Gazmo

Voluntary? These dudes got out for a reason. I highly doubt Joe Ex-11F wants to leave his cush job with Delta to voluntarily come back to this happy horse poop. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

MAF 100% manned? Bawahahahahahaha! 11F recalls? Nice. More airline vacancies for us ARC guys. AFRC/ANG broken in 3-5 years.... that I agree with. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Our leaders have become spineless. Noone wants to go against the grain in fear of ruining their careers. I have no interest in commanding in an Air Force that shuns commanders for doing their jobs. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

The ARC is going through their own problems. I Palace Chased to the ANG over a decade ago and open ART/AGR positions at the time were non-existant. My unit had at least a dozen bums brown-nosing as much as they could to prove their worth so the unit would even think about hiring them into the next opening. More than half of our full-time positions were filled by Lt Col's (furloughed airline pilots) who got hired into lots of vacancies (from the 99-01 airline hiring boom) after 9/11. Today, it's full-timer mass exodus all over again. We can't fill full-time jobs with anyone other than 2Lt's fresh out of UPT. It's great for them. A GS-13 job as an Lt is not so shabby cash for someone with very little responsibility. We can't even fill AGR jobs. Noone wants to be stuck in a long tour in the event a legacy calls them. We've got part-timers who are taking non-flying jobs (both inside and outside the unit) to finish out their last few years to get to 20 for a Guard retirement. We've got others who are pushing the button right at 20 when in years past, they'd go to 28 as a Lt Col. You have to understand that a 15+ year FO at UPS who makes near $20k a month loses a lot of money to drop a trip to come do duty at the unit or even more to do a 30 day rotation in CENTCOM. AGR's get the same pilot bonus Active Duty gets and they are just now giving incentive bonuses to ART's, but at the end of the day, very few besides the ones who don't have enough flight time to get to major airline, are interested. The ART program is antiquated and not on par with the pay/benefits of a commercial airline job. There are specific job series groups who get special payscales and better retirement benefits (ATC and LEO), but for some reason they chose to keep the pilot series the same as every other GS (aside from a flat 30% locality across the country). The 30% bump up was essentially supposed to be a bonus, but the powers that be at the time didn't feek it was smart to add a bonus on top of locality. For people that live in higher cost of living areas upwards of 25%+ locality, the "pilot bonus" is pretty much non-existant. Other job series get a better FERS retirement. ARC ART's are still at a 1:1 ratio (1% of your highest 3 years for every year of federal service). I believe ATC gets 1.7:1. $100,000 with over 20 years for us is $20,000 per year; for ATC it's $34,000. Quite significant. Their justification was that ATC controllers have a shorter federal career. Um... hello. So do us pilots! The old ANG is gone. We're pretty damn busy and we're only manned at about 30% full-timers. We've got traditional guardsmen getting 150-200 days of mil duty per year on top of having civilian jobs. It's not a flying club anymore. All of the complaints about ancillary training, additional duties, shoe clerk driven policies, you name it... we live with it also and just imagine trying to keep up with all of that doing it as a "part-time" job. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

I wear Oakley's. https://tacticalgear.com/oakley-si-light-assault-2-sage-green?gclid=COat1uifzdACFUZLDQodTLMN8g#/24364/1656,4428,5129/1?dl=b Great boots. Used to wear Nike's, but decided to these. I like them better than the Nike's. Super light-weight and they seem to be a bit higher quality. Not flight approved, but then again, I don't give poop. I care more about day to day foot happiness than the off chance my boots melt to my feet in a fire. If my feet are on fire, I've got bigger issues. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Correct, you are. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

It may be their only choice. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

The ANG is becoming younger and younger. The dudes who got off AD in the late 90's that decided to stick around forever after 9/11 are all hitting their 28 years of service and retiring. These were the people who filled our TR slots to the point where we couldn't hire fresh meat, but at the same time didn't want to non-retain them because they were the most seasoned Lt Col IP's we had that everyone went to for guidance Well they all got to 28 years within a few years of each other. We're taking 25-30% of the unit. Some of our 18-20 year people are even taking nonflying ARC jobs to serve the remainder of their time with continues deployments to PACOM and CENTCOM. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

I think the consensus is that more core strength and less aerobic fitness. Long distance runners tend to have larger blood vessels in their legs (and lower heart rates/blood pressure) which promotes more pooling of blood. It is also known that shorter individuals theoretically can handle g's better than taller individuals. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

The problem is Big Blue's head is too big to fit through a hangar door and by the time someone without their head up their arse figures out what's going on (Fingers), it's too late. Any fix.at this point requires drastic measures to be taken most likely not approved by congress for a while. Remember, this is all 15 years in the making. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Give it another year. It'll be less than 35%. The only thing in Big Blue's favor is that coordinating the ideal exit strategy is tricky.

