Air Force Pilot Shortage
 

Air Force Pilot Shortage
 

Sad they're already behind the power curve.

Typical USAF short sighted vision. I have two buddies who were just recently let go because they didn't have their masters. They were passed over for major and given their walking papers. It can be a cut throat environment so I get that but you can't tell me they didn't see this coming.

USAF "Pilot shortage"
 

Just came across this article and wanted to see what those of you in the know have to say. Frankly, I don't believe a single thing it says due to the budget cuts that I am sure will become a reality in the upcoming years. Aviation being as expensive as it is and combining that with our short sighted politicians, pilots and A/C will probably be the first thing to get the axe on any future budget proposal. Anyways, I'm curious what you all have to say.



Air Force aims to land more top guns amid pilot shortage - latimes.com

I'd like to see what the fighter pilots who have been grounded for last two months have to say about this. We don't have enough money to fly our current guys, how are we short?

Well, unfortunately many of the shortfalls are not for cockpits, but rather staff positions that "need" to be filled by fighter pilots.

I think you give "them" too much credit! ;)

Crew, I agree with you on this. Short all these fighter guys? No way...most are sitting in RPA or doing ALO type gigs somewhere with the Army...the rest are doing staff. Now, I am a heavy guy since the beginning and being the red-headed step child of ACC....I kinda have a bias, but there are plenty of heavy guys who could fill staff jobs....plenty of 13Bs who would kill to work with the Army......and everyone who can't be pilot qualified wants to fly an RPA. Why can't we just move around a few and free up some fighter guys? Short sighted is right.....

The articles states that there were 158 total fighter guys assigned at some point to the RPV comunities.

Tatical expertise from the strike/fighter communities is important in my view. Being a former Air Officer and FAC myself I enjoyed my time with the 'Grunts' though I know that other tried very hard to avoid those tours. Most were 11 months and were one of the fastest ways to get back into the cockpit after your first operational tour.

In spite of all of that - picking the right people for the right job does seem to escape the capabilities of the personnel office sometimes; but I'm sure glad I never had to do that job. Talk about thankless! :eek:

USMC,

I agree with you...and trust me, I respect the heck out of my fighter brothers....might be a tad bit jealous too.....but really, the USAF has fighter guys all over the place....if we need to consolidate a little....let's do it. Free up the jobs, let the heavy drivers have a shot at doing some stuff and get the job done. I really do feel for fighter guys who have to spend month on month in the desert doing a tours....but us ISR guys do the same thing, just not quite as glamorous and we don't get the chicks. But my 13Bravo buddies who think they are fighter guys sure try hard! ;)

I'm not against spreading the wealth at all - and the requirement for FAC'ing in the USMC was aircrew. I had a CH-53E pilot and EA-6B ECMO as my battalion FACs. Aircrew who are med-down for various reasons could be filled into UAV slots and staff tours too as they probably already are to some degree. I wish there was a shortage enough to bring back us lazy, lame, and broken wanna-bes :) Just waiver that PFT/CFT and I'm back in that cockpit taking the -3 night formation hop again! ;):eek:

2 words, well 1 hyphenated word, STOP-LOSS. The exact thing that caused this fighter shortage is now about to happen to the heavy guys. All the UAV, MC-12 and ACC staff jobs that were filled with fighter guys now are going to be filled with heavy guys which in turn will cause a mass exodus just like the fighters. There are enough pilots to fill fighter cockpits but not all the other crap, same thing is going to happen to the heavies. And the heavy guys are getting promoted at lower rates than the fighter guys so that is forcing more out as well. Its going to be comical in about 12-24 months.

Good luck to the AF if they do this. I can't imagine a guy on stop-loss is anything more than warm body that shows up to work and not much more.

They could eliminate staff billets. Presto, shortage solved.

They do not apply common sense logic to anything. They/gov't has done this to themselves. It will get a lot worse before it gets better. It's even getting worse in ANG/AFRC.

True. My old unit is bleeding to death. I think we are in for a rough couple of years. The long term MPA deal ending plus the big airlines hiring is the perfect storm for some units. Guys all of the sudden have options after several years of serving the man and some might jump for better deals.

And,... Monday the AF announced a SERB for twice-passed-over O-5's.
It just keeps getting better!!

Any guesses on when the next Limited Period Recall Program will be announced?

AFRC now soliciting TRs to go on long term AD orders to fill regaf billets to free them up to go to staff. Kicker is, once your orders are over you old job is probably gone. Won't be many takers on this one either.

I haven't seen this...if true it hasn't made its way to AFSOC yet. I'd be all over it. Couple of thoughts - I don't believe those in charge will change the system. It's the system they've done so well under (school, staff, school, staff, school, staff...you get the idea) so I'm sure they think everything's great. I also think they don't believe that any other pilot in the AF doesn't want the same track. Who doesn't want to be a WG/CC?? I'm guessing just about everyone, but I don't think the pentagon sees it that way. If you let guys fly, quit shoving the school/education/staff crap at them, I think we'd be surprised at how many stay. Currently, the Guard/Reserve lets pilots do this, which is why I'm constantly asked about Reserves and airlines by the dudes in my associate unit and guys at the HQ staff where I'm on mandays. It's only going to get worse.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Which has added one more log on the fire...
 

