JarheadBoom

Found that the Juan Ramos from the article most likely wasn't the same Juan Ramos that was sucking the TIB cock in here...

That's not the only mission we're no longer performing.

Translation: Yet another example of a supporting agency not doing their job.

Once again, I am disgusted by the attitude of one of my enlisted "peers".

VH-60N Night Hawk

Looked more like LTE to me.

Latest update for anyone who's interested: - Wifi is working great in the aircrew dorms; I'm on it right now. Good enough to video-Skype home with minimal problems late at night (local time). It's AF-provided, but there aren't any login/password shenanigans, and so far the only restrictions I've seen are porn, file-sharing, and gambling sites. Youtube, web mail, social-networking, forums, and the like all work fine. Can't speak for anyone else's dorms, but it's probably safe to assume they've got it too. - As BF stated, aircrew rooms are pretty much 2-per. The only 3-per I see in my hall are crews that have a female among them, and the females have roomies as well. Wearing LtCol/CMSgt is no guarantee of having your own room if you're there as deployed aircrew on a multi-crewed airplane. - The current leadership is pretty damn cool. The AEW/CC flies a couple times a month, and the EOG/CC flies once a week, with either the AWACS or the -10. Disco belts are NOT REQUIRED in the TCA unless you're Army, but that's their rules, not the AEW's. There is a conscious effort, voiced by the AEW/CC and Command Chief themselves, to not bust people's balls on nit-picky bullshit and maintain focus on the mission. It's quite refreshing. - Chow hall's not bad at all. The salad bar is fresh and well-stocked, and the food's decent. No hand-washing/hand-sanitizing Nazis at the door; it's there if you want or need it, but no one's accusing you of letting the terrorists win if you don't. Disco belts are not required in the chowhall. The new Roy's is up and running. ETA: I'm happy to have been wrong about this!

Hell, even in Marine Corps boot camp (in '93) we were taught all the major USMC aircraft, their basic missions, and their basic appearances (via 3-view silhouettes in our "knowledge books"). We were tested on it as well... and it was bad juju to be a recruit with a contract-guaranteed aviation job and not know that shit inside and out. It is unacceptable that a significant number of Air Force personnel can't point to the iron on the ramp at the base they're stationed at, and say "that's a C-17, it hauls shit all over the world", or "that's a B-52, it carries a shit-ton of bombs and scares people worldwide", or "that's an F-16, it kills bad guys"... yet (as already mentioned) I have to know what all the various Finance, Medical, and _____________ regs and forms are. Un-fucking-acceptable.

From the land of 2 beers a day... x24

I've heard the full-length guide rod described as "a solution to a problem that 99% of 1911 owners don't have", and as "yet another way to squeeze $$ from 1911 owners". Since I do not yet own a 1911, take this with a [large] grain of salt; YMMV. edit for fat-fingered spelins an stuf

2 Wouldn't surprise me if AAFES bullied DeCA into that, though, to better justify that fucking monstrosity they built at ETAR.

Not a whole lot of difference - Travis comes east about as often as McGuire goes west. The deployed crews are roughly an even mix, and the deployed staff alternates between T and M.

CMP Garand? HELL YES! If you get the urge to shoot ammo other than surplus Greek HXP or M2, get yourself an adjustable gas plug to avoid op rod abuse/bending/breakage.

Same memory errors, happening more often also. Line number varies from instance to instance.

WTF... Pentagon to investigate hundreds of suspected child pornography fans in its ranks From the article: Sick, clueless fucks...

Reminds me of the time we pulled into port in White Beach, Okinawa when I was with the 31st MEU, and the wife of the boat's XO was pierside to greet him as a surprise (the boat was home-ported in Yokosuka). Small problem - his girlfriend in White Beach was pierside, too. Oooops...

It won't be a "problem" in the traditional sense - some folks who wouldn't normally have been given a MEU staff job will get one, the folks who show aptitude will get dual-hatted, and the really sharp folks might even get triple-hatted. Marine Corps problem-solving logic at it's finest...

Ammo is always a "safe" investment, IMO.

Newer SSFDRs (Solid-State FDR) use EEPROMS (flash memory); some older DFDRs used magnetic tape. Still need specialized equipment to download & interpret the data. The current FAA requirement for FDRs is for 88 separate parameters to be recorded; I have no idea how many parameters the AF records.

Can't speak for other MAJCOMs, but here in AMC it's removable flash media that is 100% prohibited. External HDDs are permitted under very specific circumstances (the HDDs are gov't property, must never be connected to a non-DoD computer, user must be specifically designated as requiring removable media for job performance, must sign an agreement with the Comm folks, etc.). Our systems will flag ANY other removable media and trigger a very rapid response by Comm and WG leadership - I've seen it happen, unfortunately. Fortunately, I was not the one stuck explaining why I thought plugging my iPhone into my USAF desktop computer "just to charge it" was acceptable...

Red BFAs are for rifles (M-16A2, M-16A4). Yellow BFAs are for carbines (M-4, etc.). Different barrel length + different gas system length = different gas system pressure curve, requiring a different-sized orifice in the BFA. -------- The NWU (Navy Working Uniform) is meant to replace the old-school dungarees and coveralls worn by sailors while afloat, and also give them a utility uniform to wear ashore, as an alternative to working blues or whites (for those who don't know, the Navy has about 3x more uniform combinations than any other service...). Note that the words "combat" and/or "battle" do not appear in the name of that uniform - more than likely, the only sailors wearing those uniforms in combat will be ship's personnel aboard something that is afloat/submerged, and have no need for camouflage. As already noted, Navy folks attached to another service's ground elements will wear that service's uniforms (I've been seeing a number of Navy folks wearing ACUs walking around M-D-L lately...) and comply with that service's uniform standards.

As much as it pained me, I actually Googled TIB and went to their website, looking for facts to back-up my "Eliminate TIB" submission. I found that on this year's "team", there are (among others) a few SPs, a few aircraft maintainers, an AFSOC loadmaster, and a fucking ARABIC LINGUIST! You simply cannot tell me that with the ops we are currently involved in, Tops In Blue is a valuable use of Airmen with these critical skills. Ridiculous.

January 2007, Ramadi, Iraq: Replace "Marine Corps" with the branch of service of your choice - it's still true today.

A renewed focus on the Air Force's actual mission.

Aside from the ability to build (for the most part) exactly what you want with little-to-no leftover unwanted parts, a lot of people experience a great deal of personal satisfaction in selecting their parts, assembling them, and using a rifle they "created". The folks who build from an 80% AR-15 lower receiver, and especially those who build from a 0% lower, definitely fall into the latter category. Neither method is cheap, especially if you don't have a mill or the skills to operate someone else's, but the personal satisfaction meter is probably off-scale high. I know mine would be... Depends on how you buy your parts. If you were to buy a complete upper receiver assembly and a complete lower receiver assembly, your assembly procedure would be to put the upper on top of the lower, and push the takedown pins in. Done. If you bought stripped receivers and individual piece parts, you'd have significantly more assembly to do as compared to a field-stripped AR (and you'd need a few special tools), but it's not rocket surgery by any means.