ClearedHot

Well the Vipers are... Aw Dude

Well one out of three ain't bad...

Toro, You still stepped up and put your cajones on the line. Any one of those caps could have turned ugly in an instant. Give yourself a little more credit. Besides, getting shot at isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

No disrespect at all and please speak freely, just wanted to get the facts out. I am not saying that every ONW/OSW mission was like going downtown in Nam. However, there were a lot of very close calls over the years. ONW and OSW went through cycles where nothing would happen for a few months then every other sortie had AAA or a missile event. Bosnia was very ugly back in the day, lots of MANPADS for the Hawgs and Gunships. Kosovo had some ugly moments as well (scratch an F-16 and an F-117). In some ways Kosovo was more of a fight than OIF, at least the F-15C’s got some action in that one.

You’re kidding right? Light time? ONW and OSW were far from a cake walk. Nearly every mission in the container had some sort of surface to air event. You also forgot Bosnia and Kosovo. I remember some nasty moments over the Balkans that were far from “light”.

Okay I confess, it was me testing our newest version of the gunship, the Banshee.

Toro, I am not sure how the regulation reads, but my bonus was based on my UPT grad date (expiration of ADSC), not my gate months. The guys in the bonus shop used to be sharp, they could pull your records up and tell you right there. http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/acp/F1HQAFPC2F.htm Check out Part III, Section D.

I think it was the Megafortress.

If you go to Survival School, make 20 copies of your diploma and send them to different friends. Open a safe deposit box in the Cayman Islands and put three copies there. We had a LtCol in my class who went as a 2LT. They lost his records and he had to repeat the course in order to take a SQ/CC job. He was not a happy camper...

Window....No Window...

Late-Rated is of course a double-edged sword. As you stated you have the leadership experience, but you will be behind in the flight experience. It has been my experience that late-rated guys tend to do very well, not just because of the previous leadership experience, but because of maturity. My roommate from ACSC was late-rated after serving as a civil engineering officer and he managed to catch his peers and pass them. He graduated from the WIC and just made O-5 BTZ. Back in the early 1990’s I saw several Navigators and EWOs go through UPT then get banked. Which means that many of them were Co-pilots as new majors. Every one of them has since made O-5 and several are getting ready for command. While they had some basic flight experience as aviators, they still had to overcome the traditional hurdles such as upgrading to Flight Lead, Co-Pilot, IP. Bottom line, it really depends on the individual. If you are a hard worker your past experience will probably serve you well. The only danger is that leadership will want to tap your skills and have you work projects that will pull you away from building flight time. You will have to balance the increased responsibility they will no doubt give you with the desire to go fly. If you work hard it will prove to be a big plus in your career.

The first CV-22 Squadron will stand-up at Kirtland this summer, no idea when they will start flowing students. If I had to venture a complete "Guess", I would assume student production would start sometime summer 06. [ 21. February 2005, 20:31: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

Yeah it must be fun to carry their bags and sit around waiting for them to get back to the jet, while you sit there in your blues. Then they try to kill you by taking a turn in the seat for an approach. I have a few friends who have flown in the 89th and for the most part they enjoy it. The part they don't enjoy is flying the political appointee punks who graduated from an Ivy League school, treat the military like crap, and think they know how to fix every problem in the world.

Here is the company that makes the higher end GPS guided telescopes. Celestron Telescopes

Not a space geek but I have a good friend who is really into telescopes. I think the key question is how much do you want to spend? The telescope he has goes for $1500-$2000. It has a GPS system, so you can take it to a dark spot out in the country and it will align itself with GPS and star shots. Once aligned it has a control panel that you can tpye in codes so it will automatically reposition and point at objects it has in it's database. He brought it to a party last year and we were able to clearly see the rings of Saturn. I know there are others like his that go for a bit less. If you want more info PM me and I will get the brand and model number from him.

Do you have a paper ticket or written contract?

If you want to read a great book about heroism and dedication in Vietnam try "Into the Mouth of the Cat". This book is the story of Lance Sijan, USAF Medal of Honor winner.

