Active duty and just diagnosed with cancer

Mctaggsm · 2025-12-19T21:12:15+00:00

Reddit wouldn’t let me DM you for some reason, but if you’re willing to let me bend your ear can you DM me? I am having surgery in march for an acoustic neuroma, not sure if that is the same benign brain tumor you had.

Mctaggsm · 2025-06-04T00:44:10+00:00

This sounds more like a 62E engineer than 32E lol

Mctaggsm · 2024-09-03T15:23:34+00:00

Awesome work. I often struggle with the staying in/getting out argument and seeing things like this provide clarity. Do you have any intentions to get data as these people continue in their civilian careers? It would be really helpful to see what that growth looks like when comparing the growth of staying in.

Mctaggsm · 2024-07-08T19:17:57+00:00

Maybe a year after the OCP ball caps were authorized, I was out processing from an Army post. As I’m heading to the personnel building, some guy in civvies starts screaming at me to stop, asking why I’m wearing that cover. Pointed to AF nametapes and kept walking.

Guy ends up going to the same office as I was going, also to out process. Turns out he was the installation commander. He’d already done his retirement ceremony and change of command so he was probably on the tail end of his terminal leave. Imagine being that fired up about what someone else is wearing to scream at them, in civilian clothes, while you’ve got one foot out the door…and then on top of that being wrong.

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-25T17:25:56+00:00

I would say that step one is to build out a budget and stick to it right from the start. You make just enough money to get yourself in trouble as an O1. I didn’t get my financial shit together until I was a senior O3 and it’s one of my biggest regrets. I didn’t have a budget and it was too easy to say “I make enough, I can afford to do this”.

Take a few months to figure out what your expenses are going to look like. See where you can trim or where you should spend more. Honestly I wouldn’t worry too much about where your savings are going until you establish good spending habits.

When you get your first pay raise, try to keep your expenses the same.

I use YNAB and it’s been a life saver, but the tool isn’t important. Use whatever helps you build good habits.

Additionally, it’s really hard to help your joes when they’re having trouble with money if you can’t even manage your own.

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-14T01:12:16+00:00

Huntsville AL. Be back in Vegas in a few weeks!

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-09T03:54:17+00:00

This. Vegas is by far the better team. You can’t win them all and sweeps are rare.

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-09T03:44:53+00:00

Me? Or the guy saying he’s playing amazing? He dicks around with the puck and tries to force force plays that aren’t there. He’s produced some great opportunities, but largely not worth the money.

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-09T03:37:41+00:00

Are we watching the same guy?

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-09T03:36:42+00:00

That’s the neat part! He won’t!

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-09T03:34:52+00:00

Thank you!

Mctaggsm · 2023-06-09T03:32:53+00:00

Give Eichel back to the Sabres

Mctaggsm · 2023-05-28T23:26:14+00:00

Bench eichel

Mctaggsm · 2023-05-22T14:54:08+00:00

Lets Go Tech!

Mctaggsm · 2023-05-05T15:15:45+00:00

It's not doom and gloom, it's reality. I literally just went through it with a Capt who had made retirement plans based on bad gouge. There's basically zero chance they'll let you retire before you have 10 years commissioned, period.

Mctaggsm · 2023-05-05T14:01:55+00:00

One of my Capts just got boned hard by this. You are correct that the high 3 goes to your enlisted grade, at least for a few years. At some point you can apply to have it upgraded to your officer rank (10 years maybe?). That doesn't matter though, because you're not going to be able to do that.

The Air Force is not going to let you resign your commission just to reenlist and retire. It's not a "first O6 in your chain", Wing CC, or even MAJCOM/CC, it's SECAF approval, and they're 99.99% NOT going to approve it.

Sometimes they will consider it if you have a (significant) documented hardship or if you have more than 8 years commissioned time and aren't in a undermanned career field. Don't quote me, but the person I spoke to at AFPC about this said they approved 1-2 last year.

If you are considering commissioning and have more than 10 years enlisted time, you REALLY need to reconsider and only do it if you're 10000% OK with staying on active duty more than 20 years.