I know someone who signed an SSR bonus on the Guard side last spring and is still waiting for it to be approved. Seems like it has wound up a bureaucratic exercise more than anything. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

To my knowledge, the only guidance out there is in AFI 36-219 and 36-2903. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

ARC units are a different story. We tend to be more picky and conservative with who we send to ACU or IP school. We've got copilots with 1,500 hours who've been MR in the KC-135 for 4+ years. However, times are changing with a lot of our season Lt Col's deciding to hit the retirement button all at once, so our upgrades are getting quicker. Still not as quick as AD. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

The Technician program has only lasted as long as it has due to the events of 9/11. If the airline hiring boom of '99-01 had continued, the ART force would have crumbled back then. Of course a lot of the O-4/O-5 IP-types who got furloughed from the airlines, found their way back into an ART job and stayed there for 10+ years until they got their recall while us young guys troughed trying to make ends meet. Guess what. Us young guys are the ones leaving now without anyone to fill our shoes. For years, leadership had a mindset that being an ART was something everyone would give their first born child to become. Not true at all. For most, it was the only option they had to keep food on the table. Is it a terrible job? No, but it has gotten worse than it used to be. Ask all the people who now pay 4.4% into a FERS retirement on top of 5% TSP contribution on top of FEHB on top of dental converage. It ends up being $12,000 a year out of your pay. It is an antiquated program not designed well for aircrew. We should all be AGR's. It's be much easier to keep people and manage the fulltime force. Leadership's arguement is that some people want to spend 30+ years as an ART and want the double retirement. Ironically, the only people who believe that are the leadership who, for one reason or another missed the airline boat and are ART lifers or they are non-flyers. For the rest of us, being an ART is a tiresome stepping stone; an alternative to a regional airline and as more and more people leave the program, the worse it's getting for those who are still waiting for their call. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

I agree. I have passed up on an AGR opportunity for that reason myself. Oh how the pendulum swings. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Yes. Let's not let good people transfer to the ARC to be a part of the "Total Force", but at the same time let's deploy the ARC more. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Maybe they should pay more attention to the downward trend in retention rates and not the overall numbers showing fighter pilot retention is worse than mobility pilot retention. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

LOL. Well them tankers and airlifters aren't gonna drive themselves... Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

It should mirror the AD bonus. Honestly, I've always thought the AGR bonus should be less than the AD bonus just because there is a whole lot less BS as an AGR in the ANG than there is on AD and an AGR could, in theory, go from a 2Lt to retiring as a 20 yr Lt Col without ever commanding a unit. There hasn't been as much of a tendancy to leave the AGR program as there is AD, but we're getting there, especially with the airlines hiring as much as they are. NGB has authorized ART bonuses and some units are hiring into GS13 positions at the step 7 level ($20k more than step 1). The manpower pain is being felt everywhere. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

But wait... I think they're going to allow us to stay in the BPC now! Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

So pilot retention got to 30% in FY01 and probably would have continued to decline from there if 9/11 hadn't happened. We're probably just about there again and without another astronomical terroristic event involving air travel, this could get interesting. Of course conspiracy theorists would believe the GVT could be conspiring to create such an event to save their bacon... again. :) Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

So under 30% so far. Dismal. Does anyone have stats on take rates from the late 90's? Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Wow... just wow. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

In general, yes, but start treating the Guard and Reserves like AD and you can watch us walk also. Remember, from a traditional Guardsman/Reservist standpoint, they don't offer us bonuses to stay past 10 and we've historically had people who were willing to go right to 28 years as a Lt Col before hitting the R-button, but as of late, a lot are just getting to 20 and punching. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk