DC

Fair enough. Hey, I gotta start somewhere! Thanks for the perspective from the other end of the tunnel, though. I imagine I will hardly recognize the young, naive Lt that I am today when I'm looking back at it all. I won't turn a blind eye to something I'm not sure is right just because I don't have experience. That's why I'd talk to the person first. Maybe there's an explaination that I don't have the experience to understand. But how am I supposed to get that experience by walking around with blinders on? I'm asking seriously. When do I cross that line where I can stop ignoring things and finally question whether someone is doing something wrong? I wouldn't imagine that I'd be any different a person because I pin on a new rank or aquire one more year of service.

As sleepy said, if it happened in my class we'd also hash it out. If someone was definately cheating I'd confront them. If they ignored me and continued to deliberately cheat, I'd probably turn them in utilizing the chain of command. As Scooter said, common sense and integrity prevail. We're playing for keeps, here. This isn't high school anymore. I may just be a dumb LT in UPT, but its my Air Force too, and I don't want cheaters in it. Especially in the air with me. The only question that remains is what exactly constitutes cheating. Sometimes the line might not be clear, which is why you hash it out within your class. But as a general rule of thumb for any kind of test, if someone can get a 100% without reading the questions, they're cheating. Also, lying is a breach of integrity no matter how you slice it. After being approached about it and denying it, my sympathy for them completely disappears. I'm glad their classmates ate them alive. I know it might seem silly to review the Core Values all the time, but its not. If there's ever a question about what's going on bring those babies out and more often than not the question will be answered. It doesn't take years of Air Force experience to know that. We all run into obstacles to integrity, service and excellence every single day. To those that don't have a problem cheating go run for Congress or something. I also hear Enron is hiring accountants... [ 10. June 2006, 12:28: Message edited by: DC ]

Maybe I'm missing something here...maybe its because I went to Whiting and being new here haven't actually had any EPQs here yet.. But what about what was described above was acceptable? People had the ANSWERS (no kidding A, C, D, A, C, B) to the test? How is that not cheating? Its one thing for before the test to have an IP or academic instructor say "The wing is connected to the fuselage. I would know that if I were you." [foot stomping on floor] And something else entirely to have the IP say "The answer to number five is C. I would know that if I were you." Bro network or not, if it smells wrong its probably wrong. I don't know, just my inexperienced opinion.

NASWF (and probably Corpus) classes are numbered by the first week (rather than graduation) and by calendar year (rather than fiscal year).

Charlie's Back Door for geniune New Mexican food. Great for lunch. (Behind Charlie's Front Door on Menual Blvd and Wyoming Blvd) Gardunos, as mentioned above, is pretty good--but not really. Only out of towners like it, haha. (Several locations around town--airport and mall locations are the worst) Breakfast burritos at a place called Dos Hermanos. Cheap/good eats. (Wyoming Blvd between Comanche and Candalaria). As mentioned, Sadie's is also pretty good. Its been a long time since I've been there and I can't even for the life of me remember where it is. Well, I could go on for hours about the food in Albuquerque, but now I'm starting to get hungry and I miss it! Skiing? Taos and Angel Fire are probably the best in the state, but Santa Fe isn't half bad either. Sandia, while not nearly as good as the others, is right outside Albuquerque (you can even take the tram from Albuquerque and it drops you right at the top of the slopes.) Bad news, though. From what I've read and heard from back home... the ski season this year has been very lacking in the snow department. Bars? I never really hung out downtown a whole lot. I didn't much care for the scene. Places I usually end up are Billy's Longbar (San Mateo Blvd near Oasis), O'Niells (Uptown and Lousiana--but I hear they changed their name and they suck now), and a few other random ones. The bar scene there changes a lot because you have to stay one step ahead of the hoodlums. I definately recommend Sandia Casino for some gaming. There are several other indian casinos around and none of them are terrible (for indian casinos). Also highly recommend the ice hockey as mentioned above. Always plenty of fights (not always on the ice). Good times but watch your back! haha. The base? Kirtland is a little dismal. Lack of plant life, etc. Its spread out so good thing you have a car. The BOQ leaves a bit to be desired. Some are newer but you certainly aren't going to find internet hotspots! (Unless its changed the last 1 1/2 years). The area outside base is just a step up of what the area outside Maxwell AFB is like. If/when you leave base, go far. As a general rule, in Albuquerque the further north you are, the safer you are. Weather in March? Be ready for anything. 20 degrees to 80. Snow to rain to sun. Likely windy. I lived in Albuquerque for 15 years. If you have any other questions go ahead and ask.