.....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.

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

Shack...He must be a staff officer..
 

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

too frustrated to comment.......once again another boxed checked....hey look, I'm pc now........bs.....we're pc'ing ourselves to death in the military....it's sad we're afraid of our own shadow......

On a slightly different note, I'd like to add another perspective on my observations of the massive political problems that is plaguing the military at the O4 level and above. I'm currently on my second deployment to AFG and the things I have seen over the past 5 months make me want to throw up because I look around and all I see are politicians, not military leaders and most definitely not the Marine Corps I read about.

I was pulled away on a IA from my fleet tour to be a FAC on a police advisor team in 2012. Having completed my first deployment as a pilot in 2011, I could see the writing on the wall in terms of bend over and take it in the A$$ ROE and our "leaders" bounding our hands while throwing us into the fray. Needles to say, when I was pulled for this IA, I knew those idiotic rules would only be stricter and place us in an increasingly dangerous situation. Some of you may have read through the various SOPs that apply to OEF but as I read through them, I see nothing but pages and pages of everything we CANNOT do. At this point, it almost makes no sense to even have a TACAIR presence because the approving authority is so far away and disconnected from the fight that someone will die before any request is most likely refused. What is even worse is when I see messages like "Ensure ANSF success" as a mission statement knowing that if **** hits the fan, you actually cannot to jack squat for them or yourself. The same idiots shoving these absurd incapacitating rules down our throats are the ones generating these loony mission statements and yet, I see no one speaking against it. All I see are Majors willing to bend over for a juicy FITREP at the expense of common sense and doing what is right. To add to that, the indecisiveness I see in our "leaders" clearly illustrates to me the peril we will face if we don't correct the path we are on. This doesn't even mention the waste and abuse that is rampant here on our end alone. Ideas such as ISR platforms for the Afghans and are actually happening here and someone, somewhere is going to get a great FITREP out of it.

Of course, this just barely scratches the surface. A part of me always dies inside when I hear my team lead give us "talking points" for reporters who come here for vacation because God forbid anyone hear the truth. Every aspect of our military is so politically driven at this point that it will lead us to failure. It is just a matter of time. Needless to say, once my commitment is up and I don't see flying orders, I'm GTFO.

Bullseye.

One of the things that will always haunt me are the guys that died on TICs I serviced, while waiting for clearance to drop (which was denied 100% of the time). Two tours of that, followed up by an IA which just gave even more clarity on how f'd the whole situation is.

The only solace I got was on our RTB from my IA, and the "group therapy" we were forced to endure. Some poor clinical psychologist who'd been in the military for about 3 weeks sat down with about 10 of us in a room, and then proceeded to just watch in shock for several hours as every single person went around the room sharing their stories of just how f'd up everything was on their end and how the only satisfaction they carried away from that tour was not getting hurt, and (hopefully) bringing back all your troops. Beyond that, everyone agreed that when the history books are written everything will have been for not.

A friend who flew the A-1 in Vietnam stayed with TIC, making dry passes when he ran out of ammo, even after he had been ordered to RTB. The AF was preparing to reprimand him, but then the Army weighed in on the matter and he got a Silver Star. :cool:

These days the first guys that see your weapon system video after going kinetic are the lawyers. I wish I was kidding.

Being an active duty fighter pilot right now is like having a ridiculously hot, but bat sh*t crazy girlfriend. The flying is absolutely incredible, but at some point it starts to cross your mind to find a little bit more stable of a situation.

That being said when it's all said and done, I will always miss her - unless I can get to the guard...

I can vouch for this as well. One of our pilots said it best, "In the current environment, when you drop, you're taking your wings and throwing them on the table. You can have them back when the lawyers have reviewed your tapes, and are satisfied."

Love it! Good luck on the Guard!

2nd all that. From what I saw in OEF, any time a TIC started to get elevated up the chain no senior leadership would put their career on the line for the guys on the ground for fear of CIVCAS repercussions.

The fix was to try and get the Army organic (Apaches etc...) involved and solve these "issues" at the lowest level possible. Put this wasn't always an option.

Yes we should try and protect the Afghani populace, but it seems we're often doing so at the expense of our fellow Americans on the ground.

Today you would get an article 15 and sent home immediately. Times have sure changed.

Great comparison. With that in mind, when you see said chic and she is single, you gotta remember 2 things?

1. Why? and
2. No matter what, there is a dude out there somewhere that is tired of F'n her.

Drunken Vikings have never been known for being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if left alone to plunder, are exceptional at our jobs.