I was told when I got my new ID card that I needed to drop off my son's SSN card for DEERS. Figured if I'm just dropping a document off, I wouldn't need an appointment, but I was wrong. I got there just before noon, signed in, waited an hour and a half before I finally said, "screw this" and left. I eventually got a text at 3:20 saying it was my turn in the queue. I would have sat there for nearly 3 1/2 hours to drop off one form.
Retirees bogging down the ID card office for a problem of their own making that they could’ve gone to a standalone DEERS site for. This leads to having to do a system that hurts actual members. Same problem at medical
>blaming retirees
Nah. Every time I've ever gotten a new CAC it has taken 15 minutes tops from the time I get called back to walking out the front door. Why am I in the lobby waiting for 3 hours while 2 people ahead of me are getting CACs? The entire organization is just inefficient as shit.
I remember one time I just walked back to the assignments office after signing in and waiting for 2 hours, saw 8 airmen just sitting on their desks bullshitting, not a single person actually being helped.
Honestly, though, can *we* stop blaming federal level problems on service members. Man, this is the same shit where higher echelon blames Junior Enlisted for NAF/MAJCOM/Air Force level issues. These are process and resource problems.
That's a failure on the organization. Redundancy is very important for military mission's. If there's only 1 person who can do the job, we are one cal accident away from being screwed. Augment them with airmen if need be. (I am aware of the red tape involved with such positions... Gotta accelerate change.)
Good on the one employee though for getting the job done.
This was a massive problem at MacDill. There's an above-average number of retirees in the area, and the manning for the MPF is adjusted for the number of active duty folks being supported without taking veterans into account.
If the unit is overwhelmed by workload then they should look to add GS positions to expand their capacity. If there is a valid need it isn’t that hard to do so long as the appropriate people fight for it.
Lmao. My final out for my little rock pcs my councilor went on leave, and it was a training day. I had a flight to japan the next afternoon and their flight chief acted like he was jumping onto a grenade by logging in and checking me off the virtual. Needless to say my paperwork when I arrived was a disaster.
Bro shift workers always say this shit but in reality maybe 10% of them utilize any special time slots. I been doing this shit for over a decade and the juice pushing for shift worker support has NEVER been worth the squeeze.
It doesn't to be a huge burden to accommodate them. Last time I was due for a new ID, getting an appointment was a pain in the ass. The earliest possible time was half an hour past the end of shift and all the early times were booked a week ahead by fellow mid shifters. Simply opening an hour earlier or designating certain days with early hours would be a big deal for those who need it.
If manning wasn't completely in the gutter I would agree with you. Your suggestions were feasible 10 years ago. Now I can barely keep clinics open during the duty day because there's just no bodies.
- airmen who only came in for the benefits of the military but wanted something cush (30% of them)
- airmen who are too busy with an event or outside org shit to get them a strat rather than doing their actual job (25%)
- genuinely dumb people (20%)
- airmen that are burnt out and just done with everything (15%)
- intelligent, hard working people but essentially have the base on their back making up for the rest of the previously mentioned people (10%)
This is the answer sometimes. When I worked CSS I told every person in my squadron to come to me for anything. If they ever went to the MPF first I gave them shit. CSS should always be the first to contact unless it has to do with anything DEERS related. The only time I don’t pick up my phone is when I’m doing final outs or I’m tasked with something hot from leadership. I will admit I didn’t pick up the phone for an entire week once because I was swamped with work, felt pretty guilty about that. I usually have to tell the office that I’m busy can someone else pick that up, if I didn’t say anything they wouldn’t pick up.
Part of the retirement process is that before you can go on terminal or permissive you have to update your ID cards that the retirement date reflects correctly on your ID card, the low base near me only does my appointment only and they are booked out two months because they only do ID cards three days a week.
The finance office at McGuire I can get on the phone at least but they are only open 3 days a week for 5 hours a day. That would have been nice when I was in ce
Only reason MPF isn't being lit up its ass by commanders is that there's a special pass for leadership. They get ahead of everyone (even further slowing everything down for you average Joe.)
Then again, MPF has manning issues, AFPC taking more powers away issues, and people thst were forced to retrain to MPF.
But man, if commanders were more exposed to this stupidity, I'm sure things would've changed a lot faster.
Always love when leadership gets up and talks about how good their experience was with AFE or. Crew trans or how easy it was to be seen by their primary physician. Gee, sure is easy to get help when you have a Col in front of your name.
