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I like my air and aerial achievement medals. Those matter to me. Also, my unit got a V for the beginning of OIF. Im proud of that. The others, except for the AFCAM, are not important to me.

Terramaster F4-423 with 4 x 4TB harddrives. The user interface is solid but I am have some issues getting it set up on my network. Initially it worked but knocked my network printer offline. My son is doing all his end of year AP exams and project and I have been traveling like crazy for work so I have not had a chance to sit down and sort the IP addresses and ports.

That video was wild.

Lol, we had an AD patch on loan for a deployment and the dude got himself a Bronze Star for showing up...total joke. I've read AAR's that warranted DFC's (or higher), but we're never received for whatever reason. I remember when our base got an AD WG/CC, and the dude REALLY cared about medals. Apparently, he wasn't happy with the fact that, as a Major, I had two MSM's, but no AFCM. Guess what I got within a few months... One of the reasons I had a second MSM's is becuase we had a staff weenie get sent down to be an OG (box checking...now a 1 star), who was passed over on his first O-6 board due in part becuase he lacked an MSM...or so his bro network told him. Guess what the squadron got a few months later.... Our medals are a fucking joke, which is why I've never cared for them. When we expect that you get X medal as a Lt and X medal as Capt, etc.... we're fucked. Hell, I'm missing an Air Medal that I never bothered to track down because I didn't care to waste my time. If you have a SS, AFC, MOH...I'll raise an eyebrow. Even then, I know there are plenty of actions that probably warranted those medals, that were never recognized.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a year and a half of rushing is just getting started. I know it seems like an eternity, while in your 20’s, but if you’re a gov employee, as you stated, then you certainly should understand the glacial pace the system moves in. Have you interviewed anywhere more than once? You do realize that guard units typically select pilots only once per year? So in a year and a half you haven’t even been through the cycle more than once. Other than that, the advice offered to all the others on similar threads still holds true: -Widen your net (Heavies, Reserves, USAF, USN, USMC) -Enlist in the unit -Practice your interview skills -Get more flt time -Polish up your resume -Network

Another area we disagree. The longer we wait, the weaker we will be for the actual fight. As our weak governance racks up increasingly absurd debt, the pressure to divert military spending to welfare programs will only grow. The longer we wait, the fewer war fighting experts we will have coupled with less and less modern military equipment to fight with. I still think we win based on geography and natural resources, but it'll cost more lives and treasure to wait. Whether or not there is a nuclear exchange, which is not nearly as certain as you propose, does not change the calculus. Will we be better capable of fighting Russia today, or after another 10-20 years of peaceful decline? I'll be honest. I don't care about you. Or me. I want what is best for my kids. I am not interested in adding WWIII to the list of hardships we are pushing off to the future. Appeasement does not work. History is clear on this point, and that's exactly what you are proposing.

I think you may be correct here, eventually. But starting the war that will result in a nuclear exchange just to get it over with is dumb. Next after Ukraine is Moldova, also a non NATO country. Which means the rest of us have two countries to figure out what is actually required. Which means we have a chance to avoid a nuclear war. All of this is how the cold war was fought. The various proxy wars, two segregated economic spheres, etc. The cold war won't look the same the second time around (Putin also learned from glasnost and perestroika) but first step is understanding what is actually happening. Most American pundits are still stuck in main character syndrome, they only disagree on whether it's a hero or anti-hero story. I don't disagree with your primary thought, just the best way to fight this.

I’ll answer: We let it fall. We have no treaty obligations, and although I’m opposed to Russian aggression I do not believe WW3 is the best option for our interests. If they start some shit with a NATO ally then fights on.

So, I'm glad you are at least honest about this. Thank you. The reason I am against allowing Ukraine to be taken, under your logic, is because I believe that *if* they truly want to take Ukraine, they will not stop at non-NATO countries. Wouldn't make much sense strategically. We're better off just starting the damn war now if that's the case. Unless of course the plan is to let them weaken their military by taking Ukraine and Moldova, at which point we immediately go in an crush them. But I'm positive that's not the plan. And to be clear, my primary reason for supporting Ukraine hasn't changed. Sovereignty matters, and a stable world order is not possible if it is not enforced. And here we are. I agree, the right answer is money and equipment, which we are somehow screwing up. And if we are willing to fund the perpetual Ukrainian insurgency, maybe it stays that way after Kiev falls. But it seems like Republicans have forgotten why the world needs police, and why it's better to be the ones in charge.

