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lite_sleepr posted:Please post it. gently caress it, why not. My First College Paper posted:Military recruitment ads are nothing but lies and garbage that do nothing but trick dumb idiots into wasting years of their lives. After nearly eight years in the Air Force and all the frustration that the ads fail to mention, I wouldn’t wish military service on my worst enemy, and cannot recommend enlistment to anyone.
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Dec 28, 2016 20:22
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Kuroyama posted:gently caress it, why not.  Couldn't have said it better.
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Dec 28, 2016 20:25
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I joined because my sweet gig out of high school was IT support contractor for an energy trading company. Then comes Enron and the Web Bubble burst and I'm laid off, living with my parents again and have twin daughters to feed. I enlisted when I was 20 and never bought into the moto bullshit and find myself 5 years to a permanent house payment. It's just not that hard to keep your head down and not get into trouble, I don't get it. I doubt ill ever make Master since I don't love the taste of cock, but on the other hand I've managed to squeeze 7 years of living in Korea out of uncle sugar, with 3 more to go at least so I can't complain much. Also, in gently caress up stories, I had an underage troop straight from tech school at Osan who managed to keep his nose clean (heh) the entire year. No underage drinking, no curfew violation, etc. PCSes to Hickam and a year later I find myself writing a character reference letter because he got busted for coke. Humans, and by extension Airmen, are just the stupidest beasts.
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Dec 28, 2016 22:12
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We had a LT show up to his checkride drunk, in a cab, covered in glitter. I saw him a few years later and had to hear how cool his drone job was for like an hour
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Dec 28, 2016 22:28
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That's probably the most F-15 thing I've ever read.
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Dec 28, 2016 23:28
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That's amazing.
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Dec 28, 2016 23:43
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Q: Why does the RPA enterprise have nonstop morale/discipline problems and is widely viewed as an undesirable assignment? A: Consummate Professional posted:We had a LT show up to his checkride drunk, in a cab, covered in glitter. I saw him a few years later and had to hear how cool his drone job was for like an hour
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Dec 29, 2016 02:21
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Godholio posted:Speaking of OTS, that's where HDI and I met a soon-to-be literal babykiller. Lol the dude went no-poo poo Tekken combo on his baby. I remember him talking how excited he was to have a kid. Creepy, man.
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Dec 29, 2016 03:52
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Sad and curious.
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Dec 29, 2016 04:59
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http://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/155745/officer-charged-with-murder-of-son/
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Dec 29, 2016 05:41
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Derek Dominoe posted:[*]A very nice young doctor asked his assigned tech to grab a piece of equipment and bring it to an exam room, to which he replied, "Get it your own drat self." Helldump Immunity posted:http://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/155745/officer-charged-with-murder-of-son/ I feel like the Air Force would be greatly improved if we instituted some sort of commissariat that could employ more draconian methods of discipline than a LoC for people like this.
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Dec 29, 2016 07:08
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Dead Reckoning posted:I feel like 
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Dec 29, 2016 07:42
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Jesus. Is there anything good about being in the Air Force? Anything?
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Dec 29, 2016 08:00
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Yeah, lots of things, but this place isn't temporarily called the internet VFW for nothing.
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Dec 29, 2016 08:11
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beeaar posted:Jesus.
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Dec 29, 2016 08:12
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beeaar posted:Jesus. In case you couldn't tell, the other side of this coin is that once you get in, it is nearly impossible (barring a new round of RiFs) to lose your job without active effort or criminality on your part. The money you make as an officer is bonkers for the amount of work you actually have to do, and your first two promotions are basically automatic. Your pay will never be cut. If you get a good duty station, you can live in Europe or Japan, and get extra money for that. You get 30 days paid vacation a year, and you can't be made to use it when you get sick. Being aircrew is pretty cool. Free dental, if you don't mind that it's people from Derek Dominoe's post drilling your teeth. Free medical, if you don't mind that it's people from Derek Dominoe's post fondling your prostate. If you're not a fat slob, inviting a girl to an event where you wear mess dress is like the Konami code for sex. Some jobs will give you a skillset or contacts that let you dig in to government contracting like a tick and continue to bleed the treasury directly into your bank account after you get out. GI Bill. Vet preference puts you at the front of the line for federal and many state jobs. Despite all this, people will constantly thank you for your service and give you discounts on poo poo.
