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Didn't really add much to the pool of active pilots, but it gave a lot of pilots two more years on the long-term disability payroll.

Don't fall for the propaganda. Ukraine is setting a trap. They're drawing Russia deeper into Ukraine so that in a few months, after our defense contractors have received their funding, established supply chains and increased capacity, they'll begin to produce the much needed weaponry for what's left of the Ukr military. Having baited Russia into occupying more of their territory, they're going to surprise them with a massive offensive. Brilliant! If we're patient, our recent $61B investment is going to pay huge dividends.

Unfortunately, with qualified immunity that's next to impossible. Especially with Federal officers. Hell, I bet they often times come from out of state and good luck even finding them with DOJ running interference. Fact is if you do happen get "lucky" and take one of them out you get life at a minimum and you're guilty until proven innocent. No matter how bad the cops screw up it's your fault. This happened with local cops in Wisconsin, and I suspect this guy happened to live in a bad neighborhood and had a small amount of MJ and fired at the door when they were breaking the door down. Was this guy citizen of the year? No. Did they yell police? Probably. Did he hear that in the chaos? Maybe. Do bad guys ever yell police? Yes. I wouldn't be surprised once a cop was killed, they emptied out an evidence locker and piled it in his house to make the raid justifiable. No knock raids should be used in in ONLY very limited situations. Just too many things can go wrong. Jordan Fricke sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing MPD Officer Matthew Rittner (cbs58.com)

9 and 7/8ths of them are full of shit

What’s interesting is I remember guys going through UPT with 300-900 civ hrs, and aside from one, the rest were average to slightly below average. My guess is it had to do with how different the “mil way” is vs. the “civ way.” I fly a lot of GA, including in the commercial world, and it’s just different…plenty of competent civ guys that would epically fail in mil flying without going through a mil-specific course ran and taught by mil pilots. To be fair, I know a lot of mil guys who would kill themselves (or get violated) rapidly in GA without specific training.

I’m not sure what the best fix is, but this kind of shit has happened way too much in the past several years. I almost certainly would be a victim of it if they fucked up and got the wrong house. I understand allowing no knocks (easy to say you’re against them until you’re an LEO at the door), but perhaps they should only be allowed for extremely dangerous situations (e.g. not just one guy), and if you’re complicit in selecting the wrong house/someone innocent gets killed, you get charged with murder and spend the rest of your life in prison…that’ll at least better incentivize not fucking that up.

Pecan farmer in middle Georgia, so pretty much the same thing.

There is a huge push in Army aviation to start sending more people to WTI and the weapons course just because we understand the deficiency in the sort of institutional knowledge stovepiped of training. The debrief/AAR process at the weapons course alone was eye opening to the senior leaders we had sit through it. Broad perspective of experience is critical from us slipping back to a pre joint military which I would largely say looking at our procurement strategies we are already doing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good. The only airline flying I do is sitting in the back. But I work with enough of the 65+ crowd on a daily basis to know that I don't want them flying me or my family around. Age-related cognitive decline is real. And those who deny it the most are typically the ones most affected by it. Which is not to say you can't be 65+ and still be capable. But for every 10 guys who think they're "running circles around all those young whipper-snappers," 9 of them are full of shit.

Absolutely there were a dozen better ways this could have been handled. They had him under surveillance including with a GPS tracker on his car so they had no problem doing a traffic stop or his office. This is a decent report that mentions how the agents violated ATF policy and didn't wear body cameras AND put tape over his ring doorbell camera. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj5hPClt-eFAxVW38kDHckADk0QwqsBegQICBAG&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dfu4ifmzq7SI&usg=AOvVaw23t20RA6rsQ0vYD0r_A22m&opi=89978449

AETC is. In Georgetown north of Austin. 35 students. A SGTO right now. Contract initial pilot training (ipt) then a short T-6 syllabus. That means a super DOSS for ppl, ifr then multi tickets then go to a UPT base after. This isnt a PTN/19 AF thing. It is straight from COMAETC. Although congressional approval would be required to move ton this model and there are a whole lot of risks associated with it.

You think that's bad? https://www.dvidshub.net/image/4742523/hurlburt-field-retires-ac-130-gunship "AC-130U Spooky gunship tail number A0253 retires at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Sept. 11, 2018. On Oct. 22, 1997, Spooky A0253 and another AC-130U established the C-130 record for longest sustained flight with a 36 hour, nonstop 8,000-mile flight from Hurlburt Field to Taegu Air Base, Republic of Korea. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Dennis Spain)."

Looks like Age 67 may be dead.

LookieRookie, “ We are sending studs to a contract multi program. It is happening right now. They will be taking FAA checkrides.” Can you explain?, where, who, what?

For democracy! and Republic!

We are sending studs to a contract multi program. It is happening right now. They will be taking FAA checkrides. I’ll restate this. You cant read.

They cheated, made a fuel stop Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

What's the projection on the future of the MQ-9, and/ot a fleet drawdown?

Man, I've read so much on the U2 and SR71 design, history, and ops but shit is still crazy. I hope to god we're innovating like we did in those earlier years.

Short podcast about Batman Begins

I hadn’t thought about those guys, but man you’re right, I don’t know what those poor bastards are going to do. I’ve heard of some decent jobs in the civ world, but how many? Direct man-in-the-loop RPA ops as we know it (at least in the mil) doesn’t have a long life ahead of it.

That’s epic. How does one find that amount delivered without joining @Biff_T on the dark web?

I didn't escape the first morning. However, I was on the first bus for my class with like three other people. We were so early that none of the cadets were in position to harass us throughout the in-processing line. I made it to my room without being yelled at once. And then, because I didn't know any better, I shut my door and took a nap. Amazingly enough the cadets just assumed that because the door was shut, no one was using the room, so until dinner rolled around I just sat in my room and listened to the yelling outside. Completely missed it all 🤣😂

Wasn't really sure where to put this but on 21 April 2024 LtCol (ret) Sam Galloway flew West. Sam was the Navigator on the lead aircraft of the Operation Eagle Claw (Desert One) mission. Post AF he trained almost every MC-130H front ender that went through the FTU at Kirtland until he fully retired in 2011. Sam was a phenomenal instructor and also a genuinely fantastic human being, he'll be missed. Galloway, Sam | Gathering of Eagles Foundation (goefoundation.org)

Yes but … I’ll still make my argument on BO in the hope that it reaches someone with authority, gives a damn and decides to act based on my eloquent rambling in the manner I advocate for Honestly, after T-6s for the heavy tracked studs, just send them to an civ school if the AF is too cheap / myopic / cliquish to properly address this… Riddle, All ATPs, UND, etc… somewhere with a large aviation program can give multi eng training and experience The USAF wastes money in any number of frivolous ways, even at say $100k a student in total costs for a 4 month multi program (civ plus a type program) and with a 1500 per year going thru, that’s only 150 million a year, the AF could afford that, own no new iron, divest infrastructure, not have to man any AF billets to fly this training iron and get a better product