Leaderboard

The "F" Word; There are only 11 times in history where the "F" word has been considered acceptable for use. They are as follows: 11. "What the @#$% do you mean, we are sinking?" -- Capt. E.J. Smith of RMS Titanic, 1912 10. "What the @#$% was that?" -- Mayor Of Hiroshima, 1945 9. "Where did all those @#$%ing Indians come from?" -- George Custer, 1877 8. "Any @#$%ing idiot could understand that." -- Albert Einstein, 1938 7. "It does so @#$%ing look like her!" -- Picasso, 1926 6. "How the @#$% did you work that out?" -- Pythagoras, 126 BC 5. "You want WHAT on the @#$%ing ceiling?" -- Michelangelo, 1566 4. "Where the @#$% are we?" -- Amelia Earhart, 1937 3. "Scattered @#$%ing showers, my ***!" -- Noah, 4314 BC 2. "Aw c'mon Monica. Who the @#$% is going to find out?" -- Bill Clinton, 1998 1. "There is no @#$%ing way Trump will ever become President" -- HilaryClinton 2016

The complete opposite is true. Once you're over the speed where fatal accidents become more certain in a crash, it doesn't really matter if you hit something at 120mph closure or 400kts closure, you're still in a bad place. On the ground, you're sometimes inches and often no more than a few feet away from numerous other objects, including other piloted vehicles whose drivers may or may not be paying attention. You're dealing with pedestrians, stray dogs, limited sightlines with no ability to see through the obstacle, confusing or missing road markings, and most of all, other idiot human drivers an arm's length away. Compare that to IFR flying, where the roads are mostly straight and all well-marked, you're not anywhere near other objects (relatively speaking compared to driving), and all pilots in that environment are much more highly trained than your 16 year old daughter in a mustang talking on the phone. Obviously I've simplified both environments, but you get the idea. Controlled for volume, there's a reason that traveling by air is orders of magnitude safer than traveling by car. Flying is almost 96x safer depending on how you work the numbers, and that margin of safety isn't just because the airlines have two pink bodies up front rather than one. Edit to add: Pilots can safely fly an RPA, even in a busy stack, with a 2-second delay in control inputs. Do you think you could remotely pilot your car through an urban commute with that same 2-second delay and maintain an acceptable safety record over time? You mean like a single commercial pilot flying passengers in a single-engine airplane? Something that preposterous would never be allowed by the august regulators at the FAA!

That wasn't just the "autopilot" that was out to lunch -- that was the flight control computer. Even after the crew tried to go to the lowest level of automation possible, it was still a computer that took a crap between their hands and the flight controls. So, even more dangerous than just an autopilot acting up. But, you have to put this in context. As freaky as that was (and as catastrophic as the outcome could have been if it was unpiloted or remotely piloted), compare it to the number of lives lost due to pilot error (which is still by far the leading cause of accidents and fatalities in aviation).

Make sure that you emphasize that the financial hardship is impacting your ability to do your job. DFAS wait times on tickets are like 150 days by the way. It's beyond ridiculous.

Don't spend one more second of your time at Finance - do what Brick says, immediately. You've exhausted every avenue you can at your level, this is your SQ/CC's problem now.

IG Complaint then Don't write, Call your congressman...better yet walk into their office with all the data.

It had to be the Russians!! It could not have been 30 years of shady dealings and "mis-speaking" (i.e. lying). Failing to campaign in critical swing states? The Russians caused that! Set up a home brew server in your bathroom? Russians! Have your housekeeper access and print your classified? Was she Russian? Probably. It's the only thing Democrats and liberals can hang their hat on beside putting that hat on the head of their extremely poor choice of candidate and admitting their error.

This is so dumb. Trump didn't even win as many votes as Clinton, so the Russians did a pretty lousy job "hacking" the election for Trump. Explain to me how some freaking Russian cyber thugs knew how to expertly place an influence campaign in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan while the Clinton campaign itself couldn't figure it out.

Pssst. Shhh! Pilots don't really fly RPA's. Don't tell anyone.

I'd go with your guard unit, chances are with such little time left at your current station no one is going to really be interested in opening the can of worms that situation with DFAS entails. Also even if they did, I'd be doubtful that you would get any resolution before you PCS'd anyway. Better to get the ball rolling wherever you will have the ability to keep it going the longest, also your home unit probably has more of a vested interest in your well being than whatever FTU unit you are at.

