Hacker

He PCSd to a staff job up in Alaska...but I hear he's trying to get back to T-38s again! His callsign is 'LeBeau'.

Naaah, you're about 5 years too late to qualify for that. The letter quoted above was written following ALLIED FORCE in 1999. Based on my experiences in Shock-N-Awwww '03, that criteria was no longer in use.

It is probably a model of the ViperJet, as referenced by the title of the video.

In IFF, I usually fly about a 0.8, depending on mission. I double-turn regularly, but our flying schedule is not arranged for triple-turns (except on rare occasions, and the 3rd is never a student training line). The sortie count for an IFF IP is huge (10 times per week is attainable regularly if your job position can support it), but the hours are pretty meager. I might get to 600 hours by the end of my 3.5 year tour if lucky.

FWIW, I made Maj fairly recently, with a DP, and no hint of a Masters anywhere on my resume.

He is no longer at Moody...

That's been the biggest bite of my career. Thanks a lot, Chief.

He's talking about an air-to-air sortie, likely in a 4-ship flight lead, mission commander, or instructor upgrade program. ACT means Air Combat Tactics, and implies a 2-or-more versus 2-or-more scenario. In this case, a 4vX means that there are 4 blue fighters going against an unknown number of adversaries.

I hear 2ndhand from guys who were here at Moody before me that when one of those guys was given his DFC, the Group CC instructed the people in the audience 'not to laugh' when the citation was ready saying that they'd killed Saddam.

The more that things change, the more they stay the same... When my dad was in the AF 40 years ago, they called the NDS the 'barracks guard ribbon' for the exact same reason.

Remember, with both the Bronze Star and the DFC it can be awarded for *either* 'heroism' or 'merit'. Most people think of the former when they see the medal on someone's rack, but that's not always the case. There were plenty of BSMs given out in Vietnam, too.

The hot, Scandanavian female type crewchiefs.

I'm curious as to where this 10% rule came from -- never heard of that one. In my OIF experience, I thought that medals were given out TOO much...but they did go to those people who had contributed the most to the combat mission of the squadron. If people were really concerned about the USAF's awards system, they'd look at the citations for DFCs and Silver Stars given out over the last 5 years. If you compared them with the citations for thsoe awards given during previous wars, I think they'd find that they are being given out today way too easily. I have a pretty significant medal in my records...and I'm often embarassed to admit that when I think about what pilots in WWII and Vietnam did to have been awarded that same medal. Reminds me of a certain recently-promoted-to-O-6 that Toro, Hoser, and I all know who complained about the same thing in the pre-9/11 Air Force, too (in this case, Operation Allied Force).

Beware, the un-informed FOUO police are out!

I've been at Moody since summer '03 and Remerton has never been officially black-listed for all AETC students that I'm aware of. There was a short period circa '04 that the T-6 students weren't allowed to go there, but that is long gone.

Yes, AETC studs at Moody are still allowed to go to Remerton. There aren't any locales currently on the banned list...

I've killed two helmets so far in my short career -- once after UPT, and once as a T-38 IP. Both times, the LS folks left the not-fit-for-flight helmet on my LS locker to take or dispose of as I pleased.

How about the UCMJ. Your Commander orders you not to do something. Unless it is an illegal order, you must comply. Seems pretty simple to me.

Best info I've seen thus far in this thread. To be honest, my criticism of the formation photo has been entirely sarcastic thus far, as was pointed out by Hoser. Notice I used the phrase "ridiculous looking"? As has been pointed out, I don't know the first f*cking thing about airdrop TTPs, nor the reasons why things are done that way. Why would I? You guys are the experts on it, not me...so long as the iron gets on target (or DZ as the case may be) on time, who am I to care? I was merely pointing out that the traditional convention for a formation is one in which the airplanes are close together in some geometric relationship. To me, the photo looked like it depicted airplanes that, with the exception of one 2-ship echelon, and two 3-ship echelons, just happened to be in the same piece of sky at the same time. That was funny ha-ha to me. Guess it wasn't to you humor-impaired guys out there. Not trying to sh*t in the airdrop bowl of wheaties in any way.

Not following how you make that statement based off my comments. Do you mean something to the effect that fighter guys forget that there are ways to do things other than how they do? Yep, guilty as charged. But as far as accusing me of thinking fighters are the only kids on the block that matter...well, that's just ignorant. Doesn't change the fact that the original photo in this thread depicts a ridiculous looking excuse for a 'formation', no matter what airframe you happen to be from.

And here I was thinking that the *reason* to fly airplanes close together was to be able to penetrate weather. <whacks self on foreskull>

I'm not sure I see a 'formation' there, so much as a 'gaggle'.

Post some pics of the B-17 parts, please.

I also use 60:1 operationally when determining how much offset I need on the outbound leg of holding. Geeky, yeah, I know.

The Royal Bag pubs bags are slightly lower quality in the stitching, but more than make up for it in price. The FlyBoys stuff is WAY overpriced when compared to the Royal Bag offerings.