Homestar

I lol'ed

What amazes me is that the people of Iraq can't/don't/won't unite to defeat this disgusting monster.

Sq/CC to Sq/CC phone call is in order here I think.

CZTE is not the same thing as HFIDP. You can still get two months of CZTE for two days of work. But HFIDP is now prorated.

AMC is rolling out MobileIron as an MDM this year. Should be fun.

Almost all my Sq/CCs so far have been good to great leaders/people. It gets hard once you leave the local level to understand why leadership acts the way it does but I don't think it's fair to assume they're just a bunch of clowns. There is a certain amount of "company man" that comes with flag leadership, understandably, but ultimately, like politics, all leadership is local for me.

My testing center didn't even have the right book of figures (not all were on the computer)...I passed. Thanks, Sheppard Air.

edited to remove stuff. Do. Not. Trust. The. Media.

Good thing they made that easy to figure out. /sarcasm. It's not like that would be a huge mistake to apply for the wrong bonus or anything. Bureaucracies...

Just so I'm clear...you are getting ready to PCS OCONUS and presumably have 1 year left on your UPT ADSC. Your OCONUS assignment is a 3 year DEROS, so by time you take the hook you'll have 2 years left overseas... The reason you would have for NOT signing this bonus to have control over the assignment that comes AFTER your OCONUS assignment. Say AFPC wants to send you to Maxwell to teach SOS or some other form of hell-torture, if you've taken the hook you cannot say no and off you go into the non-flying wilderness. Personally I am afraid that I will be non-vol'd out of the cockpit somehow someday. Or sent on another non-vol 365 (or 179 of that matter) anywhere. I want the freedom to say no to whatever the Air Force tells me to do next. That freedom costs $25k/year for 5 years apparently (before taxes). Edit to add: there's no way I would sign a year early. So much in life can change that I wouldn't give the Air Force that much control over my life. But hey, that's just me.

I would take leave on Monday-Tuesday for my "lost" weekend.

The key is the SURF. As long as AAD is a discriminator visible to senior raters it will be used for strats. Period. I just can't see all Wg/CCs saying "on my honor" and not including it somehow in their process.

law enforcement has long relied on your lack of knowledge of your constitutional rights in order to perform searches, perform interrogations, etc. It wasn't till the 1960s that law enforcement was even required to inform you that you actually had rights (wikipedia tells me that Miranda v Arizona only passed 5-4, btw). law enforcement is just doing their job, I know, but in the course of just doing their job I have certain rights that I demand be protected. No, I don't have cocaine in the trunk, but no you may not search my vehicle either.

Wonder what prompted that?

https://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=122426 Altus wins DoD Installation Excellence Award. Time to lift the DUI punishment!

now that you mention it, I didn't need it for the written either (just DL) but I did have to show it during the practical check (and I think you're supposed to surrender it when they give you the temp ATP)

And all this time I thought that the HF/IDP was because the wifi was spotty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dZsRRuoiXfs Video purports to show the exfil. Filmed by Talibs so there's lots of jibberjabber.

Reminds me of "ooh, piece of candy." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Ps2L46dUs

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/05/exclusive-bergdahl-declared-jihad-in-2010-secret-documents-show/

Bringing Bergdahl home isn't about Bowe Bergdahl. Dempsey wrote "“The questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover ANY U.S. service member in enemy captivity. This was likely the last, best opportunity to free him"

This thing has to be the best flying gig in the AOR.

Sure, you get the money back as a refund if you didn't owe any taxes (i.e., Capt with 3 kids, 4 months tax free, and spouse doesn't work). The bonus is treated as regular income.

How long has the program been $25,000/year? If the dollar amount had kept up with inflation, assuming the $25k/year started in 1997 (just a guess), the bonus would need to be over $36k/year to have kept up with inflation. In other words, it's not really "big money" anyway. I also enjoy my job, but if the price of freedom-to-choose is a measly $25k/year then I'm happy to pay that cost by not signing the bonus.