Wing Sweep

Hook, line and sinker. My discussion on this matter is as follows: Discalimer: This probably won't apply to anyone who reads this forum frequently, but in case you're a commie, yellow-belly bastard, this Bud's for you. Enjoy! If you're not a commie bastard, I think you still might find this post amusing at the very least. WTFO! Why is everything getting so freaking PC. Kind of goes along the same lines as the pigskin boot debate. Give me a freaking break! The AF brass needs to get a spine, stand up straight, and quit worrying about possibly insulting, offending or embarrasing someone. So what if we offend a few people. Big freaking deal. AF brass, you will always offend someone! Quit trying to make everyone happy! People who get offended so easily can leave my AF. If you happen to be reading this and you're one of these spineless, touchy feely, yellow belly, pu$$!@s, toughen up or go work at an internet company in San Fran. While you're at it, get a state funded sex change so your body parts are more in line your personality and train of thought. I hope I have offended if you: 1. Don't like pigskin boots 2. Don't like evangelicals (see #6 for further explanation) 3. Think we aren't sensitive enough to people's needs in the AF 4. Believe that sex changes should be govt sponsored. 5. Think I shouldn't pray and say the name of the God I'm praying to 6.Think I can't have a Bible on my desk. (I bet if it was a freaking Koran you woudln't say a thing because you'd be afraid of offending me by asking me to remove it, right? But, since the Bible is a Christian book, you think you can go complain to the IG that I'm trying to convert you.) 7.Believe in the seperation of church and state 8.Believe that communism should be another form of accepted polital thought. 9.Think that Iraq wasn't worth going into and taking out Hussein. I hope I haven't pissed off the whole world, but this is just how I feel about all this PC stuff. Just when you think the AF has peaked at its highest levels of being PC, they throw something new at us. I remember as an Airman getting smacked in the back of the head, getting yelled at, being threatened by a SNCO that he would kick my ass if I ever crossed him the wrong way or disrespected him, and getting a good old fashioned ass chewing (from a Major) for something I absolutely knew nothing about. That kind of stuff builds character and maybe we could use some more of that in our AF. Food for thought.... [ 29. August 2005, 16:41: Message edited by: gabe2surf ]

Do these assignments come out of the T-1 or T-44 (or both) side of the house? Sounds like a pretty good deal. Anyone ever served on one of these tours before? Please PM with any details you can share. Thanks.

I guess my question is, does it push one's body down so it feels like one's body is compressing into one's own a$$ or does it feel like it's pushing you into the backrest part of your seat so that you and your seatback become one?

I'm curious to hear from those who experience high G's on a daily/weekly basis. My question is, does it feel like high G's are pushing you into the back of the seat, more of a downward force or a combo of both. I figure at high G's one can really appreciate which direction the G's are pulling/pushing you. Thanks.

Two different worlds. Administrative ownership - HCs and MCs = AFSOC. Operational ownership - HCs = Big Blue - MCs = SOCOM Very different missions and cultures. HCs are 100% dedicated to CSAR. MCs are not. "That's all I have to say about that" (using my best Forrest Gump impression).

160th fly by. I took the pic from the ramp of my plane and zoomed it in as close as I could. One of only a handful of times I flew in the daytime other than at the schoolhouse. It was wierd seeing colors other than green when you fly. [ 02. August 2005, 16:42: Message edited by: gabe2surf ]

OEF sightseeing in JATWISH, but not where you would think. That's one malnourished camel. They all looked like that.

More OIF

OIF Pic

You hit the nail on the head Rainman. When OEF kicked off, we were HANDS ON with the guys we were infil/exfiling, dropping, resupplying, dropping bombs and big bullets for (this one's for you), etc... It was bare bones bases were the "Brown Saunas" were a luxury and good food meant a spaghetti MRE. We'd show up to a base and start from scratch. There was no nice sinks and good water pressure, so shaving was optional. There was no MWR tent, so we made our own fun. There was no barber shops, so we let our fros get wild and nasty. There was no tent inspections, so we... wait a minute we were sleeping in the hangars and had pet owls, rats, bugs, etc... Yeah, quality of life sucked, but it was a simple life. We'd eat, sleep, fly, eat, sleep, fly, eat, sleep, fly. Didn't know what day it was and didn't care. It was either a fly day, no fly day or alert. Centralized control, decentralized execution was the name of the game and it worked! Yeah, it had its quirks like anything else, but overall it worked. Then along came the super-duper mega base. Now everything comes and goes through Mother Goose. On top of that, the base/cc's in the AOR have the added pressure of not bringing anybody home dead that isn't actually in combat. One would think common sense would dictate, but no such luck. Someone sooner or later gets hurt. As soon as that happens, BAM! A new safety rule must be implemented and we can keep this process going until we safety ourselves to death. Safety rules are good, but they go to the extreme like having to wear a reflective belt at night when you want to go take a piss. I think the extreme they go to is what torques people the wrong way.

