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I just cracked open my bottle of Pappy to enjoy this wonderful evening of karmic justice.

Replaced with Caine. Interesting bio. Viper guy with SOF stink and spent 7 years as a “part-time member of the National Guard and a serial entrepreneur and investor.” Could this be the Special Ops Fighter Pilot of which the prophecies foretold?!?

Enshallah.

FUCK YES a huge middle finger to that ASSHOLE! 🖕 busting out the expensive stuff tonight 🥃

True....but in this case, a Kill is a Kill. I will allow it!

I just came here for @ClearedHot’s reaction.

If you wear a morale patch or a friday shirt, you'll clearly not follow the TO, the plane will crash and babies will die.

There is an entire difference between “Standards” and “meaningless hills to die on invented by some shoe clerk to give their career/position purpose.” The inability by senior leadership to even acknowledge that both are going on throughout ranks and services is exactly the kind of shit that causes you and others to stand dumbfounded at your warfighters and tactical leaders not simply toe the line because some anointed E9 from the second group tells you, “we’ve got a problem with discipline.” Stop inventing stupid standards and crush anybody that does so we can spend the energy on enforcement of standards where it god damn matters, Sir. The next time some E8/9 is doing uniform spot checks I’m going to make them conduct a log book recon because that will actually get somebody killed and is the job those crew dawgs are here to do, and they can in fact do it while wearing white socks *gasp/horror. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Might have to be slife story telling night tonight 🤷‍♂️

WHAT A GREAT NIGHT!!!

CH got his wish! Hegseth also said that Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of the Air Force, had been fired, and that he was “requesting nominations” for the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force, indicating they will be replaced. https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/21/politics/trump-fires-top-us-general-cq-brown/index.html

I ask in all honesty -- didn't the system change when all of these unelected bureaucrats started taking matters into their own hands, sometimes defying direct orders from POTUS? It seems like that was the historical aberration, and we're now returning to a more well-pruned and cohesive executive branch...

Those be some fancy @hindsight2020 words

Nice! Better than the 20 year.

Put a bit of a dent in it last night celebrating.

Somebody should double down on this stupid just to force the boss on it. “Sir the OR rate is what it is, and you see from the training slides we are severely under glide for the flying hour program. Sir, this being Friday I was hoping to conduct an early release of the troops. We did an in ranks inspection and their socks are all the approved color.” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got my final LES today after retiring as an O-6 with just short of 27 years, all active duty. So, I was able to add up my lifetime totals, which I thought some of you might find interesting: Base Pay = $2,209,000 BAH = $634,000 BAS = $71,000 Language Pay = $165,000 COLA & Family Sep = $185,000 Lifetime compensation = $3,265,000 For what it’s worth, my net worth (TSP, IRA, stocks, bonds, CDs) is $2.3M. My wife is a homemaker and we just bought our first house, so this is all long-term investing and living beneath our means. Pension will come to $104,000 a year and I’ll likely get 100% VA disability for another $50,000 a year tax free. Anyway, I’m sitting pretty well and figured it might inspire some of you to stick with your plan.

You can argue to world's end that the fault lies with Russia. A Russian could argue to world's end that the fault lies with NATO. If you only view the disagreement through your personal subjective lens of morality, there is no resolution. Your problem is you only know one definition of "fault". You believe it always has a moral or ethical connotation. "Fault" can be neutral, as in legal cases. It can imply liability independent of moral justification. Your perspective of the conflict is based purely upon subjective biases. You cannot comprehend the rationale for the invasion, therefore, the easiest way for your mind to cope with it is assigning it to "evil." That's how we always characterize our opponents when we cannot understand or don't want to explain the underlying reasons, causes, or conditions for their behavior. Your other problem is you seem to believe moral justification is one-sided. You'll spend the rest of the day here arguing that there are moral reasons to continue this conflict, but will never acknowledge there are moral reasons to cease the killing. Why? Because you're not directly affected by the consequences. The most serious sacrifices aren't yours, so that makes it incredibly easy for you to urge others to fight for your beliefs. You'll say the Ukrainians want to fight until the last man. That BS, and it's an unreasonable assumption. There are two ways to resolve a disagreement, especially a moral one: finding a compromise or application of force. As I said, you're quite happy for others to apply force so you don't have to make a compromise. But when it finally becomes undeniably apparent to you (well after everyone else) that Ukraine has less fuel in the tank than Russia, you'll realize that to continue the application of force in lieu of compromise, eventually, your pink body or that of someone you know will have to be on the front lines. You ignored the question earlier. I asked, "Are you willing to make the decision to send a young US Army infantryman to the front lines?"

