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I don't know what all the whining is about. Almost 30 years so far of living like fvcking rock star. Make sure you go Hercs because it's hard to get a pallet of Makhong back from Thailand in anything else.

Ahahahahaha I just now caught what I typed. I actually meant this Paul Bannon, because those Scottish marathoners are known for their insider knowledge- https://www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.scot/paul-bannon/

Before you sign the dotted line for your AD UPT slot, take the time to reach out to every single Guard/Reserve unit that you can. It would be worth waiting another 12-18 months to ensure you have autonomy over your life for the next decade. Additionally, you'd be able to keep the civilian job you have, take Mil leave, and then go back to it when you're done with your seasoning orders. The risk of foregoing your civilian career only to end up in a UAV should be a legitimate concern. Attenuate said risk by getting yourself a Guard/Reserve flying job. 90% of the paperwork battle has already been fought if you were awarded an AD position; capitalize on the AF's need for pilots and call your own shots.

Here’s a question: What place does any discussion about Hillary Clinton have in an argument about whether Donald Trump and his administration are fit to govern? Seriously, I see this all the time and it bugs the shit out of me. Trump is the president of the United States. Hillary is a private citizen. If she is guilty of a crime, try her and dole out whatever punishment is appropriate. Totally separate issue from what’s going on in the White House and does not belong in the same discussion. It’s like trying to pin Iran Contra on Walter Mondale. The Hillary discussion, regardless of whatever merit it may or may not have, is just chaff, meant do distract. I wonder why the administration feels such an urgent need to turn everybody’s heads in some other direction? Trump is the president, not Hillary. Frankly, I don’t give a fuck about what happens to her, what she says publicly, how much she gets paid for speeches, or whether she still gives Bill head. None of that will affect the economy, immigration, crime, US foreign power, or American sovereignty.

Don Jr. (a campaign surrogate) agrees to meet with Natalia Veselnitskaya (a foreign national with ties to her government) with the express purpose of getting damaging information on Hillary Clinton (a political opponent in a national election). The implication according to some: the Trump campaign colluded with Russians in order to unlawfully change the outcome of a presidential election, bringing into question the legitimacy of Trump's presidency. ----------- Marc E. Elias (a campaign surrogate) pays Christopher Steele (a foreign national with ties to his government and the Russian government) with the express purpose of getting damaging information on Donald Trump (a political opponent in a national election). The implication according to those screaming Trump collusion: Just normal campaign work by a motivated candidate and her staff.

A few questions that can perhaps be answered without bias? 1. Did Obama weaponize the IRS against 501/3 (C) conservative organizations? Yes...which at least plants the seed of believably that it was done with the FBI as well. 2. Did Hillary mishandle VERY classified information and was she given a pass? Yes and how Liberals can give her a pass is beyond me. How was the outcome memo drafted BEFORE they even interviewed her? She lost...so what, that doesn't mean you ignore the law...PERIOD FUCKING DOT. 3. Did Comey purposely release leak information to the press through a friend? Was any of this information classified? Yes he leaked it...was that legal? If ANY of these questions have an unbiased yes answer then there is at least the potential something nefarious happened inside the FBI. Despite the firings and resignations, the only guilty pleas appear to be related to lying to the FBI, ZERO evidence of collusion thus far....we shall see what comes out in the long run. IMHO the Justice Department IG investigation will be far more damning and telling than the Mueller investigation.

Don't be a pussy. Do it. "Thirty years from now when you're sitting by your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks, 'What did you do in the great World War Two?' You won't have to cough and say, 'Well, your granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.'"

26 years and I would NOT do it again, but "MY" thoughts probably deserve an explanation. Did I have a blast flying, yes. Did I have incredible life experiences, yes. Did I serve with incredible people, yes. Did I leave the organization hating what it was and what it did to me, yes. There are truly some sick horrendous people in the senior ranks and it sickens me to see them in leadership positions where they have done real and lasting injury to families and careers. That being said, those people exist in all walks of life and for most the rewards of flying offset the negative. I passed on Med School to go to UPT and there will always be a part of me that wonders how a walk down that life path would have turned out. That being said, there is one thing I would not change and that is the relationships with the brothers and sisters I flew with. I continue to mentor many of them to this day...but in all honesty, late at night with a glass of brown liquor and the perspective of age, I sometimes wonder if it was all a waste. In the end I would recommend you follow your heart. Don't live in fear of the experience of others, make your own path so you are not sitting on your porch one day wondering what could have been.