They're both Mission Support. And mission support is the worst function to be attached to, I say that as someone who is, unfortunately in Mission Support.
Wing CCs don't give a shit about customer service side. They care about Budget. The tens of millions of dollars to run their wing. Period. Don't get it twisted.
Huh. Used to be wing kings were concerned about flying hours. That's how you'd get your budget, and promotion. Difficult to achieve if your folks are not on the job and instead waiting in line, or chasing problems that noners cause by not having their butts on the job.
Granted I’m in a big squadron but our CSS ha/ people in charge of pretty much every MPF function that has a hotline to them if they can’t figure it out.
I probably just gave it good lol
Also in a large squadron with a mostly good CSS. Their Flight CC, and Section Chief are amazing and handle any issues that their younger personnel are unfamiliar with or mess up. And they get particularly excited to go to bat for us when the base MPF screws up.
It wasn’t always like that. It took awhile to have a properly staffed CSS and it’s such a huge improvement.
If able go to Guard or Reserve bases for any branch. Very fast and can set up appointments via online.
As a so called “old fuck retired” guy I do this so AD isn’t dealing with my shit.
I wonder if this is a staffing shortage issue, or a leadership issue across the board. I hope commanders are looking at this; if members are feeling like they're busting their asses out in their squadrons and aren't getting the support they deserve from their MPF, this is a major problem.
MPF at my base is shit hot not gonna lie. Credit where it's due: their walk in hours are easy and I'm always helped within minutes
Finance on the other hand can suck my nuts. I emailed them complaining they don't have walk in hours that support operator/flight line schedules and they replied they just recently expanded their hours... To 2 mornings per week from 8-11. Wtf do they even do all god damn day the rest of the days
MPF at Nellis spent a month convincing me I couldn’t pcs back stateside after my short tour in Korea without 24 months retainability until I found it in an AFI that I need 12 months and they were all surprised by that. I wonder how many other people they fucked over before I figured that out. Bout to PCS back to conus with 12 months of retainability in June.
Did ANY of you go through your CSS’s first before asking questions that they can answer? Also, most MPF’s have only 2-3 people for the WHOLE instillation, so just put that into perspective. Not defending, just trying to reason with the complaints 🤷🏽♂️
Legitimately had my MPF tell one of my subordinates that his options after catching orders at 18 years and 11 months were 1) Take the orders or 2) Separate seven months later and forfeit his pension. He’s indef.
The incompetence is in-fucking-credible.
I love posts like these, I pop some popcorn, cut the phone lines and shut off the lights. Then just chuckle for several minutes!
Seriously though, these posts don’t get to me as a personnelist because hey, ppl need to vent. If this is how y’all gotta get it out go for it. I know so many in this career field who are just tired and burnt out. My MPF is so undermanned we have 10 people covering 3 sections That’s it. And no, additional duties didn’t disappear lol
They're both pretty terrible. But finance doesn't even have a number to call anymore. Gotta do everything through CSP (at least in my experience in my last two bases). I just want answers finance! Damn damn damn! Okay that was my rant k bye lol
My MPF office literally doesn't open until 8 am. Closed between 11am-1pm for lunch. Then done for the day at 4 pm. Calling them, they dont answer the organization phone number provided, and the voice-mail box is full. I had better luck calling the public affairs office on base and asking for individual phone numbers for the members in the office.
Options:
1. Get with your CSS. Literally the best way and first initial point of contact for any records issue.
2. If CSS can’t, then either way for them to reach the MPF or work with your Shirt to provide some help. CCF usually have a faster network when it comes to MPFs
3. You either call on a training day or they were on a meeting/huddle. Sometimes they have stuff happening behind the counter. Emailing them is the best way and most of the MPFs answer within 48-72hrs. But if it is hot, the go in person.
It is really easy to find the solution. It’s actually more embarrassing to know that most of the members can’t figure their own sh*t because they demand and not provide. Respectfully.
I mean services, SF, cyber, intel, MX, medical, air crew, and the officer corps are a few places. Are you new, tech school? I thought that flair was just ironic. Every career field has a few
I admit I’m a little ignorant to the afsc placement process for enlisted route but I would imagine there are different benchmark requirements for different jobs. With more specialized roles requiring higher aptitude and scoring. I’d never go as far as to blanket statement call a certain career field dumb or anything but I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest some might have a slightly higher bar for entry
It already is. To fifteen different companies. That’s why we have 5 different SSO application suites instead of it all being tied into the portal like it should be.
