Rmarsh
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Posts posted by Rmarsh
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If Big Blue's only concern was caring for the wishes of cadets, there would be 10,000 fighter slots, and we wouldn't have a Mission Support Group. Getting the last assignment on a dream sheet is unfortunate, but it has to go to someone, and sitting in a fetal position outside the O-club on drop night is missing the forrest trough the trees. Driving the goat bus at Tinker or flying preds at Cannon is still better than sitting behind the customer service window at Hickam...
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Ok, [says the guy that hasn't been there], and what would you propose is the Lesson Learned and Instructional Fix? Is this all on the whiny misfit toys? Or was something else that might have been executed with less Excellence and Integrity than called for?
Sorry, man, the AF porked this one away wholesale. This is important: in 10 years from now, the RPA community will be ________. What's it going to look like? How professional, competent, able to integrate with other communities, provide meaningful support. These are vital questions if we want to avoid the diseases that plagued other communities that the AF decided to put into mushroom conditions. The current vector for the RPA community isn't awesome, imo.
"Shut up and color" is a useful tool in certain circumstances. It was misapplied here, and the aftershocks will take a generation to settle out. I liked the job while I was there. I liked the job a lot more when guys around me started to get orders back to airplanes. The guy that get's services from his commissioning source can tell the AF "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" after 4 years. Even the guys at UPT wouldn't have had much to complain about if the AF had said from the start that they had a follow on jet. But that's not what happened, is it?
Well the AF has already made the fix in my opinion by standing up the 18X training pipeline. Lt's in UPT no longer need fear the reaper on drop night, you go through the RPA undergrad program knowing full well what happens at the end. And these kids aren't butt-hurt, they're eager, trust me. You act as though every new 2Lt is a fragile baby bird who needs coddling, lest we crush his lifelong dream of killing MiGs...
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I just bought a '14 Tundra, and have previously owned an '05 GMC Sierra and an '07 Tundra. I love it, but I also bought it because the 4x4 with some extras is almost 15 grand less than a similarly loaded Silverado Z-71. They really aren't in the same class, but for the money, I wouldn't have bought anything else.
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God no, that's too much like work. Therefore, it was pushed off on the Booms.
To a lot of them, the snack bar magically restocked itself with no monetary input from them, perpetuating the "cheap bastard airline pilot" stereotype.
At that time, there were less than a dozen Lts, Capts, and Majors (total) to offset the LtCols... and no popcorn machine.
Roughly half those LtCols punched the "Retire" button when our mobilization was made official, but before it actually started. Several others were close enough to sanctuary that they mobilized, dropped their sanctuary letters during their mobilization period, and finished their time with the AD, and now collect an AD retirement.
Only a handful of those 42 still remain, flying the bare minimum for currency.
When I was in the other service, squadrons had one, or maybe two LtCols - the CO and maybe the XO.
[/end thread derail]
edit: spelin is tuff
I think it's relevant, if there are 3 O-5's in the SQ, everyone knows the deal, everyone knows where they fit, but the rest, are they being prepped for command or just put out to pasture? Who knows, and I can see why so many would get out.
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Saudi Pilot Arrested for Refusing to Bomb ISIS in Syria
According to social media activists, a Saudi Air Force officer has refused orders to carry out an airstrike on Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) positions in Syria. The Saudi officer, Captain Faisal Al-Ghamdi, is said to have refused to participate in the airstrikes due to his support of the terrorist group. The news has circulated amongst pro-ISIS pages and has been referenced by their ground activists in Saudi Arabia, adding to the already turbulent relations between the terrorist group and Wahhabi-led government.
