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Alright... I'll come out of retirement for this one... been watching the discussion for awhile now, so I guess it's time to weigh in. Be careful where you get your sources from-- the "anonymous Hog Driver" quoted by The Aviationist in the 1945 article is a long-time F-16 pilot who only recently converted to the A-10... and is a big advocate of a particular unit converting back to Vipers in the near future. The discussion of the gun seems shocking to anyone who's never flown the A-10... ermahgerd.... you mean it's not good against armor in the face? As Paul Harvey so eloquently put it... and now, for the rest of the story... The study referenced here and many other places is based on the LAVP (lot acceptance verification program) that began in 1975. The study was written in 1979, but the bulk of LAVP occurred between 1978 and 1980. Why does that matter? Because the systems on board the A-10 at that time were DRASTICALLY different than what is on the aircraft now. The aircraft at that time were non-LASTE (Low Altitude Safety and Targeting Enhancement), meaning that the pilots essentially employed iron sights without the benefit of PAC (precision attitude control, which essentially ”locks” the primary flight controls to hold the pipper on the aimpoint and get better bullet density). In other words, the system has gotten BETTER over the years. MUCH better. Some quotes from the test: “Only 93 passes were made in high-rate due to restrictions; and all passes after November 1979 were further limited to low-rate, 1 second bursts. Although not ideal for bullet density, all ammunition fired for LAVP was pure API, not combat mix.” In other words, the results were limited by the test parameters of the time. Even given those constraints, “Of first importance, all the Pk’s were HIGHER than expected; and the low-angle were comparable to the high angle.” A final key note relates to the non-LASTE nature of the test: ”hits usually did not occur after the 25th round fired.” That’s a situation that has been rectified with modern upgrades to the airframe. As the text follows, “ LASTE enables burst length and density to INCREASE through the use of a constantly computed impact point (CCIP) and PAC“. In other words, the gun was good back then, it’s even better now. For the "shocking" part... ALL Hog Drivers are taught that we don't shoot tanks in the face if we can avoid it-- that's where the machines are designed to be the most effective in terms of armor, so naturally we train to hit them from the side, top, or rear. You don't always get that option in combat, so M or F kills are just as acceptable-- any EFFECT that degrades the enemy's ability to fight is a positive step in combat. If you think that Pk of 1.0 is widespread, you're watching too many movies and not spending enough time in the vault. Here's another kicker: the gun isn't the first choice against armor for many Hog Drivers. Gasp! The maverick missile, which was designed simultaneously with the A-X program as a PRIMARY munition for the new A-X, provides much better effects, some standoff, and precision capability. Given the right circumstances and approval, the Hog can sling six of those, rifling three on a single pass. Think about that-- a PLATOON or armor, completely wiped out by a single Hog on two passes. A 4 ship can render a battalion of armor combat non-effective on 2 passes with that loadout, and we haven't even gone to the gun yet. Now, back to the original discussion of the thread. Could the A-10 survive and be effective in Ukraine? Absolutely. In American hands, in the American way of major combat ops. Turns out, the Hog community has been training side by side with every aspect of the USAF in major exercises for the last 40 years. If the Hog was truly an unsurvivable liability as proven in every Red Flag and ME (now WSINT) vul, you bet your ass that Corporate Blue would have trotted those stats out immediately. I can recall many a RF vul thinking to myself as a Sandy One... "gawddamn... I'd have my hands full after this round..." ... and none of them were Hogs. Our way of fighting is an overwhelming, integrated approach to these kind of operations. Hogs might be slower, so we launch first, land last, and often times can make it happen without siphoning off tanker gas that the other guys need. If you haven't read many of the open-source articles written by some Hog Drivers that occasionally pop up, then you may not be familiar with the applications currently being explored out west-- adding SDB (16 per jet), MALD, and potentially JASSM to the Hog makes it an incredible support asset that makes 5th Gen even more lethal-- freeing them up to do their thing while the swine saturates the battlefield. And the kicker is that even once the Hog launches all that "new" stuff, depending on the loadout, she still has enough weapons to engage up to 20 targets. Each. Now, if you send the Hogs into a fight alone, with less-than-optimum weapons, without SA, without SEAD (neither side has dedicated SEAD/DEAD assets), without effective tactics (both sides are, shall we say, less than impressive), and without training (how long does it take to train up ANY pilot to this level of warfare), then the results will be predictable. And I'll throw it out here since it's been floated on other sites: you send the Ukrainians ANY of our fighters, give them minimal time to get fam'd with it, maybe don't provide them the best weapons we have, and the results will be the same-- disaster. Tactics, training, and operational integration are key to major combat ops. They don't have it, so it really doesn't matter WHAT weapon you put in their inventory.

A toast to all who helped find and pop this son of a bitch. 🥃 Well done all!

I may know why that FCIF dropped..... So there I was, walking into caddy shack to fly my daily suckfest sortie out of the Deid. Looked at my flight orders and saw I had one Col Patrick Rhatigan flying with me on that fine day. Didn't know the dude, so whatever. Everything was going fine until he noticed I was wearing my Alma Mater's ball cap during my preflight. He asked me if I was going to take it off before we departed. Getting the hint, I said yessir. He then asked me "if you didn't take off your cap, how would you quick don your oxygen?" I thought to myself "The same way I don it every time I test it during the preflight..." Fast forward a a few minutes, and then he asked me if I was going to unroll my flight suit sleeves. Because "what if we caught on fire and your arms got burned?" I figured if we were on fire, and my arms were at risk, we had much bigger problems. Don't remember much of the sortie, probably because no one did much talking, as we didn't want the Colonel to chime in. After we landed, I was on my way into MX debrief, and for some reason he followed along. Once we entered the outer door, he asked me why I didn't call the area to attention. I wish I remember how I responded. I probably just stared back at him with a confused look on my face. The next day....... So there I was, walking into caddy shack to fly my daily suckfest sortie out of the Deid. As I was scrolling through my seemingly endless FCIFs, I noticed one labeled "Approved Headgear." From Col Rat basically stating that ball caps were not authorized, and then went on to list all of the headgear that IS authorized. That FCIF was because of me. I was so proud of it.

