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The old girl is completing her final combat deployment...sad to see her go, but she is tired and it is time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRsYDYnv1rg

Respected and honorable statesman? I think you misspelled Marxist Terrorist. http://americanfreepress.net/?p=11873 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklacing http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/12/nelson-mandela-media-fawns-though-marxist-terrorist/

Really? What was the unemployment rate before compared to after Mandela and the apartheid? The rape capital of the world ring any bells? It depends on how they did it and what they did once in power. Rather naive viewpoint. That's like saying Saddam imposed order on Iraq while ignoring him gassing the Kurds or killing his own people. And no one has any issues with Obama hustling off to South Africa, yet ignoring our ally when Margaret Thatcher died?

What we need to do is head over there with a few crowd pleasers and be done with it. I'm over it, fellas. We need to pack up our shit and GTFO. If they don't want us, why are we spending American lives, money, and time there?

5,000th post for Toro! You get a patch for that! You can't wear it until after the CUI is over though... Bendy

Exactly. Shut Up - before you get too spun up, I suggest you also look to see if there's a local sup to 2903 (assuming your command chief doesn't send out 6-9 references it prior to the CUI). It may specifically detail how patches are worn on that base. If still nothing, just take the patch off until the CUI is over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp5gdUHFGIQ

Bands have been a part of military tradition and history since...forever, unlike TIB who is just a bunch of singing, dancing fags. Well done, USAF band for this performance at the Air and Space Museum. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIoSga7tZPg&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgIoSga7tZPg&app=desktop

^^^^ I got the AC-130W Nav!!! Beyond excited. It was #1 on my list. :D

Maybe, but your view is very cynical. In this age of technology, you can look at anybody's life and if it doesn't conform to exactly how you want it to, you can rip them apart for it. By using your logic, Mother Teresa can be viewed as a terrorist, Michael Jordan isn't the greatest because he's an asshole, and Elvis isn't the King because of drug use. Mandela did great things and it's easy to second guess every detail in hindsight. I'm not saying these things shouldn't be scrutinized but good deeds need to be celebrated since they're far and few these days.

Ah yes because a stable country, prosperous economy, is lesser preferred to the countries of Rwanada and Uganda. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad apartheid is gone, it was a horrible system. However, when the ANC came to power their Affirmative Action policies and the outright murder of tens of thousands of whites and confiscation of their property has in fact led to a worse South Africa. Johannesburg is now the rape and murder capital of the world. Did things need to change? Absolutely, however the process that they took while it improved some areas (minority rights), it also severely hurt others.

I'll answer you question with another question: Is it ok for the Taliban and/or Al Qaeda to purposefully target civilians in order to push their agenda and achieve their goals? Yasser Arafat really cared about his people and pushing his agenda to benefit the Palestinians--did he deserve our American flag lowered at half-mast when he died? I agree about the terrorist vs freedom fighter remark, and it is largely about point of view. But I never support direct targeting of civilians to push an agenda. Timothy McVeigh believed is his cause, but I'm not about to sign his praises either. Any revolutionaries who intentionally targeted civilians were also wrong.

What if the PNF started checking the things the PF set, like the glideslope for example? If that's too drastic, maybe the PF could verbalize what he's setting or something like that. Would that help? Maybe we could make that a rule... Nah...it's probably the ORM thing. Let's keep going with that...nothing to see here. Bendy

5,000 hours in those those whistlin' shithouses, Loved/Hated every minute of it. The sounds, the smells, the vibrations, the feelings of boredom coupled with exitement(yes, tingly too) I need a beer to wash down the lump in my throat

I'm having a big WTF moment...where the hell is the Squadron Bar Daily Picture Thread!?

Legal info? I wouldn't trust what you read on here. I recommend you head to your base legal office and get their take on this uniform travesty.

Aim point Airspeed Cap-10

Nuggets up Y'all, I just completed my FIRC CFI refresher course using American Flyers online. It seems that they have revamped their courseware as there were no time requirements like before. Very CBTesque, just click through as fast as you can, then take the 5 question test at the end of each section. 16 sections total, took me an easy peasy afternoon to complete. I recommend having two screens open, one to the test, the other to the lesson. BL, good value for your money, paid $75, good for as long as you live, and it didn't steal away a weekend of my life. Cheers!

