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NEWS Air Force leadership talks frankly about pilot retention
- Thread starter ChuckMK23
- Start date
While we make plenty of fun of SWO's and others in the Navy, but especially Shoes, there doesn't seem to be anywhere the same hate and discontent as there seems to exist in the USAF between some career fields/MOS's. I work closely with a pair of USAF SNCO's who are both good guys but even they regularly talk bad about aircrew and how coddled they are without seeming to realize that it the reason the service exists in the first place.
I think a big part of the difference between the Navy and the USAF when it comes to not having the same depth of discontent among designators/ratings is the shared experience of serving at sea amongst almost everyone in the Navy. No matter the designator or rating, with few exceptions, pretty much everyone goes to sea at some point in their career and get a basic understanding of their role and everyone else's in the Navy. I have been struck many times by the very limited experience of many I have worked and served with in the USAF, where airmen can have a full and successful career in the service without experiencing much at all outside their career field which often has little to nothing to do with the core missions of the USAF.
Slightly off-topic, but I've never understood why the AF is so stubbornly against the idea of bringing back Warrants. It's been brought up several times (RPA pilots, among other things) by the rank-and-file in recent years, and the answer from AFCOS has always been a flat 'no, never'.
It is the SNCO's, they are really dead set against it. I think because they assume it will diminish their authority and place in the food chain as the experts but most O's I know don't have any issues with it.
Where do these SNCOs think Warrants come from?
Well, I'm also not surprised to see forehead-slapping levels of parochialism coming out of the cyber community, either. Not to say they're all like that, but I've seen some real humdingers.
SNCO's in the USAF are much more of the mold of Army CSM's than the Goat Locker from what I have experienced, except they have much more a monopoly of sorts of being the technical experts in addition to being enlisted 'leaders'. I think most who object see the creation of Warrants as a slap in the face, that the service has to create a whole new category of folks implying the existing SNCO corps can't handle the work. It is simple and parochial but that is the impression I have gotten from the USAF MSgt's who object, often quite vehemently, to reintroducing Warrants into the USAF.
The level of willful ignorance about other missions, especially core missions, in the USAF is common across many career fields and not just cyber.
The Aussie's 2-tier system isn't the panacea everyone hopes it to be. They lose a lot of bodies all the time because they can walk whenever they want. Their -60R program has been directly impacted by this recently and the corporate knowledge they gained by "deploying" the 725th to the U.S. is mostly gone now because the "second tier" guys bailed for "better" civilian flying jobs.
Probably the same reason Naval Aviation hates Flying WOs/Flying LDOs. Lots of bad memories and no desire to make it succeed.
I think part of it is that in the Air Force, there is very limited leadership at the captain level of enlisted, completely unlike the Navy. So for the Air Force, having an officer at that level of leadership is sort of redundant or unnecessary, as majors/LT Cols already cover the officer leadership at that level.
Using the VMU community (and my experience there in) as an example, this is an accurate statement.
I found this info very interesting, especially the number of former USAF types getting hired in a single year. I know they have more pilots than us but I would be interested to know if the ratio was the similar to the hiring numbers on the slide or is the USAF really have a tougher time than we are retaining pilots?
Wow. I'm surprised that civilians make up over half of new hires- I would have thought it would be closer to 20-30%.
Also wondering who gets 11,500 military hours before being hired... I'd have to fly fighters for about 80 years to get that much military flight time... clearly it wasn't a fighter guy.
Also wondering who gets 11,500 military hours before being hired... I'd have to fly fighters for about 80 years to get that much military flight time... clearly it wasn't a fighter guy.
At least they're acknowledging the issue, even if they've partially done it to themselves. They've been been letting guys go early from their commitments for a few years now. You can either Palace Chase and go into the Guard or Reserve to serve out the remainder of your commitment or be like the FedEx dude I was chatting with at a layover hotel. He got VSPed 3 years before his contract was up. He said 25-30 dudes in his squadron were all celebrating at the squadron bar when they found out they were approved. None of them could believe it, all thought it was too good to be true. The AF was letting them get out, no strings attached, and paying them to do it.
I used to fall asleep dreaming that the next day I'd get an email from my detailer telling me that they didn't want to keep me as fodder for the O-4/DH boards and I could get out early (only semi-kidding).
Moral of the story? In the Air Force, dreams DO come true.
Meanwhile, PERS 43 continues to insist there isn't a problem because they're able to fill fleet DH seats. Rumor on the street is that 23/65 VFA DH selects had resignation letters in. Dude I know who wasn't even OP-T got a call and will now be a fleet DH. And the Marine Corps is at 48% manning in the F-18 community. But DCA said there isn't a retention problem...
This was exactly my point and I get the "there are good deals in the Navy, too!" On here. Uh... not VSP good deals or flying IAs with jet type ratings and 1000+ hours good.