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For all of the reasons stated so far. Basically it comes down to...sure they make sense from a SERE perspective, and its nice to be able to wear combat shirts when it' super hot, but as others have said, the designs are pretty shitty, material is shitty, sizes are shitty, and most of all it takes away the sense of pride of being a pilot. Pilots now fall in line with the rest of the Army and are therefor treated like the rest of the Army. When they first switched over, units used to be able to wear "unit" patches over their name tapes, but now that has been taken away. There are a couple brigade commanders out there that have written memos allowing their flying community to wear them to give their units a sense of pride and morale back, but as morale has been continuously stripped away from the flying community from the big green weenie. Taking away their flight suits was just more salt on the wound. As petty as that sounds.

Guys, the military “hero” / “thank you for your service” / “veteran” culture has jumped the shark. At the airport today waiting to board, and the Delta gate agent announces “anyone w a active duty military ID can now preboard”. Damn near 25 people made their way up to the gate...including a brand new 2LT RPA pipeline student wearing his flight suit (very tacky). Now it’s not these individuals fault they took advantage of Delta offering them early boarding. But as military members we need to think of what that’s doing to the general public’s perception of its military. If I’m a first class passenger I’m going to be slightly annoyed that some 19 year old dressed in cutoff jeans and a tank top is boarding before me just because they’re holding an active duty ID card. thats certainly not endeering me to any of those young 20 something year old airmen. Again, not a shot at the airmen, but a call to reflect on how some of this has gotten out of hand. next example: in Texas anyone with a qualifying military medal gets that medal displayed on their license plate along with other perks (I think free parking fees some places, along with other smaller perks). now fellas you’d think after parking on Randolph AFB you were in the god damn Medal of Honor parking lot with the amount of “meritiorious service medal” (super lame), “expeditionary war on terrorism medal” (lame), “air medal” (not as lame) and other frivolous displays of military “heroism”. I’ve never seen so much bling on cars! Honestly it’s a bit off-putting. Again not a shot at those who have these plates...More of an argument at the state of Texas for allowing it. What happened to serving honorably with humility and quiet professionalism? Why is there a need for military members to have a medal saying “look at my meritorious service?” I know a lot of us on here are annoyed when random people come up and thank us “for our service”. These license plates don’t do anything to stop that from happening. They are helping promote a hero culture for all veterans which is harmful to our profession in the long run. We’ve already identified there’s a growing civilian/military gap. Having all of these perks is nice for sure, but I’d argue it’s doing nothing to close that gap. Having civilians awe at your meritorious service medal (to them they don’t know it’s lame, they just see an award) shows how out of touch the avg American is with its military. Silver star or higher? Hell yeah put that on there that’s legit but that leads me to my next thought... Not everyone who serves is a hero. Quite the opposite. Most of us are simply doing our jobs, quite well no doubt. But there are really few heroes. If everyone’s a hero then no one really is. few military members deserve the amont of recognition that the American public is showering all of us with. Deep down we all know this...am I really a hero for doing 20 missions in afg at FL260 in the ISR orbit, not getting shot at,playing angry birds on my iPad? Hell no. Eddie Rickenbacker left WWI as a major, but used the rank of captain for the rest of his life cause that’s what he felt he earned. I really hope we can return to that level of humility. My grandfather fought in Italy as a tank gunner in WWII and had a finger blown off (no big deal). While in England recovering, his tank, along with his friends, was obliterated. When he came home from war he didn’t slap a Purple Heart on his license plate. He didn’t get thanked for his service or board airplanes first. He didn’t even talk about the crazy shit he did or saw. He simply thought that he did his duty along with millions of other Americans. That type of thinking was common. Now Yes I know a lot of this over the top military hero culture has come from how poorly America treated her Vietnam vets. I’m certainly not arguing to return to those days... and I wish those dudes didn’t have to endure that pain coming home. But there’s a healthy middle ground, and right now we’re not standing on it. Thank you...for reading.

It’s about time AMC realize that they should stop putting non Herk guys in charge info Herk units.

That's what allotments are for, right?

Stitch, sounds like the young man in question should dump the current wife and find a more attractive one that supports his dreams of living dangerously. Alternatively, keep current wife and allow her to maintain the fiction that he makes only 650$ a month. It’s all technique. Good luck!

There’s no way in hell that you collectively get several year groups worth of officers to blow off ACSC in correspondence. A few over achievers with time on their hands ruins the whole deal. And to the post above, no, a promotion board would not know whether you declined, and yes, your OPB only says “IDE COMPLETE” with no mention of residence or correspondence.... BUT, going in residence generates a duty title on your job history and a training report that will be at/near the top of your ROP. It is easy for a board member to know if you went in residence and it is still a discriminator.

We can only hope. In all seriousness, my comments are more geared toward the “everyone’s a warrior” mentality. I’m a Herk guy. I support the war fighters on the ground. I get that. I accept that. Why is it that we can’t just tell support functions (I am not talking about cyber operators...) that their job is to support, and that we need them to be damn good at it. They are not executing “the” mission, but take some pride in knowing that their support enables those executing and going into harms way.

