Gazmo

You can go around and around beating yourself up over all the "what if's", but money aside, the question I ask myself is, can I take 10 more years of this? Nope... and I'm a full time guardsman (ART) with the AGR option. I don't even have to deal with the AD'isms lot's of others put up with. I'll ride the rest of my time out min running the traditional guardsman lifestyle. ANG/AFRC is a good way to hang on to benefits. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Delaying your departure to the airlines for $60k per year now could cost you $100k+ per year (and a better lifestyle) in the last 5-10 years of your airline career. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

It's going to vary from unit to unit, but from a tanker perspective, the majority of our deployment taskings go to CENTCOM and PACOM. 30-60 day rotations every 12-18 months on average. We get a smattering of guard lifts, aeromedivac missions, coronets, business efforts, etc. Some of them go to good locations. Others not so much. The main difference between tankers and airlift is that tankers generally deploy to one place for a longer period of time than airlift (days if not, months). Airlift layovers are more along the lines of 18-20 hrs, unless of course you break, but the C-5's MC rates tend to surpass those of the KC-135 as of late. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Ha... nice. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

The 2007 crash was attributed to low-level G-lock. Only time will tell what caused this one, but it was explained in an article (how accurate it is of course is questionable), that he was performing a low-transition/split-s manuever. Could have been G-lock. Could've been the wrong altimeter setting (Thunderbirds at Mt Home?). Of course we do know the Blues don't wear G-suits. If they attribute this to G-lock, again, I hope they reconsider their practices. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

That'd be a tough decision, but do what your heart tells you to do. 3 years is a long time to put up with bullshit, but on the other hand it's over $4k a month for the rest of your life vs. waiting until your 60. On the other hand, you could bail and make $2k a month with a reserve/guard unit without batting an eye lash and another $9-10k a month at one of the "Big 3" by 2nd to 3rd year FO pay. I am assuming you are a Lt Col? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

"Work" has many different meanings in this thread... Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

"Several years"... ha! There won't be anyone left except Lt's and Capt's in several years. As far as ART bonuses go, some units are offering them now, but not many pilots are taking them. One big issue is that the bonus money needs to come out of the units' civ pay pot, which means less on-the-spot bonuses and temp-ART positions for the entire unit. We don't get extra money from NGB for bonuses. It all comes down to this: It ain't all about the money. You can go to one of the "Big 3" legacy carriers or even SWA and make $140,000 a year by your 4th or 5th year. The thing to realize is that the airlines value your time so greatly that they're willing to pay you $120+ an hour for your time. What does a GS-13 make per hour? $50, but you work 200 hours per month instead of 75. Or you can sit short call reserve an hour from the airport and possibly get the whole month off. Jesus H, I don't think I'd know what to do with myself with a month off while getting paid and what's that you say? When I do work, I only have to worry about flying an airplane for a few days with no queep or pushing a pencil? Sold... it's not about money. It's about QOL/flexibility and while noone should have joined the military for supurb QOL/flexibility, it gets old getting shit on all the time and sooner or later, people are going to walk. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Oh trust me; commanders will harp PT until they're blue in the face, but when it comes down to getting shit done in the office in a one or two man-deep shop, you either skip PT or don't get your shit done. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Hmmmm...yeah... that'll work. Although, if you think about it, they could promise the world to young, dumb, niave fighter-pilot wannabees that the AF is the best thing since sliced bread and sucker them into a 15-20 year commitment. They won't know any better. It takes a good 8-10 years to become a cynical and jaded FGO and by then, it's too late. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

The other piece of the puzzle is how we intergrate ARC into all this while keeping an ARC career attractive. Let's face it, the ARC has saved the day on multiple occasions over the past 15 years while doing it at 1/3 the cost with a fraction of the full time manning of an active duty unit. There are no DSG ARC bonuses and we literally have people in the O-3/O-4 range leaving for non-flying positions because they're done being abused. Lt Col's are getting to 20 and pushing the button instead of staying until 28. It was different back in the day when OIF/OEF were going strong and civilian employers were understanding we were at war, but this ISIS crap is no where to be found on the news and employers have no idea why the DoD still demands some ARC aircrew to be in the AOR as much as we are. How will this new retirement system effect the ARC? Will we still have a points system? What's the incentive for a guy to come off AD with 11-12 years of service and join the ARC if it's not going to have a points based retirement system? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