I’m willing to send many more billions because A) it helps keep the Ukrainian people free from Russian tyranny, and B) it continues to bleed out one of our biggest geopolitical opponents without costing a single American life. Sounds like money well spent to me!

I’ve posted this before but I’ll tell the story again. I’ll never forget sitting in the base theatre in the Middle East around Xmas 2020. We had the opportunity to listen to the CSAF, CMSAF and the Sec of the AF. I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. There was a lot going on at the time. Most notably, Covid. We had been through a lot just to get in theatre with quarantines and such. I sat there and listened to two women and a black four star general talk for an hour about social issues, discrimination and how we all needed to do better. That’s all they talked about It was one of many turning points in my long AF career. And it was one of the most disappointing. I can’t even say that they thanked us for being there during the holidays.

Yeah, I got some stories............ First, I’ll say (in my opinion) the FO’s job is to be a tolerant chameleon, when necessary, which is usually infrequent. When I was an FO, I did that pretty well. I’m not suggesting a Captain gets to bring all levels of crazy, non-standard BS to the trip. However, some of the stories of conflict I’ve heard are just as much the FO’s fault for being unwilling (as opposed to unable) to flex and just get along. The one thing you never do is take your issues to management. You don’t put a fellow pilot’s job on the line over a dispute of any kind. The first option is man to man, face to face. If you can’t solve it that way, then the next stop is professional standards with the union. Ratting someone out to the company is really bad form. The bottom line is, if you’re an FO, let shit go and chill. The entertainment value of some of these guys is top notch. You’ll miss out if you bail too early. I never kept a “list”. I usually heard about these guys after I flew with them. Then I’d usually be asking, why didn’t someone warn me about this guy? Trust me, they were all on everyone’s list if they had one. After 23 years of doing this, I’ve got some doozies. I’ll start with “The Most Interesting Captain in the World” Standard 2-week around the world 777 trip at FedEx. At some point in the first few days, Captain Fantastic informs me that at some point in the late 1990’s, he had the lead role as the Phantom in the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Before he could begin his performances, he “blew his vocal cords out”, needed surgery and lost the part. I know it may seem stupid in hindsight, but I had no reason to question this and wasn’t in the frame of mind to wave the BS flag. In fact, the first instinct I had was thinking my kids (all musical theater performers) were going to be excited to hear that I flew with someone who was almost on Broadway. Of course, I asked if FedEx had agreed to give him a leave of absence to do this since that’s kind of a full-time job with multiple shows daily. He explained all that away and we moved on. The next one was, as a high school student, he discovered some DNA thing that had the potential to cure cancer. He didn’t have a PhD after his name, so no one took him seriously and he didn’t get any credit. I don’t know shit about DNA and it was early in the trip so I was still in “gee whiz, that’s pretty interesting” mode. The days continued and I heard about him getting the Arch Bishop of his church fired over a sermon topic, being a studio musician for various famous performers (this guy’ s cool, that guy’s an asshole, etc.) and his 80’s band that toured with and opened for Journey. They had a record deal but their drummer quit to get married and it fell through. I asked about the band name, etc. and did some online research but no joy. But it was the 80’s and they didn’t make it, so why would the interwebs have anything? Still semi-clueless and not being much of a talker myself, I’m just plugging along – warning bells haven’t started yet. As a side note, one day he starts going off about the full body scanners in use around the world. His doctor has warned him in the strongest terms never to accept them since we would be scanned so much more often than the average traveler. No shit – less than 24-hours later, we’re going through security in Osaka at o-dark-thirty and they try to make us go through one of those things. Amazing. I’ve been through KIX hundreds of times over that last 15 years and never – not once – have I every had to go through anything other than the normal metal detector for crews. Of course, it’s an absolute shit-show. This guy is getting badge numbers and asking for supervisors and threatening job loss – the whole shooting match. Of course, the Japs are sucking air through clenched teeth, avoiding eye contact and in full disengage mode trying to deal with the cray-cray American. They eventually plug in the normal machine; we walk through that and go on our way. He had big plans to write the whole thing up and maybe he did. I never heard a thing about it after that. There used to be a well-known interview process at Delta involving a psychiatric evaluation. From what I understand, the doctor doing the interviews eventually took his own life. Apparently, back in the day, Captain Fantastic threw his hat in the ring with Delta and got interviewed. His ability to parry and counter this psychiatrist’s questions during the evaluation were so clever and unnerving that the doctor eventually gave up in complete frustration. It was not long after this interview that the poor chap did himself in. Yes folks, our Captain was in fact, fully responsible for the death of the Delta doctor. By this point in the trip, I was a bit numb to the whole thing and it had been so much that I wasn’t really paying that much attention anymore. But I wouldn’t say the lightbulb had come on over my head quite yet. I know – I’m a dumbass. I am a music fan though and while we were waiting for an ATC delay in Shenzhen, we got talking again. We’re sitting #1 by the runway waiting to be released and somehow Jim Croce’s name comes up. You know – the guy who sang “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”. Yeah – I know some of you don’t know it. Fucking youngsters. Google it. It’s 70’s folk/pop music. But the point is, that our Captain decides to tell me that “I used to play with Jim”. Now my radar finally comes out of test and I’m starting to really scan. I saw our hero’s birthday on the Gen Dec multiple times that trip. The most amazing Captain was born in 1961. I knew Croce died in a plane crash in the early 70’s so I looked it up when I got to my room that night. 1973. Mutherfucker!! So, you played with ole’ Jim when you were 12, huh? Yup – he got me. I guess I try to take people at face value. But I gotta say, if I was still an FO, I’d fly with him again just for the entertainment value. I’d love to be able to egg him on and see how far I could get him to go. Point being, not all the crazies are worth avoiding. Think of all the stories you’d miss out on.

