Rusty17

No doubt! I see some IG complaints on the horizon when TERA or VSP is denied quickly followed by a 365. Not the same AF we were so excited to join back in the day Puddy!

SlickF16

FlyFastLiveSlow-assume you have a TERA app in, have you had any updates?

Anyone have the time to look at PSDM 13-128 and give me their opinion on the ADSC guidance? I'm a 19-20 TAFMS guy with an ADSC for IDE until Dec 2015. My understanding is that this ADSC should be auto waived.

Obviously, I'm laser focused on this perspective and may be reading this wrong...

Thanks for your time!

Rusty17

So far I have yet to hear of a single person approved for TERA. On the other hand I have heard of several who have already been disapproved. They all did the initial check and had AFPC respond saying they were indeed eligible (even with ADSCs, etc), yet after showing their cards to their boss and doing the full retirement application were subsequently denied with the reason given of AFSC and year group as well as ADSCs.

Rusty17

Update: Was just informed that my TERA was disapproved as well. Was told I was eligible, reconfirmed it with AFPC and was then denied. I have no ADSCs. Looks like a de facto Stop Loss to me. I would like to personally thank the Air Force for putting the lives of me and my family in complete turmoil for the past month or so and for affording me the opportunity to show my boss my cards for no reason whatsoever.

SlickF16

Gents, I'm in the same boat. Did I mention that my OPR is closing out this month and I'm on the VML? Looks like showing the cards is exactly what they were looking for.

See you all at the 365 inprocessing line...

Rusty17

Apparently they don't even know their own rules. Another guy who was just disapproved as well called the myPers hotline to get a specific reason he was denied. He was told he was ineligible due to his AFSC/Year Group. When he explained to the lady (who was one of those actually approving/disapproving the TERA applications) that he was actually eligible because he was a continued Major she said she was not aware of that provision and that he was ineligible due to AFSC/Year Group. They have some GS-7s down at AFPC who are diaspproving TERA applications because they don't even know their own criteria! I'll hopefully be having my O-6 call down there with a big ***. You can't mess with people's lives like this... Unsat!!!

Albief15

You may not have been able to bolt for daylight THIS time, but there will be more chances. And you will remember….

I was living a good life at the active duty 12-13 year point…flying in the RTU/FTU, enjoying my job, and getting along well with my leadership.

But…I remember a night TDY from my previous Ops squadron, being put on a bus with ASSIGNED SEATING like a school kid, trucked at 4 am to a cattle car waiting in Frankfurt, and then getting on another bus with MORE assigned seating to ride to a WSEP deployment after we landed in ATL. The projo/MFWIC? A mx guy. A mx guy who wanted all the pilots to sit interspersed across 4 different buses because "he had already made the seating chart…" He was the kind of guy who probably kissed a girl the first time at age 23, and was the last guy picked for kickball his whole life. But he was in charge now, so that was the way things were going to be….

When I politely asked in ATL if me and several other pilots could bail from this ride, pick ourselves up a rental car, catch the AU football game the next day then drive down in time to make the in processing brief on Sunday morning (a 3.5 hour drive) the squadron DO said "Albie--you are not being a team player. I can't let every 1 or 2 striper do that…"

So--4 years of college, 10 years of being in combat coded squadrons, serving in Desert Storm, and every upgrade were nullified because although I could be trusted with a 40 plus million dollar jet and could lead a gaggle of same into combat, I was not worth letting a 19 year Airman's feelings get hurt because I didn't have to sit in the assigned seat next to him. Got it. Noted.

And you know what…I saluted smartly, rode the bus, slept quietly and was nice to everyone. But like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, I had my "…As GOD is my witness, I will NEVER…" moment that night. I never minded giving up personal freedom to fight for the country. I detested being treated like an idiot because local leadership never had the balls to ruffle anyone's feathers and insisted on treating everyone like the lowest common denominator. I never forgot, and no additional bonus, assignment, or promise was ever going to let me forfeit that freedom again. The Lord of the Flies Bull**** you guys all put up with downrange started at PSAB in the 90s, with morale Nazis killing any patches, hats or otherwise squadron spirit enhancing garb. There was no PT uniform then, but you could see it coming.

So--when I got offered a choice flying staff job, and my wife was constantly serenaded with "…but you guys are such a good AF couple….you can do some great things…blah blah" at squadron events, I smiled. I was nice. And I dropped papers 11 months 29 days before I could separate. Three months before my terminal leave was to start 9/11 occurred. Lots of folks pulled papers. I didn't. I never even blinked. I even had to fight for a Stop Loss Waiver. As not many wanted them, it was not that tough to get...

So--we all got to make our decision. My suggestion is have it already made, so when the time comes there will be no waffling.

For those who don't the rest of the story….still flew another 6 years in the Guard, got promoted, and started a business. It wasn't always easy. It was, however, always worth it. YMMV.

FlyFastLiveSlow

I submitted my eligibility check 17 Jan. 10 full business days later, got a response that I was eligible. Submitted my retirement request Friday and my commander pushed it through this morning. Got the email that it was at AFPC. My last ADSC for the bonus runs out in May and I hit 15 years 2 Jun (31 Jul is the cutoff). DEROS month is Jul. I'm a '99 11M so matrix says I'm eligible. Can't believe this many people are getting turned down when the program hasn't been open a month. TERA seemed like a good deal...maybe too good to be true.

Rusty17

This whole TERA/VSP thing is a complete mess... not like anyone should be surprised. I figured it was too good of a deal to pass up, but it looks like the people reviewing the applications don't even know their own rules and are disapproving applications as ineligible when they actually are eligible. I found out around noon yesterday that mine was disapproved and within 2 hrs had worked an assignment back to an Ops flying Squadron from Staff with an e-mail from my functional saying he was loading it in the system now. So now the AF went from not letting me go to "can't get rid of me". I'll ride out a few years flying the line as a gray beard IP racking up IP and PIC time for my Apps and then collect my full pension.

DoubleD

Rusty,

Years ago after the USAF rejected my early retirement I too went back to a flying job. It worked out great because I did Safety School (long course) and OGV flying.
Airline Apps usually have you break out hours and Stan Eval hours are great, IP hours good also. Safety School is usually asked about on the App too.

Get a copy of the various Apps and fill as many parts as you can.

It worked for me.