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Dec 29, 2016 08:16
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Yeah go rated if you can (pilot, CSO, even ABM). It's not necessarily a more mature environment, but at least you don't have to deal with a hundred 18-year-olds whose problems are your problems. Plus, flying is genuinely a pretty fun job. edit: plus flight pay is even more salary
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Dec 29, 2016 08:19
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beeaar posted:Jesus. **DRUNK POSTING. BAD GRAMMAR/SPELLING AHEAD(?)** Even within the enlisted force, there's plenty of good. If you choose a good job, you'll end up with useful skills and you'll end up with lifelong friends. People like to complain, it's human nature. Some of us here also got hosed pretty hard, but that's not everyone's experience. With nothing more than a high school diploma, I got useful network engineering training and a whole bunch of commercial certifications from Cisco, Harris, etc. If and when I get out, I'll have the GI bill, and until then I have 100% tuition assistance via the USAF. We bitch and moan about the idiots we work with because those are the ones who stand out the most - unless you work in command post, I guess. I just got back from my basic training buddy's wedding, where I was a groomsman. We have different jobs - he's a meteorologist and I'm comm - but we ended up at the same base three times in a row. I couldn't ask for better friends than the men and women I've met in the Air Force. Being in charge of airmen isn't always (or even usually) a burden. I've got my fair share of horror stories, but those are the exception rather than the rule. Most of my airmen have been smart and hard working. While I was sad to be promoted out of technical work, I love showing new airmen the ropes, teaching them how to do their jobs and get the comm networks up and running. I'm proud of them, and I'm glad to see them earn promotions or get out and make big bucks as civilians. Even the troublemakers usually wanted to do a good job. The trick as a supervisor and NCOIC was always to figure out what motivated an airman, and then to use that motivation to help them better themselves. Several of my former airmen have told me that I was the best NCO they ever had, and my guys who are sergeants now (who I supervised when they were A1Cs) have told me they try to lead troops the way I led them. That's probably the best compliment I've ever received. I've never swallowed the blue kool-aid, and I never will. I don't have a bullshit *I love me* wall, I don't collect coins, and I've never done a drat thing for an awards package. If I do 20 years and retire, I know I'll never make it above Master Sergeant. And I'm okay with that, because I'd rather be good at my job and do right by my people. My airmen make it all worthwhile. If you look out for your troops, they'll look out for you. And if you treat them like adults and you don't infantilize them, most will handle their own business just fine. I've watched the sun rise over Afghan scrublands and I've watched it set over the Italian Alps. I worked at the embassy in Berlin. I brought a mostly-abandoned base back to life so we could launch B-2 bombers out of England. I've done more cool poo poo than I can remember, and I wouldn't trade any of it away for a better paycheck. Yes, there's a lot of bullshit, too. Bullshit that doesn't exist in the civilian world unless you work at a hospital or as a probation officer. Especially for enlisted, but officers just deal with a different kind of bullshit. There were - and still are - days when I wonder what the hell I was thinking to enlist, and when I think about how much more money I could make as a network engineer on the outside. You take the good with the bad. Then you go home, take off the uniform, have a beer, and chill out because life is short. Join the Air Force. Or don't. Even when bad things happen at work, you can still have a happy life.
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Dec 29, 2016 09:19
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Arc Light posted:I brought a mostly-abandoned base back to life so we could launch B-2 bombers out of England. I've done more cool poo poo than I can remember, and I wouldn't trade any of it away for a better paycheck.
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Dec 29, 2016 13:36
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The free healthcare is pretty sweet. I was injured hiking and between the search and rescue guys coming out to find me, the ambulance ride, and the stitches I got at a hospital in the mountains of Idaho I didn't have to pay for anything.