Some hypocrisy In light of recent events.. The "lock her up" crowd suddenly not caring at all about mishandling of classified documents. The "but her emails" crowd suddenly caring so much about mishandling of classified documents. It's wild that people are so mentally broken by political polarization they can't even recognize a standard and apply it equally. Either classified documents matter or they don't.

First flight at United (for me) after the 9-11 halt to flying. Being a local living in base, I’m on reserve hoping to get some paid days off. The tradeoff is reserve makes it more likely I’ll get stuck with a scab since guys sick out of their trips when they know they’re flying with one. How do they know? We all got issued a book by ALPA with every scab’s name, employee #, DOH, birth date. Normally one only speaks to them when necessary and for checklist responses. Unfortunately, the 1985 strike puts many of their seniority numbers in the left seat of the 757/767. Bottom line is I wasn’t surprised that my first trip back after the attack was with scab. Yayyyy 🙄. On a related subject, while we were grounded, UAL bought a bunch of tasers and planned on equipping the flight deck of each aircraft with two of them. We received a day of training on their use, cockpit self-defense and overall security, etc. The general consensus of the experts was use of maneuvering tactics or depressurization was not valid for a variety of reasons. That was communicated to all pilots and FAs during the training. BTW, the taser thing never came to pass. I get to ops and as usual, the scab has already signed the flight plan and gone to the airplane. They hate hanging ops with the normal pilots since they are quickly identified and publicly shamed. Usually by someone (or multiples) using “clickers” like the pit bosses in Vegas calling the cocktail waitresses. As soon as a scab walks into ops, the “popping” from the clickers starts as the guy does the walk of shame to the flight plan desk. So, I head to the aircraft, do the walk around and find Napoleon sitting in his seat getting ready. 5 foot – nothing, tubby little former Thud driver with a “slick tie” (no ALPA pin). He's spun up because we have one flight to MSP, very short layover and an early go the next morning for a long day. He want’s a later van time in the morning so we don’t have to wake up as early. Whatever. He makes multiple calls to scheduling and eventually decides to take care of it at the hotel. It’s an airport hotel because of the short night so we’re on the shuttle that runs every half hour. WTF was gonna change about that hot-shot? Based on our departure time, we either get to the airport 1:15 prior (too early) or :45 prior and rush a little. “Let’s get the later 05:30 shuttle” he says as he slam-clicks and we head to bed. Next morning I’m in the lobby at 05:20. No sign of fearless leader. 05:30 and I’m holding a full van of hotel guests while I check with the front desk. “Oh, he already checked out and took the 05:00 shuttle”. YGBSM! Yup, I get to the jet and he’s already in his seat again. “05:30 shuttle? Did I misunderstand?” “Ah, I just decided to get out here early.” Says the clown who spent at least 30 minutes on multiple calls the day before trying not to get to the airport early. You’re never surprised by the shit the scabs pull. Never. Now we start with a flight to DEN and we’re turning to somewhere else. After arrival in DEN, I come up from doing the walkaround and he’s standing in first class, trying to see over the tops of the seats and brief the new batch of FAs we picked up in DEN. Since I’ve haven’t gotten to the aircraft with him and been part of this briefing yet, I stick around to listen in. Within a few minutes he begins to describe how, in the event of another 9-11 style takeover attempt, he will be depressurizing the aircraft and maneuvering it as required to “make it tough on the attackers”. The senior FA raises her hand and say, “They told us you guys weren’t going to do that.” “Oh, well it’s happening on this plane, honey. But honestly, if it gets to that point, I don’t think you’ll care because you’ll probably be dead.” My eyes get big. 😲 Holy Shit! That’s gonna go over like a fart in church. She grabs her bag, spins around and says, “Ok, I’m out of here” and heads to the phone on the jet bridge to tell scheduling she’s not flying with this clown. Little Hitler heads back up to the flight deck. All the other FAs file off the aircraft, never to be seen again. I go up, sit down and let him know – “All the FAs are gone.” 😒 “That’s their call, I really don’t care.” Great…. Long day is gonna get longer. I’m pretty pissed about his plan, so I start with: “You managed to arrive at the aircraft before me on our first two legs and brief the flight attendants without me. We’re about to fly for the third time and I’m just now finding out about this. Do you think it might have been a good idea to inform your FO that your plan was to depressurize and maneuver the aircraft contrary to all the guidance we’ve been given?” “Oh, yeah…..well, I would have told you if it came to that.” As I’m thinking, when? When we were in a “4G-negative dive” (Mav?) sucking rubber with a cabin altitude in the 30s? You’re an idiot and I can’t wait for this trip to end. A little while later, a shadow appears in the doorway of the flight deck and I turn around to see a guy in a suit, with a UAL pilot ID on his lanyard. “Hi, I’m Captain Somebody, I’m the Denver Chief Pilot. I understand we have an issue with some flight attendants?” I just point to the little guy and say, “You need to talk to him. “ Then I take a little initiative and suggest, “Maybe you two want to discuss this in private.” The Chief Pilot says, “I think that’s a great idea” and I gladly excuse myself to let them sort it out. In hindsight, it might have been fun to watch the discussion but at the time I was full. They found us some new flight attendants and the trip continues reasonably uneventfully because nothing else comes to mind. The scabs were always the ones you got completely unexpected shit from. If someone did some off the wall shit and you hadn’t bothered to check so see if they were on the list, 99% of the time, they were there.

I think they kept it on the down-low and had a private celebration with their crew chiefs.

