What's wrong with the Air Force?

[StoleIt]

Curious, it's been a year or two now, but the reduction in ancillary duties...has that actually hit anyone? I'd say every single extra duty that was removed has returned plus maybe one or two extras now (voting officer, records management, CNO, gate guard, DDRP, etc). The only one I was happy to see was PT testing being done in Squadron...but I honestly can't think of a single extra thing that has actually gone away and not come back.

[Majestik Møøse]

23 minutes ago, StoleIt said:

Curious, it's been a year or two now, but the reduction in ancillary duties...has that actually hit anyone? I'd say every single extra duty that was removed has returned plus maybe one or two extras now (voting officer, records management, CNO, gate guard, DDRP, etc). The only one I was happy to see was PT testing being done in Squadron...but I honestly can't think of a single extra thing that has actually gone away and not come back.

Records management? Is that a job in a squadron? What do they do?

[Tank]

47 minutes ago, Majestik Møøse said:

Records management? Is that a job in a squadron? What do they do?

If I were a guessing man, I’d say they manage records...

[SFG]

34 minutes ago, Tank said:

If I were a guessing man, I’d say they manage records...

What would you say if you were a betting man?

[herkbier]

9 hours ago, torqued said:

Seems like we now have an "It is what it is" attitude from leadership. You can't maintain a "crisis" mode of thinking indefinitely, and everyone involved in the pilot shortage issue capable of making any sort of a change is probably looking at their next assignment.

Which is also basically the same attitude our national leadership has regarding Afghanistan and our endless wars in the Middle East

[MechGov]

So, is the AF good now, or is everyone tired of bitching?

No action in more than a month...

Here’s what’s wrong: brown captains rank.

[SurelySerious]

1 hour ago, MechGov said:

Here’s what’s wrong: brown captains rank.

Slash all of the brown ranks. They’re indistinguishable. 

[jazzdude]

Slash all of the brown ranks. They’re indistinguishable. 

It's okay though, just put the spice brown rank in a camouflage background so the rank blends in even better

[SurelySerious]

14 hours ago, Majestik Møøse said:

Records management? Is that a job in a squadron? What do they do?

They take training to make sure the network drives are organized and official things saved in the correct structure for federal law accountability purposes.  It is super qweepy, had to deal with that on a deployment 6-9 years ago. When your network drive folders are organized with the numbers and the one where everyone actually saves there working docs is totally separate? Usually why. 

[MechGov]

Actually what really grinds my gears lately is the excessive amount of time & effort it takes the personnel system to process relatively routine functions (like Air Medals for example). 6-9 months to get decorations approved from an O-6 to work through AFCENT and uploaded into your records? UFB. It cost my NCO a promotion on the TSgt board (missed it by 5 points, had 6 points of medals approved but took too long to process, and another 3 points that were “lost”).

Surprisingly, AFPC total force service center was helpful, if you’re willing to wait 45 min to get ahold of someone. Base MPF acts like its some arduous process to do a CMS case for the guy’s supplemental board.

[dream big]

21 hours ago, StoleIt said:

Curious, it's been a year or two now, but the reduction in ancillary duties...has that actually hit anyone? I'd say every single extra duty that was removed has returned plus maybe one or two extras now (voting officer, records management, CNO, gate guard, DDRP, etc). The only one I was happy to see was PT testing being done in Squadron...but I honestly can't think of a single extra thing that has actually gone away and not come back.

Well anytime a nonner sends me an email telling me I need to do X CBT, if it’s not on the CSAF’s memo of the only CBTs we are required to do, I send an email back with that memo telling them I won’t do said CBT.  So far great success. 

While I’ve seen a positive reduction in random additional duties, there is still no shortage of the ops group having to do the job of comm, finance, CE (try getting LZ maintenance pushed through ...), etc.  

On the plus side we have hired like 15 civilians to do DTS, RA, etc so that has been awesome. 

Edited August 3, 2019 by dream big

[Disco_Nav963]

On 8/3/2019 at 11:55 AM, dream big said:

Well anytime a nonner sends me an email telling me I need to do X CBT, if it’s not on the CSAF’s memo of the only CBTs we are required to do, I send an email back with that memo telling them I won’t do said CBT.  So far great success. 

Mind re-posting that memo? 

[zachbar]

On 8/3/2019 at 5:59 AM, SurelySerious said:

They take training to make sure the network drives are organized and official things saved in the correct structure for federal law accountability purposes.  It is super qweepy, had to deal with that on a deployment 6-9 years ago. When your network drive folders are organized with the numbers and the one where everyone actually saves there working docs is totally separate? Usually why. 

