Leaderboard

In no particular order: - Maintain a personal logbook and check it against the HARM records every 6 months. You can check it online via ARMS or AAMS from the AF Portal. Get smart on the various rules about logging time. Refer to the actual flight records reg - there are lots of guys logging their time wrong/inaccurately and spreading bad gouge. Use Milkeep or something similar on your phone. Having an accurate logbook will save you tons of time and stress if you apply to a flying career after the AF. - Learn about VA Disability Claims. Waiting 20 years and then trying to claim stuff at the end and navigate the process is a recipe for disaster. There are tons of videos on YouTube. Just search “Maximizing your VA disability rating” and spend an hour or two watching and taking notes. It’s not about fraudulently claiming things and playing some sort of game…..it’s about building SA. It will give you an idea of what conditions are claimable - you might be surprised - and how evidence for those conditions is evaluated to determine a rating. Knowing this at the beginning will help shape how you approach your medical visits. As others said, document every visit to a health professional. It’s a bit like keeping a logbook. Every year or two (depends how much medical care you need/receive), compare your personal notes to your AF record. Get smart on the MHS Genesis site and/or go to flight med and formally request a copy of your records. Again, this will save you tons of time and heartache at the end of your career. *Heads up in the fighter world, it might have changed, but as of a few months ago, visits to OHWS….massage, athletic trainer, etc…… were still NOT being logged on your official medical record. That’s a huge problem. I think OHWS is great, but if you have legit neck, back, joint problems, you have to go to the med group PT or ortho if you want things documented on your record. And you do want them documented, I promise. Finally, if you have an issue, go get it looked at. Don’t “lie to fly” or “walk it off” or “man up.” The AF will operate just fine if you’re DNIF. Your health is the most important thing. And rightful compensation for any injuries or health impacts your military service caused you will be hard to get if you don’t get it documented and then follow up to make sure it’s in your record: i.e. “You don’t graduate, your gradebook graduates.” - Moving sucks. Moving companies, in general, suck. This is just my opinion and I’ve admittedly had some horrific move experiences, but don’t buy really nice stuff. The movers will likely break it, scratch it, damage it or lose it. If I could do it all over again, I would minimize the amount of stuff I had in general, and lean heavy into Facebook marketplace and Craigslist at the beginning and end of each assignment. Or Costco, or the BX, or other affordable place to find furniture. Obviously keep the stuff you love and that makes you happy and that you use often. But furniture is just furniture. *Caution, many wives are violently opposed to this strategy, so YMMV. When you move, photograph everything and don’t rush to sign the inventory. Make sure everything has a sticker and everything’s on the inventory and it’s legible. If not, don’t sign. “If it’s not on the inventory, they didn’t ship it.” So if they lose (or steal) it, too bad for you. GPS trackers are worth their weight in gold. Also, buy the movers lunch and have plenty of cold water bottles for them. Know ahead of time who to call at TMO if things start to go wrong. - Do everything possible to get stationed overseas. Again, just my personal opinion, but travel as much as you can. “Spend your money and you can make more. Waste your time and it’s gone forever.” Kids are wonderful, but obviously change your life drastically. Travel and explore before kids. Go anywhere and everywhere. Go see the main tourist attractions, but also make it a priority to get off the beaten path - that’s where the really good stuff is. Don’t be afraid to use Space-A - just get smart on strategies for it and stay flexible. - Don’t take a bad deal in hopes that it will get you a good deal later. The AF is far too dynamic and ever-changing to play that game. At the end of each assignment, ask for the best assignment available right then and there. Follow your heart and ask for the assignment/jet/location that makes you feel Iike a kid waking up on Christmas morning. If people are encouraging you to go somewhere because “it’ll help your chances for upgrade,” or “set you up for ‘school,’” ignore them. Find the people that talk about assignments in terms of the great bros there, or the awesome skiing, or the great schools for your kids. Go where you and your family will be most happy. - Do deliberate career management along the way. “Career management” is vastly different from “careerism.” It simply means you give a shit. You seek mentorship and try to excel and generally know what’s required to make the rank that you aim to make, get the assignments you aim to get, and meet other goals you set for yourself and your family. *Careerism, by contrast, is trying to attain pieces of flair: medals, awards, titles, accolades, and high rank insignia for the sake of improving individual ‘status’ or sense of self-worth. It’s brown-nosing the boss, attention seeking, and stepping on the bros along the way. Don’t do that. - Work really hard to maintain family relationships and see family as much as you can. It can be really awesome living all over the world. But it can also steal a lot of time away from family members. A lot of people assume they can spend time with family…..their parents, for example,…..after they separate or retire. At least I did. Not always the case. It’s a real gut punch when you envisioned a future filled with quality time with family members, and instead the clock runs out and their health declines and/or they pass before you get that chance. You will meet great people in the AF and make life-long friends. But family is family. The pinnacle of career management is making sure you run out of AF before you run out of family. - I’m not going to give you specific financial advice. Just do research now, up front. No big surprise, most people build wealth in the stock market or in real estate, or a mix of the two. There are many strategies……..I will just say that most of the strategies require TIME, which is a resource you have now but not later. Best of luck!

