General Discussion

Unconfirmed reports of a tanker down after take-off in Kyrgyzstan: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22397266 If correct, a really bad couple of weeks for US aviation.

Report says so: https://www.smh.com.au/national/us-marine-base-for-darwin-20111110-1n9lk.html

Once again we've pulled off a pristine pirate-killing, hostage-rescuing operation. Awesome! https://news.yahoo.co...-063438091.html US military raid in Somalia frees American, Dane By ABDI GULED and KATHARINE HOURELD | Associated Press – 53 mins ago MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — U.S. Special Forces troops flew into Somalia on a nighttime helicopter raid early Wednesday, freed an American and a Danish hostage and killed nine of the kidnappers in a mission that President Barack Obama said he personally authorized. The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were freed and "are on thei…

US Navy helicopter and fighter jet crash in separate incidents in the South China Sea Blackhawk and Hornet down within 30 minutes. Possibly bad fuel...

The Obama administration has proposed the possible pull out of all 40 F-16s from Misawa AB to the government of Japan. The discussion are supposed to have taken place back in April and have only now been released. The move could possibly start at the end of the year with the agreement of the new incoming administration of Democratic Party of Japanese leader Yukio Hatoyama. As part of the same strategic review plan the US has also told Japan that they may also remove 50 or so F-15s from its base in Kadena, Okinawa. Both proposals are pending as the Japanese government are still concerned about the situations in North Korea. Japanese officials say the moves could s…

United States-Trained Afghan Fighter Pilot Is in Hiding After Being Denied Safe Passage

I'm trying to decide between USAA or stay with US Bank. I don't need any loans, just savings and checking. Has anyone dealt with both of these?

Finally, an AIM Point worth looking at! Air Force Pararescue in Helmand Province, Afghanistan Some select pics from Michael Yon... Cheers! M2

I have just finished reading Not A Good Day To Die, which recounts Operation Anaconda principally from a ground pounder perspective. While the book makes clear that both pre-planned and on-call CAS was crucial to the operation from the get-go, and concedes that the Air Force was only vaguely involved in the planning of the operation, it does little to analyse the eventual failures of fixed wing CAS (both the pre-planned and the on-call) that it says occurred. Several things from the book struck me as curious: 1) That AF planners at the CAOC seemed so inflexible when an expanded list of targets was created in the build-up to the operation, despite seemingly having…

Anybody taking bets on whats going to get cut in the upcoming years (the possible purges due to massive DoD budget cuts)? Anyone have any ideas? My hope is reflective belts, but I have a feeling it may be A/C, flying hours and maybe even pilots.

Is the AF getting the Harvest Hawk package like the USMC for their C-130s? It would be an added plus for the airlift fleet and bring more fight to the enemy. Tac Air isn't needed as much when the largest enemy vehicle is a Toyota 4x4 in Afgan. Let the C-130s drop the Candy and see who picks it up. If it's the bad guys, fire them up. Perhaps the CoS being an old AC-130 guy will find the funding. How much would one F-35 cost anyway? Bet you can get 5 Harvest Hawk packages for the price of one F-35. Are there any AF C-130 crews that would like to pickup that additional mission? Better than flying a RPV in getting kills.

Small jet with two aboard crashes at Lubbock airport Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Thursday, May 22, 2008 Story last updated at 5/22/2008 - 2:10 am A U.S. Air Force plane crashed just north of the Lubbock airport Wednesday night. The small twin-engine jet appeared to be on final approach to Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport when it crashed just outside the airport fence at 9:49 p.m., said James Loomis, the airport's director. Two people were on board. No critical injuries were reported. Loomis couldn't say Wednesday night if weather caused the plane to crash. "The Air Force will conduct its investigation," he said, adding the crash would not affec…

USAF Open to sending A-10s to Ukraine

https://www.wtkr.com/news/military/la-fi-bunker-buster-bomb-20111117,0,7519435.story Pretty cool, but by my math that's over $15M per boom. I hope we're getting more than just 20 for our money.

Saw a Gulfstream V today on the ramp at CWF on my student solo from Corpus. Wow! What a plane. Meticulously (go ahead spell check Nazi's!) maintained, plush interior and avionics like I've only seen in movies (I thought Tweets to C-12 was a big jump!). One of the pilots was nice enough to give us a tour and a brief rundown on the capabilities (Ceiling FL 510, etc..) Amazing. Just wondering if any of the active flyers have gotten the DV airlift assignment and what they thought of it? Seems like working with 4 stars could have some great perks and some pretty big drawbacks too.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/fbi-investigating-air-force-helicopter-shooting/index.html Discuss....

All, I know this forum is mainly geared towards pilot talk, but perhaps someone out there may be able to assist. I am a current ROTC masters student (heading to Columbus AFB hopefully before the next millennium), in the process of writing a thesis. I was curious if anyone who has done the same and has used/gone-through the USAF Institutional Review Board...or knows how to submit/get approval for human subject proposals, or knows their basic protocol. Last I heard they were located out at Brooks city-base...but that may have changed, according to the site and the PR lady located there. Any information would be of great help. Thanks. Riebs

Just saw this in the news this morning. I thought this would have already been posted here, but couldn't find it. I'd like to buy this guy a beer. I bet he has some insane stories. U.S. Air Force veteran accused as mercenary in Libya’s civil war is freed June 25 at 10:48 PM An American Air Force veteran who was accused of acting as a mercenary in Libya has been freed after a six-week detention, officials said Tuesday, in a murky episode that highlights the tangled nature of that country’s civil war. Jamie Sponaugle, a 31-year-old Florida man, was piloting an aircraft near the Libyan capital of Tripoli on May 7 when his plane went down, according to off…

https://m.ktxs.com/news/small-plane-crash-near-abilene-regional-airport/27818540 RIP...

I recently heard that the rules on wearing partial PT uniforms had changed... ie people could now workout while wearing just the shorts and a civilian t-shirt or vice versa, so long as they were not at an official formation. I was in the gym recently with a buddy when he mentioned to one of the enlisted troops we work with that folks might get upset about partial uniform. I spoke to him afterwards and told him I'd heard that the rules had changed but I'd look into it... Anyone got the low-down? Did the regs change? - PS. I thought I asked in another post but I couldn't find the post or topic. Feel free to add your other PT uniform gripes/complaints here. Oh yeah,…

Edited for expired info

Saw this article this morning. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/21363/usaf-reveals-timelines-and-basing-plans-for-its-huge-adversary-support-contract

https://www.examiner.com/x-5411-Military-an...road-less-taken

Well, I guess we now know where the airframes are coming from for the VC-25A replacement. https://www.defenseone.com/business/2017/08/russian-air-force-one-boeing-trump-747/139872/