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I think all of you are forgetting a pretty major fact when measuring the intrinsic value of THE USAFA. A 2Lt fresh from the zoo already has the jaded outlook & ingrained saltiness of a senior captain, but with the same ADSC as his peers. You just can't put a price tag on that kind of training.

All these "tools" are useless unless "leadership" (in some cases tools themselves) actually follow them. Story time: Had an instance deployed where a tac airlift Bravo crew showed clearly fatigued for a mission in OIF because of the switch from days to nights on the flying schedule. Bravo crews were rarely used at the time, so sitting Bravo was like a day off, and generally AMD never launched them...regardless, for some reason the crew wasn't well rested. They all signed in maxing out the ORM for fatigue so it required OG or WG/CC approval. They were all still willing to fly, they just wanted to make it known that they were tired. OG said go. DO didn't want the crew to fly because they physically looked exhausted and this happened to be a high priority mission with a max duty day so, the DO said "nope ya'll aint going. " In other words, he exercised some leadership and judgment knowing that the crew had minimal sleep the night before for whatever reason. Information the OG/CC didn't care to ask about before just saying "go" Anyway, DO calls AMD to recommend canceling the first line of the day (normally scheduled water pallet shuttle) to cover for the Bravo crew, which is exactly what AMD did. Word gets back to the OG and the DO got scolded, the original crew nearly got sent home, and...that's right...the ORM got changed so that you could max out fatigue on ORM and still be legal to go without OG or WG/CC approval. Basically the "leadership" didn't want to have to make a decision on a high priority mission that might make them look bad if it goes badly. That was the moment I realized we have been promoting the wrong people. No one with any authority wants to make decisions anymore...it might make them look bad. They pass it to the lowest level so they can hang them when things don't go well. ORM shouldn't be used to try to get the lowest possible score so decisions can be made at the lowest level, but rather the highest potential score so you can identify ALL the risk and mitigate them if possible. If it requires senior leadership approval, then that should be your red flag. Yet, we pass off high-risk decision making to the lowest level relying on a pseudo 'experience' levels that may only exist on paper. Problem is we are running out of leadership above and experience at the execution level. Its ok though...we'll just keep blaming those at the lowest levels and the cycle will keep repeating itself...and we'll keep asking why and paying for more studies when the "why" is in our "leadership" or lack thereof. Another J. Daniels rant...ya'll are doing a great job! Keep it up...blah blah blah. Exactly right pcola, the problem is "leadership" above still wants their fingers in the chili on this, but want to only blame the crew when shit goes badly. Sometimes there just isn't enough experience on a crew to make a well informed decision to call out TACC like you mention above. Some of our youngest go getters are just trying to stay looking good for "the man" so those school slots are still attainable. What do you think really happens to the guys to alter the commander's priority 1 mission because they didn't feel safe completing it as fragged?

You're still alive. Bullet-proof theory proven!

Holy fuck, I hate people. BTW, newsflash: The cheesy video with the fighter escort has been around for a few years. I can speak with authority because I'm a certified Santa Tracker.

FWIW, myself and the AC had 'staches when the 4-engine flameout occurred...

Yeah, but I get this eerie feeling that this is still Schwartz's Air Force...its going to take a while to wash that stink off... Not surprised on the "Chiefed by e-mail" strateegerie. We've been doing virtual commanders calls for a while now. Virtual leadership...it is the future.

Yes, this is true. Ultra-extreme is sanguine with subtle tones of ecru; they modeled it after the color crews said they saw right before their careers ended.

Bands have been a part of military tradition and history since...forever, unlike TIB who is just a bunch of singing, dancing fags. Well done, USAF band for this performance at the Air and Space Museum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIoSga7tZPg&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgIoSga7tZPg&app=desktop

Good one, boom. Psst...your inferiority complex/jealousy is showing. Take your trolling elsewhere.

Damn this thing has a lot of features. The nearest function would be useful for us KC-10 guys. Will wearing this make us GATM compliant?

