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I agree with @Danger41 that it is interesting that, for the most part, each generation has more knowledge available than the previous generation yet never seems to learn that we are always learning and much of what previous generations "knew for a fact" was in fact wrong. Go through a museum today and what strikes me even more than the vast amount of information available is the absolute absence of any humility. You will almost never see the terms "scientists think" or "evidence suggests". Theories are presented as irrefutable fact because science cannot be wrong. A generation ago, many considered the majority of the Old Testament to be complete fiction and even much of the historic figures and places of the New Testament to be fictional as well. Historians pointed to the absence of any King David, until the Tel Dan Inscription was discovered. Then more and more archeology discoveries proved Luke's description of people and places to be remarkably accurate, even places he never personally went to. People may be quick to dismiss the Bible has parables and fiction, but put just as much faith in unproven theories with considerable problems in them. For example, what actually caused the big bang? Something doesn't explode for no reason. How did life come from inanimate objects? Richard Dawkins, one of the smartest atheists of our time, answers that with ... aliens. But that only prolongs the question because then where did the aliens come from? To me, the atheist potion takes more faith than the Christian position. If I'm wrong, I've wasted time time and money. If the atheist is wrong, there is literally hell to pay for eternity. Perhaps we should start a thread on Christian apologetics in the Air Force.

They're still there lol

They were pulling T-54's and T-44s out of museums

Best use of my tax dollars I've ever seen!

Thanks for posting this update. I'm at the stage where I'm impatiently waiting on my recruiter to send me the officer packet paperwork to fill out so she can submit it. I was also curious about this, and from what I've seen here, most people go and come back for a period before starting UPT. It would be fantastic to have some soft dates and a location to start planning for life as early as possible.

The pendulum swings hard left followed immediately by hard right. For a while O-6's had to volunteer to be considered for command...that resulted in a shortage of "HiPos" seeking command. A Corona discussion followed..."we aren't people volunteering for command? The reason as it turns out, people were freaking tired...I can't imagine why? As is the norm CSAF responded by making all O-6's "all in" whether they like it or not for the next command screening cycle. I don't know what it looks like now but in 2014 they had a SERB for O-6s, two years later they asked O-6's to come back from retirement to fill certain staff roles. Also, as I recall in 2020 or 2021 AFSOC lost almost 60 O-6's, that is a lot of experience walking out the door to escape some caustic leadership. Regardless of what they say your best interest is NOT in Big Blue's crosscheck. You are just another number in the system.

We can't even accurately predict the weather.

We, as humans, haven't physically touched anything beyond the moon. Arguing about how the universe was created is something our minds can't comprehend. It makes me think of the humans in the past who thought the earth was flat and balancing on a giant tortoise. Maybe someday in a few hundred thousand years we'll evolve to have the mental capacity to understand. But until then, we dont know what will happen when we die (not even the smartest priest or atheist). Not a single human alive today knows what is lerking in the shadows beyond life, only the dead. I think we're better off not knowing. Enjoy your life without fucking over others. That's what matters. We'll all get a chance to see what happens after death someday. As for the universe, my mouth breathing mind thinks its been here forever. Something that the human mind has trouble with comprehending. The universe has always been here and it will continue to be here long after the sun exlpodes. There is no beginning or end in the universe.

Use the ATM outside of the juicy bar, not the one inside.

I think your post is pretty spot on. Nobody is going to get hired because they brought the nicest bottle. But, it’s also a tool to help people remember you/your name when discussions on who to hire come up, FWIW.

So you're arguing that if election influencing is executed at the institutional level, then it's ok? Especially when that institution is the same one who determines what legal actions are pursued in the Criminal courts? To your point about potential crime...the DA's supposed to know what the crime is before charging. He may not legally have to publish the underlying charge on the indictment, but morally & ethically he is. There is a perception of purely political prosecution, which is anathema to the Constitution and the rule of law. At a certain level, I think Stalin and Mao are a little jealous of how this case is going. The potential for conflict of interest, capricious, targeted, etc. seems very high if this were in the DoD. I wouldn't be surprised if there were an IG report if that were the case. Maybe that's on me, by viewing the whole situation through the USAF perspective.

