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The demise of the O'Club on Friday is something I miss. We used to have standard Friday stuff happening in the squadron... and around 1700 we would head to The Big House, meet the wives, and have a great time. The camaraderie among the wives was pretty high back then, as a result. They did some pretty funny shit and managed to avoid getting arrested on base. There were two years in a row when Hiram Walker sponsored an ACC Crud Tournament at D-M and the winners (Moody AFB) got a $10,000 check. It was absolutely epic. The D-M Wing CC gave the opening remarks and I was expecting the usual bullshit-cover-your-ass. Not so much. He pretty much said "fight's on" and have a great time... and still made 2-stars. I recall that every ACC base but one sent a team TDY the first year. I simply cannot imagine that happening in today's climate. Our Beale team didn't win, but we did show up to the bar at 0930 on Saturday and didn't depart until 0230 Sunday. What a weekend.

This. Everytime I had an O-6 or above asking why my generation didn't want to stay in longer, I had to explain that I simply didn't have the same memories they had from their CGO years. It takes a lot of emotional attachment to the military to want to deal with the life of an FGO and above, and frankly, we didn't have that, especially in the heavy world. Instead, we had the all-men-are-rapists campaign, the great cleansing of 2012, RIFs from my second year at USAFA until the sudden reversal in 2015, 0-0-1-3 and literal article 15s for shenanigans that were tame compared to the stories the O-6 writing the Art15 would tell in private, blah blah blah. Never mind the two-months-on two-months-off deployments to the Died that guys would do for years because the AF decided that trickfucking the 90 day flying hours restrictions was more important than any sort of balanced family life, or the camaraderie built from deploying as a squadron. Ironically, after I was court martialed (not guilty all charges) it *improved* my Air Force experience. I was immediately relieved of all the non-flying nonsense that they make you do to chase down the next promotion. I would have done anything to get "back on the path," but they were done with me, and boy when you start producing the quality of work that you would expect from someone who has been guaranteed to be passed over, they stop giving you work to do. If the AF wants to improve retention they need to accept that young people who want to kill people for their country have a lot of energy to burn in unsavory ways. Fail to provide that and they will not serve for another 10-20 years off the inertia of great memories and personal connections. Those people will in turn help recruiting.

Fooled around with an E when drunk (stupid, I know), turns out she had a history of cheating so when her husband (stupid, I know) got suspicious she claimed rape/sexual assault. Every single thing in the case pointed towards my story, to include when OSI wired her and had her try to get a confession from me, DNA evidence, every single witness testimony, a ton of pictures from that night showing her being very "friendly" with me, etc etc etc. It was $15,000 and a lot of stress for my family and friends, but I got more than paid back financially when the AF kicked me out with a $70k severance (no continuation offered) and I got to start at the airlines 2 years earlier than my UPT ADSC would have allowed. I also met my wife when they sent me to SOS at 9 years 3 months, the literal last week of eligibility, as some sort of consolation for being court martialed🤣. So things work out strange sometimes. I still owe you a reply in the Ukraine thread, but our union negotiations have my limited rhetorical attention span occupied at the moment.

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.

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).

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!

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?

As other people said, use the Roth version of the TSP. Shelter as much of your future income as possible. Not necessarily a financial strategy, but there is something she's probably eligible for, called the lifetime learning credit. Even if she just takes personal interest courses, I'd rather have my $2000 spent on me than some social project. https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/llc

On the flip side I was an E who banged two E’s, one accused me being a rapist after lying on a statement saying we never banged, court martialed, acquitted of being a rapist and found guilty of dereliction of duty X 2 for banging two E’s. Demoted two stripes and an LOR. Since the USAF was sour grapes I didn’t get a punitive discharge, they sent me to a discharge hearing and got separated at 16 years. I ran into one of the E’s a few years ago at Altus as a contractor. She quickly realized her Post-USAF aspirations of working for my company as a sim instructor were slim to nill as I’m a PM on the program. I await the passed over C-17 jerkoff virgin in here that follows me around this forum saying what a good thing it was I got booted.

DoD Skillbridge is your friend.

Great post. Can you give a vague synopsis of what happened?

UPT/FAIP world in 1990 was the same. Our WG/CC had the keys to the O Club bar that didn’t officially open until 1630. He opened it and unlocked the beer cooler at noon every Friday. Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

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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

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.

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.

Dont burn any bridges too soon in your career and be the best aviator you can be.

It was a little harder getting ATIS in the Huey single pilot. We were so slow, it'd change several times from the time I was 7 miles out to touch down. So much ATIS. I have nightmares about it.

This is the craziest shyt I’ve ever read with a DoD letterhead. PDF link at the bottom. Leaked doc: https://www.dossier.today/p/confidential-biden-dod-memo-reveals WAMC - Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg or whatever the woketards have named it.