Kids these days and their damn thumbs! Back in my day we only had fingers & couldn't possibly hit two buttons at once!

*** SPOILER ALERT *** DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS READ THIS...the following message is CLASSIFIED "NO KIDS" So...someone is getting butt hurt because we add a little realism (fighter escorts...they happen all the time) to probably the biggest marketing scams on the planet (Santa Claus on Christmas)? WE are ruining Christmas by adding a military theme to the "Santa Tracking Tradition" Really? Do they know who is NORAD is and what do they do? (que Arnold Schwarzenegger accent). Fuck liberals. I guess I've learned two disappointing things today. 1) Military does not run NORAD 2) There is no Santa Claus ** Note: This message was brought to you by Mr Daniels Tennesee Honey Whisky! I guess I'm late to the party and just tried that shit! And just in case any kids read through this and realized there is no Santa..um...don't believe everything you read kid. There is a Santa....aaaand if you don't get your mom to show me her boobs, Santa will not bring you ANYTHING for Christmas this year...

You're into dudes? That's cool, to each their own.

Isn't plaid reserved for ludicrous ORM? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The NSA can listen to everyone's phone calls but not many people care. I peek into a couple windows at night and suddenly, I'm the bad guy.

Yeah, man, my complaint was directed towards them. During an AIB, will someone from TACC shoulder any of the responsibility if that person signed off on ORM that was in the highest category? Do they even get talked to about it? "Well, the pilots took the jet even though they were in the ORM "ultra-extreme" category; better just chalk this one up to pilot error/poor pilot judgment."

I'm not sure if cadets don't understand it or refuse to believe it, but they really just don't even start to comprehend on what you missed out on. No fault of your own, I'm sure drinking on a Friday night felt like madness after wearing a uniform 5 days a week and marching a parade to eat lunch before going back to get your dorm room in inspection order.

You serious Clark?

I went to the University of Hawaii on a sailing scholarship, 2 yr AFROTC, flew fighters for 11 yrs, retired early from a major airline after 24. I always wondered if I #$%* up my life by not going to the Academy.

It seems to that's what he was talking about. A mustache makes sense, it makes us more combat effective, it damn sure protects people, my mustache takes care of me and they help people develop as men. Fits every test Gen Welsh put forth.

I'm sorry.

Nothing to add, just want to be in the thread in case Gravedigger's buying...

I wonder if they mean something that I feel to be true. "Experience level" could mean that we have people that are qualified on paper as IPs, etc, but lack a great deal of real-world experience because they were upgraded quickly for a variety of reasons.

Dude, the problem is you keep posting about how great the Academy is compared to other schools. It's a good school, but it is nowhere near top 20. It is only ranked amongst schools without graduate degree programs...not really a huge pool there. Again, I've got no problem with Academy grads, however, a lot of the ones I have thought were douchebags seemed to think they graduated from MIT because they took a beginner's astro class as a management major. https://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities

Just finished "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed" by Ben Rich and Leo Janos. Absolutely incredible book that gives an extremely in-depth look at the years of blood, sweat, & tears it took to get our most secretive aircraft off the ground. Rich talks a lot about the extraordinary technological breakthroughs they made during the Cold War and how he couldn't go home and tell his wife about them. He also gives great insight into the AF Acquisition process, specifically some of the problems associated with limited budgets, extensive oversight, Pentagon bureaucracy, and maintaining a cloak and dagger over such massive top secret projects like the SR-71 and the F-117. Highly recommend. https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

or stay in and have the chance to go to clovis or altus.

Move to NJ?? No thanks man.

What did I just watch?

There is a weapons grade sense of entitlement from most of the zeros I saw come out of that DB mill. Save the AF some money and shut it down.

Paying tuition for thousands of college kids and running dets across the country also costs too much money. If you're arguing money, then your argument better be OTS only.

ROTC costs 6-9 times more than OTS. Shut it down.