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The fact that none of those Congressional members came out of the meeting and demanded the resignation of the targeting authority that committed the engagement was telling of this being little more than a political witch hunt. They want Hegseth to resign, and they want to have the fight in the court of public opinion only because they know it doesn’t actually meet the criticism that’s been levied out of “sources.” Democratic critics will happily use the term “war crime” and water down its meaning though just like they did racist and fascist for the convenience it provides to their argument. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Notice how they keep leaving the submarine out of the photo collections of released drone footage. Almost like they want to not acknowledge what that vessel would clearly have been because they can’t “allege ” it was a fishing boat. I stand by my assertion this has nothing to do with concerns about human rights and is a political big game hunt. Anybody that can put Hegseth’s scalp on the wall affords themselves the right to claim leadership of the party, and Kelly knows it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@Swizzle Never stopped in the CAF. Still see pretty solid names, though obvious “super non-pc” ones aren’t going to stick. Still holding out hope in the 11th hour of my career that I won’t see VBF erased from the board!

Rand Paul is full of hot air. From everything I’ve seen, including the first strike video, there wasn’t anything that remotely even touched the line. It went down like thousands of strikes we’ve conducted for decades. Anybody who’s actually done this shit knows this is a total nothing burger. And if we want to get political, I can think of several strikes I’ve seen under Obama that would apparently have our cities on fire by leftist had they known about them (except they wouldn’t care since it was Obama and not Trump). And FWIW, nothing illegal about those strikes either, but the optics are a billion times worse than this boat.

What’s your point?

Bad cops suck.

As always, I'm sure there's more to the story is being reported. Hopefully they had bodycams on to clear this up. That being said, I'm not a fan of this new trend of law enforcement wearing facemasks. That's something thugs and third world countries do. If I'm approached in my vehicle (or worse, at my house) by guys wearing facemasks, my first reaction is not going to be thinking that everything is fine.

What about Indiana!? Holy smokes I never thought I’d see Indiana football mentioned in any discussion of possible college football Champions! Anybody think they can keep it up through the playoffs?

Takeaway - never trust Red Crown, avoid as far as tactically feasible.

It was all fun and games till @Biff_T pulled out his "flying disk"!

I don't know any of this thing from the inside. But it isn't hard for me to imagine that the one person telephone game through a WaPo reporter would destroy the nuance of military decision making and org charts, especially if it's influenced by the SoW saying something chest thumping and kinda douchy in response to a CDE type of inquiry (my suspicion).

Beautifully done by the gents! IMG_9166 2.MOV

I have that exact setup and its even cheaper now then when I bought it last year.

I'm good...and I gave up Bourbon for rum for which I am now a complete snob, you should try it. I have a lot of friends from ND and frankly when I played ball, they were the dirtiest team we ever took the field against. Interestingly they spent the last few weeks trolling Miami of several Miami websites but have suddenly vanished now that their bubble has burst. Interesting note about the bowl games, they generate a lot of revenue for the local area where they are played and for the teams, those funds can be channeled into other sports. Did you see the fines being handed out by the conferences for teams skipping a bowl game...$500K per team...such a waste. More than anything I hate the special treatment and the MOU serves to show the bias continues and is blatant even though they haven't won a natty in 32 years.

They never should have been ranked ahead of Miami...FINALLY the committee got it right.

Florida State, Auburn, UCF, Baylor, Rutgers, Temple, Kansa, Iowa State, Notre Dame, and Kansas State have all declined bowl games. The sponsors for these bowls have got to be shitting themselves right now.

Giant bunch of crybabies. ND.mp4

I think that would be as much of a deterrence as a nerf gun. Even if they owned 100% of our debt (which they don't), I think they'd consider that a bargain.

News The AviationistFirst T-7 Red Hawk Delivered to JB San Antonio - RandolphThe U.S. Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command received its first T-7 Red Hawk trainer at Joint Base San Antonio - Randolph, marking a milestone

Paywalled. I say threaten to delete our debt to them if they cross into Taiwan.

Cignetti had some excellent FCS playoff runs at JMU including a title game appearance. If they can beat Ohio State, they can beat anyone.

Some states, like Colorado, have removed qualified immunity for state claims.

Upside down bowling pin? https://data.irate4x4.com/video/660/660197-f280c25a4b0e73a426fdcc4d2e9b4b2e.mp4

I had to step away from the CivilRightsLawyer YT stream for a bit. It's too enraging. Just the same stuff repeating. Qualified Immunity needs to be changed somehow. I understand that a large chunk of cops are trying to do the right thing and removing protections dissuades good candidates but shit. The blatant violations need to harm the individual responsible versus the taxpayer.

A lot of albeit slow submarines head across the Atlantic to Africa where less than respectable types transport it North to Europe. There may be some feigned indignation on European countries part about how these strikes are conducted but not a lot of real heartburn since it's less they have to contend with. Not to mention I'm sure we tip off LE on that side of the pond when we see things headed their way. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm274lmg7m1o

Yup. Like I said above. Theatre for political points.

OK, that is more a reasonable take, apologies for not understanding that initially. The 2001 AUMF has been very broadly applied to target terrorist without regard for location. Historically the current strikes are fairly inline with precedence. Now that said, I completely see the logic in Congress wanting to update this to rein it in. Additionally in accordance with the WPA, the president always has the authority to conduct mil operations when “a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces". Certainly can be debated if throwing drugs at the American population is an “attack upon the US.” Keep in mind China is very involved in this from a supporting role, so I can absolutely see the argument that this is an attack, albeit not in the “traditional sense” with bombs or missiles. Bottom line, a lot nuance and gray area with valid perspectives on both sides of the debate, and therefore it is not currently a “black and white, crosses the line” situation.

