Hacker

Sure wish I was gonna be. That is the same weekend as the Reno Air Races, so I'll be on the left side of the country, unfortunately. The last show in Valdosta really kicked ass, and I am pissed that I'm gonna have to miss this one.

You're a SQ/CC, Group CC, or Wing CC?

Been There, Done That.

It's the same reason that Squadron Commanders and Wing Commanders sometimes get fired for things that their subordinates have done. It's called 'responsibility'.

Oh, I'm really interested in boxes...just not the cardboard type that you're peddling!

Think about this a different way... If you were the squadron commander, and you had an airplane with bent metal that was *entirely* preventable... What would YOU do? Personally, yes, I can see the pilot taking the ding, too. I have been grounded by my SQ/CC during combat operatons for things my wingman did. Why? Because I, as the flight lead, was responsible for the safe conduct of the mission, period. So, on a crew airplane like the C-17, I can completely see where the SQ/CC gets to dinging both the loadmaster and the guy ultimately responsible, the aircraft commander.

90+% of the time in IFF you will be a wingman, flying some type of formation. There is very little time spent single ship in conditions which an autopilot -- if there was one -- could be used. If you are used to the avionics in a typical biz-jet (like your slow-tation), you will be completely underwhelmed with the avionics in nearly every aircraft you'll encounter in the fighter area, from the Tweet on up to everything short of the Ramptor.

For IFF: 1) There is no autpoilot in the T-38C 2) If there was an autpoilot that could maintain tactical formation between BFM engagements or to-and-from the MOA, that would be a good trick. 3) If there was one that could fight BFM (especially defensive BFM), that would be an even better trick!!

Just like with guns, fighter pilots never point at anything they're not going to kill. It's an extension of that "never have the bandit in your HUD until you're ready to kill him" rule.

IFF will last about two months, depending on all the normal student flow factors (weather, student load, maintenance, etc). WSOs will be going through the "D" track, which is 9 total flights; 1 Formation 1 Offensive BFM 3 Defensive BFM 2 High-Aspect BFM 2 Surface Attack

As a Flight Commander, my advice is to just use plain english and tell your Flt/CC that you want to not fly with that IP.

I used JAWS all the time during mission planning in the F-15E. More appropriately, I used the *information* generated by the program all the time, mostly when dealing with pre-planned LGB targets. The primary user is actually the intel shop, though -- we give them the target, and then they gonk out the information and pass it along to the pilots. JAWS is needed because it is where all bomb attack planning starts. Virtually *everything* hinges on the information that software (or JMEM) tells us. Before you can figure out a weapon release parameter, you need to know the impact condition desired. To know the impact condition, you need to know the desired weapon effect. JAWS (again, or JMEM) is the key component of figuring out what weapon effect is needed to kill a pre-planned target. The other most useful mission planning software tools in A-G mission employment are CWDS and the Raytheon GBU-24 planning software. They are the next step in the attack planning process -- it gives the release condition required to attain the impact condition (and corresponding weapon effect). I'm sure that Rainman and Snake will extoll the virtues of the "combat string" for attack planning and scoff use of this kind of software to generate attack parameters, but I found it highly useful. In the case of the GBU-24, it simply impossible to design an effective attack without it. Hell, even *with* it there are many known "misses" (especially in Allied Force)!

So the *real* question, Rainman, is this.... 200 feet? Wingtips in the field?

"T-6 N-L" (no idea what that means...) and "Gear Not Down"

I still get nervous ticks when I think about the comm I heard every time..."With PID and CDE, cleared to release."

