Right Seat Driver

Damn. Godspeed. Him, Him.

Him, Him.

Nice. Those small victories are worth the beatings. For you and everyone else.

Make sure that gets put into the Cannon RRFs!

So is EGUN and RODN not MAF airplanes?

MAC guys flew with Wing patches on their left sleeve and U.S. Flags on the tails long before they started wearing Flags on their bags.

Full disclosure, I am a MAF guy. But I have never understood all of the push-back towards dudes who do not wear the American Flag on the left shoulder at UPT bases, or WIC grads, or TPS grads. A person at my previous base asked one of the Patches if he was proud to serve his country because he no longer wore the American Flag. However, Kadena and Mildenhall guys don't wear the American Flag and it never seems to be an issue.

I've searched around to see if anyone has already said this. Has anyone else heard the rumor that for the most part the MAF functionals won't be releasing pilots for staff jobs?

That AIB was a tough read. Godspeed

I cannot recommend the S&W M&P 15 enough. I was set on buying a Colt until I saw the M&P.

Not sure of your community, but this has seemed to change over time. I would say this was the case in certain situations pre-2009. However, I have seen a larger number of people get held to the fire more and more in the past few years. Will you get a referral OPR for dropping the ball consistently as a FLT/CC? No, probably not. I think that accountability at the Squadron level is on the rise. I can't speak intelligently for Group and above. Are there dudes who make it anyway? Sure. Are there superstars that cannot fault no matter what? Maybe. But I have seen a number of them fail recently. They seem to outpace their capabilities.

How many guys are we talking? It is hard to believe the MAF can keep pressing with the huge loss of 11Ms. Not to mention most of these guys were experienced IPs/EPs.

I am not to sure about that. It seems the promotion rate to Major has been on a steady decline throughout the Force Reduction measures going back to 2006. There has been talk as well to delaying Major boards even more to slow the promotion rate to cut down on costs (discussed at numerous SOS classes by the brass).

Nope. The UK is still an awesome place to live! Just remember the standard stuff. It will take some time to get settled and if you are looking at a place you MIGHT like at least put down the administrative deposit (about 100 pounds). It seems like a waste but it is better than not getting a place and living on base. Properties here go very fast, especially if you are in the middle of a PCS season. The wife and I lucked out in finding a place, but there are a number of guys in the squadron that had houses get snagged up from under them because other tenants got the administrative deposit down first.

Same here. Went through UPT in 07-08 and a one of the best top mid-phase checkride scores was a 3U.

Are the patches from 01-04 and 09-01 up still?

Good advice. Working casual at UPT was eye-opening. There were plenty of IPs in the OSS that were caught in the "You don't need an AAD, just kidding" crowd that were killing themselves to get that shit done. Heard a lot of don't be me stories. These guys were flying their assess off, working OSS shit, and cramming 3 classes into a semester to get it done. No thanks. The only part that looked fun was flying a shit ton every week. I started my Masters as a deployed brand new 1st Lt and would take classes downrange and space them out at home to focus on home-station flying. It helped break up the desert down time and when I was home I could scam around for the awesome TDYs to build my bag of tricks. Did I miss out on sport bitching sessions at the chow hall? Sure, but when I checked the Masters container it was one less thing to worry about when I was stopping by the chow hall to bullshit over TCN brewed coffee. There is a lot that we can't control in our careers. But pubs, GK, and an AAD is some of them. I applaud what the CoS is doing, and I hope that continues with the next CoS. But there's nothing he can do to save us when he retires. My fear, as it has been stated before, is that other "identifiers" will be used at the lower level for rack and stacks regardless of CoS guidance. Incorporation into an AFI would be a good start.

Not sure if I should like or dislike this post. Let me build a stop-light chart and I'll get back to you.

It depends. MEBs can be extremely messy, complicated, and very drawn out. I have known a few guys who waited 12-18 months for an answer.

The R&D process is fvcked. We brought on-line the KC-135, B-52, C-130, the Century Series fighters and started the F-4 process all in the 1950s. Didn't Eisenhower say something about the military industrial complex?

We'll see. The OSS/CC said something along the same lines to my UPT class in 2007 regarding UAVs dropping to studs...

"Chopping the wood" is effective against Dutch Roll. Flew 4.5 hours without powered rudder and most of us were RT types at the time.

Encountering wake turbulence and having the jet dutch roll on you are two different scenarios. This. Dutch roll recovery training is lacking, as identified in the AIB. The sim does a terrible job at accurately portraying dutch roll, and it is something the crew force rarely sees. Manual dutch roll dampening isn't difficult if you've seen it in the -135 or have been instructed through it.

I can't believe this is still being discussed. I only read 6-9 lines of the link, but he mentions "Air Force planners helped develop Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign designed to force Hanoi out of the war. The campaign wreaked significant destruction on North Vietnamese economy and society but failed to budge Hanoi’s leadership." Pretty sure Rolling Thunder's success wasn't tied to the USAF's planning or execution. Edited: In order to ward off the grammar police