Smokin

Disagree. I've never met Pres Trump, but based on what I have seen of him I don't think I would like him personally. But I agree with enough of his politics that I would campaign for him if I somehow had a reputation that would help his campaign. Being a good person and being a good politician are unfortunately two different things these days.

McCain was not well liked. As mentioned, the fact that his fellow POWs would not talk to him should tell you everything you need to know.

Skeptic is better and I don't think it is pedantic. I think "denier" was very carefully and intentionally chosen. The chart posted shows a correlation, but not causation, and is actual evidence against your thesis that man is the cause of global cooling/warming/climate change/whatever-it-is-this-week-so-that-we're-not-wrong. If man were the chief cause of global climate change, it shouldn't have changed much before our industrial revolution. My point with the scientific method is simply that climate change cannot be truly tested and that virtually all predictions have been wrong. If I come up with a hypothesis , make a prediction, and that prediction does not come to pass, I have to re-evaluate either my data, methods, or my entire theory. Instead, climate scientists make predictions, are proven wrong, and then pretend their prediction never happened or just push the dates a couple years down the road. Yet they still want to cripple our economy and lifestyle to 'fix the problem'. IF climate change is primarily man-made, which I'm not convinced, then technology advances got us into this problem and technology advances will get us out. The way we advance is to continue a robust economy. Look at England prior to electricity. Moths were changing color because there was so much coal soot in the air. It was an environmental nightmare. Was it fixed by governmental regulations that you can't use your coal fired pot belly stove to cook and heat your house? No, it was fixed by electricity not governmental regulations. Like beer, a free capitalistic economy advancing technology is the cause of (if you are correct), and the solution to, our problems. On a related note, correlation is not causation: https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

"Deny" is a loaded term in political arguments as often when it is used, it is used in the same context as Holocaust Deniers, thus giving the moral upper hand to the party that places the label. It is an irresponsible term to use for this reason as well as to say that I am "denying" something also implies that it has been proven. People who make a positive claim in an argument are the ones responsible for proving it. If I say Bigfoot exists and you say he doesn't, it is not your responsibility in the argument to search every square inch of the planet to prove he doesn't exist. It's my responsibility to prove he exists. As has been said above, the best possible argument is a loose correlation. Instead, people who believe humans are the cause assume that it is true based on the "science" when it is absolutely not science. The scientific method is the heart of science and it is impossible to apply to global warming. Additionally, every attempt to apply just a part of the scientific method by making predictions based on observations has failed every time. Remember Al Gore after Katrina when he said that Katrina was the start of a huge wave of super storms that will destroy our coasts over the next decade? The next decade had almost no significant hurricanes in the US. Same with professional scientists predicting the disappearance of glaciers in Glacier National Park. There were signs in the park predicting the disappearance of the glaciers by 2020. Those signs were quietly taken down last year and the glaciers are still there. This isn't science, this is politics pretending to be science.

For a sub-compact, the mini-tuck would also work. I have the supertuck for my Springfield XD and just got the Reckoning for my XDS. Not sure what to think about the Reckoning quite yet, I may end up swapping it out for the mini-tuck as the supertuck I have is great. The Supertuck distributes the weight well and is as comfortable as is reasonable for a holster. Spend the extra on the horsehide if it's available. I wear at 5:00 so the end of the grip ends up directly behind my spine; find my shirt catches and prints the least there.

It was a computer program running a computer program vs a pilot running a computer program. The results are so predictable a 5 year old could have told you who would win. Simulators are not real airplanes. The AI would not have the data in an airplane it had in the sim; perfect performance modeling of both jets, perfect data on adv airspeed, alt, g, distance, heading, AA, etc. Probably even knew exactly what flight control inputs the pilot was making before they would have been apparent visually. A laser and a camera doesn't get you that data. The entire thing was done with the stated purpose to give confidence in a drone wingman for future fighter pilots. A cagematch in a sim does not do that, so the stated objective was not possible to meet. The entire thing smacked of purely a publicity stunt.

Having been stationed both in Europe and Asia, I would have to completely disagree from the point of view of the people being stationed overseas that Asia would be better. For national security, maybe, although Russia isn't the Russia Hillary would have had you believe with the reset button. And if the Korean War heats up again, the last thing we need is more people there to get slimed on day 1.

I don't have numbers to back it up, but just by my experience we have a record low 90 day lookback overall for fighters combined with a record low total experience. That in and of itself is something to be very concerned about. Even the first assignment guy who deployed twice and may have 800 hours, how many sorties does that equal for him when half that time was spent in a in a CAP or a wheel? Deployed experience is good for a pilot, but one deployed 6 hr sortie doesn't always replace the 4 sorties the same hours would represent, especially if that sortie was 6 hours of turning while doing very little. Then take the average first assignment dude who probably has less than 200 hours (or the brand new guy who just showed up from the B-course with all of 69 hours) and fly him at half the RAP rate for a couple months due to this near standdown for COVID while many of the experienced IPs have jumped ship and you have a recipe for disaster.

