US Air Force Faces 500 Fighter Pilot Shortfall

hook_dupin said:
I think Welsh gets it, but is smart enough not to admit that we have a culture problem that, combined with a large airline hiring drive, is pushing folks out. The service chief is a politician. Saying "the ship is burning" to Congress only gets you more inquiries into why the ship is burning. I do not believe Congress is the least bit interested in spending less on acquisition programs in favor of military personnel.
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The Air Force is throwing mortgage money at guys who already have a 12 year ADSO trying to get them to pull that cart just 5 more years. Money isn't the issue anymore.

There comes a point in manpower vs tasks required where no amount of cash is gonna make people put up with it anymore. I think the 15+ years with no end in sight the military has been subjected to win no real increase in the ability of the manpower force to take the weight (arguably less capable today vs say 06) is what's killing us.

Now we have a large portion of people who maybe didn't want to get out, but see the rush of people who did leaving and see the writing on the wall that they won't get paid more, they'll just spend more 14 hour days at work and months long deployments to •istan or whatever other butthole of a country we need to send them too.
 
BobDDuck said:
Spoiler alert: It's not the flying part that they get paid the "big bucks" for. That has to be just like breathing and happen in the background when you aren't actually thinking about it.
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But the way the Navy guys talk you'd think they got hired to shoot approaches.... ;)
 
MikeD said:
Just sayin, it's a little more involved than just tooling around single pilot with some screens to look at. Hence why unlike most of civilian aviation, there's actually a washout rate if one isn't cutting it..
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No I get it... There are pilots out here in command of jets with plenty of people behind them that honestly have no business commanding anything. And yet here they are. I'm sure not everyone can fly a fighter or attack aircraft.
 
chrisreedrules said:
I could do it no problem... Now where's my stinkin' f-22 Uncle Sam!?
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get back to us when you have used those "screens" to decide whether the people in a random vehicle are going to die, or are just the wrong Toyota Hilux in the wrong place at the wrong time.
 
This isn't just an American problem. A few years back the RAF sacked nearly 100 pilots in various stages of the pipeline, most of whom got picked up by the airlines pretty rapidly.

They are now very short of bums to fill seats. Well done, chaps.
 
chrisreedrules said:
Not to be a jerk, but an airplane is an airplane is an airplane. I've flown plenty of high performance aerobatic aircraft, and also flown specialty aircraft with a lot of extra sensors and computers and screens to look at while flying single pilot IFR. So don't make it sound oh so "different" and elite. Plenty of civillian pilots could handle it just fine.
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Dude, just, please just don't. Flying a C-130 in combat is about a dozen times harder and more stressful than what we do at PSA every day, let alone a fighter jet. You have no idea what it is we do, so please just don't go there.
 
Lawman said:
There comes a point in manpower vs tasks required where no amount of cash is gonna make people put up with it anymore. I think the 15+ years with no end in sight the military has been subjected to win no real increase in the ability of the manpower force to take the weight (arguably less capable today vs say 06) is what's killing us.
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I don't disagree with you. I just add the nuances that the AF can't a) admit it has a serious problem in an attempt to plus up the force to bring work/life balance back to normal b) give up any major acquisition program c) run a BRAC to consolidate overhead costs or d) stop supporting so many contingency operations.
 
Soku39 said:
Dude, just, please just don't. Flying a C-130 in combat is about a dozen times harder and more stressful than what we do at PSA every day, let alone a fighter jet. You have no idea what it is we do, so please just don't go there.
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I haven't always flown at PSA. And besides, I've seen flight of the intruder at least a couple dozen times... I don't see what the big deal is.
 
killbilly said:
They're just jumping into the boat and flopping around, aren't they, @chrisreedrules :)

You guys do know he's messing with you, right?
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im not usually one to troll, but they kept making it so easy...

All in good fun dudes, I have nothing but respect for you and I'm grateful for the mission you perform. Hacker can testify, because of a job I used to have, I had the pleasure of talking with/working with a lot of current and former fighter pilots. I probably have a better idea than most what it is you guys do up there and just how dangerous it can be.
 
killbilly said:
They're just jumping into the boat and flopping around, aren't they, @chrisreedrules :)

You guys do know he's messing with you, right?
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chrisreedrules said:
im not usually one to troll, but they kept making it so easy...

All in good fun dudes, I have nothing but respect for you and I'm grateful for the mission you perform. Hacker can testify, because of a job I used to have, I had the pleasure of talking with/working with a lot of current and former fighter pilots. I probably have a better idea than most what it is you guys do up there and just how dangerous it can be.
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Not your first post, the "not to be a jerk but". Subsequent ones, you can save a little bit of face with, playing off the trolling.
 
Maybe I misread what chrisreed was saying, but it looked more like good natured ribbing to me, not trolling.
;)
 
I spent 6 years in the AF enlisted, and I must say that going in and getting out were both the best decisions of my life.
 
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