Leaderboard

oh no you don't...we KNEW pretty early on that covid was statistically a non event for young, healthy people. and turns out Fauci and his buddies at Pfizer KNEW it didn't prevent the spread...we were told straight up lies and coerced into taking a shot that provides zero protection and is very harmful...latest numbers i heard were 1 in 800 have side effects. that is a very high number and this shot should NEVER have been MANDATED. so don't give me this 20/20 bullshit....the warnings were being issued very early on but FUCKING CENSORED

The only uniform item that I derive any morale from whatsoever is the green bag. It serves as a daily reminder that I'm better than the nonners and the paper pushers who convene meetings like the one that produced this worthless uniform reg update. hot take alert: if you wear the two piece flight suit you're a beta cuck flyer who is complicit it the eventual eradication of the green bag. Shame on you and your disrespect for tradition and may god have mercy on your soul

Not as heroic as prior posts, but a night I’ll always remember. It was either Jan or Feb 1991, Desert Storm was raging. Took off in my C-141 from Daharan AB on my millionth flight during that timeframe (over 1000 hrs in 7 months). Anyhow shortly after takeoff, a bright flash explodes off my right side, looked similar to a July 4th firework, the cockpit gets real bright for a second, and as I looked to my right, my Co is ducking down in reaction to the flash. After a few jinks, we hear that the base is under a SCUD attack and the Patriot batteries were responding, hence the explosion, but we’re airborne anyway, so we get outta Dodge ASAP. After the excitement is over, I start teasing my Co about ducking down, and we basically had a good laugh about what happened. The co-pilot was a good squadron Bud, named LeRoy. He looked at me and said “I guess those A-rabs didn’t get ole LeRoy tonight” we just laughed and flew back to Ramstein. Fast forward to 9/11….I’m watching the news, and I read on the bottom news crawl that the crew on flight United 93 that crashed in Shanksville PA included my good Bud..LeRoy Homer (the FO) I still remember the laughs we had after that Scud attack, and his words that night were prophetic. RIP LeRoy

RIP. 🍺 - Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee -Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California. -Staff Sergeant Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire. -Sergeant Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona. -Sergeant Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minnesota.

On the USAF side access to mental health care without retribution should be SOP for our service, especially for those in combat operations. I won't go into all the details but I fought an EPIC battle with Big Blue years ago to keep CLEARED Ops Psychs available to our aviators in the AFSOC world. I am obviously not an RPA operator but the RPA community in particular needs this service. I spent a lot of time commanding and working in their world and my battle resulted in me having to brief the Under Secretary of the Air Force when the Manpower people tried to take them away our cleared Ops Psychs. I used the following argument to successfully keep access to this critical care capability: "Sir, a lot of people underestimate and overlook RPA operators believing they are fighting the war from a box and they get to go home every night, someone insinuating that is an easy way to fight a war and it reduces the risk to their mental health. In fact, our RPA operators wage a far more personal form of combat than most and I believe it defiantly impacts mental health, especially in the long-term. I would ask you to consider this small vignette. Many of our RPA operators will observe the same house, watching the same person for a month or more at a time. As they develop a pattern of life they observe the target kiss his kids each day then send them off to school, they watch him interact with his wife, they watch him pray. The interaction while one way becomes very personal. One morning our RPA operator wakes up, has breakfast with his wife and kids, kisses his kids and walks them to the bus stop then heads off to the GCU. He sits down and five minutes later the phone rings telling him or her to kill the target. Our RPA operator professionally runs the approvals and traps and a short time later launches a missile or two that turns the target into pink mist, but it doesn't end there. Our RPA operator stays over the objective and watches the body in high definition for hours to see who responds. He or she can sees the kids face and grief when they discover their father was shredded into a lifeless mass of meat, they see his wife try to put the pieces back together and they watch as the body is eventually carried off by other friends and family. At the end of his or her shift they drive home and sit down at the dinner table where the family asks "how was your day?" How does our RPA operator possibly answer that question to his family. This form of combat is different than our other platforms that deploy. While on deployment manned operators have a separation that provides a buffer to process everything that happens, the live, sleep and eat with the camaraderie of others who are experiencing the same effects of combat, they have the time it takes to get home from a deployment to decompress and adjust, and they have time at home away from combat when their deployment is over. Our RPA operators have none of that, in fact they are so critically manned that they often can't take leave, the only get one day off per week and they do this in an endless cycle that can last for years on end. Make no mistake the person he or she killed was a bad person and they deserved to die, but we never want our warriors to lose their humanity in the process." Ultimately this argument worked and we were able to keep a TS cleared Ops Psych that was with our RPA folks everyday. I will laugh when someone plays Dos Gringos Predator Euology but I will never disparage our folks in this community, they carry a different burden than most and they do it without an end in sight. And, @Danger41 , they may be the SEALs of the Sky, but I hold the Draco's on the same regard. Most don't know the impact a little PC-12 has had on the battlefield or the commitment and cost to your community.