For those of us that flew the Herc or other tac airlift, I feel like we had a different perspective than many. Between early 2002-2018 I went into nearly every 2500'+ C-130 capable airstrip in and around the AOR. We got to see nearly every part of it from below 20,000' and 250kts. Tents at the end of dirt strips became B-huts, Q-huts, Prefabs, then permanent concrete structures. Dirt strips got paved, lengthed. Giant hangers, cubic miles of concrete poured in dozens upon dozens of locations. Hundreds of thousands of vehicles and equipment bought, used up and discarded. You'd see them piled in junkyards near many locations. We were constantly hauling contractors, Haliburton, KBR, Fleur, Raython, etc. Often talk to them and discuss the obscene amouts of money they were making for menial jobs. I wrote a story a while back about flying with the Undersecretary of Defense comptroller who, on the flight deck, bragged about a stack of fake currency he showed us with his face in the middle and denominated in One-Billion-Out-Year Dollars. He was handing them out to Generals to demonstrate he had unlimited funds. He was a douchebag. He later couldn't account for 2 Trillion Dollars. But, I sort of feel fortunate to have seen this monumental effort unfold over the course of my career. For much of it, I wanted to believe it was meaningful and the correct thing to do. But I'm also embarrassed that I bought into the whole "They hate your freedom and want to destroy it" line. So naive. I'm sure some of what we did prevented a lot of bad things from happening. Did other things create a lot of suffering? More? Less? I don't know. Are we a better nation because of it? We'd have blindfolded and drugged detainees strapped to the cargo floor one day, and HR containers the next. We'd reconfig for Medevac. Mulitated soldiers and local civilians including children. It all seemed pretty crazy. What I did not see much of was the up close killing, so I can't comment on that aspect. I guess my point being, looking back, it was the most insanely one-sided conflict in the history of mankind, and I got to see a lot of it, first hand, from a variety of perspectives, over 16 years. We lost 2996 on 9/11. In the war after, we lost maybe 7000 KIA and 8000 contractors. I just looked, 30,000 suicides since. We lost a couple hundred thousand allied troops. I can't find the number of losses we inflicted on the bad guys, though. I have no idea. But the world probably isn't going to miss a few hundred thousand barefoot goat-herders with AK-47s. Sort of makes you wonder what kind of effort fighting a near-peer adversary would require. That's a long way of saying it was maybe worth it for a little while, and it wasn't for a long while.

I’d say 90% of it was a waste. I dropped my first bomb 19+ years ago in the Koregal, what I realize now that I didn’t then, I’d probably be fighting the US foreign invaders also if I were a remote Muslim tribal farmer with no education. Most of you would too. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I think that the real issue is that kids today just don’t have any idea who Doug Masters was or what he did for his family and country. Obviously we need a refreshed Iron Eagle movie to appeal to these youngins. Make Samuel L Jackson the new Chappie.

