Gravedigger

3

Ahh, the Land of Entrapment.

Not nearly as good as many of these, but my puking story occurred during my instrument check ride. I felt sick going into my check ride, but given how long it took me to get scheduled, there was no way I was going to cancel. It was a wonderful summer day in Georgia, and the plane was miserably hot. After flying unusual attitudes, ILS, and NDB hold/approach, I was getting extremely uncomfortable. I removed the foggles, and we were heading back to the home airport for a final approach when I felt I could no longer hold it. I asked the examiner if vomiting would cause me to fail the check ride. He replied that as long as I maintained control of the aircraft, it didn't matter what else I did. So I grabbed my flight bag, dumped out approach plates and puked for a good five minutes holding the bag in one hand and yoke in the other. After puking, I felt much better, and finished the check ride strong. I threw the flight bag in the trash washed my hands and flew back to my home base and acted like nothing happened.

No, that sounds like what the squadron/group/wing secretaries do. If your units have used execs solely to perform secretarial work, that's a shame. Not the point, but I'll bite. I'm also fairly confident we're talking about different things, but the common ground is leading a group of Airmen conducting ops that directly contribute to national security and saving lives. If you think that only happens in the flying world, you're mistaken. Our mission commanders lead crews of young Airmen operating multi-billion dollar satellite constellations that the DoD, President, and entire world depend on. Do you know what would happen if we lost GPS, even for a minute? How many other Air Force missions do billions of people depend on every day? I don't think leading a crew from the safety of an ops floor in Colorado is the same as being a flight lead, especially in combat, but it's not any less important.

I know this sounds crazy, but for me the ops stuff was the easy part. You go through a ton of training and spend a lot of time studying and doing your primary job as an Lt, with very little else to worry about. So, while being a mission commander was definitely the most fun leadership job I had, it didn't really teach me much I hadn't seen before. The exec job was the exact opposite. It was totally foreign and unnatural to me, and that is what made it so challenging and rewarding in the end. I don't think being an exec makes me or anyone else better than anyone, it is just a different perspective than most CGOs get to experience, which can be very beneficial moving forward.

I was an OG exec. It was a shit ton of work, but I gained more "leadership" experience from that job than from any other job I've had. Giving direct feedback to squadron commanders as a Captain can be a challenging leadership experience. It's also interesting to see how decisions are made and implemented at all levels. My former boss is now a GO, so that doesn't hurt either. I don't know how other organizations work, but I've never seen an exec picked for secretarial experience. In my experience, squadrons typically nominate quality people for execdom. I know that's not the case everywhere, but damn people sure are cynical about execs around here.

3. I've always been a big fan of Wes Anderson. Rushmore, Moonrise Kingdom, Darjeeling Limited, Royal Tanenbaums, you really can't go wrong. Well, Life Aquatic was pretty strange, but still not bad.

He cost them a new Space Command Center?! Oh man, what an asshole.

Some good points being made here. I fully support separating promotions by career field. It really wouldn't be difficult for the Air Force to allocate school/promotion slots to AFSCs based on current and projected manning. Then, you could have MLR-type boards for each AFSC. Bring the senior O-6/O-7 types together for a few days and have them provide their selection list to HAF. As mentioned before, this would allow each community to promote based on what they value and OPRs could actually be written to capture career-field specific achievement. In the developmental engineer world, acquisitions classes and AADs would be discriminators; things that are (should be) irrelevant to flyers. Instructor/evaluator/upgrades don't even really exist outside of ops, but are very important in demonstrating ability and potential. I think it needs to be by AFSC, because even within ops, the Air Force operates in three distinct domains that really don't align at all. Space ops is as different from air ops as it is naval or land ops. Same with cyber, SOF, etc. The Navy construct wouldn't work because of how diverse our ops community is.

For those of us in the space ops world, the memories of flightsuits are still fresh. Though I completely supported space folks switching to ABUs, I still miss what was the best "uniform" I've ever worn. First, the myriad patch options significantly boosted morale; the distinctive unit nametags and morale patches that straddled good order and discipline just make it a fun uniform. Second, the number of pockets, all in the best locations, is something the ABU will never come close to. Why yes, I do have a pocket just for my coin and chapstick. Third, white socks. Fourth, easy access. Fifth, Velcro straps are ideally suited for the consumption of large meals and large quantities of beverage. Sixth, the flight cap is a superior cover for wearing shades. The one down-side of the flightsuit is that the material was specially designed with one way flow properties that allow no heat to escape in the summer, and frigid air/wind to penetrate in the winter. Basically what I am saying is that people realize just how much better the flightsuit is than their uniform, and that can be tough. But at the end of the day, if you want to wear a flightsuit, do a job that wears flightsuits. If you want to grow a beard and wear Merrells, sign up for special forces. If your uniform is ABUs, STFU and wear your ABUs.