God damn it. Fucking do it.

Last October 2017, the IRS admitted, due to a court order, that it had deliberately and repeatedly targeted for adverse action and/or delay conservative groups. It also paid an undisclosed penalty to be split among those groups. The only links I can find covering the court decision and IRS statement are right-leaning, so why bother posting since the messenger will be the focus and not the facts. The FBI officials that I believe involved in both the Hillary shenanagans and the Trump investigation were, until, recently, the FBI's General Counsel, the FBI's Chief of Staff, the FBI's head of the CI division, the FBI's deputy director, and the FBI director. None of them were Trump appointees. Holdovers? Yes. Appointed? No. All of this - the IRS, the unmasking of Americans by the NSA, and the FBI's seemingly lax investigation of Hillary's e-mail (along with all the details I posted earlier), etc, etc, etc - matters because if one side gets away with it, sure as sh1t the other side will go there and beyond. Democrats and Republicans will happily use instruments of force against us if we let them. edited to add: And from the FBI's leaders behavior thus far revealed, there are those in those institutions willing to help with that use. I'm agin that.

Looks like you can now carry to and from base at Creech/Nellis per the ABW/CC. The letter was posted on the fb page today.

They are saying fly only guys will fill flying related jobs all the way to the staff level - training, Stan/Eval, flight safety, etc. I would expect a wing chief of Stan/eval to be a Lt Col whether he is fly only or not. If I were on that track and became a gray-beard tactical expert high time evaluator, I would also expect to compete for on time promotion to Lt Col, instead of being penalized for 2 years. If you’re choosing the fly only track to avoid greater responsibility then I agree you shouldn’t be handed Lt Col. I just want my increased responsibility to be related to the mission, not planning change of command or other queep.

They quoted a spokes “woman” in the article and I’m surprised they put woman as nowadays people don’t want to be gender identified.

1. Did you read the final Treasury IG Report? "In a prior audit, TIGTA determined that the IRS used inappropriate criteria to select tax-exempt applications for further review."..."While most of the potentially political applications that the IRS set aside for heightened scrutiny were Tea Party and conservative groups, the IRS also flagged some left-leaning tax-exempt applicants for processing. In order to centralize these cases for review and processing, names and descriptions of several left-leaning groups were placed on the BOLO spreadsheet. Some left-leaning applicants experienced lengthy processing delays and inappropriate and burdensome requests for information." Do i want the IRS to do its job, yes. Do I want them to observe the rule of law, ABSOLUTELY. The rate of right versus left groups reviewed was 10:1 and as noted before if this was all above board why did good ole Lois plead the 5th? 2. AGAIN, what difference does it make if she won or lost? The issue is did she break the law and when you say she has already been cleared there are still many questions given the people who cleared her. I notice you didn't address the memo Comey drafted clearing her before she was even interviewed? Why did McCabe push up his retirement the day after the IG visited the director? What about changing the language...careless...gimme a break. The people at the center of clearing her have at least the perception of impropriety and for the American people that deserves a non-partisian look. 3. Comey testified under oath...oh well, that clears it all up for me. I do not believe him and I hope we get a true read one way or the other on the classification of what he released. Either way his self-righteous Twitter posts are sickening. I disagree with Trumps Tweets and attacks on the FBI. I disagree with many things Trump has said and done, but some very shady things went down under Obama and as a citizen I think we deserve the truth. When Mueller's report comes out I think you will see a few more people on the edges charged with obstruction and lying. Don Jr will look like an even bigger stooge, but there will be no collusion. Given all the leaks don;t you think that would have leaked by now? When the IG report comes out I think we will see a few rogue FBI folks did some very bad things as they attempted to stop Trump from taking office. I think we will also find deep connections between the dossier and the Clinton campaign. In the end, America is paying the price, more divided than we have been in 100 years.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2018/02/05/u-2-versus-global-hawk-why-drones-arent-always-the-best-solution-for-warfighters/#6175eb0c4d7e someone is on your guys side

The prior crew chief in me was screaming the same :) We acquired some grenades on one rescue deployment and closed the unit down. Should have seen AMMO dudes face when we showed him what was in our cans.