Noted. I'll bet you're great at parties. Be aware that just because your perspective is jaded doesn't mean the rest of us have to adopt that perspective. Yes, the premise for going there was broken from the beginning. The leadership was, and is trash. Just because the task is misguided doesn't mean the workers have to be automatons with no judgment or power to alter the outcome towards good. Maybe you were. I'm sorry to hear that. I refuse to be and I did my best to make life and the mission better for everyone in my sphere of influence. You may have wasted your time, but I didn't waste mine. I know many who didn't. We are not defined by the negative view of the those who wasted their time.

There's no reason to get all weird with your conspiracy. Declining demographics in the developed world are more than enough to explain a desire to "proactively import migrants."

This guy is one of my favorite Youtubers. If only all journalists were as thoughtful and unbiased. He simply lets people tell their stories and doesn't tell you what to think about it. This is obviously a deliberate effort on the part of our government to allow this invasion. Is it really just to boost the Democratic voter rolls as some suggest? Are we just importing cheap unskilled labor? European nations are proactively importing migrants. This is some sort of social engineering.

I don’t know if it’s better, nor did I say that. But I don’t think it’s a bad career option, idea, desire, etc. I can name all kinds of things I think we’ve become dumber with, but again, that does not make the positive things cease to exist. I’ll continue to be mostly positive to young people when they ask, as I’ve seen just about every major corner of operational and below a fighter guy can see and overall it was a great experience that I’ll always be grateful for having. I guess I just didn’t have a shitty experience like some guys on here.

Enjoy life when you're young and not broke either physically, mentally or financially!

Better quality of life (paternity leave is one example). Better pay. Housing and dorms vastly improved from when I lived in the barracks. No sequestration of flight hours. Parts that are actually available. JFIRE and JCAS being incorporated across all branches vs individual branches having their own CAS methods. That’s an example from admin, ops, and tactics. I can keep going. I laugh when people say ‘what’s better than 10-20 years ago’. My dad enlisted in the late 70s, he said he got slapped around. I enlisted in the late 90s, didn’t get hit but we lived in moldy ass barracks and had no hot water. Kids these days think it sucks they have to field day the barracks. Life was always ‘better 10-20 years ago’. When people say that I ask them to actually, seriously, look at what was going on then versus now.

Dis is da Bluebird, I be ready to refuel

I had a similar experience my first year in ROTC, but it was also amazing to see how many cadets became interested in flying once they had two rated officers in the detachment telling flying stories. We went from like 3 freshmen in a class of 30 being interested to commissioning over half the graduating class into rated spots. The cadets in ROTC already want to join the Air Force...I don't think you need to push too hard to get them interested in aviation. A lot of them had pre-screened themselves out "because I don't have perfect vision" or "I had a concussion once in junior high". All it took was a little education to convince them to at least apply and make the Air Force turn them down instead of keeping themselves from even competing.

I understand to an extent what you’re saying. It was a garbage long term plan, and honestly whether we left 10 years ago or 5 years from now, what does it change because essentially we’d have to stay forever to continue stopping threats that originate from that region of the world. But that all said, we accomplished a lot, it’s just a lot that you don’t know about. There are 10s of thousands of people alive today in the western world because of actions in that region. Sorry it was never printed in a newspaper, talked about in WH press briefing and everyone involved went home not talking about it. Lots of frustration on all of our parts with how all the admins handled the last 20+ years, but even with the steaming pile of shit we all got shoved into, there were positive things that came out of it, that’s a fact. That is not a statement in support of how the whole thing was managed or how long we were there.

You’re pissing words into the wind, WTF are you rambling about? It’s weird how annoyed you are that someone would speak positively to kids about the military. kid: “what’s it like to be a pilot in the AF” joe: “I can’t tell you kid because I have no idea what it’ll be like in 10 years.“ kid: “uh ok, well can you tell me about your experience. Are jets XYZ, have you ever XYZ, what’s it like to XYZ” Joe: “I told you, I can’t see the future and only you know you. So go fuck off so I can sit here and drink my cranberry juice in peace.” God I hope you’ve never been the guy standing at an air show static.