I have a buddy that is a CA at Endeavor that join later in life after successful career in the computer business. Has no desire to go to a major to make more $$$ and is content not to have to move. Enjoys flying his RV on days off. For some of us it is quality of life over the $$$.

Cool, so we mostly agree on all that. I’m not following. What is it I don’t mean? Are you saying I actually don’t support the things I listed previously (reducing FWA, etc.)? I won’t as long as it’s not blatantly illegal shit (but I agree with you there will be people who do). I prefer, probably like you, congressionally created law. But we can probably also agree that congress is a massively fucked up machine that is barely functional. That really puts a president with a mandate between a rock and a hard place, regardless of the letter next to their name. So he can either start producing and hope he can get the jackasses in congress to catch up, or he can sit on his hands and produce nothing and let down the majority of the country who voted for the exact things he’s doing. I understand you don’t agree with some or all of those things, but the majority of people do. I absolutely have acknowledged the status quo is rapidly changing and there are many consequences to many people/agencies/groups attached to these changes. Yes, I so far like them. No, none of us can fully know what the ramifications are way down the road. We can hypothesize and make educated guesses, but in the end we will have to wait and see where we are in X, Y, and Z years. I am confident of one thing though, we simply cannot keep operating how we have been.

Totally waiverable…by the nomination authority §152. Chairman: appointment; grade and rank (a) Appointment; Term of Office.—(1) There is a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from the officers of the regular components of the armed forces. The Chairman serves at the pleasure of the President for a term of four years, beginning on October 1 of an odd-numbered year. The limitation does not apply in time of war. (2) In the event of the death, retirement, resignation, or reassignment of the officer serving as Chairman before the end of the term for which the officer was appointed, an officer appointed to fill the vacancy shall serve as Chairman only for the remainder of the original term, but may be reappointed as provided in paragraph (1). (3) The President may extend to eight years the combined period of service of an officer as Chairman and Vice Chairman if the President determines that such action is in the national interest. The limitation in this paragraph does not apply in time of war. (b) Requirement for Appointment.—(1) The President may appoint an officer as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff only if the officer has served as— (A) the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; (B) the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, or the Chief of Space Operations; or (C) the commander of a unified or specified combatant command. (2) The President may waive paragraph (1) in the case of an officer if the President determines such action is necessary in the national interest.

(b) REQUIREMENT FOR APPOINTMENT.—(1) The President may ap- point an officer as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff only if the officer has served as— "(A) the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; "(B) the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, or the Com- mandant of the Marine Corps; or "(C) the commander of a unified or specified combatant command. (Goldwater-Nichols Act)

pretty cool they pulled from the ANG...a very clear signal to every flag officer on AD...

I guess I'm stepping outside the thing I said I'd stay inside. Fair enough. My point was about leverage and trust. In that case, back to what defines regional. In this case my point was leading towards a defensible land border. Which would define the "region" as I'm thinking.

I…..am so proud of you

He’s gone! Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

Best news I’ve heard all day!

