Fuzz

Reminds me of this supposed quote from a WWII German Officer: "A serious problem in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine."

The Air Force, as in the flying I get to do and the people I work with on a daily basis are awesome; I wouldn't trade where I am right now for anything. Most people I know don't hate getting up everyday and putting on the uniform to go to work, in fact most of them also enjoy. However, most of those same people and anyone with a two eyes and half a brain can see the institution that is the U.S. Air Force is in a severe crisis. This is crisis is a leadership, readiness, training and most importantly ethical crisis. The people at the top are out of touch and screaming "remain calm, everything is fine" as people run for the door, leaders abuse their power and our equipment falls apart due to a broken acquisitions process. It reminds me of when I spatial-D'd in the T-6 while flying IMC, my IP in the back is telling to cage myself on the instruments, while I'm telling him "no, I'm good". In reality I was 10 degrees nose low and in a 20 degree left turn. The leadership stands in front of the world and says there's nothing to see, while the people they lead scream for help. They fail to see that the institution is being held together at the seams by extraordinary airman the do amazing things every damn day to keep jets in the air. I don't hate the Air Force, I love the Air Force, it runs in my blood all the way back to the Army Air Corps. Yet I see the attrition of experience and knowledge heading to the civilian world everyday, leaving greener and inexperienced aircrew to fill their spots. I see leaders who can manage a wing but have no idea how their jets or crews execute their mission. People that care more about SAPR and quarterly awards than whether their crews can effectively execute what we've promised to COCOMs. That being said the Air Force is still the best in the world and when the order comes we get shit done because those of us on the frontlines make it happen. However, the Air Force hasn't been challenged in a very long time, the Army went through a crisis during the early years of the GWOT and managed to make some changes, but we've been chugging along since Korea having yet to meet a foe that gave us a run for out money. I'm not sure the institution as it stands today could actually withstand that challenge with out some very painful and costly consequences.

Agreed on all points and that's what I had told him as well just want to make sure I do my due diligence especially when we are talking major life decisions for a dude and his family. Also thanks for the info on manning in the helo community.

Sorry I wasn't clear in my question, I was talking about if he wanted to go fixed wing in the AF not just hop over to a rotary unit. That would require him to go through UPT, which then has the 30 years old limit. The friend is just gathering info to see what's feasible. Thanks all for the PMs and Replies.

Thanks for the replies, anyone have any insight on the chances of someone getting waiver for being over 30 being that they are already a military pilot?

Thread bump, have someone looking for information on a Green to Blue jump. Currently a blackhawk driver, warrant officer with a 4 year degree, it looks like from previously linked AFIs a jump from AR rotary directly to USAF rotary is possible without going through UPT. Anyone with experience or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the insight, hadn't thought about a companion trainer in that context. With that perspective, I really don't see why we would need to replace the T-38s going along the lines of "if its not broke don't fix it". But then again we are talking about the AF and more importantly AF acquisitions.

Only looks at the air to air fight and seems to disregard the fact that Taiwan lies well within the range of the PLA's land based S-400 completely disregarding any naval SAMs) giving them a significant leg up in the air superiority fight.

Just curious how would you loose the capability? The T-1 flies low level and formation, granted not fingertip like the T-38 but the B-2 doesn't fly fingertip. If anything I see an eclipse or T-1 more comparable to the way the B-2 flies than a T-38, although a lot less fun.

1. If you are TDY enroute then you should completely out process your base before you head to the training base. I would guess MPF just dropped the ball on not adding your wife to the orders. 2. When I did the TDY enroute I brought everything I couldn't live without or too valuable to store and had TMO move and store the rest till I reported to my new base. I don't remember how the storing HHGs worked. 3. Yes, you'll receive your departing base's BAH rate till you report in at your next base. 4. I can't remember how it all played out exactly but yes you get reimbursed for the leaving base to TDY to final base as part of the TDY and leaving base to final base as part of the PCS. Some others or Finance Guy might be able to fill you in better with more recent experience.

