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The only thing you can count on in the Air Force is to not count on the Air Force. Nothing would surprise me at all. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I spent a lot of time with the Kurds over the last few years and I think we should support them in getting their own state. Drastic, for sure, but the Iraqi Army of ~20k abandoned Mosul to 200 guys and the Kurds basically saved the day (including Baghdad). The only reason they’re so screwed is a treaty from post WW1 that left them in the cold. I know it’s about 15 layers deep with all the regional players and such, but they actually seem willing to join the 21st century and fight for what’s theirs.

Black magic. I forgot the part where you light candles (it's a Boeing so the candle auto-lights after selecting the FMC approach page) and throw some crew meal chicken bones onto the center console. This conjures up the ghost of C.R. Smith (founder of AA, other airlines have different ghost options) and once his ghost appears and "Descent Checklist" is selected, the V speeds appear on the flight display.

I do not ascribe to that concept. What's in our national interest? That's what's important to me. If it matches that of others, great. If not, no biggie. Those "others" have been up under our skirts since WWII (in the West anyway). They did so out their own national interests. And so it will always go.

I am surprised management at your detachment is so detached from reality. I just heard that CBM is going to send some T-38 students to Sheppard. CBMs maintenance problems have crushed their ability to train T-38 students. So, yes, I think big blue will reduce UPT slots. And please, while working for big blue falcon, always, ALWAYS “prepare for disappointment.”

I don't know what the answer is, but I know if we keep abandoning allies like this, we're going to have a hard time finding new ones when we need them.

But remember... Ugly/Fat girls will do “stuff”... because they have to. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m not at CBM, but triple turning isn’t a regular thing at DLF. Still, I’m surprised at how tired I am at this assignment. Coming from AMC I thought it would be a chance to take a breather and have a regular schedule, maybe actually get a decent amount of sleep. When I was just a line flyer gaining experience my first year, it was crushing. Show at 7 o’clock, brief, fly, land and debrief by 11:40. Phone a food order in somewhere on base so I can eat during my next briefing. Brief, fly, land and debrief by 1600. GK the studs, do the two gradesheets from earlier, and then finally have an hour to take care of real world problems before I have to go home so I have crew rest for the next day. Now as a flight commander it’s busier. I get excited when the next day’s show is more than 12 hours after the current day’s show, because it means I can have some peace and quiet during the 13th hour of the day to get my office work done and still be legal to fly the following morning. Now multiply that by 5 days a week, all month, all year, with the occasional 12 day work week because you took your students cross country.

Yeah, I know... (eyeroll). I don't believe, I don't not believe, I've never seen anything. I just don't know and don't spend much time thinking about it. However, I watched the latest JRE podcast this morning and I had never heard of this guy. If I want to hear a UFO story, I want to hear it from a pilot. Cmdr. David Fravor tells an amazing one. EDIT: This is just the first part of the podcast. The full podcast is pretty good if you have almost 2 hours.

If you're leaning towards heavies you have all the time in the world

I can't say that I do either but I won't dismiss it completely. IMO, It's a concept meant for the collective action of nations that can act and who feel compelled by their values to act. Not the responsibility of just one nation no matter how powerful/wealthy compared to others and not without the consent of the governed who will be required to serve and sacrifice for others with no definite end in sight and no assurance of success. All of those caveats have not been met by those advocating for humanitarian intervention. No honesty as to the cost, the time and risks. Powers and those who push for western nations, especially America, to act on the concept of the Responsibility to Protect along with those who push for what I would call Indefinite Engagement aren't honest about what it required to execute missions that act on these ideas and that dishonesty erodes trust in leadership, exhausts a military structured to mainly deter and win conventional conflicts and breeds a cynicism in the public that infects every other way we view our government. Joe Kent wrote a good article on this at Breitbart: https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/10/07/kent-why-president-trump-should-follow-his-gut-on-foreign-policy/ From the article: If the American people do want to go to war for human rights, then we need to reinstate the draft and double the size of the military. There are plenty of places in Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia that we would need to fight decades-long conflicts in to right the world’s wrongs. That is probably a pretty good overview for what would be needed along with financially capable Allies being required to do the same and participating in these missions with no ROE restrictions, not holding breath for that. Likely, whole conventional mission sets would need to be dropped to shift resources to grow other mission sets to handle this much demand for Occupation/Stabilization forces. I'm not for America alone to go out and fix the world but if the Western world just can't tolerate the mass tragedies then we have to be honest as to the cost, risks and requirements while explaining clearly to the people who will bear this cost as to why and what are they sacrificing for.

I would be surprised if that memo were real.

Saw a documentary on these things back in the mid-80s.

So the Kurds/SDF don’t want to be helped? It seems like they’ve been one of the better draft picks in the past few years. I get the impression that we’re conflating US strategic incoherence and collective fatigue of open ended OCOs with a willingness to walk away from those conflicts, damn the consequences (and any allies). The SDF has been one of the few competent indigenous forces that is a militarily able and willing partner who actually has a shot of policing their own territory. Walking away from them like this will have repercussions for the US as well as discourage any future state or non-state actor from working with us in the future.

Except we won’t. I’d bet a paycheck that CENTCOM was caught by surprise again. While the last pump fake may have given a sense of urgency for planning, it’ll take a decent amount of foot dragging to make any withdrawal orderly. It’s a cynically fitting end for OIR: a shitshow from the start.

Those that think AETC is a cakewalk assignment, never taught in AETC. I worked much harder instructing in AETC, day-to-day, than I ever did in AMC. I just dealt with way more knee jerk reaction that would fuck up your scheduled day events in AMC.

Same. ‘08-12 timeframe had some of the worst drops ever since the 90’s on the -38 side. And they wonder why those year groups are leaving... Second someone else’s post below about going Guard/Reserves rather than AD. FWIW, I got to teach Gen Holmes’ son when he came through UPT a few years ago...he was going straight into a fighter Guard unit. The COMACC 4-star’s son didn’t go the AD route like his father did. Let that sink in for a minute.

Received a slot with the 183rd in Jackson. Thanks for all of the advice . Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app