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Darth

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Posts posted by Darth

    TriCare to be Cut to Encourage Enrollment in Obamacare.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    For Joe1234 - you are correct from a business perspective drive by MBAs and HR personnel if you view benefits as being part of a compensation package. However, people who view the military as a business and want to operate it that IMO way are misguided. The military is not a business, people rarely choose to serve for 20 years because the benefits they get are so awesome that they stay regardless of the sacrifices they and their families make and after 20 years can sit in their recliner and enjoy the good life. Certainly tough choices must be made for the larger good of the country but trying to do it by cutting defense spending and balancing the budget on the backs of retirees is ridiculous. Our elected leadership talks in terms of billions when the deficit is trillions. Significantly increasing the cost of Tricare as an insurance with the argument "well this is what civilians pay for health care" is a slippery slope until it turns into no retirement benefits until your 65 (because your vested at some point.) Then see what the compensation/retainment argument does then.

    F-22 Raptor info

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    http://www.flightglo...en-woes-372642/

    From the article: "Ironically, some of the safety measures that the USAF added after the service lifted the grounding such as flying with a negative-pressure carbon-filter--which is having oxygen pushed through it under pressure-- and with the oxygen system set on maximum at all times probably exacerbated the problem, the source says.

    Wow.....Unintended consequences. Good luck, you guys might still need it,

    Boss, I quit...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Seen/Been to a Tier 1 flag lately?

    No. But have visited and discussed current execution with staff (know several of them from previous life and get opprtunites to visit Nellis in my current life.) I find it interesting to look at who the assumed training audience is and prioritized and how each RF is executed. I think some things have improved and some things have been hijacked. These are items worth of disucssion over several beers.

    Boss, I quit...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Having been in a position of leadership at RF (a while ago), I was sometimes frustrated at the senior leadership who thought RF needed to change completely from the traditional tenet of "first 10 missions for Blue 4" to support a COIN/Low Threat/SCAR/XCAS/whatever to train for Iraq and Afghanistan. And how much it pissed 'em off when I told them "NFW". Although we did institute "Part Task Training" to accommodate the training needed. The other side of that picture is the number of younger guys who would come up with ideas that were incredibly stupid too - and would get pissy when you told them "no". It is interesting to see what RF is doing today. And I am not impressed.

    • Upvote 1

    F-22 Raptor info

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Bada bing: http://usnews.msnbc....complaints?lite

    What's a "proximate distance?"

    proximate [ˈprɒksɪmɪt], proximal

    adj

    1. next or nearest in space or time

    2. very near; close

    3. immediately preceding or following in a series

    4. a less common word for approximate

    [from Late Latin proximāre to draw near, from Latin proximus next, from prope near]

    proximately adv

    proximateness n

    proximation n

    Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

    F-22 Raptor info

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Have to ask "What would you do?" -- which my wife asked me after watching 60 min. Easy to armchair quarterback the whole thing when you ass is not the one in the seat. And having played red air for Raptor training a buch of times, it does what it is designed to do and does it well. Except, of course, that thing where it is trying to kill the pilots with the oxygen system. Not so good.

    Drone Pilots: We Don’t Get No Respect

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Combat is breaking things and killing your enemies. Risk is strapping on your airframe and making your takeoffs equal your landings and this increases if it includes combat and depends on the level of threat/wx, etc. RPAs do combat (and do it rather well in the current environment) but the risk is non-existent unless your worried that your sensor operator doesn't like you and might hit you with something. Otherwise, the AF originally sent the dregs to RPAs and the system suffers from it still today. Growing a professional cadre of folks who know nothing else is a reasonably good idea. Who purposely wants to go from any manned airframe to sitting at a console? Although there are those who do because they just might recognize that being on the leading edge of something might be an interesting challenge. Maybe...

    I also think as a product of the cold war, Just Cause, Desert Storm, OSW/ONW, Allied Force, AND OIF/OEF (I was in the AF for all these events although I am now retired and missed Odyssey Dawn), I think the argument that there is tribalism based on ones combat experiences is lacking. Tribalism exists for a variety of reasons (airframe specific, AFSCs, MAJCOMs, academic background, commissioning source) etc. (Look at how many times Rainman calls the Viper a lgpos.)

    AdVictoriam - While it makes for interesting reading you are not helping your argument with big words, obscure references and uber-nerdy logic.

    Sooo....RPAs are important - they are going to be here forever and it is boring unglamorous work but is a powerful system. If your feelings are hurt because some drunk raptor pilot made fun of you, get over it. They have their own issues to deal with.

    Drone Pilots: We Don’t Get No Respect

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Drone Pilots: We Don’t Get No Respect

    That is some serious whining. Get over the drunk F-22 pilot. Our enemies also think fighting a war remotely is not honorable but they are the same ones who go blow up a market place full of women and kids. There is no honor in war. If fought correctly, there are only winners and losers and the winners get to do what they want - which in our case, we tend to treat the losers pretty nicely (for the most part.)

    And as for the guys who envy getting to go home at every night and knocking the bottom out of their spouse and watching all their kids games. Think again. RPA caps run 24/7 which means you get to see the T-ball game if your spouse video taped it and sports recorded on your DVR and hoping that someone does not tell you the results of the game. But you do get booze...which is nice. And occasionally you get to put her heels up and you do get to see a kids game while you in the AOR get nothing. Whatever...everyone needs to get over it and move along.

    Who's Really Flying The Plane?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/distracted-pilot-forgets-to-lower-landing-gear.html

    Yet another reason for automation along with the guy who was BFMing Venus (and bouncing passengers around like a well hit three wood in a tile bathroom.) Sorry but I found this thread entertaining and a good break from reality and would like to see more energetic thoughts from the highly enlightened technically savy yournger generation who want to ride around in UAV/RPA objects knowing that HAL will never fail..never..fail..fail...

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