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NEWS Air Force leadership talks frankly about pilot retention
- Thread starter ChuckMK23
- Start date
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
Oh yea, how dare her DH tell her the instruction, show her a finished product, and actually expect her to produce something that requires minimal edits instead of accepting a bulleted list written in text speak filled with stuff that can't even be used? That's a complete failure of leadership right there!
I've written every award and FITREP writeup for myself across multiple commands, with the exception of NOB. Even if I were to be just asked for 'inputs,' I would provide as much as a finished product as possible to minimizes the work my CoC has to do to process it - you know, the whole 'do your boss's job' thing.
I can see the process being different if the award were given for a discrete exceptional event, but for cookie-cutter post deployment awards or EOT awards, I've never seen anything other than E-7 and above submitting their own.
Yeah it's definitely a leadership failure.
Unlike you, I'll try to put this as least flippant and condescending tone as possible, but I'll say if you don't understand the principle of the issue - then it we are discussing a moot point. We all like to think our bosses are super busy and can't be flustered with meaningless "peasant work" like things such as writing an award, but if they can't take the mere 30 mins out of their day to write something to recognize an individual for standing out and preforming then it is absolute failure on him.
If you wrote your own award it says one of two things to me: 1) Nobody really cared enough about you to take the time to do the leg work required to recognize you and/or 2) You wrote your own award because no one else would, you feel you deserve something that you really don't, and you don't want to look like a piece of shit when you leave. Then again, I've never given a shit about EOT awards and most Marines leaving a squadron didn't give a flying fuck about putting another piece of flare on their chest either. However, the principle of the issue remains the same. Maybe if the Navy didn't pass out NAMs and NCMs to everyone leaving a unit, then the novelty of the award would still hold some meaning, and people would put effort into writing them like they should. But since you guys give every window licker that shows up at a unit a EOT NAM/NCM, It's not surprising the meaning of getting award is actually diluted and thus the process of writing/processing them.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
The fact that you think that awards I am talking about are given for someone 'standing out and performing' illustrates that we're talking past each other here.
The most common 'stand out' award an O-3 can get is an EOT NCM, and that spans around 3 years of operational experience, most of which the DH, XO, and CO would not have seen just simply based on the rotation flow, so it will require input on behalf of the member.
Post deployment/EOT NAMs are a pat on the back for doing your job as expected and it speaks more if you don't get one than if you do.
It's not that I think that writing an award is 'peasant work,' it's that I fail to see why you think it's such a leadership failure to have someone put their inputs into the pre-made award template using proper grammar instead of emailing a bunch of bulleted text. The leap from one to the other is not nearly as great as you make it out to be.
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If it's not a great of a leap for an individual to write his own award, then how come the DH can't just do it himself? because it's so easy? I have never seen a premade award template. I've ripped old NCMs and NAMs I've written or from peers to use as a shell to adjust narratives, reused old citations, and typical administrative tools to process some one else's award but it's not some cookie cutter process as you may suggest. Even after writing a lot of awards for maintainers and other officers, I still found myself referencing the awards manual. Then again, this goes back to how services process and differentiate awards.
If some one told me to write my own EOT or impact award, I would just say "I appreciate the offer but no thanks" just based off of principle. I know myself and many others in the Marines have the same attitude towards this issue. Why would I create more work for myself in order to get medal that is diluted and meaningless and force myself to do more work to adjust my ribbon rack. Inputs and chronological order of content provided are fine, but outright writing, editing, and routing your own award is asinine. For the reasons I stated above; Conversation over.
Good topic for discussion, but I recommend a thread split.
...Back on topic, has anyone else seen that the USAF is allegedly re-hiring retired pilots to fill slots? I heard this earlier this week and now can't seem to find any recent sources to back it up. I can't be the only one who heard this rumor...
...Back on topic, has anyone else seen that the USAF is allegedly re-hiring retired pilots to fill slots? I heard this earlier this week and now can't seem to find any recent sources to back it up. I can't be the only one who heard this rumor...
Here you go. USAF bringing back 25 retired officers to fill critical staff positions.
Lastly, the final major initiative the Air Force will try is to attempt to bring back retired aviators, known as a voluntary rated return. But, Wilson said, the retired pilots will only fill 25 open, critical-rated staff positions.
"We have a number of positions around the Air Force that require the expertise of someone who has been a military pilot and [we] would like to be able to keep our pilots who are current in the aircraft in the aircraft and try to fill some of these vital flight slots," Wilson said.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/...ncentive-targets-retirees-pilot-shortage.html
Those backup slides with commander's critical information (such as off duty safety detailed breakdown, MICP statements, and throwaway COAs) aren't going to write themselves.
Retired rated recall worked like a champ for the USAF back in the 2009-10 time frame...but it was a very different program (guys could go to flying billets rather than just to desks) and a very different time in the airline business.
Perhaps it'll fail so spectacularly that the AF will stop loving the smell of its own farts and realize they actually have a problem, and it isn't the airlines' fault.
Perhaps it'll fail so spectacularly that the AF will stop loving the smell of its own farts and realize they actually have a problem, and it isn't the airlines' fault.
Lot depends on extenuating circumstances. If a guy is on at a major as a FO and can take a 2-3 year leave of absence and still retain seniority, you might get enough bites to fill those 25 billets, particularly if they have young children and/or want to be home every night. Likewise, if the billets are overseas, it would be a great chance to take the family and have the experience of living in Germany / Italy / Belgium / Japan / Singapore / Hawaii for a few years. Money is great, but it is far from everything.
Skipping first year pay to sit in a non deploying billet? Maybe.
Somehow I have a hard time seeing guys who just retired jumping at the chance to move their families overseas for a staff job. As in, no fucking chance. Are you a consultant for the Air Force?
I'd actually consider it if they made the offer attractive. But for me to take an absence from my airline job AND give up my Retiree Pay to come back onto Active Duty means taking about a six-figure pay cut.
If they want to entice retirees back, they need to let them keep their Retiree Pay.
If they want to entice retirees back, they need to let them keep their Retiree Pay.
Pretty sure that ain't legal, nothing the USAF can do about it unless Congress changes the law.
Good point. That said, if they brought back a retired reservist, said activated reservist would not only get their current rated pay but also reduce their retirement age for when pay starts.