Leaderboard

^^THIS^^

Not at the level you’d consider proficient. Quite a stretch saying MAF only does instrument approaches, but the past twenty years we have focused on different skillsets… none of which is at the level of a near-peer integrated effort. While some exercises exist, when coupled with the current ops tempo, only a small percentage of the Squadrons get exposure. CT will never replace integrated training and the opportunities are too small to make a dent. Your lifestyle is tactical integration… it will never be in the MAF until the ops tempo slows down, training opportunities exist, and we have reliable tactical hardware (with support). Even if folks want to work with the CAF, an OST currently requires a Wg/CC-approved CONOP, full itin, and DLOs (plus all the wickets to get there) and we wonder why why folks aren’t inclined to put in the effort? How do we make the enterprise better? Integrate in small volumes that doesn’t require 6-9 weeks to plan, because the DV visit isn’t going to plan itself.

But they stayed in tents! Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Valid question, for 130s absolutely. Not saying you need to be a patch to foster valid training but generally a couple motivated WOs who seek out the training, users, range times etc can really make a difference. The problem, and my beef is with AMC as a whole. AMC preaches agile combat employment and full spectrum readiness yet still maintains their risk averse construct. ACE will never be successful if the AMC 0-6s / GOs (AOC airlift directors) don’t delegate that authority. I can make my copilots as ready as possible for LFE type scenarios or ACE, but I can’t tell the 0-6 to delegate his approval to someone lower. Also, doesn’t help when we have toxic senior IPs who scoff the WIC, or anything more challenging that a 1-1-1. Separate but related, actually fund datalink upgrades. The J model (not 8.1) is operating on 90s technology and doesn’t work half the time, in training. No way it works when we need it. Finally, 130s generally do red flag / WSINT and we get a lot out of them..but MG was a solution to an airlift specific LFE where the DLOs are specific to MAF.

There less of that than you would think. Sure, there's a training fence, but mainly because requirements could easily outstrip our ability to maintain basic currency. It's funny when the army mobility guys start talking about "yeah, well need 10 dedicated C-17s for two weeks to do our movement. We aren't going to preplan our retrograde and associated load plans, we're just going to fill up the jet as we deem stuff ready to retrograde in execution." It's almost as ridiculous (but not quite) as CFACC wanting to do ACE exercises in theater and having AMD bump cargo (making it late) to do unilateral exercises, oh, and let's do it without dips for any of the jets (fighters included). There's demand across all the COCOMs since everyone wants their stuff yesterday, and if the president or VP is traveling, well, it throws a wrench in capacity for operations. This makes it hard for strat lift to train for the high end fight, because there's always demand for missions going out and no dedicated down time to train like jets that rotate in and out unless those tails and crews are fenced off.

There would be something to be said here about maybe scaling back the number of “Break glass in case of ____” packages that tie tails away from the actual fights/requirements we are in. Watching the retrograde in Afghanistan tear a swath through all the “just put something on the calendar” training events that didn’t need to happen is pretty humorous. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just saw “News of the World”—I like westerns and Tom Hanks is still a pretty good actor. It was a bit slow, but neat how they discuss various areas of Texas (if you’re familiar with the state). I give it average to slightly above average.

Army of the Dead was a bit promising for like the first 2/3rds of it, then gets bogged down in standard zombie film cliché for the final bit. But at least it's 2.5 hrs long. Big meh on it. It had potential... And the fall of Vegas is because of the ineptitude of a SrA! Love it.

I min ran it in about 4 months. Longest wait time is for the facilitated courses, but you can take multiple classes at once. Not sure on the limit, I was doing 2 concurrently. It’s manageable.

