Squadron Bar

Friday night, Beale had a Skillet, Hoobastank and Dirty Hooks concert on the flightline. Skillet was headliner and the performance, lights, stage effect, etc... was fantastic. They told me they were going to Travis (last night), Vanderburg, Edwards, Cannon, Dyess, and Laughlin. I don't think the word got out like it should have... but if you're at any of those bases, don't miss it. Great show! They apparently enjoy doing these military tours. Cory B, who has well over 1,000 U-2 sorties, landed while I was running the band around Friday afternoon, and we got a good shot with him and them.

The Hunter discussion tends to block the next President thread so feel to vent or defend in here. As a lead off you can review this CBS interview of IRS Whistleblower Senior Supervisor Agent Gary Shapley. It has been repeatedly asserted that because Trump appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney Andrew Weiss that all is well with the Hunter Biden Plea deal. The Whistleblower gives some very compelling testimony otherwise, AND indicates DOJ stopped a deeper look at the connections to Joe Biden. As of now it looks like either Weiss or Garland is lying. Weiss is supposed to do a Sunday show this weekend, will be interesting to hear his side.

To make a long story short, my childhood dream was to be a fighter pilot like the rest of the wannabees here. I'm currently a mechanical engineering student hoping to transfer to a school offering aerospace engineering, and earlier this year I was discharged from Navy boot camp (reserve air crew contract) for requesting a religious accommodation for the Covid shot. I have nothing against the people who got the shot, but this post is mainly for those who didn't get it or regret having done so. What do you recommend young conservative Christian men do now that military aviation is basically off the table for them? I've looked into civilian test piloting and other …

Just leaving this here: https://theintercept.com/2021/05/17/military-pentagon-extremism-social-media/

An AI-powered drone tried to attack its human operator in a US military simulation Speaking at a conference last week in London, Col. Tucker "Cinco" Hamilton, head of the US Air Force's AI Test and Operations, warned that AI-enabled technology can behave in unpredictable and dangerous ways... "The system started realizing that while they did identify the threat," Hamilton said at the May 24 event, "at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective." According to…

Hey everyone, I just recently washed out of a fighter B course. It was for many reasons, but ultimately it came down to me getting behind the jet a lot more than I care to admit. I struggled in the program and I gave it my best shot but things sadly did not pan out for me on the fighter side of the house. I’m hoping to hear from others that may have been in my shoes before on what’s next for me and what options I could have available. Flying aircraft is and forever will be my dream, and I will do anything to make sure I can keep my wings and stay in a seat. Haven’t really heard of much of a timeline for me as an active duty guy but want to do all …

Since it appears most of the 'Election 2012' thread has run its course, I thought I'd start a new one that discusses taxes and the fiscal situation that country currently faces--being that this is now front and center and the results will affect almost all of us. It seems that something will be done soon concerning the tax code (unless Congress allows the all the tax cuts to expire for everyone), so what are the thoughts on what will actually happen, what should happen, and what the consequences will be? My thoughts are that the House GOP will cave to some degree and will allow tax rates to increase. If I were them, I would make a deal that the 'tax rates can go …

If you're a Cheetah or an IFF instructor at Randolph, will you drop me a DM please? Thanks. Huggy

For years folks have warned about the spread of VEOs to Africa, a historically under-resourced AOR. Our haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan appears to have emboldened these folks to grow their influence. We have added forces but the administration promised us they would be able to handle this with an "over the horizon" strategy which appears to be failing miserably. The U.S. Is Losing Yet Another ‘War on Terror’ It is the Rolling Stone so as usual take with a grain of salt. However, those of us who deployed and operated there will see the indicators of a growing problem that WILL manifest itself in the near future.

Very interesting interviews with former pilots of various aircraft, mostly military but some civil. Good technical details, training philosophy, there I was stories, background, etc... https://www.youtube.com/user/Aircrewinterview/videos?view=0&shelf_id=1&sort=dd Watched the F-111, F-14 and MiG-29 videos and worth the time.

Just out of curiosity, how many people on here are contemplating mustache march? I'm only in ROTC now, but enough of my AD friends have got me thinking this will be fun. I'm rather slow in the growing department so me and my roommate started today. I'll even probably be going on spring break with mine. We'll also get the results back from big week while rocking these out. I'll attempt to post some pics once they get good. Good luck growing for everyone man enough to try john.

So I’m getting to the point where my kids are needing all the fun and expensive dental and orthodontic procedures. I’m AD and the dental insurance for Tricare standard is not great. Anyone have any gouge for supplemental insurance for this situation?