It's only for overseas contingency operations. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Are any of those cross-MDS? Yep. We have hired quite a few out of everything from bombers to recce. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I can't speak for the pointy-nose units, but most of the tanker units are undermanned. Lot's of guys who bailed off AD during the last mass AF pilot exodus (1999-2000) who came to the ANG are now 20-25+ years, comfortable at their airlines and don't want to be slammed with desert rotations anymore. We have literally hired people after phone interviews. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

One could argue that you could possibly build PIC time and get hired by a major airline quicker by going to a regional right now that getting a full-time ART job. As a full timer, I only fly about 250 hours per year. Maybe 400 if I deploy. You could get 800-1000 hour Part 121 time at a regional. Yeah, you're making less than half the cash, but for some, it's not about the money. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I guess there could be situations where units are undermanned with full-timers, but over-manned with part-timers and some people are using the full-time vacancies to get in the door. However, I don't think gentlemen's agreements are the answer. I say if units want to hire and retain ART's, they need to, show people the money and make them sign retention contracts! Not use gentlemen's agreements. There are OPM legal ways to offer recruiting/retention incentives to new/existing ART's and gentlemen's agreements don't cut it. In the case of my unit and many others I know in the tanker community, we are hurting in part-time and full-time manning, so we really wouldn't have a leg to stand on doing gentlmen's agreements. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I can tell you the times of the "Guard Bum" is gone. 9/11 really created what we know as bumming because the airlines weren't hiring. Most of the bums have gotten airline jobs and most don't have interest in coming in. Why? Increased CENTCOM and PACOM rotations. When people are deploying twice a year and have a civilian job, they don't want to spend their free time at the unit. With a lot of our more experience IP-Major/Lt Col types bailing out of ART positions, we are hiring 1Lt's right out of UPT into full-time jobs. Great for them. Not so great for the unit. The ART program will die an ugly death. It takes getting hired at a Step 7 with a 25% retention bonus to match what an O-4/12+ makes on ACIP. Or you can go get hired with UAL or DAL and make more on 2nd year FO pay while sitting on reserve. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

ART jobs are directly tied to a military position within the unit. There should be no reason you couldn't terminate your ART position and stay a traditional guardsmen/reservist. There are no handshakes in my unit. People are walking out the door left and right; full-timers and part-timers. Last year we lost 1 O-4 and 4 O-5's to retirement. This year we're losing 6. Next year, probably 2 or 3 more. We don't have enough O-4's to promote and replace them. Last year we lost 2 ART's to the airlines. This year we've already lost 1. Just about every ART in the unit has apps in with the airlines. I'm sure there are other units out there in the same boat and they won't be in the position to think you're douche because you decided you didn't want to be an ART anymore. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

