Questions for those retired or retiring. How crucial is doing TAP class if you:

1. plan on sitting on the couch and collect the check of the month
2. already have a job lined up
3. not really sure what to do after retiring

They say do it 18-24 months out, but what if you only do it 6 months out? I got less than a year and it just dawned on me I need to do this. Time flies when you're having fun. I'm not relocating and not worried about finances. Am I really going to get something out of it or is it another death by powerpoint?


Thanks in advance for any inputs!

I'd do it. There's a lot of info about benefits, VA, etc.

I went the first day, was retiring, and already had a yob at my career destination. I was “encouraged” to stay for the whole thing by the staff, but when I pressed them, I was told that I only had to attend the VA brief, which it turns out was very useful info. The rest of it is financial management, resume writing, how to game usajobs, etc etc. I had much better things to do with that time.

Being that it is required before they give you a 214, I'd say it is worth it to go

This 100%. It's required in order to retire. No point fighting it. Just gotta do it.

Yes, it is worth it. I did mine in Feb and some of it was indeed painful but some was worthwhile. I retire in Aug so the timeline is not too strict. I have a job lined up already so after I submitted my offer letter they cut me loose from the middle 3 days of the class. So I went the first day, then the last day. So it's a minimal investment for you.

This exactly. Go the first and last day. Otherwise you will be beating your head against a wall.
And to those that say it is “required for a 214”, I challenge you to hold someone after their retirement/seps date who hasn’t attended a stupid class. Not gonna happen.

I did it twice. Once about 3 years out and again about six months. First time I found it very useful. 2nd time I wanted to eat a gun. My conclusion was that the usefulness of the program was directly related to how lucky you got in the briefer.

VA stuff was good both times.

I found it damn near useless in terms of pursuing an airline job. He directly contradicted many things I had just heard in an EC seminar. I trusted Albie and I was correct.

Had I not gone airline route, program would have been more helpful. There were quite a few panel discussions and I think the networking with those guys would have paid off.

As an aside, part of what pushed me to airlines was the lesson on linkedin. Seemed like the unholy lovechild of SOS and Facebook. Buzzword bingo from hell. Thought to myself "if this is what the non flying life is like, guess I'm a pilot."

If you can get it, most of the bigger bases have an "executive" level TRS designed for O-5's and E-9's. They'll usually let O-4's in if there's space. Heard that one was pretty good. I did the regular TRS. The financial planning class had a slide telling me to make sure to turn off the lights in a room if nobody is in there to save money, so that was cool.

I think that's for the academy guys.