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I hear you but still...Where was the DO? Perhaps another needless soapbox rant but honestly I have thought about this incident 100 times over the past few days and how many different people failed this young man. Yes we can blame the institution...the writing has been on the wall for some time and others have alluded to it in this thread but in a haste to plug the holes in the damn the system made a conscious decision to push as many people as possible through the system. At a very senior level he was failed when the decision was made to start pushing basic skills training from the RTU to the ops unit. When I read the Viper bros were pushing defensive BFM to the unit I thought it was a joke...how can this be? As much as people celebrated Fingers (I did not for personal reasons), he let it happen. He and Mobile bought that risk and risk is never pushed right at a 1:1 ratio, it has a modifier when it comes to basic skills. Should he have been able to land at night without incident...of course but I think everyone who has read the report and knows his flying history can feel the weight of crap that was on his shoulders that night. Senior USAF leadership failed this kid in an epic fashion. The problem is systemic...and the disconnect at senior levels is STAGGERING from my point of view. Probably reason #69 why I didn't make GO but I remember being in the room when a training and conversion plan was being briefed to the MAJCOM commander. The A3 and A1 folks were tag-teaming a brief on how they were going to convert AC-130W and AC-130U crew members into the AC-130J. The training folks were doing their best and their plan had every AC-130 pilot in the command by name and how they would flow through the system....come off the battlefield and start conversion training, PCS to new base, then immediately deploy in new airplane. I knew it was a house of cards and I couldn't hold my tongue, I blurted out "what retention rate did you use in your plan." Well sir we used the historic rate of 64%. "What was the Gunship retention rate last year?" (I already knew the answer) Well uh sirrrr....it was 34%...but we have mitigation strategies form the USAF that we think will help retention. I looked directly at the A1 and asked him if he knew about the 14 gunship pilots who were up for the bonus this year and what had just happened? He just stared at me...so I turned to the MAJCOM Commander and said sir there are currently 14 AC-130U pilots up for the bonus, only one has taken it. The MAJCOM commander was very celebrated in our community, honestly until his reply I worshiped the guy and would have done anything for him...that all ended when he opened his mouth and said in front of everyone....and I quote "They will stay because they are patriots, and if they don't I WILL JUST MAKE MORE." I knew at that moment...every bullshit comment he made about people and families was a lie...and that was it, his mitigation strategy was to let decades of combat experience just walk out there door and he would fix it by making more. I didn't even invite this dude to my retirement. I can point fingers at all the senior folks but for me I want to know...where the fuck was the DO. He/She was supposed to be the last line of common sense in the storm. I had a lot of interesting jobs in my career and made it to a fairly senior level as a Wing/CC down range in combat. Of all those jobs the toughest far and away was being a DO. Yes commanders work hard to take care of people but DOs are supposed to protect people and the mission. As a DO in the WIC it was a struggle...you think going through WIC is hard...trying being an IP there for 6 years. Sprinting a marathon becomes the norm. In fact, as a DO and CC I would remind each new graduate that they had to regulate expectations when they got back to the unit...as much as they wanted to change the world they would have to do so with some finesse or risk alienating the rank and file. You would think being a DO of a WIC squadron would be easy....all graduates, all top tier, all type A...but that presented a different problem in that they would run until they fell over dead. In order to protect them I often had to make tough calls to protect them from the system and from themselves. I didn't always get it right, but damn I tried. I remember one hellish period when we were flying multiple stages of the syllabus do to support asset availability. We typically ran a CAS phase then an Interdiction phase but for two weeks we were running both phases simultaneously. As most know WIC debreifs are purposely painful and on Thursday of the second week it was 0330 and we were doing data collect on the 6th sortie in 10 days. My ADO was leading the sortie and he said "Ok, we will see the WUGs back at 0700 for the formal brief." I looked around the room and all I saw was serious fatigue in both the WUGs but more importantly my instructors. I jumped up and said STOP! "WUGs and Instructors come back at noon for the formal debrief, everyone GO HOME." The ADO was pissed and he followed me back to my office...we had a very heated conversation in my office and he certainly spoke his mind as I always encouraged them to do. I listened then said, "messaged received, go home, I will see you at noon." For two weeks most of the WUGs had been grabbing a few hours of sleep in the squadron, not wanting to waste the time it took to drive home and then back in the morning. That week I noticed about half of my instructors had done the same thing and I knew I had to step in and protect them...from themselves. I might not have been the best DO but that is how I saw my job...PROTECT my people while accomplishing the mission. Where was his DO and how in the world the DO let this kid step that night is beyond me...simply beyond me.

My comment score. Trying to get myself out of the negative so I can be a positive member of this community.

Bye, Felicia.