17-11 4 x B-52 WSO 1 x B-52 EWO 2 x RC-135 Nav 4 x RC-135 EWO 1 x AC-130W CSO Cannon 1 x AC-130J CSO (only the second time this has dropped, other was 17-01) 4 x F-15E WSO 1 x B-1 WSO 2 x LC-130 Nav NY Guard 1 x MC-12 CSO OK Guard 1 x HC-130J CSO AK Guard

Home unit would my recommendation. But, if you have a relationship with boss at current location, give it a try to save time. Bottom line, who in a position to raise hell, knows you now and can pick up the phone on your behalf? Re the IG, notionally, the IG where you are or your home station when you get there should be able to open a complaint investigation. It's not a "national" thing since it's about you. DFAS happens to be the buffoons screwing you over, but the idea is to get your problem solved ASAP. Yes, something about DFAS itself would be handled via HHQ levels. But at DoD, not USAF.

What's the correct chain of command to upchannel it to... where I'm currently stationed, or my actual Guard unit thats half way across the country (I'll be PCSing there in a few weeks)? Related question about going to IG... does any IG office work for such a 'national' (DFAS) issue?

Absolutely call your Congressmen, it's amazing how fast DFAS gets their ass in gear when some from a congressional office starts poking around. However, I would advise you give your command a chance to use their avenues before you go to your representative or at least give them a heads up.

I bet our international partners would be interested in that as well. Hell, they could even help in the development to help keep costs down for everyone.And not everyone would want or need a flexible AR capability or a short field capability. So you'd have to make different models of it. And with the capabilities you described, it could probably replace multiple aging airframes in the fleet. If only the Air Force had thought of this joint strike fighter concept...

Two-dimensional space at 60 MPH is a lot easier to navigate than three-dimensional space at 400 KTS.

I do. It's called competition. If I can cut my prices by 25% for the same amount of profit per customer, then I will get more customers relative to the competition.

Squadron commander. Should solve this with one phone call. If not, he/she needs to make one more to: Then Wing. Ditto. Then State Adjutant General. Along with IG and congresscritters.

I'll bet ya a bottle on that one. A generation is what, 25 years generally? And what's the criteria for "public to be okay with" and "government able to regulate?" Uber/Otto already delivered 50K cans of Budweiser using a driverless truck last October. Daimler is investing a ton of money into driverless trucks in Europe. Most experts believe significant job disruptions in the trucking industry are more like 5-10 years away. I mean honestly, depending on the criteria for the bet, the video below kind of contradicts both of the issues you raised. The truck drove down a public highway in a populated area, with hundreds of other civilian vehicles, and the trip was done legally meaning there was coordination with the appropriate levels of government. Granted this setup still required a man in the machine for city driving, pickup/delivery, etc., so not fundamentally different than what airline guys are doing today. Either way, this bet should be settled waaaay before the leaving Afghanistan one p.s. - this thread is way off the rails...+1 for separating out automation stuff

You guys forget that the overall goal of any Russian influence is just to cast doubt upon the validity of our democratic process. To them, ultimately it doesn't matter who won the election. They have ways to make both of our main candidates look bad. They also know that our political process is so polarized that the "losing" party will happily dance to the tune of electoral illegitimacy. As long as the US electoral process is damaged, Russia meets its goal. I don't know what's so hard to understand about this, but here we are bickering about foreign electoral influence like it's some sort of surprise. YGBSM. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

At my base, aircrew are now required to operate the high lift trucks instead of AFE. That means I have to get pilots and navs to take a course on how to drive the stupid truck, and then have them take it on as an additional duty. It means when I have a TDY departing or arriving on weekend, someone has to come in just to drive the damn truck. Also, I had to assign a young copilot to watch other chicks piss in cups for a solid week, 0700-1600. I get sitting SOF (kind of). I get sitting Sup. But what in the bloody hell are we doing? Aside from the insanity of having a pilot, who has millions of dollars invested in their training, not fly in order to drive a truck or watch people urinate... this kind of crap just kills morale. My Lt copilots are all jaded. How can you blame them? It's about unmet expectations. They worked and sacrificed more than their peers to become military pilots. Then we have them do things an E-1 should be doing. The Air Force is insane. What they are doing with additional duties is like having a neurosurgeon do less surgeries so he can help the janitors (who get paid the same as the neurosurgeons).

I'd still go back and fly the U-2, in peacetime. Unfortunately, if things escalated (wartime) to the point where they needed me back even more, I have zero faith that the fucking AFPC bureaucracy could make it happen... even if the squadron was BEGGING for pilots. Honestly, AFPC simply couldn't get through the mountains of paperwork and levels of coordination. You'd be back in your Viper and I'd be back in the Deuce after it was all said and done. I think Maj Gen Poore is still the AFPC/CC. If so, she and the Executive Director need to be thrown out personally by Gen Goldfein. AFPC has failed, and how they do business needs to be re-thought. edit: I looked and the E.D. is fairly new, so I'd give her another 9 months to prove her worth before I shitcanned her.

