Promotion and PRF Information

[BashiChuni]

guys seriously screw these elitist military political "leaders"

get out they don't care about you, the country, or the constitution

[Pooter]

Could they have rolled this out gradually, with a year or two notice? Of course they could have. But no. Happy new year, get fucked, policy effective in 3 days. 

[StrikeOut312]

What’s old is new again. Seems like bad faith to drop the policy the week after Christmas and make it effective on 1 Jan. Definitely shows how the AF really feels.

[Chuck17]

Anyone who is surprised or feels betrayed by this development hasn’t been paying attention.

Sorry gents, as soon as they rolled out the “masking” umpty years ago there were plenty of old heads who said not to trust that things wouldn’t change once again. The USAF is fickle. 

It’s not a shock. 

Do your school. Or don’t. It’ll work out either way. The USAF payed for FOUR - count’em - 4x masters degrees for me. I (still) only need one, and even that is arguable.

YMMV.

Chuck

[nunya]

Easier said than done, but the sooner you can adopt a nihilist view of the AF "system," the better.

Allow me to wax poetic as an old guy for a minute. I don't mean unprofessionalism towards our craft. I don't mean disrespect for your wingman. I don't even mean insubordination. If you want a masters, great. Get it. If you don't want it, don't get it. The AF might kick you out as a passed over Major at 20 years. Ok. Your check of the month will be $600 less and the gate guard might not salute you quite as crisply when you go to the commissary during retiree hour. Or don't wait around to find out and get out at 12 years. I'd encourage you to go to the ARC, but if you don't want to, don't. If the AF is a lifelong calling for you, great. If it's just a job for your 20s, great. The system doesn't care which camp you're in - it'll be just fine without you and you'll be just fine without it.

Your work ethic, intelligence, and expectation of success puts you heads and shoulders above your workplace competition. Unless you go looking for that hot girl Molly, you won't end up homeless on the streets of Portland. If you're panicking about your promotion opportunities with this new bait and switch, I encourage you to go create a LinkedIn account. Seriously. Go look at who's doing ok in the world. Find and follow the people that you think have made it. Masters or not. Promotion or not. You'll be ok.

[brabus]

18 minutes ago, nunya said:

Your work ethic, intelligence, and expectation of success puts you heads and shoulders above your workplace competition. Unless you go looking for that hot girl Molly, you won't end up homeless on the streets of Portland. If you're panicking about your promotion opportunities with this new bait and switch, I encourage you to go create a LinkedIn account. Seriously. Go look at who's doing ok in the world. Find and follow the people that you think have made it. Masters or not. Promotion or not. You'll be ok.

This is so damn true. I’ve turned down more airline CA level paying consulting jobs than I ever thought would happen. I know many bros with the same experience. The point is all of you are incredibly valuable to a lot of industries - you simply bring more to the table than your civ counterparts and businesses know it. The mil lies to you and attempts to make you feel as if there’s nothing out there for you on the other side, so you better keep clinging to the gov safety blanket. 

There is so much out there, I would personally skip the masters and let them non-promote you, then get out at the earliest chance. Do the ARC on the side to keep scratching the mil itch while you have it. 

[Pooter]

1 hour ago, Chuck17 said:

Anyone who is surprised or feels betrayed by this development hasn’t been paying attention.

Sorry gents, as soon as they rolled out the “masking” umpty years ago there were plenty of old heads who said not to trust that things wouldn’t change once again. The USAF is fickle. 

It’s not a shock. 

Do your school. Or don’t. It’ll work out either way. The USAF payed for FOUR - count’em - 4x masters degrees for me. I (still) only need one, and even that is arguable.

YMMV.

Chuck

What if I told you throwing up our hands and just saying the USAF "is fickle" is precisely the kind of leadership that got us in a huge retention problem in the first place. 
 

We're all well aware AF policy swings back and forth like a pendulum, but it doesn't have to be that way. I'm glad you can put up with it and had what sounds like a really solid career. But I (and the vast majority of my year group) don't plan on sticking around long enough to find out how many useless masters the Air Force will give us after for some reason requiring you already have one. 

[StoleIt]

I really wish there was an "exit feedback form" we could fill out to let our "leadership" know some of the reasons why we are leaving. It would be cheaper and more accurate than all the RAND studies, IMO.

Not that anyone would care...but at the very least it would be cathartic and it could be something our civilian elected officials could use to hold the senior military officers accountable for mismanaging their personnel so badly.

[Best-22]

So which technical degrees specifically are they rewarding? I know the memo said not to get one just to check a box but without more details that's what it looks like to me.

Does ACSC count as a masters for these purposes or will you need a masters just to apply for ACSC in correspondence to then be able to apply for ACSC in residence to then have a chance at planning the Christmas party?  

[StoleIt]

1 hour ago, Best-22 said:

...to then have a chance at planning the Christmas party?  

That's PhD level stuff right there.

[SocialD]

2 hours ago, StrikeOut312 said:

What’s old is new again. Seems like bad faith to drop the policy the week after Christmas and make it effective on 1 Jan. Definitely shows how the AF really feels.

 

 

I'll see that and raise you a policy that was enacted and BACK DATED by multiple months.  When they took the 3 for 1's from alert, they didn't just throw down with "as of today," they back dated it by multiple months. This meant that we had a part-timer who had already worked and was expecting 21 days of pay...he got 8.  Guess how much help we got from part timers after that...

 

Anyway, back on subject, what is this, the 3rd or 4th time they've done this shit in the last 15 years?  Like they said above, fire up a linkedIn account and you'll be surprised at that options you'll have.  

