HuggyU2

Probably right after they finish SERB'ing the O-5's.

Flamer

100% true.

Email was from 10th AF for 11F types in AFRC. Suspense was supposedly today, so I would call 10AF/A3 if you are an 11F and interested.

JohnnyG

This is the stupidest article I've ever read. Thank god we've found the men and women we've found up to this point willing to put up with the miserable job of having your flight training paid for and flying the best hardware in the world.

Like the Blue Angels? What a $&%* job. Thank god 8 Officers were bullied into it.

These pilot shortage articles have got to stop. They are a slap in the face to every person who applied and didn't get the job even though they were competitive and GOOD but just not competitive enough. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's harder, but there will never be a shortage of fighter pilots.

KYTBRD

This article needs to be recast as "Staff Officer Shortage". Once you sign up for the bonus you'll be lucky to see a cockpit. The previously mentioned program for long term AD orders will fill the pilot slots and the bonus babies will be fodder for staff tours. The pilot bonus is only called that because that's who it is offered to. It's not a bonus to keep flying. The Air force is talking out of both sides of its mouth yet again. It takes millions of $$ to train the pilots yet Leadership continues to release pilots to staff tours, requires multiple box checking criteria, selective retention boards, passed over boards, etc. If it really costs that much to train someone, how is it cheaper to say goodbye to old head experience in favor of training new pilots? This is a perfect situation for the airlines. Many pilots are reaching 65, the DOD budget is being reduced, we're pulling out of OEF (no snickering here), and the air force is offering the door to pilots. The decade of flight experience each pilot has earned after UPT the military readily throws away. It's exactly what airlines are looking for with the new ATP rules. The old saying "one mans trash is another man's gold" is aptly applied here. This situation was so easily seen a few years ago. At the ATA convention in Nashville (2010) an AFPC 2 star general (I don't remember his name now) was asked about his slides indicating a pilot surplus through 2017 and what assumptions went into that conclusion. He stated that afpc doesn't work on assumptions and these were the facts only. The the upcoming 2012 airline pilot retirements, RIF, VSP would not effect his slides. What a crock. This short sighted vision effects reliability, safety incidents, morale, and ultimately security.

Good luck to all. Watching the change in air force mentality over the past 20 years has been staggering. The Air Force offers great experiences and life long friendships that in the private sector will be hard to find. But as leadership continues to bury its head in the sand expecting ALL persons to want to be wing commanders and political jockeying executive officers, they will forever miss the ultimate goal addressed in this article - retention. It's not about throwing money at the problem. It's the underlying morale sapping boxes that must be checked to stay and the guilt heaped on those who don't want to check them. Those who either are or want to be experts in their field are passed over and shown the door. What's left are folks who have a great many job titles that fill an OPR wonderfully. However, they have no idea how their decisions either positively or negatively effected the organization they were a part of because they left for another job. There are a great many outstanding officers who want to make things better, be an expert in their field (AFSC), reduce the pain of overly restriction ground training and serve their country. They just don't want to be subjected to the current culture that exists above the O-5 level. This is the demographic being addressed in this article. Until a major culture shift is addressed and attacked in earnest by a General with big enough Balls to acknowledge not everyone wants his job, this will continue.

Flamer

Spot on. I thought our new csaf might vector that way.....but so far he has not.

Speaking of the bonus. It was funny when the crew chief asked me if I would take the pilot bonus on his furlough day.

MikeF16

The chief is mired in sexual assault. Any good ideas or fixes are on perma-hold.

HuggyU2

Maybe.
But he has risen to the top because of his ability to lead, and deal with multiple, hard choice issues.
He is still expected to be effective in many other areas.
And he needs to do just that.

KYTBRD

.....to either stay or leave.


Since you opened the door I have a comment about this because the response to the issue, while not directly related to retention, does lead once again back to overwhelming frustration and mistrust. Their response is more ground training. Added to what we already had. At a minimum admit what we were doing doesn't work and scrap it. Don't add to it.

Senseless uninspired "training" called resiliency training. Exactly what the hell does that even mean? An 8hr waste of time. There is already a mandatory session as part of the deployment line, a yearly SARC briefing, an online video requirement. However, those folks who championed the current method of education and were hailed as champions with glorified OPRs, have now been promoted and are still making poor decisions. Thus the same resone was to be expected. As I mentioned above, the need for career broadening has trumped well developed leadership skills. Never seeing the results of their decisions before moving on to get a small taste of another OSS section, Group/Wing job or pcs'g to headquarters. Renaming sexual assault yet again shows the Air Force burying its head in political correctness instead of addressing an issue of such great importance head on. Unfortunately for leadership, the very people they lead, who have been required to be educated box checkers will see through this and roll their eyes at senior leaders trying to recolor the same turd with another coat of glaze.

Didn't this start with senior leaders getting caught misbehaving? I wonder how many of them have had to actually sit through this stuff? I'm sure their days are too important to stop for 8hrs. Theyll rely on feedback from thier underlings who will never "tell the emperor he has no clothes" because their careers will be effected. I'm sure if this issue was actually of great importance all 4-stars and below would have sat through this course. As it is, it's been "contracted" out and shoved down to the masses as "the fix".

Such intolerable behavior should be dealt with swiftly and directly. That should be the focus of the training. Holding persons accountable for their actions. This is basic child psychology 101 for parents. Give your children an inch and they'll take a mile. It takes education of the act as intolerable and the knowledge of what will happen should you proceed on your chosen path. Resiliency training is just another typical response that will add to the broader feeling of O-5 and below sense of distrust and frustration (especially those who are married with children- probably not the need target audience). In the end this will not be the reason forgetting out, but adds one more log on the fire.

Grumble

You know nothing of which you speak. Recommend you read this thread end to end, then back away quietly.

KYTBRD

Maybe at the personell center.. The writing is on the wall. It just takes a while for the PowerPoint slides to be updated.