There's probably two dozen conferences rooms minimum all over that base. No one thought to sequester a wing of the lodging building for these families? We've been at war for 15 years, I hate to say this but we should be better at this.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/c-130-transport-plane-crashes-afghanistan-defense-officials-say-n437191 A U.S. C-130 transport plane crashed at Jalalabad airport in Afghanistan early Friday, the military said. The crash happened shortly after midnight local time (3:30 p.m. ET), coalition spokesperson U.S. Army Col. Brian Tribus said. "Cause of the crash and status of crew and others onboard remains unknown," Tribus aid. "We are gathering more information and will release as appropriate." The C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop aircraft used to transport personnel and oversized cargo. Here's to hoping for the best.

We sent 75 newly trained fighters into Syria on their own, what the hell did people think was going to happen? These guys were expected to take the fight to 30,000-70,000 ISIS fighters, thousands of fighters belonging to dozens of smaller groups and the Syrian Army transiting in a couple pickup trucks. The people that made that call should resign their commissions in shame.

I'm not completely up to speed on the enlisted 3/5/7/9 level requirements. However, if she is a TSgt, she is probably a 7 level and therefore awarded the senior badge.

Not Related to the thread but to the link posted. I would highly recommend The Strategy Bride (linked above), Military Writers Guild and Defense Entrepreneurs Conference as some great sources of current events, military strategy and leadership. It is an amazing group (of which I'm a member) of military members and civilians that are trying to change things on the ground floor and having some success at it. Check out the link below from the Economist, the group mentioned used by Col. Starr is from the DEF Conference. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21665008-department-defence-can-neither-close-bases-nor-keep-them-working-catch-2015?fsrc=scn%2Ffb%2Fte%2Fpe%2Fed%2Fcatch2015

I would argue his area has always been secure from conventional attack from the West. If we didn't attack when Assad used chemical weapons on his people AKA the "red line", we aren't going to attack now. The civil war status quo isn't going to spur the West to attack, its going to take another outrageous act to rile to citizens into demanding action. Which given our lack luster response to the barbaric acts of ISIS isn't going to be much, especially overthrowing another government (and an ally of Russia).

On base housing is small. A decent size living room, a very small kitchen, and three small bedrooms. For us the larger was our bedroom, the second one was an office/place for me to study, and the other a guest room, just to provide you a reference to think about how an extended stay would work out. Also I had several friends with newborns or have a baby during UPT and family would come out for a couple weeks but never much longer. UPT is a tough but great time, you'll make lifelong friends that will help you and your family get through it. The wives usually stick together and help each other.

We send a message to ISIS we deploy the A-10; we send a message to Iran we deploy the F-22. They aren't sending a message to ISIS they are sending a message to the west by deploying one of their most advance multi-role fighters.

Shit hot job DFRESH. Pulled up the home page yesterday and had to do a double take cause thought I had gone to the wrong website.

After the VSP/RIF shitshow last year could we really expect anything different?

You do have an expectation of privacy in your own home, a drone with a camera looking into your home while it hovers over your property is violating that basic principle regardless if it was on the ground or in the air. I see this setting a bad precedence especially for the paparazzi, can't get onto the celebrity's property but fly a drone in "FAA controlled airspace" and there's nothing the person can do as it flies all over their property? Bullshit!

We have ADS-C and CPDLC but not ADS-B.

In our latest IRC class, I asked if there were plans for the C-17 to upgrade to ADS-B our instructor laughed and said "no, we'll get waivers".

Some C-17s on hand won't meet the current OPLANS that rely on the airdrop capability/austere LZ en mass scenarios. Otherwise I agree, there is a lot of cargo that could be moved way more efficiently by 767s (or similar air frames) while saving hours and wear & tear on our military airlift fleet. Best of all type ratings for all my friends for the airlines!

There have been a couple UPT to RPA guys show up at TCM, none have anything good to say about their experience.