I'm glad that Donk and Billy Bob's sortie still stays in the forefront-- those two did a hell of a job that day. There's a podcast out there with the two of them talking for a couple hours about the mission and its impacts. I was in the 75th with them at that time, and I'm glad that they all got the recognition they deserved for the job they did that day. A funny story about the mission-- Billy Bob comes up to me and tells me that I need to see one of his passes from the sortie because he almost hit a bird while rolling in for a strafe pass. Seemed a little odd, but we watched the tape a few times, and sure enough, that "bird" had a little orange burst of fire in the center of it... damn airburst right in front of him as he's down the chute. Sobering moment to say the least... I think that coincided with the moment that the adrenaline had finally started to wear off from the mission. There's a painting in the 75th commemorating that mission, but there's a big problem with it-- it's TOO clear. The visibility was absolute dogshit that day-- foggy, hazy, low ceilings... and a good deal of AAA to boot. We watched some of the passes where BB is calling out the ground references that he knew would walk him to the target... and the tanks come out of the haze at damn near min range-- he's still on the trigger as the rounds are impacting almost immediately. They did what they had to do. And the JTAC controlling them that day was one of our pilots serving as a BnALO on the ground for the entire fight. Great story all around. I don't remember the ROE discussion being a huge issue, or maybe that's just for a couple of reasons. First, from the time we arrived in theater, our leadership made it very clear that they had our backs in the fight, so long as we could explain what and why we were doing something. If we decided that we needed to hang it out for the guys on the ground and could explain ourselves, they'd go to the mat for us. So there was that level of mutual support within the squadron that had come to be expected and established. Second, Donk didn't make it a big issue-- he explained what he did and why he did it and he stood up straight willing to accept any decision that was made knowing that he had done what needed to be done in the moment, and they were successful doing it. His combat leadership was unparalleled-- I'll never forget the speech he gave on the C-5 headed over. Every senior officer on base had put in their two cents, and I couldn't tell you what they said just a few hours later. I can still hear Donk's "We are going into harms' way" speech almost 20 years later. I clearly remember our Group Commander, Coach, getting on the bus and sending us off with one word.... "ATTACK!" We were fortunate to have him as our DO, and Bino as our CC for that fight. Under their guidance was when we really coined and instituted the phrase "Shark Standard," which was more an expectation and a guiding challenge than it was a statement. That phrase told you that you had a standard to live up to, not that you were automatically assumed to be the best or even worthy of it-- you had to prove it every day, in everything you did. I like to think that we did, and it was because of leaders like that who not only set that standard, but lived it for all of us to see and try to follow and keep up with. Donk's one of those leaders who if he said we were trekking to the seventh level of Hell, I'd ask what time the brief was. That's the spirit of ATTACK.

Some people here have an extreme issue with reading comprehension.

“Just like they stopped with South Ossetia / Georgia and Crimea, amirite? After having secured that territory surely Putin wouldn’t attack other parts of Ukraine, especially not Kiev!” -Bashi, a very smart man, circa anytime between summer 2008 and February 2022 Man, this has to be one of the clearest “who is bad & the aggressor vs who is good and defending their homeland” situations in my lifetime. If for some reason this war’s waters are muddled at all, you are in a much different place than I am. Fuck Putin, fuck a new Russian Empire, slava Ukraini, and welcome to NATO Sweden and Finland. Mil aid to Ukraine has been the most efficient DoD money spent in forever in terms of units of “US security objectives achieved” per dollar. Ukraine, when you need a reload on HIMARS rounds, holla, we gotcha.

Ask them if they're from Ireland I was sitting in a bar one day and two really large women came in, talking in an interesting accent. So I said, "Cool accent, are you two ladies from Ireland?" One of them snarled at me, "It's Wales, Dumbo!" So I corrected myself, "My apologies, so are you two whales from Ireland?"

Here's one of many ways to handle a typical USA Hag: At McDonalds This Morning. 'I know I shouldn’t have done this, but I was in the McDonald’s drive-through this morning and the lady behind me leaned on her horn and started mouthing something because I was taking too long to place my order. So when I got to the first window I paid for her order along with my own. The cashier must have told her what I'd done, because as we moved up she leaned out her window and waved to me and mouthed "Thank you.", obviously embarrassed that I had repaid her rudeness with kindness. When I got to the second window I showed them both receipts and took her food too. Now she has to go back to the end of the queue and start all over again.'

Related to my current situation:

America, fuck yeah! 🇺🇸 I only wish I could have pulled the trigger personally 🍺 Fuck that guy.