Saudi officials have yet to comment on the validity of this story; however, a picture and the soldier’s identity has been released by pro-ISIS media sources. ISIS has a strong presence in Saudi Arabia – the country’s government has financially supported rebels in Syria and Iraq to overthrow their governments. Recently, Saudi Arabia agreed to participate in the Anti-ISIS Coalition to quell the terrorist group’s presence in the region.
http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/saudi-pilot-arrested-refusing-bomb-isis-syria/
It will be interesting to see where the loyalties lie when the Gulf/Arab states start to weigh in... In my experience the Saudis are primarily interested in maintaining the Status Quo but who knows when a Caliphate is on the table. And then there is Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Lebenon...
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Good grief, this is all what I'm railing on about, the Air Force never owed anyone a trophy or an F-16 or an assignment to Germany... Oh no, a guy dropped reapers in front of a room full of his friends... Pretty sure by that point in UPT you've overcome the fear of public humiliation. What about the guy that got services out of commissioning? Give a shit about him? I certainly don't, and neither do you...And I've seen both sides of the fence and there's the ones who bitch and those who couldn't be happier, it's all perspective. There are plenty of guys who can't wait to get into that shipping container and pickle off a couple AGM-114's, I mean, that may be the best part about Clovis...
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Bitching about flying your fighter or heavy in a shit location is nothing like getting stuck in a shipping container on shift work in a shit location. I've seen both up close and the hate/discontent is not comparable.
So have I, I'm not just saying "suck it up", with no perspective on the subject.
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And yet they still execute it.
Make no mistake, Honor Killings... Female Circumcision.... These acts happen despite the social disincentive of it being illegal. Take a look at the albeit anecdotal evidence from our friends over in Europe.... the people executing these acts and this drive to change us have no give a shit whether or not you accept the idea or not. They are using our inability to confront them directly due to our overwhelming drive to be politically correct like its the way to sneak under the radar until they get their way through a growing majority. There are places in England which have de facto Sharia law... where in any level of western society is something like that ok .... not a damn place. But if you call it as you see it your to busy defending yourself from the people quick to call you out as a racist to pay any attention to the real issue... that somebody is cutting of women's who-ha parts or that they are murdering daughters for blowing a white guy in college because of some 12th century honor code.
Immigration is a fine thing, it allows a culture to not remain stagnant... but at the same time to sit around and try and defend their beliefs as a viable and compatible way of life is just a joke. These people are ignorant scum, no different than a bunch of white people who think we should burn a woman as a witch after she doesn't sink in the river quickly enough.
Yep, and now look what happened in Oklahoma, a recently converted Muslim man chopped off a coworkers head. The media is calling it a case of "workplace violence", but I'm fairly sure that he didn't remove his colleague's head because she didn't fill out her TPS reports correctly. And 2 years ago when I lived there the Oklahoma State Legislature passed an anti-sharia bill in response to the cases in the United Kingdom... The libtards were up in arms about how "culturally insensitive" and pointless it was, and now here we are, a Muslim Oklahoman cut off a woman's head in the name of Islam. And people still think it's a religion of peace?
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^ This.Same.
The "Psycological Wounds" are more likely due to not getting a Viper on assignment night or not getting a DP at their previous base.
Yep, shift work sucks.
Clovis sucks.
Got it.
Press.
This thread is the dumping ground for gripes against RPA assignments and I get that, it's valid. Every community has it's things, the viper guys bitched when they were in Clovis and breathed a sigh of relief when the BRAC gave it to AFSOC. Guys at Creech live In North Vegas and don't like the commute, guys from the Midwest don't like Hickam because they get island fever, guys that got
C-17's don't like Charleston because they wanted an Eagle....
Either the juice is worth the squeeze, or it isn't.
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END T-38
Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!
Nice, I stand corrected... Love me some Oklahoma, enjoy OKC when you get the chance
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Then what?
Airlines, Customs and Border Patrol, whatever... We'll still be here
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Well as one of them I can certainly relate...I agree with you and maybe I wasn't as clear as I could have been. I only meant to say that as a former manned pilot- turned-RPA-pilot, everyone that I work with now is just as willing and eager to do their best working 24/7 at home as I and many others worked 24/7 deployed, only now we aren't, we get to drink booze and bang it out when we get home. Again I agree, morale matters and the toll on RPA crews is as obvious to me as anyone else, but I was only comparing our community to the flying Air Force at large. All involved give very much in the flying game.
