brabus

That sucks, but also only you can control your attitude. Go forward with life choosing a positive outlook and find something that gives you purpose/sense of accomplishment. The airlines are great for pay/benefits/QOL, but you will get zero feelings of accomplishment or satisfaction out of it. Your AF career should not define the rest of your life.

It’s far worse than that. We have medical people making decisions that directly affect the CAF, for example. The amount of shoe clerks with zero combat experience on the staff is probably 75%. It’s so bad.

@SuperWSO Whats the benefit of a WSO - lower production cost and they can’t run to the airlines every hiring boom? Serious question, because financial reasons are the only thing I can think of. And this is not a who’s a more capable human argument, just saying instead of sending Bob to UNT, you send him to UPT. Aircraft like the B-1 and F-15E were clearly designed with WSO in mind and thus require them, no argument there. New aircraft have no need to be designed to “require” a WSO. With AI and other advancements, I’d actually say just make the 21 single seat. Why do you even need two pilots? Assumption being AI flies the transit, can refuel, etc. while pilot naps, takes a dump, etc.

I think we’ve mostly beat the stupid out of ACC on the emitter front. I’ve been relatively happy the last 1.5 years or so on that subject. Lots of improvement to be had, but at least we’ve stopped buying useless garbage and are finally procuring the decent 80% solution instead of holding out for the incredibly expensive and marginally useful 85% solution. Now if we could just give every JTE to WSEP for a CAF-wide A-G turkey shoot, that’d be great.

@Boomer6 Got a cell, but no response yet. I’ll take anything you got.

Of course it’s money, still pretty sad how nearly 20 years have passed since I was first intro’d to the concept and all we have to show for it is what you see today.

Yep, LVC is another great-in-theory thing that is way behind where it should be. Doesn’t mean it’s not something worthwhile to continue pursuing, just very disappointing how slow it has developed.

From a CAF perspective, we should be 50/50 flights vs. sims…when the sims are where they need to be capes-wise (seems like a pipe dream, they haven’t been in my 20 yrs). There’s so much training nowadays that generally is not feasible in live fly (unless we’re doing it for real).

Exactly. I can read between the lines, it’s clear what all those in the video are implying, which is bullshit on their parts. But, no way you successfully convict someone of sedition based on the argument they were implying something. Facts matter, not feelings and emotions (at least in theory). So good job admin, you got butt hurt and went on an emotionally-charged witch hunt without thinking it through. Dumbasses.

For sure. I think this whole thing is stupid, unless they truly have him dead to rites on something, but I doubt that’s the case. This is mostly a losing move on the Trump admins part, at least I think so with the current info I’ve seen.

That is shitty. Certainly do not wish that on anyone, including Kelly.

Mark Kelly is a complete asshat, most recently for this bullshit video. But that said, seems like it’d be a pretty high burden on the prosecutors to prove his action did without a doubt “interfere with the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the armed forces.” How do you quantify that and what evidence may exist that is compelling enough for conviction? Seems like a low Pk win for the Trump admin and a high Pk of giving the left a great talking point of “see, they’re targeting political opponents!” In the end, I doubt many service members actually watched the video and afterwards were too stupid to understand the difference between an illegal order and an order they just don’t personally like. This whole rambling about illegal orders is completely retarded.

Biff at MTG’s front door next Friday

Second M2. PSA is honestly pretty solid for range toys. Personally I’d go higher quality for anything I plan on using to save lives (if faced with that situation). I’m assuming truck gun means part of your self defense plan.

Years ago in a different state I worked on that. The amount of hurdles you face will be very dependent on where you live and the mindset of your state/local gov and their laws. Building an NRA “to code” range is a large and expensive undertaking, do your research on that. We started a 501c3, which helped the tax situation, made donations and tax breaks for donators easier, etc. I’d say finding the location that works for you guys and the gov may be the hardest part with second hardest part being funding the construction of a “legitimate” range. That all said, again, it is very dependent on your location and state/local laws, so really impossible to throw out any universally useful timelines or costs. Other odds and ends you need to sort out: who runs it daily. Is a ranger required or is it self-administered (e.g. members have a code to the gate and follow the rules they’ve signed saying they agree). The answer drives liability discussions with legal/insurance company Who maintains it. Member volunteers, pay someone, etc. You can’t just let thousands of cases pile up, shredded paper targets blowing all over, erosion will happen over time, etc. I found many companies were willing to give nice discounts on their products to help it get going (and of course its advertising for them). Targets, target stands, etc. Best answer: Buy enough land that you can build an awesome personal range and invite friends over!

Love the SIIs that are complete lip service and serve zero utility. Since I’m required to brief them, this means 90% of the time it’s, “SIIs are on the wall, you can read.” The 10% that actually make sense get covered.

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

I think Trump confused sedition and treason (and the max punishment for each). Regardless, another example of not thinking it through before opening one’s mouth.

It’s funny how many portions of the AF have obviously tried to emulate the Weapons School patch. I’m all for finding ways to be the best at whatever you do, but come on guys, trying to copy the WIC’s patch is lazy and the opposite of innovative (assuming that’s a tenet of any of these courses).

Completely unsalvageable. Now the remaining question is if inspections were complied with correctly, and if so, then timelines need to be adjusted. If not, well then some heads should roll substantially.

Not even a CPO guy, just a line guy who’s clearly the front runner for biggest douche of the airlines 2025 award? I can’t even fathom that.

Barry name tags and dicks in 4 stars’ hats (and also their backup hat, suck it exec!) Those were the days.

Could have also replaced the right seat in a U-28 with a CSO since that pilot did a lot of sensor work (WSO mafia thinking)…until you need him to fly the plane. Same problem in any aircraft, especially high value/low density assets like B-21. I’m not saying a WSO isn’t capable of managing sensors, AI, etc., but you create a gaping capability hole and increase risk when you cheap out on a WSO vs. pilot in the other seat. And if it wasn’t for their very long sortie durations, I’d say make it single pilot.

Not a lot, but I didn’t say I did. Do you live there and know better than my family who has lived there for 40 years? Although it does seem like things have become better, so good on the city for that. That said, I’m actually not picking on San Fran, it’s the same problems any major city has. There are nice spots in most big cities, but nobody should be naive enough to think those spots are representative of the whole. The Boston layover is nice, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t MANY neighborhoods/areas that I would be an idiot if I went to them.

Not great if you live there (I have family there)…crime, cleanliness, safety. I’m sure it appears “great” if you’re in the right spots. Kind of like when we visited friends in South America and they said, “oh it’s great, totally safe and clean”…as we drove by 3rd world slums and into the affluent area that had security rivaling embassy compounds in Afghanistan. Yep, THEIR area was great, but everywhere else was not by a long shot.