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Bring back the no-notice as an actual test of readiness. Don't fire people or end careers for honest mistakes. Use the the results to provide resources to fix gaps.

I agree with you in theory. The best inspection would be auditing a normal deployment or even a blowout to validate squadrons have legitimate processes ensuring trained airman are equipped and mobilized with alacrity towards a specified task. Bonus points if inspectors highlighted support agencies causing mission friction and could provide wing and Hq commanders suggestions on changing the present paradigm where deploying squadrons jump through hoops to accommodate arcane requirements by non-deploying support agencies. however, this will never happen. It is unfortunately not in our culture; our culture is preserving stateside bureaucracy who view overseas missions as a distraction to home station status quo. This has remained true regardless of who the commander is because it's entrenched culture within the organization. It's sad looking at YouTube videos like the one above postulating our forces are not ready for the big one. Of course they aren't, when have they ever been? Every war has required a waiver to some current process in order to allow operators to meet the task. Think about that for a minute. How many new ideas have you seen that made sense and could've helped the mission but could not happen without some multi agency multi year waiver, and the gatekeeper at every increment is some non-deploying homo who needs to be convinced the requirement is real. How totally fucked up is that? It is an indictment of every level above the line unit, which is one more clue in the puzzle of how we can kick so much ass yet never seem to win. Given this reality, I am not a fan of no notice inspections because I do not trust the system to do them intelligently. They will be done in the dumbest way at the worst time focusing on all the wrong things. And fantastic squadron commanders who are prioritizing lethality will get fired because they've been pioneering new TTPs instead of plodding through MICT. it's not all depressing, I do have a proposed solution, but it's better over 🥃 . You should swing by sometime!

“Destroyed” as reported by media leaves a hell of a lot of leeway by what we would classify as destroyed in actual Armor. Knocked out or disabled, yeah probably as that’s happened a lot in the past in Iraq as well. If you are disabled remaining with the hull would be suicide and the crew is the most irreplaceable component. But, short of burning if you can perform a recovery it’s pretty ridiculous how badly battle damaged but through rear area MX is restorable. The resilience of the platform and survivability of the crew is really what the M1 has historically shown its self to be. People confuse that with some form of video game god mode invulnerability. That’s why ours and every smart western military has focused so much on not repeating the mistakes the Germans made and put Armor recovery vehicles in our MTOE. It is far easier to replace a tank from the battlefield than it is to wait and build a new one. If the Ukrainians can recover it back to the rear they can Low Boy the thing to the Depots we already have in Europe for exactly this contingency. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And you're in here reading it. rofl

Mid-90s and Iraq does some pump fake maneuver to the border. I'm at Shaw working in Stan/Eval and we get tagged to generate and deploy 2 F-16 and 1 A-10 squadron. The Wing had an upcoming mobility ORI event so we call Langley and ask them to come observe to get the ORI counter complete. They say "No" because it wouldn't meet their grading criteria. WTF? A real world event doesn't match the grading criteria? How inflexibly stupid is that and WTF are you grading?

Nailed it. But given the choice, I’d still rather do fucked up no-notices than fucked up “prep bullshit for 6-9 months” inspections (then let it all wither for 2-3 years and repeat). Either way you’re fucked, but at least you didn’t waste 6-9 mo of your life pulling 12 hr queep days on MICT, etc.

This one is fascinating to me. This is young likely middle glass white kid in the military. He's not Jewish, Muslim, or Palestinian. I'd say the probability he's been to Israel, Palestine, or immersed in the culture of any ME country is slim to none. The chances of him having a close relationship with anyone who has is also slim to none. Palestinians engaged in direct conflict with Israeli, and who should have the most reason to engage in extreme forms of protest aren't doing such things to themselves. His mind was hijacked by an idea that came only from second/third hand information on a screen he held in his hand. That information, which had no direct effect on his day-to-day life, consumed and compelled him to destroy himself to one of the most grotesque ways possible. Now imagine being able to create and distribute that type of information. Wokeness is deadly. It's a parasitc infection. We may cheer when a woke moron offs himself, but it's important to remember that the idea that caused it is propagated onto others. It's how leftism lives on even though its hosts do not. It's an old video, but one I think of quite a bit.

As unbelievable as it sounds, I'm a fan of bringing the no notice inspection back. The prep for inspection crap is so stupid and the amount of organizations that think they can prep just for the scheduled test and let everything rot until then is insane.

It’ll be ok. Even CPT Bannon and Team Yankee lost a hull or two fighting the Red Horde. As Lawman pointed out, the odds are good that the MX bubbas can have it back in the fight if they can get to it!