Word of mouth is the best way to attract/lose customers/employees as well. Personal recommendations from clients are worth millions in advertising. The way current Airmen convey their service in the Air Force to the outside world directly impacts the composition of the Air Force going forward. If we project a shitty product, the quality of our Airmen will fall. The smart ones will choose to do something else, because they can.

I prefer to use H&R Block. If you go through military one source, it's free and includes up to 3 state returns, not just federal like other free programs. I've also tried TurboTax, TaxACT, and Tax Slayer, and I think the interface and setup of H&R Block is the most user friendly.

Login is not blocked on Army or other agency networks, so it's Air Force level or below.

If it flies, floats, or fornicates, it's cheaper to rent than own.

The other option is buying cash re-load cards and transferring that money to an Amex Bluebird card (which is free). You only have to pay the fee for the re-load card ($3.50-$7), there is no fee to transfer the funds to your Bluebird, and you can load it online, and pay your credit card bill with it. Why? Because Wal-Mart sucks.

United States of Space? That's got a nice ring to it. No, we rented it; took 6 hours to download. Thanks SniperHill!

So, we were instructed to remove our ISAF patches today. RS patches exist, but only the folks in Kabul have them so far. I guess it's really real now...my ISAF patch is gone. As far as the totality of the mission in Afghanistan, I don't think you can necessarily call it a success or a failure. It's far too complex a topic to have such a black and white answer. There are portions of this campaign that were failures; there were also successes. Each person takes with them a different experience in Afghanistan. Some Soldiers and Marines saw brothers and sisters die to take control of a village, and by the end of their tours, they were openly patrolling and boys and girls in those villages had returned to school. The vast majority of Afghans believe their lives to be better now than prior to OEF. You would have to call those instances, however small, and probably even temporary successes. There were a number of building projects and reconstruction plans that were a complete waste; I'd call those failures. There are still major networks of insurgents in this country; I'd call that the nature of occupation vs. ideology. Was the loss of life of service members worth it? To their family and friends, probably not. To the Afghan people they died for, absolutely. I don't want to ever see America involved in another war like OEF, but at the same time, I don't think OEF was a failure.

I read the book, so I hope Unbroken makes it out here to AFG soon-ish. I'm glad you guys liked it; I was worried it wouldn't do the story justice. We downloaded The Interview on Christmas, and laughed for most of the movie. It was much better than I expected.

Here's what I do, I find a card with a great deal (like $400 or $500 for spending $3,000 in 3 months) and I use that card exclusively until I reach the target dollar amount. Once I reach the target dollar amount, I cash out my benefits and move on to the next card, or go back to my go-to daily use cards like Chase Sapphire preferred or Chase Freedom if there aren't any good deals running. If I am buying plane tickets to Thailand or making big purchases, it might take me a month to hit the dollar amount, if I am not making big purchases, it might take me the full 3 months. If I am taking a trip where I want to use up the free airline credits on my Amex cards, I will bring those cards with me and buy seat upgrades or drinks or movies or whatever just to use those benefits. For the Amex platinum, I might use it on two or three trips before I hit the $200 airline credit limit. Either way, the refunds post before the bill is due, so I pay it as soon as the refunds post, then put the card in the drawer until the next year. At no point have I ever carried a balance on any card, because I don't want to ever pay a cent of interest. I have also never paid an annual fee, they are either waived for military every year, or I get the first year for free, then drop the card down to the non-annual fee version at the end of the year. This might all sound like a lot of work, but you can easily manage all of it on your iPhone while taking a dump.

Champ, I think you make great points, and I fully support any financial system that works for people. My critique in general is the idea that there is only one way to be successful financially. I would not participate in Black Friday, no matter how good the deal, because I would be absolutely miserable. Others get enjoyment out of the experience, and the deal is a bonus. That's sort of like credit cards and loans to me. I find the process of playing the credit game enjoyable, and my time spent doing it (sts), is worth it for what I get in return. I recognize for a lot of people it is not at all worth the hassle, and that's fine. I have friends that spend several hours a week buying cash reload cards at drug stores to maximize points on every card they have, and calculating the reward vs. cost of the cash card on massive excel spreadsheets. That's a bit much for me. If it takes me 10 minutes to find and apply for a card that will give me $400 for purchases I was already making, that's totally worth it to me. Right now, there are 3 such cards out there, in case you're interested.

