Originally Posted by
Hilltopper89
I think the real story is pilot retention, especially in the 11Fs. The man has to know that morale is at an all-time low and that they need to fix the system to keep folks around. When I retired a couple months ago I'd say at least half if not more of the 11Fs in my unit were considering getting out. They're just waiting for an interview and a job offer.
It must be pretty bad. It's like a revolving door of AD guys looking to rush the squadron, I can't keep them all straight. Some of the stories about how bad morale is, are very telling. One of our fairly new AD hires, was the 4th guy to 7 day opt the same "good deal" assignment. He had been hired but ended up getting out earlier than expect due to his 7 day opt. When asked what it would take to keep him in (by someone in his squadron leadership), he said the bonus would have to be $100k/yr for 5 years... Turned out good for him as he got into an AGR spot pretty quickly and is now on the 25k bonus!
A good number (there are a few I haven't heard from) of my AD B-course IP's are either now in or about to be in the Guard/Reserve. Many of them we're at the 12-13 year point when they got out...and most of them had gone Ops-Ops-Luke-Ops!
Originally Posted by
Hilltopper89
It got bad enough that our commander got angry when he overheard all the airline talk at work and had words with a buddy who had study materials on his desk.
Ha, reminds me of a story from my last deployment. Never knew there was so much hatred toward airline talk (of course I work in a squadron full of airline pilots). I spent a few weeks working a "staff style" job with mostly AD guys. One day I was talking with a guy about the airlines, when an irritated Lt Col type made some comment about my discussion. Quite confused, my response was, flying for the airlines is my full time job...
I guess he didn't realize I was a Guard guy. Even more funny, the guy running the shop was a United guy (voluntary furlough), that had picked up a year of orders to get him closer to his retirement.
On another note, one of the dudes that worked in that same shop had his time extended a little. When I left, there had been 8 (yes eight!) people 7 day opt his assignment.