Amen. Two true stories from a past life:

1. Lots of fuel dollars remaining in a VC-131H squadron. How did they get spent? Fly the plane out over the Atlantic, dump the fuel, come back and log the hours.

2. $100K left in the King Air account with 30 days left in the FY. Fighter squadron next door out of fuel with 6 weeks remaining. When I asked if we could transfer that fuel money to them the answer: "No, can't be done because they're funded out of a different pot of money."
That resulted in a month of "instrument trainers" from SoCal to ACV for a can of soda and return (no fuel dump system on a King Air!).

Upside: Logged a boatload of multi-engine TPIC for my airline job! Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer.

And the Pentagon INSISTS we can't cut their budget. HA!

 

MG Wells told our base yesterday that the cuts are coming and the AF plans on shutting down squadrons (no flying) starting in May for a month or two at a time. BL: we need to shave off $12 billion from our budget He said if you are not deploying or spinning up to deploy (funny, thats all I do) then you won't get any flying hours. He said the AF's focus is on the F-35. This is right after he "gave out" two Bronze Stars. One was to a MSgt finance person who "saved the AF millions while deployed" and another to a contracting Officer who went above and beyond by "going outside the wire". I guess we are now officially in the military where everyone get a trophy. Then he went on to talk about sexual harassment.

 

Yes, this is what drives me crazy. We're broke.......but we need more flat screens.

 

i think we're almost there

 

We are ACC...Vipers. I don't think we'll have that problem this year though.

How so early? Did you get some hours yanked? Too many dudes/not enough hours for everyone to make RAP? Did they not plan out the FHP to cover the year or are the boses unwilling to say no?

 

Yeah, get rid of AFRC where you get twice the combat capability and effectiveness for a third of the cost of REGAF. You must be ripe for AD senior leadership.

 

Didn't know who that was so had to check bio. First a congrats is in order, for after over 30 years in the AF he has logged 2500 hours of flight time including some elusive drone time. Wouldn't want flying to get in the way of being an AF leader. I am a major (no general behind it) with half that time in the service including 10 years of active duty and I have more single seat time than that. I graduated exactly two decades after him and have somehow surpassed him. Good news - from the bio and multiple stories like this one the retention problem is going to fix itself for AD. The freebie they got by upping the commitment is finally over. Everyone can stop pretending they are ALL in it for big blue. The problem is with the leadership. Which is irreparable unless Gen Welsh is able to work a miracle. And every day that goes by, that becomes less likely.

 

Haha, you obviously don't know me. I've never been, nor have I ever considered AD. Part time/airline guy that has zero aspirations of leadership. I'm content with being a flying major my whole career, although Ltc 3 years prior to bailing wouldn't hurt. Zero in-residence and if I do get a masters, it will not be for the AF. The AD would not like a guy like me...they don't seem interested in a guy that just want to be good at my job (flying), and not deal with all the bs butt snorkeling required to make rank.

Let's take a quick look at the Viper community. There are two stand alone Viper wings in the AFRC. Neither sits alert, in fact Homestead has a Guard unit that has an alert det on their base... Ft Worth has the Tulsa Guard sitting alert in their back yard. I could be wrong, but as far I can tell the last time FT Worth deployed was 2007. We're going on our 3rd deployment since that time (would be 4th but we were pulled out to do an ORI). At a minimum, they could consolidate their jets into one wing, with two squadrons, and get rid of a lot of redundant positions. This isn't meant to bash these units...I just think they could easily be folded in the ANG, and that move could save some $$$.

Since we've talked about the HQ, self licking ice cream cone. With two ARC components with such close mission sets, to provide a ready force to deploy when needed, at a much cheaper cost. Do we really need two separate compenents? Do we really need an ANG A staff and a AFRC A staff? So instead of having one group of people running around justifying their existence, we have two... Think of how much we could save in just getting rid of redundancies in the two components.

I'm not a hater of the reserve, I have lots of bros in various reserve positions, and feel that the ANG/Res bring a wealth of skill/knowledge that is irreplaceable. I'm just looking at the budget concerns and thinking of ways to free up cash. Being that the ANG is a bigger (and I believe tougher to get rid of), we could fold AFRC into the Gaurd and save some serious cash. Sure we can sit and have measuring contest, but at the end of the day, we're flat broke. If we don't fix it some way, we are totally screwed.


That's downright criminal...someone should got to jail for this!

This stuff angers me to no end! IT'S ALL ONE FREAKING BUDGET, and we all have the same end goal in mind! This whole "you can't use that because it's a different color (or pot) of money," bs has to end! It makes no freaking sense, and is a horrible way of doing business. We can't get certain clothing issue items for a deployment but the squadron next door, just got all brand new furniture to replace stuff that was neither outdated, nor damaged. Don't even get me started on the flat screens that do nothing but show how much money we made for the CFC!

A squadron mate thought he was helping the AF out by finding a better deal on a hotel. He saved the AF 150 bucks. But since he went through a third party website, finance would not pay it. What mind of sense does that make? He tried to save the AF money and they say F you!

 

Yep. Not a single one of my peers in the 04 and later year groups are staying AD a minute longer than they have to. Not a one.

The shoe clerks can fight the next war.

 

More needless drama and until they get serious about cutting waste then all of this is just a lesson in futility.