Apparently I have nothing better to do. I don't, its true. JSUPT at Whiting! Six months of training crammed into 13 months. Gotta love it.

Last UPT class before SUPT, I'm guessing. Hey, look at me, good guess! http://baseops.net/militarypilot/

Overall I can't say I have much of a complaint against Whiting. I haven't been to the AF side of the house yet, but from what I can tell we definately have it better off overall. API is just a hurdle you need to jump. Its a pretty easy process, but it can be a pain in the butt sometimes. I'm pretty sure its designed as a hazing ritual for Navy studs. Trying to wash the bad apples out right away. Pay attention, study as required, and API is a breeze. You'll only work more than 3-4 hours a day a couple times the entire time. The academics are easy but you will need to study because of the way the tests are constructed. Not a bad gig, though. At Whiting our EPs are totally different. Instead of having just a handful of boldface items and popping out a checklist for the rest, we have a few pages worth of memorized EPs and we back ourselves up with the checklist. Probably has something to do with single engine and no ejection seat. You don't need to memorize the punctuation like in the AF though. But you'll be filling out "EP Quizzes" constantly to make sure you're up to speed on them. And instead of standup, we just run simulated EPs in the air and brief individual ones on the ground as required one on one (usually two on one with another student) with the IP. The T-34C can stay in the air a lot longer than the T-6 or T-37 so your hops tend to be quite long in contact (2+ hrs sometimes). Running simulated EPs in the air gets pretty old pretty quick. Just today my IP kept failing my engine on me at low altitude in a difficult position for our only field. After about 5 of those (4 were good enough to move on) I was definately sick of them. I'm tempted to say I'd trade inflight EPs for standup, but I haven't experienced standup and from what friends have shown me and what is said about it (and what some of my AF IPs here have talked to us about) standup sounds like it gets old pretty quick too. Both are great ways to learn EPs, I suppose. I just think standup would work better for my style of learning. Besides, what's more fun then trying to fly a PEL profile while snapping on your O2 mask (we fly w/o it below 10k) and turning the handcrank to get the gear down all with the canopy open? Does Whiting take longer? That's a big hell yes. But it takes a lot of the firehose effect out of UPT. And without the full firehose (you still get some), as long as you are responsible enough to study for yourself, you're going to be fine here. When you're not running into bad weather (common here) you're trying to make sense of the schedule. You could potentially go several weeks without flying for no explicable reason. Since I started I've averaged 3-4 flights a week (except the 35 days I went w/o flying) which is considerably well above average. One last thing. When I found out I was coming here I was a little disappointed at first mainly because I wanted to fly the T-37 or T-6. The T-34C, however, is a plucky little bird. She's pretty damn fun to fly. She has her quirks (trim is done with wheels on the console instead of tabs on the stick) and might not fly as fast or pull as many Gs. But really, do you NEED speed and Gs for the first flight phase of training? Not really. Gotta love a plane with an ashtray and a boldface item "Dive towards the trailing edge of either wing." Hope that helps. I rambled a bit in the middle there--its been a long day--but I'm fairly sure it made sense.