A little squadron souvenir earned while protecting a TF-160 MH-47 one dark night many years ago. 40MM HE impact right on the RPG launcher (and shoulder/neck area of the bad guy).

This has so many red flags I am surprised some of you are not trying to date it.

“Environmentally unsound” is definitely built for the European audience. Think they’re talking about the fuel dumping or the resultant littering and… littering and… smoking the Reaper?

Behold lads and lasses, a legend is born with the best Selfie ever! Free beers for life my friend!

@argstarted the other thread about Gunships in Desert Storm and I recommended a war stories thread because I’m sure this group has some good ones. I’ll kick it off. Decmeber 2, 2014 Nangahar, Afghanistan Flying Draco out of Bagram and a raid comes down that we’re going to support and run the stack for. We weren’t doing hits every night but by dumb luck, I’d been on a few as we rolled through the schedule. As some of you know, they’re usually a bit hectic at first when the helo lands and then it’s pretty chill as they make callouts and not much would happen so that was what I expected. We brief up, get out there, get everyone checked in and ready to go. We had 2 Vipers, a Gunship, a few RPA’s, Compass Call a ways off, and the helos that had a couple DAPs and 4 60’s. TOT hits, all the sensors are assigned and I’m looking out the window and I see multiple 12.7 and 23mm open up from all along this river bank/village that were covered up until we landed (1). We haven’t even made comms with the ground force yet and it’s a madhouse immediately. I vividly remember seeing tracers crisscrossing the village and then under NVG I can see airburst going off above the Gunship and behind where he was (shooting at the sound). The assault force gets out and are immediately under fire. I had some young guys running sensors and a pretty weak swimmer (that got much better but he was a 1st Lt at the time and somewhat weak) as our CSO who, in theory, should be running the show in this instance but kind of locked up a bit and was overwhelmed. I started directing sensors and getting directive to get people sorting and finding targets. We finally get the JTAC on the radio and I unload the situation to him (overly wordy and crappy comms) and he basically tells me to run it because they’re under fire (gunshots and yelling in the background). I had some very good Viper pilots (2 Patch wearers I come to find out) and had them tracking targets, RPA’s on ADA positions, and the Gunship in close on the good guys. I started working with the DAPs and we would find stuff and they’d kill it. Time goes on, we start thinning out targets, the assault force is clearing the northern village and it turns out to be a dry hole so they start moving about a KM south toward the secondary objective. As they move, it’s more of the same with the sensors except we split to help the Gunship escort the assault force and to find targets for the DAPs with the other. As this is going on, I’m starting to realize that the timeline has gone to absolute hell and we won’t be able to support this whole thing so I call back to our TOC and tell them to wake up the crew that would be flying the first line of the day to backfill us (2). Every jet there worked extensions and Tac C2 worked tanker reflows and all that. The whole team came together to support the guys on the ground and we didn’t get any push back. Incredibly awesome teamwork and proud moment for me as a member of the USAF. While I’m neck deep in trying to secure all that, the ground force is moving to the southern area and enemy fighters pop out of VC style spider holes and engage them from about ten feet. By the grace of God, no friendlies get hit and they kill the enemy and continue to move (3). They eventually make it to the southern compound and start to make call outs IAW the ROE. I’ve got two bingos (one for JBAD and one for BAF) and know I’m getting close to having to leave. I didn’t want to go to JBAD because I knew our MX flow at the time we didn’t have enough airplanes to backfill our backfill (jet happened to be in phase) if I went to JBAD but I couldn’t leave until we had another Draco because everyone else was gainfully employed and I assumed we’d lose the Gunship at Dawn (Spirit 03) and didn’t want the ground force to lose their comm lifeline. Personal thought at the time was that this would take until about noon the next day. About this time, my good friend and his crew that got shaken awake and scrambled check in on comms and I start filling them in. I’m doing a handover and they show up and match sensors and see DAPs killing targets under our sparkle and we hand that off (an easy confirmation haha). As they’re making it, I commit to BAF and know I’ll be landing at min fuel but that’s fine. We are about done and their radios all take a shit and lose crypto at the exact same time that an assault force member gets shot and the ground force calls for an urgent CASEVAC (4). Our backfill has no comms and the ground force is relaying the CASEVAC 9-line in rapid fire to my aforementioned weak swimmers who dropped their nuts and did a picture perfect job and made that happen to get the helos back for the exfil (5). My backfill gets one (of their 10) radios working and takes the stack and the situation over and we get out of dodge. I run the numbers and realize we will be at emergency gas when we land so I coordinate to zoom as much as the mighty Draco can and get into a glide profile to enter a 69 mile right base. I call the SOF (A-10 guy) and tell him to get everyone out of our way and he worked with everyone to clear it out for us. He does it and I get cleared to the numbers and land with 78 pounds of gas. I’ll never forget that number haha (it also went up about 70 pounds when I reset the counter on the ground so I didn’t shut down and get towed back). We shut down, get back to the TOC and things are still happening but long story short, we got everyone back a few hours later (6). I’ve never felt anything like that and I was absolutely jacked and when I landed and came down off of that, I couldn’t sleep for a long time and was antsy hearing about the fate of the wounded assaulter because I assumed he died based on how it sounded over the radio. When I found out he lived, I can’t explain the feeling of relief and flush of emotions that happened. He was sent to Germany and ended up being paralyzed, unfortunately but he’s alive today and sounds like he’s thriving. Anyways, I felt like I earned that 1/20th of an Air Medal. 1. Turns out one of our Afghan allies let his Taliban buddies know we were coming and they decided to try to make this a Blackhawk Down scenario. 2. We didn’t have a backfill and a 4 hour gap from when we would land to when those guys would takeoff for the first line of the day to coincide with sunrise. The LPA and junior enlisted that were awake and running our graveyard ops absolutely killed it getting those dudes prepped, getting them food, etc. I was incredibly proud of those folks that didn’t whine or complain at all and just made shit happen. Draco standard. 3. https://www.army.mil/article/147892/1st_battalion_75th_ranger_regiment_honors_its_heroes The dudes that got the Bronze Star with V were for this part. 4. https://www.socom.mil/fighting-on-to-the-ranger-objective The Rangers that got Silver Stars above in 3 were for this part. True heroism. 5. Army helos were sitting at level 1 at JBAD and were there in minutes. They earned DFC’s for this deservedly so. 6. Later on I heard from that intercepted comms said something like “how are they finding us? They’re killing us and we can’t see them.” Over 25 EKIA and a great mission for SSE overall.

