Posted on Oct 19, 2021
MAJ Jerry Murray
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Do they think anyone considering Army aviation will believe this policy is so junior aviators "will have more time to learn and grow before being promoted to Chief Warrant Officer 2."? With a known projection of a shortage of junior grade aviators, putting this policy in place is simply a dereliction of duty. This is a great time to already have 30 years of military flying and being retired. Good luck everyone.
Posted in these groups: Spyplane Aviation
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Responses: 3
Lt Col Jim Coe
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I watched the Air Force do several dumb things in a effort the either retain or not retain aircrew in general or pilots in particular. In the 1970s we treated pilots like crap. The Air Force was over staffed in pilots and didn't do anything to encourage them to stay. For example, pilots were asked to take their second assignment as a non-flying job. Anybody who knows pilots knows that flying is what they want to do first and foremost. Lots of pilots left due to this policy. In the Carter years, the cost of fuel cut back flying hours--I see this coming again. Big aircraft like B52s couldn't get much flying time. The Air Force decided to use small trainer aircraft to give B52 pilots flying time at greatly reduced cost. I was an instructor pilot during this era. We took our little Cessna trainers to B52 bases so the bomber pilots could fly. It was actually a fun job for the instructor pilots because the guy in the other seat was a pilot and normally wasn't trying to kill you on every mission. The bomber pilots also enjoyed flying the little jet, but it didn't do much for their mission expertise.

During another generation, the Air Force discovered pilots hate doing useless paperwork. They assigned more administrative enlisted personnel and officers to flying squadrons to off load additional duty jobs from the pilots. It appeared to increase the pilot's satisfaction with their jobs. When budget cuts came, the admin folks were cut from the squadrons and the pilots had to take over the additional duties again. Job satisfaction plummeted. The AF went to a pilot training plus 10 years service commitment policy over 20 years ago. The promotion phase point to major was also near 10-years of commissioned service. Many pilots chose to get out when their years were up, but some stayed around to see if they made major. Once promoted, some decided to stay for 20. The promotion rate to major topped 80% because of the shortage of captain aircrew. Essentially making major became almost automatic if you stayed in. Unfortunately, the promotion meant little--sort of becoming a super Captain. Meanwhile, the Air Force forward deployed units to Southwest Asia. No surprise, the AF has a pilot shortage.
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SFC Michael Hasbun
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God forbid they expect SME's to have experience and technical skill prior to promotion.
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CW2 UH-60M Pilot
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This is logical for street to seaters, however, every other Warrant is a seasoned enlisted/NCO, so applying this to new Aviators is illogical if the same rule doesn't appy to anyone who's ever re-classed. This + 10 year ADSO + less than 8 year AFS is really going to put Aviation in a hard spot and nobody in a position of power seems to care. I don't know anyone who thinks these changes are good.
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