Air Force cancels Officer Training Boards

MikeD said:
I don't know if we'd talked about this, but during the post-Desert Storm RIF, as far as UPT went for the AF, guys had three options:

1. Drop out of UPT without finishing and leave the AF, no committment. Many Academy guys took this, having gotten a free education.

2. Finish UPT and get out of the AF, no committment.

3. Finish UPT and if you can find a Guard/Reserve unit that wanted you, transfer directly from active duty to them following completing UPT.

4. Be banked and after completing UPT and getting your wings, you get sent to another job in the AF such as missile silo officer, or personnel officer, or finance officer for an undetermined time until you can be brought back into flying.
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Reminds me of when I graduated college in jan of 91' and went looking for a guard upt slot, or reserve or AD. They were cutting guys loose from UPT with no commitment. All this was the 91-93 peace dividend started by Old G Bush after Desert Storm. I couldn't even get permission to take the AFOQT without majcom approval. All that guard baby, we'll take care of you talk was crap, when the rif hit. I was lucky enough to get a Navy AOCS NFO slot... and word was out, one pink sheet was probably enough and two would surely get you canned, and most likely it was the street unless you knew someone highup in say the supply corps.
5 years later they were waivering half blind people to pilot slots... As the Book of Ecclesiates says: there is nothing new under the sun. Just don't screw up, and go drinking before your training evolutions. Or more secular, the more things change the more they stay the same.

If you are young patience is a virtue, but do what you have to do. If you don't have a crystal ball, take all the facts weigh them carefully and decide. Take it like an adult. I have some spare DD Form XX Hurt Feeling Reports if anyone needs them.

On a side note, I went through AOCS in the last years of that program. It was the great pressure relief valve or faucet for lack of a better metaphor. Academy and ROTC produce a fixed amount of slots and AOCS could be throttled up or down. When I went through classes were 6 weeks apart and one class graduated 8. In the fleet almost all of my colleagues were rotc or academy. I am guessing OTS has a similar function.

2nd side note... With the cut in funding for glass upgrades there are some units that are looking for Navs. Really going through the t-34 and on to celestial nav pipeline I don't see this as a fun option but the AF in the past has had a robust pilot to nav transition program unlike the Navy, which did away with it entirely for a while (when I was eligible...). If you are a Nav/EWO dual seat qualed and you haven't been out mil flying for 5 years then there are flying jobs out there. Again, youth and patience are your friends. Take any officer slot you can get, get your ratings and play the waiting game. Just my experience.
 
Glad to hear the Air Force is no different than the Army... actually, we probably have it a little worse as our Aviation leaders are always trying to prove to the tankers and infantry that we are just as good.
In 90-91 I had to go to the advanced farce. Seven months of studying tank tactics, infantry tactics... hardly a word on aviation. We spent weeks studying the Battle of Chickamauga, yet not a word on Lam Son 719. At the end of the course I asked the COS of Ft. Rucker why we did not study aviation tactics at the "Aviation Officer Advanced Course" and he told me with a straight face that we did not need to know tactics.
Flash forward 12 years. I'm in the Guard- went from active duty major to Guard CW2. I'm told that in order to be promoted to CW3 I have to complete the Warrant Officer Aviation Advanced Course... sorry, my course in '91 does not count because that was for commissioned officers. What the heck I think. Maybe I'll learn something that will help my unit in our upcoming deployment. Boy was I wrong.
I learned about tank tactics. I learned how an infantry team clears a trench. I learned the MOS of the tank turret repairman. I learned where the corps smoke unit gets their resupply of smoke. The threat classes were on the Fulda Gap Soviet threat... in 2003. An absolute waste of time that gave me nothing that was helpful during my unit's deployment. But hey... time is free. Right?
 