So you're living in some third world country minding your own business and you don't know shit about shit except some other idiot that lives in the same country as you shot his mouth off and made some henchmen do bad things in that rich country over the horizon. Later that month you look up and see this. You lean over to your buddy and say, "I sure hope its food they're dropping."

I just realized that this article is a year+ old. It seems to be circulating the internet now because I just got an e-mail with a link to a different article on this topic from someone. Strange that it'd be making the rounds a year later. My friend who sent it to me is in med school. His e-mail came with a snide little comment about me having to look up for back-up career plans. I finished my response with: But hey, if a dog can diagnose cancer (link) and PRAYING TO JESUS (link) will cure it, I'm sure future doctors are desperately trying to come up with back-up career plans too. [ 12. December 2005, 22:12: Message edited by: DC ]

Clint Torrez Bud Weiser (too obvious?) Oliver Klozoff Bob Loblaw Justin Case (I actually knew a guy w this name)

New Mexico? ON FIRE!? No way!!![/sarcasm]

I've seen full blown Steeler's Bars before, and this didn't quite fit the bill compared to a couple I've seen throughout the country.. but there were more than a few Steeler's fans there--certainly more than I've seen in other Pensacola bars. Plus, the food's good and the beer's cheap.

Beef O'Brady's (Creighton and 9th) had a ton of Pittsburgh fans in it for the Monday night game a few weeks back. I think it might be the Pittsburgh bar you're looking for that every town seems to have, perhaps?

Don't count a BP check at MFS out. If anything comes out abnormal, chances are a BP check would be part of the further tests. But don't ask me, I waltzed through MFS. I know guys that were stuck at Brooks for months though, and I'm sure they had a BP check at one point or another.

http://go.mappoint.net/airforce/PrxInput.aspx Go here, change the "Category" to "Officer Training" and submit your zipcode. That should give you a couple more options in your area.

If you are reporting to Whiting at the end of this week.. you report via phone on Friday and in person on Monday and then you'll have a 1 week wait at Whiting for ground school during which you'll phone muster before 1000 Tues-Thurs and physically muster on Friday. Ground school is approx 2 1/2 weeks and you'll finish reporting into VT-3 at the end of that. At that point, there is a wait for Fam-0. Yes, there will be a wait. Lately is has been about 6 weeks, but we were told 5-8 weeks just this last week. Its all due to instructor shortages, weather problems, and scheduling nonsensicalness. Get used to it and welcome to VT-3! NATOPS Change 39 is the last change on my NATOPS, so I sure hope its the last one. But yeah, the biggest one is normal ops oil pressure psi is 65-85 (not 65-80 as published). I wouldn't stress about notecards and studying for NATOPS-related stuff at this time. EPs are difficult to study effectively until you've done systems. And systems make A LOT more sense as you take the class. You can pick up your books as early as this Friday afternoon. When you get them, read but don't memorize (yet) the Systems Workbook and leave everything else until later. If you have any more questions or whatever about Whiting and what to expect and what you need to do the first few weeks (its needlessly confusing) feel free to PM me. I'm probably 6 weeks ahead of you in the mix right now, sitting around waiting for Fam-0.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:vVbpy...lient=firefox-a

That National Geographic documentary was absolutely amazing. It really gives you the background and perspective into just how determined our enemy is. All the more reason to out-determine him. Watching the first 2 hours (the plot) started getting me angry. The next two hours, reliving every excruciating detail really brought me back to how I felt that day as I alternated between staring at the TV in a state of disbelief and looking at the skyscrapers around me with a horrid uneasy feeling. For all that's happened since it can sometimes admittedly difficult to connect to that visceral feeling behind the subsequent decisions. I hate to admit it, but complacency comes far too easily. Fortunately we live in a cruel world, and that world never ceases to remind us of that. Whether it be the evil nature in some human beings or the raw power of mother nature we all witnessed two weeks ago, we absolutely need to work that much harder to better this ship we call civilization. I can't think of a better place to do that from than the United States Air Force. When asked why I joined, I find it difficult to put into words sometimes. There were so many reasons. But hey, whatdya know. Turns out I can articulate it just fine. Importance? To me, in that above stream of consciousness, that's the importance.