A little mean .... but still spot on and funny.

To piggyback on ViperMan, nuance is great and all, but some things are self evident, no nuance required: - The American political system is better than Russia’s. Despite all our flaws, I’ll take a representative democracy over Putin’s kleptocracy every time. - The liberal world order (again, I’ll remind the less educated amongst us that “liberal” does not refer to US domestic politics here) established after WWII is better than an alternative where strong countries simply take what they want. The “establishment” that Putin and his apologists like to rail against has kept the peace for seven decades. Some of us have become so accustomed to that peace that it’s become hard to believe that it’s not just the de facto state of the world. It’s not. It takes a lot of work. - Invading a sovereign nation, no matter what cultural and ethnic ties you think you have, is wrong. That’s it. No need for discussion (or nuance). Respect for sovereignty is a key to peace in the modern world. It should be defended vigorously by anyone who doesn’t want to see the planet flattened by war. I could go on. Point being, there’s no gray area to hang out in here. No we aren’t perfect. Yes, we have our problems, some of them major. Despite all of that, we are objectively better than the alternative, regardless of which party is in power, regardless of our internal differences. Objectively. Better. Full stop. I choose to support OUR institutions, flawed though they may be, because it’s a far better option than operating in the wilderness of thought where the Russian and Chinese fact twisters want us. There are forces in this world that are true existential threats to our way of life. They are NOT your neighbor with the coexist bumper sticker (naive as he may be) or the Trump flag on his truck. They are not even Nancy Pelosi (who I guarantee you is FAR more of a free market advocate than Putin or Xi), or Mitch McConnell. It continuously blows my mind that some of us continue to point fingers at each other when there is no shit, painfully obvious evil rearing it’s head in the world with despots outright stating their desire to destroy western cultural values. It’s time to recognize what’s right in front of our faces, put our differences aside for a bit, and start pulling in the same direction.

