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I knew him well and bought into his BS when he was a Colonel. He gave some great speeches when he was the Commandant of the Weapons School and acted as if he genuinely cared, turns out it was nothing but empty words. Get out...as soon as you can...seriously, run for the door while you still have an option, it is only going to get worse.

Absolutely, but not in the current climate with a complete lack of will to win, massive amounts of CYA, dickless leadership abounds, etc. Tac Airlifter nailed it - when are we going to start wanting to win again and start re-thinking the way we are playing this game? Until we stop this bullshit idea of "we're not at war" war, it will not get better.

I'm sure there are many, but on a recent out-the-door-to-deployment speech, his message was roughly: "Don't f this up, my reputation depends on it." How did you get 4 stars? Oh, wait, apparently that CYA mentality is how. A far cry from a Patton ("You don't win by dying for your country, you do it by making the other poor bastard die for his" stuff) or Eisenhower ("I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle" stuff) in the leadership category.

Further proof of how broken the Air Force is... http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/960240/general-officer-announcement Try to destroy people based on a text....have it overturned and STILL make GO. Baba Rand continues to disappoint.

While sometimes getting down and dirty is unavoidable in war the cost can go WAY higher than imagined if and when an American Servicemen ends up in the hands of the enemy. Used to remind (read: don't do anything stupid) my guys constantly that if somehow (doesn't really matter how) they end up in the hands of the enemy the combat power that will be expended in locating and retrieving them will be huge and take away from other missions. Not to mention the other lives that will be put at risk. Bergdahl is the most well known example though establishing if someone is dead or alive as happened in OIF as well can be no small feat with a huge effort required. As a matter of fact I've heard that assets including UAVs that may have otherwise been over watching COP Keating (prior to the Battle of Kamdesh) were re-tasked to try and locate Bergdahl. True or not you get the idea. In my mind if I can kill the SOBs from afar where they can't hit me then by all means let's do it. "If You Find Yourself in a Fair Fight You Didn't Plan Your Mission Properly" PVT Murphy

I mostly agree. Don't forget--- you don't need faster transit speed if you're forward staged. Not super practical with an RPA but certainly an option manned platforms exercise regularly, with an added benefit of cementing relationships directly with the GFC. And it's almost always possible provided commanders are willing to accept a little increased risk. We've seen huge benefits and accomplished things otherwise not possible by using this approach. WRT the 22k weapon.... I assume you're talking about a GBU12 or 49? As much as I want an OA-X, but think we'll never see it, I also agree with brabus that we're making things work fine right now tactically. Our problems are many, but we aren't in a position where if we just had one extra toy we'd turn the corner on OCOs. We have the capabilities. We lack the will. And not just politics, I mean at the operational level we lack will. The will to tear up the ISR sync matrix and think about these wars differently. We can always count on smart tacticians to find a better way to employ what we have; even if those systems aren't optimal we can train people to surmount obstacles. I'm just hoping one day someone at a high level says "we've been doing the same thing and getting the same outcome for years..... anyone want to rethink this whole effort?" That's what we need. The balls to say that we're losing, we're sick of it, and we're willing to challenge every assumption and slay every philosophical sacred cow to win. Because damn it, we want to win. And hope to be part of that day is the only reason I've stayed.

We already have several platforms shooting a ~$22K weapon...fairly cheap way to kill shitheads/Hilux in comparison to the other precision guided options. The current manned and unmanned ISR doing the HVI hunting/killing mission are very good at it. The only thing missing right now is faster transit speed, but it's only a matter of very little time until we field an RPA that can do 350 kts in transit, problem solved. I'm not so sure the proverbial we aren't trying to solve a problem that doesn't really exist. I don't see us not completing the kill chain because of a lack in capability from an MQ-9, U-28, etc. What is going to change if we introduce something additional? Because the number in the win column is pretty large, and I think the only major, limiting factor on its rate of growth is asset availability, not a large capability gap.

Seems to be true. I just learned that an old Academy squadron mate was picked up for Major on his 5 ABZ board. Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network Forums

Guys I found an excellent poem online that might clarify this: Republicans are Red. Democrats are Blue. Neither of them give a fuck about people like You.

You being an expert on both subjects, I'll take your word for it.....besides, its midget porn featuring Del Rio midgets. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

*actively ignoring all of this as i apply for OTS*

fify