Has the USAF become so woke that they have to resort to large bonuses to bribe pilots to stay in the USAF? It would seem likely that, if the USAF now promotes officers not based on merit but on a minority conscious basis, some officers including pilots would rather take their careers in a different direction where their abilities would be appreciated and they would be promoted based on merit. We think that it is safe to say that each pilot that departs the USAF takes millions of dollars in training costs with him or her.
Air Force pilots and others in rated fields who opt to stay in uniform can earn up to $600,000 over 12 years under the latest round of retention bonuses announced Nov. 30.
The fiscal year 2024 incentives offer manned aircraft and drone pilots, combat systems operators and air battle managers an extra $15,000 to $50,000 per year, depending on their assigned aircraft and the years to which they commit.
Annual bonus pay programs aim to keep airmen around to blunt the effects of a pilot shortage that has lasted decades, robbing the service of aviators in policy jobs that rely on their know-how to help the service plan for the future.
“The requirement to preserve critical skills in our Air Force has never been more important,” Maj. Gen. Adrian Spain, the training and readiness director at Air Force headquarters, said in a Nov. 30 release. “Retaining these professional aviators’ experience and expertise … is imperative in order to outpace future challenges.”
Bonuses are funneled through a pair of programs that target airmen as they near the end of their initial service commitment, or the time they owe the Air Force after training. Those agreements last 10 years for manned aircraft pilots and six years for drone operators, CSOs and ABMs. . . .
. . . . Critics of pilot retention bonus programs say the Air Force is throwing money at its problems rather than creating more opportunities for airmen to fly, fixing issues that hurt their personal and professional lives or making systemic changes like adding warrant officers.
The service has cut flying hours in recent years as America’s post-9/11 wars have wound down, instructor hiring has slowed and the Air Force fleet has shrunk.
Those changes have spurred airmen to seek jobs at commercial airlines and shipping companies, where they can make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, or in other sectors like defense contracting.
That’s kept the Air Force hovering about 2,000 people shy of the 21,000 manned aircraft pilots it believes it needs to succeed in war and policymaking.
“At the end of the day, USAF leadership is unwilling to actually allow operational tactical pilots to do what they joined to do: fly,” Reddit user TaskForceCausality posted in August. “Unless the USAF is prepared to fund flight hours like pilots of a generation ago … they need to set the expectation with newcomers that flight officers will be doing admin ground duties as a primary job.” . . . (read more on Air Force Times)
What? These goals didn’t work out for the Air Force??
Officer_Source_of_Commission_Applicant_Pool_Goals_memo
Or forcing all pilots to get the vax??
Air Force Separated 610 Airmen For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine
Lt. John Bowes Discusses Challenges of 700 Unvaccinated US Pilots
Air Force May Have Let Unqualified Officers Issue Dishonorable Discharges To Unvaxxed Airmen
On a wall panel just outside the entrance to our American Military Cemetery in the Normandy region of France is a quote, ” You can manufacture weapons and purchase ammunition, but you cannot buy valor and you cannot pull heroes off an assembly line”. SGT John B Ellery, 1st ID, 1944.
SecDef Austin and his DoD minions won’t find replacements in the local Want Ads and the $600,000K brib….er, bonuses would be better used for base and ship MWR programs. I was honored to have served on Academy Applicant Interview committees for seven years…. for one VERY LIBERAL Democrat and one VERY CONSERVATIVE Republican! That was a different time with troop-supporting DoD leadership. I wouldn’t do so now.