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Last Doolittle Raider Dick Cole passed away at 103 years old, IAW af.mil and other sources. Ref: https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1809760/lt-col-dick-cole-last-surviving-doolittle-raider-passes-away-at-age-103/ Thank you for your service sir. Not just the Raid, which was HUGE and I'm sure many thought was a suicide mission, but all your contributions to the war effort and beyond. 🥃

Someone has not been paying attention.

During an unpleasant time in my life, I was an ALO attached to an armor battalion. We were doing a night live fire exercise so 105mm main guns, .50 caliber, 25mm chain guns, TOW missiles, and, the winner for spectacular effects and crowd pleaser, APC mounted 20mm vulcan shot at ground targets. As a Hawg driver, we talked a lot about big sky, little bullet theory but, to quote the military historian Ho Lee Fuk, "That's a whole lot of metal going a long way uphill via richochets." The big, fast stuff like 105mm and TOWs had to be topping out better than 1000 feet on occasion. Seeing that stuff bounce at night really changed my thoughts on pressing hard target slant range cease fire distance.

Go find a night strafe video. Those bulkets go everywhere off the berm

I had a different take-away - he decided that after two investigations and a minimal amount of hard evidence, he wasn't going to waste everyone's time and the taxpayer dollars on a third investigation.

This sounds like a "possible" case of the F-16 running into a ricocheted projectile (20mm round) during a typical air to ground strafing run on one of their local training ranges/targets? Low level - strafing/rocket attacks/bomb drops/etc can be risky business.

For the next 6-9 years, I don’t think finding a full time position in the ARC will be that hard. When the airlines stop hiring maybe it’ll go back to the old days of having to kill your own mom to get one, but those days are over...for now. At your age, I highly recommend pursuing the ARC...nothing wrong with going fighters in UPT as a guard guy (and I say that as a previous AD guy who didn’t go to ENJJPT and had to compete for 38s and a fighter assignment).

Fresno Guard. Standard. At least it wasn't embezzlement this time....

That's how we've always done it too. When we were home for a year, gone for six months, we would spend the first six months home running through all the high-end fight stuff - defensive tactics, large-scale JDAM, stand-off weapons, package integration, concluding with a Red Flag. Then we'd shift over the CAS to spin up for deployment, concluding with a Green Flag. Then we'd deploy. Of course, that meant we were spending as much time on CAS as all out other missions combined, but it was also the only mission we were actually executing in the real-world.

Two things and two things only fix this: 1. Major near peer war w stop loss implementation 2. 2008 level deep recession with airline furloughs. Couldn’t have happened to a better bloated and incompetent organization!

If only there was an aircraft designed to provide Attack, Observation and ISR in one airplane, ideally suited to combating VEOs in COIN & LIC, inexpensive to fly, low technical risk, easy to operate and capable of delivering a variety of effects (observation, strike, multi-int ISR) in one platform and on every mission.... This aircraft could even have an open architecture and be flown by CAF and SOF, customized for each. One might want several FMV sensors, A2A radar and the other a SAR and EO cross-cue capability, space and power for other systems in a compartment... The units equipped with this plane, could train almost exclusively for this mission set and get really good at it, allowing 4/5 gen equipped units to focus training mostly on high end fights, there could be cross-flow between these manned platforms and experience in operations across the spectrum could be gained... Sarcasm rant - Complete (P). Directed at the AF, not anyone on this thread.

Apollo 11: documentary compilation of original footage from the mission. Excellent.

Tyking, don’t take the sport bitching on this thread as an absolute measure of what being an Air Force pilot is like. It really is the best damned job in the world, we’re just all pissed because a handful of doucher bureaucrats continuously do their damndest to ruin it. That constant fight wears people down, the airlines look like a relief with all the money for nothing angle, so every indiscretion seems like the world is ending. “No morale patches! Fucking hell, the good old days are gone!” “Wait, now the CSAF is doing mustache March? That’s it, I’m shaving it off and heading to Delta!” Which they have the option to do of course, because they’re an Air Force pilot. Guard, Reserves, AD; you can’t really fuck this up. As long as you fly well, work hard, and be a bro, you’ll be fine. Just don’t join the Navy.

This is highly situation dependent. First, it is possible to interview with a Guard unit and stipulate that you're looking for a full-time position. If they don't have one available, then you opt to go elsewhere. If they want you badly enough, they may do some horse trading. Second, considering the airlines are scooping up just about every able-bodied military pilot they can get their hands on, the competition for full-time positions in the Guard may not be the feeding frenzy you think it is. Of course, YMMV depending on the units you're rushing, their manning and a myriad of other factors. But, I wouldn't just assume that locking in a full-time spot is out of the question.

Hell no, I would do it again tomorrow. There’s a lot of sport bitching from mid-career types like me, not in small part because the AF trained us to do a job that pays very well to do a quarter of the work on the outside. I wouldn’t trade having been an Air Force pilot for anything. Now if landing on boats is your thing and you feel compelled to do Naval aviation, have at it Hoss. But I’m willing to bet a few beers that the grass is no greener on that side either.

If I don’t wear a normal flight suit then how will everyone know I’m a pilot? And if no one knows I’m a pilot, then why bother being a pilot?

Anyone have updated ENJJPT info? I am a select headed there this summer as an active duty officer (O-3). I can go in blind nd ride it out, but any advice or new info would be sweet. Thanks!

He’s got 2, both for leading formation airfield seizures in OEF and OIF if I’m not mistaken. Interesting. I had the complete opposite experience with his leadership (at multiple levels). He’s got a great reputation in the Talon community, phenomenal pilot. FWIW I’m pretty sure he’s not in running for AFSOC/CC, supposedly ruffled too many feathers when he was CJSOAC-A/CC. Elton maybe, he’s headed to be the SOCOM J3 here this summer.

Every time you guys post in this thread it gets people's hopes up that the AF is actually approving Palace Chase applications only to come to this thread and find nothing about Palace Chase is actually being discussed...

Approved. 11F, 6 months off (UPT is my furthest out ADSC). I had a hiring letter, but no mention of position number, so I think the letter of intent to hire is really what matters (though I'm sure a position number doesn't hurt). Mine also sat at SAF for 7 weeks, but only took about 2 weeks from SQ/CC through AFPC to get their parts done. I learned this week SAF/PC conducts boards every so often for PC apps. So, how long your app sits at SAF is dependent on when it arrives there (right after a board just concluded vs. a week prior to a board). That explains why some people had theirs at SAF for 3 weeks and others had it there for 7 weeks.