Grabby

Thanks for the visual! As a heads up, United now has LAS and MCO as well.

Dude, the reason the few of you "moved on with" your lives instead of talking about that absolute fiasco after the fact, is because you were dead ing wrong after screaming at the top of your lungs of how righteous you were. Instead of admitting that your side was full of arrogant charlatans and trying to figure out how to ensure such a up doesn't occur in the near future, you high-tailed as fast as possible to save face. You deserve to be "dunked" on. A lot. It was a massive stain on modern society with long-lasting detrimental 1st and 2nd order effects. Also, are these dubious press outfits (who latch onto reports that further excoriate the people who demanded others get the vaccine) somehow worse than the ones who went off 24/7 for nearly 2 years about how the world was basically ending and everyone needed to trust the science? GTFOH

I didn’t mean for any of this to be an indicator of how I felt during my time in. I wasn’t upset while I was in. I’m not upset now. I was honestly pretty thrilled during my 12 years on AD. And no one ever heard me say a single bad thing about our jet, ever. Maybe I longed internally for a very different mission, but who ing cares. I had a chance and it didn’t happen. Boo hoo. Not loving your MWS can be kept close to your heart, or realized slowly after years pass. I don’t love the airlines, but damned if I’m not the first to tell my fellow pilots how fortunate we are with a smile on my face, and I’m the first to suggest drinks and day trips while on the road. Anything but a slam-clicker. I merely wanted to be transparent, on an anonymous forum, about my hindsight on if flying in the AF was worth it. It took an enormous toll on my family and marriage. I saw my son for, at best, 1/3 of his life while often flying empty jets across the ponds and in the AOR. The 30 yo me didn’t care nearly as much as the gray haired me. In retrospect I still feel fortunate and am grateful for the friendships, memories and ratings, but I have come to the conclusion that the AF definitely took a lot, and I probably would have gone a different route if I had to do it over. If that makes me toxic, I guess I’m toxic. Judging oneself is never easy and rarely accurate. I definitely felt like I was a solid bro who was always willing to push and smile while doing it. I just felt like deep down it was not as fulfilling as I initially thought it was going to be. I’ll bow out to not clog the thread anymore, just felt like engaging when reading from strangers who don’t know me that I was not an asset but rather a detriment

Possibly, but I think that’s arrogantly presumptuous of you to say. I would be willing to bet there’s not a single person I served with who would think I had any pessimism or a poor attitude. Quite the contrary. Additionally, I am grateful for my time in but age has brought a certain perspective, for me, that does not exist within your sounding booth. I don’t think that warrants your need to make such a shitty personal jab.

Everyone will have their own take, but the only reason the flying was worth it for me was getting paid to build my time. I loved UPT but rather despised flying the C-17. So many bros loved it, so I’m sure many would disagree with my sentiment. Maybe I would have really enjoyed the CAF, but the absolutely ridiculous ops tempo and high % of flying in shitty places wasn’t, for me, the ideal way to spend my 20’s/30’s. I make a great living flying as a civilian, but there are so many other routes out there. Did I fly with some great people? Of course. Did I fly missions that civilians will never get to experience? Yep. But my GF has travelled a metric shit ton with friends and co-workers, building meaningful memories, to consistently amazing locales while making WAY more than any mil pilot. She’s as close with her friends as I was with my SQ mates. It’s definitely opened my eyes to what’s available to smart, hard working people, and over the long run I feel like I would have had a significantly better work-life balance while becoming financially secure much earlier had I gone a different direction.

nsplayr, The reason there is not an equal gender split is because men and women are different. We think different, we want different things and are attracted to different things. I don't understand how this isn't clear to absolutely everyone, especially any adult regardless of political leanings. Why is it only certain professions that people decry an unequal ratio in?

$30.8 Trillion of national debt?

I have the same Christopher Ward watch. It’s fantastic, and a steal for the money.

The amount of assumptions and false equivalencies you made in one post is startling. Ignoring your condescending first paragraph, I have to ask if you’ve ever been to Japan or Korea? Historically they didn’t wear masks en masse the way you implied. At all. Do you really think the reason they are healthier than us is because of a fabric mask? Do you think it’s possible that not being a nation of fat asses is why they have lower fatality rates? And perhaps that we test at ridiculous rates, even when we feel fine, is a contributing cause to case loads?

That you're either an ass clown, or you listen to ass clowns.

Ditto.

It was developed and then released from a Chinese laboratory. In China. Who would you pin it on? Are you getting your news from Chinese state-run media?

I used it for my helo ratings. Never paid a dime for comm/inst/CFI/CFI-I

Everything you are posting regarding cops is anecdotal. Do you realize that?

I literally laughed at the fact you don't see your glaring hypocrisy.