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First it was "I'm waiting on FDA approval" then it was a religious exemption, and now it's marketing name brand semantics. It has become clear this is 100% political and nothing will ever be good enough for these people. They're doing a bad job of hiding the ball, and it's fun to watch the Air Force call them on it. A big part joining the military is putting duty above political affiliation. But some of you have gotten so wrapped up in this vaccine debate that it's become a part of your political identity, and by extension, your personal identity. At that point you are putting your political priors ahead of duty and country, so I won't lose a wink of sleep when the military shows you the door.

MARSRADIO continues to provide free HF communications for land, air and sea DoD assets as authorized by DoDi 4620.02. We want to say a big THANK YOU to our military, active and retired, for your service to our country. Come up to our net for any assistance that we can supply. In addition to regular official and morale phone patches, we have handled in-flight emergencies and even provided sports scores. It is all about supporting you. While still spotty, conditions are improving into Europe, Africa and the Pacific.

General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions A general discharge under honorable conditions means that your service was satisfactory, but did not deserve the highest level of discharge for performance and conduct. Many veterans with this type of discharge may have engaged in minor misconduct. While a discharge under honorable conditions may not be what a veteran wants on his or her resume, it qualifies for VA health care, TRICARE's Continued Health Care Benefit Program (military health insurance), VA disability compensation, VA pension, VA home loans, and all other veterans benefits except for educational benefits under the Montgomery or Post-9/11 GI Bill. (For the Montgomery GI Bill program or Post-9/11 GI Bill program, you need an honorable discharge.)

Giddy with delight, it seems.

Can't wait to see the new rank structure. "Airperson Basic" "Airperson" "Airperson 1st Class" "Senior Airperson"

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/notams-now-notices-to-air-missions/ FAA changes NOTAM to mean Notice to Air Missions, removing Airmen, to be “more inclusive and gender neutral”. Air Force soon to follow? When the fuck will this madness stop?

Not trying to stick it to anyone. Just answering Blue's question. I haven't been kicked out yet, but the sequence of events has been put into motion with the memo you referenced.

Yes. Lighten up Francis.

Well, you must be fun to fly with Ace:

Oh definitely. He’s on the record as claiming that the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the breakup of the Soviet Union. Ukraine was “gifted” Crimea…so he took it back. [it’s a gift , Todd] He 100% still views Russian greatness as a return to the Soviet era poise, and in that world view, Ukraine is just a Russian extension.

On second thought I guess your answer is: well an uncontrolled field is non-FDA approved so it's my decision whether i want to take the active or not. 😂

Yes, I've heard that and changed the protocol for morale introduction. "Hello, this is (name) with Air Force MARSRADIO. I have (your first name) on the radio and he would like to talk to you." Do the briefing, etc after that. Confusion is bad enough, but often the first thought from the party on the phone is "What's wrong." I would suggest that anyone who might make a morale call put the phone number 469-718-2300 in their contacts. The majority of calls will come from that number. Also, we now have a more private way to get the patch. Go to https://hfmars.us. You can register as many numbers as desired. The form will ask for all information we need to complete the patch and you will receive a phone code. Provide that code to the operator who will get all the information, including phone number, on his screen so that information does not have to be transmitted over the air. Hope we do better next time. Our members enjoy doing the more personal morale patches. Thanks for the input.

Pawnman, your level of reading comprehension is truly embarrassing. "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

Would you be willing to spend a significant chunk of the 50K servicemembers lives that you propose to send to Ukraine? Including mine? Honestly asking. What's your threshold in lives spent/material used to stop Russian aggression? If it helps, I'm honestly leaning towards us taking a stand on this. A phenomenal Estonian officer friend of mine is right on the frontlines of this nonsense. The last time I wished him a happy birthday, he said it would be much more cheerful if more Americans were there (he actually gets American sarcasm), and said he had a great birthday mining bridges and stockpiling weapons in the woods in case Mr. Putin came calling (cause that's actually what he's been doing lately). I'd go stand next to him in a heartbeat. I seriously would, despite the horrid consequences of a full on clash with Russia. If it we reduce to emotional tribalism and the US says the Ukrainians are part of my tribe, I'm all for standing up to and if necessary stomping the the Russians the fuck out.

Better question. 1. Could we…? 2. How many times could we do that or start doing that before we are spent? I don’t know if it’s suddenly forgotten but we got to “show the world” our unquestioned airlift superiority in the “greatest single airlift operation in history.” What we really showed to anybody smart is we just spent a shit load of flight hours and build a hell of a backlog MX on the fleet of airplanes that takes time to repay. Anybody with two brain cells knows our world wide rapid response is anchored around our airlift. How many of the great power foes would be smart enough to realize they can chose to mobilize and force our prudent mass movements only to then easily stand down and let us with a few movements through slow attrition lose our ability or at least severely limit it. There is a reason things like aircraft slants and readiness exercises are supposed to be closely held in secret. I’ll be honest the next massive typhoon, earthquake, volcano that comes down on some 3rd world shithole, we park the grey tails and pay fedex/Kallita/etc to haul it and preserve our readiness over trying to win the world opinion race by writing the biggest check. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One that doesn't require you to wear a face mask to protect you from the virus that you just got 3 inoculations against? I mean, really think about that. They're telling people with 3 shots over 7 months to wear a mask and social distance. That's insane. They're saying the vaccines are great and provide amazing protection, but also that vaccinated people have to keep following the emergency public health protocols that were being stressed before a vaccine was avaliable. How could a reasonable person not see the disconnect there? I know we've become inured and desensitized to mask wearing, but imagine telling your 2019 self that there's a pandemic on the way, and you'll soon be told to take 3 vaccinations and still mandated to wear a face mask. Hearing that, your 2019 self would assume that the vaccination had extremely low efficacy and/or the pathogen must be like the ones portrayed in the movies Outbreak or Contagion, where the premise was that exposure to the virus was a death sentence (involving pustulating sores, convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and death within 48 hours). But neither of those is true of Covid. The vaccines are highly efficacious and Covid is highly survivable. Any reasonably intelligent person in 2019, shown the data we have now, and told about that messaging disconnect, would be thoroughly confused about the ongoing farce. As others have said, get as many shots as you want. Tripple mask, ...and don't forget the face shield. Celebrate the holidays with family via Zoom chat. Go nuts. After all, the hardest part of 14 days to flatten the curve is the first 2 years. My family and I will pass, thanks.

