Mickey

Anybody seen this? http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2012/11/15/fighter-jet-crashes-near-florida-air-force-base

You should ask your weapons officer at Tyndall. It doesn't matter what the pilots are looking for it matters what the instructors are looking for.

I was at Thumrait in '01 and again in mid-02. I don't think there was a CGOC, we were pretty busy.

You're wrong. The actual callsign of that flight was Dudette 07.

aircrew who fly ejection seat equipped aircraft do

The 176th Wing has some of the best rescue forces around. The reality of flying in Alaska means they get lots of SAR missions.

Jeff was my neighbor while I was at Elmo. I did not know him that well but talked with him many times. My thoughts go out to his wife and children. The 3 WG has had its fair share of tragdey, this only adds to it.

I think Rainman's point is that if procedures are stupid we have a responsibility to correct them. Sure passing the tail number is the right thing to do b/c the aircraft gets billed for fuel but is the aircraft getting billed the right answer? Something as simple as a comptroller's decision to bill the aircraft versus the wing means guys now have to talk on the radio for no tactical reason. The billing guy probably never even thought about the tactical implications of this policy.

Have you considered checking the yes container than stating "I was involved in a military accident"?

Are you trying to start a fight?

If you pick the E-8, call it JSTARS. With that said, if you become a heavy navigator in ACC it is pretty difficult to get out of ACC. You could be stuck bouncing b/w the E-8 and E-3, at least at first.

It looks like a TPS-75 which is the radar used by the CRC guys. It makes sense because it is in with all the other 8 WPS MDS.

Military officers (former) are in demand all over the place. Most MX officers have led a squadron of 250 people by the time they are in for 6-9 years. Companies love that about military officers. The real issue, and the reason for the ACP in my opinon, is the impact of the loss of experience in the rated community. Losing a 4-ship flight lead, IP, mission commander has a greater impact on the ability of the Air Force to do the job than losing a SPAM officer with 6 years. My wife, who is SPAM (Services, personnel, and manpower) officer would drive a higher salary on the outside than I would. She's been chief of MEO of a wing, recieved highly specialized MEO training, and is the Wing/CC exec. She could be a personal assistant in a heartbeat. She's also has experience with managing a budget, higher/firing of civilians, and joint basing issues. The Air Force doesn't value these things as much as they value my 8 years of flying experience, it doesn't mean the outside doesn't. The Air Force needs rated officers. The ACP helps keep valuable experience in the Air Force. I think the arguement that ACP is used to close the "pay gap" is a bad arguement. Dudes aren't leaving b/c of the pay. ACP just helps them deal with the suck for a few more years. ACP helps the Air Force keep dudes on the hook until they have a vested interest (ie retirement) to keep them to 20 years. You cannot make up the experience gap by hiring more pilots. It takes 6-9 years to get those guys the experience needed to lead in combat. You can always crank up the production of MX officers if you realize there is a bathtub. The effects of losing experience in the rated community takes too long to overcome. Doesn't do a lot of good to have inexperienced wingman sitting around the squadron with no one qualified to lead/upgrade them.

I very much enjoy being an ABM. I've been lucky with my timing. I deployed right after Sept 11 and got to fly the first night of OIF. I think I've earned the respect of the fighter pilots here on base by knowing what I'm doing, admiting when I'm wrong, finding a way to fix the problem, and not making the same mistake again. I also get involved in mission planning, briefing, and debriefing. I'm not afraid for me or my crew to be a DFP and I'm not afraid to defend my crew when we are right. As far as no one wanting to be an ABM, I'm not sure that's true. I wasn't pilot qualified and turned down a nav slot. I think most jobs are what you make of them. Bloom where the Air Force plants you. It is hard to enjoy your job if you aren't good at it. Most young controllers aren't very good for a variety of reasons (not enough experience, poor debriefs, not asking the right questions, and not learning lessons from their mistakes). Utimatley, it is up to you to learn the lessons of your job and apply them. Being an ABM is extremly fun once you get to know the pilots and are able to make the right call at the right time. Nothing like going to a debrief and have a SQ/CC WIC grad say "Mickey good work today" or having the wing weapons officer say "your dudes have been providing really good control...better than most". Any job is what you make of it. If you sit around bitching and complaining of how being an ABM sucks and you wish you were a pilot, you never will enjoy being an ABM. Good luck with whatever job you end up with.

I was on board the AWACS the night the strike eagle went down in OIF. Rainman, I might have made that call to you...I was the check-in controller. What I was told by the flight lead was he didn't believe it to be caused by enemy fire (spatial D or threat reaction). We had aircraft (including a KC-135R) in that area the rest of the night that never got shot at. If I remember correctly, that was the same night a strike eagle had trapped fuel and had to divert and an EA-6B closed down PSAB for a couple of hours. It was the worst night of the war for me.