The next one takes place about 18 months before the Most Interesting Captain trip. I’m only 6 months on the 777 at the time and this latest Captain is absolutely notorious with the 777 FOs. Since I’m a relatively new arrival to the jet, I am uninformed and go into the trip “cludo”. The first leg is one of the worst in the system with an 0400 takeoff to fly almost 7 hours from MEM to Anchorage as a two-man crew. Toothpicks holding eyes open, I’m willing to listen to whatever in order to try to stay awake. I get an earful as Captain Player describes the full-scale domestic disturbance that played out the night before he left on this trip. Cops at the house, he’s detained, wife kicks him out, no idea if he’s got a place to live when he gets back – classic Jerry Springer shit. Jeez dude, that sucks – I hope it works out, etc. etc. You okay to fly this trip? He says getting away for a while is probably the best thing. I try not to spin the guy up more than he is, but I’m thinking if I was in deep serious with the old lady to the extent that the po-po are involved and my future habitation in my residence is in question, leaving town with her having free reign with the checkbook and every available attorney in the area has serious potential to end poorly. Whatever, his call. We limp into ANC and I don’t see him for the next 24 hours until we’re leaving for Narita. Not surprised he’s out of contact considering the shit storm he’s dealing with at home. We leave the hotel and he appears to be in high spirits. Another 2-pilot leg at 7:30 block, but the sun is up the whole way and we’re well rested. He’s still pretty bummed about the home situation but he’s been talking to the wife and she’s willing to listen. “I’m just worried about being able to see my kids. I really hope we can work this out, blah, blah.” A while later, we’re 4-5 hours into the north pacific crossing and he starts telling me about his plans for a “sex vacation” to Trinidad and Tobago. “Oh, dude, it’s awesome. You land and they show up in a Range Rover, take you to the compound and you pick your chick for the week out of a line-up. It’s just sex, food, booze by the pool for the week. All inclusive.” 🙄 I’m thinking – what happened to the guy worried about his kids and trying to reconcile with his wife? So, like a dumbass, I open my pie hole. “Do you think the sex vacation is the best idea considering all the shit going on at home?” “Oh…. Yeah…. Maybe you’re right. Maybe??? 🥴 After 2.5 days in Narita (where I saw this guy zero seconds), we spend the next few days and two flights banging around short haul in Asia. Over the course of those flights, I get schooled on every city in our system that offers any opportunity to pay for sex. “You gotta try Pasha’s in Cologne… Go to this place in Dubai, I think I have a card………I hope we get revised to go to Singapore. I’ll take you to the 4-floors of whores there. It’s awesome – the higher the floor the more expensive and hotter the chicks are. If you every have any questions about where to go, shoot me a text, I’ll hook you up.” Now I’m pretty sure why I’m not seeing this guy on any of our layovers. I feel like I’m flying with Jeckel and Hyde. I never know if I’m gonna get crazy sex monger or bummed out dad/husband trying to keep the family together. The other comical aspect of this guy is that I don’t think he owns a mirror – or at least hasn’t used one in the last 15 years. 👴 I think most of us who are getting up in the years have that occasional loss of SA where we forget that we are invisible to every chick under the age of 40?......45?.......50? Not sure where the cutoff is. We have our new super-power of invisibility and we just need to embrace it. The hot chick in the grocery store parking lot isn’t smiling at you because she’s interested. She either thinks you look like her dad, needs help cuz her car won’t start or is completely broke and might be willing to make your day for a hundo. This guy is 64 if he’s a day and he looks every year of it. Yet, he still thinks he’s Captain Player. He’s been part of the international travel scene for so long that he’s forgotten that the only reason he’s getting attention in Asia, the Middle East or Europe is chicks dig the size of his wallet 💰. He actually pulls up to the chick in the Ferrari at the stop light and gives her a wink thinking something might come of it, the whole time forgetting that he’s effectively sitting in the human equivalent of a mini-van. So, now we’re doing long haul from Narita to Paris. I get the pleasure of his company for almost 4-hours, then a break in the bunk and then almost 3 hours more. For the 4-hour stretch, sad dad shows up and starts lamenting his situation. “What am I gonna do?..... etc, etc.” I learn that his wife is Russian and she’s a dentist. They met on one of his trips, eventually got married and he paid to put her through dental school. I’m about full at this point, so I’ve got my nose buried in a book trying to look busy and give the occasional sympathetic response. A couple of hours into this, he suddenly hands me his phone and says “Check it out”. I take a look at the screen and see a still picture of a blond chick giving some serious oral attention to an enthusiastically engorged dick. Not one to decline the occasional porn offering, I look a bit more closely. As I’m realizing this has the look of an actual picture and not something downloaded, he says, “That’s my wife”………..pregnant pause as I look up…………”and that’s me” – with a big grin on his face. Dude……”Did you just show me your junk in full rage with no warning? That’s not cool”. 🤮 He loses the grin and says, “Well, we’re swingers and it’s just our thing.” I didn’t think you’d mind. Then he starts regaling me with swinger stories – how awesome it is to do some chick while same goes down on the wife, etc. All I’m thinking is I can’t wait to get to the bunk for the next rest period. Rest break over, I’m actually dreading getting back up on the flight deck in case Mr. Hyde is back. He is, of course, and starts showing me pictures and reading texts from of a bunch of Eastern Euro chicks that he’s been “sexting” with. Our trip ends in Paris after our current flight, with a deadhead home. As we sit in the hotel bar after arrival in France, now he starts asking my opinion about whether he should deadhead home to FL or take a flight to Baku, Azerbaijan so he can hook up with one or more of the chicks that have been sexting him. “So, the get back with the wife plan and concern for the kids…. Maybe put that on the back burner for a week or so in Baku? – I’m sure it’ll work out okay.” That seems to re-cage him and he decides to book a ticket home. I’d like to think I had a positive influence in the end, but it was a seriously bizarre experience overall.

Best typo in the history of Twitter 🤣

I found BQZip’s mom on a corner in the Bronx but I couldn’t zoom out far enough for a screenshot.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but like I said, I've got a few.......... Okay – quick one from way back at United in early 2001. 757/767 Captain at United with whom I’m flying a 4-day trip. The guy doesn’t wear an undershirt, has brought one shirt for the whole trip and by day 2 he reeks. At one point, we’re turning between flights and waiting for the pax to start boarding. One of the F/As standing in the flight deck doorway says, “Oh my, we may need to get this lav serviced before we go, it stinks”. I look at her while doing the sideways eyes toward the flight deck and tell her, “It ain’t the bathroom”. I finally have to ask him to use the hotel laundry service before the next day. Max altitude on a 767 is 43,100 (WTF? I dunno – ask Boeing) We’re light and cruising on the last hour of our BOS-SFO transcon at FL400. Captain Stinky decides he wants to explore the edges of the envelope since he’s never been above our current altitude. “Hey, see if center will give us a block altitude from FL410-430. I want to see how this thing handles the max altitude.” “Really? I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be just like it is here at FL400” (Let’s not do dumb things – K?) “Yeah, go ahead and ask them” Of course, I gotta put in a little dig just to make sure everyone else knows this is stupid…… “Center, United 123, the captain would like a block altitude from FL410 to FL430.” “United 123, unable” Oh, that’s too bad. Would have been so much fun. 🙄 On another turn, he pulls out a no-shit photo album with real pictures that had to be developed from film in an old-fashioned camera. More shit for some of you to google when you’re done learning about Jim Croce. In the magic photo album, he has a bunch of nudes that he’s apparently taken over the years. Tasteful, playboy nudes (no Hustler baloney spread shots) but still pretty weird. Again, not one to turn down a porn (sort of) invite, I take a look. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know who these women were or why they had agreed to this, so I just left that question unasked. But this album is the most important part of the story because it plays another part the next day. This is pre-9-11 and one of the reasonably young, fairly hot F/As comes up to visit for a while during cruise. We’re just shooting the shit when the Captain’s SA low light comes on and he reaches for “the book”. He swings it out of his pubs kit into view and my heart stops. Slow motion…..”Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!” 😧 In horror, I’m thinking “Please God no……… I like my new job………you clown, WTF are you doing.” I’m giving him the “cut” sign across my neck and wishing I was somewhere else when actually starts opening it up while saying…… “Hey, I’ve got a photo album with some nudes that I’ve shot, do you want to take a look?” Now, I can’t say that part of me wasn’t curious to see if she’d be into it. I guess that was the part of me that wasn’t worried about my multi-million-dollar airline career crumbling to dust at my feet. Maybe this is how the book started in the first place back when he was flying DC-8s, FAs were stewardesses and all hot, everyone dressed up to fly and meals were served on fine china. 🤷‍♂️ Luckily, she just gives a little smile and says, “Oh, that’s okay – probably not something that I’d be too interested in, thanks anyway.” But that was her cue to leave, never to return. Thanks, dumbass.

