Smokin

I'd like to believe that's true, but anyone who has such a lack of mission focus as to volunteer for that train wreck probably won't truly excel at much we actually expect of them.

A recreational activity.

Turkey had repeatedly talked to Russia about their bombing of that area. The Russians are bombing the Turkey (and rest of the West) supported FSA. Reference my post a month ago about Russia being more concerned with keeping Assad in power than defeating ISIS. Two things surprise me about this. The first is that the ISIS claimed bombing of the Russian airliner didn't significantly alter Putin's objectives in Syria. The second is that the Turks had the balls to stand up to Russia bombing the Turkman groups in Syria. At least someone is doing it. A little sad and unexpected that the Western initiative in Syria is now being led by Turkey.

The available ones during each VML have always shown up on the fighter porch page, at least for Vipers anyway.

Not a real sport and I'm the larger half of a decade short of 40 and grew up during the massive expansion of video games as a kid. Sports are not the same as a hobby, pass time, recreational game, or even competition. As our society's obesity problem grows, so does the number of things we consider to be a sport. Pretty soon fantasy football is going to be an Olympic event if we continue like we are now. First google return on sports definition: "an activity involving physical exertion and skill". Yes, plenty of skill involved, but pushing buttons doesn't count as physical exertion.

A slightly non-standard one, but I have the IHG Rewards by Chase. $50/year after the first year, but you get one free night a year and 60K points. The 60K points will generally get you two to three nights free (points vary based on location and room, but 15K-30K is the range I've seen with most around 25K. So, after one year you should get at least 3 nights for $95. The other big benefit is that it automatically puts you in one of their top tiers of the hotel loyalty program. Was huge for me when I took my family to Disneyland and stayed at the Holiday Inn. We reserved the cheapest room and ended up in a huge suite. I also stayed at a Holiday Inn for a couple longer TDYs and got nicer rooms then and bonus points. $50 for three nights free plus auto-upgrade is really nice. Plus, if you can work out staying TDY at any IHG chain, your points go up quick.

Longest I've heard of recently (11F) was 9 months and it sounds like the guard squadron put some work into the justification.

Minimum weight always seems to me to be a high tech problem with a low tech solution. If it is purely a function of body weight, throw a couple pounds of sand into the already crazy getup they wear or even the seat kit. Now the total weight the rockets are lifting are the same as a heavier pilot, so same acceleration.

Bronze star for playing the keyboard. Must have been one dangerous keyboard.

Maybe I'm over-simplifying the question because it's not my life, but this really seems like a no brainier to me. Take a job on active duty that people are getting non-vol'd to do and getting out ASAP from, or take a job in the reserves that guys are competing for and often do for 30+ years.

He secured himself from conventional attack two years ago with encouraging the formation of ISIS. He intentionally helped build up the tide of ISIS because that made him the lesser of two evils to the west. The only way the west truly intervenes to kick out Assad is if the FSA once again becomes a credible threat. The Russian intervention will make sure that won't happen, so Assad will likely push back ISIS a little to regain some revenue sources and then let them stay in a perpetual stalemate. ISIS is extremely useful to Assad and he won't want to see them actually defeated.

There's also currently the early eligible and then initial eligible. Early basically means you sign the bonus before your ADSC is up and then you start getting paid once your ADSC expires. Best deal for you if you know 100% that you're in for 20. The initial eligible is the FY that your ADSC expires, which means you could be a free agent (thus not getting any extra money) between the day your ADSC expires until the bonus is released and they process your paperwork.

Apparently Minnesota is so dangerous that a family sent their kid to boarding school... in Somalia... only to be surprised that he was murdered. Don't even know where to start with that one. Story

I know this might be shocking, but most of the guys interviewing you were probably not fully compliant with the drinking age when they were in college either. I'd be surprised if this was a deal breaker.

Vipers generally have 2 (some units are getting an additional SATCOM). But to say we have two radios and therefore an extra one is not valid. You are generally assigned an Aux frequency that is your intraflight freq. Far more mid-airs with military jets have happened within a flight than with stranger traffic and I would never consider giving up my Aux freq to monitor a UNICOM, especially if I'm IFR. Vipers almost never fly single ship; I've only flown single ship once in the last year. Even single ship, being able to have the SOF know where he can reach me (on Aux as my Primary is constantly changing) is probably going to be safer than a fighter guy trying to monitor a UNICOM freq while under IFR anyway.

And this conversation may have actually taken a productive turn... A relatively open invitation to local FBOs to bring their students in once a month to over the shoulder RAPCON during a busy training day might help educate some guys a little better than the standard MACA brief the safety guy gives twice a year.

I'm constantly surprised how few people realize that fighters don't have TCAS. If it's outside my radar coverage and ATC hasn't put it on the link, the only thing I have are my Mark 1 eyeballs.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/07/27/cdc-data-says-montgomery-most-sexually-diseased-us-city-group/?intcmp=ob_homepage_health&intcmp=obnetwork Just going to point out that it is possible to have too much fun at shoeflag.

A normal remote PCS (like Korea) is different than the 365s. They can't by name shack you for a Korea if you 7-day. They legally have to run a non-vol list that ranks everyone vulnerable for and qualified for that assignment based on STRD. But if the wing gets tasked with a 179 to the Died, I'm sure a guy who just 7-day'd with 1.5 years left is going to be relatively high on the wing's list.

Might save you from the 365, but the guard is already pulling 180 day "deployments".

Sure, the lady interviewed just happened to be looking up and saw both the F-16 and the Cessna prior to impact and then witnessed the impact itself. She needs to be an air traffic controller or a JTAC with that visual ability. Amazing how news outlets just put whoever claims to know anything about an accident on TV.

Problem is that people ARE going to walk away and find another job. You can't quickly replace the experience they walk away with by hiring someone off the street, so you end up with a less capable force and more guys are going to die in wartime and training accidents. Sport bitching is one thing, highlighting issues that will hurt our ability to safely execute the mission is another. Guys are bailing on AD to the guard to get family stability and be home more. If the guard goes to a 1:3 with 180 day rotations for fighter units (180 days are already happening), that will no longer be true and more guys will straight up separate. I already know multiple fighter guys who's fini flight on AD was their no shit fini flight because they saw the guard as more of the same. A 1:2 AD dwell time sucks, but for many guys that really ends up being more like 1:3 or 1:4 after skipping deployments due to PCS's, school, etc. That doesn't happen nearly as much for part timers, so they may actually end up deploying as much or more than their AD buddies. There's also the civilian job issue. Airlines and other companies may not be able to fire guys for deploying for six months every 18, but if that military guy is a private practice doctor, lawyer, or small business owner, who is going to force their clients to come back when they return? The active duty pilot exodus has begun, but if the guard and reserve isn't careful, the same might happen on that side in a few years.

If it is even possible, it is not probable. With the mass exodus from active duty, guard units have their pick of guys leaving. Non-current guys face a bit of an uphill battle finding a unit that'll put them through a re-qual, let alone guys who have never been qualified. The last few hiring boards I've heard of have had around 10 applicants for a single job and many of those guys were current in the jet. If I were you and looking to make the jump to the guard, I'd look at every heavy or UPT type unit within a reasonable commute.

The theory also ignores the relatively high number of guys 7-daying their school assignment. I haven't seen any big AF data on it, but I know multiple guys who have 7-day'ed school over the last two years and know even more selects who are planning on it or have already applied for Palace Chase. School pretty much guarantees at least O-5 and a squadron command, so these guy's aren't worried about their career progression, yet they're still bailing.

His stint in the reserves was fairly short lived. Too busy talking to his agent to be bothered with little things like flight briefings...