DirkDiggler

2. And its also not just the airlines pulling people. My community has lost at least half a dozen people in the last year due to ADSC expiration or PC that didn't go the airline route at all. Solid dudes to include a WIC instructor school select and several high time instructors, none easily replaced.

Damn, sorry to hear

Bye Felicia....

I know Gen Heithold has specifically mentioned AFSOC promotion rates as something the command needs to get better at. Rationale was that if we're trying to convince quality people to come to AFSOC we need to take care of them and part of that is getting them promoted. Not sure how this is gonna jive with the drawdown in "official" combat operations. Prior to 9/11 AFSOC's promotion rates generally lagged the rest of the AF. Be interesting to see if Webb continues to put emphasis on this.

Assuming the report is true really glad everyone got out safe!

It's his nephew

There will be a U-28 briefing and a U-28 pilot there to answer questions.

For any UPT students interested in tracking AFSOC or just interested in what AFSOC does/is all about there will a SOF Roadshow hitting all the UPT bases this week 21-25 March. We'll have pilots from most of AFSOC's MDS there to interact with/ask questions, AFSOC CAG will being presenting the official AFSOC mission briefing, and we'll have static MC-130J and CV-22 aircraft. PM me if you have any questions.

I find that interesting. When talked to us last year at ACSC he didn't impress me or anyone else in my flight. His leadership story/vignette was really poor, his ideas on what CGOs should be focusing on also were way off target in my opinion.

2 on this, just found out I'll be headed there this summer as well, any info is appreciated

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/2015/11/25/holloman-fighter-jet-crashes-during-training-mission/76379366/ A1 pilot thankfully

I kinda enjoyed seeing a Sukhoi going down in flames. Russia/Putin has been provoking NATO/the US for several years now; the Russians are not our friends and this is the 3rd NATO member they've messed with in recent history. Putin understands and plays real/hard power politics. The Turks followed through with their red line on not crossing the Turkish border and slapped them. I'll be curious to see if the Russians cross it again.

Rest easy brothers

I care. A lot. My commitment takes me to almost 16 years and as much as the AF sucks sometimes, I still love what I do and plan to stay in. The low bonus take rate is (or should be) seriously concerning to the guys that decide to for whatever reason to stay in. I'm in a fairly small community and in the last 18 months we've had a serious attrition rate of senior instructor O-3/4/5 types getting out from VSP/retirement/TERA/commitment up and sick of the AF reasons. My airframe is hurting, badly, on instructors right now. I can't go out and create a high time O-3/4 combat experienced instructor pilot out of thin air, that shit takes time as you well know. I've been in a sq that lost an airplane during a mishap; lack of proficiency and low experience were big factors in the crash. I have no desire to ever repeat that; the AF needs quality guys to stay in and carry the torch. If the low bonus take rates and the airline hiring thread are any indicators, the Air Force's rated officer problem has just begun and things are gonna get worse before they get better. That means it's a problem for guys like me who stay in and thus why I care. The AF needs to recognize that it has some serious internal problems and get on positive vector (I believe Gen Welsh is sincerely trying) quick or we're in for some really hard times in the not too distant future.

I can't explain why it makes sense but I can shed a little light on the process of why the AF selects people so early in their career for grooming to O-7. The entire AF officer promotion system is based on a Pole Year to general officer at 24 years. In order for an individual to be realistically competitive for O-7 at 24 years, he or she needs to be a BTZ guy at least once, if not more. If someone isn't BTZ, their chances of O-7 are practically non-existent (I'm sure its theoretically possible but extremely unlikely). The system is biased in such a way to select officers fairly early (in today's environment IDE select off your O-4 board is a big one due to how difficult it is to get a school slot as a candidate) and build on their forward momentum, especially once someone makes BTZ once. A lot of good SQ/CCs and SRs may realize that many (if not most) officers have little or no interest in O-7 but the promotion system currently in place is fairly rigid in what it rewards and recognizes as promotionable/BTZ material (I've seen 2-3 guys that were marginal or poor SQ/CCs that continued to advance within the current system because of already being BTZ/fast track guys). While I don't know Rat personally (thankfully) if he was the SECAF speech writer then there was a good chance he was working for a general officer who had DPs to give and a very small pool of officers to dole them out to; jobs like that are very promotable even though they pretty much are devoid of actual leadership experience. Guys like him are also usually hyper aware of their Pole Year and what they need to progress, generally at the expense of their colleagues and anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck under their command. Cleared Hot or Liquid may be able to explain this more clearly or correct anything I typed above that's incorrect, a lot of guys don't know much about this stuff cause the AF as a whole doesn't explain the promotion system very well or at all to new officers. Hope this helps.

Did they both punch?

Glad he got out and is safe, hope the law of threes doesn't make for a bad end to safety for the fiscal year

Thanks for the work

Well said

Did a JCET with those guys in 2010. The US arms embargo hit their military pretty hard, they had a serious lack of spare parts and experienced Mx personnel for the US aircraft in their fleet. They were nice guys and eager to learn but the lack of resources/training was very apparent (their Mx/FEs were very eager for classes on basic green machine shit like engines and props). One of the -130s I took a tour of had all the fuel gauges inop (they would just fill it up and call it good), another had some serious hydraulic issues that they didn't have the parts to fix but both planes were flown regularly. The news report said engine trouble right after takeoff, my guess is they were close to/above 155K with a high temp dev and poor TOLD performance. Guessing further, I'd bet they hit either 1 or 2 engine out VMCA or had no 2 engine service ceiling and couldn't control the A/C sufficiently right after takeoff to make it back to the field. Sympathies for the crew, pax and their families.

If he's including AADs in his rack and stack then he's shortly going to be in trouble. A Gp/CC I know that recently went through the CC course at Maxwell told me that its being emphasized from on high that commanders will not have AADs on their R/S. As to it being considered unofficially who knows.

Not sure if this was the best thread but interesting reading nonetheless https://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/2015/06/24/brad-carson-personnel-systems-reform-outdated-ash-carter-attrition-retirement-human-resources/29208959/

Is anyone else as relieved I as I am that he finally wore her out and got back to modding?, I think I was going through a little BODN withdraw there...