We have lost a lot of fighters in a couple months. The trend alone should give all pilots a serious self-examination as to how ready you are for the next flight regardless of the cause of the mishaps. I'm sure some safety guys could pull some data, but I can't remember a worse 4-5 month period in my career. A correlation of mishaps with the speeding up of the pipeline would be worth looking at as well. Prayers for this pilot's family and friends.

Go guard.

torqued hit on my concern of long term implications of all this anti-police riots. The number of people who are interested in joining the police force right now has to be virtually disappearing. That means the police force is going to have a drastically reduced applicant pool, which is going to decrease the average quality of the individuals hired, which is only going to increase incidents like this. I also wonder if some of these current incidents like Minneapolis and Atlanta are a product of this same decreased pool following the Ferguson riots. If you hire people who otherwise would only be able to get a minimum wage job, and then give them authority and a gun, you're going to have big problems. I'm not talking about most cops right now, but if the nation continues on the current path, this is what we're going to end up with.

Email this afternoon from NGB today, blatantly political. Threw the current Floyd issue in with Trayvon Martin (jury found the man that killed him not guilty in case people forgot). Not only blatantly political but also threw out the standards of justice in America by assuming that all the victims he listed were actual victims. Floyd jury hasn't even been called yet, but, reading between the lines, 'the cops are obviously guilty of racism driven murder'. There is a difference between sympathy to an alleged victim's families and community and ignoring the world's best justice system in the name of .... justice.

USAFA - Don't care where he went to school (40 years ago!) as long as it wasn't a diploma mill. Fired from American- Don't care, obviously United saw something different in him. Card counting - that's a plus in my book. Run in with a union? Any good executive in charge of a for profit company that has a union will have run-ins. If he doesn't, then he's probably not doing his job. His job is to make the company money, unions make the pilots money/QOL. Conflict is inevitable. Hasn't been in charge long enough to judge how he's going to do as CEO, but I haven't heard anything yet to merit your take.

No, I'm talking about all formation landing mishaps. And yes, we have been LUCKY to have not had more fatalities. How about the F-16 formation landing at Kunsan where #1 ended up in literally stuck in the fence? Couldn't get out of the jet because the fence went over the canopy. Stuck in a crashed jet with over a thousand pounds of fuel sitting a couple feet behind him. Did skill keep that jet from catching fire and burning that pilot to death? No, it was either God or luck. I work hard to be the best pilot possible. But I also know that I have been lucky. I've made mistakes that could have or even should have gotten me killed. I've had 3 high speed close passes inside 500' in my career, two of them I maneuvered the jet to avoid the mid-air. The third one was plain dumb luck to have not hit and almost identical to a mishap that happened a few years later and killed one of the pilots. I learn from the mistakes and do my best to not repeat them. Doesn't mean that I'm a better pilot than other guys who weren't so lucky making the same mistake. The fact that more people haven't died from something is not a reason to charge ahead like the risk doesn't exist. Again, the argument is as simple as looking at where the majority of Class As happen in fighter type aircraft. If I recall some of the the previous safety briefs correctly, if you combined takeoff/landing phase with midairs, I think you have close to, if not over, 50%. Why combine two of the greatest risks for so trivial of a benefit?

I think we've been lucky that this is only the first fatality on formation landings in recent memory. I stress recent memory, because I have zero doubt that there have been many in the past but our memories are short. However, this is at least the third serious mishap (I think all class A's) during a formation takeoff or landing that I can think of off the top of my nugget during my career. And I'm not a safety guy and don't pay particularly close attention to incidents during types/phases of flight that I don't do (like formation takeoffs/landings) so I'd be surprised if there were not others. I understand your point (at least I think I do) that we need to train military pilots and formation takeoffs and landings are a difficult challenge to master. The fact that the specific challenge doesn't necessarily translate to the CAF isn't relevant and I agree. I remember drawing the fuel system diagram during a T-37 ground eval. I couldn't even pretend to draw a fuel system diagram of the F-16. Also, that T-37 diagram was complete BS and I bet only had a vague similarity to how the fuel system actually looks. But, if you can't memorize a diagram and regurgitate it, you're probably going to have a hard time memorizing other stuff that you need to know by heart. However, as I said earlier, the majority of fighter incidents happen on takeoff/landing phase or in close proximity to another jet. The CAF doesn't require a formation takeoff/landing skill set, so we are teaching UPT students a useless skill set (just like drawing a pretend fuel system). If we are testing their ability to learn and execute a skill set, why not test them on one that won't get them and their IP killed if they mess it up? Fighter pilots occasionally die practicing BFM. BFM is a vital skill-set that you can't exchange for a safer one. It seriously sucks to lose lives, but that's an extremely unfortunate yet unavoidable part of our business. Formation takeoffs and landings is the exact opposite of vital, so why lose lives for it?

