affect the rest of your life is stupid. If you want to go that route because someone wrote that in a PSDM fine, but that's not the right answer for me. If nobody complains, then leadership thinks everything is going great. I wish there was more I could do, but I doubt I'll receive a customer satisfaction survey.

Got a link to the page?

Now I know why I have 2 monitors at the office...so I can keep working while I leave the other on my TERA status. Well done AF.

I call bullshit on this article. You say the delay was for waiver authority. What about all of the applicants that don't require any waiver? Mine sat for a month and a half with no movement. No ADSCs and eligible. Isn't that what the eligibility check was for? You say you didn't know which waivers you'd need. The ADSCs you said you would consider waiving were listed in the PSDMs. How about get approval for those. You didn't know pilots had UPT ADSCs? You say 5,000 people applied that weren't eligible. Maybe some, but I doubt 5,000 people couldn't read their PSDMs and figure out if they were eligible. Thousands couldn't figure out they didn't have 15 years service by 31 Jul? Not sure what's going on here, but this is a line of crap. And why would you want to attempt this again next year?

I think the old heads will agree, the AF is a different place to work when they are critically short of aviators. Now they are fat, and don't care to much on who they let go. They also aren't trying real hard to retain anyone. It shows. It will also change, but how long will it take and how much will it suck before the change happens? During the 'strategic delay' they figured out they are going to have to cut more people next year. Guess we're not there yet.

Nice pic

Possibly expanded waiver authority such as the rated bonus.

I submitted at the beginning of day 3 and it took the full 10 business days for the eligibility check. I think the flood gates opened. I love how everyone was surprised by the number of apps. "Record retention"