Great questions. The answer is no. Every GO sold out, repeated the same supportive tripe in public while privately voicing concern at our trajectory, yet continued up the chain of rank and pay. Imagine if we had leaders who said this: “I resign from active service. I love our country but cannot continue in good conscience to lead our men and women into danger with no clear objective or purpose. Indecisive political policies are irresponsible, and I resign in hopes the ensuing attention will cause this matter to be taken seriously and resolved with urgency.” GOs reading this, and I know they are, will doubtlessly guffaw at the simplistic scenario I present above. However, they lacked the courage to take bold action. Everyone with combat experience knows we don’t have bold/courageous General Officers. We have highly intellectual GOs who can stay up 20 hours a day, run miles each morning and work their staff to death analyzing a multitude of variables… but they aren’t bold and can’t win.. So to the GOs readIng this in fury at my condemnation- I’m certain you think I am ignorant of how futile and ostracizing my proposed COA would be. You’d be embarrassed in front of your peers. It would be awkward and socially uncomfortable. But had you played that card, you’d be a hero today. Instead, congrats on the retired rank but you’re forever attached to the ignominy of how those wars ended. FWIW I practice what I preach and burned every bridge on my way out over an issue to help my young squadron members. It was uncomfortable going from #1 to the trash can, my peers and supervisors despised me at the end and I didn’t have a retirement ceremony over this issue. However, I played every card and logged a major win for the young captains 6 weeks before retiring.

Respect your opinion but I think you are wrong for a host of reasons. 1. While not a treaty, in 1994 we negotiated and signed the Budapest Agreement. We promised to provide security for Ukraine in exchange for them giving up the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world. This agreement made the world safer for almost 30 years. Were you upset when we threw our promise to Afghanistan away and fled in the middle of the night? We gave our word and at some point if we want to be respected as a world leader we have to honor our word. 2. For pennies on the dollar of our annual DoD budget we have enabled Ukraine to bleed a near-peer Superpower and relegate them to chump status. Russia has taken STAGGERING losses. Putin's grand plan to rebuild the Soviet Union died on the battlefield of Ukraine. A lot of independent agencies have validated Russian losses. Russia started the war with 3,000 operational tanks, in just over a year over 1,000 have been destroyed and a further 500 captured. Half of their armor gone...HALF. The UK Defense ministry estimates Russia has lost 200,000 soldiers in the war with Ukraine, with 60-80,000 of those being KIA. I almost feel guilty for the average Russian soldier who was lied to by a despot dictator. My sympathy ended when they started murdering civilians. This conflict and our $113B investment has humbled Russia for generations to come. I can't stand this administration for breaking our word to the Afghans and running away during the night but I applaud them for holding the line against Russia. I think this also sends a strong message to China. Again, all of pennies on the dollar and no blood from American soldiers (minus people who volunteered to go fight).

@Lord Ratner Valid points. The bitch for quite awhile has been why are DAL pilots flying record premium pay while simultaneously wanting a new contract. But, it has still worked out, assuming TA passes. The “mission focus” vs. “fuck the company, do only exactly what’s required” is a fine balance. I agree do the right thing, which includes not rushing, cutting corners, completely jumping through your ass to make it happen, or doing anything else that may affect safety/your fitness for duty. But also keep in mind your actions can either make a family’s day/life, or they can destroy it. So if safety is not a concern, then I understand wanting to get flights out and help the people in back. You don’t know who on the plane is trying to make it to see their parent in the hospital one last time or make a once in a lifetime family reunion. Once had a CA give me shit for taking 3 min of my time to source a wheelchair for an old lady because Prospect sucks ass. Got it, not my job, but also that old lady doesn’t deserve the screw job either. We all should remember the human aspect still matters for something.

Easier said than done, but the sooner you can adopt a nihilist view of the AF "system," the better. Allow me to wax poetic as an old guy for a minute. I don't mean unprofessionalism towards our craft. I don't mean disrespect for your wingman. I don't even mean insubordination. If you want a masters, great. Get it. If you don't want it, don't get it. The AF might kick you out as a passed over Major at 20 years. Ok. Your check of the month will be $600 less and the gate guard might not salute you quite as crisply when you go to the commissary during retiree hour. Or don't wait around to find out and get out at 12 years. I'd encourage you to go to the ARC, but if you don't want to, don't. If the AF is a lifelong calling for you, great. If it's just a job for your 20s, great. The system doesn't care which camp you're in - it'll be just fine without you and you'll be just fine without it. Your work ethic, intelligence, and expectation of success puts you heads and shoulders above your workplace competition. Unless you go looking for that hot girl Molly, you won't end up homeless on the streets of Portland. If you're panicking about your promotion opportunities with this new bait and switch, I encourage you to go create a LinkedIn account. Seriously. Go look at who's doing ok in the world. Find and follow the people that you think have made it. Masters or not. Promotion or not. You'll be ok.

When judging truth I tend to lean towards the side that does not machine gun and behead babies, but that is just me.