Ah yes, hearing how bad the MPF is while waiting in the lobby of the MPF…
Same I've been waiting maybe an hour for a new cac. Fun stuff
my MPF always tells me to show up early to my apt. then makes me wait 60+ minutes...
Should of brought a picnic table
I was told when I got my new ID card that I needed to drop off my son's SSN card for DEERS. Figured if I'm just dropping a document off, I wouldn't need an appointment, but I was wrong. I got there just before noon, signed in, waited an hour and a half before I finally said, "screw this" and left. I eventually got a text at 3:20 saying it was my turn in the queue. I would have sat there for nearly 3 1/2 hours to drop off one form.
Retirees bogging down the ID card office for a problem of their own making that they could’ve gone to a standalone DEERS site for. This leads to having to do a system that hurts actual members. Same problem at medical
>blaming retirees Nah. Every time I've ever gotten a new CAC it has taken 15 minutes tops from the time I get called back to walking out the front door. Why am I in the lobby waiting for 3 hours while 2 people ahead of me are getting CACs? The entire organization is just inefficient as shit. I remember one time I just walked back to the assignments office after signing in and waiting for 2 hours, saw 8 airmen just sitting on their desks bullshitting, not a single person actually being helped.
Honestly, though, can *we* stop blaming federal level problems on service members. Man, this is the same shit where higher echelon blames Junior Enlisted for NAF/MAJCOM/Air Force level issues. These are process and resource problems.
Sometimes it’s just one dude who can do the job you need. Just FYI. I would have thought the same thing but it might not be on them.
That's a failure on the organization. Redundancy is very important for military mission's. If there's only 1 person who can do the job, we are one cal accident away from being screwed. Augment them with airmen if need be. (I am aware of the red tape involved with such positions... Gotta accelerate change.) Good on the one employee though for getting the job done.
This was a massive problem at MacDill. There's an above-average number of retirees in the area, and the manning for the MPF is adjusted for the number of active duty folks being supported without taking veterans into account.
If the unit is overwhelmed by workload then they should look to add GS positions to expand their capacity. If there is a valid need it isn’t that hard to do so long as the appropriate people fight for it.
So you’re saying they had a convenient texting system to let you know when it’s your turn without you having to wait in their lobby? Ridiculous.
How about them scheduling me for my military final out on their training day lol
Lmao. My final out for my little rock pcs my councilor went on leave, and it was a training day. I had a flight to japan the next afternoon and their flight chief acted like he was jumping onto a grenade by logging in and checking me off the virtual. Needless to say my paperwork when I arrived was a disaster.
Every org on base needs an "In-Uniform" line.
This, also with consideration for shift workers too
Bro shift workers always say this shit but in reality maybe 10% of them utilize any special time slots. I been doing this shit for over a decade and the juice pushing for shift worker support has NEVER been worth the squeeze.
It doesn't to be a huge burden to accommodate them. Last time I was due for a new ID, getting an appointment was a pain in the ass. The earliest possible time was half an hour past the end of shift and all the early times were booked a week ahead by fellow mid shifters. Simply opening an hour earlier or designating certain days with early hours would be a big deal for those who need it.
If manning wasn't completely in the gutter I would agree with you. Your suggestions were feasible 10 years ago. Now I can barely keep clinics open during the duty day because there's just no bodies.
This^ and most sections in the MPF are 1 or 2 people deep. 15 years ago it was 5-6 people in each section
PLEASE
Did you happen to go in on a training day?
Throw a dart at a calendar and it’s an MPF training day.
You'd think as much as they train they'd actually be good at their jobs
What do you mean, they’re very good at driving home and not working.
Every day at MPF is a training day
- airmen who only came in for the benefits of the military but wanted something cush (30% of them) - airmen who are too busy with an event or outside org shit to get them a strat rather than doing their actual job (25%) - genuinely dumb people (20%) - airmen that are burnt out and just done with everything (15%) - intelligent, hard working people but essentially have the base on their back making up for the rest of the previously mentioned people (10%)
Awesome breakdown, this applies to many, many career fields
As a nonner airman, the genuinely dumb percentage should be a bit higher
Write your congressman. Only logical solution. /s
Then imagine this: Soon, finance and MPF will be under one umbrella.