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These are first world problems, pilot problems. Nobody asks the FSS troops if they get any respect, because nobody cares. RPA crews do their jobs just like everyone else, and 'giving a damn' about them isn't really important...Herk guys don't get too ruffled when people call them 'trash haulers', and the -22 guys don't get too bothered when people call them 'Air show queens', do they? Same thing here.
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Chris was a fellow Tough 20 Troll at USAFA. Sad day for the Air Force. Here's a toast.
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This will be even more hilarious if, in the investigation, it turns out he was DONATING a pressure cooker to the USO to make food for troops while they waited for their flights.
"I said its not like I HAVE a pressure cooker!"
"you said 'pressure cooker' on an airplane..."
"pressure press press press-a pressure cooker!"
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I'm surprised Fox News hasn't said it yet (and maybe I missed someone else saying it in the previous 14 pages) but it looks a lot like Vietnam-
"...We are only going to conduct a limited engagement, but we aren't going to start an all-out war..."
"Here's an airstrike Asad! Surrender yet?"
"Ok then, here's ANOTHER airstrike!"
"Surrender yet?"
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$$$(we're just a little broke, and we like to buy expensive stuff)
I get that, but switching RPA pilots from Officers to Enlisted just to save some salary money seems like nickel & diming to me, But I'm not a finance officer. I supose they could buy another expensive toy or two with the savings.
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It happens the other way too, back in the 90's in AWACS there were enlisted weapons controllers until they decided to make the officers rated and we all know enlisted can't be rated and do the same job. So if drone pilots are rated now does that make it impossible for enlisted to be ever pilots of anything? Another point would it be better to have enlisted pilots who would stay in the job and become very proficient for a long period compared to a officer on the command career track. In a other AFSC's like air traffic controller they have officer controllers but they do the bare minimum to stay qualified due to leadership responsibilities and the enlisted do the heavy lifting so there is the model we need maybe to look at. Compared to Army Aviation the officers fly but just to stay qualified even in the AOR where the CWO's fly the majority of the missions.
I get your point, but *allegedly* they made ABM's rated officers so they would have more legal culpability after the blackhawk shoot-down in 1994, after the families of the fallen erroneously sued the wacker pilots.
I personally think the whole thing can be done by enlisted folks, but the Air Force has this paradigm of "Officers do the killing because airpower is strategic and overarching." For RPAs, I think a paradigm shift is in order.
For those discussing enlisted dudes flying RPAs. Is there a reason you believe manned aircraft should be piloted by officers or could they be piloted by enlisted as well? Just wondering what everyones thoughts are and how they draw their lines.
Honestly, this argument seems like a good case of "If it isn't broke, don't fix it". I don't think they (Big Blue) have a good reason to change the system, and I have no doubt that there are many enlisted folks who could control RPA's just fine and spend a career doing it ala army WO's, but why would they bother to create that whole new paradigm?
*edited for clarity
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For prior MWS from AMC mostly yes, or it was people who wanted out of the Air Force deployment/TDY grind. TAMI 21 guys were a mixed bag, but they are all being recalled to F-16s or white jets. That is unless they re-catted because they decided "careerism" was more important than waiting for a cockpit that may have never materialized. UPT direct guys...it depends. MOST of the T-38 guys are sharp dudes that straight up got a raw deal, and T-1/T-44 guys are a mixed bag across the spectrum. The 18A direct ascensions are solid, motivated, and eager. However, they aren't on an equal airmanship footing with UPT grads for obvious reasons. The prior officer career field 18A guys that retrained aren't anything to write home about with few exceptions.