All these "tools" are useless unless "leadership" (in some cases tools themselves) actually follow them. Story time: Had an instance deployed where a tac airlift Bravo crew showed clearly fatigued for a mission in OIF because of the switch from days to nights on the flying schedule. Bravo crews were rarely used at the time, so sitting Bravo was like a day off, and generally AMD never launched them...regardless, for some reason the crew wasn't well rested. They all signed in maxing out the ORM for fatigue so it required OG or WG/CC approval. They were all still willing to fly, they just wanted to make it known that they were tired. OG said go. DO didn't want the crew to fly because they physically looked exhausted and this happened to be a high priority mission with a max duty day so, the DO said "nope ya'll aint going. " In other words, he exercised some leadership and judgment knowing that the crew had minimal sleep the night before for whatever reason. Information the OG/CC didn't care to ask about before just saying "go" Anyway, DO calls AMD to recommend canceling the first line of the day (normally scheduled water pallet shuttle) to cover for the Bravo crew, which is exactly what AMD did. Word gets back to the OG and the DO got scolded, the original crew nearly got sent home, and...that's right...the ORM got changed so that you could max out fatigue on ORM and still be legal to go without OG or WG/CC approval. Basically the "leadership" didn't want to have to make a decision on a high priority mission that might make them look bad if it goes badly. That was the moment I realized we have been promoting the wrong people. No one with any authority wants to make decisions anymore...it might make them look bad. They pass it to the lowest level so they can hang them when things don't go well. ORM shouldn't be used to try to get the lowest possible score so decisions can be made at the lowest level, but rather the highest potential score so you can identify ALL the risk and mitigate them if possible. If it requires senior leadership approval, then that should be your red flag. Yet, we pass off high-risk decision making to the lowest level relying on a pseudo 'experience' levels that may only exist on paper. Problem is we are running out of leadership above and experience at the execution level. Its ok though...we'll just keep blaming those at the lowest levels and the cycle will keep repeating itself...and we'll keep asking why and paying for more studies when the "why" is in our "leadership" or lack thereof. Another J. Daniels rant...ya'll are doing a great job! Keep it up...blah blah blah. Exactly right pcola, the problem is "leadership" above still wants their fingers in the chili on this, but want to only blame the crew when shit goes badly. Sometimes there just isn't enough experience on a crew to make a well informed decision to call out TACC like you mention above. Some of our youngest go getters are just trying to stay looking good for "the man" so those school slots are still attainable. What do you think really happens to the guys to alter the commander's priority 1 mission because they didn't feel safe completing it as fragged?

My kids love this, we check it a few times on Christmas Eve.

Holy fuck, I hate people. BTW, newsflash: The cheesy video with the fighter escort has been around for a few years. I can speak with authority because I'm a certified Santa Tracker.

Keep telling yourself that...

Nothing to add, just want to be in the thread in case Gravedigger's buying...

College rankings are often in large part based on the quality of their incoming classes, i.e. average SAT scores, rank in their high school classes, etc. It seems like the questions people are asking are about outcomes, i.e. do students excel after going to the Academy and specifically did they succeed because of their experience going there? I'd say the answer to that second questions is hard to say and uniquely so for graduates of military academies since their graduates go on to serve as officers in the military for at least 5 years. So no, they're not likely doing ground-breaking research, founding fortune 500 companies, etc. right out of the academy because they're busy being CGOs. And we've all pretty much agreed that in terms of in-service performance academy grads are not materially better than officers from ROTC or OTS. So really I think you can have it both ways. The academy doesn't have to be a crappy school to say it's not worth having. You can argue that the academy is an excellent academic institution because they are very selective and only admit students with excellent high school academic backgrounds. You can also argue that they are set up well to provide above average instruction based on student to teacher rations. While all that can be true, the best question to ask is, "Is the taxpayer getting the best value for their money by sending a cadet to the USAFA?" I think because academy grads are not going to prestigious grad schools in huge numbers, are not doing ground-breaking research, are not founding innovative companies right off the bat, you have to justify the academies by saying the produce a better military officer, which I think they don't. BL: the academy is an academically excellent school mostly based on the quality of students it attracts, but its cost does not justify its existence since the taxpayer-funded impact of the academy's existence is not a measurably better officer corps.

Dude, nobody cares about the USAir CEO. Every school has super successful and rich people. Nevermind that what someone does after the academy is completely irrelevant with regard to the value that the Air Force extracts from them while actually in the service. The academy is a decent undergrad institution, but the fact that there's no grad school means that you can't even compare it with a major university. I mean, USAFA is duking it out with Holy Cross, Oberlin, and Scripps College to round out the top 25 of "schools I've only heard of when I fill out a March Madness bracket". USAFA is not on the level of an Ivy. It just isn't, man. At best, it's like UC Santa Barbara. Except UCSB does research. USAFA...trains narcs, I guess. The simple fact is that either the "diversity" of officer commissioning sources is worth the absolutely insane price per LT we pay for the academy, or things like flying hours, heavy tankers and CAS jets are worth more. I think the jets are worth more because the only thing we get from this current wonderful commissioning setup is the current crop of leadership that is so incessantly bitched about on this forum.

Why is it an issue? Because of dickbags like this? Anybody who has issue with this might want to try and read the US Code: Position and manner of display It shouldn't be terribly surprising that somebody from South Carolina is making a huge stink about it.

This is a rare flying-related rant, but here goes: I honestly believe the problem with the ORM program is that most AC's simply lack the fortitude to push back against something that is unsafe and bullshit, because they are afraid that they will look bad in front of leadership. I always find it absolutely amazing how an AC, before a mission, can know that it's bullshit and dangerous, his crew all recognizes that it's bullshit and dangerous, and possibly one brave soul even voices their opinion that it is bullshit and dangerous. But the AC goes along with it anyway, because they gotta look good for the boss. Maybe they are pushing for a good follow on assignment, or a DP, or whatever the hell else. The simple fact is that the PIC has the most power in this equation. People say don't let someone on the ground fly to your jet, but an AC who is too chickenshit to stand up to his superiors when he knows something is wrong, is doing exactly that. TACC will always push you to go and lean forward, because that is their job. Leadership will always do the same. Only the PIC can assess the situation on the ground and act as a check on the system. That's why we have officers in charge of those damn planes, the same way we have officers in charge of ships in the Navy that get a ton of command leeway. You are the master and commander of that fucking aircraft, so act like it.