Finance will be finance, but military pay items will be handed over to MPF. Godspeed.
A lot of military pay items are already predicated upon MPF making the proper inputs into MILPDS so that a pay mod can be generated.
A lot of military pay items are already predicated upon MPF making the proper inputs into MILPDS so that a pay mod can be generated.
Have you tried your CSS? They can handle or point you in the right direction for most MPF/MPS issues.
This is the answer sometimes. When I worked CSS I told every person in my squadron to come to me for anything. If they ever went to the MPF first I gave them shit. CSS should always be the first to contact unless it has to do with anything DEERS related. The only time I don’t pick up my phone is when I’m doing final outs or I’m tasked with something hot from leadership. I will admit I didn’t pick up the phone for an entire week once because I was swamped with work, felt pretty guilty about that. I usually have to tell the office that I’m busy can someone else pick that up, if I didn’t say anything they wouldn’t pick up.
Have you tried adding more jets to the schedule?
Part of the retirement process is that before you can go on terminal or permissive you have to update your ID cards that the retirement date reflects correctly on your ID card, the low base near me only does my appointment only and they are booked out two months because they only do ID cards three days a week. The finance office at McGuire I can get on the phone at least but they are only open 3 days a week for 5 hours a day. That would have been nice when I was in ce
Only reason MPF isn't being lit up its ass by commanders is that there's a special pass for leadership. They get ahead of everyone (even further slowing everything down for you average Joe.) Then again, MPF has manning issues, AFPC taking more powers away issues, and people thst were forced to retrain to MPF. But man, if commanders were more exposed to this stupidity, I'm sure things would've changed a lot faster.
Always love when leadership gets up and talks about how good their experience was with AFE or. Crew trans or how easy it was to be seen by their primary physician. Gee, sure is easy to get help when you have a Col in front of your name.
They're both Mission Support. And mission support is the worst function to be attached to, I say that as someone who is, unfortunately in Mission Support.
Is finance under the MSG?
No. Finance falls directly under the Wing Commander
You'd think wing kings would drive that house a bit harder, due to the wasted manhours caused...
Wing CCs don't give a shit about customer service side. They care about Budget. The tens of millions of dollars to run their wing. Period. Don't get it twisted.
Huh. Used to be wing kings were concerned about flying hours. That's how you'd get your budget, and promotion. Difficult to achieve if your folks are not on the job and instead waiting in line, or chasing problems that noners cause by not having their butts on the job.
Flying hours are not how you get your budget for the Wings. FHP is centralized. Not by base. Your self importance is too high.
Your penis is to stubby, according to your disappointed spouse.
That's weird because I have a pussy you fucking cuck
OK, need a climbing rope... got it.
Man I wanted to see what his answer was lol you ruined it.
Education is worse imo. The CCAF debacle isn’t really their fault, but trying to do that shit is impossible
Can’t complain to your commander if you’re never gained to the base.
If they are truly not there do you ever use your shirt
Granted I’m in a big squadron but our CSS ha/ people in charge of pretty much every MPF function that has a hotline to them if they can’t figure it out. I probably just gave it good lol
Also in a large squadron with a mostly good CSS. Their Flight CC, and Section Chief are amazing and handle any issues that their younger personnel are unfamiliar with or mess up. And they get particularly excited to go to bat for us when the base MPF screws up. It wasn’t always like that. It took awhile to have a properly staffed CSS and it’s such a huge improvement.
If able go to Guard or Reserve bases for any branch. Very fast and can set up appointments via online. As a so called “old fuck retired” guy I do this so AD isn’t dealing with my shit.
Welcome to gov
Try your CSS, we have better numbers(and know specific people at the MPF that can help with issues).
I wonder if this is a staffing shortage issue, or a leadership issue across the board. I hope commanders are looking at this; if members are feeling like they're busting their asses out in their squadrons and aren't getting the support they deserve from their MPF, this is a major problem.
MPF at my base is shit hot not gonna lie. Credit where it's due: their walk in hours are easy and I'm always helped within minutes Finance on the other hand can suck my nuts. I emailed them complaining they don't have walk in hours that support operator/flight line schedules and they replied they just recently expanded their hours... To 2 mornings per week from 8-11. Wtf do they even do all god damn day the rest of the days
MPF at Nellis spent a month convincing me I couldn’t pcs back stateside after my short tour in Korea without 24 months retainability until I found it in an AFI that I need 12 months and they were all surprised by that. I wonder how many other people they fucked over before I figured that out. Bout to PCS back to conus with 12 months of retainability in June.