You sound unhinged and you are most certainly all over the intellectual honesty map. I as a conservative do not agree, support or condone MTG's actions...at all. That being said her actions do not wipe the slate clean on the Hunter investigation. You are trying to insinuate everyone is laser focused with an obsession on Hunter when the real issue is did Joe through Hunter commit a crime. You have repeatedly referred to the "evidence" so lets baseline a few issues of fact, please tell me what is not true. In my opinion all of these facts tie together and paint a much bigger picture that calls for an investigation. 1. The Trump Dossier was fake. 2. Hillary Clinton paid for the Trump Dossier. 3. The FBI Knew the Dossier was fake and that Hillary paid for it. 4. The FBI used the Dossier as a basis to pursue FISA warrants on folks in the Trump administration. 5. The Hunter laptop was real. 6. The FBI knew the Hunter laptop was real AND had a copy of it. 7. The FBI sat quietly while Secretary Blinken orchestrated a memo signed by 51 "Intel Professionals" who labeled the Hunter laptop as Russian disinformation. 8. Big tech used that memo as rational to suppress the Hunter Laptop story during the election. 9. The Hunter laptop has a lot of circumstantial evidence that says Hunter promised foreign policy favors from his father in exchange for cash. Notice I said "Hunter" promised, not Joe. 10. As of yesterday the House Judiciary Committee has thoroughly tracked approximately $17M in transactions from overseas donors including China, that went to over 20 shell companies and ended up in the bank accounts of many Biden family members...including his grandchildren. 11. At least one of the Chinese donors has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party. 12. 150 of those transactions were flagged by U.S. banks in SARs filed with the U.S. Department of the Treasury. 13. The $17M identified by the House Judiciary Committee is from one bank, they are working through the records and flagged transactions at six more banks. There is at least one report that says the total is $100M. 14. The FBI has been approached by multiple sources that say the pay for play scheme is real. 15. The FBI tried to suppress a 2020 unclassified FD-1023 that outlines the pay for play scheme. 16. Tony Bobulinski came forward and gave multiple interviews saying her personally met with Joe Biden. Biden denies that meeting, someone is lying. 17. In 2021, Hunter Biden repaid more than $2 million in past-due taxes after receiving a loan from one of his private attorneys. 18. One of the reasons Hunter owed unpaid taxes is because tried to deduct sex club membership and prostitutes by classifying them as business expense. 19. The purchase of a weapon by Hunter Biden while using drugs was a felony. 20. IRS Whislteblower Joseph Zielger alleges investigators AND assigned attorneys, which included DOJ tax attorneys, all agreed to felony tax evasion charges and misdemeanor charges related to Hunter Biden's 2017, 2018 and 2019 returns. 21. IRS Whislteblowers testified DOJ attorneys stopped the IRS investigators from seeking a warrant for Hunter Biden's Virginia storage unit then notified Hunter's Defense Lawyers that the government wanted to search the unit. 22. David Weiss wrote a official letter stating that he has “ultimate authority” to bring charges against Hunter Biden in any jurisdiction, and he said Friday that this is still the case. 23. IRS Whistleblower Gary Shapley testified he was in a meeting with David Weiss and Weiss told him that he was not the deciding person in whether or not charges were filed. "He told us that D.C. U.S. Attorney had declined to allow charges, he told us that he had requested special counsel authority from Main DOJ.” Rep. Jordan: “And was denied?” Mr. Shapley: “That's correct.” 24. Gary Shapley captured the meeting in a memo which was endorsed by his supervisor who was also in the meeting. Either Weiss or both Mr Shapley and his supervisor are lying. In most neutral investigations the above facts would at least raise the possibility that something illegal happened. If there is even a 1% chance the President committed a crime shouldn't we look? I think we have a right to know and when you look at the situation in totality and have questions, that doesn't make you a nutjob conspiracy theorist. It is way past time for a special prosecutor.

It was a little harder getting ATIS in the Huey single pilot. We were so slow, it'd change several times from the time I was 7 miles out to touch down. So much ATIS. I have nightmares about it.

Sorry to hear that but it sounds like you have a good attitude about it. That’ll serve you very well wherever you end up. Questions: 1. Yes, you’ll be limited to crew aircraft only now. That still leaves most of the inventory. 2. Your wings will only be stripped if they decide to go to a Flight Evaluation Board (FEB) and that’s the decision from it. I know a bunch of guys that washed out of fighter B courses and the vast majority got offered a waiver to a FEB and reassignment to another aircraft. Only one I know that was FEB’d and lost his wings did some truly heinous things that were deliberate and dangerous. 3. It won’t affect you at all. Just do great at your next jet and you’ll be fine. Plenty of fighter washouts have done great, gone to WIC, made rank, etc. It will all come down to attitude and performance on your next assignment. Keep up your honest attitude and that’ll do serve you very well. Don’t hide it at your next assignment and just be honest. Don’t do the “they had it out for me and it was all BS” routine. In terms of future assignments, you’ll fill out a dream sheet and go from there. Let your leadership know what you want and why and they will help you if you’re a good dude. Try to figure out what mission appeals to you and pursue that. And then whatever you get, that is the best jet in the Air Force. Good luck!

