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Hey Big Blue:

Obviously. If the planes weren't flying, they wouldn't have got got

That’ll look good in your favorite gay bar

Corruption is everywhere in America (especially the legal kind with campaign contributions) so that’s not unique. Probably the same amount as the South and Northeast but California is just better at hiding it because they’re not overt Good Ole Boys. But to the people drawn to politics, money isn’t as influential as power. Ideas and policy are a bureaucrat’s personal power, and challenging the ideas that define their lives and legacy is what makes them dig in like nothing else. In California, the political class is centered on returning the state to what they remember it looking like when they were teenagers. It’s a false vision of a “natural” California that hasn’t existed in 200 years. People have forever changed California from a natural equilibrium into an economic powerhouse and you can never go back. The Central Valley levies changed grasslands, floodplain marshes, and oak forests into tree nut farms and rice paddies; its 10% of American farm output (cool), but the farmers’ unrestricted wells have drained the aquifers so much that the southern valley has sank dozens of feet. The mountain forests were able to grow 200 year old trees because they could self-regulate; lightning strike fires would burn the little stuff and the big trees would survive. But now because even the remote forests have a house every few miles the fires need to be put out immediately. And the compounding problem is those houses are served by 1960s power lines and roads that cause the fires in the first place. Roads and utilities that can’t be improved without permits from a dozen entities because brine shrimp, mice, and smelts might be affected. So there’s no going back to equilibrium naturally, it’ll have to be constantly managed and adapted, which the bureaucracy has not been willing to do. The LA fires pale in comparison to one of the million acre fires that are unfortunately common in the Sierras, but hopefully the day and night visibility for 10M people in LA will cause some movement. The solution is a combination of reservoir building, utility line improvements (including self-contained systems like solar and power walls, why not), brush management in critical areas (you can’t do it everywhere, too big), steel roofs/siding (the majority of legacy mountain buildings are asphalt shingles, really), and more money for air attack planes and pilots. Some smelts and mice might not make it, but at least less will die in fires.

Worked 7 fires last year doing mainly mitigation with Hot Shot and Hand crews as a contractor. We fight fires backwards, instead of spending money doing year-round mitigation and controlled burns we do them after the fact after a massive fire. My last go was in the Big Horns near Sheridan Wyoming, what stopped it was 10 inches of snow. Lost 40 pounds last summer and was in the best shape of my life. Staying in shape to pass my pack test, 45-pound pack, 3-mile walk, under 45 minutes. Thought about this year going back to aircraft mx on the fire bombers but love being on the fire line with the boys. Tried being retired but my neighbor talked me into this, money is good and its better than working at some box store.

Aerial fire fighting is impressive work…I have been more challenged flying in those situations (huge mountains, winds, smoke/shitty vis) than any mil flying I’ve done in the same time period. The guys doing the actual drops are doing some very difficult flying. Multiple times I’ve thought about leaving the airlines for it, but in the end the QOL gap is just too expansive for me personally. But that flying is probably the best civ flying there is once out of the mil, if you’re willing to live that life.

ALL PLAYERS CEASE BUZZER, ALL PLAYERS CEASE BUZZER 😂

One of the most pertinacious and wrong ideas which senior Air Force leadership has embraced is this: every standard is equally valuable therefore if your zeal for all standards isn't equal you are unprofessional. They believe a lack of rigidity about seemingly 'small' rules, like Friday patches, will result in negligent fratricide or crashing aircraft, etc. They see (based on faith) a direct link to extreme outcomes for overlooking small infractions. The idea you might ignore trivialities to prioritize important things like victory or safety is anathema and their minds are unable to process this situation. Those of us outside their bubble intuitively understand prioritization is a natural human phenomenon and should be embraced rather than shunned. We want young Captain ACs making decisions keeping missions on task & timeline rather than stopping a joint ROC drill because someone's sleeves are rolled up. But these cultists are like celebrate monks looking at sex, convinced it's the source of all ills and endlessly devising rules to guardrail us from it... not understanding it's literally necessary for the species. In combat prioritization is essential to success; even a cursory examination of military history would prove as much. Look no further than the Taliban and NVA for recent examples proving uniform compliance isn't tied to battlefield objectives; examples are numerous proving the absurdity of their core idea but they can't have the discussion. I've tried. Ask them for proof that selective standard enforcement will result in mission failure and they might have anecdotes but zero data. There is zero data supporting their belief. Ask them if standard compliance is so important, what is our process to test new standards before instituting and what is the process to repeal if data proves it isn't required? No answers. You'll go to SDE and study works from historic military minds, who all sported beards, then be told beards are incompatible with military success. Then you'll go on an exercise with Allied nations who have beards, call them our indispensable partners, then with a straight face tell ourselves beards are unserious for military professionals. This example is just beards but uniforms are the same. Go find paintings of the continental army defeating forces of the tyrant King George and tell me which military has the most standardized uniforms, lol. The answer to your question is the moment you embrace ideas asserted without proof, cannot rationally convince those who ask for proof, trust only those who share your idea and ignore your own obvious intellectual hypocrisy... that's the moment you've gone full retard in pursuit of rank. At that point even losing multiple wars is insufficient to free your mind, you've been captured and are unfit to lead despite what rank or position you hold. This is the unfortunate state of our Air Force.