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Dec 29, 2016 14:04
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The air force has kept me from starving to death, or dying from my teeth. Other than that, not much.
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Dec 29, 2016 14:23
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Getting paid to go to college was pretty sweet. Also being able to don the "as a veteran I-" hat.
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Dec 29, 2016 15:34
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beeaar posted:Jesus. It's a large government bureaucracy. A certain degree of institutional stupidity must be expected. You'll get your share of dirtbags, but lots of great people as well. Because of the relative job security, there is a certain selection pressure that keeps the lazy folks in longer, but there are plenty of exceptions to that rule. Most people's jobs are not that bad or that hard. The main frustration is that most of the pain is self-inflicted. This is often because the tail wags the dog (see: AFPC), an overly corporate mindset, or conversely an ill-advised attempt to out-Army the Army. If the AF ever finds its actual heritage (not something manufactured from on high), it will find that the badass cowboys of the sky like Chuck Yeager and Robin Olds became legends by eschewing corporate groupthink in favor of real grit, courage, boldness, and actual leadership. It's not that fighter squadron mentalities should be ubiquitous or unchecked...It's just that it was borne of mission-focused culture that had a strong and self-sustained comraderie that we've largely lost. No one can just focus on being great at their job and earning respect on that alone. We tend to teach caution over courage. The Air Force was beyond cool in the 20th century. Let's emulate those guys instead of the drat Army or else we'll deserve it when we get folded back in with the grunts. In conclusion, "Fly, Fight, and Win" is not volunteer hours, unnecessary paperwork, or a fast run on a PT test. It's this: 
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Dec 29, 2016 17:08
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^That is an excellent post.Casimir Radon posted:Healthcare. Don't exaggerate. Hotel Kpro posted:The free healthcare is pretty sweet. I was injured hiking and between the search and rescue guys coming out to find me, the ambulance ride, and the stitches I got at a hospital in the mountains of Idaho I didn't have to pay for anything. Not having to pay is awesome. But when you're using mil-docs, my experience is that you get what you pay for. And you don't get to use a civilian medical facility unless your mil-doc sends you there, it's an emergency, and/or you're away from the base. Prop Wash posted:Yeah go rated if you can (pilot, CSO, even ABM). It's not necessarily a more mature environment, but at least you don't have to deal with a hundred 18-year-olds whose problems are your problems. Plus, flying is genuinely a pretty fun job. This is true. I honestly miss my the ABM part of being an officer. But keep in mind, my ridiculous stories were from a squadron of ~350 people, about 200 of whom were officers; however, my office (flight) had like 90 of the enlisted folk. Digging in like a contractor is also an accurate description, and also pays pretty well. Godholio fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Dec 29, 2016 |
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Dec 29, 2016 17:31
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Derek Dominoe posted:It's a large government bureaucracy. A certain degree of institutional stupidity must be expected. You'll get your share of dirtbags, but lots of great people as well. Because of the relative job security, there is a certain selection pressure that keeps the lazy folks in longer, but there are plenty of exceptions to that rule. All I see are bag wearing jerk offs. No enlisted 
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Dec 29, 2016 18:13
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Godholio posted:Don't exaggerate.
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Dec 29, 2016 19:16
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And, honestly, a lot of the bitching from people currently in is also a lack of perspective. I worked for corporate IT before I came in and we had a lot of the same mental roadblocks as supervisors there as I do in the AF IT FUNterprise. And you never really know how good you have it until you work for a 3 letter or joint with the army. gently caress I just wanna go back to my big blue daddy, at least he says he loves me as he beats me.