Outstanding story Jetjock! This one has to take first place!

And also throughout the rest of the AORs for that matter.

Red tails. I hope you mean the NSPFs at the Died. I can't quite tell who that's directed at. HD

I'm sure even maintainers hate desk jockeys too. More than they hate flyers. Now that's bad!

At a certain few places, a certain amount of time ago, we used to wear shorts, a brown T, baseball cap (of your favorite team or no hat), no salute, and an overgrown mustache. When we where in our bags, we'd have our SAW with us, pistol was off safety, and no patches. Heck, remember the days when we could fly in shorts, boots, flak vest and our trusty helmet. Man those were the good times and definitely Kodak moments! Of course, there are still places where we fly that we still do that with a cool Mike Charlie(not the sandbox). It's funny how those things bring joy to us.

Great story. Was that red tails or blue tails? Sounds like the same recurring theme throughout the AOR. People who don't know what it's like to go on a mish and get shot at have no freaking clue. Their idea of duty is "writing someone up" for not wearing something properly. Has the Deid ever realized there's a war going on? That people die everyday in OIF? WTFO?! Freaking non-combatants!

Two more stories. Again not in Deid, but close enough. We were going back to our rooms in the crew vehicle. We were so tired from a long mish, we didn't have our seatbelts on when we went through the gate. The gate guard confiscated our i.d. cards and said we could expect article 15s because the base commander was sick of people not following his order concerning seatbelts. CJSOAC found out about this and he called the base wing king and said to him, "my boys are busy fighting a war, so please leave them alone." Good on our boss for standing up to the wing king! We also had the reflective belt police harassing us constantly. We decided to start wearing "No Big Blue" morale patches and wrote AFPD on our belts. This stands for Article Fifteen Protection Device. They even had posts detailing the latest violaters of orders instituted by the Wing King, along with their punishments. Some of them received paperwork for the above mentioned violations. The chow hall stories could fill a few pages, so I won't bother. Once the AOR bases turned into big bases, it was like being back in the U.S. or worse. When life throws us lemons, we have no choice but to make lemonade. It's little victories that help us make it through those deployments. :] [ 29. July 2005, 14:42: Message edited by: gabe2surf ]

To carry on the fine FIRE HAZARD tradition... As many of you know, we use the ponchos and poncho liners as room dividers to our spanctuaries when living in tents. When they finally moved us to hard billets, we continued the the tradition so that we had some privacy. Then along comes Big Blue... Big Blue decided to allow the AEW 1st shirt to inspect the compound dorms along with the base fire chief. They made us take down the poncho liners and told us we had to use use white linen to give us "privacy". Also had cardboard boxes we folded and duck-taped to the window of our hard billets. They were 100% light proof, but the fire chief made us take them down and they contracted some hajis to put in curtains instead (which weren't 100% light proof). Funny thing is, they bought the curtains and the hajis never showed up. We were forced to install curtains we didn't want ourselves and they weren't light proof! How 'bout them apples! [ 29. July 2005, 14:17: Message edited by: gabe2surf ]

Question for any IPs out there... If the initial cadre is already in place at KABQ, how soon can we expect USAF pipeline students to start tracking to the Osprey program? Also, what will the track be? Will it be similar to the USMC track of T-34/T-44/H-57/CV-22? If the opportunity came up to track into the program, I would do it in a heart beat!

This thread has been dead for a while, but I just thought of a question concerning this future pipeline. From what I've gathered, this pipeline will entail both turboprop and helo flying during UPT (T-44/C-12 and helos) after primary. Now will that helo time be on UH-1s with the Army or follow the Navy/USMC pipeline of going through TH-57s?

So when is this Huey II coming to Rucker for AF guys? It's pretty easy on the eyes! Great pics Heloguy.

Okay, so what does the gunner do when they put the minis to forward fire on 60s? Do they just sit along for the ride? Do they not fly on these missions? Are you speaking of AF or Army 60s? I'm a little confused.

Sounds like Big Blue at its fullest! Gotta love it.

About the above post, I'm actually asking seriously. All I know about the AF Huey mission is from what everyone here has told me. Yeah, even when I read it, it sounded funny. It's a serious question though, so please educate me. Thanks.