Don't think I ever once wrote no sids/no stars on a 175. Just assumed it was standard knowledge in ATC that we would never accept one. Until one day bringing a jet back cross country, clearance was "xwy69 SID." I responded with a very purposefully jacked up read-back including "..umm... SID?" Controller asked if I had a copy, umm,... no. He started to read me the SID, then wisely changed his mind and said "on departure, turn right 090, climb and maintain 10K". That read-back was flawless. I think they got the picture.

Shack. Not once has anyone ever given a convincing argument for the need to do a form landing or takeoff that could possibly justify the increased risk. Given that a significant percentage of fighter accidents happen at takeoff or landing and another significant percentage involve mid-airs, why combine the two risks? I've brought guys back to land who had significant issues at night in the weather, but I dropped them off in the flare. That is nothing more than flying fingertip.

I'd think a high angle strafe type attack would be fairly effective and safe if it were really gun only. Get high, stay high, and attack out of the sun. You can't shoot what you can't find.

Look at the separation reg, forget the name of it since haven't looked at it since I punched. But, if it hasn't changed in the last few years, "normal" separation timeline is between 180 and 365 days. If that works, simple as filling out the form online. Took me about 10 min if I recall correctly. To leave in less than 180 days, took OG/CC level approval, so depends on the climate of your group/wing. I think it'd be pretty tough to get less than 90 days, but if you keep a healthy leave balance, terminal leave could probably get you there. For reference, from when I got my airline offer until my class date was 5 weeks and that was crazy quick. By the time they sent me my paperwork on what all I needed to do, I was already multiple weeks behind for turning stuff in. I think more normal timeline is 60 or more days from offer to class date. So, if you keep a leave balance of roughly 60 days (max use or lose is 120 now for covid), and your OG or equivalent isn't a tool, you should be able to separate fairly comfortably in 120 days. That being said, don't be the guy that puts down an availability date that you're not sure you can make. Probably worth having the conversation with your commander to make sure he'll back you with for a quick exit once the airlines start hiring again. If you're not willing to show your cards, save up the leave and put your avail at six months notice.

One word of caution from a guy who got a full ride ROTC scholarship out of high school for a liberal arts degree; you might think twice about putting all your eggs in the pilot basket. It worked out great for me and I wouldn't change a thing. Been flying fighters for 15 years now and not once have I wished I'd done a technical degree. But if I'd had a medical issue, I'm not sure what I would have done for a living with my degree other than a career in the AF as intel or become a professor. I'm sure some contractor gigs could have opened up, but looking back I basically put my entire life's income on red. As I said, worked out great for me, but YMMV.

Here's some more info from a trusted source. https://www.esgr.mil/USERRA/Frequently-Asked-Questions Specifically interesting in this case for you would be the documents required upon return: DD214 - Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty; Copy of duty orders prepared by the facility where the orders were fulfilled and carrying an endorsement indicating completion of the described service; Letter from the commanding officer of a Personnel Support Activity or someone of comparable authority; Certificate of completion from military training school; Discharge certificate showing character of service; Copy of extracts from payroll documents showing periods of service. ------------ This means you don't actually have to give them any information that would show you never left active duty. You could simply get an MFR from your new commander or the commander of the MPF at your new base stating your service time. You also only need to date the letter starting at or slightly before the day that they would call you back. Given the current environment, I'm assuming that will be after your current no-kidding retirement date. Similarly, your requal school orders and then PCS orders would also suffice and also likely be past the date you would have otherwise retired. Thus there is no way for them to know you never had a break in service since that seems to be a hang up for them, even though that is never mentioned in the law.

Completely agree with HuggyU2. Your employer is full of it. The part I quoted specifically mentions "Active Duty". You would be fully within your rights to drop long term mil leave. That being said, I would follow HuggyU2's advice and talk to a USERRA lawyer first just to make completely sure only because if your employer disagrees, you may need to take legal action afterwards.

Forgot to add, I would probably go back if I were you. If you enjoyed AD for the most part and are willing to go back, that would be the financially smart thing to do. You have your line number, so assuming the airline doesn't go under, you can return at year 3 or 4 pay which is way better than year 1 pay. You'll also keep all the non-rev benefits and such in the meantime. To me, this is not only the smart thing for you, but also helps your fellow classmates. One less pilot on the active payroll is one pilot closer to not having to furlough guys who don't have another career they could go back to.

The entire statute is fairly short. If you are an airline guy and have relied on WOMs, just read it. It'll take you 10 min tops and you won't get bad gouge from a guy who heard it from a guy. https://www.justice.gov/crt-military/userra-statute One notable highlight on USERRA for this case; it says nothing about a break in service: The term 'service in the uniformed services' means the performance of duty on a voluntary or involuntary basis in a uniformed service under competent authority and includes: active duty, active duty for training, initial active duty for training, inactive duty training, full-time National Guard, a period for which a person is absent from a position of employment for the purpose of an examination to determine the fitness of the employment for the purpose of performing funeral honors duty as authorized by section 12503 of title 10 or section 115 of title 32.

Have you tried surgery? The waiver for return to fly post sinus surgery was fairly quick. I was DNIF for roughly two months from surgery to waiver approved. Have had WAY less sinus issues since and that was almost 10 years ago.