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<br /><br />He should have dyed his hair & prepared a story about kidnapping & running a marathon across the central Asian steppes to escape his captors. That tale has a really good track record so far.

That article really highlights the false reality that a lot of commanders live in.

I now have absolutely zero reason to deploy ever again. On another note, I assume if you're flying out of one of those "non-combat" locations and fly to Afghanistan or another IDP location, you'd be eligible for both the IDP and CTZE, correct?

Well the going in position for CPTS is that when IDP for those locations goes away effective 1 June '14, so will the CZTE. So the question to OSD is to determine if there will be an exception granted to keep CZTE even though there is no IDP. So plan on IDP and CZTE going away on 1 Jun unless you hear otherwise. Rules would have to be changed to specifically authorize CZTE even though the area is not an IDP area. So Fuzz, if you continue to receive IDP and CZTE for one of those areas after 1 June consider yourself notified you will owe money.

I knew a missile guy turned rpa operator. He was the happiest guy in RPAs.

Shut off his pay, ID card, etc and let him go…24,999 to go in the cuts.

How about " Suck it up, you little bitches." Must be rough getting to sleep in your own beds and not having to deploy to Afshitistan. Or better yet, getting fragged with a 365 to Afshitistan to "teach" them how to fly/employ an aircraft that they'll either crash or let rot on the ramp once you leave (which now won't be for another 10 years, thanks USG). Oh, and you constantly have to be on guard because you never know when Mustafa there is going to shank you. Once you go through that, then you can talk to us about being "burned out" from exhausting, unrewarding, stressful work.

Big picture, I say go to UPT if there is a choice between a wait and starting immediately. I thought I had the option to go ENJJPT while I was in ROTC (#1/6, 3.8, 99 PCSM, SP) and applied, thinking I wanted to go fighters. When I found out I didn't get it, I was pissed. Apparently, my det/cc, who was new, saw my speeding ticket I got right before packets were put in and bumped me down to #2, even though I was #1 for the last 5 semesters straight. I ended up getting Vance, and I was nervous, primarily because I figured ENJJPT was my only ticket to a guaranteed 38. I spent weeks looking at selection rates, realizing that I was probably boned and would have to go tubes. Honestly, though, phase 1 and 2 was not that hard. If you work hard and really want a 38, you will get one, I did with really no worry. At the same time, there were people in my class that were deadset on fighters at the beginning that by the end of phase 2 had them last on their track preference. Things change, and I saw that as a good thing for 4 or 5 of the 18 AD dudes in my class. After you go 38's, you are, for assignment purposes, exactly equal to ENJJPT - they don't get preference for fighters, it's all the same drops. I ended up gettting my fighter in the end, as did 5 other dudes in my class. Also, you have to consider that your competition at ENJJPT is going to have almost only those motivated super cadets/people with 690 hours of flight time/real type-A dudes. I don't know if I would have been able to do as well as I did if I had been pitted up against them. At Non-ENJJPT bases, you have a mixture of people and a mixture of goals, which I realize now was beneficial to me in a competitive environment. Waiting for a year sucks ass. While you do get a guaranteed 38, I don't think it would be worth the extra competition with respect to assignments/delay.

Seriously? I know the story is no more real than Lord of the Rings but is it really necessary to make a Noah's ark story into a LOTR style epic?

Also of note, platforms like the AC-130U/W/J are highly CSO centric, the pilots really are mostly stick monkeys, and you get to do the bad guy shooting.