If you follow GA and racing you may know Mike Patey who has helped develop a lot of new tech the past few years building experimental airplanes. He recently built the fastest single engine turbine when he put a PT-6 on a Lancair Legacy creating a new plane he calls the Turbulence. He was flying the Turbulence to Oshkosh and was about 200 miles west his PT-6 blew apart at 441 Knots in his at FL 220. Video below covers the deadstick and post flight walk around of his plane (frag damage to wing and tail).

How can you not talk about your own experiences? Especially since that is what people are asking you about, at least in my experience. Your opinion is formed by how the experience affected you and those you know. If someone wanted to ask about something they hadn’t experienced, go ask a college professor. Most of them don’t have any real experience in what they are “experts” in, they only learned about something by reading. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Makes you want to punch walls

Max out TSP contributions or as close as possible (Currently $22.5K for 2023). I'd recommend ROTH TSP contributions because her tax bracket is pretty low as a 2LT. Put it in the C-Fund, which is a S&P 500 index fund Since the contributions go in monthly, she is dollar cost averaging in. Wait 10 or 20 years and she'll have a nice chunk of money accumulated for retirement.

What are you talking about, I can easily name lots of solid, positive things and tell positive stories. I don’t try to convince anyone, I just paint the most honest picture I can for those that ask. I shit on the AF all the time and am ecstatic to be mostly into phase 2 of life. But I’m also honest and not going to just rant negatively while pretending I didn’t have a lot of positive experiences along the way. You’re arguing there is no positive picture to be painted and everything is shit. Must be miserable going through life as such a negative person. Bottom line, I will always speak generally positive about the mil experience because that’s what it was. I will also be happy to talk about all the bullshit and things that piss me off. I’m glad I did it and I’m glad I’m on my way out…two things can be true at the same time, but for some people here I think all they think about is their last 5 years and completely ignore the first 15 (or however long it was fun for them personally before they became jaded and disgruntled).

Close call at Oshkosh today as a Bonanza ended up landing on runway 36L instead of 18R. ATC handled it well but it put lots of folks into a holding pattern around the Green and Puckaway Lakes while the ensuing disruption to traffic got cleared up. ATC audio is here and starts at about 1m 30s.

Anytime we have a long term occupation and pacification mission, we should institute a draft for this mission Conscription would be specifically for this mission for at least 1 year in country in combat only MOSs. Conscripts must be 15% of all ground forces at all times I’m not ranting for this for the purpose of military efficacy but for societal risk burden sharing and to give pause for politicians, media and policy makers Draft selection would be on composite score of academic performance, standardized test performance and athletic achievement. This would be to ensure smart kids at exclusive schools and star athletes whom both groups are connected to the wealthy, privileged and powerful are subject to it. They are also highly visible members of communities. If the nat sec blob wants to remake a country then they (their socio economic cohort) will be required to participate in the mission Negative 69 percent chance of ever happening Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We cant just point the finger at civilian leaders. The DoD writ large has a "can-do" response to basically anything. We need to stop that. The military hammer can't fix every problem...but we need to be clear on that. How many times did we "turn the corner" in Afghanistan? How many times did we send over-optimistic reports from people who should have known better to people who should have known better?

Show up at the right place and on time everyday, show up with a good attitude, be humble and learn from your mistakes. If you do that you are 90% there. Study, ask questions, strive to be the best at whatever job you’ve been given. If that means making sure the coffee and popcorn are fresh, so be it. Help your peers, put them before yourself. Chances are you’ll be working with them 10-15 years down the road. Finally, enjoy the lack of responsibility and being a young wingman or copilot. Bring an LT was simpler times and I’d kill to go do it again!

It's good to have aspirational goals.... 😄

If you go 11H Co Pilot: Congrats you have huge nuts!!! Now...Dont hit powerlines, or fly directly into a mountain. Use your GD radar altimeter dumbass! Admit if you dont see something. Speak up if a target is moving and its not suppossed to be. Just because you're settling with power, doesn't mean you stop flying the aircraft, same with loss of tail rotor effectiveness. Once again, watch out for powerlines, towers and mountains. Don't continue flying into an updraft taking us into wx, lower the collective. No, we will never have rockets again on USAF helicopters. I don't like it any better than you do lol. Sorry, nothing directed towards you amigo. Lol. Oh yeah, you will be the red headed stepchild in the USAF aviation community until people need you. Lol. Nomatter what type of helo you fly. Not sure about CVs though? I dont trust those dudes /s. They fly faster than 200 knots. They cant be true giant nutted mouth breathers at that speed, too much air to the face. Edit: Most chicks dont consider you cool. You're kinda around the garbage collector scale on both smell and respect amongst your fixed winged peers in the aviation world, but my God a pair of tittes looks spectacular at ten feet.. on the other hand, girls at the beach and lake appreciate your service!!! Especially the drunk ones.

