After three years of helping Farva with AFBlues, I asked him if there was anything I could do to contribute to the site in a more visible manner. The idea was an “Ask Marco” column of some kind. I figure I’m pretty well-known for my regulation-researching abilities, so maybe I could actually contribute in a constructive way.
So, maybe you’ve got a situation that you want advice about. Maybe you want to know if you really are prohibited from taking your that day pass from the commander on a Friday to milk that three day weekend, or if your supervisor is just being a douche. (Your supervisor is being a douche. Combinations of pass periods to include special passes (day pass) and regular passes (weekends) can be up to four days. AFI 36-3003, Military Leave Program, Sections 8.2 and 8.3.)
Bonus points if you send me a question that makes me go WTF? when I read it.
The way we’re going to try to work it initially is this: Questions for the week should be in by midnight Sunday, submitted via the Contact Marco link on the homepage. That gives me a week to find answers. I’ll probably pick two or three questions to answer each week. The answers will be posted along with Friday’s comic.
If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know.
So… about those days off… what does it say?
What’s the regulation that pertains to drinking a single beer during lunch as long as you do not work on aircraft?
@lightwind. Don’t fly aircraft within 12 hours either. And don’t be underage, armed (SF, etc) or stupid about it.
SF must wait 8 hours after drinking to arm up.
But where is it?
AFI 31-207 Arming and Use of Force by Air Force Personnel
2.12.4. Use of Alcohol and Drugs. Personnel will not consume any form of alcohol or use overthe-
counter drugs or prescription medications that could impair ability to handle a firearm while
on duty, or within 8 hours before duty or firearms training. Failure to comply with this provision
may lead to punishment under Article 92 of the UCMJ. Civilian employees who violate this
provision are subject to administrative or disciplinary action without regard to otherwise
applicable criminal or civil sanctions for violations of related laws.
Let’s talk Government Travel Card… where it is written that the GTC is a mandatory requirement for an Airman, and more specifically, for our Expeditionary Airmen? If it is, then it should be an issue item, right next to your ABU cap in your first uniform draw, right? And it should follow you from assignment to assignment without issue… But that isn’t how it works though, is it?
“The Travel and Transportation Reform Act of 1998 (TTRA) (Public Law 105-264) stipulates that the government-sponsored, contractor-issued travel card shall be used by all U.S. Government personnel (civilian and military) to pay for costs incident to official business travel.”
Found via a quick Google search.
Why is it that Security Forces is the only career field that you are medically disqualified for if you have ever had your spleen, or part of your spleen, removed?
From what I understand, it’s all about the dogs. The dogs are highly sensitive to smells, and they can sense that someone doesn’t have a spleen, and it supposedly doesn’t work out well for the human…
That doesn’t make sense as MWD handler is a shred of the career field and the rest of the career field doesn’t work with MWDs on a regular basis. It’s a requirement for the general career field, not just the shred.
From what a handler was telling me, it was that the dogs get some sort of a disease and if you don’t have your spleen you get it.
Here is one that affects most every retiree…. What happens to your retired salary when you apply for social security? Does it stay the same, or does it drop?
Why is it that you cannot take leave on both sides of your break days, but have to take the break days as leave? An example is if you wanted to take Monday through Saturday as leave, but you have Tuesday and Wednesday as break days. Why can’t I just take two separate leaves, one on Monday, and the other on Thursday through Saturday?
Per AFI 36-3003: “6.1.7. Leave Begins and Ends in the Local Area. The local area is the place where the member lives and from which he or she commutes to the duty station. Charge leave for duty days and non-duty days (for example, Friday through Monday) when members take leave on the day before and the day after non-duty days.” [emphasis mine] So, basically, you can’t because the regulations say so.
I had this problem early in my career when I wanted to take a Friday and the following Monday off for two separate one-day events, and was told I would have to take the weekend too. Doesn’t pass the ‘common sense’ test, but there it is.
Regrettably, I might have to postpone this for a bit. I’m getting on-station out here in the desert to an exercise that’s about to kick off, and we’re likely running 24-hour ops. Sorry, folks.
I’m going to go ahead and post this knowing it may be a while (or never) before it gets answered.
My DH (uh, does everyone know what DH is? Is that a universal acronym?)…. My HUSBAND works swing shift 1500-2300. He gets screwed over regularly, but that’s just part of swing shift. (Two examples: a–midnight chow starts at 2300 so grave shift doesn’t come in until 2330. That means that in any given week days is scheduled 40 hours; graves is scheduled 37.5 hours; swings is scheduled 42.5 = 5 hour disparity between graves and swings. How hard would it be to offset schedules by 30 min? NOT……. b-There is a weekend duty crew that gets 2 days off during the week automatically for working on weekends. Yet on Friday nights, DH frequently doesn’t leave until 0200 because they “have to get everything done” before they go home. Then the weekend duty crews usually don’t even have to come in to work.) Okay, I digress.
The question is: if he has to do something at 0800 (today it was practice for a ceremony, but it always seems to be something) which is in the middle of his sleep time, does he “drop dead” at 2000 even if he’s not at work until 1500? Obviously there’s not time for a full 8 hours rest between 0800 practice and 1500 work.
Ah, the dreaded swing shift… The bane of shift workers throughout the Air Force. When there’s ‘mandatory’ BS that needs doing, it’s the swing-shifters the get boned the hardest every time…
I’m not sure how it is with your husband’s supervision, but if your situation was standard fare in my work center (we have the same shifts as he does) the affected member would usually be granted a Compensation Day (aka ‘Comp Day’). I don’t know the exact regulation for awarding Comp Days, but Marco will be more likely to find it if you e-mail him directly from the ‘Contact Marco’ link on the homepage.