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masks are such bullshit "but it couldn't hurt" lots of things "couldnt hurt" but we dont fucking do them. its about power and control now, NOT public health.

Same way you mandate pants usage. Sure, you can drop trou if you really want to make a statement but be prepared for some dirty looks from your fellow pax and probably an invite to not fly on that airline anymore. Yes, you can take the mask off to eat/drink. Then you put it back on. Doesn’t seem so difficult. We can argue efficacy all we want but you won’t convince me that a face covering won’t at least prevent a few people from getting sick after seeing how many people will hack their lungs up without even bothering to cover their face with their hand. Wearing a mask seems pretty easy and un-intrusive to me and I’m baffled that this is the hill so many want to defend to the death. Yeah, yeah, slippery slopes and all that. It’s a public health crisis. Just wear a freaking mask for a few months.

Lots of countries have mandatory mask wearing policies. We don’t want to be like them. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I ended up buying it, flew it home from Iowa the other week. Insurance $980/year, hangar $230/month, and however much MX ends up costing. Far from the best performer on the airfield but still faster than a J3 Cub, had to keep flaps down for this one to keep up with me.

Beg to differ. Americans have a history of givIng up “freedoms” for the greater good. I’m old enough to remember when seatbelt use became universal. You don’t hear too many people today arguing against seatbelts, but the debate at the time was somewhat similar to what’s going on today. “Why does the government care how I keep myself safe in my own vehicle?” etc. Well, as it turns out, society as a whole is better off when there aren’t needless deaths and emergency room visits. So guess what? You lost your ‘Murican birthright to choose to go unbelted and somehow we managed to avoid becoming a police state. Banning public smoking would be a more recent example of the same concept. If your individual actions have a negative impact on the public as a whole, you shouldn’t be surprised to see those actions curtailed in some way shape or form. Putting on a seatbelt, not smoking in public, and yes, wearing a mask during a pandemic has everything to do with being a polite, civic minded human being and nothing to do with your government going rogue. As far as justification for putting people out of work, don’t throw me in with that camp. I happen to agree with your assessment that we’ve flattened the curve and it’s time to go back to work. I won’t naively argue there aren’t some looking to further their particular goals on the back of a hobbled economy, but I might suggest there are far fewer “libs” espousing that rhetoric than OAN would have you believe. It ain’t just republicans out of work and hurting and the VAST majority of Americans are wishing things would get going sooner rather than later. Maybe my idea of logical thought is different than yours but I see widespread mask usage as KEY to providing the public the confidence to do just that. Regardless of what any politician says, nothing is going to really “reopen” without a public willing to put themselves into bars, restaurants, shops, and airliners (the original topic of this thread). So even if you believe masks are ineffective (and you’d be wrong), isn’t it worth a little “theatre” if it gets people back into public spaces and the economy up and running?

Circle back to summer 2019, who were pretty much the only people wearing masks back then? They all wore masks before this and the shit still got out!

Just got a callback from the 106 RQW. Looks like interviews are next week. 20 personnel being interviewed. Options for Zoom, phone call or in person. Good luck to all!!

Anyone been to Asia recently? S Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc: all very low rates of infection/deaths. Guess what? EVERYBODY wears a mask in those places. Might not do anything to keep YOU from picking up a virus, but certainly limits the distance that a sneeze or cough will cover, thereby limiting spread. In other words, it ain’t about you. Entirely foreign concept in the United States I know. Seems like a pretty small sacrifice. Plus it has the added benefit of making you un- trackable by face recognition software. So how does that equate to more government control? 90 plus thousand people are dead from this thing. It continues to spread in many areas, yet we need to restart the economy or risk even greater catastrophe. Effective/ineffective doesn’t really matter. Masks will help people have the confidence to go to work/school/restaurants/travel/etc. You anti mask freedom fightin’ patriots really want to be the reason the economy doesn’t restart?

The new AF Chief of Staff will not have a pilot retention problem for a few years. AF prayers have been answered for the short term.

I view it much the same way as the baker who didn't want to make cakes for gay weddings. I think it's stupid (both the baker and the masks). I also think businesses have the right to set their own policies. So if they want me to wrap a piece of t-shirt over my mouth to make people feel better, I will. I won't even complain about it. I know what the CDC says now. I also know what they said back in March. So for me personally, I feel like they've burned a lot of credibility. Logically, I'm just not sure that after being told not to touch your face, making people wear a mask that's going to collect all my exhaled spit and whatever viruses I have in a concentrated form, that I'm going to end up fiddling with endlessly before putting my hands on various surfaces and products, doesn't seem like it's especially helpful. But...I don't have the "freedom boner" other people seem to regarding not wearing them. And I swear, I want to slap the next person who compares wearing a mask to the Nazis making the Jews where the Star of David...the whole point was to single them out and make them separate from the rest of the population. Which is what you're doing when 95% of the population is wearing a mask and you aren't.

Yes. It is very susceptible to sarcasm.