Funny you should post that. Years ago, I'm at Carlos Murphys West in Tucson for a 4th of July soiree. I'm with another A-10 dude and somehow we end up taking to this liberal couple. When they find out we are Hawg drivers, the liberal chick says, "How can you gun down women and children." Well, if ever a softball question was tossed my way, that was it. Just like the movie quote, I replied "It's easy, you just don't lead them as much." The shocked looks on their faces was absolutely priceless. We also ended up drinking with a midget wrestler who was the regional distributor for Coors but that's another story.

Not a firing but it sounds like the military lost a good one this time around. Col. Bode of 959th Med Ops Squadron, JBSA resigns the day before change of command stating in an official letter "leaders throughout the chain of command were aware and did nothing to stop illegal, immoral and unethical actions."

You’re right, and don’t forget India and all of Africa. I find climate change activists disingenuous not just for their personal hypocrisy (which is substantial) but also their laser focus on policies which impact the US middle class while leaving international mega-polluters unscathed.

The current situation with the CDC is complete lunacy and not connected to science or logic. Recently the U.S. dropped the requirement for foreign visitors to show a negative test, they only have to prove they have been vaccinated. As demonstrated by double vaccinated and double boosted Biden, the vaccine does NOT stop infection. That means someone could have an active infection but as long as they are vaccinated....Come on in man. There is a further disconnect playing out in the press surrounding Novak Djokovic who is not vaccinated. He had COVID in November, his natural immunity is ikely much stronger than most people who were vaccinated when the vaccine first came out. As of today they are not going to let him in the country to play in the U.S. Open. Oddly, this policy doesn't apply to illegals who are not vaccinated. They show up at the border and under the Biden Administration...come on in man. Again, I am not against the vaccine, I got it and the first booster, but we need some common sense here because this administration is flailing.

IMO, at this point, if she doesn't go to Taiwan now (for literally any reason) it will be such a PR victory for China. It will give them confidence that they can dictate US political travel in their AOR.

woke up thinking about this incredible post the other day, had to RT for old times sake

https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-races-to-sniff-one-last-girl-before-losing-sense-of-smell-from-covid/

This reminds me of the “fly only” track. A great idea in theory, but when bounded by decisions from multiple layers of entrenched bureaucracy it becomes in execution unrecognizable from the concept originally intended. We’re at a point in the life-cycle of bureaucracy where the only play for survival is an aggressive dissolution in huge slices of the status quo. Unlikely because the only people with authority to make the dramatic cuts necessary rose to their positions by accepting & living within the system. But that’s what we need.