Blackhawk said:
Glad to hear the Air Force is no different than the Army... actually, we probably have it a little worse as our Aviation leaders are always trying to prove to the tankers and infantry that we are just as good.
In 90-91 I had to go to the advanced farce. Seven months of studying tank tactics, infantry tactics... hardly a word on aviation. We spent weeks studying the Battle of Chickamauga, yet not a word on Lam Son 719. At the end of the course I asked the COS of Ft. Rucker why we did not study aviation tactics at the "Aviation Officer Advanced Course" and he told me with a straight face that we did not need to know tactics.
Flash forward 12 years. I'm in the Guard- went from active duty major to Guard CW2. I'm told that in order to be promoted to CW3 I have to complete the Warrant Officer Aviation Advanced Course... sorry, my course in '91 does not count because that was for commissioned officers. What the heck I think. Maybe I'll learn something that will help my unit in our upcoming deployment. Boy was I wrong.
I learned about tank tactics. I learned how an infantry team clears a trench. I learned the MOS of the tank turret repairman. I learned where the corps smoke unit gets their resupply of smoke. The threat classes were on the Fulda Gap Soviet threat... in 2003. An absolute waste of time that gave me nothing that was helpful during my unit's deployment. But hey... time is free. Right?
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If it makes you feel better in 2005 the Aviation Captain's Career Course was very aviation centric. The culminating exercise at the end of the course was a full blown combined arms aviation battle. We started with planning and the whole full up MDMP process through briefing both an OPORD (Operations Order) and an AMB (Aviation Mission Brief). From there we fought the battle twice - once on a computer based big picture simulator and once in aircraft specific simulators.

Throughout the course we focused a lot on Theater-specific TTPs and how doctrine was evolving to keep pace with current ops. Overall I found it to be a pretty good and relevant school.
 
Ian J said:
If it makes you feel better in 2005 the Aviation Captain's Career Course was very aviation centric. The culminating exercise at the end of the course was a full blown combined arms aviation battle. We started with planning and the whole full up MDMP process through briefing both an OPORD (Operations Order) and an AMB (Aviation Mission Brief). From there we fought the battle twice - once on a computer based big picture simulator and once in aircraft specific simulators.

Throughout the course we focused a lot on Theater-specific TTPs and how doctrine was evolving to keep pace with current ops. Overall I found it to be a pretty good and relevant school.
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Wow. I'm amazed. How many years and pilots lost to preventable shoot downs did that take? I'd get into specifics but would rather not talk TTPs on an open website.
 
Hacker15e said:
Naah, Mike is just poking fun at a previous CSAF's brilliant program to change the AF...
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McPeak? Navy did all that tqm junk too in the 90s. The Navy had a wacky CNO way way back in the day that recently passed. They now name a class of ships after him - Zumwalt.
 
granlistillo said:
McPeak? Navy did all that tqm junk too in the 90s. The Navy had a wacky CNO way way back in the day that recently passed. They now name a class of ships after him - Zumwalt.
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It was actually Gen Fogleman who initiated the Reading List. I really liked Fogleman, though -- probably the best CSAF the USAF has had in the time I've been on duty.
 
Hacker15e said:
It was actually Gen Fogleman who initiated the Reading List. I really liked Fogleman, though -- probably the best CSAF the USAF has had in the time I've been on duty.
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No way man. McIdiot. Loved the rank insignias he gave you guys that made you look like you were in the CAP. How long did that last?
 
Hacker15e said:
Lasted until Fogleman took over and un-did the uniform changes.
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No joke. I was at the Montgomery airport when I first saw this. Sat down next to a guy who looks like he's in the CAP wearing class B's. Trying to be nice and strike up a conversation I ask him, "So, I see you're in the CAP." I can see him pursing his lips- he's obviously peeved. "No" he responds, "I'm a captain in the Air Force. This is our new rank insignia."
 
Wow things have changed. I remember when I made CW3 two years back anyone with a pulse, as in guys that are overwieght, non-PC, and with poopy OER's made the rank. Now I know of tracked CW2's that contribute to the unit getting not picked up for CW3.

Guess there are alot of guys like me. Rather deploy every other year than face unemployment.
 