Yeah, you're not wrong. I fall into the "I don't know shit about investing" category. But... mainly on other airline websites... I read posts where pilots get on their high horse and admonish other pilots for their "need" to have an 85 hour month. Or they bad mouth this and that, and tell us how smart they are for doing X or Y. And if it works for them, I'm happy for them. But lecturing others is poor form. Some pilots are living on the edge of their finances because they are taking care of a parent suffering from dementia... or devoting their efforts to a special needs child... or dealing with a painful and costly divorce. Some have sick spouses that require treatments that exhaust life savings. Life is tough for many people. And before someone starts pontificating on how other pilots should be saving for college and how they should be more careful with their money... then they should stop... give thanks to God that they are not in a bad situation... and simply pray that others can find a way to become financially secure. Frankly, no financial advice given on this forum is going to make a difference. As such... I will shut my fucking piehole before I offer my less-than-sage wisdom on the subject.

Couldn't find a good thread to put this in, so I'll put it here. Went to my 1st grader's art night...great to see her happy, but you can imagine how "amazing" all the art was with indistinguishable blobs, cats, flowers, etc. But then, I came around the corner and saw this masterpiece...this kid is fucking going somewhere!

There are so many kids in this position. It’s heartbreaking. Anyone who champions this trans stuff, especially in kids, is a huge POS and a truly awful human being…and too many of them are teachers, superintendents, etc.

I just watched one of my sons graduate USN bootcamp. He shot expert! He's off to Coronado for SWCC training. The navy did a good job with the graduation. All of the people in attendance were super stoked that their loved ones were now sailors. All walks of life were present. Very cool seeing all different types of Americans being happy together and serving this great nation.

Wild that the same people who fell for Russian talking points are now falling for Hamas talking points...

DAYUM...next Huggy will be measuring socks at the DFAC.

If there's one thing the Air Force pilot pipeline managers constantly forget and have to re-learn, it's that teaching skills at the lowest possible level in the cheapest airframe always pays dividends. Passing the buck to b-courses to teach fundamentals that should have been learned in IFS/UPT/IFF is 100% of the time a giant waste of money. The temptation to green up slides over doing the things that actually make sense is going to run our service into the ground. Whenever this comes up I like to tell people some napkin math I did a few years back: I used more JP8 in my first 8 sorties in my MWS than I did in 3 years/1100 hrs in the T-6.

It may not be the entire Air Force, but I'll tell you something that's wrong with ACC: ePEX. We've had it now for what... 20 years? And it's getting worse. Holy shit, PEX is literally killing those that use it daily. Our entire Information Technology enterprise is a mess. The AF puts the "IT" in "shit".

Which country invaded which again? I cannot believe the amount of Putin simps in the military. A major near-peer adversary is getting their ass handed to them militarily, economically, and culturally, but because your guy isn't in the White House you're upset about it.

Hey, this is Fort Worth, also known as Cow Town and known for cattle round ups and rodeos. I think he got his 8 seconds in the saddle and bailed. We'll have to see how the judges score his ride for style points.

There’s been several statements recently from those on the wrong side of history that go something like, “let’s just all move on and let bygones be bygones, we only did/said things based on our understanding at the time. Let’s just forget about it all!” Yeah, fuck you. I will not forget, and I hope everyone else doesn’t either. If you demonized others via words (or worse, actions) who called it correctly, but weren’t in line with your thinking at the time - you don’t get a pass because you are still a huge POS. This does not apply to those who remained respectful and maintained human decency despite differing viewpoints.

Just stay in, have the kid, take a year off, never be available when you come back, schedule kid appointments in the middle of the day, come off sorties constantly because “the baby had a rough night”, get sent to the wing after the article about being a fierce fighter pilot Queen that can do it all, get tagged for a deployment, immediately get pregnant again, repeat cycle.

My wife has yet to put any of my tools back in the correct spot either.

I think the number one threat to the Republican party right now, aside from the usual political machinations in Washington, is the inability of conservative voters to deal with the cognitive dissonance of appreciating the policy successes of Donald Trump contrasted with the fact that he is in fact a piece of shit as a human being.