Honestly, I can't understand why any side wouldn't want to ensure the election was as fair as possible! Biden is missing out on a perfect opportunity to demonstrate his integrity by joining the call to look at possible irregularities in the voting. I don't know if anyone else is followed this, but last month the SSC Tuatara hypercar set a new Guinness world-record speed of 316.11 mph, making it the fastest production car in the world. However, several individuals noted discrepancies in the online video of the run... And this is how the owner of SSC--Jarod Shelby (no relation to Carroll Shelby)--responded... This, gentlemen, is how you handle controversy!

Can’t wait for autonomous F1...

I'm sure it was an article written by Kit Darby,... ...the eternal optimist when it comes to pilot hiring.

Amen and amen. I’ve had the opportunity to be a DO in garrison and deployed. Day to day ops was do it smart and right. Every once in a while there was something that required pushing the envelope...but those days were the days to double-down on top cover to make sure the right people were on the missions and the risk was mitigated or accepted with full knowledge at the AC-level. CCs are supposed to manage careers and DOs are supposed to lead the mission and protect the people from themselves and the leadership above.

Keep saying it and maybe someday it will come true. It’s Trump’s playbook. Meanwhile, on January 21, 2021 Joe Biden will be sworn in as #46. I truly feel sorry for those who can’t see beyond the conspiracies and Trump’s lies and bullshit.

No more than any other election

If anyone looks at the situation from a purely objective standpoint, then they will come to the conclusion that something weird happened. You can put me in the category who voted the way I did only because I wanted to stop what I see as harmful policies from the other side - but I am no huge Trump fan and I think his never ending merry go round in DOD with regards to leadership and policy hasn't been the most stabilizing force for my life or my mission. But as we reflect on Veteran's Day today, what does it mean to serve this nation? We all swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign, and domestic. The two sides here probably have different views of who that domestic enemy might be, some believe Trump himself is a domestic threat. Others may think a huge conspiracy that seems to have undermined his presidency from the beginning is the domestic threat (Comey, Brenan, etc.). I stayed up until 3 am on election night because I was adjusting my sleep schedule for work. Nobody can deny that something completely unprecedented happened. I was switching between all different news channels: CNN, FOX, FOX Business, and even Newsmax. It was quite strange that early projections all favored Biden while the same people refused to call states for Trump in which he clearly had a large lead. We were conditioned in the weeks prior to the election that mail in votes would sway results as time went on. Then the unprecedented thing occurred - counting in many battleground states ceased unexplainably somewhere around 1 AM EST (best I can recall). These are the key states to victory by either side, why on earth would the election officials decide to throw in the towel for the night and stop counting ballots? I've heard one counting location told the Republicans they stopped counting at 10:30 pm, only to continue counting without oversight until 1 am. Now we have affidavits from people who participated in the process that oversight wasn't permitted to view what was actually going on. Imagine if the roles were reversed and Republicans controlled county commissioner positions and vote counting in these major urban counties. If the Republicans refused Democrat oversight of the counting process, we would be hearing that on the media 24/7 non-stop. There is data that suggests large dumps of mail in ballots were counted late at night that heavily favored Biden - this illustrates that they were not actually sent through the mail but were delivered to counting locations by other means. If they had been mailed, then they would have been more randomized and they tend to favor Republican candidates as time goes on since rural areas take longer for ballots to be shipped and processed. https://twitter.com/aphilosophae/status/1325592112428163072?s=10 Now you have Biden standing out there in front of a sign that reads "Office of the President-Elect" (which doesn't exist) giving speeches about how he is already engaging in talks with foreign leaders. This is the same activity that the Trump administration was targeted for during the transition process last time. Biden doesn't answer any reporter's questions, and then is escorted off the stage, shuffling like an elderly dementia patient. I've had 3 grandparents die suffering from dementia and other diseases similar to Alzheimer's, the guy is not well. If the election is certified with Biden as the winner, I fear for his future and what turmoil may come down the road. Remember he stated during the first debate that he would not claim victory until the election was independently certified. I'm not sure he remembers saying that. I have no idea what will happen, I am just a dumb military pilot that has sacrificed a lot for this country. It pains me on Veteran's Day to see our Constitution being trampled throughout our country. From new draconian coronavirus lockdowns that obviously haven't worked, additional mandates to only breathe air filtered by a mask (which also hasn't worked the past 6 months), now our election system is being brought into question either by people hell bent on taking down Trump or his craziness in refusing to accept the results. It's a sad time for our country.

I'll buy. Mainly because I'd love to hang out with most of you guys and talk about anything but this damned election. Sent from my SM-N975U using Baseops Network mobile app

I'm done responding to most of you. Brain washed, a product of communist propaganda. "Even if I take him to the Soviet Union and show him the concentration camp with his own eyes, he will refuse to believe it."

Wouldn’t you think that it is a small small percentage? I hope you aren’t making similar statements the The View or other left leaning journalists are making. They are on the right so they must all be = x. In a lot of cases the x = racism according to them. It’s really sick. Especially considering it’s coming from the media.

