bull

I just wanted to see if anyone has Palace Chased in the recent past (6 months or so) or trying to Palace Chase in the near future. Anyone crazy enough except me???

Tanker-driver

Would love to except from what I understand, all force shaping programs have been shelved--Meaning PC is still an option, however the basic program specifies a 3 for 1 payback. This is a far cry from Palace Chase under force shaping which was initially a 2 for 1, then a 1 for 1 payback. IMO, no longer worth it. Anyone have any other/better info on this?

zondaracer

I am trying to Palace Chase, my eligibility will be Feb 09, but I think I will stick around until June 09 if I can. I'm not 11X, i'm 14N. I am not quite sure what my chances are of it getting approved and I think it would suck to get denied.

130drvr

good luck fellas, the AF all but admitted they let too many guys go with VSP, Chief of Mobility assignments at AFPC actually admitted just that at ATA convention a year ago. And with the huge rampup of UAVs, esp all the nonvols like many of my buds.....

Makes me glad they shoved a huge turd assignment at me and caused me to 7 day opt....

__________________
The 3 rules of life: Timing is critical, It is good to be lucky and There is no justice....

c17heavy

I was there. Smirking, he called it "Palace Freeze".

OttoA10

I went to the Reserves via normal (not Force Shaping) Palace Chase last September. At that time, the PC office told me that if I had less than 12 months left of my commitment, I was more or less guaranteed to be approved. The rationale was that I could 7 day opt out of any assignment they tried to give me, so they may as well use my training and experience in the Reserves. I don't know if that's still the mindset or not, but was last year, FWIW.

bull

Thanks, Otto. If approved, I would be out 8 months before my commitment. My fear is that they say "no, we could use this guy in the desert for 6 months". I guess I will just have to wait my 8 weeks. Do you remember how long you had to wait for a response? They are saying 8 weeks, but I was hoping for earlier.

OttoA10

Bull,

I don't recall the exact approval time frame, but I think it was pretty much as advertised. I did talk to my assignments guy and the Palace Chase office several weeks after I turned in the paperwork, and they were able to tell me how far my application had made it. The PC office wasn't as helpful or in the loop (or so it seemed). I don't know exactly how the approval process chain works, but my understanding is that if your assignment desk signs off on it, you are past the biggest hurdle. I was concerned about the 6 month non-vol, too, but the subject never came up (thank goodness).

The one issue that did come up was my approval on the "scroll list". Apparently you can't be "gained" by the reserves until your name is approved by the Sec of the AF (or something like that). As you know, you can't request a separation date any earlier than 90 days from your application date. This restriction is in place because the scroll list approval can take up to 90 days. For me it took almost that long, because only one scroll list is approved per month. I hope this helps. PM me if you need more detailed info.

Otto

III Corps

I tried Palace Chase... in 1972. Tried to get with an O2 outfit at Willow Grove. They had one of the airplanes I flew in III Corps near Saigon.

The Ops Officer looked at my record and asked what fighter I had flown. They had recently converted from "Deuces" to O2s and were not entirely happy. I said, "I didn't fly fighters. I went directly from UPT to O2s in Vietnam." He said, "you need some fighter time to be in this outfit."

There was a brown bar going for a local checkout flt. He had gone through Holloman and flown an AT-33 and shot a few rounds into a sock. He was 'fighter qualified'.

The Ops officer had never been in combat, never flown a real strike but had flown F-102s doing intercepts and he was 'fighter qualified."

I had over 750 hrs in the airplane, in combat and had probably more than 100 airstrikes and I was not qualified to fly O2s in the states.

Sometimes you gotta love the USAF mentality.. there seems to be a consistent thread.

__________________
Simple solutions are seldom either.

Green Light

I've been denied Palace Chase twice in the last 8 months. The most recent experience ended about a month ago. I tried to turn in 10 months and 21 days for an active duty slot in the WANG. No luck. 11M for what it's worth. They paid guys in my year group 100k to get out 18 months ago, but now I can't transfer my commitment 3 to 1? It doesn't make sense to me. I can 7 day opt but haven't received an assignment yet. Even 6 months ago if you had anything less than 12 it was an automatic yes. Not so anymore.