[StrikeOut312]

I know a couple guys that are sticking around because it’s right for them and their families, but I decided a while ago I need to do something else. 18 months to go on the ole UPT ADSC…

I find it amusing in a twisted way to have seen the return of AADs. I got my ATP back in ‘16 hoping there’d be another VSP—too bad THAT program didn’t come back!

[HuggyU2]

2 hours ago, StoleIt said:

I really wish there was an "exit feedback form" we could fill out to let our "leadership" know some of the reasons why we are leaving. 

Oh, but there is a way to provide direct feedback.

I won't post it here, but simply look on The Global for: 

- Kendall, Frank, SECAF

- Miller, Caroline M, Lt Gen. 

- and maybe your MAJCOM A1.

A "feedback form" isn't needed. Simply provide your well-developed, professional thoughts on the matter. 

[StoleIt]

9 minutes ago, HuggyU2 said:

Oh, but there is a way to provide direct feedback.

I won't post it here, but simply look on The Global for: 

- Kendall, Frank, SECAF

- Miller, Caroline M, Lt Gen. 

- and maybe your MAJCOM A1.

A "feedback form" isn't needed. Simply provide your well-developed, professional thoughts on the matter. 

True, as I get a little closer to my separation date I will just let them know directly next time they come up to the cockpit and ask me how it's going. Granted only one of those people rate my jet.🤣

[ItnStln]

23 hours ago, Chuck17 said:

Do your school. Or don’t. It’ll work out either way. The USAF payed for FOUR - count’em - 4x masters degrees for me. I (still) only need one, and even that is arguable.

How did you get them to pay for four?

Edited December 31, 2022 by ItnStln

[pawnman]

5 hours ago, Chuck17 said:

Anyone who is surprised or feels betrayed by this development hasn’t been paying attention.

Sorry gents, as soon as they rolled out the “masking” umpty years ago there were plenty of old heads who said not to trust that things wouldn’t change once again. The USAF is fickle. 

It’s not a shock. 

Do your school. Or don’t. It’ll work out either way. The USAF payed for FOUR - count’em - 4x masters degrees for me. I (still) only need one, and even that is arguable.

YMMV.

Chuck

I always expected the masters degrees would come back...what I'm really curious about is the "rewarding specific degrees" portion.   

Do AU's "Leadership" and "National Security" degrees count as "technical" for the purposes of promotion? 

[Swizzle]

40 minutes ago, pawnman said:

..what I'm really curious about is the "rewarding specific degrees" portion.

Will ACSC/AWC degrees be MORE valued? Will the cone lick it’s AU/AFIT-self?

[FLEA]

2 hours ago, pawnman said:

I always expected the masters degrees would come back...what I'm really curious about is the "rewarding specific degrees" portion.   

Do AU's "Leadership" and "National Security" degrees count as "technical" for the purposes of promotion? 

Met a dude a few weeks ago. F-16 patch doing a PhD candidacy at one of our national laboratories to discern the necessary AI/ML advances that will be needed for the loyal wingman program. My guess is this change is included to get dudes like that to the top easier. 

[busdriver]

5 hours ago, SocialD said:

Anyway, back on subject, what is this, the 3rd or 4th time they've done this shit in the last 15 years? 

Masked when I was a LT, unmasked as a captain, then remasked as a major, then retired last spring, now unmasked again.

[pawnman]

13 minutes ago, FLEA said:

Met a dude a few weeks ago. F-16 patch doing a PhD candidacy at one of our national laboratories to discern the necessary AI/ML advances that will be needed for the loyal wingman program. My guess is this change is included to get dudes like that to the top easier. 

If you're a patch hand- selected for a PhD program, how much extra help do you need? 

[Skitzo]

Next move will be bringing back BTZ.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bigred]

8 hours ago, brabus said:

The mil lies to you and attempts to make you feel as if there’s nothing out there for you on the other side, so you better keep clinging to the gov safety blanket. 

 

Genuinely curious, do some commanders tell their folks there’s nothing good on the outside? I was on the fence a few times in my career and it wasn’t ever a conversation of not having opportunities on the outside, it was just a discussion of various options and the pluses/minuses of each.

For me, I’ve stayed in because the flying is awesome. Surprisingly they keep promoting me but I’m still in the cockpit almost 20 years later! 

 

[the g-man]

Genuinely curious, do some commanders tell their folks there’s nothing good on the outside? I was on the fence a few times in my career and it wasn’t ever a conversation of not having opportunities on the outside, it was just a discussion of various options and the pluses/minuses of each.
For me, I’ve stayed in because the flying is awesome. Surprisingly they keep promoting me but I’m still in the cockpit almost 20 years later! 
 

Yes. I’ve heard of commanders specifically citing that the airlines will just treat you like a number.

Also had a commander who ran into a pilot that had recently separated and started flying for an air line a couple months before and was ragging him on how the airline life sucks despite the face he was just an o-5 with 0 airline experience


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Homestar]

6 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:

Oh, but there is a way to provide direct feedback.

I won't post it here, but simply look on The Global for: 

- Kendall, Frank, SECAF

- Miller, Caroline M, Lt Gen. 

- and maybe your MAJCOM A1.

A "feedback form" isn't needed. Simply provide your well-developed, professional thoughts on the matter. 

Apparently there’s also an AIR FORCE/ALL distro you could try out. 

[JBueno]

Just playing devil’s advocate here.
 

Is it possible that not having a master’s will have zero bearing on promotions for understaffed career fields?