What I mean is besides pay and benefits is the day to day work that much different than an AGR?

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Work is pretty much the same, ART or AGR. Manage fires, training records, make sure the reservists fill their squares. The problem I saw was there is little opportunity in the program--squadron pilot, SQ/DO, move or PME in residence, move, OG/CC, move, WG/CC, if you're lucky and political, SES position at AFRC HQ. Moving is one discriminator--move you're a hero, don't move, you're a squadron goat.There's little other opportunities like AD would offer, for better or worse.

I did meet a ANG AGR who was the AF Attaché in South Africa. If you're ANG, it's worse, hard to move out of state to progress, just wait til an 0-6 dies or retires.

I stayed because it worked and when the airlines started hiring, I got settled and didn't want to be 50 and junior--did that at 33 at EAL. A former reservist helped me into this position just when the heat to move got to be too much. And moving MIGHT have gotten me a small wing command to retire at GS-15 at age 55. Whoopi!

GF

Didn't realize moving was asked. I thought that was the perk of being in the ANG.

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Moving as in from one office to another.... you know what he means Gilligan...

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In the AFRC, it move every 3-5 years, if you want to get to wing commander or even make GS14. You can homestead in a unit, but staying as the squadron scheduler would suck.

ANG is different, you can't move except in state with some exceptions.

GF

Hell I know a guy who had to take a demotion to GS-12 when he changed airplanes to one where he wasn't an IP yet. Complete buffoon show this AFRC ART system. He was pay protected, so he still got paid as GS-13 until he makes IP in the new-to-him airframe, but still, it's the damn principle.

I used to be more conservative in my thinking, but after watching friends die and/or lose medicals, I'm much more carefree these days. You only live once. Much like there's always old age to fly airliners, there's always a furlough ahead to dabble in the ART migrant labor. So why do it in the good times? Carpe diem homies. :D

Our HR takes a certificate of graduation of some sort of IP course to justify the GS-13 payscale. Doesn't matter if their current crew position is IP or not. Of course this is our process. So much for standardization...

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Agreed TD, I took several guts from the KC-10 to the C-5 who held their GS13 position while upgrading back to IP in the -5.

GF

The best answer for you and your family is not necessarily the same answer for me and mine.

As a Major w/12 yrs on the pay scale troughing, I was getting paid over 30 days a month. When I was deciding to take the GS-13 level 1, I figured I'd fly once and sit one alert a week in military status. That gave me an extra $1k net a month while I waited for the airlines.

It was simple for me. Did I want the desk job? Absolutely not. But did I want the extra $$ and stability of schedule where I got paid many days of leave/holiday to sit at home? Totally. Just had to make sure I was still flying and accruing hours.

Unless you're one of these T-DART new guys where AFRC is trying to get you to sign a commitment, you'll have ZERO commitment to the civilian job. Laughing all the way to the bank ain't a bad way to go.

AFRC now throwing around the idea of back-converting ART-to-AGR. This after the last 6 years of the AGR-to-ART conversion shenanigans that wrecked havoc on the lives and homefront-planning of so many full timers. The irony of it all. Yes, I'm relishing in the vindication, even if the retrofit doesn't occur. They just plain admitted it with this.

I also hear, nothing has got done regarding the proposals to increase -2181 series SSRs to include locality pay (in essence a 15% bump), plus an increase to the retirement multiplier (ATC and LEO get 1.7%). My guess is the whole thing got stonewalled by OPM. Those guys are literally more responsible for the lack of readiness and manning in DOD installations than anything the Taliban or the Iraqi insurgency ever threw at us. What *expletive* team are they on anyways? Sack of make work data-breaching remoras....

It seems this retrofit proposal is in line with an uncooperative civilian federal hiring office from where I sit. I knew they were never going to be able to push those pay increases in this political environment, where every public sector employee is demonized as being part of the fiscal problem. Even wearing a military uniform full time doesn't spare you the wrath of the private industry American worker schadenfreude. In their eyes, anyone with an employer-funded retirement is part of the problem, while they grovel in their manifest destiny income insolvency in their 60s and beyond. And no, mickey mouse 401k match is not bona fide employer-funded retirement, not anymore than my auntie still giving me 23 dollars every Xmas is. Classic "Misery loves company" behavior. I digress.

To be clear, the proposal wasn't bad. A GS-13 with essentially an SSR of 45% bump from the basic GS table (i.e. the current SSR, but not in lieu of locality pay), Tricare elegibility (<--essentially a 500 net/mo payraise) and a 1.4% retirement multiplier (<--this one still blew) is a 'yuge improvement in conditions. As an AGR with a location hardship, I would have taken that if it meant a decent location for my family, as someone not otherwise married to the idea of airline work if say stuck with a high COL commute due to bad hiring timing. Surprise surprise, they knew it was good, so they shelved it. As it stands, no way I can forego an AGR or even the opportunity cost of playing russian roulette with a main-4 airline, for the current ART pay/retirement setup.

Now, the wildcard will be if they actually implement the retrofit. Same logic says they won't, and considering the timeline of airline hiring, they'll continue to bleed folks out of the classic ART jobs, as they are simply noncompetitive in this environment. Too much of a paycut, especially in retirement. Granted, this won't help the folks trying to get hired by the airlines, because they won't touch the AGR until after they get hired, and this will encourage the rate at which newhires drop 5 year MLOA on airlines, which in my personal opinion doesn't help the hiring case for reservist mil applicants coming after them but I digress.

The bleed continues.....