Hacker15e said:
It was actually Gen Fogleman who initiated the Reading List.
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Even though I'm in the USAFR, all most all my time was Navy. I didn't know about the reading list. As I remember the CNO published a long list known as "CNO recommend reading list" or words to that effect as long as I could remember. I thought it was a great idea! I wish ALPA would do the same, and make it a lot broader than "flying the line vol 1 and 2". A lot of good technical, historical and other books to make a well rounded professional.

Would make it a lot more of a so called "profession".
 
The real problem as I see it is, between doing my PME by correspondence (so I can be "eligible" to do the same course in residence!), getting a Masters, deploying, doing my job, and having a family, I just don't have a whole lot of recreational reading time.

So, a great idea that is just difficult/impossible to implement in reality.
 
Hacker15e said:
The real problem as I see it is, between doing my PME by correspondence (so I can be "eligible" to do the same course in residence!), getting a Masters, deploying, doing my job, and having a family, I just don't have a whole lot of recreational reading time.

So, a great idea that is just difficult/impossible to implement in reality.
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I hear ya, the USN was recommended only and no requirement. If the AF was tracking that stuff, ouch.

Are you talking phase II? I know phase one -Air Command & Staff in residence granted a MA 5 yrs ago at least.

Painful...
 
granlistillo said:
Are you talking phase II? I know phase one -Air Command & Staff in residence granted a MA 5 yrs ago at least.

Painful...
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Yes, if you go to ACSC in residence, you can get Masters credit. For the rest of us who were not "selects" for school, and were "competing" for a slot to get there, we had to do both correspondence AND a Masters.

Yum.
 
Hacker15e said:
Yes, if you go to ACSC in residence, you can get Masters credit. For the rest of us who were not "selects" for school, and were "competing" for a slot to get there, we had to do both correspondence AND a Masters.

Yum.
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It was the same with SOS too. Back in my F-117 days, before this was a requirement, I didn't feel like going to SOS in residence. On the Air University, under the FAQs, it specifically stated that completing SOS in correspondence was seen as the same as completing it in residence. So I did it in correpsondence and washed my hands of it. A couple months after I finished is when our WG/CC mandated that due to the shortage of SOS slots, he would only consider those for residence who had already finished it in correspondence, and directed this edict through the Group/CCs and SQ/CCs for all their officers competing. Of course, on the non-flyer side, all the clowns had it done in correspondence already. But on the flying squadron side, the only competitive person to go in residence was......ME! Because I'd already completed it in correspondence. Forget the fact that the ONLY reason I did it that way was to avoid residence completely. So I was the only rated OG/CC nominee to compete for the WG nomination. Luckily I didn't get it. But boy was I freaking pissed!
 
MikeD said:
It was the same with SOS too. Back in my F-117 days, before this was a requirement, I didn't feel like going to SOS in residence. On the Air University, under the FAQs, it specifically stated that completing SOS in correspondence was seen as the same as completing it in residence. So I did it in correpsondence and washed my hands of it. A couple months after I finished is when our WG/CC mandated that due to the shortage of SOS slots, he would only consider those for residence who had already finished it in correspondence, and directed this edict through the Group/CCs and SQ/CCs for all their officers competing. Of course, on the non-flyer side, all the clowns had it done in correspondence already. But on the flying squadron side, the only competitive person to go in residence was......ME! Because I'd already completed it in correspondence. Forget the fact that the ONLY reason I did it that way was to avoid residence completely. So I was the only rated OG/CC nominee to compete for the WG nomination. Luckily I didn't get it. But boy was I freaking pissed!
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I really hope i can just do SOS via correspondence and not go in residence
 
To be honest, SOS was actually a pretty fun course...but ONLY for the guest speakers. The rest of it was chaff.

Every other day or so, we'd have a guest speaker in the Big Blue Bedroom, and they ranged from every one of the serving 4-star Generals in the AF (including the CSAF), to US Marine (wounded combat vet) Clebe McCleary, to WWII ace Ben Drew, to several Tuskegee Airmen...the list goes on and on.

Listening to those guys was worth the price of admission (the missed flying and the wearing of blues all the time) alone.
 
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