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Shit, man, that's a really great article. They really did capture his personality, from what relatively little I knew of him. Funny story: so he had come out to his firehouse back when it was still pretty rare to just be open about it. Guys broke his balls (pun intended, I guess), like they do to everyone, but they never treated him any different because that's how the majority of the department operates. We will make fun of you for anything, but we're all brothers in charge of one another's lives. He was good at his job and that's all any of us really care about. True to his unique form, when he was killed, he didn't want the typical FDNY funeral; lots of Catholics on the job, so usually a big mass with plenty of boozing after. He actually had a really great (and quick, by FD standards) ceremony in Washington Square Park, right in the middle of the city. It was cool and a nice departure from the normal department funerals, honestly. But, the kicker was, the night before the funeral, his wishes were to have a celebration of life at his favorite gay bar. I actually worked at his firehouse driving 11 Truck that night so the guys that worked with him there could be off to go out. Of course, there were lots of jokes thrown about beforehand about them heading out to a gay bar. Some were hesitant about the venue; but everyone went, because it's what you do on this job for your brothers. Just picture 50+ gruff New York City firemen ranging from early 20s-mid 50s in age milling about getting ready to go out to a gay bar. I couldn't stop laughing. But, out they went and, to a man, came back boxed, saying they had a great time. In the morning, before his funeral, the stories flowed and the hangovers kicked in, because it's just kinda how things go. Seems like it fits his character of marching to the beat of his own drum. That article summed him up pretty nicely about who he was. Thanks for sharing. I'll pass it along to guys in his firehouse, in case they haven't seen it. Stay safe out there.

So, this loss happened a little before I joined the site. When I did, I didn't want to put too much personally identifying info up while I was interviewing for slots, so my apologies for bringing this thread back up. But, I was wearing one of the memorial shirts for Tripp recently and it got me thinking about these guys. I unfortunately didn't know Raguso (he worked in another Borough/Division from me and our paths never crossed), but Tripp originally worked in the firehouse (Engine 28/Ladder 11) next to mine before promoting to Fire Marshal years back. I'd only worked with him a few times on details between firehouses and caught a few jobs with him, but more knew his story from the guys he worked with more than I knew him personally. Pretty incredible dude all around, with his military service and law degree from Stanford, that was talked of very highly by the guys in his firehouse who knew him well. They all figured he was on track for a life in politics, which he sure seemed like he would have excelled at. Anyway, the FDNY sendoffs for him and Raguso, with the Air Force also playing a big part, were great. They gave the families a lot of pride and showed a lot of love from those of us that worked alongside them. Those were followed up by memorial t-shirts for each of them, and one for Jolly 51 as a whole. One of the ones is pictured below and I thought was a cool mix of FDNY and USAF, so I figured I'd share it here. Belated cheers to those that were lost.

OK, not a dirndl; but incorporates all the best aspects of one...

Haha I know it’s nerve wracking for us to wait, but it’s a pretty big decision for these guys in the squadrons too. It’s more important that they get it right than anything. That being said, I’ve been checking my email every 10 minutes for a couple of hours. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Not everyone likes cars I guess.

I’ve never understood military members’ infatuation with buying brand new and expensive vehicles on the basis of having a consistent paycheck. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

It was definitely much different back then. My first investment was in 1980 and it was in a 5 year CD at 15% APY (in the 1980's CD APY's were as high as 17%). The down side was mortgage rates/car loans/etc were as high as 18.5% during the 1980's (in 1981 the average rate was 17% and as high as 18.5%).

That's a good point. People do what's comfortable for them, the "good feeling of not owing anyone anything", which is totally valid for the group of people who like that. Same for the guy who borrows $60k for a car @ 3% while leaving $60k in his investments averaging returns higher than that. I think the borrow vs not borrow mentality was a much different arguement 30 years ago when interest rates were much higher. But when I'm looking for a new car and the dealer is offering incentives plus 0.9% interest, that's difficult to argue. I spend more on alcohol every month than that 0.9% interest would cost me

Bububut my BMW M5...

I bet you were mainly disappointed that there wasn't a basement...

Sound logic. Unfortunately, this logic also requires self discipline on the investment side, which most people lack...no matter how good a game they talk. HeloDude makes a great point, and it works for many people, myself included. Maybe his advice is too conservative for some of the “experts” out there, but ole’ Dave Ramsey didn’t get rich selling books for no reason.