Comey was a tool and firing him would look bad....until yesterday, when Clapper said over and over under oath there was no collusion between Trump and Russia. That gave Trump the breathing room to fire him, Obama should have fired him. And Ns, love ya man but Russia didn't hack the election, they hacked the DNC and did it help? It certainly didn't hurt, but Hillary was a terrible candidate that nobody trusted. Bernie had a better chance I think, at least he's honest about his views, I like him for that, but his views would take us down the road of Venezuela. Trump wasn't my guy, I liked Rubio or Cruz, but I like most of what he says and is doing, all be it with the Trump flair which I find entertaining. This whole thing is just to delegitimize Trump so it is partisan, but we don't have to hate each other. The BIG story everyone is missing is who ordered the unmasking, that would be bigger than WaterGate.

When he jumped out in front of cameras last summer and provided the list of criminal acts regarding emails by Clinton and then stated no reasonable Prosecutor would file charges based on intent which doesn't even exist in the statute, he should have been fired within 6.9 minutes. The flail that has been generated by his office is doing nothing but stirring up hate and discontent on both sides of the political spectrum. Laws should provide clarity, not confusion and he has certainly fanned the flames of the latter.

Comey "fvcked up" for the left, and he "fvcked up" for the right. He's playing nonpartisan politics in a highly polarized world. He's honestly lucky he just got fired instead of the normal "let's dig into his past so we can bring up dirt, destroy his career, and make him quit." I think Sessions did absolutely nothing wrong, but was caught up in the "let's get everyone outraged at a possible Russia-Trump connection" frenzy that is still taking place. I'm neutral on the recusal, but definitely don't think it was "absolutely necessary." Was there ever any evidence that the Trump campaign and Russia colluded? If yes, show me or tell me it's classified, but those with a need-to-know will have access to it. If no, then start to wind down the "investigation", and stop the witch hunt until actual evidence or "reasonable suspicions" (whatever the fvck that means) surfaces. Also, the media needs to stop trying to get me outraged at every little thing Trump does. I'm so numb to it now that when he actually does something stupid (like 99% of the time he Tweets) I just assume the media is foaming at the mouth again (cry wolf much?). Convince me that, if collusion exists, it's worse than Obama telling the Russian politician to tell Putin that "he would have more flexibility after the election" or it's worse than Obama making a huge push and wasting a lot of money to try to stop Netanyahu from getting re-elected. I know we meddle in the politics of rivals/enemies, but do we meddle in the politics of our allies now? What's "allowed" and what's not? (honest questions) It's too soon for me to form my own opinion, but right now this is how I see the media reacting to Comey being fired (wooo!!!)... by Trump (wooo's fading).... at the recommendation of Jeff Sessions (BOOO!!!!!!!):

We don't understand it is an opportunity unless we have someone (family/mentor) who can expose us to it. I'd say that's true of everyone though. When every picture of someone in a cockpit doesn't look like or represent you, its harder to make a connection at a any age that it's something you can do too. When I was in girlscouts, we did sowing, baking and figuring out what clothing color looked best with our skin, today I'm getting girlscout troops onto the airfields and into cockpits.

Flying helicopters helps

Not that you asked me, but this is how: USG intelligence agencies examine the digital forensic evidence, looking for markers commonly used by known Russian state actors, while also making analytic assessments of intent based on open-source and classified communications. In fact, this very thing you're asking about was in the news yesterday. On 6 January 17, the intelligence community, via the DNI, released a report titled Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution. It's an unclassified version of a classified assessment that obviously isn't fully releasable to the public. To be exact, the report itself says, "This report is a declassified version of a highly classified assessment; its conclusions are identical to those in the highly classified assessment but this version does not include the full supporting information on key elements of the influence campaign." The report presents the publically releasable evidence leading the IC to jointly conclude, "We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump." The reason this was in the news yesterday once again was because the following Trump Administration officials testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee: Director of National Intelligence, former Republican Senator Dan Coats, Director of Central Intelligence, former Republican Representative Mike Pompeo, acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, and Director of the NSA Adm. Mike Rogers. These officials were nominated and appointed by President Trump, minus McCabe who just got in the seat two days ago and Rogers who remained in place from the last admin. The IC leaders were asked by Senator Mark Warner if they accepted the conclusions of the 6 Jan 17 report, and all answered yes. So this conclusion, that it was indeed the Russian government that directed and carried out an influence and hacking campaign against the US during the 2016 election, was unanimously agreed upon by officials at all 17 intel agencies during the final days Obama admin IC officials, and yesterday was once again affirmed by the four top IC agency leaders of the Trump admin.