ART's already get a "bonus". It's in the form of a 30% locality pay across the board for all pilots. Kind of a flawed bonus system because the individuals who live in the high cost of living areas like NYC and DC where locality is near 30% anyway get the bone. It's like AGR's getting a bonus in the form of BAH. I'd love to know who actually thought that was a great idea. Probably a bunch of dudes from Alabama and Kansas where locality pay is 14%. I will give my opinion on what I "would" do if I were on AD ready to get out. I PC'd to the ANG almost 10 years ago and I've done everything from be a Guard bum to a temp AGR, temp ART and I'm now a full-time ART. If you have no aspirations to be a commercial airline pilot, but want to stay in the military full-time without "some" of the AD stupidity, AGR is the way to go (and you can still take the same bonus... in the ANG). I will warn that although the ANG is still much more enjoyable that AD ever was, it's not the flying club it used to be. We're busy and as one of the few full-timers, there is definitely never a shortage of BS to deal with and fires to put out. Remember, less than 30% of the unit is full-time and it's not like you can just make someone come in and help out. You have to ask them and ask them nicely because at the end of the day, unless they're being mobilized, they can say no. I would say more than 50% of my duty is taking care of administrative BS supporting traditional guardsmen because they're not there enough to take care of it themselves. The part-timer card is pulled quite a bit when it comes to some of the basic responsibilities that most of us took upon ourselves on AD. The ART program isn't worth it to me for a long-term career anymore. It's great if you're a brand new 1Lt out of UPT making GS-13 pay to fly 2-3 times a week and be the Awards/Decorations/Snacko, but once you get up into the O-3/4 range, you realize you're working harder for less. The program isn't what it used to be. The retirement over the years has become less and less attractive. Prior to FERS, ART's got 50-75% retirement pay. That was $60-80k a year. Now, it's 1% for every year of service and the FERS annuity payments are now 4.4% of your salary (used to be .8%). So, $4,000+ of your annaul salary goes into your retirement ON TOP of contributing to your TSP to get the 401k matching. Lot's of your own money is going toward your retirement. Aside from that, the powers that be who've had their heads in the sand when it comes to retaining ART's are a day late and $1 (or $25,000) short to keep the waves of ART's from walking out the front door. 15 years ago, there were guys willing to give their left cahone to land an ART job. These days, an FO on 2nd year pay at United makes about as much as a GS-13 step 5 and works about 1/3 as many hours per year. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that this is a bigger monster than the ARC can handle since they've tide their hands trying to man military organizations with civilians confined to a lack-luster benefits/retirement program. They should make all full-time ARC positions AGR, but I'm not sure they can fund that. If I were on AD not taking the bonus and looking at getting picked up by an airline, I'd be rushing ARC units with ART/AGR vacancies. There's high probability you could pick up a temp-ART job while you wait for your call. As soon as you get your call, you're a free agent, but still have a traditional ARC position to stay in. If you get out of AD with 12 yrs in (4,400 points) and you can make it to 20 years/5500 points in an ARC unit, you're looking at $3,000+ per month as a Lt Col when you turn 60. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

You get paid for your technician weekly hours and holidays as you would normally - whatever your normal work schedule is. You're title 10 for points only, no pay during the week. Then, on holidays and weekends you get paid normal military and orders. So, if your tech normal week is 4x10s, you get that civilian pay plus 3 days of military pay. You also get TriCare the whole time. You can only do that for 44-days in a CY, but that's at the rate of 8-hour work days so you have to "prorate" for 4x10s. It it can be a good deal if you work it right. You can still double dip like normal too. Its a paperwork nightmare as your coming on and off (pay and non pay orders) a lot. Thanks dude! (Or dudette) This is really designed for people who make more money as a Federal Civilian Employee than they do on military orders. For example, say you are an E-5 in the military, but are a GS-13 in the civilian world. You make more as a GS-13 than as an E-5 on Active Duty. You can use the 44-Day Leave rule to match your Civ pay. For example, if you make $4,000 per pay period as a GS-13, but only make $2,500 per pay period as an E-4 on orders, you can get the extra $1,500 to make up for what you're losing being on orders for 44 days. It's not double dipping. You can use your mil leave like normal and then after that runs out, you can use the 44-day leave rule. It's definitely complicated and better be worth the hassle to do it. For most of us officer types, O-3 and above, we all make more money on Active Duty orders, so you'll never really need to do this. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

57, I believe, but you get penalized if you don't wait until 60. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

You absolutely can double dip with alert tours, or any other military orders for that matter. You must be in some sort of a civilian leave status, however, to get paid for both civilian and a full day of military orders. Same with inactive military training period if it encompasses part of your civilian normally scheduled duty hours What you can't do any more is the famous "three for ones." Yes, a lot of the good deals that equalized the ART vs AGR debate are gone and many of us that have 6+ years to go to a 20 yr AD retirement are leaving for airline careers now before it's too late. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I wonder how all that boom software is going work after a nuclear EMP. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Sure. Let me do a little more work on it and I'll post it up. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Boeing doesn't care about this contract. It's chump change compared to what they make on airline sales. This tanker deal was much more delayed by a terrible procurement process and scandal. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk