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And, not so incredibly, Pancho Villa knew Huggy.

This seems appropriate

This is the part nobody wants to admit. The rest of the world **was** fucking us. If the last five presidents had been willing to use even the smallest amount of pressure to keep shit like this from happening for 35 years, we wouldn't have needed Donald Trump to come in with the sledgehammer. This is also why I laugh when people try to use pure tariff rates as a counter-argument to Trump's "reciprocal tariffs." Sure, our allies had relatively low tariff rates against us, but the protectionist measures they employed to favor their industries over ours were rampant and audacious, and until recently, largely unanswered by the United States.

It was just the Straight of Muz until your mom showed up.

Happy birthday to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale AFB 113 years old today. In 1916, the 1st invaded Mexico to try to capture or kill Pancho Villa. Probably didn't get much per diem.

Squids are VERY excited today...one of their attack subs torpedoed an Iranian Frigate. The Skipper had the stones to come to periscope depth and film it....epic! iGGQpwCNXNAdL1R1.mp4

It has been outed as gay. Edit: The Gay of Hormuz.

Joining the UPT bandwagon it seems! Declined RPA with 94 PCSM, 97 Pilot, 42 Flight hours. Still no information on MFS

Fairly certain @M2 gave Eddie Rickenbacker his first intel brief.

Honestly after my time in the Middle East, how could it not?

Pentagon - “Aircraft was damaged.”

Why does anyone think this is some sort of surprise. Seriously I sometimes wonder if some of you really aren't just random civilians that found this forum. Or has the military gotten so pathetic that the members have forgotten exactly how a war works? People die. Things get blown up. Planes crash and economies get hit. Iran needed to be dealt with. It was never going to be easier to deal with them than shortly after they got their dick kicked in following October 7th. So we could have waited like a lot of you seem to wish we had, and lost more planes in people when we inevitably had to clean up this mess. Or we could just done it now. I'm glad we're doing it now. I would rather not wait until we rationalize ourselves into irrelevance like Europe has.

Because as we played at ACE for the past decade and laughed as Russia got hundreds of strategic assets destroyed by $100 UAVs it turns out that no one learned shit. This is quite literally our version of a "3 day special military operation." Maybe it wasn't the smartest move to appoint a part timer Major to lead the dod.

I've gotten into the habit of twisting my entire body towards the window and looking as far back over the wing as I can when visually clearing. I find that the physical movement makes the action take approximately 2 to 3 seconds as opposed to maybe half a second just quickly turning my head in that direction and back. Makes it a lot harder to "pencil whip" the act and miss something because my mind is on another task. Basically the same idea as pointing to or physically touching the altitude window when confirming an altitude clearance. Makes it a lot harder to miss any errors when you add an exaggerated physical component.

No, I don't think that would work. But I think you're close. This idea of yours needs to happen where the major airline hubs are. That's where you could find cfis with military experience and a general willingness to fly for money. I can think of a lot of guys at American Airlines who would love to moonlight teaching the next generation, as long as it didn't take away from their lives in the same way that all the other Air Force /guard/reserve duties do. Pay for a retired or separated Air Force pilot working at the airlines to get their CFII, and then give them a decent "per day" pay for showing up and flying two or three student rides. Do it like the Air Force academy liaison program and allow them to accrue time towards retirement, but no official Air Force pay. You get the idea. That would end up being wildly cheaper than active duty pilots at an active duty base teaching, but you could get that military-esque training. Just a thought

Oil pissing contest aside, Iran has brought death, destruction, and/or destabilization to most of the world for many decades. They are, and have been, wildly dangerous for a long time. It’s a failure that nothing with teeth behind it had been done about it decades ago. So while execution is never perfect, and there are valid critiques, it’s asinine to act like the status quo (or similar version) was doing just fine. War is ugly and unwanted, but it will continue to be necessary and unavoidable for the rest of human existence on this planet.

Some of us believe that expensive gas and unstable markets are worth it to move the pieces on the board for the inevitable war with China. Apparently some of the Trump admin, including Trump himself, agrees. I'll judge the effort once it's done, or at least a few months in, but if it works, then yeah, easily worth it. Seriously though, noble deaths? Who's the child now? We all signed up to die for causes that were too big for us to understand as 18 years olds. Now you should know better.

Hopefully it was off the Grand canyon..

I try to watch my language in front of the grandkids

Sure, but I don't see behind any curtains anymore. In short, Russia is a dog we cornered that we have to be very careful with. We're probably doing this for the same reason the US Government limited Ukraine's starlink access as they tried to advance into Russian territory: Russia have nukes on functional ICBMs pointed at western nations. Cutting off Venezuela and Iran in Russian oil calculus has made our sanctions that much more effective. I'd imagine we now have to carefully meter just how tightly we squeeze. Too hard and we get nukes airborne. It's a position of power that has to be carefully managed. Again, that's from my non read-in perspective. If I've learned one thing, it's that open source media is never privy to the behind the scenes negotiations that end up changing all the diplomatic calculus of how, precisely, the US is screwing over other countries. I'd guess this article is us seeing 10% of what's actually going on.

