Bergman

Not the least of which is the ARMS portion...check your flying currency, training dates, and beans remaining from the comfort of your own home (which is great for us commuting ANG folks).

Dare I say: IMPOSSIBLE TO GET. Unless you are a C-17, MH-53, or U-2 IP! There is a list of AFSCs/aircraft they are allowing back on AD but it is a very short list and pretty much for IPs only. Stick around 4-5 years...that will change. 2 years ago, ANYONE could go back on AD. The pendulum will swing that way again in a few years. Just wait it out if that's what you really want.

RAINMAN, B-R-A-V-O! You are 100% correct. I have watched it happen with copilots in my tanker unit and have several good friends (F-16 guys) who are going through the EXACT cycle you wrote about!! One of my friends in particular calls every week saying things like "Yeah, I went up for a 4 ship...3 patch wears, 2 of whom were O-6s, then me...so, I got my ass handed to me again!" He's been back at his unit for 6 months and desperately wants to go "back on AD..like at Luke!" but AFPC isn't having any of that. Again, great post. "The truth is out there"

HD - That statement is the main focus of my argument. Your original post, quoted above, was a very broad and untrue statement. I agree that if you're hanging your hat on ROTC DG to help make Major, you've probably not been using your time wisely. My argument is that ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL, being a DG from any formal program will help you get promoted. OPRs and PRFs are intended to differentiate the ratee from everyone else, right? Thus wanting to have all these cool 'flight lead' and 'combat sortie' bullets. The problem is that it's too easy to pencil whip being SNACKO into the greatest OPR bullet on earth. DG, on the other hand, is a cut-and-dried metric. There isn't room for interpretation there...DG=top 10%, with no BS involved (in theory). Again, I don't necessarily agree with the way DG is made such a big deal, but I want to get the point across to the youngsters out there that DG IS a big deal and they shouldn't pass up an opportunity to earn it. It can only help.

They are the same thing! If you are a DG from ROTC it should be listed on your commissioning paperwork/report of training that FOLLOWS YOU ON TO ACTIVE DUTY! My records STILL contain some of my ROTC paperwork, and I would be you dollars to doughnuts that if I had been a DG it would be listed. You're right - I wasn't working for a board. But I was working for the guy who gave out the DPs and Ps prior to meeting the board! If you make the cut to DP at the wing level, you will get promoted. And DG, in any formal training course, was looked at very favorably in my experience. Please tell me you're not that idealistic. HD

I agree that IRAs are not the most accessable means of investing. Having said that, it would be terribly short sighted to withdraw your retirement fund savings to pay for short term debt. If you are that bad off financially, it would be better to declare bankruptcy (IRAs are protected from bankruptcy) than to squander your retirement account savings. Of course, the best policy is to NOT get into a financial bind in the first place by not spending more than you earn!

Yes! A great company to deal with. ROTH IRA!! They're easy, free, and require zero effort. Plus, they grow TAX FREE so when you retire you get 100% of what's in the account. If you do nothing else, open a Roth IRA account!

I've got the waive the BS flag on this one. Everything you said in that post is DEAD wrong! I have been involved with several wing-level PRF reviews (getting them ready to send to AFPC for the board), worked in the OPR shop at a couple of places, and have seen many of my friends' PRFs (for Major). I couldn't disagree more with your statements. If you are a DG AT ANYTHING, it is a big deal. It WILL be on your PRF for Major. If it's not, then you're an idiot for not listing it. By definition, Distinguished Graduate marks a person in the TOP 10% in a competetive environment. To earn it is a huge statement of a person's future capability, which is what promotion boards are looking for.

I was talking more about the ANG babies who think they will get hired by an airline once their post UPT/MQT days are up. I agree about the civilian hours. I'm not trying to marginalize civilian flying, but in my limited experience it doesn't compare to military flying. I hope this rings true this time! I'm sitting at 500 hours total (pilot) time and thinking of applying to the airlines. Flying a desk isn't much fun.

While I agree that this is great news, it needs to be mentioned that the experience requirements will put most of these openings out of the reach for many newbies. I was surfing a little yesterday, and it seems that 1000-1500 total time and 500 multi-engine seem to be the minimums for most commuters. Most of the larger companies are in the 2000-2500 total time w/1000 PIC (i.e. aircraft commander for AF guys) hours. A new AF pilot will finish UPT with 200-300 hours (depending on base/track/etc) and get maybe 50 hours in MQT. So you're talking about a lot of flying before being eligible.

Someone has been reading too many David Bach books! Plagerist! haha Seriously...good advice. Check out David Bach's books, "The Automatic Millionaire", "Smart Couples Finish Rich", and several others. Very easy to read and IMHO are full of good advice. A short answer to the original question...a Major w/10 years in service and 9 years flying makes roughly $88,000 per year total entitlements before taxes. That doesn't include any hostile fire or TDY pay.

I agree with you about the occasional screw job (sts) (no shortage of bad deals, right?) but do you think the new policy could be the result of people getting a good follow-on and then slacking for 3 years during their OSA tour because they knew they had a 'good deal' waitig? Makes sense to put the decision in the hands of the current commander...brings OSA tours in line with the responsibility an MWS SQ/CC would have and in theory should result in more fair assignments in the long run.