Did ANY of you go through your CSS’s first before asking questions that they can answer? Also, most MPF’s have only 2-3 people for the WHOLE instillation, so just put that into perspective. Not defending, just trying to reason with the complaints 🤷🏽♂️
Legitimately had my MPF tell one of my subordinates that his options after catching orders at 18 years and 11 months were 1) Take the orders or 2) Separate seven months later and forfeit his pension. He’s indef. The incompetence is in-fucking-credible.
I love posts like these, I pop some popcorn, cut the phone lines and shut off the lights. Then just chuckle for several minutes! Seriously though, these posts don’t get to me as a personnelist because hey, ppl need to vent. If this is how y’all gotta get it out go for it. I know so many in this career field who are just tired and burnt out. My MPF is so undermanned we have 10 people covering 3 sections That’s it. And no, additional duties didn’t disappear lol
you've gotta be a professional troll; did you run over there to apply for the BOP I just told you about?
When you look at an unfamiliar user's post history and see nothing but blue down arrows.
he's actually a pretty (negative) familiar face in the last \~30 days
This inquiry has nothing to do with the BOP. BOP is done on vMPF now.
I'm very much aware... as I was aware of where to find the information and give you chapter and verse Stop shitting on the MPF and get back to work
so we can shit on finance but not mpf?
No, don't shit on finance either
Not in my Air Force retiree
90% of the stuff people shit on finance for could have been avoided by the member
 Oook old timer, let's get your jello.
Certified! Most of the things is always on the member’s side (applies to MPF too)
Self help anyone? Not surprised.
They're both pretty terrible. But finance doesn't even have a number to call anymore. Gotta do everything through CSP (at least in my experience in my last two bases). I just want answers finance! Damn damn damn! Okay that was my rant k bye lol
How do you say “I’m stationed at Langley AFB,” without saying “I‘m stationed at Langley AFB:”
useless career field.
Don’t forget the 3 training days per month and only dealing with outbounds on Wednesday, one of which is a training day.
Call out the base you’re at. We’re all interested.
My MPF office literally doesn't open until 8 am. Closed between 11am-1pm for lunch. Then done for the day at 4 pm. Calling them, they dont answer the organization phone number provided, and the voice-mail box is full. I had better luck calling the public affairs office on base and asking for individual phone numbers for the members in the office.
Options: 1. Get with your CSS. Literally the best way and first initial point of contact for any records issue. 2. If CSS can’t, then either way for them to reach the MPF or work with your Shirt to provide some help. CCF usually have a faster network when it comes to MPFs 3. You either call on a training day or they were on a meeting/huddle. Sometimes they have stuff happening behind the counter. Emailing them is the best way and most of the MPFs answer within 48-72hrs. But if it is hot, the go in person. It is really easy to find the solution. It’s actually more embarrassing to know that most of the members can’t figure their own sh*t because they demand and not provide. Respectfully.
Where else would we put people with an average IQ of a thermostat?
Personnel and other admin jobs have had their minimum scores raised a few times over the last decade. I think most of them just don't care.
I mean services, SF, cyber, intel, MX, medical, air crew, and the officer corps are a few places. Are you new, tech school? I thought that flair was just ironic. Every career field has a few
Comparing cyber, intel, MX, and aircrew intelligence to MPF is crazy.
Why?
Every career field has a few, but some more than others.
Why do you think that?
I admit I’m a little ignorant to the afsc placement process for enlisted route but I would imagine there are different benchmark requirements for different jobs. With more specialized roles requiring higher aptitude and scoring. I’d never go as far as to blanket statement call a certain career field dumb or anything but I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest some might have a slightly higher bar for entry
Yeah. Because we definitely want someone with the IQ of a thermometer handling NIPR networks and Helpdesk. Damn system is down enough as is.
I agree. It should be outsourced.
It already is. To fifteen different companies. That’s why we have 5 different SSO application suites instead of it all being tied into the portal like it should be.
I just walk into finance and MPF sections. You’ll never get ahold of someone on the phone.
Guess you haven’t heard of finance.
No is worse than finance but they live under one umbrella.