Totally unrelated to this topic, but I had the misfortune of being the records manager for a year at my last squadron. I just made sure to be TDY for every inspection and then put in MICT that I was TDY for the inspection. Never did a thing for it and never got called out. Success!

More on topic, full disclosure I have not read this entire massive thread, so I’m sorry if this has already been said. Also full disclosure this is focused on the pilot manning issues the Air Force is facing, but I did hear one undisclosed officer speaking at an undisclosed lecture (non-attributional, took place in the south, lots of CGOs present, sound familiar?) say something I have never heard from any other officer, and it was refreshing. He said the same thing happened when the civilian flying was good in the 90s, and there was nothing reactionary the Air Force could do back then either. He said just as much effort needs to be put into mitigating the problem as the Air Force is putting into trying to fix it, because they aren’t gonna fix it until something happens to make the civilian side less appealing. There’s no way to compete with triple the pay for pilots, better family life, and more predictable scheduling. He basically called the government out for over-committing the military around the world and the military for saying yes every time. 

[SFG]

53 minutes ago, zachbar said:

 it was refreshing.

Refreshing? That’s depressing. We’ve totally given up.

[zachbar]

42 minutes ago, Klepto said:

Refreshing? That’s depressing. We’ve totally given up.

I totally agree it’s depressing, but it was nice to see someone who was realistic enough to admit how bad things really are. I don’t think he was speaking in terms of giving up, but blind optimism that we can out climb this issue isn’t going to help either. At some point we need to figure what commitments need to start dropping off. Pilot bonuses haven’t fixed the problem. Reducing the pilot training timeline hasn’t either. Granted, one solution won’t solve everything, but at the end of the day you can only shove so many people through the pipeline and only prevent so many pilots from leaving. Are we going to carry on with business as usual with the smaller number of pilots left between those bookends, or will the Air Force (and DOD as a whole) accept that it can’t do what it could 17 years ago?

Edited August 5, 2019 by zachbar

[billy pilgrim]

Our current scheduling board is over 69% wingman pucks.  A handfull of IP's (mostly attached awaiting retirement) and a few flight leads.  Standby for more back to basics SII's as inexperienced pilots do what we all did as inexperienced pilots.. except now there is no more real supervision...

Congress needs to hold the senior leadership accountable for this problem, and they are not.

[DirkDiggler]

37 minutes ago, billy pilgrim said:

Our current scheduling board is over 69% wingman pucks.  A handfull of IP's (mostly attached awaiting retirement) and a few flight leads.  Standby for more back to basics SII's as inexperienced pilots do what we all did as inexperienced pilots.. except now there is no more real supervision...

Congress needs to hold the senior leadership accountable for this problem, and they are not.

Maybe we should hold all our elected leaders accountable (in both the executive and legislative branches) for using the US military as a one size fits all tool for every problem around the globe while simultaneously cutting supporting functions and personnel.

[SFG]

2 hours ago, zachbar said:

[Inadequate] Pilot bonuses haven’t fixed the problem.

Fixed it.

RAND. Blah blah blah. And yes they can afford it.

[Majestik Møøse]

On 8/6/2019 at 4:23 AM, zachbar said:

There’s no way to compete with triple the pay for pilots, better family life, and more predictable scheduling.

Well they could at least double they pay and save money over training the replacements. Triple, I don’t know because the charts cut off with an upward vector.

[rudderrightmore]

 

This is a real email....

[Merle Dixon]

2 hours ago, rudderrightmore said:

 

This is a real email....

2nd to last line, “running shoes & a reflective belt.” BWHAHAHAHAH!!!

[FUSEPLUG]

On the plus side, it should still be fairly cool outside at 0530, so you can leave your kids in the car until the scavenger hunt is over and the CDC opens.

[Sua Sponte]

Oklahoma in August should only be 85 degrees by 0530 lol

[FUSEPLUG]

2 minutes ago, Sua Sponte said:

Oklahoma in August should only be 85 degrees by 0530 lol

True.  "Relatively" would have been a better choice of words.  

In any case, whoever crafted this idea is a complete assclown

Edited August 7, 2019 by FUSEPLUG
grammar

[Duck]

I got a similar email today from my airline... oh wait, no I didn’t.

 

Everyone do yourself and your family a favor and loudly vote with your feet. And by loudly, I mean tell everyone the exact reasons you are leaving. I truly believe this is the only way us little people can make a positive change.

 

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