What a bore. Nothing but regurgitating buzzwords.

Well that didn’t take long. Someone or something wiped his entire post history. I can only imagine if he was a right wing extremist the media would have gladly shared such awful posts in order to prove the grave threat of right wing extremism. Left wing extremist in uniform though, wipe that shit and shove it under the proverbial rug. Classic.

I would say just the sheer amount of time operating in close proximity to Mother Earth and everything sticking out of it not to mention operating off other than pavement raise the odds of a mishap even on a good day. My .69

ENJJPT RNLTD 22 July!!

False equivalence. Ashley Babbitt didn't commit suicide. Or homocide.

I think of wokeness (or really any form of extremism) more like an addictive drug or junk food, rather than a virus. Calling it a virus implies it can infect any unsuspecting person with almost no individual agency involved. I think addiction is more appropriate because you have to actively feed these ideologies in order for them to take over your life. You don't just wake up one day having caught a bug that makes you burn yourself to death. This dude was living his day to day life in the darkest corners of the anarchist internet for a very long time before he decided to do this. And it's not just limited to the woke side of the aisle. I'm sure Ashli Babbitt spent a considerable amount of time feeding her own addiction in the wacky hyper conservative trump corners of the internet too. The solution, just like with drugs and junk food, is discipline. Hold yourself to a higher informational standard, and make sure your intake is balanced. Affirming what you already think is like eating McDonald's. Do it every day for a few years and you'll probably end up dead. Reading a well-reasoned opinion you don't agree with is the intellectual equivalent of eating your vegetables.

...yeah, and there was no border crisis over the past 3 years...

The M-1 in the photo shows the blow out panel above the ammo storage blown out which is what they are supposed to do. There is a sliding armored door separating the ammo storage from the crew compartment. The picture might be flipped because I recall the ammo storage on the left side. They never let me drive or shoot it but I did learn to load the gun. (Years ago ALO with armor battalion w/M-1 A1 later A2 tanks)

Guy that lived next to me at Rucker when I moved in to start the AF training (back in '04) was in the exact same position in the syllabus six months later when I left. Anecdotal at best, but that story was not unique. Does Army have amazing pilots, you bet, but they go through the numbers to find them...

I know a guy that couldn’t enlist in the USAF because his ASVAB was too low. So he joined the Army and they made him a Tower Controller, then they sent him to flight school and he’s flying C-12s now. So there’s that.

This has been building for decades. The election of an idiot political class is part of the process, not the cause. Francis Fukuyama is going to have to release a revision to his book. I'm just glad my kids will be too young for what's coming.

you guys are arguing speculating over a tank kill. lol.

It has to take some serious commitment to willingly burn yourself to death. He could not have been more wrong in his convictions, but I'm impressed he was able to hold out as long as he did and with almost no indication of the agony he was surely going through. Maybe, just maybe, not everyone that is woke is a wussy coward. Not sure if that is reassuring or not. As has been said, imagine what this dude could have done if he had put that same commitment towards a worthy cause.

Army slashing 24,000 troops from end strength. To better fight the next war. Probably doesn't have anything to do with the recruiting issues ongoing.

LOL. That’s some solid gaslighting right there.

The memes from this have been absolutely brutal!

They’re prepared… to take the two hour NATO union lunch break while they plan dinner.

There are two John Mayers. The one that makes a ton of money making teenage girls all mushy inside. And then there is the one that makes blues, and no one pays attention to that one. The second one is actually very good. The first one is kindy creepy and past his expiration date. Only Taylor Swift is capable of staying an angsty teenager well into the thirties.

This Is this what you (Woke USAF Clowns) want from our Airmen? Good job. Because we're there. You have a White American Airman who lit himself on fire (in uniform and on camera) for Palestine. Sounds Woke. Good job .

Small blessing. His mental breakdown involved just killing himself, rather than shooting up a base.

I just saw that Russia pulled a ridiculous George W Bush publicity stunt with Putin supposedly flying one of their newest bombers. Of course, there is no way of knowing if this was a simulator or CGI. I think it would be entirely appropriate if we countered by having Biden fly a B-1 into DCA. https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-election-bomber-flight-navalny-facfaaacba57bfce3d61d810a426ec0d

The most logical reason I can think of is she’s holding out for Trump to be convicted of something that legally prevents him from being President and she can “swoop” in and take the nomination. It’s a low probability of success gameplan, but she probably doesn’t give a shit as long as the money is there.