I put everything on the GTC when I am TDY, except the strip clubs. After the DEAMS debacle years ago, when some of us fools didn't get paid for deployments for MONTHS, I started using my GTC for everything. Why? The Air Force is not going to send me on a deployment away from my family, expect me to pay out of pocket, and then, due to a deficiency in a system (they most likely procured from the lowest bidder), not pay me for months. I remember when leadership in my unit at the time told us we had to pay off our GTC on our own without payment. I LOL'd at that one and said, "Yeah, you may as well just type that LOC up now.". Sent from my SM-F721U using Tapatalk

I’m absolutely not trying to start a religious debate (full disclosure I’m a practicing Christian) but this type of comment always intrigues me. Every phase of humanity (at least Western cultures post-Renaissance) has thought they were the peak of human knowledge and understanding. Time and time again, we’ve proven ourselves wrong and changed our thoughts on things. Hell, look at the progress of aviation where the peak of scientific knowledge and thought basically proved it was impossible or we couldn’t pass the sound barrier, etc. My $0.02 is that I think we were all blessed by our creator with the ability to think critically and that is a blessing, not something to be stomped out. Having said that, I don’t understand why kids get cancer, why war happens, why MyEval keeps coming back, etc. Whether it’s a divine test (story of Job), a lesson (rain falls on the just and unjust alike), or just a bad deal (Psalm 73:3 & 13…basically says bad people have good things and what’s the point of living right when I get bad things), I truly don’t know. And I’m sure non-Christians will dunk on me for this, but I find peace in that.

We wouldn’t really be talking about this stuff if the dems and this administration weren’t so full retard on all the grooming homo/trans stuff. I’ve never seen a more illogical fanaticism for such unhealthy, immoral, and dangerous ideology. There is nothing beneficial to the individuals involved or the society that allows and fosters this type of insanity. And, it’s downright destructive for the kids caught up in the madness. Heck ole demented Joe and that whack job spokesperson were blaming 9 year old kids in Nashville for their own death at the hands of a trannie. Saying the poor trannies had to respond since all of us are trying to kill them. I know we’re a constitutional republic and that allows complete individual liberty, which i wholly support and swore to defend, but that doesn’t mean the government should encourage and incentivize unhealthy and destructive behavior or ideology. And it def doesn’t mean we should let adults screw up our kids.

We have walked away from what made us great. Every great power I can think of in history that walked away from what made them a great power has completely collapsed. I cannot think of any that have peacefully transitioned from one type of successful society to another. Perhaps Great Britain, but that was also driven by the two worst wars in history and still caused her to fall from the status of a great power. Athens was a great power due to their navy and empire. During the war with Sparta, they built up a land army and rested on their laurels with their navy. Sparta built a navy, took the empire from Athens and Athens has been a marginal power since. Ironically, Sparta's change from a small elite land army to a larger naval power led to her collapse. Similarly, Rome became great largely due to their style of government and incentives for conquered peoples to profit from joining Rome. After Cesar, the government slowly grew to be completely out of control (sound familiar?) and Rome collapsed. The United States became great because of a combination of a limited but effective government, the work ethic of the citizens, the ideal that anyone could rise as high as their talent and effort merited, an abundance in natural resources, and, most importantly, a strong sense of Judaeo-Christian values even if the founders did not always profess that faith. Today our government has grown so far beyond what it started that the founding fathers would almost certainly rise up in rebellion if they were somehow transported in time to be now. The work ethic of our citizens appears to be at a depressingly low level and I personally know healthy, capable individuals that would rather sit at home on unemployment than take a job they were offered. The new 'equity' movement gives the appearance that skin color is more important than merit. Even if you do well, you have combined tax rates pushing 50% in some states that drastically reduce the appeal to work harder to earn more. Finally, we are willingly stopping from using our own natural resources in favor importing those exact same natural resources from other countries. Most importantly, the Judaeo-Christian values that this country was built upon are being actively attacked and portrayed as hateful. Those values are/were the bedrock of the American family which is a microcosm of America in general. Without that traditional American family unit, you cannot expect children to grow up and endorse those values in any significant percentage. As others have mentioned, you cannot rip the foundation out from under a house and expect the house to stand. We are living in a house where members of the household are taking jackhammers to the foundation. If this goes on for too long, the house will collapse and take many of us with it.

Have you been listening to my conversations with my wife?

I’m not going to pitch in on the political left vs right but I don’t know how you could watch that and not think chaos was present.

I was actually able to get some more info after some digging. So it sounds like NGB projects out where they expect you to be slotted and you can get projected "soft dates" for UPT (including the base and the breakdown between phases) from NGB A3 but you don't get a formal TLN until after graduating OTS. Sounds like the norm is most people don't formally find out until they're actually at OTS. Training makes the formal request then to get the TLN through the A3 NGB Rated Management Org Box once they have the forms 133 and 337.