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Dec 30, 2016 02:40
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nullscan posted:And, honestly, a lot of the bitching from people currently in is also a lack of perspective. I worked for corporate IT before I came in and we had a lot of the same mental roadblocks as supervisors there as I do in the AF IT FUNterprise. I actually loved my augmentee deployment with the Army. They were just accustomed to their computers and networks being poo poo. Where Air Force leadership throws poo poo-fits if they don't have 60" flatscreens in their offices and new computers every year, the soldiers I worked with were just happy if their phones worked. They treated me like a wizard for doing the world's most basic IT work (filling crypto without dropping a key, fixing driver issues, etc.). I got a DMSM out of that deployment, and I did nothing more than I'd do on the job anywhere else. Probably a whole lot less, since I wasn't saddled with additional duties. NCOERs are also a lot easier to write than EPRs because they don't use 1984-esque newspeak. It absolutely does give you perspective, though. Those soldiers got dicked over by leadership so hard and so often. At least the Air Force gives you a reacharound when it fucks you.
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Dec 30, 2016 02:47
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Honestly if someone is dead set on joining the military for whatever reason they could do much worse than the Air Force. We have to deal with our share of dumb poo poo but it's nowhere near as bad as the Army. One of my favorite experiences was in JBER when I was driving home after a night shift, absolutely hating everything about my job. Then I drove past a group of soldiers running along the road at 6:30 am in -15 degree temperatures and smiled, because my life wasn't THAT bad.
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Dec 30, 2016 03:22
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Casimir Radon posted:I have TRS and it's pretty excellent. $60 a month for health and dental and I've never had a problem with them. Healthcare =/= insurance coverage. DOD-derived coverage can be good (CHCBP is loving garbage), but a lifetime of dealing with mildocs makes me wonder how Mr. Domino, who appears to be competent, could possibly have gotten in. I've had exactly one trip to flight med that wasn't a complete waste of time or didn't gently caress me over somehow (helloooooo no documentation of poo poo).
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Dec 30, 2016 04:20
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Godholio posted:Healthcare =/= insurance coverage. DOD-derived coverage can be good (CHCBP is loving garbage), but a lifetime of dealing with mildocs makes me wonder how Mr. Domino, who appears to be competent, could possibly have gotten in. I've had exactly one trip to flight med that wasn't a complete waste of time or didn't gently caress me over somehow (helloooooo no documentation of poo poo). 12-15 years ago it was actually hard to get an AF med school scholarship. Lots of people were rejected, not a few of whom were accepted by the Army. There are actually a lot of great mil-docs who are as good or above their civ counterparts and either moonlight at or are later hired by top practices and institutions. A good chunk of these are specialists concentrated at a few med centers, some of which are teaching hospitals, meaning you see residents as well. That's not a bad thing...having a senior resident and a staff physician is two docs for the price of one. But people tend to remember the bumbling new intern in July. There are also good, residency-trained primary care docs. But many of you are used to seeing General Medical Officers (GMOs). These poor folks finished med school, got their intern year, and then were shuttled off as flight docs (or clinic docs if they couldn't pass a flight physical). An intern year is a huge step, but leaves you woefully unprepared for practice. Hence, referrals out the rear end so someone who has fully trained can assess you. To put this is perspective, there is a reason General Practitioners (the civ name for GMOs) no longer exist in the U.S. Even primary care is done by internal medicine, family medicine, or pediatric docs...all of whom did at least three years of residency in their specialties. Most GMOs become competent once they complete a residency. Others become career flight docs and get more stupider. Now, even among residency-trained docs, the DOD suffers from a lack of experience. Docs wisely tend to get out after their initial ADSCs for a host of reasons I won't get into here. But that means we're skewed young and losing physicians as they're about to hit their peak years. I almost forgot about the DOD's aggressive use of midlevels (physician assistants, nurse practitioners, etc.). That's why they love to talk about how many "providers" they have...it masks the lack of physicians involved in your care. As for me personally, I never had to do a GMO year. I went straight through residency and got my flight med wings toward the end of training as an elective rotation. There are a couple of generations of pilots in my family going back to WWII, I've always loved aviation, and flight docs tend to get the coolest operational med opportunities. However, other than deployments, I was never a full-time flight doc--I kept my head in real medicine. I ultimately decided to change specialties, meaning another 3 years of residency, and doing it through the AF is much more financially viable with a family, so I stayed past my initial commitment. It's one of those scenarios where I'm getting as much as I'm giving, so I'm okay with it. It will take me to the tipping point of years in service when this tour is done. One more commitment (e.g., for a subspecialty fellowship) and they'll probably have me for the full 20. I threw up a little in my mouth typing that. Final note in this stream-of-consciousness phone post: one of the best docs I have ever known is a residency trained career flight doc--a real exception to the rule. He's currently the SGP at a pretty big base.