The 18X vs. 11 argument is a double edged sword, and I agree its a mixed bag for the prior aviators. For those outside the RPA world, its important to keep in mind that the prior MWS guys bring the airmanship to the table, and in some cases real-world experience in the same mission set. But often they have trouble with flying an airplane using a system that doesn't fly like an airplane. General Atomics didn't build the consoles to be used by flyers, they built them so that they would make sense to engineers. So for a dumb yoke monkey like me, its not very intuative and does not act the way I expect it to, but at least I have the SA that a couple thousand manned hours and multiple deployments has given me. Is one better than the other? I don't know the answer to that.
you're mixing apples and oranges. The original point was that RPAs often shoot through stacks without warning lower level manned assets. I can't speak on if they had clearance or not. I guess the people who made that point would have you assume the worst.
At the schoolhouse, this is considered to be a hook-able offense, and for good reason. There are rides in the syllabus that address this issue directly, and stack deconfliction is an emphasis item in several phases of training. I guess the lesson doesn't stick for some.
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Well bro ya got the attitude I'll give ya that. To be honest there was some good to be found in Clovis, Kingswood Methodist was a good place with good peoples. The golf course on base is the nicest you'll find for a few hours drive; and in the wintertime Santa Fe ski resort is an afternoon's drive away. Hell, the 4th of July celebration was kind of cool, they actually broadcast the music that coincides with the fireworks over the local radio station, and although I never visited it there's a zoo. The guys out at United Aero (if it's still there) will hunt prarie dogs on the field to feed the animals (he's a crusty F-4 driver) but I can't remember names. At any rate congrats on the house, here's to hoping yours and mine increase in value in the coming years... Cheers bud.
Thanks, I really do appreciate it. I look at Clovis the same way I looked at Del Rio- the town isn't the best by any stretch, but if you're there with good bros and you are blessed with a woman who can at least deal with a less than ideal situation for the time being, everything is going to work out fine. I'm sure Disco_Nav963 (BLUE KNIGHTS!) would chime in and say that getting stationed in a "crappy" place isn't the end of the world if its an improvement in the career aspect, which for the two of us, for example, is.
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I'm on my way to Cannon in a couple weeks and after reading this whole thread the overarching opinion I had until the last 2 pages was that there was a lot of bitching going on by people who had either spent their whole careers at Hurby or by people who had never been there. I've never been a C-17 pilot and I'm new to AFSOC so I can't say that I've had posh assignments to coastal cities or OCONUS bases, but I've been around long enough to have been stationed in places where people bitch just the same. Finally in the last couple pages some sense started to come out instead of just "Clovis sucks, it smells like shit and the houses are too expensive" (paraphrasing). If people want to get out after their commitment, fine, I get it, I thank them for their service, but it sounds to me like Clovis/Cannon makes a convenient scapegoat. And I just bought a house there for less than the appraised value, and frankly I'm pretty excited about the whole PCS.
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Whichever way you choose, mission or location, just don't pick Charleston.
downtown living, the beach, and hot southern...
Whatever's happening down there, it sounds like a real shame because hot southern...cooking... should be enough for a single LT to be more than happy with a first assignment...
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Like the AWACers?
If you notice, thats a NATO wacker, those guys are even bigger clowns than ours are.
The closest I'll ever get to killing bad guys is if i hit them with a bundle.
Until you get creeched...
I can def. see the argument for picking on location for your first tour, because of the previously mentioned lack of control on your second one. Putting that second PCS to Hickam on a pedestal seems pretty silly if/when they send you to preds or back to Columbus/Enid/Del Rio...
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But seriously... ITS A ######ING RUNWAY!!! LAND ON IT!
All things considered, this is stil true. I heard someone say recently that hand-flying is becoming a lost art, and that's a total cop-out. It may not be the best approach or landing, but you shouldn't need a "glide path" to tell if you are in a dangerous position on a VMC day with a healthy jet.
Edit to add: Obviously this appears to be a clear case of pilot error, but shit happens in this business, condolences to the victims.
Drone Pilots: We Don’t Get No Respect
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Rmarsh