Originally Posted by webecheck

Best advice I can give you, and this will have an immediate impact on your attitude and thoughts of life in the AF starting tomorrow: Quit trying to compete to be the next #1 strat. Do the best you can with a reasonable amount of effort and just let the chips fall where they may. Do you even want to be a General one day? If not, why freaking stress about not being the #1 push. Work a reasonably expected amount and then split for some hobbies. Odds are you wont be the last push on base, those are usually reserved for dudes who consistently dork stuff up, but you'll be immensely happier because you're doing some stuff for yourself for a change. Even if you are vml'd to a non ftr assignment, its not that big of a deal. You may even find you like it so much it convinces you to stay in. I know of countless dudes who enjoyed their alo, upt, etc tour more than their first ftr tour.

If you went the ftr track, a 20 year career is definitely a marathon not a sprint. All the sprinters split once the UPT adsc is up, those who stay are the marathoners and wanna be Generals. If one of your goals is to be a General, then you're just going to have to eat that $h1t sandwich and quit complaining. If you just want to serve, maybe make Major or LC, and be a good American who offers 20 years to his country, quit stressing about being top dog.

As long as the pension remains the same, those that stick it out to 20 and then go airlines/civy job will be happy they did imo. Thats my plan anyway. Then again, i'm eating a 365 next year cuz of that plan.

All imho.