Took the survey today. 1) They're targeting the wrong year group. They should be trying to convince mid to senior Capts that they want to stay past commitment, not change the minds of those with a foot out the door. 2) Current aviation bonus is too low. 3) "Tactical" and flying deployments. This means you're still up for that 179 to the CAOC. 4) Flying related jobs at all levels....including staff. They'll get around this by keeping you attached somewhere that you'll maybe fly once per quarter. 5) 4-5 years isn't long enough. If you want a 13 year Major, let him pick a base of choice and stay there until 20. That's homesteading. 6 & 7) Good 8) "Fly only" in zone to Lt Col would be 16 years which by my calculations is 2 years behind everyone else. Why penalize the guy who wants to fly by making him promote later? I only looked at the DOR chart for about a minute, so I might be wrong here. 9) Pilots who return to traditional track are still locked in for 20 years. Some good ideas here, but the biggest issue is that these "guarantees" are still dependent on big blue keeping its word. We all know where that leads.

Great advice here. FWIW, my only "ragret" is staying beyond initial commitment. Staff is super lame.

Also took it recently....seems like the only thing you’d gain is “flying related jobs/deployment” only and the ability to stiff arm school. You trade a 7-10 year commitment for it...like signing up for a UPT commitment all over again. As mentioned that seems way to subjective to me! Doubt the Sq/OG/Wg is going to care if you are “fly only” versus traditional when they need FGO bodies for their queep. No thanks, I’ll keep my ability to 7 day opt an air advisor role or crappy assignment and take my talent/training elsewhere when active duty stops making sense for me.

6 months.

The fact that people respect you, on and off this forum, for the insight, advice, and occasional "WTF are you doing/thinking" moment is a testament to your character of not only a leader, but as a man. I don't know you personally, but a good old mentor of mine was an FE for you years ago and and said you're one of the "good ones." I'm not you, not even close, but if you positively affect the lives of this many people, then what service you did for our great country could never be considered a waste.

It’s not science fiction.

Well, you're going to get people like @Duck and @BashiChuni, giving their completely valid and "right" responses to your question. It's a completely subjective question, man. Two people can work the same job, with the same pay and the same perks... but come home at the end of the day and feel vastly different. That's life. No one is going to tell you anything here that you don't already know, or can't google already. At an absolute bare minimum, you need to be visiting Guard/Reserve/AD bases in your area. Talk to every person in a bag that you see. Ask questions, pick their brains, learn the lessons that they have to offer. Gain as much experience and info as you can and then sit down with yourself and hash it out.

I’ve heard that in the Airlines the printers are already mapped at each computer......unheard of in the mil.

I don't get it.

In my perfect little world that won't ever exist, if you graduate high school and enlist in the military, you get college paid for, if you want to go back in after college, you go in as an Officer. If you don't want to join the military, but you still want college paid for, you do some sort of peace corps for America. You go be a part of civil service programs all across the country, just like the military you don't get a choice where you go, then you go to college. Either way, we pull Americans out of their sheltered little lives and expose them to the rest of this country, while simultaneously serving the country and it's diverse population and needs. What does this do? Maybe after working side by side with people of different ethnicities, skin colors, religious etc, people get more tolerant. Vice just staying in their town surrounded by the same ol same ol. More buy in, more tolerance (hopefully), more leaders and generations who feel like they did something for the US and they want to protect what they invested in.

Oh, yay, the Russian argument. 1. Show me the proof of “hacking”...it’s been over a year. 2. The US influences elections all the time. 3. If Russia did cause Hillary to lose, we should be thanking them. 4. Remember “it’s not rigged, your just losing” from the dems just before the election? If Hillary had won it wouldn’t be an issue. Hacking the DNC for politicL intel is not hacking an election. The dems keep changing definitions and metrics to fit your poorly founded “Russia” argument and whine fest. We hear about it every few months when the racism, sexism arguments don’t pan out. Truly desperate and really sad to watch the sinking ship of the left.

Don't be surprised if the investigation reveals a huge chunk of Trump's wealth was gained via money laundering, specifically laundering for Russians.