Early Retrain

[BigRig98]

Hey everyone, came across an article (link pasted at bottom) and wondering if I can get more insight on this topic. The article could be outdated, since it is from 2016, but basically it states that if you complete/have all of the necessary pre reqs (physical, mental, and psychological attributes) you can get approval to be released from your career field to have the opportunity to train and complete one of the Special Tactics pipelines before your FTA retrain. I'm currently still in tech school and won't be at my first duty station until at the earliest end of this year, so my questions are:
Is this opportunity still available?
If so, how would one start this process? Would it be the same as the FTA cross-train process?
How is job selection affected due to the change of sending trainees under an "open SW" contract?
Do I have to wait to complete my current training before being eligible for this? Should I wait?

Policy changes allow Airmen to retrain into special ops

 

[AWP]

post

What's the current guidance on myPers?

 

[BigRig98]

What's the current guidance on myPers?

Copy, got the information I was looking for and then some... Still new to the use of the AFwebsite and all of it's different functions, didn't know that information would be out there. Thank you for your response.

 

[AWP]

Copy, got the information I was looking for and then some... Still new to the use of the AFwebsite and all of it's different functions, didn't know that information would be out there. Thank you for your response.

A larger problem: I'm a contractor and I know about myPers...how in the world have your NCO's avoided telling you about that website? Almost all of your PERSCO type/ A1 actions have information on myPers. Are they not telling you this in your pipeline or first duty station, or are y'all (you aren't the first) totally sleeping on the job to not know about this resource?

My squadron sends out about one email every 6-8 weeks referencing myPers. Does yours not do this?

I'm not trying to be a dick, but the AF has a lot of resources out there that your command will ask about. If you look your Shirt in the eye and tell him/ her you didn't know about something so readily available...your life is going to suck and your retrain options plummet accordingly.

The AF for all of its flaws has a ton of information online through its various portals.

 

[BigRig98]

A larger problem: I'm a contractor and I know about myPers...how in the world have your NCO's avoided telling you about that website? Almost all of your PERSCO type/ A1 actions have information on myPers. Are they not telling you this in your pipeline or first duty station, or are y'all (you aren't the first) totally sleeping on the job to not know about this resource?

My squadron sends out about one email every 6-8 weeks referencing myPers. Does yours not do this?

I'm not trying to be a dick, but the AF has a lot of resources out there that your command will ask about. If you look your Shirt in the eye and tell him/ her you didn't know about something so readily available...your life is going to suck and your retrain options plummet accordingly.

The AF for all of its flaws has a ton of information online through its various portals.

The subject of retraining in my career field is very rarely brought up. The information I have gathered by asking around is that once you are in my career field you don't leave. I knew about myPers and have visited it before, but yesterday was the first time I was able to really dive in. Our course keeps us pretty busy and the pipeline is at least a year and can be up to 2 years. Not trying to pose an excuse, just trying to give a reason for why myself or others in my career field don't receive this information early on in our careers. Once again thank you for your response and time!

 

[oneleggedhumper]

You most certainly will not be allowed to cross train until you are out of tech school. MyPers just released a memo saying all career fields WILL be released to pursue AFSPECWAR training contingent all requirements are met. This meaning you meet all the requirements for retraining based off of MyPers also to include the SPECWAR requirements. So your PAST test, Flight physical, etc. I would link you to the memo but I am having a hard time finding it. I did see it by searching on MyPers but I had to use very specific wording to find it, which I can not remember at the moment. Early retrain for FTA into SPECWAR is 24 months TIS no matter what your contract length is. Do some searching for that memo and hope it doesn't change in the near future. This was released as of February 2020. Hope this info helps.

 

[Raksasa Kotor]

A larger problem: I'm a contractor and I know about myPers...how in the world have your NCO's avoided telling you about that website? Almost all of your PERSCO type/ A1 actions have information on myPers. Are they not telling you this in your pipeline or first duty station, or are y'all (you aren't the first) totally sleeping on the job to not know about this resource?

My squadron sends out about one email every 6-8 weeks referencing myPers. Does yours not do this?

I'm not trying to be a dick, but the AF has a lot of resources out there that your command will ask about. If you look your Shirt in the eye and tell him/ her you didn't know about something so readily available...your life is going to suck and your retrain options plummet accordingly.

The AF for all of its flaws has a ton of information online through its various portals.

No one in the Air Force teaches anyone else shit about these systems until they ask a question that is answered by "why didn't you check xyz?".

There's a very long version of this story, but the short version is that I didn't find out about LeaveWeb until I had been in almost two years and had to be restrained by my coworkers from killing my supervisor over several supposedly "denied" leave requests I had routed through him.

 

[AWP]

No one in the Air Force teaches anyone else shit about these systems until they ask a question that is answered by "why didn't you check xyz?".

There's a very long version of this story, but the short version is that I didn't find out about LeaveWeb until I had been in almost two years and had to be restrained by my coworkers from killing my supervisor over several supposedly "denied" leave requests I had routed through him.

That's insane. The amount of info on the site and it isn't even covered in tech school or anything, even in passing? Sheesh, good job, AF!

 

[BigRig98]

You most certainly will not be allowed to cross train until you are out of tech school. MyPers just released a memo saying all career fields WILL be released to pursue AFSPECWAR training contingent all requirements are met. This meaning you meet all the requirements for retraining based off of MyPers also to include the SPECWAR requirements. So your PAST test, Flight physical, etc. I would link you to the memo but I am having a hard time finding it. I did see it by searching on MyPers but I had to use very specific wording to find it, which I can not remember at the moment. Early retrain for FTA into SPECWAR is 24 months TIS no matter what your contract length is. Do some searching for that memo and hope it doesn't change in the near future. This was released as of February 2020. Hope this info helps.

This is great information, thank you a lot for reaching out... I'll go on myPers today and if I can find this article, I will paste to this thread for future users or at least attach the words I used to search for it. Thank you for your time and post!

 

[BigRig98]

Just finished my language course so I had some more time to look into myPers about the memo mentioned earlier in this thread, so I'm posting here now for anyone that comes across this article with a similar question. Go to myPers, click on the "Retraining" bullet on the left hand side of the page, then in the retraining programs sections click on "Clarification of Crossflow/Retraining Policy for Air Force Special Warfare and Combat Support Candidates Memorandum". Hope this helps anyone in the future with similar questions, and thanks for all the help and guidance given to me!