Leaderboard

I would reshingle all of downtown Minneapolis, naked, in January, and then run an ultramarathon through the Sinai in July for the privilege of murdering these lunatics. "It's their country" be damned . . . some things need to get purged from the gene pool from the barrel of a gun. To whom much is given, much is expected. I can't volunteer to put anyone's neck on the line but my own, but this stuff . . . yeah. Give me any CAS platform still flyable, and I'll do it for free.

Sounds like he picked that battle..

You'll likely have to go in to finance and get it fixed after you are paid. I had to get it fixed since they assumed it was Aug pay for me. For the total tax situation, expect a few W-2Cs...

Dude, what's your problem?

Ok, this comparison needs to get qualified, because at face value it's complete bullshit. The current CP of the BBJ division at Boeing was a squadronmate of mine at the old unit. Interesting stories about delivery flights to China and Saudi, and the gucci lifestyle. That civilian gig is nice indeed. What it is also, is extremely rare of a position and the result of multi-decade networking and hovering around the manufacturer. But of course, that tidbit gets swept under the rug when making these comparisons. To be fair, by VOLUME, manufacturer pilot jobs are to top-4 121 carrier pilot jobs what ONE Miss America pageant is to JCPenney retail positions nationally. It would be rather foolish to put all your eggs in that teeny tiny basket. Also, a distinction needs to be made between delivery/training pilots and test pilots. I looked into the latter and frankly was rather underwhelmed with their aggregate compensation, for the level of box-checking competitiveness they require on paper. A knuckledragging airline pilot beats the lifetime earnings of a test pilot by quite a bit, with less employer turnover, which is crazy considering we're talking about unstable airline jobs in the first place. Test pilots suffer from the same career nomadism and job loss as company pedestrian engineers, and require willingness to relocate to stay gainfully involved in the industry. This, to avert the alternative of switching to printer toners across the street 'cause mama is sick of moving every 5-7 years because you insist on having 'aerospace' attached to your pedestrian job label. So it's completely inaccurate to suggest test gigs are homestead central. From my conversations with some of them, it seems one becomes a test pilot because one like to geek out about 32nd decimal place validations of the 20th iteration of a 737/Bombadiér, for 90K median. Outside of new materials and avionics, there's nothing flight dynamics relevant about airplanes anymore, but I digress. At any rate, these jobs are separate and apart from the delivery/training pilot jobs you're probably referring to, which are gucci indeed. Also let's disclose that mother Boeing is indeed undercutting the luxury of that job, as they continue to utilize contract positions (read: walmart benefits) to fly their iron. Cool if you have Uncle Sugar medical/retirement benefits, not so cool if you don't. So things are not all that rosy on that side either, and we're talking about less than 1000 jobs worth of access here between manufacturers, not 5,000+ like in the airlines. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2012-09-12/boeing-pilots-protest-use-contractors-train-787-crews In the end, there's plus and minuses to every job, but to me, a job I can only speak of getting is not a good job at all. Median expectations are what matters in the end; I just don't think it's fair to juxtapose a dozen six-figure equipment manufacturer jobs at any given time to thousands of six figure 121 carrier positions. I think most people here are more likely to get a job with Delta than they are to get a job delivering BBJs for the manufacturer, with otherwise IDENTICAL resumes. We are carbon copies of each other, here in blue Shawshank. But hey, if you got [regular/sugar]daddy/mommy on the board and one of these gigs is waiting for ya after you're done with the 20 year Air Force combat desk deployment kabuki, I'm certainly not gonna hate on that. Talking to my old squadron bud, that's one hell of a job you'd be getting into. Good luck to all.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Islamic world; Some thoughts/my theory. FGM in the Islamic world might be the result of biological shortcomings and associated long term psychological effects. Kind of like a genetic, trait based/induced, version of PTSD that can be passed on for generations. I suspect that the worlds Muslim male population has a significantly higher percentage of members infected with Short Man Complex/Short Penis Syndrome when compared to the rest of planet earths male population. To make matters worse, there seems to be large segment of Muslim males that suffer from extreme cases of what's called "Micro-Penis Syndrome". Muslim male Micro-Penis Syndrome sufferers are the easiest to identify since they tend to disproportionally (my best estimate; 99.9% of the them) be your stereotypical Islamic fundamentalist/extremist/Jihadist.

" economical driven" is simply another way of saying cheap skilled labor from the 3rd world. Companies like Bank of America are lobbying hard to open the flood gates of skilled labor visas. If you don't believe me there is an entire apartment complex in Charlotte full of computer analyst that are contracted by the Ta Ta corporation from India. They bring these people over for 6 months at a time, cram 6-8 in an apartment, and pay them 1/3 of what they used to pay a skilled American worker. Both political parties are an abysmal failure. Democrats what to turn these people into a future constituency, the republicans want to appease the cheap labor lobby who want to exploit them for cheap labor. Here's another fun fact, culturally Hispanic aliens vote for whoever is giving out the bacon in their own countries. They are not, as a voting block, value voters. Pat Buchanan has made the most articulate argument regarding this issue. He is absolutely correct when he says that America is no longer a country, but rather a "geographical expression" when you take into consideration the apathetic response to the current invasion.

Fogleman, not Foglesong.

Karl, I hear you. I don't see the exodus in my world yet, but I know it is out there and it will hurt. People are tired and they are sick of the bullshit. The culture of compliance, risk aversion (Korea alcohol ban), infatuation with glorifying support missions and ridiculous move towards complete centralized control are crushing us. There is no end to the deployments, ops tempo or chickenshit priorities, and the airlines are hiring and our skills are in high demand in many industries. Retention is a problem we need to get on now, and listening to those who are disgusted and separating is important. Now, I'm deployed again and life is good. Mission focus, no bullshit, killing the enemy, protecting the friendlies and the innocent. It is why I joined. Protecting what makes our AF great is why I'll continue to serve until asked to leave. If I knew how to put one of those beer mugs at the end I would do that here ___.