Agreed, but the same logic applies. Forecasts of doom and chaos are worthless when the doom and chaos never comes. Your entire point is hypothetical. Maybe you'll be right. But so far the anti-interventionists have been wrong on basically every single Trump engagement, especially WRT Iran. And they can't spell out exactly how this goes sideways. What, we get another Islamo-fascist regime, but with no credibility or military might left by which to threaten the world? Oil goes up because the production of a country viral to our biggest enemy (China) was squashed and the American energy complex gets more money and power? That doesn't mean you should keep quiet. It just means there's not yet any reason to believe the sky-is-falling crowd. If we send in the infantry, I'll happily be the first to agree with you. As of yet there's no evidence we're planning that, and you can't hide troop movements like that. Too many people are still shell shocked from the failures of Afghanistan/Iraq that they are conflating all military intervention with nation-building. Now, if we send in the men with beards to capture and control Kharg Island, all the better. The message is pretty clear to anyone who is listening. Fuck with the US, and we will take your stuff and kill you. I for one am a big fan of that message. If my neighbor woke up every morning and threw rocks at my wife and kids while they left for school, promising to rape and murder them when they got home, I'd light his house on fire and execute him as he fled the flames.

Brother Bill trying un-alive Hillary by pushing her into traffic. Break Break - why does she always dress like Charmian Mao? AQMnD1eaZ9nTx_usU7ZG9njlu_ozqA2WxUQTd-1fD5WSoCNwoLev7nJey670MQM8XbmDOupkxAoKDxMBQe8iVk4KXhHssDh_HEjNqiHPPQtVGA.mp4

Hopefully Bondi. Unfortunately Trump seems to hire women based solely on the "Biff test."

Report now saying the IDF just hit a meeting with 88 senior clerics who were electing the next Ayatollah...all 88 KIA.

Dibs

US Navy trained them

A group of MIG-29's met their end against F-35s.

Ah yes, the hardcore fucking of a... **checks markets**... 4% drawdown. From astronomical highs. Like the economic disaster from Ukraine? Or the social catastrophe that followed Maduro's capture? Or the military disaster of the summer attacks on Iran? How many times does the philosophy have to be wrong before you question the philosophy itself?

Hell, it beats the alternative!

Disagree on Patel. I haven't found a better measure of a politician's value than their ability to handle a long-form podcast. Patel is not perfect, and he engages too much in the Twitter chest thumping nonsense that has become the status quo, but he's able to speak intelligently on anything he's asked, and he has guiding principals. That doesn't mean you have to agree with those principles, but it's refreshing that a politician at this point can even spell out what guides them in their decision making. And I don't find any of the frat bro stuff off-putting. I'm tired of politicians pretending like they're formal and keeping all of their immature/illegal/immoral nonsense behind closed doors. Just be honest about it at this point. I trust an FBI director who can smash a beer with an Olympic team a hell of a lot more than the colonels and generals we dealt with while we were in the military who pretended like they had never had a drop of alcohol once they were in power.

He's the hero we deserve, but not the one we need right now.

Biff is my hero, sir

just got my date! Check vMPF boys/girls

Heard back from AFPC this morning that my dates are flowing through the system. Going to Laughlin mid-May with IPT projected for the end of June at Prescott.

Over here is AR, a man that chased down his daughter's abductor (under restraining order too), confronted, then killed the molester in a scuffle, and now charged with murder, just won the Republican primary for Sheriff of said county. He decided to run because that office mishandled and ultimately lost dash cam footage of the encounter. The judge was pulled off the case too, which is still pending. When he wins (he beat the incumbent at the primary), I'm betting on a clean sweep of that office. Didn't they make a movie like this with The Rock? https://katv.com/news/local/aaron-spencer-wins-primary-for-lonoke-county-sheriff-in-high-profile-contest

So far, this wins the award for coolest thing to happen in this war. What a fucking day to be a submariner!

Not odd if the Hornet driver has some questionable loyalties... There is an effort to contain some of the details in order to limit the obvious bad press and political consequences. Complete $hit, rip the Fing band-aid off and call it what it is.

Love him or hate him this is good news for America. Canada purposely and with malice drug their feet on certifying anything Gulfstream for Canada in an effort to protect Bombardier. Canada Certifies Gulfstream G500, G600

Huge screw up by the armed forces of Kuwait but if you have spent anytime there they still remember we came to help in 1991. Crazy footage of a local helping one of the downed aircrew. AQPptBFZfFsqf2ZHbYpb9V7qHpW1-JsI53iyUMhoQSXUDo5xmSeP6u2yxdp4efHy-SQSIOmF-O6ICHrQSIkbkUbtEtWaKNapNJQnuF7TutDcyA.mp4

AFE never buying a beer again.