I could spend all day listening to the controlled chaos at Oshkosh. Turboprops and B-25s orbiting Warbird Island, traffic for Fisk extending back almost to Madison, runway closures due to disabled aircraft, controllers who never miss a beat, and the occasional old timer who feels the need to chime-in when he feels he's been wronged. Entertaining stuff. https://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=KOSH

It wasn't for nothing. I'll come off the top ropes on anyone who says differently. For 20 years we kept the wolf on his side of the fence, and he didn't even THINK about making it to our front door. It was expensive in blood and treasure in modern historical terms, but unprecedently cost effective and unbelievably useful in long view historical terms. Not only did we secure our own and our allies safety for 20 years, we put the ever living fear of God in anyone who would challenge our military strength. More importantly, we can back up that fact. Unfortunately it feels like a waste, and I understand that...thoroughly...I was there, but it wasn't wasted. The mental and emotional health of the men and women who did the heavy lifting hinges on embracing the facts, not the feelings, and is far too important to simply throw out: It was all for nothing. That's a lie. Stop propagating it.

Wear sunscreen every flight, even if you wear a helmet and visor.

It’s all hindsight - of course it’s easy to sit here and think about all the negative shit as a disgruntled 10+ year vet. You also had a lot of good times and did awesome shit. Tell kids those stories and let them go have the same awesome experiences amidst the bullshit. News flash, there’s bullshit in every avenue of life. I don’t envy the 23 yr old Delta FO a single bit. I couldn’t give two fucks how senior he’ll be at 65, how much $ he’ll make over a career, etc…he will never have the badass experiences I’ve had, he’ll never go to awesome places I’ve been, he won’t know the camaraderie that combat brings. I acknowledge he also won’t ever know the pain, the hardship, and the struggles. No ragrets - do it young guys.

I was wrong about the whole vaccine piece. All a scam. My kid never got it though and never will.

Loved my career, even despite the shitty parts of which there were plenty, and I'm especially thankful for all the great people I met along the way. Not sure if I would make the same decision now as I did 40+ years ago though...

Drug addict and scumbag. That’s hunter. But I’m sure NOTHING TO SEE HERE

Gearhog you don't understand, Mark1 says no forced vaccination campaign ever happened and we're conspiracy theorists. Delete this post, ignore the content, and send a BLM donation stat to attone for your #wrongthink.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/07/19/cluster-bombs-biden-liberalism-war/ Some of us just want the self-righteousness to stop. Is it so much to ask?

Bloom where you’re planted

Hold up, point of order: The upper and upper-middle classes self-isolate from military service all on their own, no compelling needed. So don't go putting that on us W2 serfs/transactional military members, and certainly not our progeny. As I've said before, the temerity of acussing veterans of sabotaging recruitment. Ingrates. The DoD can take their shameless victim blaming, roll it into a fag, and fox2 it up their own six. To wit, New England isn't pulling their fair share of the blood spilling from where I sit, go lecture them about it. And I digress.

Save every document with your name on it. Document every medical visit. Do partial DITY moves. Randomly buy pizza and beer for the Es.

I agree. Edit: After second thought, I don't think he had enough DFCs (3) or AMs (64). I learned me something today. 😌

I’ve got zero issues renaming this place after a dude that flew B-29’s in WW2, got out of the AF Reserves as an O-5 (and gave up an airline line number!) to be a W-4 in the Army. He then earned the Medal of Honor doing 15 evacuation flights to save 29 ARVN soldiers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Novosel

Just once, I'd love to hear news about UPT getting more rigorous. Literally in any way