Finally read this, I'm sure it's been posted on here before. Good read that explains a lot of the recent discussion here. - Speed Trap: The USAF 24 - Year Pole to General Officer http://publications.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/576.pdf

They're MK19 rounds used for missile field security. They're not allowed to load them so they sit in an ammo can. The cops there have had M-249s fall off of helicopters only to be brought to one of the MAFs by concerned citizens.

There’s been a slow and steady narrative in the AF that one’s worth as an “Airman” is not measured by their proximity to the flight line. I think common looking uniforms for both flight and ground duties are, in management’s eyes, a step further in that direction. I’ll be surprised if the green one piece bag stays, and I doubt they would authorize the green two piece above for concern over making flyers too “distinctive” and potentially triggering a nonner shoe clerk.

Really? That went away with nose art, squadron bars, and O clubs. We're way past heritage into the realm of corporate blob.

That’s my issue with it. Whatever happened to celebrating Air Force heritage?

Couldn’t stand the 2 piece when I wore it. The sleeves are too long and the pencil holders are on an awkward spot on your sleeve which either means you can’t use them because you need to roll your sleeves up 6-9 times. Or if you did you it they poked you in the face (sts) anytime you put your arms up. The only positive I got out of them was being able to take the top off when flying when it was balls hot out. I’ll keep my bag thanks!

I love the green bag for for most sorties and I really love it for days I'm not flying. I just don't want them to take away the option to wear the bag.

Next chapter in your life?

If I could get a picture of my squadron out here. We currently have guys wearing about 7 different versions of OCP, Scorpion and other multi cam patterns. Nobody gives a shit except the blue Air Force on the other side. I swear I saw a chief twitching the other day looking at us.

Disclaimer: Each promotion board gets new guidance, and that specific guidance, nor the actual decision making process in the board is never transparently communicated afterwards. In short, you’ll never know why you did or did not make it. The “if I had one more DP to give” is the best ‘super P’ For the P’s, in recent boards, if the verbal DP is tied with a strong command push like “should command now” or “ready for command immediately” that can put you in the high portion of the P’s. Conversely, if tied with a medium command push like “on track to command”, that verbal DP becomes less powerful. It’s a tough code to crack...especially when you involve strats. My IPZ PRF had a straight #10/20 senior rater strat, but an “on track for command” and no verbal DP, with a “P” checked. Sounds cut and dry: exactly middle of the total pack, should be high P area with an overall 75% promotion rate. Passed over. Even colonels who’ve sat on boards looked at it and said WTF. Even the civilian passed over counselor (I think she’s the only one, or one of a very few, so she has a good feel for the system) was a bit baffled. Our awesome opaque process at work. Honestly, after talking to a marine and some army guys I work with, I think the USAF promotion system is terrible and horridly riddled with unknowns. By comparison, the marines get a list of exactly who’s on the board beforehand. Ours sucks. Don’t put any value on it. Bottom line, once it’s sign, let it go and decide what kind of officer and man YOU want to be. The ink representing some “leader’s” opaque opinion of your career DOES NOT define the impact you make. Only you do that. Don’t let the output of a broken system limit your contribution. If you’ve got a lot of combat hours, chances are good that you have a lot to teach young kids, and a lot to pass on to your community. I know that doesn’t make the process any easier to endure, and you will likely still want to throat punch a “leader” or two if you get passed over. But know that regardless of rank and what the broken system decides, your inputs and experience are truly valuable to the LTs whose lives your experience and instruction can save.

I also took the extended bonus out to 20.5 years. I had an awesome job crushing enemies, doing well at it, my family was happy, and I thought it could continue. My last three years have been awful, I was at an irrelevant non-flying staff job & it was very disheartening professionally. I inadvertently brought my unhappiness home and my family, to my shame, was affected by my foul mood and lack of professional satisfaction. I knew I was rolling the dice by taking the bonus, but I rolled snake eyes and it was worse than anticipated. Not everyone who stays in the service past their commitment is a Kool-Aid drinking careerist. However, if I could make the choice over again I would have left the service and not taken the bonus. And I will certainly leave when my commitment is up because I just can’t stay in an organization that doesn’t care about its people or its mission..... and by not caring for the people doing the mission, the Air Force has shown me they don't care about the mission. For those who leave when their commitment is up, I salute you brothers and wish you the best. For those who stay, I salute you as well and hope that you will be gainfully employed by commanders who care about you.

Best put by General Mattis: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Funny, I've heard BQZip's mom say the same thing...

That's like celebrating a secession of NY from the United States on account of Alabama and Mississippi's shortcomings. This will be disastrous for England, and quite possibly the beginning of the end for the U.K. I'd bet money that Scotland is independent by the end of the decade, quite possibly N Ireland as well. This is truly their Donald Trump moment.

So Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President Barack Obama has taken to making derogatory statements about the current Administration's actions in public venues. Today, two former Obama NSC staffers published a NYT editorial recommending that European countries expel US Ambassadors (I know, they should be dead ones, but I digress...) over the US' withdrawing from the Iran deal. Because "if the US doesn't live up to sacred agreements, then this is expected action. " You know, the deal signed by one guy but not a binding treaty and unsigned by another guy as if it never existed.