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The greatest part are all the desktop warriors coming (sts) out of the woodworks saying those a-hole fighter pilots will no longer be needed because some ABM guy got out sim'd by the sim.

Slightly off-topic (but not by much) - I wonder how many people noticed that there were six separate links to six separate incidents in that sentence...

#gucciproblems

I've heard there is a waterfall.

British politics are the best.

The 18Xers are TDY, they're being forced into a hotel. 92T0s are PCS'd to their UPT base and the rules for that are different. For reference, the F-16 students are PCS'd here and may live wherever they like.

I believe HMN is getting a new Wing/CC soon, hopefully the lodging policy will change. The way they sold it was as if students were sitting at the on-base hotel on alert, waiting for the call to go do an EP sim. I would have a lot more respect for the outgoing CC if he had said "My hotel is rundown. I need money to fix it and the only source for that money is people using that hotel. Therefore I am requiring you to stay there because I need the money." On the plus side, taking away normal lodging options from FTU students should acclimate them to the fact that the USAF does not care about quality of life for RPA aircrew.

It's not always about kinetics. Actually having intimate familiarity with your AO and knowing the people who operate there actually counts for something. Despite what the PowerPoint warriors claim to be true on the AF side of the Puzzle Palace, ISR is the vast majority of the mission sets for COIN, not CAS. I can't even begin to fathom the number of times I was ordered to log CAS for all of my air requests, even when it was not warranted. Or breaking up a single air request so that we could have a greater number of requests for the same amount of coverage to make sure, and I wish I were kidding, the PowerPoint slides were greened up. The best way for the AF to advocate its existence with the Army during COIN operations is the LAAR and pushing the crews forward to operate with a specific Army unit. But this kind of operations mean something Big Blue would completely abhor. That being decentralized planning and execution. You would actually have to empower a pilot to go forth and conquer within the set bounds. Crazy talk I know, especially in this day and age of micromanagement. Sure, downed aircrews become a big deal, no one will argue that. There are definitely some inherent risk associated with aviation. So losing an aircraft is going to happen regardless. However, if flown properly, the risks will not be as high as the Army rotorywing assets. So are you going to tell them their risks are too high, and that they should go ahead and park their assets? The AF is doing a great job breaking its own aircraft, burning out its people and spending way too much overall. Why else would there be a push for the transition to the laser rocket? Because it is a lot more cost effective than a GBU-54 dropped by a Strike Eagle with a lot less collateral damage. Hell, just look at the success and cost of the recent OV-10 deployment the Afghanistan. Now there is a time and place for a real kick down the door fighter armed with multiple 500/2000#s of hate, like when thing get bad. Therefore the LAAR would be your armed FAC-A, working in concert with JTACs, and be a local pilot with some real knowledge of what is going on/where people are. Now you have someone that can advocate the service while gaining intimate knowledge of a specific AO to aid the local unit in kinetic and mainly non kinetic operations. Fly-Fight-Win or some such thing. This is COIN, so let's fight it that way.

So tired of the "you need to educate yourself" argument that seems to be all the rage these days. Run out of logic, just accuse your opponent of being a nitwit. Speaking of, the content between your parenthesis is missing a word or I am the nitwit cuz I have no idea what you are talking about regarding "officers being higher than". If you would like to bring something to the table, by all means, dispense your knowledge so that we may behold thine wisdom. In the mean-time, I'm going to read the opinions of those who can offer insight to this forum and have bqzip's mom make me another sammich.

Of course, the BREXIT vote has re-invigorated this...

So a little extra money in the short term (estimated to cost the average Brit around 3000 pound sterling) is worth your right to control your borders, laws, economic policies i.e. the most basic elements of your national sovereignty? Good thing nobody fought like hell and sometimes gave their life for something like that... The EU like all Globalist dreams is fundamentally flawed as it ignores the damage done to the working & middle classes of the developed world while simultaneously depriving the developing world of its best and brightest that could turn their countries around.

But the Oxford comma lost...

Freedom, courage and self-determination won... chalk up a win for the good guys, not surprised the British people rose up to the occasion...

Thanks for the support. As far as the hearing, I got a full audiological work up by and Ear Nose and Throat doctor with MRI all clear and just plain hearing loss and have letter from Dr saying fit for duty( which I have been told means zero to military). With shoulder, I have to take my surgeons word on it as it is it did not appear on my original MRI and she said she caused it during the procedure. Only way to refute would be to have another surgeon open it up and look visually. Unfortunately, I haze zero military contacts. Yes, I found James Dienst on Linkedin. I have been contemplating wether or not I should try to message/"connect" directly. Another option is trying to befriend someone one linked is of lower rank that might be willing to help out.

Wow, an eight year old quote showing I was incorrect (unfortunately). Although knowing the definition of "should" might also be of use.

Wow, the level of ignorance here is staggering. Okay, many seem to know a little something about this, but some of you claiming to be totally surprised is unexpected (my expectations of officers being higher than is realistic). This will affect Americans, and will affect (or reflect) our election. Cheers

Billeting does not great make a droid commander. Experience, spidysense, ability to follow direction, and to be able to coerce your SO to function as well as your thumb and index finger. If you're suck at droids and the skape goat is billeting (is it ACd?) there's more to the story.