A ton. But the root cause is the average voter is emotional and retarded. We’d see solid leadership if people actually gave a fuck about demanding and voting for that. Instead people vote based on tribal affiliation, what Taylor Swift says, and their opinions based on daily consumption of complete bullshit with zero individual thought or questioning applied. I wouldn’t be surprised by anything - go further left, swing hard right to the same magnitude of problems on the other end of the spectrum, etc.

The VA found this comment not to be service connected.

Since the French built it, his bailout kit included a white flag to waive. He was easily identifiable.

That's like a 1,000% VA disability - yeah?! PTSD, tinnitus, belly flop trauma...the list would be huge!

The actual staff can’t even “A-staff”well, but I’m sure the wing level will nail it.

I thought Tucker hammered the WSJ reporter issue pretty well and held Putin to an answer. After initial prevarications Putin essentially answered “we will release the dude eventually, but I am bingo good faith gestures to the west so we’re not doing it now.” I don’t like that answer, but hearing it directly from Putin was illuminating for many reasons. I also reject your unspecified moral concerns at engaging in dialogue with someone who has done something bad. Of course Putin portrays himself as the good guy and is evasive; knowing he’s bullshitting isn’t a reason not to listen. I’m surprised how many military officers are disgusted by Tucker‘s interview. I would gladly hear from adversaries no matter how much I despise them. I want to hear from North Korea, from Iran, the Houthi’s, would love to hear a podcast from al Shabab, AQ, etc. I watched the Vice documentary on ISIS with interest. I would kill all of them with no hesitation, but talking is the way wars end and listening is potentially advantageous. This is a recent development in our country and not a good one: we used to listen to everybody and journalists were applauded by interviewing adversaries. Now there is a large group of people who cover their ears and shout when introduced to a different opinion, claiming it is propaganda disinformation malinformation. Yes it is, so what? The enemy believes things we think are wrong, that is why they are the enemy. Answers can’t always be taken at face value, we’re engaged against them so their speech is a lot of subterfuge and attempted manipulation and they fight with words. Listening to those things doesn’t infect me, it helps me understand how to resolve conflicts to my advantage. Where might we agree? What are things they care about that we don’t where concessions might be made? What are sensitive areas where we might ascertain vulnerabilities previously unseen? How can we exploit their words against them? Who are the charismatic, intelligent leaders who have a chance of defeating us that we should target and kill? Who are the dumb ones we should prop up to weaken their organization? There are also tactical advantages: UBL, ISIS & NVA were targeted successfully based on analysis of items in the background of videos they allowed reporters to take; fucking dummies. I encourage that (Napoleon said never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake). So let’s all be mature and realize there is goodness here if we are smart enough to filter appropriately. And if hearing a different perspective challenges your own conclusions, that is healthy as well.

I can't believe this interview is allowed on Western media outlets. Just a few quick thoughts. 1. Tucker was cringe. His trademark giggle seems fake and it was almost as if he was fawning over Putin. He just let Putin ramble for 15 minutes at a time. 2. Putin took the first 30 minutes to give a 1000 year dissertation in ancient Russian history. Tucker tried interject and get the interview back on track multiple times. No one wants to hear all that. We all want to hear the recent relevant highlights while Putin apparently thinks and talks in encyclopedias. It's called "History" because it's over. It has nothing to do with the current situation. 3. Putin kept baselessly claiming NATO was expanding, that we provoked a coup in 2014, and the Donbass separatists were being bombed. And Neo-Nazis? Is he being serious? Sounded like a lunatic. 4. For being the head of the Russia state, every time he was asked about his assessment of the actions or rationale of the US, his answer would be something to the effect of "I don't know what the hell they're doing. It makes no sense." How can someone in his position be this perplexed by our strategies and methods? 5. Putin said he had neither the capability or intentions to invade Europe. Which is what anyone would say before they did just that. 6. He did mention that we should be more concerned by the massive invasion of our southern border and our unsustainable debt, which he might have a fair point. 7. He said he was willing to negotiate a settlement, but then said he refused to call Biden, contradicting himself. 8. Tucker tried to get him to release a US journalist and he refused, and claimed he was a spy. Overall, it was thinly disguised Pro-Russian and Pro-Putin propaganda. Do not watch.

I watched it in it's entirety. Would love to hear what fascinating insight you gained.

Not to resurface an old conversation here, but how does it work going the other way? If one is hired to fly ANG fighters, and wants to make an airframe switch to heavies for whatever reason, is that a laborious process? Kinda curious if it's culturally accepted in the heavy community to hire fighter pilots, but also what's required to make that switch.