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This is probably the standard commander's thought process when someone has the audacity to not give 40 years of their life to bah gawd the most wonderful job in the history of mankind. It's as if people get downright offended that someone doesn't want to be exactly like them. Now that I think about it, the things commanders tell people getting out is strikingly similar to what wife beaters tell their abused spouses. "Don't you dare leave! You're nothing without me! You'll be sorry!" Interesting,

Take your logic and piss off!

Schedule a PT test on Tuesday morning and fail it miserably.

I think the line needs to learn from medical and separate the rated dudes from the non-rated dudes into different competitive categories. In medical we have five compcats: docs, dentists, nurses, MSCs (administrators), and BSC (every other medical officer job that doesn't fit into the other compcats). We have certain command jobs earmarked for each corps, so MSC always gets X number of sq and gp command slots and doesn't have to worry about the nurses, etc stealing our slots. We compete for promotion against other MSCs, nurses against other nurses, etc. Reason for that is we're all too different to fairly judge across career fields.

Different strokes for different folks bro. I've been a civilian for 8 months and I'm much happier. I make a lot less money, but that'll change.

Here's my input to the "great debate"... I admit that if I had a choice, an A-10 (or A-10-like) capability for a CAS mission would usually be my first choice in a survivable environment. However, that doesn't mean that it's an absolute requirement. I know I'm a bit dated, but out of my 250+ FAC missions in the OV-10 (Vietnam), 125 or more of them did CAS support at some point during the 3-4 hour sortie. I don't recall a single one of them resulting in the good guys being overrun due to poor CAS capability. Only one resulted in a friendly fire casualty and that was because the idiot stood up to get a picture of a Mk82 hitting the bad guys about 75 meters away (the ground CC's immediate comment was something like "Never mind, it'll save me the time it would take to beat his stupid ass to death"). The point of this is that we did great CAS work nearly every day with no A-10s. I worked F-100s, F-4s, A-4s, A-7s, A-1s, A-6s , VNAF A-37s, and F-5s, AC-119s, AC-130s, and even some AH-1Gs and UH-1Cs (gunship variants), plus my own pitiful ordnance, of course. Most of the work was in the 100-300 meter range, but some as close as 30 meters. In some cases, the sheer power of the 30mm may have been a detriment...the 7.62 was actually safer to use and plenty good enough in terms of killing power with less collateral damage potential. Each platform had its good and bad points, and had to be used carefully to maximize impact on the bad guys and minimize threats to the friendlies. For instance, a light platform with small ordnance (like an A-37 with 7.62 and 250lb slicks) I generally started working close with guns and backed up about 10m a pass until it was safe to use the 250s. When I had a couple of A-6s (usually VMA 225 out of Danang...really good at CAS!) I'd put one or two mk82s as close as possible to slow the action, then start dropping sticks of five or six (remember, they has 28 bombs each) behind the bad guys about 300m then march the sticks forward about 25m a stick. It didn't take long for the bad guys to figure out they were soon to be caught between a wall of bombs and fire from the friendlies, and they backed out fast. It might have helped that the first sticks tended to take out upper management, watching from the rear, early in the game! In general, F-100s were not too bad, since CAS and other close support was a large part of their mission, and the Marine A-4s and F-4s were very good at CAS since that was almost all they did (especially the A-4s from Chu Lai). They averaged between 20-40 CAS sorties a month and were very good because of their sortie rate. On the other hand, the AF F-4s from Danang (Gunfighters) were usually terrible, but that's because most of them only flew a real CAS sortie once or twice a month. I hated to use them closer than 200m. The VNAF guys were pretty good, too, but most of them had been flying for a decade, with the leads frequently having 1000-2000 combat sorties (mostly CAS) over a decade or more. Navy (mostly A-7s) was my last choice, mostly because they rarely did actual CAS, and I saw them infrequently which lowered my confidence in their abilities. As a matter of fact, my feeling is that good CAS may be less about the airframe than the pilot experience in the cockpit (and maybe about the guy directing the situation (air or ground FAC, or whatever the current nomenclature is). The Marine F-4/AF F-4 comparison is a good example. Just a thought...

FOD..scheduling more than a day ahead of time...meeting any sort of deadline...watch out

Always found that funny considering: they cut the fingers off their gloves, roll sleeves up, zippers down, and have been known to fly around naked. But FOD...watch out boys.

