30 June 2009

organizational challenge

The commitment for USAF pilot training is 10 years. But pilot training takes about 1.5 to 2.5 years. And of course (I mean, _OF COURSE_) every pilot has to be an officer, which generally takes 4 years of undergrad work at a commissioning source to accomplish. This means that today, the USAF is making decisions about pilot manning ~16 years in the future. That's an awfully long decision cycle. Our OODA loop is very big...no wonder we are so terrible at managing our manning.

2 comments:

Kelly Baker said...

Yes, and then we train the pilots and then send them through a continual upgrade pipeline and just as soon as they finish that--to school or to staff, never to fly in significant amounts again.
Brilliant, I say.
That aside, how the heck are ya?

Dave Witt said...

No no, no sarcasm. It's the opposite of brilliant. Wasteful of our people and taxpayer's dollars and dumb to boot. We need a complete reorganization. Warrant officers. More bodies. No more tolerating 70% manning in combat units for years at a time.

That aside...meh. I'm in the middle of a short notice non-vol pcs and I'm pretty unhappy about it, truth be told. But there's nothing to be done about it, so I am trying to get positive again. Where are you guys these days?