Removing $10K+ from investments incurs noticeable tax penalties. I don't normally have that kind of cash on hand (cash is good for emergencies, but loses buying power over time), and interest rates (assuming excellent credit) are low enough that paying cash is likely to incur a 3-10% opportunity cost in lost investment gains (per year!). This is not a case where I could not pay cash. It's a case where a ~3% loan is likely to work in my interest. If you invest moderately aggressively, your money compounds quickly. An officer with limited expenses should be able to save enough to buy a house with cash, if they want to, within a decade. Whether paying cash is in their best interest is something they need to examine...same with any other loan... ...AKA, invest your money rather than pay off your 0.5% cadet loan. You make more money that way.

Yes. If you have the kind of credit that allows you to borrow money cheaply, absolutely. Because the vehicles I can afford in cash, vs the vehicles I can afford with a loan, are vastly different quality, and because I have a stable income source that isn't going to be subject to pay cuts or layoffs in the near future.

Thank you, Dave Ramsey

I would strongly advise not to take out a loan to purchase a car.

Hilarious. Original. Totally necessary post. Someone give this guy the keys to a fighter ASAP.

Dunno about the official one, but this is the one they posted on facebook:

I’ve never understood the “it’s not about the money” argument. A 6 month deployment is way more tolerable when you’re making 250+ a year. So are alllll the other problems everyone complains about. Same with the wife’s problems.... Close the pay gap with the airlines and you keep a BUNCH of pilots. But couple the known aircrew issues with literally half the pay of a 3rd year airline dude/dudette and the AF doesn’t have a chance. Not sure why this is so hard.

I think there may be a little to much credit given to the whole PTN thing. From what I am seeing locally there is an incredible sense of self worth being cultivated up there from nonexistent results. While the whole VR thing clearly has some value the inflated sense of it is insane. Some one says "BIG DATA," "ANALYTICS," and I swear people just about climax in their pants. I really don't see PTN ever producing any crazy change with how we produce pilots beyond perhaps providing some $$ for new toys which will break within a year, and won't have sufficient support to keep running (aka operations normal) and we will return to grounding our IP force to dust at the UPT bases to make sure the meat is produced in a timely manner. If that involves more more "syllabus" innovations then I'm sure they will entertain it, until more people can either get themselves killed or class A a lot more iron. So while this sideshow has been entertaining you'll excuse me while I get back to actual instruction and use the new VR simulators to hide my terabytes of midget dungeon porn.

You should read 13 Days to Glory by Lon Tinkle. Those guys stayed there fully expecting to be relieved by a larger Texan force. When their situation became clear, they all chose to stay and fight to bleed the Mexican army and give the new government time. It’s one of my favorite stories from the Texas Revolution, right behind San Jacinto and the ass whooping that Sam Houston put on the Mexican army. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Once I found out that it’s never the first or last circle I got much better at that test.

Ya actually. Every time a 18x er says they are a “pilot” I have no problem pointing to their wings and correcting them. I’ve been stuck in drones for 3 years, the 18x product is not a pilot. It’s a glorified system manager. Do they bring a lot to the current fight? F ya they do, probably more than 95% of the current manned platforms, but do they risk life/limb? Or have the training manned dudes have? Hell no. They can’t transit frome point a to b in the AOR without having a published route, don’t get me started on system knowledge. Take that weak ass shit out of here.

For real. When I go talk to kids in outlying communities from base that are in poorer sections and I mention the jobs we have and women aircrew I get a lot of "I didn't know we could do that." 2018, kids have smartphones but don't know women can fly (in combat) for the USAF. Go figure. It's one of the reasons I don't hate the "First woman/ethnicity general/pilot/crew to do XXX." Gets the word out and generally opens the youths eyes to something they might have historically (or culturally) been barred from or not considered.

It's not necessarily about excluding them on purpose. It's about presenting the Air Force and flight training as an option to communities that don't usually hear that kind of thing, and hoping a few of them get interested. It's easy for a white boy from the suburbs of an Air Force base to get into the idea of joining to be a pilot. It may be harder for a girl who, even in 2018, still hears "That's a man's job" or "model airplanes are boy's toys". Similarly, in communities that are historically less educated, we can reach into those communities and show them the types of opportunities that exist for those willing to get an education. We may even reach the point where, similar to what the Air Force does with lawyers and doctors, we start paying for high school candidates with a high aptitude for flight to get an undergraduate degree (aside from the highly competitive USAFA process). I'm with you. The idea that we should weed out white men because "we have to many" or that we should promote minorities "to increase representation" is just terrible reasoning all the way around. I'm saying that we can do things to increase the number of minorities entering the service, giving us a greater number to pull from to fill those leadership positions/cockpits/etc.