This. Everytime I had an O-6 or above asking why my generation didn't want to stay in longer, I had to explain that I simply didn't have the same memories they had from their CGO years. It takes a lot of emotional attachment to the military to want to deal with the life of an FGO and above, and frankly, we didn't have that, especially in the heavy world. Instead, we had the all-men-are-rapists campaign, the great cleansing of 2012, RIFs from my second year at USAFA until the sudden reversal in 2015, 0-0-1-3 and literal article 15s for shenanigans that were tame compared to the stories the O-6 writing the Art15 would tell in private, blah blah blah. Never mind the two-months-on two-months-off deployments to the Died that guys would do for years because the AF decided that trickfucking the 90 day flying hours restrictions was more important than any sort of balanced family life, or the camaraderie built from deploying as a squadron. Ironically, after I was court martialed (not guilty all charges) it *improved* my Air Force experience. I was immediately relieved of all the non-flying nonsense that they make you do to chase down the next promotion. I would have done anything to get "back on the path," but they were done with me, and boy when you start producing the quality of work that you would expect from someone who has been guaranteed to be passed over, they stop giving you work to do. If the AF wants to improve retention they need to accept that young people who want to kill people for their country have a lot of energy to burn in unsavory ways. Fail to provide that and they will not serve for another 10-20 years off the inertia of great memories and personal connections. Those people will in turn help recruiting.

Donald Jr doesn’t look drunk. It’s just an unflattering snapshot taken while he was talking. Meanwhile, Hunter’s teeth have rotted away due to hard core drug abuse. Good old meth mouth. I can’t get past the situation with this granddaughter. The American people would love to see Joe stand up behind a podium and say that his son has another daughter and that he understands the situation isn’t ideal but that the Bidens will love her and accept her anyway. A moment like that would go pretty damn far for him morally, politically, etc. But nope. They spend huge sums of money on attorneys trying to deny this child in every way possible. It’s disgusting and it’s despicable.

Apparently, the U-2 disinformation campaign at the UPT bases is alive and well. To cut to the chase: - The U-2 Program is hiring. There are no plans to not hire. If anyone tells you otherwise, irrespective of their rank, they are not telling you the truth. - The U-2 Program is accepting FAIP's. We have accepted FAIPS for at least 35 years, and there are no plans to stop hiring FAIPs. If anyone tells you otherwise, irrespective of their rank, they are not telling you the truth. - We now have some wiggle room on minimum hours. So if that is a concern, call us. We might be able to waive some of your hours. I don't know if this bad info emanates from the staff... or from UPT SQ/CC's (like it did a number of years ago)... or from exactly where. If you want the truth about the U-2 assignment, don't speak to your DO, nor your commander. Don't speak to AFPC (until it's time to get released, anyways). Don't speak to your buddy at Base X that "thought about applying, but found out a bunch of bad stuff." So who do you speak to? I'll get you in touch with the Recruiters, so contact me. One recruiter is a Reservist and I don't want to put his personal contact info in this post (he isn't on his govt email that much). Maj Beamer moved and a new active duty recruiter is settling in. Contact me privately for their contact info. As for me, I'm on the Global as Jonathan Huggins. Or you can pm me here. I'm out on leave for a few weeks and won't be checking email until mid July, so ping me here if it is time critical. If you want U-2 facts, go to the source. That source is centered in a room that measures about 40x15 in the zip code of 95903. If the person you're talking to doesn't have a desk within 22 meters of that room, take what they say with a grain of salt.

Support or don’t support whomever you like. Some of you guys give way too much credit to the “woke mob” or whatever the latest boogeyman is. Here’s the thing: Iran and the Taliban can both get fucked. It really isn’t that hard to figure out who the (admittedly flawed) good guys are in the Ukraine conflict though.

The previous NCAA testosterone requirement for a male to compete as a female was to bring the testosterone levels down to or below 10 nmol/L. Problem is the normal range for women is .5-2.4 (https://www.healthline.com/health/low-testosterone/testosterone-levels-by-age#normal-testosterone-levels), so the biological male that was born with a biological propensity for larger muscle mass, larger bones, faster muscle movements could compete as a female, despite those previously mentioned advantages AND with still having 4-20 times the testosterone levels as the women he is competing against. How is that fair? Sports have rules for a reason and it is to make it a fair competition. To your second point, there are very few, if any, sports where women are better than men, so no one cares about a biological woman competing in as a man or even as a woman. Look at the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc. Do any of them have rules against a woman playing? Not that I know of. But there are none because when you get to that level of competition, you're talking the top .01% of athletes. There are no women in the top .01% for those sports. That's why Serena and Venus Williams, possibly two of the best female tennis players ever, both lost to a man that was ranked 102. Third, it is not hate. The left is quick to throw out 'hate' because 'hate' is bad and they only have emotional arguments. But, like calling someone racist, if you say it all the time it becomes meaningless. I don't hate these individuals, I feel sorry for them. 40% of transgender people have actively attempted suicide. They have a mental illness and our society has decided that it is better to play into their delusion than help them. If I was walking across a bridge and saw someone about to jump off, would it be hateful of me to tell them they shouldn't? Should I indulge their desire to kill themself and tell them I think they're brave or should I pull them back from the edge and get them help? Which of these actions is loving and which is hateful? These people are actively hurting themselves (and even worse, hurting children) and somehow it is 'hateful' of me to not give them my full support.