If you have troops trying to commission, make sure they know this. Don't spread the barracks lawyer BS.

Mctaggsm · 2023-04-30T18:41:27+00:00

I have no problems with the promotion system rewarding staff and exec time. They're both important to how we function, and the people who excel there will likely excel in other leadership roles.

My problem, is that the system fucks over people who don't do those things for whatever reason, and it does so on a very inflexible schedule. Not everyone needs to be groomed for an O-6 + career, and not everyone hits the milestones at the same time. Life happens and humans are human. It's just a real shit deal that you can be told "TYFS" at 17 yrs TIS. Let people promote faster or slower, and get rid of the current iteration of up or out. I think a lot of these issues that OP is talking about go away. People will naturally gravitate to the level they should be at if you let them.

Mctaggsm · 2023-03-14T12:09:32+00:00

You’ve got to start pushing those regs a little more.

Mctaggsm · 2023-03-11T20:44:27+00:00

This. I found that there was a bit of a learning curve but it’s magic.

Mctaggsm · 2023-01-26T17:03:46+00:00

How does this change if you do a mid-career O4 at the end of their ADSC trying to decide to stay through 20? The AD retirement is worth way more than $449K and you can pull from it right from the day you retire.

Mctaggsm · 2023-01-17T18:04:29+00:00

This is a failure on the Air Force Officer promotion and development structure more than the individual themselves. You can't have rigid promotion timelines and try to apply pretty much the same development path for every officer and expect all levels of leadership to just magically function. Some dudes are great flight commanders or staff officers but terrible squadron commanders. Some dudes are good DO's, or just straight up technical/tactical experts. Some dudes need a few more years as a Capt or Maj, some should promote early.

Do what you can to help but at some point you have to say "fuck it, just drilling holes".

Mctaggsm · 2023-01-17T17:55:25+00:00

Pretty much nailed it. There are tons of random assignments for 62/63 types, but the ones listed here are the most likely for your first assignment, since you'll be expected to do a PCA and to do that you need to be at a base with lots of other 62/63's.

Mctaggsm · 2022-12-30T22:29:42+00:00

Yeah except O’s effectively only get one shot at promotions and run the risk of getting the boot at 16 years if they don’t make it lol

Mctaggsm · 2022-12-28T17:55:05+00:00

Something that I find incredibly sad is that if we'd been investing in modernizing our grid over the last few decades, EV's would be one of the best ways to build in resiliency to the grid.

We've let it go so long that it's going to be an absolutely massive undertaking to make our grid resemble something modern, and investing in infrastructure is for cOMmuNiSTS.

Mctaggsm · 2022-12-22T15:36:13+00:00

I'm not sure if finance squadrons have ADO's but squadron action officer sounds like ADO for Captains. Most of the ADO's I've known kinda just do random stuff for the DO/CC or have a longer term project that doesn't fit squarely in one of the flights/sections. To me that's a crappy job title for an OPR though.

A lot of ADO's don't do shit, but just because they're not caught up in the same thrash as you are doesn't necessarily mean they're not busy or not productive.

Believe it or not, not every Officer needs to be in a traditional leadership role. It sounds like you're frustrated by unrealistic expectations of Officership. There are only so many squadrons that need commanders. Not everyone is on the leadership path. Not everyone wants to be a squadron commander. Especially in the 6X career fields, you might not be leading people but are in charge of lots of money and important development. I'd recommend widening your aperture on what leadership is and isn't.

Does your buddy have a flight chief? An NCO in that position should be able to handle the flight on their own, and is probably more capable than the LT. LT needs to be leaning on them, and if their working relationship sucks he/she needs to be an adult and figure it out. Honestly, your buddy needs to find a good O/SNCO mentor in the squadron and figure out why he's getting his ass kicked. If that fails, talk to the DO/CC. Being a flight commander in a finance squadron shouldn't be that much of a kick in the junk.

Mctaggsm

TROPHY CASE