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All of the talk of increasing 11F production, just to make sure that 11F staff billets are filled, reminded me of this blog post from a couple years ago. I feel like the whole damn defense apparatus of the country is somewhere between "Bloat" and full-on "Failure/Implosion." http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec10/lifecycle-bureaucracy12-10.html "Tip of the spear" military forces and readiness are left twisting in the wind while the thousands of senior officers in the Pentagon and Services jostle for promotions. At the point of implosion, there are more captains, colonels and generals than actual war-fighters. (There are plenty of barbers, cooks, waiters and assistants, though, to serve the senior officers.) Benefits for the survivors are left basically untouched while new hires are fired to preserve the budget for those with seniority. At some point, the mission of the bureaucracy is completely lost, and the citizens' patience with institutional incompetence and self-aggrandizement finally runs out.

T-38's, DLF. Watched the second airplane hit on the then TV in the flight room, still stepped to my contact solo. Crew chief told me to shut down, didn't know why, went back inside Andre realized we were at war. Every former fighter guy in the building was pissed they were in AETC at the time, made an impression on me......don't be a former fighter guy in AETC.

My favorite part is the guy doesn't even take off his flight cap before he gets skyhooked.

Yup - very interesting indeed. Another favorite of the Herc variants out there is the JC-130 recovering CORONA canisters and Fulton recovery system volunteers Pick up happens at 1:50. Follow on: I see clips from the Air Force of previous years from when we didn't stress out and weren't ruled by yes men who avoid risk because flying airplanes and doing the mission is secondary to MICT, TMT, etc... I can't imagine the AF of today being able to even conceive of doing cool shit like this. We're going to catch in mid-air space canisters and balloons floating cables to pull dudes off the ground / water and winch them into the plane, no sweat. I think the ORM score for this is about 69,000,000 which may require waiver.

Big Blue Corporate: "Hmmm, so we're having trouble retaining 'droid operators. "We're having trouble retaining aircraft pilots. "Say, boss, I've got this idea..."

DC-130 drone launching / controlling Herc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_DC-130

Echoing Allardice's words...that's exactly the threat my previous Gp/CC issued to me and the other instructors in the room during our instructor cert if we failed to keep up with the queep/admin part of being an instructor. What a cancer. On the flip side, the Wing king was a total bro...."I know all you guys are jumping ship to go to the airlines...let me know what I can do to help get you guys to stay. We need you"