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If you truly want to rain hate, reconsider AFSOC as your #1 priority.

Enlisted Pilots? We already have a program where motivated E's can become pilots, it's called OTS. It works too. I know because I'm one of them. If an E thinks going to college while working is too tough....then pilot training will be impossible.

Nothing was more amusing than a Blk 42 F16 dude complaining about being thrust limited to a Hawg driver.

As tech increases, you need to keep platforms that have ease of expansion, excess generator and ECS output and minimal carriage restrictions alive. When the 69lb brain trusts make the death-star-turn-it-on-and-you-auto-win system (likely first fielded in a pod) we can't afford to spend $690B and wait 15 years (ala aim-9x) to get it on a Raptor or 35. There's some pretty cool crap already out there, integration on the 5th gen is a monster. At the unclass level, the whole idea and execution of RCS reduction (I won't call it stealth for 4th gen) has advanced considerably. Can't turn an Eagle, Hornet or Falcon into a Raptor but you can bring those threat wez's into something more manageable - particularly if we actually put some interest in offensive EA game. Hi/lo mix still makes sense from a lot of perspectives - a lot of the monetary pain we see right now comes from the significant gap in fundage towards sustainment of 4th gen during the 90's and 00's. Chickens have come home to roost in that department so instead of upgrading mission stuff we're buying new wings for multiple platforms and finally trying to figure out just how many hours we can really fly these things.

Nothing better than getting kicked in the nuts and watching your childhood dreams fade away on stage in front of 400 strangers. At least it prepares those kids for the real AF.

Or helos. Limited power, wobbly probe, and knowing that the loadmasters are making fun of your misses.

ShavedDogsAss nailed it. If you really want fighters, list them first, FAIP second, then everything else (would recommend B-1's then AFSOC). In the end man it's your choice. You mentioned wanting to rain hate, go A-10, F-15E, F-16 or some variation of that. If that's what you really want then go for it. I'll speak to the FAIP thing as well. I just finished up my FAIP tour and am headed off to the Viper (f*ck yea). Like you all I ever wanted to do was fly fighters. So when it came dreamsheet time it wasn't a question of what I wanted, it was where to put it. Basically my list went fighters (including ADAIR), -38 FAIP, -6 FAIP, B-1, AFSOC, everything else. Ended up getting FAIP'ed and loved it. Did it get old doing TP Stalls for the 6900th time? Absolutely. Did volunteering and doing all sorts of queepy stupid crap suck? Yup. But it kept the dream alive, and in the end I finally got what I wanted. Some FAIPs don't get what they wanted. Good friend of mine didn't. Unfortunately it happens, but if being a fighter pilot is really what you want, then having a second shot at it should be right up there on your list. If being a fighter pilot is secondary to raining hate, then put FAIP lower on the list and put bombers/AFSOC higher.

"Oh I had to tap min burner."..boo hoo. Brother try a gunpig in AFG during the summer, hookup at 10K AGL and Toboggan down to 2K to get your gas.

Not to give you too hard a time, Supe, since I’m sure it was colder back in the day, but -495F is below absolute zero.

This is probably either not necessary (or been done) but as a lot of these aircraft are two seaters, is it possible to fly the aircraft with one pilot (on an independent O2 system) and have a sample(s) drawn from the other seat's OBOGS station to directly sample under the operational conditions when these symptoms have been reported, what exactly this system is producing? O2 with particulate contaminants, O2 with oil fumes or laced with carbon monoxide, directly capture what would have been inhaled by the crew and analyzed... Not just testing the masks, filters and system itself pre/post flight but the product supplied directly to the aircrew?

. It's absurd. The amount of time, money and energy going into ideas that will NOT fix the exodus is just staggering.

That is interesting, but also curious as to why it seems it's mostly Vance (plus one at Pensacola recently?)

The only time I'm a doctor is when I'm talking to a hot chick at a bar... But, from what I recall the actual doctor saying, the hyperoxia (oxygen poisoning) theory explains that breathing (in this case) 95% oxygen on the ground when usually we'd be breathing ~21% might be a bad thing. Our OBOGS-equipped platforms we fly are able to deliver 95-100% O2 on the ground, and in military flight, the mask is supposed to be on during checks/taxi. So on the ground, this leads to "absorption atelectasis". (From Wikipedia) Since oxygen is exchanged at the alveoli-capillary membrane, nitrogen is a major component for the alveoli's state of inflation. If a large volume of nitrogen in the lungs is replaced with oxygen, the oxygen may subsequently be absorbed into the blood, reducing the volume of the alveoli, resulting in a form of alveolar collapse known as absorption atelectasis. In flight, this leads to acceleration atelectasis and pulling G's can cause the base of the lung to collapse. So basically, drastically changing the composition of your alveoli on the ground, then going up and being exposed to O2 concentrations that vary between 60-80% during flights where you do multiple altitude changes is causing hypoxia (that's the theory at least). Now take a jet like the F-15 where LOX and a diluter-demand regulator is used... At 10k' altitude, 25-50% O2 (by volume). At 20k' altitude, 40-65% O2. Finally, around 28-30k' altitude, the regulator stops diluting the incoming oxygen from the LOX bottle and 100% O2 is delivered for those altitudes and higher. LOX jets historically have a MUCH lower (reported) percentage of hypoxia events per flight hour. Anyways, none of this is my research, but I just thought those basics were very interesting especially given the OBOGS issues in the T-6 (and across multiple other platforms as well).