It's not that antibodies don't help, they do. Like you said, that's the basis of most vaccines. It's just that science is hard and it takes time to figure things out with enough peer-reviewed certainty to make policy based on them. What level of antibody response is necessary to confer immunity? How long does that immunity last? Do antibodies developed from exposure to slightly different coronaviruses work against SARS-COV-2? Great questions, I'll let the scientists find the answers. Same goes for the masks. Honestly I think it was a pretty big own-goal was when the CDC said people don't need masks early on. Several other countries who have really suppressed the virus encouraged masks early and often. And I know why the CDC did it, US healthcare workers didn't have nearly enough already and they didn't want an even bigger crush on the demand side, but IMHO masks (when coupled with many of the things we did go) absolutely would have helped prevent lots of illness & death had everyone thrown them on in March. I've been wearing a cloth mask/neck gaiter out in public anywhere where I'm within 6-9 feet of another person since March 15th and it's honestly the least all of us can do. People who want to re-open the country quickly and smartly and get back to normal sooner (which is most of us!) should be lining up to wear and encourage other people to wear masks. The emerging consensus is not, "but it couldn't hurt;' it's that masks help. The CDC explicitly says so now which I mean, better late than never I guess. To what exact degree masks reduce transmission, it's hard to say with certainty, but just like warmer weather and being outdoors vs indoors, face coverings seem to meaningfully help stem the transmission of the virus. Humans > viruses; let's do the things we all can do to beat this thing so we can continue living long and prospering. Edit to add: This is all more appropriate for the COVID-19 thread: let's not Godwin's Law this otherwise valuable thread about the airlines.

Bump. Callsign Chaos I can't underscore this enough: All leaders NEED to read this book. Mattis demonstrates the integrity and intent based leadership that could heal most of the problems our current military structure faces. Not many people have to integrity to innovate themselves into unemployment (he shut down Joint Forces Command, which he was in charge of, because it was basically useless). He also cuts straight to facts about decision making and how not empowering leaders below you hamstrings operational effectiveness and efficiency. Great book.

The OG is a good dudette. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Let’s hope the Chinese only attack during day, vmc conditions.

Thanks for posting this. I think they're right regarding PPE/prophylaxis. Just like after 9/11 we got new security measures, the TSA, and bombed a few other countries, the public started flying more; some from feeling safer and some from an improved economy. Maybe that Optimus Prime face cloth will do the trick. I'm not gonna argue effectiveness of masks, but it will be like commanders and reflective belts. They think they work, just like Jungle says. The other part is states relegating closure requirements to local levels. I was in WI last week when the WI Supremes invalidated the "Safer at Home" orders. Sure a few bars made the Utube with silliness, but what I saw were businesses trying to do the right thing and folks trying to do the same. I'm hoping that continues and WI shows the rest of the nation that reopening can be done. And I got my 1st haircut in 10 weeks; I wore a mask, barber lady wore a mask, it was all cool. Out

Time to retire the F-35. Amiright?

Those are the main two. The only other ways I've had some success in info on UPT boards is the squadrons website and facebook. A decent amount of units have fb hiring pages for their squads and good many also post updates on their websites. I would recommend reaching out though. Even if cold calling the unit is not your thing, just shoot the POC a quick, friendly email and they are usually more than happy to pass along the latest info.

Make sure you're wearing pants when they ask you to stand up.

ACSC taught me that a growler is a strike asset with bombs. Those bastards have been holding their cards close this whole time! Thanks for the learning AU!

In the simplest terms yes. It's of course more nuanced than that, but to your question of downward displacement (both in seat, equipment, and yes even domicile) you got the right idea. Like I said it's nuanced, because there's also fleet capacity shuffling which affects the net effect of said displacement on an usually smaller fleet total than pre-furloughs, but again, you're in the ballpark. That's why you hear some folks utter the words "there are worse things than getting furloughed", and they're not being ironic when they're implying not getting furloughed can be worse. Being the QOL/schedule plug in your late40s/50s is one such of those insinuations. A lot of people don't have the stomach for that kind of scheduling reset in what is supposed to be the highest grossing years of their lives, and usually their highest overhead years (for the ones with children who are hitting college). It's also the reason many late 40s/50s career changers stuck in the regionals when these musical chairs stop, decide to exit the industry outright. In essence, they don't have the luxury of time to endure that collegiate quality of life over the pedestrian opulent luxuries like weekends offs, that they could attain in their measly 30s in a different industry. Which is why when people say the job is not for everybody, I find it a heavily understated utterance. On the other side of the silver linings spectrum, you had many mil pilots in the lost decade made absolute bank by attaining an active duty retirement they thought they had left on the table, by virtue of being furloughed. Coming back to airlines with true free agency courtesy of that check and lifetime universal healthcare well before the age of 65. Of course, a few decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze after 7 years of being home every night in the ARC, and just bypassed the airline recalls anyways and never returned. Others did return for a little then bailed when it was convenient for whatever they had going on at the time. How people cope with those lifestyle displacements in middle age is a very personal thing, since it relies a lot on people's life stage and what's going on at home, and the composition of the home of course. Good luck to all.