Trump just fired CQ Brown. Trump says he is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman. Caine is a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard, and had most recently served as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA, according to his official military biography. https://apnews.com/article/trump-brown-joint-chiefs-of-staff-firing-fa428cc1508a583b3bf5e7a5a58f6acf

Everyone wants to pay less taxes but the unfortunate fact is that Congress has successfully gotten all of us hooked on benefits or government services (VA, SS, GI Bill, etc) and yes, while there is a distinction between earned (GI Bill, for example) and handouts (welfare or foreign aid), everyone is in favor of cuts until it affects the benefit/program that they use or like. I can't see how we avoid a sovereign debt crisis because not enough folks in Congress have the courage to make hard, unpopular decisions (all of the DOGE stuff will just be rolled back by the next admin unless Congress codifies the cuts into law).

Yea I don't bat an eye about Russian elections, I know they're BS since Russia is a dictatorship and we aren't their ally. Standard is higher for someone who wants my money to purportedly fight for my values. And the Afghans managed to hold elections, at our insistence, despite actual wartime conditions and an enemy who was actively conquering provinces. It's strange to hear from guys like nsplayr (who I personally like) about how UKR can't hold elections due to martial law and their constitution allows for that... and the constitution must always be followed of course. But that standard of strict adherence to the constitution doesn't apply to our 2nd amendment. Then I hear from other folks how elections would be so hard now, but we needed them in IZ/AFG because otherwise government is illegitimate. And of course UKR must be given cluster bombs and allowed to strike deep into Moscow but God forbid we strike structures in Yemen that might have terrorist kids inside. There's no logic to these inconsistencies. My sense is the pro-UKR war crowd lacks consistent application of principals they espouse. Which means they aren't principals, they're just feelings. And I get it, an unjust thing happened to Ukraine and Putin sucks. But damn dude, they have no path to victory. Zelenskyy outlaws opposition parties and has indefinitely suspended elections. He's asking for nukes. His military is posting hundreds of videos of them killing unarmed surrendering Russian soldiers (which is a war crime if I do it).... oh and we're broke. Time to negotiate peace and accept some territory lost. Table it for future reacquisition, it can't be defended anymore.

I meant exactly what I said. Are you also on the tantrum train because you don’t like your team not being the ones doing something? You guys aren’t getting let off the hook ,sorry bros.

Well, yeah. And no. Plenty, two at current count, of people here will not type sentences like "Russia is the aggressor," "Russia is wrong," "Russia should give back the parts of Ukraine they stole," etc. And that is precisely the structure of Bashi's argument. He absolutely thinks Russia is justified. Gearhog, in his old age, best I can tell, has just discovered his inner pacifist. That's less concerning from a moral standpoint.

The only thing this type of statement says is you’re against improving financial transparency, cutting FWA, improving financial systems operation, increasing accountability, reducing bloated federal spending, and reducing the deficit. Or if you tell me you’re not against those things, then you’re simply being a partisan hack throwing a tantrum because your team isn’t the one doing the work. The good news is you can choose to stop being a partisan hack and acknowledge when something good is done, regardless of who did it. A good example of this is me throwing Clinton props where props are due, even though I don’t align with him on many other things. Now you try…

LOLOLOLOLOL. OMG https://x.com/WarClandestine/status/1893016797118427203

DOGE should just cancel it. Trump can fly on his own plane.

My point is that anything less than a vasal state in Ukraine would have always been more than Russia could tolerate. NATO expansion is irrelevant.

BREATHTAKING AS KC-135 STRATOTANKER FLIES LOW IN THE MACH LOOP - 4K Source: YouTube https://search.app/d7dJ A few 135s getting low

The vein of thought saying "America provoked this war and is at fault" crowd has a major case of main character syndrome. They can't see any geopolitical actor other than the US having agency. Then they'll point to Mearsheimer, who agrees with the point above. The weird part is that his own treatise (The Tragedy of Great Power Politics) would point you to the opposite conclusion. If objective 1 of any great power is to seek regional hegemony and prevent others from doing the same (method of assuring survival by preventing effective rivals), by his theory Russia was always going to become belligerent again as is seeks hegemony. I guess a populist moment was always going to be based on emotion. Probably the same before the rise of the progressive era.

