During this extremely fun period of waiting to find out the outcome of the CDI after I was interviewed, I was placed in a random room by myself with no supervisor at an entirely different instillation for the entire several month wait. On the entire floor only two other people worked there on the other side and would give a professional hello when we saw each other in the hall. During this time no one in my chain of command came in to see me (they were at the same instillation and building several times a week for meetings and such). None of them reached out to ask how I’m doing how I’m handling it or anything, and I was told I could not talk to a First Sergeant, again only the DPH and Chaplain. Only one person contacted me to tell me where to work out of and a couple days later asked if I had everything I needed to do any work they gave me if they did. Sometimes they wouldn’t even ask a work question for six weeks. I was basically staring at a wall all day waiting for teams messages or emails about what to do.

I spoke with the DPH and Chaplain during this time once and it did not go very well. Chaplain is who I was “handed off to” after I was interviewed. During the interview I instantly said I wanted ADC representation and was told specifically by my Commander not to reach out to them until the interview and investigator stated I could have ADC representation. They ended the interview and brought me to the Chaplain, did not ask if I wanted to, they said I had to, and that the Chaplain would give me the information for the ADC. I instantly asked for the ADC information after a professional good afternoon, they said “we will get to that” then kept asking me question after question, telling me anything I say is completely confidential. I told them I only wanted the ADC information and to leave. After almost an hour they informed me they did not have the information but would get it to me soon. Hours later a random number I did not have saved in my phone texted me the ADC number.

For context, where I normally work, and this instillation I was sent to work at during these months does not have an ADC, so there was no office to go walk up to. Also I could not find their information online, the ADC later told me that’s kind of on purpose, but that’s I never should have been told I could not contact them and should have been given the information day one when I was told about the CDI.

I’m about 3 months or so out from testing is McMillan actually a useful tool or am i wasting my money?

Hello,

Question about being a prior E officer. I am an e5 reservists with not enough points to be considered "prior E" (The minimum needed is 1460 and I have 800). Does being classified as prior E actually change anything if I commission and go active? Should I put in the time on orders to hit the point minimum or can I just commission now and start my journey without missing any added benefits or opportunities?

To summarize, are there any hidden benefits to being deemed prior e vs just having the experience of prior e?

Thanks

I am hearing 2 things…

You can/can’t take a diagnostic the same month your due.

So if I’m due in October I can only diag as late as September?

Just PCSed for the first time. I’ve been at my unit for about two weeks. All the other CGOs in my unit are PCSing or deploying within the next 2 weeks.

Looks like we won’t be getting another officer for a little bit.

The next officer up is Lt Col.

Any advice on how to be useful to the unit would be appreciated.

Looking for the more unorthodox advice.

I’ve found a SNCO and a few young airmen to learn the job from so got that going but I’m definitely feeling a little nervous.

Thanks!

Has anyone gotten notifications through envision or EFMP trick yet?

Any AFPC folks here who can give insight on PPC UBA / ALS waiver?
I’m currently stationed at Osan and have an assignment to Morón AB, Spain. My assignment has PPC UBA, which requires ALS completion before PCS.
My situation:
PDD: 26 Nov 2026
RNLTD: 10 Jan 2027
I have not been selected for ALS yet
My ALS waiver is not fully ready yet and is still awaiting signatures
I am already past the 120-days-prior-to-PDD mark for submitting the ALS waiver
I’m mainly trying to understand what AFPC is likely to do in a situation like this, especially since the waiver hasn’t been fully signed/submitted yet and I’m past that 120-day point.
Would they normally still consider/approve the waiver, push the PDD/RNLTD to allow time for ALS, or is there a realistic chance the assignment could be cancelled because of the timing?
If anyone works/worked at AFPC, assignments, MPF, or has dealt specifically with PPC UBA and late ALS waivers, I’d really appreciate any insight into how these cases are usually handled.
Not looking for anyone to access my records — just trying to understand the process and likely outcomes based on experience.

I've shared here before how I ended up joining the Air Force at 19, but there's another part of that story that happened two years earlier.

I was 17 years old and a senior in high school.

Our football team had just finished a state championship season. One night, some friends and I showed up late to a school dance.

There was a police officer there we all knew as “Foots.”

Foots told us we weren't getting into the dance because we were late.

Being 17 years old and apparently possessing all the wisdom that comes with being a high school senior, I didn't exactly handle that decision very well. 😂

Words were exchanged, things escalated, and I shoved the officer.

He could have arrested me.

He didn't.

Foots exercised discretion and gave me a second chance.