Really thin on specifics, but seems to be vaguely in line with the 353 drama https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/highly-toxic-lethal-command-culture-kadena-air-base/ Sent from my SM-G781U1 using Tapatalk

Was discussing this topic with a coworker; flabbergasted that Biden is still a viable contender for reelection following this once in a century type of failure/embarrassment. He keenly pointed out that most Americans do not give a shit about what happened in Afghanistan one way or another; much like they couldn’t care less about what happens in Ukraine. We obviously care about it on this board but we are not a representation of the general populace. The election will come down to the economy, border, and social issues.

Fixed it for you my man!

True. The Navy/Marine peeps on Airwarriors are so much happier for whatever reason.

At the end of the day, yes. They aren't NATO. This was always about making Russia bleed to take Ukraine, and destroy as much of their shit as possible in the process. This is the spark that will re-arm Europe, and the wall will go back up. This war will be fought economically. Hopefully. I really really hope. Because all the politicians are in fact stupid children. EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm saying sending western troops to fight for Ukraine is dumb. Sending more money/equipment is par for the course. Also Moldovia is fucked too.

The current "AI" iterations are not AGI, however they are closer to functioning like a human brain than we have ever gotten before. The irony here is that we didn't accomplish this by figuring out how the brain works, quite the opposite, we created an array of associations that is as mysterious to us as the individual neural pathways of a human brain is. We know that the brain has a combination of biologically-arranged pathways (e.g. for walking, breathing, visual identification of faces, eye position, etc.) and experience-formed pathways (math, music, flying a plane). Right now the AI models crunch tons of mostly-unfiltered data into a model that we do not have the ability to directly adjust because of the sheer volume of parameters, then an overlay is used to do things like prevent swearing, giving directions for bomb making, etc. But this is in it's infancy. Once you can pre-program certain behaviors into the actual model, then leave the rest of the model to continuously adapt the weights based on new data, we will take another big step to AGI. But since we have precisely 0% knowledge on what is or what causes consciousness, it is entirely possible that we reach a point where AGI is achieved simply by running the models with enough horsepower that we stumble into the solution. That is, incidentally, remarkably similar to how evolution works. Are humans the only animals that are conscious? What about dolphins, octopi, crows, or chimps? If not, does that mean there is no intelligence other than human intelligence? That seems like an arbitrary definition. Where is the line, and how smart does a computer need to be before it is considered intelligent? Smarter than all humans, or just smarter than any human? Do people born with Down Syndrome have consciousness? What if an AI surpasses the intellectual ability of someone with DS? Calling even the current models an "abacus" is like calling the human brain a glutamate sensor. Sure, it's kind of true, but it's the scale of the apparatus that makes it interesting.

What? There are ten parked on our ramp right now. ESSS has been around since the 80s and was a pretty standard phenomenon. You didn’t see it in COIN Iraq/Stan because of either the weight penalty, the lack of requirement due to availability of FARPs, or some combination there of. In the 90s it was pretty much normal, same as Apaches flying with a single tank inboard. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You want at least 2 drives for redundancy. Tons of 2-bay options. No need for separate systems. Backup and storage are mostly-idle processes, so adding security recording won't tax the system. If you start running multiple services that simultaneously access the hard drives, that's where you start getting into more advanced requirements.

I will start by saying that I hate that news outlets are using the term "Russian friendly Republicans." I do not believe the Republicans against this funding are necessarily Russian friendly. I do however believe they are idiots. Not a single one of them seems willing to answer a simple question. What do we do if Russia marches on Kiev? The argument before was that Russia was just taking historically Russian territory in East Ukraine with a majority Russian population. But now that Russia is advancing, and making some moves towards Kiev, he's the new position that Russia should be allowed to annex the entire country? We have a group of phenomenally stupid legislators on both sides, and it now appears increasingly likely that we are in fact going to go to war. Would have been cheaper to just send them the money.

Neither. Intelligence requires consciousness. It's nonsensical to call an abacus conscious.

Any FedEX guys know when the iPad (10) lanyards are getting ordered? I’d like one.

If you think Tommy Tuberville will make that decision, we really are fucked. And hearing a high ranking GO actually be honest about costs, troop numbers, etc is a nice departure from the Afghanistan hearings.

He's saying his data is from young Army troops who were probably snorting it. Done many a charlie round up to FOB/COPs picking up joes who overdosed on a myriad of everyday supplements.

Army straight pays their folks for them. This is dumb.