This is why American corporations going the DEI route was so poisonous. They planted the seeds for the general public to not trust who they are putting in the front of airplanes by openly stating they would prioritize immutable characteristics as part of their hiring practices. The crazy speculation and blow back you’re seeing on social media is a direct fault of their choices and actions in the post 2020 world. It will take a long time to reverse the distrust; and it may never go away since so many out there still worship at the altar of DEI.

Word inside the beltway is CQ Brown and a few others get the axe tomorrow. List likely includes CNO Admiral Lisa Franchetti. Hoping Slife is on the list as well.

Dibs

Shameful. Absolutely shameful. As a heavy Bubba the weapons lifts into Poland have been one of the highlights of my career. If not the highlight. I watched the live feeds of the Russians pouring across the border and next thing I knew I was in Poland. Watching pallets get moved off my planes onto trucks and knowing within the week it'd all be gone. Used to put a Russian into an early grave. It was an action that I can proudly share to any westerner. It was an action that put our country back into a well respected light with any European. We've nearly dismantled one of our two biggest geopolitical enemies of the last 80 years without costing a single American life. Spending a fraction of the snafu that was Afghanistan/Iraq. Boosting the American defense industry immensely both through our tax dollars being spent and through a massive influx of international sales. And now we're tossing it away? This war has been an Intel,strategy, and systems testing goldmine as well. A goldmine we're just going to walk away from. We're alienating ourselves from our closest allies. We're ceding soft power left and right all for what? A few billion in savings? Billions that were going to our own military industries. Check the stock market. LM, GD, etc. have all fallen 10% or more over the past month as a result while Rheinmetall, BAE, etc. are seeing 20% growth as Europe realizes they can't trust their oldest and strongest ally. Can't wait to see how many more skilled workers we add to the unemployed list next to the other 10s of thousands who've been fired recently. Don't even get me started on our brothers in arms that will die as a result. We've trained with many of those men and are abandoning them now for no reason. How we as a nation have come to the point where materially supporting a war against an undeniable tyrant is a bad thing astounds me. Can you imagine if we had stopped the lend-lease act and told the UK "good luck with the war buddy?" This is the nation that stuck with Afghanistan and Iraq for decades despite the lack of progress, yet we can't stomach 3 years of monetary support? Rant over. I'm off to go get drunk and pray that I don't have to explain to my grandkids one day why grandpa stopped helping. Why he stepped aside and let Russia walk across the fledgling democracy of Ukraine.

Yes, unfortunately that will happen. But the fed civ corps is so insanely out of control that scalpel surgery isn’t feasible - I’ve seen that tried and failed for 19 years. Unfortunately full blown chemo is necessary and that’ll have some undesired side effects, but it will ultimately save the body in the end. And to all those crying about the poor gubmint workers and how will they feed their children! Welcome to everyone else’s life who doesn’t have a gov job. Time to stop sucking on the gov tit and do something useful in the civ sector. The good ones that we unfortunately lose will do just fine on the civ side. It’s the useless sacks of shit that’ll wine incessantly because they know the gov is the only place they can suck so bad and stay employed (up until now at least).

Admittedly, I’m not well versed on tax policy or law. When I hear/read these arguments about the 1% paying more, corporations paying more or Bezos not paying a fair share etc, I always wonder why a company like Amazon is not looked at in totality. How much do they pay in excise taxes on gas for cars and aircraft, property taxes, income taxes generated by employing thousands of people, SSN/FICA/Medicare, sales tax on what they purchase, sales tax paid on their products by the consumer who buys their products, etc? I guess I’m missing something because it seems like a guy like Bezos is generating untold amounts of tax revenue for both the local and federal governments.

There are people on Reddit who actually believe Trump's "gutting" of the FAA was the reason for this crash.

What is this "Flare" technique that everyone keeps referring too. I say it's the grounds fault for being in the way.

Take that runway!