That's the same rumor I've heard. After you hear something from a few different sources you start believing it. We'll have to wait until 15 May to see if it actually happens.

True enough! Legend has it that the 185th actually found out about the conversion from the viper unit in South Dakota..."Hey guys, we just heard you're getting tankers in 2 years. Any truth to that??" After some calls to Des Moines they found out that it was true and no one at HQ had bothered to tell us. So the story goes, at least. I can't blame the Des Moines guys too much...if given the choice of switching 1 unit to -135s from -16s, I'd say "NOT IT" as well. I'm a career -135 guy (nav now pilot) so the conversion worked out pretty well for me...might not have been hired except for my prior -135 experience (and charming personality! :cool: ).

Well, I wasn't going to go if it was JUST the P-51s....but now I'm going for sure!! :D

Aren't they the NY unit that is getting UAVs? :D The bastards took our Block 30 F-16s two years ago! Yes, I know it was NGB that made the decision. But I still give "The Boys" grief about it. At least we have our -135Es now...*cough*

You will usually have the 3-4 day weekend off. What happened quite a few times (at Laughlin) was that we ended up flying on Saturday of the 3-day only to have Monday off. It's all dependant on the timeline...if you've had good WX and everyone is ahead of schedule, then you're golden. If it's the base is behind, you're flying Saturday! Leave during those weekends will be on a case-by-case basis. If you have a good reason for needing leave (wedding, graduation, etc) then you should be OK. If you're just taking leave to go party in Dallas or something, then your Flt/CC will look at it more closely.

Holy Sh*t...you mean all this time my civilian job was supposed to be paying me when I was working for the ANG?!? They must have lost the memo! Could you call my civilian boss and inform him of this great benefit that all of us ANG folks are supposed to have? Full per diem...take a look at the regs! As has been stated already, we live under the same regs as you. I've only been in the ANG 3 years (but have been TDY 300+ days of that) and I have yet to log a SINGLE DAY of full-rate per diem. Guess my ANG unit lost that memo! Can you call my OG and explain to him that "ANG guys always get full-rate"? If you could clear that up after you set my civilian boss sraight, that would be great.

Good call!

The fact that two tanker guys are still telling Tweet stories tells you how exciting flying the tanker is! I think my best "tanker moment" is whenever the convection oven bell rings, signaling my frozen pizza is done. :D Now, PAB and I could get into some RC-135 stories but this is probably not the right place ("Hey guys...check out that F-15 on the left wing!!!"..."that's not an F-15!!"...as PAB sets his bowl of chili down and picks up the camera...) Loved your story, BTW.

CH - Sweet thread! Spending the last 10 minutes just trying to decide which story to post has been a welcome diversion. You're right...the natives have been restless lately, perhaps the winter is wearing on everyone. Anywho...on to my attempt at a cool flying story or two... So there I was (every great aviation story MUST start with that saying!)...on my first T-37 area solo. WX at Laughlin was CAVU with light southerly winds. It's third period on a Friday in December and I had just gotten "signed off" for the area during first period (thanks to Capt Jeff Stift!) so with little apprehension and not a care in the world I headed out to the low area. I report in to the MOA at about 200kts, 10,000', inverted. After doing about a half dozen aileron rolls, I set up a slow invtered decent, paralleling Hwy 90 to the east. Right above the National Weather Service's white "golf ball" radar antenna. I remember just laughing my ass off at the people on the highway, thinking "Mere MORTALS! HA HA HA If they only knew the freedom I have up here!". I roll upright at 8000' or so, 250ish knots and pull into the vertical for a four point roll and finish with a half-assed immelman. Not exactly Sean D. Tucker, but then again...I was only performing an airhow for one person: me!

135s have chutes, but they are convienently located in the far as* end of the jet where you would NEVER be able to get to them if you actually needed one.

I don't know about the 'good guy' thing, but I'm sure PAB will also have something to add here. My ANG unit doesn't seem to care what rank the pilots are. Everyone has the same opportunity to fly and go TDY. In the long run the rank may even work for me...with supposedly superior judgment than a LT/junior Capt, it will hopefully be easier to waiver the A/C flying hour requirements and thus upgrade quicker. The only minor irritation that I've had is that they can't seem to disconnect the words "copilot" and "Lieutenant" so I get called LT often. Of course, if they're going to give me O-4 pay and expect the work of a Lt..BONUS FOR ME! :D

It varies greatly, I imagine. My first line squadron had 100 officers and 8 enlisted folks. More typical for a flying squadron is 40-50 flyers and then maybe a dozen support folks. It depends largely on the crew ratio...1.5, 2.5 crews per jet for instance. Take a squadron with a 2.5 manning ratio and 8 tankers (typical ANG unit) and you're looking at roughly 40 pilots. When we had 18 F-16s, we were authorized roughly 28 pilots. [ 27. February 2005, 22:13: Message edited by: Bergman ]

Not to put words in Rainman's mouth, but as he mentioned, I believe he's just trying to give a different point of view. This board tends to be pretty skewed toward the "ANG is the greatest thing since night baseball" opinion, which may or may not be true. The grass isn't always greener on the ANG side, and I agree with Rainmain that sometimes that opinion needs to be shared as well. The more facts, opinions, and options new people have, the better and more informed their career decisions will be.