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Addressing the OP: If you thought the USAF screwed you over, just wait until you experience an airline during contract negotiations. It sounds like outside influences have been crafted your outlook for you. It may be completely true that you were actively screwed by the system, but getting bitter only means you're letting the system win. The airlines will happily assume the role of screwing you over if you let them. I can show you a large collection of 30-year widebody captains making millions of dollars who are thoroughly convinced they've been screwed by the system. They are no fun to be around. It's all perspective. Pick your's with care. Choose gratitude instead of trying to pinpoint who's screwing you over. The answer to that question will always be "someone and/or everyone". Conversely, if you focus on what you're grateful for, you'll find a lot of good things in life. Pick one, you can't focus on both. I punched at 17 years and joined the reserves for 3 years. Now I'm at a major airline. In all three of those locations it is VERY easy to look around and wonder why the grass isn't as green as advertised. Reality is that the grass on the other side is just a different kind of grass. Once you get into a new organization, you'll see all the warts. You get to decide if it's good or bad, but if you let the system decide, it'll definitely suck. Truths: The system (usaf or corporate) doesn't owe you anything. Your hard work will be overlooked, but it will craft your reputation among your peers. Once you're gone, the system won't care. Maximize your personal gain without screwing others over, ignore the BS, do your work will, keep your integrity in tact, find a niche you can enjoy. Focus on good things, and your next career will be great. Focus on the hate, and you'll hate it. It's a DAILY choice.

Hard to believe this was 12 years ago. For all of you out there deployed or remote standing watch...you are not alone, you are NOT forgotten. I am grateful for each and everyone of you. God Bless

Glad to see my airline/union assisting UPS/IPA in their time of mourning and assist bringing Captain Diamond home to rest.

i totally agree that UPT cuts are seriously degrading the quality of the product. But don't conflate the UPT syllabus cuts with a need to create a new ACE program: even with a robust UPT syllabus like I went through many moons ago, the ACE Program was extremely beneficial for the new co-pilots. Story time: I remember back in the 2005-2006 time frame, there was a Langley F-22 at Hill AFB whose crew chief lost control of the landing gear pin during ground ops, and the pin got sucked down an engine. IIRC $6.8M in damage. That year, at Beale, our T-38 CT Program was run on a budget of around $6M for ~3700 hours of flying time. Think about that. That's around 3,000 SORTIES in a T-38... for $800,000 less than the cost of a single Raptor FOD incident. My experience in the Beale T-38 CT Program has made me such a better U-2 pilot and overall aviator than I would ever be without it. A magnitude better. There is so much that could be done to make our USAF aviators "that much better"... but the AF leadership will simply not invest the pennies... and I do mean "pennies"... to make it happen. It's no longer a priority. I hope I am proved wrong on my last statement.

Nothing that can't be fixed by another "Back to Basics" read file

I have never seen such an absolutely despicable and disgraceful posturing from any government official. Mark Kelly has been a disappointment for a long time, and this has put him squarely in the category of irredeemable.

The fact that none of those Congressional members came out of the meeting and demanded the resignation of the targeting authority that committed the engagement was telling of this being little more than a political witch hunt. They want Hegseth to resign, and they want to have the fight in the court of public opinion only because they know it doesn’t actually meet the criticism that’s been levied out of “sources.” Democratic critics will happily use the term “war crime” and water down its meaning though just like they did racist and fascist for the convenience it provides to their argument. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Once again I'll disagree with Ratner and do it in a less verbose fashion. Finding the right guard/reserve unit is an absolute game changer. This isn't just work for everyone and it only takes one or two bad leaders on AD to be the difference from the best 20 years of your life to 10+ years of "fuck this shit..." I know a number of CAF dudes that have had similar experiences. I've been there myself. That being said, there are guard/reserve units that have all the things AD should have (good leaders, commaraderie, purpose etc.). Good luck.

Negative, that’s just the strawman thrown out by Putin simps to argue that the current Russian state poses no concern at all to Eastern Europe. Riga/Tallinn ≠ Paris. Trump is right that this is a European problem and NATO has atrophied. Europe needs to contribute more and some are starting, but one major weakness of the West is the DIB. We can’t print F-35s or munitions overnight. Our DIB is slow and obsessed with high end. Boeing is a shitshow. While we try to dig out of that hole, we shouldn’t just about-face and leave our NATO partners in the dust. Trump’s approach is anti-Teddy. Instead of speaking softly and carrying a big stick, Trump runs his mouth and serves up TACOs. Maybe it will work. Regardless of his style, appeasing totalitarian heads of state has proven to be as effective as pissing into hurricane-force winds.

a bit generous referring to them as people 😁

An expert legal analysis; https://www.dailywire.com/news/cornell-law-professor-shreds-entirely-unconvincing-war-crime-accusation-against-hegseth

@fire4effect Lots of “credible” sources said the laptop was fake news. Lots of “credible” sources backed Russiagate. I’ve been around the block quite a bit in the terrorist killing world (as have many on here), and I’m calling complete bullshit on the whole thing. If a whole JOC watched DEVGRU execute a couple unarmed dudes who didn’t pose a threat at all, then we’ll be seeing war crimes charges and trials commencing soon. That hypothetical scenario is not something anyone (especially an E/young O) would walk away from unmolested (in the legal sense). Personally, I’ve been involved in four separate occasions where someone “credible” said something happened that was a complete lie. Thankfully every time there was data to prove them a liar and nobody got screwed.