How about every election up until now as evidence that the system isn’t broken. The burden of proof is on those claiming it is. You can say it is all you want. I have faith it is not, and hopefully that will be evidenced in a few weeks when this is all done with one of the two worst presidential candidates in the history of the US as the President Elect. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You haven't given any evidence as to why 72 million Americans and myself shouldn't believe that the system is broken. Riots with no punishment. Mass mail in ballots (ie. switching the rules at the last minute) Kung flu lockdowns without supporting evidence Critical race theory Orange man bad You think this shit 24/7 for 4 straight years was a good thing for our country? This is how one half feels. You can't completely ignore that and only go off of "orange man bad and evil".

He makes some good points. I find it odd how all the fault lies on one side of this equation. The fact that the sitting president has been encouraging people to believe the system will be cheated for months, sorry, years, is completely ignored. Had he give that fact some air time as well, he’d be much more credible. He’s not wrong though, Joe Biden is nothing as of right now. He’s not legally elected to anything. He should still be preparing for that potential eventuality. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks guy.

Haha, no I didn't. My bad.Thanks for pointing it out. ETA: went back in and clarified that I am an internet newb I guess.

Interesting definition of anecdotal, I think a more fair criticism would have been if I said I don't need to post anything to know masks work. I also said it was the research that said so in the post before the one you replied to. After all, I was criticizing where he said he "needs no source". I do need sources to know they work, and am open to research that says otherwise to be clear. In fact, the first randomized control trial for mask usage is due to be published soon in Denmark with 6000 participants, if that research says they don't work I'll come on here and say I was wrong about masks. The only reason I didn't post anything was because it seems he's made up his mind no matter what research says. My personal experience/thoughts on the issue are meaningless to the science. But since you're accusing me of being hypocritical here's some research: Challenging humans with COVID with or without masks is something only Nazi Germany would experiment, but they've done so on animals and shown they work. https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa644/5848814 Here is an observational case with no known confirmed cases out of 140 with mask usage in a hair salon. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6928e2.htm?s_cid=mm6928e2_w At a larger policy scale, here is a natural experiment that controlled for other factors such as social distancing to try to isolate the effect of mask usage. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818

Of course, you're right, makes one wonder exactly what this means (from the story), "...pushing the boundaries with sustainable fuels..." Glad they didn't use the phrase 'Alternative energies.' At least it sounds like these cars will have six pistons, exhaust systems and human drivers.

Can you please stop trying to make some moral comparison or argument that Biden will be a criminal? There is legitimately no evidence of that. Guardian, it’s hard to listen to you guys, when you basically get fully on board with conspiracy theories with almost no substance, just because they align with your politics. “But they have 500 affidavits!!” (You actually mistakenly said 11,000 here, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt). Have you read any of them? Almost none of them have any impact, and the vast majority are in the “I got a reminder to register to vote after I registered to vote.” A few allege that someone saw multiple signatures were the same. The biggest one was officially - in the justice system - recanted by a postal worker. In total, there is literally no way that they could affect the vote. It was a blowout. 3% margin. Unfortunate, but true. And with these fake votes, the GOP maintained control of the senate. Pretty bad fake voting, if you ask me. You guys are the same folks that said 5 months ago that the response to COVID was a liberal fraud. A global. Liberal. Fraud. Your ability to disregard aggregate scientific or sociological evidence and put your trust in one or two conflicting opinions is part of why we can’t get on the same page. I recently read a study about conservatives being more likely to overvalue experiential or personal stories, and I literally thought of you. I have spent entirely too much time on this forum. https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/conservatives-value-personal-stories-more-than-liberals-do-when-evaluating-scientific-evidence-149132 When it comes down to it, Biden is a super boring politician that has a kid who does drugs. And he’s open about it. It makes the “Hillary-esque” character attacks you guys want to make all the more absurd when you try.

The irony is the insane amount of farm land and irrigation requirements that ethanol requires far outweighs its status as an alternative fuel.

Kinda hard to believe that Biden is the most popular person of all time.

Again. Not saying their is fraud. Just a lot of red flags that should be investigated, re-counted, and audited. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/michigan-witness-many-faked-ballots-detroit-zero-trump-ballots-even-among-military/?utm_source=Parler&utm_medium=PostTopSharingButtons&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons

Sure it’s going to spread, so we do nothing? Cases are spiking in places like Utah because people gotta have “ma freedoms”. Anti-mask sentiment in much of the country is strong. It’s stupid. Masks work to reduce the spread not eliminate it.