Going through some old pictures from UPT (yes we had cameras back then), and I was reminded of a dude in my class who was on the verge of washing out for air sickness. On one flight he horked into his mask then mucked it back down so as to avoid being washed out...total dedication. Anyone else have some good puke stories? Just to set the right tone, please enjoy this clip from a Swedish game show...

I thought the bar would be the place to talk about bacon and wine. It would take me an hour to type it all out so I'm going to provide links. I tried to find the first video I used to make bacon but I guess since it was 15 years ago it's gone or buried deep in the interwebs. You need pork belly if you don't raise your own and we run out. Any grocery store that still has a real butcher will have it. Shop around for price. Even if it's a little more expensive than ready made it's worth it due to shrinkage. Ready made bacon has a lot of water added and you pay for that, it says water added on the label, that's why it shrinks so much, the water steams out. Homemade…

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/02/14/Winter-storm-alerts-power-outages-cover-the-map-as-storms-slam-US/5231613337554/?ur3=1 Pretty bad storm. P.S. I know if the power's out you most likely can't get fuel either.

Do you all know of any good places where we can buy custom beer mugs/steins? I've seen this place: militaryservicecompany.com, but are there any others? Thanks!

Figured the Ghislaine Maxwell trial might merit it's own thread. Pulled the below from the Woke thread. Interesting article. While it sounds like Maureen Comey is very capable and has a distinguished career thus far, it's hard not to suspect nepotism had an effect on her career. Guess it's not surprising; nepotism seems to be a phenomenon throughout the DoD, why wouldn't it be so at the DoJ. Just another contributing factor to the swamp, as pointed out above. On a related note, the article mentions Maurene Comey as one of three lead prosecutors handling the case, along with Assistant US Attorneys Alex Rossmiller and Alison Gainfort Moe. AUSA Alex Ros…

To consolidate discussions from both the Ukraine & politics threads. Open for discussing all things energy policy! I’ll lead with this: despite rhetoric to the contrary, US domestic oil production is projected to set a new record high in 2023, reflecting a full recovery from the losses due to the pandemic. “U.S. crude oil production averaged 11.2 million b/d in 2021. We expect production to average 11.8 million b/d in 2022 and to rise to 12.4 million b/d in 2023, which would be the highest annual average U.S. crude oil production on record. The current record is 12.3 million b/d, set in 2019.” Source: Energy Information Administration Short-Term Energy …

Maybe there’s already a thread on here that someone can point me to, but those who left for the airlines/other jobs…do you regret leaving?

I'm a cadet who's PAS has tasked him with turning the Detachment's Cadet lounge into something resembling a squadron bar. I was hoping to get some ideas from real life bars, so if any pilots wanted to share pictures of what their squadron's looks like, I would be much obliged. Thanks.

I intentionally removed "elite" from the threat title, but credit for execution! Elite Group of Navy Pilots Drops “Beat Army” Ping Pong Balls On Army’s West Point Campus CMDR Alana Garas, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Naval Academy has confirmed that on December 5, 2022, at 11:59 am EST, midshipmen from the Class of 2023 successfully conducted an air-to-ground spirit mission over the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, ahead of Saturday’s 123rd Army-Navy Game. Twelve delivery passes dropped “Beat Army” and “Fly Navy” leaflets, along with ping pong balls, over Army West Point’s “The Apron.” Army cadets could be seen breaking formati…

Interesting...but glad he's OK! (source) An F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet piloted by the son of a candidate to be the Oklahoma attorney general crashed in rural Louisiana on Wednesday during a training exercise. Gentner Drummond, a former Air Force captain and Republican seeking the top law office in the Sooner State, said in a Facebook post that the plane was flown by his son, Alexander, a captain major in the Oklahoma Air National Guard 138th Fighter Wing who ejected prior to the crash... (source)

I've been messing around on Stable Diffusion AI and here are some of the more interesting results. Not passing any visrecce test anytime soon, but still a fun program to play around with. The ability to artificially create human faces at the bottom is a bit stunning. Prompt: Special Forces on the Moon: Prompt: C-130 Flying in the Sky: Prompt: F-16 bombing Antarctica: Prompt: Fighter Jet in Space: Prompt: USAF Thunderbirds over mountains: Prompt: Airline Pilot With Lots of Money

Regardless who you vote for, make time to have your voice heard!

Thread dedicated to random finds on Google Earth. This is a MiG-23 just outside Baker, FL in the Florida Panhandle north of Eglin at a steel junkyard.