Been outside the community for a few years, but there’s some of this that perks my ears up. The MAF has had an identity crisis for a while - FedEx in flightsuits vs the folks who want to push the envelope and do more. MobGar is a classic example, as is this thread… it’s worse in certain communities (cough cough C-17…) The feedback I received thru the grapevine matches that here - there’s a lot of airline apps being filled out by folks who didn’t study, take it seriously, or maybe were just asked to punch the “I believe” button more than they’re used to - there was participation, but not as much learning by the crews as was desired. But then again you can’t show and go to an LFE… I’m also not shocked that ANY LFE is a shitshow - as this one was described. Everytime I went to Pope or a Flag it was a dogs breakfast mess, but we got better because it was a shitshow. So is war. The first few months in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria prove that. That’s why we do the training. It’s not gonna NOT be a shitshow until we get the reps and raise the bar. AMC, the wings, and the crews need to realize you can’t do things like this once a year and expect proficiency. That’s counterintuitive, and underestimates the complexity - which is also what I expect from crews and leadership that havent grown up doing these things… Find the guys who are pushing the team to get better and follow them. They don’t have to be Patches, but the Patches better know that they’re the ones expected to un-F the world when things DO become a shitshow… Chuck

What happened in that category is a one in a career, fleeting opportunity. The true winners are the professional reserve bidders. Some of those dude put up some serious numbers, wrt longest time between putting on a uniform. Let's call it pay per day putting on a uniform 😁. Those are the guys you'll want to break out the notepad and take notes from! Being able to sit SC from your house/boat/hangar is a beautiful thing!

Officially it is not the rodeo... Unofficially, everyone knows what it is including the exercise people at HAF (AMC didn't get any of their exercise money, so you know what they must think of it). it's an AMC/MAF lovefest... AMC can drop bombs, AMC can plan CAF sorties, AMC can do PR, AMC can do comms, AMC can do AOC's, AMC can do it all! As a matter of fact, why do we need other MAJCOMS? AMC/CC said KC-46's will be carrying air to air weapons in the future and 17's will be able to drop munitions instead of delivering to a forward airbase, so why the need for B-21?. All we need is AMC apparently.

I’ll never forget on the one I participated in, hearing the patch mission lead repeatedly calling for the “picture” and getting a response: “clean”…. This happened probably 5 times with the ridiculous, long ass train of lumbering moose in tow. Well, what he meant to ask for, was “lowdown” (mind you, major fowl for asking for the lowdown that many times and clogging up the damn radios). Well, as you would guess, the entire formation of tactical magical moose gets dragged through the, not surprising, standard threat they train to lean against during their IR low level local training, the SA-6. Won’t even go into the make believe and wand waving that would go on, and high fives from the guys who argue tactics in that community, had they “survived”. I bet the DFP was “why didn’t the loadmaster plot, on his paper bullseye chart,the picture fast enough to ‘defeat’ the 6?” Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Lohmeier is a clown. Everything he says sounds like it came from a Ben Shapiro random phrase generator. I'm not saying he can't think those things but going on a podcast and spouting off about them while in command is wildly, unbelievably, preposterously unprofessional. Let's reverse the situation and see if it holds up. How professional would it be for a sitting squadron commander to go on The Young Turks and spout off about trump admin policies and general grievances about the Republican Party? Something tells me you would struggle to extend the same benefit of the doubt. The slippery slope argument resonates with me to an extent. But I, like others in this thread, think that bridge was crossed a very long time ago with the patriot act. Could this be taken in a very bad direction? Yes. But I have not seen evidence of that so far. Twitter mob cancellations and the literal gestapo rounding up political dissidents are two very different things that Republican political alarmists love to conflate.

Sounds like you’re still in an AD Bone squadron.

Good graphic depiction of the current state of US play (involves ((covered)) boobs): https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2021/05/18/boobs-for-the-win-gina-carano-uses-perfect-meme-to-make-a-point-about-how-much-better-red-states-are-than-blue-states/

Don't forget to email the SJ squadron schedulers about an incentive flight to help you decide if you want to apply to them.

Remember you don't have to do the next 5 years back to back...another option is get the airline apps going, grab a TR job/fly for airline X for a bit, then go on 5 years orders to finish out your 20 while airline seniority climbs. It probably will be easier to grab a TR job than an AGR right out the gate, but every unit is different. Fuck ART, no point in doing that since you already know AD retirement and GTFO of the AF is your goal.

Second this. I have been planning a small OST (2x C-130s) to meet up with some F-22s and a STS for some ACE and other training. In the 4 months of planning and coordinating I have had 2 versions of the CONOP and 5 versions of the itinerary/DLOs before it ever got above the SQ/DO because the DLOs planned "weren't enough" to warrant 2 tails offstation for 5 days when we have local beans to accomplish, let alone HHQ taskings. OST is supposed to leave 6 Jun but Wing level approval is still standing by.