I’ve never seen or met a Nazi in my entire life. I don’t know any blood and soil radical nationalists. If I’m around bigots, they don’t say anything out loud. I’ve also never met a white supremacist. I have known countless people who completely stood behind BLM from the very start. They gave them money and marched in the streets. I’ve known people who’ve bought into the hands up don’t shoot scam and went with the bashing of cops. I watched 6 or 7 trans kids walk the stage at my youngest daughters HS graduation. I watched the vast majority of our society fall for the Covid lockdown power grabs. It sure seems to me that the radical left is actually and tangibly destroying our society while we chase some invisible boogey man on the right… Im not talking about AOC or MTG. I’m talking about in my community.

systemic global warming strikes again

These are the same people who think 16-year-olds should be able to vote and 10-year-olds should be able to have life- altering gender surgeries.

IMHO supporting Ukraine has been and continues to be a wise decision. As of the end of November the U.S. has given $50B to Ukraine, with half of that being military aid. Our annual defense budget is currently at $725B. For just under 7% of a single year of defense budget we have helped humble a superpower, all without losing American soldiers, that my friends is a bargain! For at least the next 10 years Russia has been removed from the world stage as a conventional military threat and I believe it has given China something to think about, all without losing American lives. In many respects I would argue this has been our most effective proxy war. Russia may or may not ultimately win this war but the implications of it will shape Russia for a generation. The Russian military has lost significant amounts of equipment (and I guarantee there is a flood of captured equipment flowing to the U.S. for exploitation that will pay dividends for years.) The Oryx website reports 8,000 pieces of equipment destroyed, damaged, abandoned, or captured, including some 1,500 tanks, 700 armored fighting vehicles, and 1,700 infantry fighting vehicles. Bottomline, it will take years and huge amounts of $ to rebuild their military. The bigger impact is in casualties, the numbers are staggering. I obviously don't believe the published numbers from either Ukraine or Russia as they are always misstated. DoD and several think tanks have done independent assessments that seem to settle on 100,000 Russian Casualties with between 40,000-50,000 deaths. The demographics of those losses is staggering and touches every part of Russian society. A few data points to put it into perspective: 1. In 20 years of combat in Afghanistan there were 2.456 United States military deaths. 1,932 of these deaths were the result of hostile action. 20,752 American service members were also wounded in action during the war. 2. In 20 years of combat in Vietnam there were 58,148 were United States military deaths. 300,000 American service members were also wounded in action during the war. 3. In 20 years of combat in Iraq there were 4,431 were United States military deaths. 31,994 American service members were also wounded in action during the war. In a single year the Russians have suffered almost as many deaths as the U.S. did in 20 years of war in Vietnam. Additionally, Russia's population is less than half (143 Million versus 332 Million), this war has touch a large majority of families in Russia. Putin's ability to survive demonstrates his grip on power, but without success I don't think he will survive. War is terrible and this is no exception. But when you step back and look at the situation from the perspective of the Great Power game, this has been a huge win for us.

100%. No matter how much we've given Ukraine, it's a fraction of our annual DoD budget. We are witnessing the wholesale destruction of a near-peer's military capability with zero US lives spent. It would be a bargain at twice the price.

I was definitely a travel agent way before I was a USAF pilot. Hotels for the crew, check. Cars for the crew, check. Oh wait, Andrews rental car place closed at noon. Ok, we'll call three taxis. Taxi driver got arrested trying to come through the gate. Can I hitchhike to the off base rental car center? DTS approver wants to know why I didn't get a u-drive. Ok, hand it all in 14 hours later. What's that Eng? We're broke? Ok, I'll get our cars back. Let's see if the hotel has rooms - wait - it's Friday night. Now I put on my lawyer hat because the load just called from jail.

“In the Navy, you’re actually a seaman first, then a pilot second because you are what you eat”

In UPT, I Launched out in a T-38 as #4 in a 20 second trail departure in crappy weather to about FL200. Broke out on top, picked up a visual on #3, plugged in the blowers and started climbing to catch him. After some time climbing and approaching the top of block, my feeble brain comes to the conclusion something ain't right about the time I vis ID "#3" as an Evergreen International 727. Oops. Rolling the jet on its back, I see the other 3 jets about 4000 feet below me and I'm hoping they didn't notice as I rejoin. All my IP said was "Nice recovery."