FedEx v UPS Unless you find someone who has worked at both, realize you are going to get a biased perspective for each job. This is just one pilot's perspective, YMMV. I agree with the assertion that Memphis is an absolute warzone, unfit for raising a family, much less safely getting to work. 100% no-go for in-domicile living; it's just a place I endure until training is over. When I'm turning through Memphis, I'm staying at the hub in a sleep room for a few hours. I've heard from both company and union that 70% of FedEx pilots are commuters. The reasons for that are not only the horrific daily violence in Memphis, but it's the trip construction that allows ease of commuting. The 777 on one end is the extreme international-only option, usually one large trip, meaning one commute to work per month. On the other end is the 757, with potential for many small day-long trips, multiple blocks of off time, requiring multiple commutes to domicile. The MD/76/Bus are somewhere in the middle. Commuting into either FDX/UPS is a totally different animal than the pax world. At FedEx, there is no seniority booking of jumpseats (JS). The jumpseat is YOURS if you book it. When I attempt to select a JS that is full, I have no idea whether it's filled with JetBlue pilots or FedEx pilots. It honestly doesn't matter...those pilots have been guaranteed a ride to work/home. The mitigation: FedEx pilots are able to book the JS 3 weeks out; all offline JSers only get the week prior. So we have the opportunity to book anything we want before it fills up. It's location dependent, but generally speaking, FDX JSs are not that difficult to book on a regular basis. There are a few hot spots, like Seattle, Denver, South Florida (where rich airline Capts live) that are more difficult, but certainly not impossible. I also agree with Prozac WRT to UPS weekend JSs. After the last sort on Saturday morning, there is a huge deadzone for jumpseats until the Mon night sort. So the opportunity to weekend commute in jeans/tennis shoes on FDX is near zero depending on location. But that is only one way to commute to work. We also have a travel bank system for deadheads (DH). To clarify, a DH is a positioning/depositioning leg on another airline (wearing business casual v jeans/tennis shoes). A jumpseat is when I book myself on FDX to travel. There have been some exceptions to this during COVID, but let's not digress into irrelevancies. So hypothetically, I'm MEM-based, but I live in random city XYZ. On paper for pay, all my trips must begin/end in domicile. It's entirely possible that the revenue legs for my trip are cities (ABC-DEF-MEM-DEF-GHI). But the trip on paper will look like (MEM-all the cities with rev legs-MEM). So commuters "deviate" each end of that trip. Meaning I'm not going to MEM simply to take Delta from MEM to city ABC where my trip starts. Published in the pairing (pairing=trip) is the actual cost of that Delta ticket, paid by FedEx. If I deviate that leg, telling FedEx that I'm not going to be on that Delta flight, the cost of that ticket is deposited in my travel bank. This money was real when FedEx was going to pay Delta, but it will never be paid to me outright. I can use this money to book air or ground transportation from any city to get to city ABC where my trip starts. You can book on any airline you choose, or even a limo service to have a Cadillac show up in your driveway to take you to work if your travel bank allows it. Once some seniority is realized, a pilot can potentially bid hometown lines...living in city XYZ, and bidding trips that operate XYZ-ABC-DEF-XYZ. This pilot will be at home in XYZ, being paid for the layover on each end of the trip. I know this sounds confusing, but once you're living it, it makes a lot of sense. It's a highly flexible position for the pilot. There are some rules on when you can spend the travel bank (within 3 days of a trip), and the money can expire too. Here's one to really bake your noodle. Let's say I've saved up $10k in my travel bank, and my wife and I are going to Paris. As long as I have a FedEx trip within 3 days of my personal travel to Paris, I can spend that $10k on PERSONAL TRAVEL that is not affiliated with the FedEx trip at all. So I can spend my airline miles to get her into business class, and I can outright buy my business class ticket with FedEx money. All perfectly legal. That's another thing I forgot to mention, airline status. When FedEx is buying all these tickets on Delta/American/United/Foreign carriers/etc, my personal frequent flyer number is automatically linked to that ticket purchase. Any intl leg over 2.5h block must be in business/first, and 5h block sequence domestically must be booked in first. So to the airline, it looks like I'm the big spender, accruing points at a fantastic rate. Because I am. 🙂 PreF, I gather you're going to live in the southern half of Indiana...that makes the domicile choice between FDX IND and UPS SDF a literal coin flip. You can drive to either of them. I wouldn't consider that a variable. IND is FedEx's #2 domestic hub, where every airplane is represented with IND DHs. After about the first year, you'll be off reserve and able to bid a fair amount (if not all) IND DHs. So you'd be MEM on paper but actually driving to/from IND as I described above with city XYZ. That's a quick primer on commuting at FedEx. WRT to your other concern, Fred Smith vs Raj, everything I know about Raj so far--he's a fireplug who isn't waiting for a handout. There is a reason Fred chose him to nurture his baby. Only time will tell, but I haven't heard anything about Raj that gives me pause. And when you talk about culture, FedEx had some of the worst culture in the industry in the 80s/90s--crashing airplanes because the d!ickhead Capt was king. Thankfully that culture has become more CRM-centric. There are always a few turds in every punchbowl, but that's not FedEx-specific. Nine of of ten Capts are just older versions of myself, which is terrifying enough! Go with questions.

Because they are on the tail end of the policy whip…. And have no brains themselves. Do you think those people became wing commanders by a proven track record of bold leadership? Or by dogmatic compliance? I expect many of those policies to quietly change, but some will remain. People are not rational beings, pride will factor into this. And then one day a new wing commander will be asked publicly why he still requires masking and he will reply “that’s not my policy” and, just like blues Monday, we will slowly stop doing something everybody hates that has no benefit.

Giving $5B to Ukraine has been the most cost-effective use of military money in recent history. Our military uses $800B/yr to essentially LARP.

I’ll bet the poor bastard that got seated next to her wants a refund too. I’d say they’re far more deserving of said refund as well! Here’s an idea: if you need the seatbelt extender, you buy two seats. No judgment. You simply pay for the space you take up.

I like the general premise of your post, but much in line with the theme, it’s notable to point out most, if not all of us, understand humans affect earth and the climate. Totally on board with working towards cleaner ______, in a honest, logical, and realistic manner. The “green energy” Karen’s and their overlords couldn’t be further from the italicized part. So when many people say “climate change is bullshit,” well it’s absolutely a misnomer, as literal climate impact is true, but the label “climate change” as described by “the green Karen’s” of society is a complete sham, and that’s the “their truth” that were all calling bullshit on.

It's almost as if man-made climate change is nothing but a made-up boogeyman to keep people distracted from the real ills of the world.

That was one of the best deals going with the slicks. In one weekend I based out of Scottsdale with some bros and went up to Leadville (highest airport in North America) and the next day went to Furnace Creek (L06/lowest airport in the US) with Grand Canyon tours and stops at some amazing airports like Bar Ten, Glenwood Springs, and Telluride. Having those made taking the mission birds to the dirt, blacked out, on NVGs for Amp-4 work much easier. I hope that template makes its way to AOW.

Much to learn you still have young Padawan...it appears you have not learned the true history of the empire. Naked Gunner Hugs are a PAVELOW incarnation (yet another F'd up thing that community did to AFSOC). Ever hear the story of welcoming the new guy by forcing him to drink a beer from the prosthetic leg of one of their pilots? As a former Eagle guy (you still "tight" with your crew Chief?), and "SEAL of the Sky", I know you are hyper-sensitive to your underlying desire for man meat, but don't project on us just because you couldn't get a gunship. For years the Harrisburg guys have been pursuing a mission change. Knowing the limited utility of the Solo program given there are many new ways to accomplish including roll on roll off, they wanted to remain AFSOC with a more mainstream mission. The inside baseball is CRAZY...don't F with guard jobs! Single Ship...yes a divergence from the ACC multi-ship model but this is Armed Overwatch NOT Light-attack. With multiple sensors this starts off as a long-duration ISR platform with the ability to provide strike support. Gun is a possibility but given the current weapon options it would likely be the last resort. This leads to another misconception about this mission set...these planes will operate from the dirt but I don't think the CONOP will have them down fighting in the dirt. Just like our current manned ISR assets, this aircraft will have MX-20s and weather permitting they will operate at much higher altitudes and have the ability to provide a deep magazine of precision fires from those altitudes. We all understand GBUs and Hellfire, but many have not seen how APKWS can change the fight. There is still much work to do and as a dude who spent most of his career looking through a HUD shooting 20MM, 40MM and 105MM on the nuggets of bad people I am guarded but hopeful that in at least some situations AOW can provide highly accurate and more importantly highly effective fires single ship form high altitudes. There is another benefit and that is the reduced manpower requirement this aircraft brings to the CONOP. For a better description check out this Collapse the Stack Brief.