Geez guys, they are getting the exact result they want. They want to divide us and make us hate each other. As for the coronavirus stuff, I need no source that lockdowns don’t work. If they did we wouldn’t have cases spiking in areas where they were implemented. Same with mask use, if a high percentage of people are wearing masks, then why the spiking case numbers months after they were implemented? It’s a fvcking respiratory virus that is highly contagious. It’s a force of nature that we cannot control. Even Sweden is having a spike over the last month, it seems that no matter what the policy, the shit is still going to spread. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Everything you're saying is spot on - he was let down by everybody. There was a very similar incident at Spang a decade ago. They did the right things, determined it wasn't safe to attempt a landing, and did a controlled ejection. I only take issue with the statement above - the Viper RTU has assumed such an insane amount of tasks from the CAF that they can't possibly teach it to a safe level. Then AETC came down a year ago and told them to do it all in 180 days. The amount of tasks the Viper RTU teaches now compared to ten years ago is staggering. I've heard that airmanship ultimately suffers. The pilot in this mishap graduated without refueling due to tanker availability. It was alibi'd, documented, and sent to the CAF. Not a common business practice but when you open the production firehose this wide, quality suffers. Fast, Quality, Cheap - pick two. HHQ has mandated "fast". The RTU is operating with "cheap" in terms of maintenance, sims, and IP manning. Can't have all three, and we're proving that regularly.

Same. I'll be able to sleep soundly knowing our CiC isn't an establishment line tower and has the American people's interest first.

Because in every election, they stopped counting votes in the middle of the night. Because workers were tired and needed sleep. Nothing to see here, heads back into the sand boys.

According to polling data, a majority of democrats thought the 2016 election was fraudulent while a majority of republicans thought it was fair. Now a majority of republicans think the 2020 election was fraudulent and democrats think it was fair. So you tell me what's more likely: Option A: Widespread fraud exists and did a perfect 180 pivot in 4 years. Option B: people tend to bitch, moan, and complain when they lose.

I no longer have a dog in this fight but I hope all the young guys/gals read carefully what ClearedHot is saying above and internalize it. Seek out and listen to the leaders that are saying similar things and internalize that too. You’ll be in decision making positions sooner than you ever thought. When you become Flight Commanders, ADOs, DOs and NCOs remember that sentiment and strive to pay it forward. CH is absolutely spot on about the DO having the hardest job. I think they also have the most overall influence. When I look back at my career, with very few exceptions, the people I admired most were the good DOs.

I think you can replace “true independents” with “80% of the country” and still be accurate. The last several elections have been 10% hardcore base on either side and everyone in the middle doing their best to pick the lesser of two evils while wondering why there are so many lunatics on the fringes. Guarantee there are tens of millions of voters who are not pumped about the candidate they voted for, but see them as a better option than the other guy for varying reasons.

Are you talking about 2020, or 2016? I can't keep up with the constantly shifting liberal narrative...

ADMIN NOTE: Too late, you now require approval before any of your posts will show. Don't bother messaging me about it, you were very close to being banned; so even if you don't agree with it, I am doing you a favor. I did you a second favor by deleting several of your recent offending posts. Anyone else?

Biden and the legacy trash media did. Saying Trump will steal the election. No irregularities in 2016 for Clinton to go to the courts with. You are only seeking and hearing what you want to see and hear. I can't help you with that bud.

Thanks for proving my point.

You are literally sticking your head in the sand and screaming "LALALA". There is video proof. Millions stayed up late into the night and watched it happen. You saying it didn't happen doesn't mean it didn't happen. Again, get stuck on the word conspiracy. You my friend have not offered any evidence to support your claims. So you are acting more like a conspiracy cuck.

Ok. Sorry, enemy.

Ok, guy.

Did his competitor spend months laying the seeds of doubt about the upcoming test so that they could, on test day, cry that the test was fouled up? If similar irregularities occurred in 2016 are you saying that we should have re-run that election too? Or is 2020 the first time we've ever had vote irregularities? How far are you willing to go to see Trump installed as President on January 20th? Jeez I really wish some Air Force general would get courtmartialed so we can finally argue about something worthwhile..... https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/11/10/fired-two-star-research-lab-commander-charged-with-sexual-assault/

Why does everyone here keep saying "burden of proof is on us"? We know it is. We keep giving you evidence. Sworn affidavits. Thousands of them. Votes in MI being switched, and there is only evidence of that happening to benefit Biden. This election is fishy and millions agree with me.

And there lies one of the biggest issues. You think CNN, MSNBC, CNBC are all trustworthy. They aren't. Neither is Fox. What's your evidence to dismiss OAN or Newsmax? They are right wing? Again there is evidence out there. You are choosing to discredit it. Legit video from Project Veritas? "Project Veritas lies" despite the fact that the owner have that has won every lawsuit he has filed.

My even-keeled response was what sent you over the edge? Ok. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I truly hope you’re right and that my assumptions are wrong here. I have my doubts though. If Trump goes gracefully and isn’t bitching about the deep state in six months, beer’s on me.

Laugh all you want at my comments, you're only making my score go up