brewskis

I'm headed to PIT in early July and was wondering if there have been any changes to lodging. Is anyone making any headway on BFM'ing the new regs?

Scott referred to it having the same 'DNA' and being in the same 'universe' as the first 4 Alien movies, but not a direct prequel.

I think you're still thinking this is a direct link to the Alien movies. It's not. Seeding Earth (or whatever planet) with genetic material (STS) Because then that incredibly awesome scene wouldn't have occurred. I thought it was a very well done movie, but didn't quite measure up to the best of Ridley Scott. Nonetheless, I hope they make another one.

Also, ego is still hurt from being bested by Maverick at Top Gun. As a result, gives students gouge such as "You trim for pitch, not airspeed" and "Nobody talks on uniform" to ensure students never get a one-up on him again.

Did he change his name to Russ Jenny..?

It should be on AHRN. Not my house, but a bro is moving out of there soon.

There should be one house up for rent there around the August time frame that I know of.

Operation Mole Cricket 19 I'm a few days early on it, but the other event that happened on June 6th usually overshadows this operation (as it rightfully should). Nonetheless, the article about the Bekaa Valley operation is interesting and there are a few other good articles/essay written about it that you can find via Google. I wasn't even around when this happened, but I can fathom how this influenced our planning for Desert Storm and everything afterwards.

I was laughing so hard I cried during the FAIP song. So true.. If I didn't know any better, I'd think one of those dudes were FAIPs.

I didn't attend a service academy, but I did have a somewhat similar college experience as the service academy guys (read Cadet Corps). My school did have an honor code similar to that of the service academies, and a student/cadet run honor council to enforce it, etc. What I found during my time in school is that the Honor Code was used increasingly to curtail traditions and activities that the staff wanted to eradicate, in the name of political correctness or professionalism. For example, freshman cadet's playing pranks on upperclassmen, or vice versa (none of destructive manner, permanent damage or the hardcore hazing type) would be crucified under the "..Lie, Cheat or Steal" type honor code. Even if you admitted to 'temporarily relocating' or 'defacing' property and fixed the problem or returned the property they would hammer you under guise of the honor code. In my opinion, it dilutes the true meaning of the Honor Code when minor things that are all-in-good fun, etc are prosecuted in this fashion. If you've read Old's book (the section where he is the Commandant, you'll understand what I am saying) I know it was in the case at my school, and I would venture to say it's probably the same at the academies. I'm not saying that there isn't some truth to these surveys, but let's look at what is now considered an breach of the code compared to what was considered a breach the code 30 years ago.

I was told by a gate SF dude the other day that speaker phone was in fact, not a hands free device. I'll keep this little tid-bit o' knowledge with me in the future. Thanks!

can do good every once and a while..

I'll throw in my .02. I'm young, a new 2d LT, and currently going through UPT with a wife and an 'unexpected', but awesome kiddo. I took the bait and took out the career starter loan a few years back, and I have generally mixed to negative feelings about taking it. On the positive, I made up the forecasted interest rate due to some good investments on my part. That money helped me get through some unexpected costs that come with having a kid (born just prior to entering AD, so wasn't on Tricare yet), but a good portion of that money was gone when I had initially planned on keeping it. On the negative, I HATE being owned by the bank, especially with the current economic climate. I also hate having 500 bucks a month come out of my paycheck, minimum. I try to pay more than the monthly payments off as much as possible to get out from under it, but that can't always happen (electrical bills during the summer in OK can be killer..). I would much rather put that extra $500+ a month in a retirement fund, college savings fund, or any other long term investment account. When I stack on the Montgomery GI bill payments and other payments back to finance (it took months to get all my pay correct), I don't even see a good chunk of my paycheck. I'm smart enough to not have any credit cards and put what I can in long term investment accounts, but trying to reach a target savings level is still difficult. To cut through the bullshit, coming from a guy that has made financial mistakes and had to deal with unexpected costs, don't take it. If you don't listen to the advice on this board and take it, at least put it in a retirement account or somewhere where you can't touch it (because you'll want to, we're all young and stupid at some point). And for the love of God, DO NOT BUY A F***ING CAR when you commission. Take care of what you have and buy a new one only when you absolutely have to. I firmly believe that in this line of work, there is no reason to buy a brand new car, especially at the 2d LT level. Learn my lesson, and listen to Champ Kind about not getting into debt. It sucks, and I probably don't have it as bad as some of the other married couples in my stage of the game.

Thread Revival... I just completed Phase II of UPT and tracked -38s for Phase III. About 1 month prior to Phase II completion, I was out running 5-6 miles and at about mile 4, I got good amount of pain coming from my right knee. Back in 2006, I had an ACL reconstruction on the same knee, and haven't had any problems since the full recovery. Since I was so close to finishing Phase II, I sucked it up and pressed on. It was a little stiff for a week, but besides that, I had no issues flying or walking. The only thing that hurts is running, so I have been avoiding that thus far. I have been considering telling the flight doc about it, then going to see an ortho doctor to see if I need to get PT or possibly a surgery to fix it, but I really don't want to go DNIF and get pushed back a few classes, and stand the chance of losing the -38 slot. I thought about just sitting on the injury for a few more months to see if it would get better by just getting on the bike or elliptical at the gym, but I'm coming up on the mandatory PFA here in December, and I don't think I'd be able to make the run. Any advice on this? It seems like I might be forced to talk to someone about it, but as I said, I'm pretty reluctant to go DNIF for a period of time. The ideal situation would be to just get on medical profile so I can avoid the PFA until I graduate, and at that point, I could probably afford to go DNIF for a few months for PT or surgery (hopefully not the latter). Thanks for any input!

Big Sky IPA 8/10 (if you're into IPAs) McSorley's Irish Pale Ale 6/10

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/07/lawmaker-files-bill-to-bring-back-dwarf-tossing-in-florida/ BRING BACK MIDGET TOSSING!!!

Rot in hell, mother######er.

Jack Magan Not sure what exactly happened yet. Bad day for aviation.

Unfortunately..standard. From what I hear, he didn't become a full-out asshole until he married his second (current) wife.

Just in case anyone wasn't aware of it, the recently awarded Medal of Honor (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/14/living-soldier-awarded-militarys-highest-honor/) came from Battle Company on that deployment. I hadn't connected the dots until watching it on NatGeo tonight, thought I'd share the knowledge..

Really?? Wow....

Call me an idiot, but I think I probably speak for most of the new 'studs that are reading this (because we want to learn). What exactly does 'GK' stand for and what does it mean?

Also, another good one that I finished up a while ago, but I haven't seen mentioned here is War For The Hell of It by Ed Cobleigh. The book covers his two F-4 tours based out of Ubon. Excellent read, IMO. The narrative isn't what I'm used to seeing in most military aviation books, which is one of the reasons why I liked it so much.

I'm just finishing up My Secret War by Richard Drury. The parts complaining about ROE's and leadership during 'Nam aren't anything most of us haven't read yet, but the descriptions of the Sandy missions and the night sorties over the Ho Chi Minh Trail raised some hair on my back. The best parts of the book, however, are the detailed descriptions of flying a WWII-era aircraft in the jet age, and the sights, scenes and the thoughts that went along with him during those missions.

He's not legit until his wife chases after him with a 9-iron.