https://armedservices.house.gov/legislation/hearings/military-pilot-shortage
If you've got an hour and a half to kill. Sub-committee hearing on military pilot shortage.
Seemed like there were a few misconceptions on the side of the Representatives.
What that subcommittee needed was someone who just got out instead of taking the bonus, someone who took it, and a FO from one of the legacy air carriers. Then they can compare the money and lifestyles. Anyone can go to APC and move the sliders around to see that the Navy can't compete with the airlines for money. But bigger than that is to compare lifestyles. I'd love to see a DH at 14 years compare his quality of life and lifestyle vs. a FO with 5 years under his belt. Who is taking their work home more and who is spending more time at home?
I also wonder where the services get all of their data. I've never filled out one of those surveys. I will say that when I had to make the decision to take the bonus, the #1 reason to stay was the pension, by a longshot. If I had to make that decision now, with the airlines as hot as they are and the bonus still only being $25k max/year I don't think I would make the same decision. The questions about whether the bonuses are working were a bit silly. People may not stay for the money but the money helps mask the smell of a lot of the shit floating around.
For the administrative distraction part, I'll list a couple of things on my list of things I hate about the Navy:
1. We suck at admin. Our admin departments suck at admin. I have 4 websites to look at for my awards and none of them are currently the same, or correct. This isn't just squadron admins but CAG admins and wing admins as well. Make it 1 website and hold admin departments accountable when they don't submit the stuff they are supposed to.
2. I have to update 3-4 systems a year with information that should be in DEERS. NFAAS, ADHOC, page 2..... How about this, give me one place to update my info and that is it. I know they are supposed to be rolling out My Navy Portal but the Beta version just looks like it links to the other pages. Get rid of the redundancy.
3. Since we moved to OOMA, I now have to log OOMA and then SHARP instead of just one like I could with NALCOMIS. Get rid of the redundancy.
4. One year I did SAPR training 4 or 5 times because every Admiral up the chain of command knee jerked and directed training will be completed. So we did more SAPR training. Get rid of the redundancy.
5. I've had to do IA forms 4-5 times a year because of moving on and off the boat and ADP can't live without them. Get rid of the redundancy. It's already been brought up but I don't need information assurance training every year. I've learned what I can and cannot put into a govt computer. More redundancy.
6. Let me travel without making it a giant pain in the ass. If I want to go to Bali I have 3 different websites to fill out, 2 separate forms and then a mandatory brief and debrief.
7. Get rid of ASAP requirements unless something actually warrants it.
8. I don't yet know what's going on with NKO. Is all of the training still required but it doesn't need to be logged? What a waste. We need to take a good hard look at the mandatory NKO training. Get rid of 70% of the shit.
That's a good start for a short list. All of these things may seem small but when you add them up they start to weigh more. All of this fluff gets in the way of the chapters and updates to TOPGUN, multiple NATOPS, SOPs, Instructions, pubs and so on that I have to be intimately familiar with to do my job. Throw on top of that a ground job or 50 E-5 evals and the administrivia really starts getting in the way.
If you then tell me that I can't leave my house or even drink in my own home because some 2nd class 1000 miles away got a DUI , then breathalyze me every time I come onto or leave the base, it really starts to wear down on moral. That shit won't fly at Delta.
If we want to make things better then let the warfighters be war fighters. There may come a time in the near future where we will realize that it is far more important for me to know the ins and outs of the latest timeline than being up to speed on the latest Navy social experiment.