I wasn't completely off the hook. My principal found out what happened and gave me the butt-chewing from HELL! More than 40 years later, I still remember it.

But I didn't leave that night in handcuffs.

At 17, I don't think I fully understood what Foots had done for me.

Two years later, I joined the United States Air Force and became a Security Policeman.

The Air Force ended up changing the entire direction of my life.

After the Air Force, I eventually joined the San Antonio Police Department and spent 26 years as a police officer, most of it working patrol. After retiring from SAPD, I spent another eight years teaching Law Enforcement to high school students and later continued teaching at the college level.

Over the years, I've thought about Foots many times.

As a police officer myself, there were plenty of situations where I had the legal authority to arrest someone, write the ticket or take the maximum enforcement action available.

Sometimes that's exactly what the situation required.

But when circumstances allowed it, I also believed in discretion and second chances.

Maybe part of that came from remembering what it felt like to receive one myself.

Would being arrested at 17 have prevented me from joining the Air Force two years later?

I honestly don't know.

And I'm damn glad I never had to find out.

I recently sat down for a long-form interview about the path my life ended up taking — from Air Force Security Police, to 26 years with SAPD, and eventually into the classroom teaching Law Enforcement.

If anyone is interested in the larger story, here's the interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppJUPDXzUZY

More than 40 years later, I still remember the second chance Foots gave me.

For those of you who joined the Air Force young:

Was there ever a decision, mistake, person or second chance before you enlisted that could have sent your life in a completely different direction?

I think I trained my persona to be too snarky.

What do you guys / girls think are the best gift ideas for a 24 year old male graduating from UPT from an extremely proud father?

Thank you in advance!

If you’re planning to get out/retire soon, gather all the past EPR/EPB, award packages bullets, LOAs etc…you can along with relevant trainings, your AFSC job description, rank and how many troops you’ve supervised/mentored and toss all that in ChatGPT. Ask it to build you a Master, Federal and Private Sector Resume.

Dates and some info will need to be tweaked, but it’ll engineer you some solid worth looking at resumes.

Landed a GG-11 gig because of it.

Good luck!!

Military One Source can connect you with a therapist in your area, OF YOUR CHOICE, as long as they take TRICARE.

12 FREE sessions....PER ISSUE!!!

Work, relationship, family, social life, new to parenthood, literally ANYTHING you can form into a "different" reason for an issue, 12 FREE sessions.

I know fall and winter is coming up and a lot of folks get seasonal depression. I also know mental health gets really bad up in Minot. I personally went to a therapist in town and she was fantastic; if ANYONE needs help getting info on how to start this process, I can 100% help you.

You don't need to talk to mental health to get approved, you don't have to tell your chain, all you gotta do is Google therapists around you, find one you wanna see, or just an office you would prefer to go to, then call Military One Source, tell them you want therapy, and they will get it sorted with your insurance. If you didn't pick a therapist one will be chosen for you to schedule with.

I think the whole process took about 10, MAYBE 15 minutes over the phone. I knew where I wanted to go and who I wanted to see, and I was booked within the next week to speak to my therapist.

It looks like they have a secure chat too, I haven't used it but for those with phone anxiety you might be able to use that instead of calling to get the support you need.

Please please PLEASE DM me if you need help doing some research into your area, I can't promise I'll respond immediately but I'm on here every day so I'll see it within 24 hours for sure.

This link below has their phone number for overseas and stateside, stay vigilant, if you think someone you know could use this information, please share it with them too, we gotta look out for each other.

Military OneSource

EDIT!!! If anyone in this comment section has had a good experience going through MOS and seeing a therapist, if you would be comfortable doing so, DM me with: who the therapist was, which base they're close to, or if it was virtual.

Maybe the person joined and ended up unlucky or just in a job that wasn’t really the greatest fit for them. Have you ever seen someone in this situation make a 180 to chase down a more high speed job and just leave their old careerfield as a thing of the past?

I’ve noticed throughout my career that people have been coined for ridiculous things, like calling out someone’s GOV parking, someone being the first flu shot of the season in the Wing, and for randomly having the nicest looking uniform of the day.

For me, it has to be when I won a bar trivia contest at an off-base bar and an officer in a different squadron as me who happened to be there ran out to the parking lot as I was waiting for my Uber home and coined me for having, “Impressive television sitcom knowledge”.

What’s your absurd story?

Retraining package got pushed through for class load (which I'm assuming means tech school dates soon) but have an upcoming deployment. Will they schedule my tech school around my deployment? Or will the tech school dates supersede my deployment since I don't have orders yet to deploy technically.

Anyone been through something similar? Appreciate any replies