Was #4 a photo chase?

One of the better uses of AI I have seen to date. Imagining the old lady as Congress. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DAuJ7XTnC/

Dibs

I know, and am friends with, several great dudes who are WSOs. They’re also smart and very capable human beings. That said, get rid of their positions in totality as aircraft advancements allow. There’s good reason we don’t have FEs on airliners anymore or navs on almost all aircraft models. There was absolutely a time and place, but those days are long gone. Stop trying to force a square peg into a round hole. They all need to accept this fact and move on… retire/get out early and transition to civ employment Shift to a different AFSC USAF reduce WSO production commensurate with current WSO-required aircraft retirements Stop trying to stupidly argue WSOs are required on new aircraft

Go all in and put two WSOs in it.

To whom it may concern. Will the person at the O-club Friday night who drew dick pics in our flight caps please provide new hats. Sincerely, Col. Harry Balzac & Col. Hugh P. Ness

I think this about the 5th cycle of colored shirts and name tags in my career. Thankfully I’ve been able to mostly ignore all of the knee jerk decisions and keep doing the right thing: morale shirts and call sign name tags (and no hat/sunglasses on head), as God intended.

Be more like Boyd... https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/john-boyds-roll-call-do-you-want-to-be-someone-or-do-something/

My only comparison to heavies is the airlines, which I know isn’t apples to apples, but I don’t think it’s far off much of the time. These styles of flying allow for significant decay of stick/rudder skills and dealing with EPs/abnormals/unintended events that require them (vs. manipulating automation/simply pushing buttons). It is a disservice to young pilots especially not having ACE - the mil is holding them back on advancing their skills/maintaining solid proficiency. There’s a lot of airline pilots who could really use some GA time for this reason, and the ones who don’t care and rest on their 6900 airline hours don’t seem to realize they don’t really have 6900 hrs of flying, they have 6900 hrs of managing computers and rinse/repeating the same taxi flows/departures/arrivals (over generalization a bit, but point remains).

I bet those T-37 hours were probably 10% the cost of -135 hours and at that point in your flying career twice as valuable in building airmanship. Resurrect ACE, fly COs after UPT thru a solid 300 hour min program. Give the new ACE program T-6s from AETC (after an avionics update) then recapitalize UPT with PC-21s, T-6Cs or M-345s… or this training aircraft offered by Grob https://gaf-aerospace.com/tpx-cobra-en.html#:~:text=The TPX is a low-wing%2C side-by-side%2C two-seater,turboprop engine with 750 HP%2C 7-blade propeller. One more thing, ACE was unfortunately before my day but I believe it was there to give COs flying hours they weren’t getting sitting alert to assure pilot development and to aid the development and timing of Aircraft Commander eligible (by hours) pilots of whatever aircraft they were assigned. Good for the pilot and good for the Air Force. ACE 2.0 would serve the same / similar rationale, cheaper flight hours developing Aircraft Commander eligible pilots sooner, less expensive and less wear and tear on an already well utilized fleet of aircraft

I'm a retired old fart MSgt, got out at 21 mainly because I would never see another stripe, all my time was on the flightline, had a boss tell me all you did was deploy a bunch and do your job, never saw you at Sq parties or top 4 meetings. When I was stationed at Andrews, I was more an aircraft detailer than Crew Chief, I absolutely hated being there, hated the mission. Back in those days I could call my AFSC's manager at Randolph and ask for a PCS. He said you want Iceland, hell yes, I said just to get out of Washington DC. Guess what happened, I loved being in the USAF again. I think being in the Air Force is a lot like real estate, location, location, location. Before that I was ready to move on, get out and go home to Chicago and be a cop. I'm Sure glad I didn't do that. Now I'm semi-retired living the life in my mountain home in Colorado getting 4 checks monthly because I decided to stay in not go back to Chicago. 15 years is a bunch of years to walk away from, think really hard about it.

Yeah, Huggy said person, which excludes the need for a WSO..

Not getting caught diddling an E is a pretty low bar. Photo evidence submitted at Ratner's trial:

@disgruntledemployee Well a WaPo reporter claims DEVGRU was ordered to execute unarmed people (and did), so it must be true. You actually believe this bullshit?

Get out and go Guard or Reserve. I absolutely understand what you are saying...I saw it time and time again. Many times it is luck and timing other times it is the broken system that is our USAF. In UPT a dude in our sister class got a DUI AND tried to fight the cops, he still graduated top 3. He was also a complete Chode but he was an academy grad (as was his father), and a lot of senior people stepped in to influence the process. It was blatant and soured a lot of people. In other cases we see people like Fat Tony not only survive but thrive despite ruining careers and extreme narcissism. It is not fair. A CJO is a great thing for you and your family, a fresh start but I can almost guarantee you will see things in your airline career that will anger you and make you shake your head in disgust. Going Guard or Reserve can also serve as a fresh start, but you have to know you will find warts on that side of the fence. All of that being said, life is not fair...it just isn't and the sooner you accept that and make the best of where you are, the happier and likely more successful you will be. Good luck!