Meh whatever. I just don’t get why we do drop night like we do. Back when predators were dropping, God forbid someone didn’t act like it was their #1 choice of assignment. Also don’t be an @sshole.

I think what we have here is AETC trying to put in their own solutions when the root cause (and solution) is in AFPC.

Sortofish. What I am saying (which deserves its own post), is that the Air Force (as is true with any very large enterprise) needs a bureaucratic means (which it currently has) of selecting from a group of highly qualified and highly motivated individuals to select for their most difficult training pipeline. This ensures a higher probability of success which is vital with extraordinarily expensive training. Requiring someone to have a college degree (any college degree) is in NO WAY too high a bar to preclude someone from competing for pilot training - READ: those people who can't (or don't) make it through 'X' State University, very likely, have ZERO business flying a fighter aircraft, let alone any aircraft in the USAF. This, by definition, precludes much of the enlisted force. The above is in no way saying their are enlisted individuals who "couldn't" 'fly' a fighter or heavy aircraft - lord knows. I know there are many individuals around the world flying fighters who are less than capable. I feel ardently about this because I feel that our national advantage isn't grounded in our Army. It's grounded in our Air Force. And when we give up that advantage, we're asking for F$@%ing trouble. What I see this as is grasping at straws and a mediocre "attempt" to solve a problem. Ultimately the AF needs to stand up and tell the Army to do it's job (another post). This, of course, requires national-level leadership buy-in to a strategy (hasn't seemed like we've had one of those for a while), but why else are these people wearing stars?

#1 made a remix of dos gringos and #3 was not impressed with “Balled of Thunderbird 3-looking left”? -sarcasm

If Top Gun 2 generated buzz, then, of course, another in the genre will too... 12 O'clock Nigh Scene 1: Delta FO Harry Stovall, having parked his 787 at Heathrow, kills part of his 20 hour layover with a stroll down some shop streets near The City in London. Suddenly, he spots a model of an F-15C in the window in a junk shop...cue harp music and wavy focus camera... Scene 2: Then Captain Harry "Burner" Stovall is the reluctant wing exec and is slaving away at his desk awaiting the arrival of the new wing king after the previous one had been fired for boning SSgt Yummy Britches in the staff car. The door bangs open and in walks Col Frank Savage, fresh off his Air Staff tour (prior to that he'd flown the Eagle for one tour at Eglin, then had a career of exec/school/exec/school/command, to the Air Staff and now here at RAF Archbury). Stovall stands up to acknowledge the O-6. Who immediately berates Stovall for having the fun meter morale patch, his flight cap visible in his leg pocket, and his zipper slightly below his name tag. "Captain, I want to see the personnel folders of every pilot in this wing immediately." Scene 3: That evening in the Club bar, Stovall is at the bar trying to not badmouth the new commander as the bros gather 'round looking for gouge. When in bursts Savage himself, proclaiming "This bar is closed. All pilots will muster in the wing auditorium at 0700 tomorrow morning." The crowd files out grumbling unintelligibly... Scene 4: The next morning, at 0700, the auditorium is called to attention and in strides Savage, his Chief, and Stovall. Savage ascends the stage, dramatically pulls the cord to the curtain covering the big board, to reveal...The Plan "Gentlemen, effective immediately, every single one of you will reset your clock on all the ancillary CBTs the Air Force and DoD have mandated. You will complete this no later than a week from today. I will not tolerate sloppy uniforms or sloppy green dots." Raising his hand the OG asks, "Sir, that will take nearly 70 hours even if we group take all the on-line tests and the like. We are supposed to deploy for the Baltic Ops mission next week and had some LFEs scheduled with the Brits over the Wash." "Col Cobb, if I want your opinion, I will give it to you. That's all, gentlemen. Dismissed." Scene 5: A week later: "Stovall, why am I seeing all these 7-day opts?" "Dunno, sir. Here's mine..."

Tacrep JB? We're gone a lot. Between disaster you name it, channel/contingency missions to Afghanistan/Iraq/Turkey/Kuwait/Jordan, Presidential golf weekends and trips to wherever, locals to make up for the one that got cancelled three weeks ago because the president wanted to go golfing, during the hurricane. Turn around to finish up your deployment checklist so you can hang out at the Deid for 3 months. Return home and hit up SOS after you get recurrent in airdrop. Get back from SOS to find out that congratulations you will be going to AC school in two months then PCSing to Del Rio in 6 and Randolph will be an out and back TDY to save money... ...Still the best deal in the Air Force.

http://www.169fw.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/870024/colonel-nicholas-a-gentile-jr/ Anyone know this guy? Just wondering (hoping) if he was wearing all his flight suit patches on his civilian jacket ironically or if he lost a bet or something...

man up

Most of them deserved it.