I think people are getting too wrapped around the axle over what Cap said. If there is something so important that it needs to get done overnight, my boss has either told me to stay and work on it, or come in on a Sunday. This has been the exception in my short career and in each case warranted. Other than that, I'm not working on shit at home.

Or just throw caution to the wind and just go...29B or not

I oftentimes check my work email from home to avoid going into work in the first place, and if it gives me SA on what's going on around the office, I don't see the harm. Shit, it takes all of 2 minutes to check---a lot less than it takes for all y'all to make your 10th post of the day on BODN.

Why would I EVER EVER poison someone who wanted to give me mouth hugs???

We'll always be the best Air Force, because we outspend the enemy 10 or 100 to 1. We're definitely not the best air force per capita or per dollar spent.

For those who missed it: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/is-the-f-35-worth-it/

Beerman, I know you've been here for a while and your comments are usually spot on, I guess we just see things differently. I am not looking for "epic job satisfaction", I joined to serve my country and I know that comes with sacrifice, but I can tell you what I have been doing and the pace I've been doing it at it for the past five years has very little satisfaction. It was not hyperbole to say my 15th deployment and the 1:1 bog dwell for years on end has taken a toll on my family. I am sure others have been working just as hard and I can keep running at this pace, but it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you see a double standard with some of our leaders. As for the footnote, I was serious, I am not sport bitching just because my community is having a tough time. Look around, 750 Eagles to 189 Raptors, the F-35 will never be purchased in they numbers we want, our overall fighter numbers are at an all time low and going lower, TAMI 21, VSP X 2, a nuclear enterprise that can't stay out of the news, a nuclear enterprise that is old and worn out, general officers getting plastered in Moscow, a broken CSAR fleet, 60 year old tankers, sexual assault in the news every other week, Force Shaping to pay for more F-35s, our shit is broken and worn out and we are replacing about 1/3 of what we have. Our adversaries are investing and while they may not be there yet, they are building fast. So yes, at the current rate I think we are in trouble. As for the airlines, flying the 320 from Newark to Chicago does not sound like a life fulfilling adventure, but I can't see doing what I have been for the next 12 years.

Saw this around the interwebs today and figured it belonged here...

The senior rater has to strat all the way down on the RRFs per the RIF PSDM. Give yourself that 200/200 strat on your draft RRF-he'll probably get the message.

Anyone know offhand if the senior rater is technically required to write the rrf? As in, I'm trying to vsp; I know damn good and well it won't get approved, so then I want to get RIFd. In such a scenario, I have zero incentive/motivation to write my own rrf. Any tips on what/how to write it - the only caveat being that I need to get it through the Sq/Gp and Wg without having it sent back so I can do it again. Already been told "Please consider this a resubmission of my vsp application" is a nonstarter.

MountainHerc, Are you keeping up with queep at home while you are downrange....if so, stop it! Here's my plan that has worked for the last 16.9 years: 1) when getting ready for leave, TDY, deployment, etc, put the ol out of office reply to work. 2) enjoy your time away from the squadron...it will not burn down and the wheels will keep on turning while you are gone...trust me. You are not as important as you think you are. However, you are a unique snowflake---just like everyone else! 3) when you return, open up outlook and delete every email you got while gone....don't spend even a second reading them. If it was that important, that person already found the info they needed or they will write/email/call back at a later date. BLOB (that's the lesser used Bottom Line On Bottom): concentrate on the mish downrange and stop giving a shit about the squadron running's back home...it will be there when you RTB safety! Check 6! Cap-10 4)

Cold turkey right meow. Probably going to pick up a Reserve job this fall.

Sadly, I am with you. I so badly wanted to serve and make a difference, but I find myself on the road for the 15th time with no regard for my future or that of my family. From leadership, to opstempo, to equipment, we are losing on all fronts. We were once the greatest Air Force on earth, but sadly at the rate we are currently going we will be nothing more than a sad footnote of failure.

Stop the madness!!!!! Stop doing work at home....chase some tail....chase your wife....take your kids to the park!!! If your base requires some local ISP to do your work and its not working...I guess you get to go home early that day. Cap-10

Grandfather clause has been signed into law. I just love how the media is calling it a "boost to military retirement" or an "increase in military benefits." /sarcasm