Except for the Eagle guys, they clear out all the crew chiefs.

It’s a girl!

Haha. What's more embarrassing for you? Announcing to everyone that you're quitting the forum, or being too weak to actually do it?

I see nothing wrong with this. The USAF has become a jobs program for [emoji637]/[emoji639] of the force. I want my support office workers to understand they are office support, not warriors, aircrew or Mx so wear blues M-Th….that’s how it was before [emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]]/[emoji637][emoji637] and I liked it better. If they take this out on pilots, it will get pushback but I think it’s intended to fight the lack of discipline in the enlisted ranks among support personnel. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

The first Helo...wow! Firefighters.mp4

True, but insurance companies can't control federal, state, and city lands which are grossly mismanaged making them not just fire prone, but a ticking time bomb. Every time I walk through the forest near my house I marvel that the big one hasn't hit yet. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for forest management nation-wide. Also, I read that California prohibited insurance companies from dropping policies in areas that were affected by the fire (obviously only affecting future renewals not current policies), which might decrease their leverage for change. How anyone can think it is ok for the government to force commerce that was declined for non-discriminatory and purely reasonable business reasons is absurd. A second order effect of that might be the increase of privatization of fire fighting, which would be a rather funny thing to happen in CA. The rich people and their insurance policies already do it so it might start cropping up in the upper middle class. Net result would be the average families continue to get screwed even worse, which is par for the course in liberal states.

WSJ has a good article this morning talking about exactly the infrastructure stuff you mentioned. A utility company was widening a fire road and fire-proofing the electrical lines. They got a $2M fine and a cease and desist order in addition to the rehabilitation they were forced to do because they damaged some plants.

Dibs

LA Fires may need its own thread. Between causation and tragedy to D state priorities, funding, and politics, there are also a shit ton of rich LA assholes that should put their money where their liberal mouths are. I'm sure Hollywood could generate a sizable GFMe for the littler guys. Start with the water hoarding Kardashians. Sorry mods for the suggested work, this one is gonna get sporty.

Some of the aerial firefighting videos are WILD. I've seen one video (maybe someone with better Google Fu than me can find it), of what looks like a H-60 dropping water as he rolls off sideways down a hill. Those folks have giant stones flying in high winds, high terrain and limited visibility. Amazing to watch. In other California fire fighting news, Canada sent two CL 415 Super Scoopers (I bet they are fun to fly), but one is out of service because some clown flew a drone in the restricted airspace and they hit it.

Saw a picture of houses that were burned right next to the beach. Does no one have a water pump? I'm betting salt water puts out fires as well as fresh, just tough on the pump. The FEMA thing is a bit tough. On one hand, clearly this is a disaster and it is at least partially caused by government mismanagement and poor preparation. On the other hand, why am I paying to rebuild someone's house that burned down? If my house and only my house burned to the ground, would FEMA show up and give me a check? Don't think so. Why is it any different because it is a bunch of houses? FEMA should absolutely show up and hand out food, water, help with temp shelters, etc, but I don't agree with handing out money or the Federal govt handing out money.

Awesome! I just lost an hour looking at all the other photos that thing has taken. When people ask, can the government really see that from space, I'll refer them to this site. Then let them know that this is just what a civilian company has access to lol.

Well good luck. And congrats on your 15th consecutive off-season National Championship. 😆

He always keeps a folded paper map of Ukraine by his right hand.

