Leaderboard

FWIW, according to the AF Historian, in a 100% unclassified source, there were. Thanks to the anonymous tipper who pointed the way to that.

Depends. CDIs report facts and investigators publish their conclusions. Commanders make career decisions if appropriate. In my CDI I spent a month investigating alleged UCMJ violations and the WG/CC decided on a punishment based on the facts in the report. The investigator usually doesn’t make recommendations unless requested by the commander.

See my post above regarding hours. I wanted to address the mention of the ANG performing the fire mission. The ANG does operate up to 6 (I think) C-130 MAFFS units when called upon during the fire season on a nation wide basis. The MAFFS is a roll on system that holds 3000 gal of retardant. It uses pressurized air to force the retardant out through a nozzle placed in the aft/left door. All the other tankers on the line (except the 747) use a gravity fed, continuous flow drop system, so there are some differences in drop pattern. The main difference is the level of certification between the MAFFS crews and your typical Tanker crew. All CalFire and most Federal contract tankers have Captains that are carded for Initial Attack (IA). This allows a captain to size up a fire, talk to ground resources, and potentially drop without any other aerial supervision over the incident. The MAFFS and VLATS (DC-10s/747) are not IA carded and require not only aerial supervision, but also a Lead Plane to drop. This is not intended to be critical, just pointing out the differences in case anyone was curious. Our program at CalFire is very focused on the Initial Attack part of fighting fire. The airplanes are dispatched like fire engines at the first smoke report. It's an aggressive and rewarding way to fight fire. NOTE: If any MAFFS pilot sees any errors in my post, please contact me and I'll change it. Just going by what I've learned talking to MAFFS guys.

Based on your comment in the other thread, what answer were they looking for on 5 lol, that you'd chain yourself to the guard gate until they gave you a slot?

For whatever its worth I often tell people the single biggest mistake i made in UPT was not giving helos any serious consideration at track select. There was something about the culture at UPT at the time that just implied you would want a jet. Not sure I would have gone that direction but I'm dissapointed in myself for not considering it more. I do remember though, on career day, the C-130 dude and the C-17 dude got in a dick measuring contest. I think the C-17 argued they could land shorter than a 130 but the 130 said they flew low level lower than the C-17. Rucker instructor gets up there next, scratches his neck, looks around, and says "well I don't know what all this pissing match is, but I will tell you we can fly lower and land shorter than both C-17s and C-130s." Whole room got a chuckle and that dude got mad cred for dropping bombs.

What I can remember from Tulsa at the moment In 30-90 seconds, tell me about yourself Mental math question varied from person to person, mostly multiplication and division Identify: F-15, F-16, F-18, T-38, T-6, SU-27, U-2, B-1, Robin Olds Why you and not the other guys? What will you do if we don't hire you? Where are you in 10 years? Video: you just killed 7 people. How do you feel? How will you interact with the enlisted? How can you improve interactions with the enlisted? I see a lot of knowledge on your resume; teach me something We talked to the person who hates you the most/likes you the least. What would they say, and why? Would you rather fight a horse sized duck, or 100 duck sized horses? Will edit if I remember more

^checks They give you the guide and you sit down with legal, EO, whoever else that’s applicable. You work close with those folks to make sure you’re staying in your lane and using the governing AFIs specific to what you’re dealing with. They review your report before you ever present it to the cc. The cc then decides what to do or not to do. End of the day you’re gathering facts and presenting it. It’s not that cosmic and it’s not something done recklessly.

I've been tagged to do one. I got a 10 minute powerpoint presentation and then a 15 minute discussion with the JAG. I did get some support and advice during the investigation, so that helped.

Works like a champ!

Shack. I had to do a CDI and my report was 30 pages. My unit was a tenant to the Wing. I told my CC that the JAG office and GP/CC didn't account for people who have mental health problems. They shouldn't be interviewed unless a trained psychologist is present. The AF doesn't know what they are doing when dealing with people. I annotated this in my final report. "Personnel who have to see mental health or are currently on medications as a result should not be interviewed."

Sure! My Legal Advisor emailed me a copy of the CDI Guide and showed me the Manual for courts Martial (available online by the way). He was there to answer any questions I had and to give guidance but for the rest I had to “self-learn myself”.

The problem is the AF is firing commanders for the wrong reasons. Something written on a flight room white board gets 4 guys fired. That is a huge overreaction, unless there’s more to the story. Meanwhile, the AF is riddled with “leaders” who screw their people over time and time again in an effort to push their own careers forward. Commanders aren’t fired for making their people miserable and for contributing to the AF’s retention problem. They are fired for not stopping some random dumbass from writing something stupid in some flight room. Why would I bet my career on the AF when it can be ruined for something like that?

I agree with Jice - pick the mission you want to do and don't look back. If I wasn't a fighter pilot, I'd fly helos - they're pretty badass. During the preceding 6 months to my last deployment and throughout the 7 months of my deployment the 60s had zero rescues. That's a good thing in the big picture, but I understand that can be frustrating for the bros. That said, they still flew missions and I had a blast hanging out with them and getting to work with them. They still took small arms fire, so it's not like you go to AFG and never get to do anything...you're still flying a 60 through crazy terrain and doing some shooting. In the end, you never know what the future holds...we could very easily be back to a large scale war where the Army cannot organically handle all of its CASEVAC/PR needs.

My favorite part is we spend all our time on here complaining about piss-poor leadership. Then whenever leadership is removed for cause, there's always a brigade of people calling the guy who got removed "the best commander I ever worked for" and saying "it wasn't the commander, it was his subordinates". I wonder which leadership the board actually thinks deserves to be removed. Because if this is the kind of environment guys are cheering for...holy hell, what's left to remove someone that the salty aviators of BODN would actually agree with?

I wish Ohio had wildfires.

Initiation fees, monthly mandatory safety meetings that make you ineligible to fly if you miss them, FCIF system, sign offs by chief instructors 3-7 days in advance for any plan that left the local area, annual instrument tests, etc. I looked into it at Offutt, and the bylaws were beyond stupid. It was like all the backwards of an operational squadron with the bonus of paying monthly dues and $120-150/hr for a plane. So yeah, most shut down, and I can understand why.

I like to think that there's a Russian BODN out there where some salty comrade's cracking jokes right now about getting their dock wet courtesy of ЪѻƵip's mom

Pumps got stuck on, huh...that's interesting.

Hopefully someone bothered to look at the feasibility of adding AR requirements to IFF. I hear our tanker force is quite robust with lots of availability on their hands.

Well Gents, it’s been fun but Duck is now a twice passed over Captain on his way out the door. I appreciate all of you who reached out and offered me advice throughout the years. I know that I will have a ton of questions going forward as I transition to the next step. This community is awesome and I love (most of) you guys.

2 folks got picked up literally today at Tulsa