One night into the first week of OIF I was stepping off the bus from tent city to ops town about 1130 at night. I was about 15 minutes away from briefing up a combat mission. As I crossed the street from the bus stop to my squadron's ops tent, I heard from over my shoulder, "YOU! Come over here!" I looked over my shoulder, not thinking that this booming voice could be talking to me. Sure enough, in the darkness, I could see a figure in DCUs with his arm outstretched, clearly pointing at me. So, thinking I had just pissed off some O-5, I begrudgingly turned around while looking at my watch, wondering if I was going to make my brief time. A few steps closer to the figure in DCUs, I see that it is a Master Sergeant, and about that time he opens his mouth... "Where is your reflective belt?" And at this point, I lose it. "Reflective belt? How about we start off with something else, such as the fact that my name is 'sir' and not 'you'? Second of all, I'm getting ready to go brief up a mission on which I'm going to fly into a country where a lot of the people will be shooting guns and missiles at me. If you think I'm the least bit worried about not wearing my reflective belt while walking the 30 feet from the but to the ops tent..." <interrupts me> I'm going to have to write you up.." I turn around and start to walk away. "Good luck doing that without my name."

I guess, stupid non Hog-guy-me, I thought the "terminal" part of JTAC implied being somewhere close to the target.

Sounds to me like OIF standard. The whole damn war was a big playground pick-up game of basketball in which there was no real control...unless you were physically over a known target, getting shot at, and waiting for permission from 'dad' to drop your ord. Then there was so much damn close control it was unbelievable. I had a FAC of some sort, after giving me a lengthy talk-on to a building with a big meeting of what *he* told *me* were Saddam Fedayeen, as me "so, confirm those guys are hostile?" I just about came unglued on the radio..."you want ME, up here at 15K, to PID hostile troops for *you* on the ground??" Same situation...he was nowhere near the actual location, but giving a talk-on to a target he couldn't see based on some type of reference material other than actually being there.

Personally, getting all huffy over some extremists like this is a complete waste of energy. There is no argument you can make or velocity of punch you can throw which is going to make them change their opinion. They are so far beyond normal, rational thought that anything you do to show them just how far away from center they are will be completely ineffective. Best to just recognize them for the whackos they are and, so long as they aren't causing any violation to anyone's life, liberty, or property, let 'em be.

If you do some research on the "church" you'll find out that they're really not much of a church in the sense that most of us know it. They are the same thing to Christianity what suicide bombers and terrorists are to Islam.

I don't know what kinds of squadrons a lot of the people that are answering here are in, but every squadron I've been in has had a "wives' network" which is always informal but still wields all the Power of the Force. It's not something that wives are going to 'join', but it's more out of necessity that spouses will participate. When fighter squadrons deploy, generally most of the husbands are going to be gone for a length of time simultaneously. Spouses generally have to stick together during deployments for a lot of reasons -- anything from making sure lawns get mowed (sts) and cars get fixed (I know, sounds chauvanistic but I've found these are generally true problems) to just plain old mutual emotional support. Most of my wife's best friends at each duty station have been other wives from my squadron. The same thing holds true for those other squadron wives...and when you get groups of inter-linking frineds like that, *bang*...there's your network. Information, good and bad, spreads through the network like wildfire. The leadership can even use the network for good and squelch rumors by releasing the right information via their spouses. If any pilot out there thinks that the leadership doesn't get wind of when their wife is complaining about something that happened to their spouse at work, they're dreaming. I see a lot of petty complaints from men on here about the hens getting together and clucking about. I also see some spouses here saying that they're going to Fight The Power. Good luck on that for both sides. The spouse network is there, for better or worse, and the Force is Strong with Them.

Well, I certainly did not assert that IFF was too tough of a program for a FAIP, IP, or anyone else. If it was that tough, then the pipeline students wouldn't make it through! No, my point regarding FAIPs has everything to do with attitude and nothing to do with stick-and-rudder skills. Most T-38 FAIPs, if they approach the training with the proper attitude, do extremely well at IFF.

You might be surprised at how many T-38 FAIPs, especially, show up to Smurfs thinking that they have it all figured out.

Chicken, beef, same-same. Guys from my squadron who flew during the shock-and-awe portion of the war, but went home prior to 30 days after 17 March, aren't eligible either. What a f*cking joke. Guys who are over there now flying "Operation Noble Baghdad" can get it, but those who flew back when the Hadjis were actually shooting back *don't* get it.

No, the moral of the story is that FAIPs with fighter follow-ons, no matter how hard they wanna believe it, don't know a f*cking thing about being a fighter pilot.