Can't let it go to page two

We could call it Operation Just Cuz

Did you tell him he’s a slack jawed faggot and can go fuck himself? With all due respect of course…

Remains to be seen. CA is a massively corrupt dumpster fire - they have the best chance of any state at learning nothing and continuing business as usual. I hope that’s not the case, but I’m not holding my breath.

News reporting this morning at least one of the fires was started by an arsonist...he is an illegal and had a hand made FLAMETHROWER. Several local residnets detained him after witnessing him starting a fire. ICE has a detainer on him, California is not expected to honor the ICE request.

Just RQS

So is Biden giving every CA person affected $750, just have to go sign up at URL…or are they getting substantially more fed support than that? It will be interesting to see how this plays out relative to NC and TN.

ATF is setting itself up to be next after Dept of non-Education for cost savings under the next administration.

Based on last year's board and how long it took to get the budget approved I'm betting on no earlier than 31 JAN 2025. Similar situation for my OTS board back in 2019. Classic hurry up and wait game. I was an alternate last year and I'm holding out some hope that this year works out. Little background, 1000 hour MQ-9 IP w/ an LNO deployment, annual award, and a few quarterly awards. Regardless of results, don't let comparison be the thief of joy. My alternate slot last year had me very bitter for the better part of the spring. End of the day, the board has there specific instructions for each year and they will not disclose those nor will they give you feedback on what made you a select, non-select, or alternate. Sucks given the emphasis on feedback for everything that we do day to day - oh well. Best advice is don't worry about the things you can't control. Best of luck to all. Cheers, Otter

Dibs Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Cabellas safe?

I did cringe at a meme on another forum..."Hey look, California finally went red".

Absolutely perfect revitalization of an older post. I went single and had a good time, but would have been just as happy if I had been married. The wives were like mother hens to the single guys and some were great wingmen at the bar by sending girls your way lol. If you stay single, just remember that when she's walking out and stops to do a double take of your flight suit hanging on the door...she's probably enlisted. This is why you never ask what they do at the bar. Whether she gets invited back depends on how good it was and how dangerously you like to live. Wisdom from uncle Sociald. 🤣

That is the crux of the joke. It needs to be said. It needs to be remembered. This is the tragic disaster equivalent of “Learn to Code”.

We're being jammed! Too much 160th talk in one day.

USAA names a new CEO this morning. Juan Andrade. Article says he's only the second CEO with no military background, Peacock being the first. He's been on the USAA BoD for 4 years and is leaving Everett Group, a multi-national insurance provider. It's pretty clear the USAA trajectory isn't going to change. Over the past few weeks, I've moved nearly all my assets out, changed my direct deposits, leaving just enough to keep a checking account open. With it clearly not being military focused anymore, there's just no advantage in doing business with a bank that has no local branches. https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/usaa-new-ceo-20023348.php

We don’t lose missions to the 160th. In my 12 years we all flew specific roles within the missions we participated in together. Ospreys aren’t going to a contested X (no shit), but we were certainly there doing other roles or other unique missions. Frankly we ended up (as a community) doing a few things the 160th couldn’t. The hostage rescue in 2020 is a great example. The most interesting/rewarding missions I ever did had nothing to do with infil/exfil. The relationships we had with different SOF from around the world were second to none, built over years of working together closely and doing some awesome things. I personally don’t think any other AFSOC airframe had that kind of close relationship with the teams. The reality is that both organizations serve a purpose and the aircraft within have their niche roles for SOCOM. Overall I thought things worked fairly well. But to say we lost missions to the 160th is naive. I agree with most everything else said on here. I left AFSOC for other pastures mainly due to my personal feelings about the lack of any direction of the command. While I loved the airframe and the people I flew with, AFSOC was destroying the program (amongst many other programs) with Bold Moves. Combined with the HCE issue and now the fallout of (criminal) actions of the PRGB parts manufacturer…..the community is in a very hard spot. It was a great place to be until it wasn’t. I consider myself lucky to have been part of it when I did. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Trudeau looks like he could be a quarter gerbil.

VW commercial is an oldy but a goody. I sent it to several family members a few days ago and they agreed my warped sense of humor is very much intact. On a side note, it seems both individuals were dealing with divorces and to my engineering mind that looks to be "root cause" Some would say the number one cause of divorce is marriage. Just a thought.

The most accurate documentary on the DoD acquisition system ever made!!

It's moved overseas