I'm just about to solo and I have about 200 hours prior experience with an instrument rating. So far, it has helped some but not an immense amount. Having the IFR rating definitely gave me a leg up in the instruments academics and in the sims, but it also highlighted me to the instructors and they expect me to be good at that stuff. In the presolo contact stuff it hasn't helped too much, honestly. Maybe that I have a little bit of a clue what's going on and a small amount of air sense (not much SA yet though), but the flying is WAY different, the radio calls are totally different, and the expectations are just as high for everyone. I can't speak to how it will contribute to my overall success or failure during UPT, but my previous flying experience has helped some. It definitely helped at IFS because that was essentially civilian flying with a different traffic pattern. IFS, however, is pass/fail so being the best with 6900 hours or showing up with 0 hours doesn't matter. As long as you work hard and aren't UNSAFE you'll do fine. That's basically what they've looked for at UPT so far, too. "Is this dude unsafe? Will he kill himself or someone else if he's flying by himself in the pattern or to/from the MOA." If you're safe, you'll succeed, if you're unsafe, you won't. Back to your question -- it depends. It definitely helped on some of the academics tests, but it has hurt in some other areas from using previous techniques that don't work. For example, I had a bad habit of a high flare on landing. I flared early and settled to the runway just like I did in a C-152 and Piper Warrior. Problem is with the T-6 that's not how to land. So, I had some negative transfer and got hosed on my first few flights for ending up in a sinking flare situation. After a few debriefs and clarifications I realized (through some IP insistence and demonstrations while airborne) that I was doing that from my previous flying. I didn't know it, didn't realize it, and now I don't land like that anymore. So, weird things you didn't think would be an issue become issues, I guess is my point. Also it's important to recognize that you will be instructed as if you had 0 hours when you show up. If that chaps your ass and you get an attitude about the "remedial" instruction then you are doomed to failure. Having a good attitude and being humble about your previous flying experience (and all other things) as well as helping out the guys who are struggling in the flight is the most important thing, I think, about previous flying experience. but for you, with 0 experience, don't worry about it. The program is designed for 0 hour dudes to succeed. There are lots of guys, some on this board, who showed up with 0 hours and got what their first choice out of UPT. You just gotta work hard and study up. If you know the procedures the IPs will teach you techniques. Don't waste time you could be learning techniques having them teach you the procedures you should've already learned. HUGE CAVEAT: Remember, I'm just a STUD, in the baby class, and I haven't soloed let alone earned my wings, so take what I said with a big grain of salt. There are many more experienced people here who will have better perspective than I do. I'm just telling you my experience in UPT thus far. Whether you still want to track t-38s and MAYBE get a fighter after T6s depends on whether you a) like pulling g's and strapping into an ejection seat b) like wearing a helmet, mask, harness, and g-suit every day to fly, c) don't suck at formation, and d) want to be a fighter pilot after meeting some and learning what the days are like behind the glamor of it all. There's a lot more to it than I ever thought there would be, and it's way different than I expected. There is definite appeal to both sides. Don't pigeon hole yourself to flying fighters because you saw Operation Red Flag or Top Gun and you think want to fly a pointy-nosed jet around. Hope that helps. I know your question is relating to have no experience, but I kinda answered it from the other direction. Sorry for being a little verbose. PM me if you want more info (not that there's much more to say...)

Just recently finished up Phase II and this is what I saw in regards to prior experience... -Private with a decent amount of hours proved to definitely help in the Contact Phase. -Instrument Rating DEFINITELY helped in the instrument phase. -No amount of hours or ratings will help in the Formation phase. This is the true equalizer because 99% of the dudes at UPT have never flown formation. I saw some people who had only 25 hours at IFS struggle through the Contact Phase, but then really pick it up by the end and excel in the Formation Phase. Aside from that I can't really tell you how it affects Phase III yet, but my guess is that the majority of the no time dudes have caught up to the experienced dudes. my .02 Also keep in mind no amount of hours will help you if you have a piss poor attitude and think you are better than everyone at UPT because of your experience. I really didn't see much of this though. Most of our high time dudes were pretty humble about it.

