Cap-10

In response to the tragic loss of our fellow River Rat and Active Duty USAF F-16 pilot, Major Lucas "Gaza" Gruenther, the River Rats in conjunction with our charitable arm, the Air Warrior Courage Foundation (AWCF) has established a college 529 to accept tax deductible contributions for his daughter's college education. It is very important to follow the directions below, particularly the "In Memory..." verbiage. All contributions are tax deductible. There are two ways to give. 1. Send a check to the AWCF, P.O. Box 877, Silver Spring, MD 20918. In a note or on the check say "In Memory of Major Lucas "Gaza" Gruenther." 2. Using a credit card. Go to our home page at www.airwarriorcourage.org . On the Home page is a DONATE button. Click it and it will take you to a page with a GIVE DIRECT button. Click it and fill in the blanks. In the COMMENTS block put in "In Memory of Major Lucas "Gaza" Gruenther". Please help us get the word out so that we can all support the Gruenther family, part of our River Rat family now and forever, and please give. Cheers, Cap-10

Peter pockets yes. Don't wear them because of knife, same location on g-suit. Cheers, Cap-10

Slackline: Info: this info is based on my experience when I took the bonus back in 2007: The ACP is offered when your UPT ADSC is up...it has nothing to do with other ADSC's you may have incurred. At the time I accepted my ACP, my UPT commitment was up but I had already accepted a PCS ADSC. Also doesn't matter if you are in a flying or not flying billet at the time. Having said all that, make sure you read this years message carefully...who knows what stipulations the rocket surgeons at HQ slipped in... Cheers, Cap-10

Dave and the Air Warrior Courage Foundation do great work for the Rats!

The initial reaction from the 11F guys in the squadron is a big face palm...again, the first batch is at PIT now, so we'll see in 2-3 months when they are done. We have had some issues with the one assignment bomber guys that barely made AC before showing up to teach T-38's. We washed one out of MQT about 1.69 years ago, and the two most recent guys busted a couple of MQT rides (there are only 5 rides total). One of them was CC directed to start MQT over. We are expecting more of the same from the C-17 bubbas...nothing against them, but thinking and flying at 400 knots and leading 2-ship low levels hasn't exactly been their skill set for the last 3 years, so we are expecting some difficult transitions like we've seen from the young bomber guys. I'm not saying they can't learn the skill set, but we defiantly expect them to struggle out the gate. The problem I see is that, with the manning levels like they are, the squadron can't afford to restrict instructors and make them a single ship transition guy only, or try to schedule to make sure the c-17 driver doesn't have to lead a 4 ship or 2 ship low level ever....my flight currently has 5 full time IP's (4 AD and 1 AGR) and 14 students....we need IP'S that can teach across the entire spectrum of flights or they become a limfac. We try to pair the noob IP's with some senior pilots who try to keep an eye on them. As best we can, we also make sure they get to sandbag (direct support) some 4 ship and 2 ship low levels before they have to lead them on their MQT/BIP checkouts. If the proposal to cut the number of 11F's going to T-38's is allowed, pretty soon the only guys that have actually been to IFF will be the fighter guys who are Reservists. Time will tell... Cheers, Cap-10

You can have the centerline restriction removed when you take the ATP check ride...it only adds one additional maneuver (the VMCse demo) and it takes < 1 min in flight. Cheers, Cap-10

Gaza was a River Rat...I believe he was even the River Rat Warrior Award winner out of the B Course. The Rats can't legally start collecting funds until his wife has given us permission. The River Rat National Board has been in contact with the family liaison officer as well the the 555 FS/CC...as soon as we get the ok from his wife, we will send out the donation info. FallingOsh, if you don't mind me asking, who did you e-mail? Cheers, Cap-10

FedEx says you only need the FE written if you are hired for a class that will have the B-727 in your drop....it's just like SWA saying you don't need the type rating, but everyone I know gets it anyway to better their chances. Having said that, the B-727 guys I know at FedEx said they are losing 1 B-727 line per month and that they should be gone middle of 2014. Cheers, Cap-10

. Anything is possible. On the active duty side, we are starting to see the first group of guys who flew T-38's in UPT, but dropped a C-17 on assignment night, are now at T-38 PIT enroute to a UPT base to instruct. Cheers, Cap-10

I'm 99.69% sure I still have my T-38A -1 from our FAIP days.

He just showed up in T-38's....there is one FAIP in that flight.....I'll let everyone know how their first flight goes. Cheers, Cap-10

I've known 2 guys that have gone from ANG to UPT IP...one of them was a Coon'ass militia C Model driver. I'm a 340th FTG IP right now...PM me if you want more details. Cheers, Cap-10

SBP: A buddy of mine just retired and had is financial planner do a number crunch (33.3 repeating of course). I don't have the numbers from the crunch, but I was told that CINCHOUSE only has to outlive you by approx 3.69 years in order to get all the money back. Best of luck in retirement! Cheers, Cap-10

Dan passed me off to Aspen Hill and we are doing the paperwork now for a 30yr VA at 3.25% and a lot of fees paid by NBOKC...I'll post later when the final numbers are in. So far, customer service and correspondence (e-mail and phone) have been outstanding!! Cheers, Cap-10

Has anyone used a CBM local contractor/company for any of the following: Granite countertops Tile flooring Removing wallpaper / interior painting Any recommendations / reviews would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Cheers, Cap-10

UPT'ers at my base are not issued Whiz Wheels any more. Cheers, Cap-10

Mission Employment phase....it's the captsone of WIC when all the differnet divisions get together (sts) and execute their mission sets in a joint scneario. Cheers, Cap-10

Col (ret) Ralph Parr flew west on 7 Dec 2012...he flew 5 combat tours in four different aircraft (P-38, F-80, F-86, F-4) spanning 3 wars (WW II, Korea, and Vietnam), was a double ace and when he retired had flown over 6,000 hours in fighter aircraft and earned more than 60 decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, 10 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 41 Air Medals. The River Rat Pack in San Antonio, as well as the O Club at Randolph are named in his honor. Nickel on the grass to this FIGHTER PILOT Warrior!!! https://www.af.mil/information/heritage/spotlight.asp?id=123161009 Cheers, Cap-10

FYI, at our MUTA this weekend, we got briefed that this will be in place of the AGR bonus. Guess we will just have to wait for the release message. Cheers, Cap-10

Aviation Week says they will indeed cancel their order this week. Cheers, Cap-10

Iowa...the Bermuda Rectangle....f@cking awesome! Cheers, Cap-10

Certain class patches and ceiling tiles in the flight rooms were taken down today. Sad day indeed! Cheers, Cap-10

Where does it actally state that 20yrs of active duty = immediate pension? I've been reseraching 36-3203 and 36-3209 as well as parts of the US Code Title 10, but everything I've found so far just states things like, you can retire after 20 years, 10 years mimum as officer if prior E, etc, but I haven't been able to find in writing that once retired, you get your $ right away. Help? Cheers, Cap-10

Yup...guy at my last base (11F) was offered continuation to 20....and that was 6.9 months ago. Cheers, Cap-10

7.69 year thread revival...record? Cheers, Cap-10