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Dec 30, 2016 15:55
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The problem with military medicine is they are told to treat patients like a jiffy lube. Get as many in as you can so we look good on slides. Naturally patient care suffers.
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Dec 30, 2016 17:29
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I'm assuming we're talking about primary care, which is the bulk of military medicine. Military clinics and hospitals are significantly less busy than their civilian counterparts. Trust me, the pressure to achieve high patient volume is much higher in the private sector, largely out of necessity with modern Medicare rules. The raw throughput isn't the issue, and the only reason military doctors feel pressured to move quickly is because the clinics are grossly inefficient in ways they cannot control, and they have half of the manning they need or less. There are a lot of individual issues that add up to frustration for both patients and doctors, but throughput pressure isn't one of them.* Seeing 22-25 patients in a military clinic day feels like pulling teeth. With the same effort and less stress, I saw 35-40 in a well-run civilian clinic. Man, I do not miss primary care. Overall, the DOD can't make up it's mind about what to do with military medicine. Please read this if you didn't when I posted it in the CE thread. It addresses a lot of the core problems with the entire system that effect everyone at the lowest levels. *Of course, it just takes one nurse colonel ("nernel") with a clipboard and "ideas" to make an individual facility have this problem. lite_sleepr posted:All I see are bag wearing jerk offs. Did you just call St. Robin of Olds a "jerk off"? Educate yourself, son. VVVVV Aw, c'mon. I love a good Godholio rant. Sax Offender fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Dec 30, 2016 |
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Dec 30, 2016 18:28
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Edit: Nevermind, no point in going down this road.
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Dec 30, 2016 18:29
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Derek Dominoe posted:I'm assuming we're talking about primary care, which is the bulk of military medicine. Got told to shave it off because gently caress morale
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Dec 30, 2016 19:02
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Derek Dominoe posted:
 All it said was how on my last trip to a mildoc, I only got to see someone because I threatened to call 911 and have an ambulance pick me up from the empty waiting room. I missed sick call by about 10 minutes and was pale as a ghost and shaky on my feet. They ended up not being able to do anything anyway because apparently the clinic had divested itself of all diagnostic imagery capability.
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Dec 30, 2016 19:16
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Godholio posted:
Those stories irritate the hell out of me. "Sick call" is one of those quintessential military concepts that probably had a decent attempt at its core but ends up being needlessly restricted in a way that hurts the people it was meant to help. We eliminated sick call altogether at my last clinic. You just got a walk-in appointment like at a normal doctor's office. We had to squeeze it in ad hoc (i.e., run late the rest of clinic or catch up by rushing) since appointments were on a rigid template controlled by non-clinical personnel. Civ offices examine their demand and build acute appointments in to meet it.
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Dec 30, 2016 19:28
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Before I got out, Tinker's sick call required appointments. 
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Dec 30, 2016 20:33
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Catching poo poo for an additional duty tasker my backup didn't do while I was out at PDE, which I got back from right when the holiday break began so I wasn't able to fix a drat thing about it for another 2 weeks with everybody I needed to coordinate with out of town. I really shouldn't have let it get to me but the stress of this has made the holiday suck a lot. I went in to the office this afternoon to take my lumps or sort something out with leadership and go figure, nobody was there. Guess they were sending the emails from home. In the grand scheme of things it's far from the worst problem to deal with but it still makes me feel awful. I think I have even more motivation to get started on my Master's and ask the contractors how I can go about putting in an application. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Dec 31, 2016 |
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Dec 31, 2016 03:01
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 12:51 |
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Fly fight win your way to a new Air Force thread! 
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Dec 31, 2016 18:24
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