Here's the point I'm trying to make. It doesn't matter who is sitting next to me in the jet or who is on my wing, I just want them to be well trained and proficient in the mission. Diversity doesn't matter there-I don't care as long as they can hack the mission. However, as a service, we should care about diversity because it helps expose cultural assumptions and blind spots, which can affect both retention and recruiting. Maybe people don't show up to the recruiters office because they just don't understand the military, or have misconceptions about military service. Or that there are many ways to serve as well as paths to service. I didn't find out about ROTC until my academy interviewer mentioned that as another path to become an officer and a pilot, and that was as an Army brat. Many civilians I've met are surprised that I'm a military pilot, since I wear glasses, as they thought you could only be a pilot with uncorrected 20/20 vision. It's also increasingly likely that prior have never met anybody in the military, and have no frame of reference for what it means to serve outside of what they see on the news or in media. So why not reach out to those people? If we are only bringing in one group of people within our recruiting pool, they WILL change the culture of our military, as they will bring with them cultural norms and biases with them. It'll be a slow change, but it will change. The environment people serve in is absolutely relevant to recruiting, and retention. It feeds into those conceptions about what military service is like. This also goes beyond just diversity. What I was getting at with my OPR comment is that they don't matter: if you aren't on the HPO list, you're probably not going to get very far, no matter what you do or how good you are. If you are on the list, well, just don't do anything to embarrass your sponsor. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

The military, like the government, works best when it’s made up of the people. Not just the predominantly Southern, conservative, white male people (though that’s what many seem to be most comfortable surrounding themselves with), but a true cross section of the American populace. That will help our communities begin reconnecting with their military. I absolutely agree with Chuck’s “grow diversity” sentiment. This doesn’t necessarily mean promoting based on ethnicity/race/gender (although I admit this does happen). But recruiting from a broader cross section is certainly a worthy goal.

Interviewed at a C-130 unit: Tell us about our unit. Tell us about yourself. Tell us about a time you...disagreed with a coworker/lost your cool. Talk about your leadership experience and how you dealt with leading people with more/less experience than you. I also had some more tailored questions based on my work history and resume, as I’m sure everyone does.. so you are a lawyer, why do you want to become a pilot/serve. One very tough scenario question, so the regs say no drinking within 12 hours of a flight, you are co-pilot, the captain is drunk at the 12 hour mark the night before a flight and showing no signs of slowing...what do you do? What are your plans post-seasoning? What are your plans to prepare for UPT? I’m not sure if I’ll be selected, but getting the interview and visiting the unit/seeing the planes was an incredible experience.

Funny

Thank you, I will try my best to be the best leader as I can be. As for my age, I like think I am only a "little bit" old.

Bro make sure you're getting into this for the right reasons.

Well, I got through to a few recruiters around the country. And I am going to just humble my self as much as possible doing this job. because that is so important. They don't expect perfection. You just have to try your best. Nobody is giving me the same answer twice. And they say they hire a new pilot each year in some bases. From both off the streets and promotion from within. From basically any AFSC. Others say they only grant waivers for other officers. But pretty much all of them look highly upon those with prior service in air-force active duty, reserves, or airguard. So if you don't get picked the first time round. You can just join the guard and you will get a big check plus on your application.

Every day, I am praying to Allah for guidance to make the right decisions. For me, my family, and the air-force.

Hello, Hello, Here are my "numbers". The reason I put it in quotes, is because these are recent guesstimates extrapolating my future circumstance. I'll know for sure when I take the real test in 2021. College GPA: 3.6 AFOQT: 92/77/50/60/43 PCSM: 65 Flight Hours: 40 Age: 33 LORs: 3; 2 Pilots Active duty(O-3 and O-4) and 1 retired 0-6 General Serigion - Army. Prior Service Experience: Fuels, AF Active duty: E-3. Career goals: Retire as an air-force fighter pilot. Notable Achievements: CAM/ST for the undefeated Mens Airforce Soccer team. Thanks, StopLoss123