The vast majority of consumers are not smart when making big purchases. That's how companies make money. I do quite a lot of research prior to making big purchases to ensure I get the best deal possible. When I bought my car, I found every possible rebate and credit offered by the manufacturer and dealership prior to going in, and I bought a new car at the very end of the model year. I ending up paying $7,000 less than MSRP with 0% financing. I got a grand for military discount, 3 grand for promotional credit from the manufacturer, 2 grand in dealer credits, and 1 grand in multi-car discount for buying a second car from the same dealer. I also got blue book value on my trade in. 95% of the time, companies still find a way to get their piece of the pie, but that 5% is out there where they are just looking to make the sale to reduce inventory, bump sales stats, etc. You can be that 5% with a little bit of research and planning. I'd also recommend reading the book Bargaining for Advantage.

Dear God you guys sure are skeptical of the benefits of good credit. Yes, banks do give 0% financing to people with good credit, it happens all the time, and there are no financing fees involved. I could have bought my motorclye easily with cash, but only a Dave Ramsey follower would pay cash when a 0% loan is available. It looks like Suzuki (GE Capital) is still doing 0%, and I bought my bike 3 years ago: http://www.suzukicycles.com/offer.aspx Here are some current 0% auto loans: http://best-car-deals.buyerreports.org/0-apr-car-loan-deals I am not posting shit about credit cards for affirmation; my setup works really well for me, so I'm not changing it. When I commissioned I had a debit card, and that was it. It wasn't until I met some financially-smart Captains that showed me how to work this game in my favor, and I have been collecting on it for years. I don't get a commission or bonus from signing people up, but I do like to help others realize the potential out there to get free shit for doing nothing special. That is the American way, after all. Pay cash for shit, use debit cards, buy a used Honda Accord...I really don't give a shit what people want to do with their money. Just don't think that's the only game in town.

I don't doubt that's what they say. I use USAA Credit Check monitoring and also access my credit score via BarclayCard and AMEX, I have only seen my score rise by adding cards, I've never seen it fall. Maybe I'm an anomaly in the system, or maybe like you said it's only a small factor (10%), and the term "too many" is extremely vague. There are ways to purchase points and rewards by purchasing reloadable cash cards, like Vanilla, with your credit cards, transferring those reloadable cards to an AMEX Bluebird card and then paying the credit card bill with the Bluebird. That's a different level of point scheming, and takes time and effort. You can make thousands of dollars a year this way; there are tons of blogs about it if you're interested. My message is simply that you can make a good deal of money and get a lot of perks from credit cards, and it's pretty easy to do. You're going to spend the money anyway, why not let these banks pay you to do it?

Jughead, that is actually a common misconception, and closing credit cards is about the worst thing you can do aside from having a balance. Having open credit cards with no balance increases your credit to debt ratio, which in turn increases your credit score. My auto loan was 0% (US Bank), motorcycle loan was 0% (GE Capital), and mortgage was 3.4% (NBOKC). There are plenty of credit card advice websites out there, and there are plenty of people with 50+ credit cards and perfect credit.

I check creditcards.com about once a month to look for good deals. My current lineup: Chase Sapphire Preferred - Daily use card plus the 40,000 bonus points for signing up and spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. (First year no annual fee) AMEX Platinum - Use it for the perks, not for domestic purchases (Priority Pass Select, Global Entry, SPG Gold, $200 airline credit, no foreign transaction fee, etc). Annual fee waived for 4 years now Barclay Card Arrival Plus - Used it for the 40,000 bonus points at signup, plus 10% back in points when redeeming. Dropped to regular arrival with no annual fee after 1 year. First year no annual fee Capital One Visa Signature - Used it for 40,000 bonus points at signup, dropped to regular after one year for no annual fee. Citi Dividend, Capital One Quicksilver, and Bank Americard - Used them for the $100 free dollars for signing up, and now just let them sit. Chase Freedom - Just a good card to have, and Chase points are better than any other points. Amex Blue Sky Preferred - Use it for the $100 annual airline fee reimbursement on top of the $200 reimbursement from the Platinum. Annual fee waived for 4 years now. Plus store credit cards when the deal is good. (Macys, Pottery Barn, Target, Kohls, Home Depot, etc.) I have never paid one cent in interest or carried a balance on any card, and in the last 5 years I've made about $8,000 in cash back, travel and rewards. I track my cards and rewards on a spreadsheet to ensure I never end up paying an annual fee.