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Two words… Go Guard/Reserve. .you got 11 years invested don’t throw it away

Complete asshattery. How in the world do you say refused ILLEGAL orders is sedition?

keep telling yourself that. i only see one side offering peace plans.

I think a snapshot in time...and disappointing in many ways. Electing a communist mayor in NYC...an Attorney General in VA that no only called for KILLING his opponent, but also putting a bullet in the head of his opponents kids...that is the new DNC. I really wonder what will happen in the mid-terms with the DNC slipping so far left they are openly supporting socialism and in some cases communism. Seriously, the new leaders are FAR left lunatics. Nancy just tapped out, Schumer is on the ropes. Who is the leader of the DNC? Is it Jefferies? Pete? Come on... Kamala is talking about another run perhaps linked with AOC ("they" think they will win all 50 states with that combo....ummm yeah). Hating Trump is one thing, but is it enough for the rest of the country to go full retard?

On that being said "arg"...I declare DIBs Before "Biff_T"!

Sadly, none of this surprises me. The more I learn, the more jaded I get toward our military/political leadership and what kept us in the never ending quagmires since 9/11. This is proof that no one is immune to the government trying to fuck you and make your life a living hell if you piss off the wrong person. It also puts a spotlight on the hypocrisy around the different spanks for different ranks. Never mind the unwillingness of people to do the right thing so as not to upset their careers. Here's hoping the current administration will fix this situation. Funny sidenote on the point they make about being "frozen" in the rank your retired/left the service. Our OG received a call from a FDX guy about a squadron mate who had the audacity to take MLOA during peak. The dude introduced himself as Maj Gen XXX and to our OG's credit, he made a point to let him know that his retired rank didn't mean shit, then prompted told him to go fuck himself, the MLOA was legit.

Leave the kids alone. If the boomers hadn't raped every institution and convention for their own advantage, all the while incinerating the housing market, suppressing interest rates, saddling every 22 year old with crippling debt, and inventing "too big to fail," maybe the younger generation wouldn't look toward something different. The American Dream was raped by the generation that cried out for free-love and no war until they got in power to give us a corporatist government and endless wars. Now they don't like that their kids are skeptical of their promises. No small wonder. Socialism is a nightmare, but you have to be blind to think this is just about lazy young adults. 😂

Watching POTUS realize that Putin is a menace in real time has been entertaining.

Well, looks you got your answer.

Correction: ACE did not end when SAC went away. It remained within the newly-formed ACC until summer 1994 (maybe '95) when General Loh cancelled the program literally overnight. In my opinion, this was one more indicator of the lack of understanding that officers like Loh and many of the other ACC generals with fighter backgrounds had WRT to the non-fighter platforms under their command. Although I was never in ACE, I have many friends and classmates that flew as ACE co-pilots, or that were assigned to ACE as instructor pilots. I have a lot of experience with the CT Program at Beale, which ran in conjunction with ACE until the ACE portion was killed. You pose a number of questions, Clark. Bottom line: the ACE Program was a cost effective and solid aviation method for getting low-time co-pilots some much-needed quality flying experience. Not to mention, it made pilots very happy that they were able to fly... actually fly anywhere they wanted to go, and work on developing their new aviation skill sets. Imagine that... happy pilots working to better their fundamental aviation skills. For a brief period of time, Beale RQ-4 pilots were flying Beale aero club aircraft in an ACE-like program. Pennies on the dollar. Of course, it was cancelled. But it showed that with a tiny bit of thought and effort... and not much money... something positive could be done. The short-sightedness of Gen Loh and his staff was very unfortunate. Bringing back an even better version of the ACE Program should be done today. In both ACC and AMC.

The putin simps like bashi are confused because they got played. They thought they were voting for an idea (pro-putin) but now they realize their idol’s hurt feelings and chase for a Nobel prize are way more important.

Unfortuantely, there are experience and recency blind spots no matter where you find yourself in the aviation industry. When bringing guys in to fly the B-24 and B-29, I am looking for a mix of: - Multi-pilot, multiengine, "professional" flying - Day/VFR GA flying - Tailwheel experience There are a lot of other desirable traits, but these are the ones that keep the airplanes from getting wrecked.

If you give the government the power to feed you then you give the government the power to starve you.

So he can’t influence vendors to charge less for a beer at the dude’s own event…but…come Jan 1st he’ll be able to influence property owners to reduce/stop increases when it comes to charging rent.

Yall were enjoying it too much.....cancel that shit now!

I've gotta go dig in my tubs of ol' USAF shit to find my "WSO Hater Union" card I was once presented at a roll call. Looks like I have others to pass that along to here. Wish I could remember the occasion for which I was awarded it.

Engines are numbered left to right... for those unaware like I was at one point. Brabus... In the Viper or F-35, that would be "#1".