Jessica Rabbit was hot, she had curves where curves should be; this marionette chick has got the body of Jill Metzger (i.e. a five year old boy)...

Chuck, I typically agree with your posts, but I've seen this line of discussion from a number of officers. "We cannot afford to be the worlds police." I understand the sentiment, but it fails to ask the cost when peace breaks down. We rely on the free flow of world trade to support our economy. The news is already starting to ask if events in Iraq will effect gas prices. Its important because "every $10 increase in the price of oil shaves 0.5 percent of global growth." When global security breaks down, it comes with a cost. I believe that the cost of ceding our leadership and security role will exceed what we save on decreased military spending. Beyond that, I am not sure I trust another nation to enforce a world order that would still be favorable to our way of life.

I only drove around to the front once, and that was because I wanted a little extra time to prep. Had a house on Innerarity Point. Worked with Innerarity Realty, located on Sorrento Rd. just north of the intersection with Gulf Beach/Innerarity. It's run by a bunch of retired Navy guys. They are fair and easy to work with. I loved it out there. Lived about 2 miles down Innerarity Point Road. You never really have to leave that area around Perdido. Handful of restaurants on the water all around you. Not really touristy, say like Pcola Bch or Gulf Shores. There's a WinnDixie & Publix at the intersection before the bridge to Perdido along with a hardware store. Everything's there. Johnson Bch on Perdido Key is a Nat'l Park, so you get a free pass with a Mil ID. That also helps cut down on crowds. If you have kids, they'll go to Helen-Caro Elementary which is great. My personal favorite place was Hub Stacey's on Innerarity Point. Live music 3 nights/wk, 50 cent wings & $2 drafts all day, every day.

What..I don't get...... THERE it is.

Ok. Here's the skinny fellas.... I. The contentions of working as a commuting TR are highly dependent on the unit. The units will establish their willingness to pay for the reimbursement of legal traveling and lodging costs for their non-local members depending on how difficult it is for said unit to staff their place. Units in shithole locations, or alternatively units with airframes that are not cool (i.e. not fighters and whatever else shit) will tend to exhibit greater willingness to endure the cost of traveling TRs and the paid travel gravy train. Those units that do not have such need, will likely not play that game and thus resort to the more typical commuting restrictions fighter units have been known for since forever. Figure out what type of unit you work for. The intent of the ARC was based on hometown unit models; the reality of Congressional pork belly has been an effective subversion of that intent and as such the hometown outcome is not universally true. Thence the reality of traveling cost for TRs in shitty locale/shitty airplane units. II. Some units originally affected by the 2005 BRAC and other force restructurings that led the iron dislocated from their current/qualified members, have been allowed to reimburse commuting TRs for travel to perform IDT status, which in normal units is NOT a reimbursable expense to the member. Lodging cost reimbursement in the form of unit direct billing however, IS an entitlement for non-local TRs while performing IDT duty in all units, not just units approved for "IDT travel" reimbursement. Paragraph I caveats apply to whether or not you find yourself employed by either type of unit. At any rate, the IDT travel reimbursement is 12 vouchers a year, up to 300 dollar actual cash value last time I checked, all receipts must be included (i.e. you can't get away with not submitting receipts under 75 bucks when it comes to an IDT travel reimbursement voucher). III. GTFO with that bullshit about traveling to work for free on RPA/MPA or AT status God damn it. Lodging only weekends while on a "1" status, living like god damn riddle kids out of a crash pad a la regional airlines because the unit promised you mandays if you play good house------a'. Mother blue loves that. Whoring out your skillset because you love wearing that bag. Rule#1 of the Reserves: you don't show up to work when not in status. Rule #1a: you certainly, DO NOT, travel for free when you're entitled to travel reimbursement, as some sort of a precondition of being given work. Travel entitlements and lodging are the price of freedom and when you give it up to play soldier for free the rest of the bros take it in the checkbook. We don't want to go back to the Country Club days of the Guard/Res; stop that shit. Your unit must have given you the spiel before they decided to hire you. If the place is located in a shithole and people can't make a lucrative living close by, then that's the price they got to pay to get you to work. Otherwise you buck up and move to the location and pursue your duty without the traveling reimbursement or per diem entitlement that's absent to a local area guy. But you do not wipe your ass with the JTFR and set an erosive precedent at the expense of your brothers. I'm a middle-of-the-road guy by age/rank but an old timer by Reserve longevity and nothing fires me up more than some of the folks within the current crop of AD separatees, anxious as hell to get out of AD but then turn around and turn the Reserves into a low-tier regional airline operation with their work-for-free shenanigans. If you actually want to make it to your 20 year letter you should have a vested interest in internalizing what I'm saying. Y'all want to keep the Reserves a place that's reasonable to not only work in, but to get to. Some new hires are coming in with the touch n go mentality of "ill just do this to finish out my loose ends then I'm outta here" and it's screwing up the place for everybody. Don't be that guy. Be honest with the unit, have a plan, and do not forego your travel entitlements if the unit agrees to hire you as an outside-commuting area guy. Hold the line god damn it, I feel like a teamster rep drawing it in crayons for some of you guys. Congratulations to all those parolees and welcome to the ARC, where flying, getting paid and not upsetting your civilian employer is our priority...well, at least that is my commitment to my TRs, as one who has BTDT myself. Good luck to all of you making the transition.