Absolutely no one cares if pilots are T1 vs T38 trained regarding AO transition. It’s interesting to me this would even be asked, but I’m old. I recall being young and UPT was all consuming. Here’s my advice: if you find yourself in a community like SOF which takes from multiple tracks, the moment you arrive nobody will ever care again where you came from. All opportunities are equally available and 100% depend on how you perform starting now. It’s beautiful, embrace it. There will be additional training required to convert pilots into a single seat mentality, but this is a surmountable challenge. CSO ratio question is a nascent problem I expect to grow.

A few days later (after the Thud scab, still on reserve). I get another call for a trip and it’s one of the “get to the airport as quick as you can” situations. Trying to help the company out that’s on its ass after 9-11, I give it the college try. They’re apparently out of FOs in DC, so I’m supposed to deadhead to IAD, layover and operate out the next morning. As I scramble to pack my shit and get out of the house, my mindset is – no need to check the scab list, there’s no way I’m getting two in a row. That’s never happened to me. I make my way to IAD as a single. The captain is IAD based, so we’ll meet at the airport the next morning. The van is late in the morning and I get to the terminal at show time minus 15, :45 prior. I’m in terminal C where our a/c is located and Ops is in terminal D. At the time, the only way to get between terminals was a “people mover” otherwise known as a “mobile lounge”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_lounge So, I call over to ops and get the captain. I suggest we meet at the airplane rather than me wasting time coming to him on the people mover. He’s down with that and we meet up after my walk-around with about 20 minutes to go. So, I’m in the soda straw and it’s a bit of a scramble to get going but we leave on time. It’s a pretty quick flight to the NYC area, but we have a little time at cruise to shoot the shit before we get busy. Since I just flew with Captain Napoleon on my last trip and had no speaking opportunities, I’m eager to hear some other opinions on security and how we might change things moving forward in this new airline world of higher threat terrorism, etc. So, I make the following statement: “Hey, I’m pretty curious to hear you views on security. The last guy a flew with was a fucking scab, so we didn’t have any opportunities to talk about that.” Now, when the words, “fucking scab” came out of my mouth, I noticed a stiffening of the spinal column on this guy that caught my attention. It wasn’t an immediate “light bulb” moment, but I started to step back and expand my scan of the situation because it seemed notable. The typical scab MO was to avoid ops, as I had mentioned previously. The normal UAL tradition at the time was to ID one’s self as an ALPA member with a pin on the tie. Usually, guys would add an ALPA pin to their ID so if they were jump-seating, there was no question about their status. So, some of the scabs liked to put some “chaff” (one-off wings from wherever, Navy or USAF wings, etc) on their tie hoping to make it look like an ALPA pin. Absent that, they would just hang their “slick tie” on the opposite side of the cockpit and go tie-less for the flight hoping we wouldn’t notice. So, after the “reaction” to my scab comment, I start looking around. I notice the slick tie hanging with the ID lanyard off the window lock. I also notice the lack of an ALPA pin on the ID. Muthaf……….!!! YGBSM!!! Two in a fucking row??!!! We’re seconds from top of descent and I scramble back to my rolling bag in the back of the flight deck area where I have my scab list stored. I pull that bad boy out and flip through it in record time. There he is. I’m such a low SA dumbass!!! Why the fuck didn’t I check??!! I jump back in my seat and complete the flight. Once I settled down, I was actually kind of okay with the way things turned out because I got to say “fucking scab” to a fucking scab and there wasn’t a thing the prick could do about it. Fuck ‘em. The other notable thing about the flight was we were given the usual clearance (at the time) to fly direct to the Statue of Liberty and then up the Hudson on the west side of the city. No idea if that’s still the normal clearance. We flew right over ground zero. From my side of the a/c, I could see the former tower’s location still smoking, debris on the tops of adjacent buildings, etc. Pretty damn sobering, that’s for sure.

B5 currently, soon to be followed by Donkey Punch Pox. Heard that one will be a real pain in the ass!

According to DAL’s chief health officer (impressive med background), the new strain is weaker than the traditional flu. So yeah, everyone move on with life and stop buying into the bullshit.

Our country is where it is because Mandy votes.

Some of y’all have brain worms man. This obviously-photoshopped photo is pretty gross TBH and the Capitol police “let the Jan 6th insurrectionists in the building” 🤨??? Have you seen the extensive amount of video from that day? Be conservative, hate on AOC, make fun of Biden for being old, elect your guy next time, whatever. But try to be better than the people you loathe and retain some grasp on reality. Shitposting your way through life isn’t a good look. WTFO.

Awkward FO- “Parking checklist complete. Good flying with ya, maybe I’ll see you on another trip soon!” CA - “Yeah, about that. Here’s my employee number. Do me a favor would ya…”

By describing the landlord and Cara using gender binary pronouns of "him" and "her," respectively, the Brits are reinforcing the patriarchy wherein the male holds the power of property ownership and the female is relegated to the role of subservient, dependent tenant. Furthermore, they are reinforcing the heteronormative, chauvinist worldview by establishing the toxic male as the aggressor upon the female. A gender nonconforming example would have been much more appropriate.