As a general rule of thumb it takes 20-30 minutes to get anywhere in Albuquerque. At least if you know the best routes which most people in new in town probably don't. The quickest way anywhere is the highways. When practical drive straight to the closest highway, follow the highway to the closest point to your desitnation and get off. That doesn't include traffic, of course. Say you live in the extreme NE Heights. None of the highways are really practically close to you, so you'd drive down Tramway Ave the whole way. It would take closer to 30 from there. From the West Side it can take quite a while as traffic build up quickly. Umm... Found this random map that lables the general areas, I guess. The borders of the areas are a bit off, but you get the generall idea. Really nice: Sandia Heights Corrales (feels like a rural area there..kinda far though) Nice: Far NE Heights Foothills Four Hills North Valley Westside Less Nice: Near Heights University Area (has patches of really nice though) Bad: SE Heights South Valley Everything else either isn't really a neighborhood to itself or is basically too far away. [ 08. September 2005, 15:41: Message edited by: DC ]

As far as free time in UPT.. I'm at Whiting. We have so much damn free time here we jokingly talk about getting part-time jobs to bring in some more beer and gas money.

South East and South Valley areas should be avoided. South East is basically the area near the base. South Valley is south of Downtown and is located accross I-25 from the Airport area. More or less. But the police helo that got shot down (yes, you read that right) a month ago got shot down over a good neighborhood (relatively speaking) on the West side up in a place called Paradise Hills. I was attacked 1/2 mile from my house in a good neighborhood when I was 17. So.. just watch your back. Avoid eye contact with the cars around you in the late night hours.. that's what got me into trouble.

Santa Fe is ~about~ 50 miles north of Albuquerque. Kirtland is on the southern edge of Albuquerque. Albuquerque covers a big area. I-25 isn't reliable in the winter. So, no. Too far.

the ORM kick must be a NETC thing because its crazy at pcola and whiting lately too.. same list, obviously. whitewater kayaking wasn't on the do-not-do list.. but it was a navy list. i doubt the air force is less strict than the navy, though. in the navy, safety isn't paramount at all.

Well, I grew up there and I only witnessed a couple of shootings and a couple more stabbings. I was only a direct victim of a random violent crime once. I love Albuquerque but I didn't much care for growing up there. It seems that the younger you are the worse it is because it all stems form gang/drug trafficing problems that tend to affect youth the most. Once you hit a certain age (approx 25?) and if you go only to places that are familiar and known to be a safe environment its actually a nice place! The public schools really do have a wide range. Some are gang-riddden and filled with unmotivated teachers and have horrible facilities. In the richer areas of town the schools are quite a bit better. Great facilities (though with the growth of the city over the years they're becoming very crowded) and great programs. You still have a drug problem in those schools but its more of a user problem than a distribution problem. I went to one of the private schools in town and absolutely loved it. I was a bit sheltered being there, but certainly not as much as my parents thought I was. Good thing I stayed out of trouble and got to where I am today. I can't say the same about a lot of the people I went to school with. Kirtland itself is a bit.. for lack of a better word.. dusty. Its pretty spread out and seems very ghetto on first glance. But its an Air Force Base. Outside of some of the older buildings (many of which are being rennovated or are scheduled to be) you'll still have first-class facilities. There is hardly any vegitation on base so it seems dead. The DOE runs Sandia National Labs on base and that takes up a good amount of space and population. It doesn't seem to be any different than most of the other bases I've ever been to, it just looks different on the outside. DO NOT LEAVE THE BASE ON FOOT. The area right outside the gates (basically, all of them) is one of the worst in town. It isn't the absolute worst, but it is probably the most violent. But wow. The sky. Its so beautiful there.