The argument is the entire concept of striking drug runners by calling them terrorists, is over the line. And yes, Presidents doing this kind of thing isn't new. The war powers resolution became a thing for a reason.

No RIP yet, but my MFS date popped up under Projected Training on my CDB this morning. Looks like I’ll be headed to WPAFB in mid-Jan.

Just wait until you figure out how to sling cargo loads.

I can't believe it's been almost a decade. Damn I feel old 😂🤣

Duly noted. I don’t think anybody can afford to build new computers at this rate. RAM prices have gone ballistic.

facts. standard re-attack.

CDC reports over 80,000 overdose deaths in the US in 2024. Obviously, Opioids are a big part of that, but they are often combined with other drugs including cocaine. Lot of social costs and taxpayer money get sucked up in this problem not to mention health care. On a side note, the cartels covert PR machine will do whatever they can to shape the narrative.

Well this got even more hilariously stupid. No DEVGRU on the boat executing people, just a target boat that wasn’t destroyed after the first shot (#hellfire, amirite!), so they shot it again to ensure a better F-Kill. OMG, that’s only happened hundreds of thousands of times across history. Guess many of us on here should also be convicted of war crimes. Absolute political hack job asshatery. See kids, this is why you don’t blindly believe fabricated political hit pieces masquerading as “factual news.”

Don't knock it till you try it. 😄

@disgruntledemployee Sure, never said anything is impossible. But I’ve been around enough to feel pretty confident DEVGRU dudes didn’t execute people on live TV (e.g. the JOC) - that’s WaPo’s claim. And if that did happen, then by all means let’s have them in court; I’m not against that.

Back on the B-21 topic I think we should all keep in mind that we’re probably only getting 50 of these things (if we’re lucky) so the question here is how comfortable are you trusting a very limited strategic asset to a single pilot? Bomber pilots will all tell you these long duration sorties really wear you down and little mistakes creep in as the fatigue gets worse. The airlines have figured this out too and they operate with a far higher degree of automation than most military jets. I know our fighter brethren are all high SA giga-chad superheroes who can do everything themselves but with all due respect if you haven’t flown a sortie over 24 hours un-augmented, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You need two pilots on this plane unless you’re comfortable putting them into the ground on a semi regular basis.

Never had a positive OSI experience - I feel like every single one I’ve interacted with, even in an unofficial capacity, is a total slime ball just looking to nail anybody and everybody, truth be damned. Do not trust OSI, ever.

Not for us Gators!! 😁😁😁

Carnies. Small hands.

@fire4effect Lots of “credible” sources said the laptop was fake news. Lots of “credible” sources backed Russiagate. I’ve been around the block quite a bit in the terrorist killing world (as have many on here), and I’m calling complete bullshit on the whole thing. If a whole JOC watched DEVGRU execute a couple unarmed dudes who didn’t pose a threat at all, then we’ll be seeing war crimes charges and trials commencing soon. That hypothetical scenario is not something anyone (especially an E/young O) would walk away from unmolested (in the legal sense). Personally, I’ve been involved in four separate occasions where someone “credible” said something happened that was a complete lie. Thankfully every time there was data to prove them a liar and nobody got screwed.

@disgruntledemployee Well a WaPo reporter claims DEVGRU was ordered to execute unarmed people (and did), so it must be true. You actually believe this bullshit?

Addressing the OP: If you thought the USAF screwed you over, just wait until you experience an airline during contract negotiations. It sounds like outside influences have been crafted your outlook for you. It may be completely true that you were actively screwed by the system, but getting bitter only means you're letting the system win. The airlines will happily assume the role of screwing you over if you let them. I can show you a large collection of 30-year widebody captains making millions of dollars who are thoroughly convinced they've been screwed by the system. They are no fun to be around. It's all perspective. Pick your's with care. Choose gratitude instead of trying to pinpoint who's screwing you over. The answer to that question will always be "someone and/or everyone". Conversely, if you focus on what you're grateful for, you'll find a lot of good things in life. Pick one, you can't focus on both. I punched at 17 years and joined the reserves for 3 years. Now I'm at a major airline. In all three of those locations it is VERY easy to look around and wonder why the grass isn't as green as advertised. Reality is that the grass on the other side is just a different kind of grass. Once you get into a new organization, you'll see all the warts. You get to decide if it's good or bad, but if you let the system decide, it'll definitely suck. Truths: The system (usaf or corporate) doesn't owe you anything. Your hard work will be overlooked, but it will craft your reputation among your peers. Once you're gone, the system won't care. Maximize your personal gain without screwing others over, ignore the BS, do your work will, keep your integrity in tact, find a niche you can enjoy. Focus on good things, and your next career will be great. Focus on the hate, and you'll hate it. It's a DAILY choice.

I felt similarly on my way out. Almost a decade later I'm grateful for the training that's enabled me to go out to civilian life and make more money than I ever thought was possible. Once it started to stack up, it got much easier to look back without resentment.

Well for those into nerd stats, the UFT scores are updated for FY26. Appears they combined UPT with UHT selects as there are 80 for pilot. Scores look to track with historical averages with slightly higher scores with fewer selects than last year.

I’m very grateful to have this opportunity. I’ve waited years for it, but time seems to be moving both fast and slow at the same time—if that makes sense to anyone. I’m anxiously waiting for my assignment RIP, MFS, and a farewell to my current position. November is flying by, but it feels like the notification of what’s coming is taking forever (even though it’s not; I think it’s just the excitement of wanting to start). We learned early on which paths we’re going down, so we may wait longer for the next steps, but I just want to know how I can actively use my time based on my projected departure date. It’s not the waiting—it’s the not knowing how to properly plan. Just venting to you all, because I’m sure some of you may feel the same way

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).