[ 02. February 2005, 21:18: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

Is this the diagram? He looks defensive to me. [ 02. February 2005, 21:17: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

They might try a pay back for Abu Graid and hook him up with "Ken".

Another Friday afternoon at Laughlin back in 1991. I taxi out to the hammerhead and finish up my before tafeoff checklist. As I pull up to the hold short line, I look to the north and see a T-38 very low on the horizon. I watch him for a few moments and he seems to be sinking even lower. About the time I am thinking he is not going to make the runway, I hear the radio click in, "Overrun 13 center go around". No response and the T-38 continues to drive in scraping across the tumbleweed. Again the radio comes to life, "OVERRUN 13 CENTER GO AROUND, USE BURNERS, LARIAT ON GUARD". I am now mesmerized as I watch the T-38 touchdown about 500 feet short of the runway with the burners cooking and rocks flying everywhere. He stumbles back into the air and pulls closed to a full stop on the outside. I take the runway and fly my sortie uneventfully. A couple hours later I pull into the parking lot of the dorms. I lived on the second floor and as I walk up the building I see my buddy who is a few classes behind me and lives in the room next door. He is leaning on the rail with a big frown on his face. I walked up, opened my door, grabbed a few beers, and tried to cheer him up. I told him it could be worse, “you should have seen the poor guy I saw today, he planted one in the overrun and it was funny as hell”. He looked at me and his face turned red. I didn’t know if he was going to laugh or attack me. We had a good chuckle and I took him to the club where we drank beer until the little oriental woman behind told us to get the F^%k out and go get some sleep. [ 01. February 2005, 13:11: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

Viewed from directly overhead and heard on RSU Freq at Laughlin just before my best friend took the barrier at 150kts in a T-38 with an engine stuck at MIL and his thumb holding down the mic button. "S @ # T !!!!!!!!, a few seconds of loud noise...man that sucked, click."

A guy in my UPT class (Scott Anderson), wrote a book about UPT, RTU, and flying in the Guard. The book is called "Unknown Rider" and you can find it on Amazon.com for $6.00. Scott's first book "Distant Fires" is another great read. Unfortunately, Scott was killed in a crash in 1999.

Aces-High as far as I am concerned, they should make an IMAX tanker movie. I will never say another word after they way the 135's helped me in OEF. Came into indian country and did a tobagan all the way down to 2000 AGL to help me cover a crash site and recovery. Be proud of what you do.

I know professional reading is not always a popular subject so I almost never mention it on here. I do think it is a responsibility if you are going to make the USAF a career. I had a great boss early on who would actually assign the Lts a book each month then take us all to breakfast to talk about it. We all would grumble and complain but the books were not that bad. Some of the books were on leadership but most of it was about airpower and stories from guys who flew in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. I actually learned a lot in spite of myself. Now I am a bit older and the lessons are starting to make sense. I am not the greatest leader in the world but I have been in a position to influence decisions and tactics so I am glad I have a foundation to base my inputs on. As I have said before I am currently on an exchange tour with the USMC attending a school called the School of Advanced Warfighting (SAW). The USAF has a similar school called the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS). These are both strategic level schools that focus on campaign design and the reading load is immense. I typically read a book a day, usually around 1500 pages a week. And I thought going through Weapons School was tough…It can be tiring at times, and I am thankful it is only for a year, but it has changed the way I think. If you are really interested in learning about how we fight, why we fight, and how to solve problems, I suggest you take a look at one of these schools. My personal opinion is that anyone who is going to be a flight commander, DO, or CC should have done some basic reading on leadership. I am not talking about the freaking L model or whatever it was they taught us at SOS and ACSC, I mean something like Churchill’s Biography, or Robbie Risner’s book. Interesting books that will give you tools to be a leader and avoid stupid mistakes. Ultimately your job will be to take care of people. I have had great bosses that I would have followed anywhere. I have had knuckleheads including one who called me off my Honeymoon to go to a F@#$ing Blue Flag, both taught me the type of leader I want to be and the type of leader I want to avoid. Okay, off the soapbox, back to talking about flying and drinking beer in Austin.