Crap -- my OPR is due. Help.

[Fury220]

thanks for the help, guys -- the OPR is done, and it looks great.

It helps that I fly my buttocks off...

 

[YeOldeProp]

Okay...this year's done...now get ready for next year.

I made all the pilots that worked for me over the years put together a folder on their computer that was marked only for their OPR's. Every week they were to sit down in the office (usually over a beer or two) and log what they did that week that was worth anything. Things like out on the road supporting the Army on a JAATT at Pope dropping x number of troops or flying x number of sorties in JCS-directed Exercise MUCKETY-MUCK or honching the squadron Friday Beers and Spears dart tourney (back when we were allowed to have fun on a Friday afternoon and not being ordered out to attend mandatory fun/rent-a-crowd functions) or whatever. Thus, over the year they had something more written down than their pocket day planner scribbled notes and flight times. Details fill out an OPR a lot better than the standard fluff statements. I'd take a look at them every once in a while and make sure they were providing enough detail and tweak their fact gathering.

With those details, they were also told to build some bullet statements for their OPR. This had a double goal. It gave me an idea of something to start out with when I got hold of it for the real OPR, but more importantly it made the youngster start working with AF-style writing and learning the "event/result" style of writing demanded by the bosses. These usually weren't worth much initially, but the guys started getting the hang of it over the years and at least were ready when it came their turn to start writing OPR's/EPR's of their folks. Come report time, we'd sit down and go over what they had and how to make it a better reading statement, etc. Training in progress...

And what KUMA and PHX767 said about getting examples of past OPR's is really a key point. In a normal AF sqadron, get the exec and Flt CC's together and make them build a "brain book" of what's good and not good in the eyes of the bosses. They should have a series of sanitized performance reports in there, preferably ones that have been praised/highlighted by the bosses (as in highlight the really good bullets with one color marker and the piss-poor ones with another). Don't know how it works in the joint squadrons, but the mentality should be the same.

Now here's the toughest part of the whole writing OPR process...make sure you can stand in front of the bosses AND your peers and justify the statements written. It was a sh!tty situation in the active duty side of the house when I left...the bosses were demanding absolutely glorious, walk-on-water, #1-in-everything-he/she-touched type reports. The politics of the OPR can be very, very intimidating...you want people to get promoted and make more money, but you also have the responsibility of making sure the ones who really do the job right are spotlighted, rather than "everyone is the greatest". The non-AF services do a far better job of rating and stacking their people in order versus our AF version of "everyone is a future commander, general and CSAF". I've seen people who's OPR's read like dream (who were semi-outcasts in their units due to job deficiencies and inability to work well with others) who are now O-6's on their way up. And on the flip side, there are some true leaders with great people/mission hacking skills who got passed over for rank. Go figure...

Best of luck in your career, fly safe, may your after-flight beer always be cold, and thanks for letting an old man rant...

 

[PlaneStupid]

Flightinfo is not useless after all. These are all good comments. I agree with the line of thought that you will write many of your own opr's - besides it is good training for when you are in a supervisory position. I used to keep a copy of mine on the computer and would update it with new bullets as they happened. Hopefully, the mil will someday realize what a waste of time and pile of crap this evaluation process is. Talk about wasted resources, it should be as simple as this: move up a grade every four years. If you stay in - you get promoted.

.02

 

[Fury220]

it should be as simple as this: move up a grade every four years. If you stay in - you get promoted.

.02

Are you serious?

 

[PlaneStupid]

Yes I am serious. I have seen too many idiots get promoted who had great opr's and some outstanding officers get passed over because of politics. If an officer stays in he or she should be rewarded with an increase in pay. I have seen better leaders in 1lt's than some lt col's with great opr's. In this system there would be more time to get the mission done instead of wasting your time glorifying your snack bar management, or recovery of a critical air force asset when the student pukes on your adi in imc.

.02

 

[slacker]

I agree with planestupid. OPRs are one of the biggest jokes in the Air Force. If you want to write a challenging OPR, try to write one on a Reservist. How do you make a guy who struggles to stay current, sound like he single-handedly saved the free world? This process is broken and someone needs to fix it. I'm not sure a strictly Time in Grade system would work, but it can't possibly be worse than what we have now. It sucks watching good guys getting passed over because their rater sucks while slugs get promoted because their rater can use big words.

Merry Christmas!

 

[YeOldeProp]

It's been addressed before in the great scheme of things to go to a dual-track system in the AF similar to the Brits, Aussies, Germans, etc. I did a bunch of research on it down at Maxwell and the Air College library. Drove up for the weekend when I was scrambling to do my mandatory masters degree. Quite a few papers on it and the Warrant Officer program had been written by Air War College, ACSC and Army CGSC students over the years.

Everyone starts out the same as it works now, but at the 7-year mark you make a decision whether to aspire to be the General-type or if you just want to fly. By then, most will know a bit about the way things work in the AF and the bosses know what kind of officer/leader you'll likely turn out to be. Only about 35% of the corps is allowed to go "Specialist Aircrew" (to use the Brit term) after a good look at their aviation skills, work ethic, good-old boy check (important to know if you can play well with others), etc. The rest of the flyers/officers slog it out as usual in the big blue AF.

The SpecAircrew status slows down their promotion capability...usually only a few making O-4 and only a very, very, very few making O-5. But, they become extrememly good at their flying job, and go between the various ops squadrons and the training side of the house. But, as they develop their aviation skills, their flight pay goes up annually...so they can become fairly well compensated over the years. And the squadrons have top-notch folks in the important positions that the commander can look to for guidance and expertise. There's less people competing for school slots (helping those who want them), less numbers to move PCS every 2 1/2 years (saving money), less OPR's to write (they have a place on their annual flight eval paperwork that says if they meet/maintain Officer standards or not).

At the 14-year point, there's a chance for a crossover. Some SpecAircrew who thought that flying was all they ever wanted may have lost thier appetite for it and want to persue the higher ranks. And those who thought they wanted to be a General may have found out that they're a whole lot better at flying than the politics and meat-grinder of command and staff work. Not many swap over, but there is the chance. There's a lot more detail than this, but it gives you the idea.

It's not a bad system. You look at the winners and high scorers at a lot of the Gunsmokes and Airlift Rodeos and other flying competitions of the past couple of decades and it was the Guard/Reserve guys (closest version of the SpecAircrew I can see in our AF) that were continually taking the Blue ribbon. Flying for a living (versus being a rent-a-crowd for the commander or blood drive officer) tended to make them pretty good at their craft.

Just food for thought...maybe you guys who are still active duty can float it across the FORM 1 suggestion box and see if you can get an answer from the higher ups...good luck.

 

[malterf15]

My 2 cents:

Fact: You're not going to change the system. It should, but doesn't happen.

We could however do a 1 page OPR that mimizes all the essential elements to dispense with the eyewash, but keep the "meat" which is actually looked at:

1- Personal Info
2- Unit Description: 1 line
3- Job Description: 2 lines
4- Extra Duties: 1 line
5- Performance of Duties: 3 lines (this is where you pick the 3 big things that distinguished this person from the rest) written by supervisor
6- Commander's X of XX rack n stack plus push line: 1 line

Add the signatures and you get an uncluttered single page "meaty" performance report that has all the standard stuff.