MH, I was a CFII with a multiengine rating before upt. To answer your question did it help, I would say absolutely, up to a point. Being a flight instructor taught me how important it was to be an expert in your airplane (not too hard in a C-152, but hey, it was a start). Also, being responsible for me, the student, and the airplane taught me how to be a Pilot IN COMMAND, not just a follower/monkey (again, in a crappy little C-152, but it was still a learning experience). Even though those things seem laughable now, 10 years ago it did help set the stage. The basic flying familiarity helped during initial contact phase, including how an airplane flies, basic controls, airspace, and the like. Radio procedures were alot easier to pick up as well. Where I found the largest gain was during instrument phase in Tweets. Especially when you step back into the stone age with how the instruments were arranged in that thing (probably much easier in the T-6). Most of my fellow classmates understood basic flight and could get the hang of radio procedurs early on in UPT. But to most guys who have never flown instruments, that stage was a bear. I felt for them. Now, this all ties into attitude, help your fellow classmates, and work as a team. I was a (civilian) instrument flight instructor. Instrument phase in tweets came fairly easy to me- so I spent most of my time instructing my buds. They knew to come to me with questions. I taught guys at night- either in groups, individually, or in the simulator. It really helped us all. I was learning as a by-product of teaching. They were ecstatic someone had familiarity with instruments. Now, include attitude. I didn't carry a chip because I knew a little more or was having an easier time (nothing could make you more of a douche or hated by your classmates than having even a sliver of an attitude like that). The IP's had no idea of my flying history or that I was helping the other guys. We all worked as a team- a great experience. Later, when i struggled in formation or elsewhere, the guys who were having an easier time helped me- what comes around, goes around. AS for low level/nav/advance contact/formation. Just from flying alot I was a little familiar with clock-map-ground stuff and looking outside. I had no aerobatic experience so advanced contact was new to me. Where the civilian flying experience worked negatively for me was formation. I had flown a bunch of hours, all single ship. To have another airplane 3 feet from me or somewhat close was very foreign- it was weird. Took a little longer for me to "get it" (sts). Bottom line- all flying experience helps. It helped during initial contact and instruments in tweets. After that, we were all on an even playing field.

No, it's because you have a metric f*ckload of stuff to learn in UPT and if you're going to try to commit something to memory prior to UPT, the IFG is not where you want to waste your brain bites. The IFG deals with local procedures like airspace, departures, recoveries, and local EP standards. This is stuff you're not going to get into until Phase II. Learn the systems of your aircraft first, then worry about the lateral confines of your airspace. The only thing Study the Dash 1 - particularly, Chapters 1 and 3.

TONS of what-ifs. If you give it 110% and are a team player, but you hook a couple daily rides, it shoud work its way out, unless there are enough dudes doing the same who didn't hook any rides (unlikely) and the slots are limited, then it could come down to who got 100% on the Weather test and who got a 95%. It can be that close. All you can do is the best you can. When you go home after drop night, no matter what you got, if you can honestly answer "yes" to the question "Did I give it my absolute best shot?" then you should pass out happy, because as long as you keep a good attitude and work ethic, you will do even better in your next phase of training.

In tweets I was afraid to try and go T-38's. I thought I wanted to fly C-130's. Here's my semi-embarrassing reasons why: I'm naturally lazy and I thought fighters would be a lot of work. (They are) I was a little scared flying formation in tweets. I didn't really like flying solo. I thought I wanted to have someone else in the jet to back me up (lack of confidence) Tweet squadrons are full of heavy guys who told me how great it is to travel and go to different countries and collect per diem. Fighter guys are dicks and it's constant competition and no fun. Fortunately I had a flight commander who helped me see that I was really just trying to cop out of putting in a little extra effort. He was the only fighter pilot in our tweet squadron and he helped dispel some of the myths put out there by the heavy pilots. When I see someone who could fly T-38's but picks T-1's or T-44's instead, I naturally think that they are trying to cop out like I did. People who have never flown a fighter can not even imagine what it is like. I try to encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go for it. No one ever sat in an F-16 and said, "God, I'd rather be flying a C-17."

Well one is potentially a crime, and the other is a strategic decision about when to prosecute that potential crime. Seems like a pretty simple distinction to me. And I'm not saying trying to influence an election is bad. That's literally what running for office is. That's why people raise money, and run attack ads, and try to win debates. But the common thread here is: don't be an idiot. If you have skeletons that will hurt your election chances and are going to pay people off, be smart about it and don't get caught. Because you can bet the other team is going to have a field day if they figure out what you did. Im not really interested in making value judgments either way. You all know my opinions on trump but on the flip side of the coin, I don't think the Dems are on some morally virtuous crusade. They're making hay while the sun is shining. That's it.