Albie:

Don't forget the Reserves--same deal as the Guard.

I'm a LtCol doing 2Lt work. 26 years and all of them flying. When they boot me in 2 years, I'll be 52. My back doesn't hurt---yet, but I only play in the 5-6 g arena.

Which is not to say I'm overpaid. No, I figure for what they pay me, I owe a lot in return--so I double-and triple-turn with students.

Hacker, you know as well as I that ops-ops were never the norm for the young dudes. Ever since the '90's, they have been getting UPT / remote / IFF / RTU / etc far more often than getting a follow-on ops tour - especially if they did a full tour in a CONUS squadron. In '99, most of our experienced pilots on paper were guys returning to the CAF from some other assignment, and it is still the same today.

If the USAF was doing it correctly, they would follow the "plug flow" method (borrowing an engineering term with a big so to speak). That means, you would enter the MWS and stay in the MWS until it was your turn to leave. Sort of a 1st in / 1st out kind of concept, but not that simple. After a 2nd, and especially a 3rd tour, you could pull a pilot out and career-broaden (Alpha / Staff / UAS / etc) and there would be a steady supply of experienced pilots ending their first and second tour ready to take their place. They wouldn't necessarily be gone for good, you would bring some back for leadership positions, etc. Right now, it is random - some of the pilots stay in the CAF pool for while, while some are yanked after the 1st tour. That is how it has always been.

Back in the day, we used to blame the Korea assignments for all of our woes, now everyone blames UAS and RC-12's. Unfortunately, and I didn't learn this until late in my career, we were always blaming the symptoms while ignoring the disease. The job of the USAF is to fight wars in coordiation with our sister services, and that requires a lot more than pilots currently sitting in cockpits.

We need CAF experienced UPT instructors. No slight against FAIP's, but as good an instructor as you are now, you'd be a better instructor after flying in the CAF for a while. Take away the experience from UPT, and the long-term effect on the USAF would be devastating. How about the other AETC flying billets, do you propose that we FAIP IP's into IFF or RTU? We need experienced rated officers in those staff jobs. We need experienced rated-officers in the CAOC's. The list goes on.

The fact is, all of these assignments require experienced pilots - there is no way around that. What they need to do is figure out a way to maintain a steady supply of experience out of the CAF without affecting the overall USAF capabilities. If there was a "The USAF", then there would be one commander or organization ensuring that ALL of the units maintain the experience levels required to accomplish the overall objectives of the USAF. Unfortunately, there are just a whole bunch of individual organizations making decisions within their own organization but having effects on the whole force. AFPC does it's thing, AMC does it's thing, ACC does it's thing, and we all hope it works out in the end.

in the days of old, when we could produce new aircraft faster than they could be shot down, the combat attrition argument may have held water. But that's not the case anymore. Our Air Force is now a come as you are Air Force. The aircraft you have at the start of the war are it, there will be no time to replace aircraft that are lost. Even units that are slightly understaffed have more pilots than aircraft. So in fact, for every combat loss, your staffing of pilots per aircraft goes up.

Sorry, but I think the idea of needing to overstaff in case of combat attrition is outdated at best.

I think that is why he used the word "were".

Yea, you're right but I was speaking about the active AF. However I will say this; after 20 years in the AF and several on the MD-11, I can honestly say the hardest working guys I've met are the ones flying full time for an airline while trying to fly in the Guard/Reserves.

Everyone's situation is unique but I think the best program the AF ever came up with was the Grey Beard program. Pretty simple, do your job and your required time in the staff, and you were rewarded with the last 3 years of 20 in the cockpit. Assuming you didn't want to be a general, everyone wins.

The AF was also going to pay for your ATP for a while with that program...

My point wasn't that the AF should NOT have a career pilot gig, but rather that there WAS one out there all along that I overlooked--the ANG and Reserves.

If they'd put a UAV squadron somewhere from Mississippi to Florida, I'd do that again. Let us old guys worry about that junk and put the young pups in the fast jets. When they get their 2000 hour patches and bad backs then THEY can come join the UAV team.

But I ain't King...

I've been saying that all along. The USAF is looking at the completely wrong end of the spectrum in trying to put these new guys in there when there are a bunch of old guys who would do it for the pay and incentives (additional retirement points / tricare / etc) as much as the ability to blow stuff up and contribute to the mission without having to destroy their bodies.

Ahem. RC-12. U-28. NSA. AT-6 (maybe). Reaper. Global Hawk

The list goes on. They may not be the planes you want, but there are definately lots of new airplanes out that there that came about since and because of this war.

Excellent point I never considered until it was too late.

However, AD also has a career pilot track--it's called being a passed over Maj. Most squadrons I've been in have at least a couple running around. Minor kick in the junk when it comes about, but overall not a bad deal.

If you can handle the blow to your ego - it is a dream of a deal!

USMCFLYR