Read it again, Pawn. For comprehension this time… Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

You seem to be incapable of fathoming a simple fact for many who are hesitant to get the Kung flu prophylaxis. I will spell it out for you: The vaccine, for a virus that isn't species-threatening, is inefficient at best. It hasn't been tested rigourisly (sp?) and the data can only capture in the short-term at present. It is a literal unknown of any long-term effects these shots will have. The variety of, and number of, side-effects are larger than they should be for a well-tested and deployed vaccine. For me, having had Covid, the natural anti-bodies produced suffice for my risk mitigation assessment. You may not like my decision, but that's on you. I'm not against you getting as many 'vaccines' and boosters as you desire. Same thing for any children you may have. You knock yourself out. Leave me the fcuk alone. I am quite capable of making my own decisions. And Trump didn't institute mandates that have cost people their jobs. Imagine the sturm and drang if he had've. But dementia Joe, with his "I've got a plan to stop the virus," can't seem to do much at all. Even his kindly, knows what's best for me get a inefficient vaccine is getting slammed in multiple levels of courts and states that aren't cowering seem to be doing pretty well. Color me shocked. As for a military order, it is supposed to be lawful. Takes a lot of courage to fight an order that one considers unlawful so most don't - lack of financial resources to survive, to fight, etc. But some do. If they lose, those folks will face administrative and judicial punishment. Again, takes a lot of guts to push back. They should've never been put in that position. The pool of eligibles isn't that big. Despite the diversity push, this order probably discourages a not insignificant number of people to not raise their right hand. It will be interesting to see how many currently serving, but refusing this order, are actually punished/discharged.

NATO’s always been as much about keeping the Germans under our thumb as it has been about deterring Soviet/Russian aggression. Don’t underestimate the good things that come from keeping virtually all of Europe under one military alliance. A peaceful Western (and now Eastern) Europe is a valid foreign policy goal for the United States and is well worth the money and effort of the last seven decades. I’d even go so far as to argue that a Europe that depends on us for defense is a GOOD thing for the United States. It allows us to continue to dictate the western world order.

I get it, I'm sick of freeloaders with the money, tech, industry and the military age male population to help secure the free world but don't as they benefit from the system and international political and security conditions that exist now thru the sacrifice of blood and treasure, thru expensive and difficult continued vigilance to deter aggression. I see how this appears tenuous but allowing the weak to be bullied, conquered, assimilated, etc... when that weak state is not geographically close, economically significant or culturally tied to us but it is. It is the principle that we don't leave our friends and allies out to dry. That where it matters, where aggression would threaten the free world, to the rules based order, we and others will fight for it. That we are the powerful nation that is willing to act on the principle that others deserve the right to live as they wish without being dominated unwillingly by others and that we will fight with those being oppressed to prevent that. We approached, encouraged and publicly supported Ukranian democracy, reform and turn to the West, this drew the ire of Russia and now as the storm clouds gather, we abandon them? Seems unbecoming to a nation that prides itself on being the shinning city on the hill and the guarantor of freedom. I don't believe in poking the bear but running from it is not acceptable either. I don't think your son, mine or any American should be sacrificed in a war, conflict or military operation that is not fought to win but that rightfully skeptical sentiment given our recent debacle in withdrawal from Afghanistan should not stop us from fighting or deterring a fight that is not an unsolvable problem like nation building in places where a nation really only exists on a map. I'm not naive, I know our power is not infinite and not every conflict is our responsibility, we have to choose wisely where we have to or should intervene. If Ukraine is invaded or Russia takes other aggression towards them beyond what they are doing now, I believe we should help them. Just my two cents.

Sorry, no one has adequately explained why my son should die for Ukraine or Taiwan. If those countries are absorbed into their respective aggressors, is anyone in the US less safe in a quantifiable way? “Defender of the global commons” is insufficient rationale unless it translates to an actual threat to US personnel. Now if you want to start some shit with China because of the US Fentanyl crisis or C19 I’m game to hear you out, but we should probably have a real intel assessment first.

The Chinese won’t invade Taiwan. The idea is to create just enough uncertainty about a U.S./Aussie/Japanese response to deter China. It’s working. Add to that the near certain threat of sanctions from the entire western world, and the fact that the Taiwanese are capable of putting a serious dent into any Chinese invasion force and the cost is simply too steep for Xi. Additionally, I don’t think the Chinese possess the organizational skills or actual operational capabilities to pull it off. Their existing infrastructure operates highly inefficiently in practice. I realize mass has a quality all its own, but they’re going to get their heads kicked in for a while before they eventually succeed. That will lead to further domestic/economic pressure that Xi doesn’t want or need at the moment. A Taiwan invasion carries with it a very real chance that the people of China, along with the CCP will lose faith in Xi’s leadership. The last thing he wants is anything that might threaten his grip on power.