go_cubbies22

Looking for info on the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) IDE program at Ft Benning, GA. I am currently slated to go to ACSC this summer with a 1 year follow on to teach ACSC or SOS (AU Fellowship). I was offered this WHINSEC program today which would be going to Monterey for 6 months to learn Spanish and then attend the IDE program at WHINSEC the next year. From what I can tell, the course is very similar to Army Command and General Staff Course, only taught in Spanish. Not sure if this is a good deal or not. All help and info is much appreciated.

For the Majors board, what % of people get strats in the push line? Is it a standard number or does it vary by Senior Rater? If you don't get a strat, are your chances of school select slim to none? Thanks

I've checked my golf clubs on a couple TDYs with no problem. Alaska Airlines allows 5 bags with no overweight bag fee for military on orders (most airlines have similar policies). For golf on Oahu, highly recommend Ko Olina, Koolau, and Kapolei Golf Clubs. All are sweet courses that give military the kama'aina rates- for Ko Olina the tourist rate is $199 and the kama'aina rate is $85. Pretty awesome.

Founders Centennial is easily my favorite IPA. Will have to try the porter when I make it back to the Midwest.

New article by Tony regarding the new budget deal. http://www.jqpublic-blog.com/?p=569#more-569 Has a link to the MOAA website to email President Obama and your state Senators with a canned letter. Takes about a minute. http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/alert/?alertid=63028561&PROCESS=Take+Action

Things that have made my life easier since I've been in (2005). -logging in with my CAC instead of some ridiculous 15 digit password that needed to be changed every 6 months -tying my CAC to AF portal, vMPF, myPay, ADLS, and so on instead of passwords for each one with ridiculous requirements -AFnet migration from about a year ago that allows me to check my email on any AF computer w/o webmail and gives access to my share drives -Sharepoint As far as any improvements directly related to Gen Welsh, the only one is no Blues Monday. After meeting him and hearing him speak, I do still have hope that he will make some improvements. I personally think all of his time has been consumed by dealing with Sequestration, budget issues, govt shutdown, and congress over sexual assault that he has not had time to deal with other stuff.

I don't think they are proposing that move because it makes sense but to replace the iron and bodies so the NJ congressmen will go along with the plan.

Back from when KC-135s had navs. What's the typical front end crew complement of a -135? One dude that washed out of pilot training and two that should've.

Mountain Hardware also does a pro deal for military through their website. 50% off all their stuff. http://www.mountainhardwear.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-MountainHardwear_US-Site/default/ProPurchase-Signup North Face does a promotive pro deal that is around 50% for most things if they are in stock. http://thenorthface.promotive.com/ Marmot's pro deal is through promotive but you don't automatically get it if your team is US Air Force. You need to apply through Marmot's pro deal website and once approved you can then use your normal login for promotive and access Marmot's deals. http://www.promotive.com/ http://marmotpro.com/user/register Mammut does not have a pro deal website but if you email them, they will send you an Excel spreadsheet with all of their stuff and the pro deal prices and then you order through email.

Merrell is offering an extra 20% off their pro deal prices plus free shipping for military/vets through Nov 18. Code Veteransday20 at checkout.

Douche

Actually working with Jeff Palmer from NBoKC on this already. Have done two refinances with them on our rental property. Ended up getting money back at closing on both refis. Great people, highly recommend.

Looking for some advice. We are stationed at Elmo renting a house with about 14 months on our DEROS. We currently own a house at a prior base that we are renting out, max both of our Roths, and max the TSP. We are looking at buying a house as our primary residence for the next 12-14 months and then keeping it as an investment property. The city of Anchorage just released a housing market analysis that predicts an increased demand for housing in the next 20 years. The rental market is ridiculous here, houses usually get rented within a day or two, sometimes hours, of being on the market. We could easily get a house that would rent for $3-400 over our mortgage. One downside is that we would be using the VA loan for a second time so it comes with a funding fee of 3.3%. That would be an additional ~$10K rolled into the loan. My thinking is that we would make that back within a year or two considering the extra money above the mortgage and principal paid. Also, we would then be maxed out on our VA eligibility so any future purchases would require a down payment (not necessarily a bad thing). Am I missing anything that should influence my decision? Do you guys think this is a good or bad idea? All advice/opinions are appreciated. Thanks.

Does anybody have a good link to download lotus forms for Mac? Tried one after googling and didn't turn out so well, thanks.

I looked through the JFTR but I don't think this is covered in there. I just PCSd to Elmendorf and am waiting to move into my house on June 1. For an OCONUS move, I'm authorized 60 days of TLA. I stayed on base for the first 30 days in a pet TLF and then was booted out of the pet tlf since lodging will only let you reserve a room for 30 days. Luckily I was given a non-A letter since summer hotel rates in Anchorage are around $180 but the non-A letter specifies that it's only for 7 nights. I know for TDYs that you only have to be given a non-A once and it is good for the entire TDY. I could not find that statement relating to a PCS or TLA. Does anybody know if my non-A is good for the rest of my TLA or if I have to check back with lodging next week and hope they are booked full again? Thanks.

I've used AHRN before. It's free and it's sponsored by the DoD so anybody that checks in at Base Housing will be referred to the website. Not sure if they're doing FSBO or going with a realtor, but I've also used one of those websites that will give your FSBO a MLS# and put it on realtor.com for $99. Gives your FSBO a little more exposure.

At KBAD in the 07 timeframe, there was a nav that got kicked off a sortie during ground ops for that. He wanted to be referred to as "CSO" during checks and over the interphone and refused to respond to "nav" from the other crewmembers. After not getting a response to a question, the AC told him to get the f*ck off of his jet. He called up blue ops and told them to send out another nav to the jet. There are numerous stories out there about this dude.

Thanks for the replies. Is MWS IP a requirement for those jobs? Is it possible to get picked up for the G-V after one MWS tour, or is it usually a third assignment type thing?

Thread Revival How do you get selected to fly the G-Vs at Hickam, MacDill, and Chievres? Is it an application process or just another assignment worked through your functional at AFPC? Are C-130 pilots picked up for these jobs? Thanks.

I agree that strats are important, and even if you get picked up for pilot, you'll still need them later down the road. The push for UPT only takes up a little bit of space and it probably will help showing the board your desire to get picked up for pilot. I would say that having a push for CFIC/upgrade is important from your flight commander but you probably don't need it from your SQ/CC since he and the DO are going to be making that decision anyways. I hear ya on burning bridges. A couple of years ago, a guy in my squadron put in a package for UPT and then was about to be sent to upgrade. He told DOT that he didn't want to go to upgrade since he was confident he was going to be picked up (board was still a couple of months away). They gave the upgrade slot to someone else and needless to say, it pissed off a ton of people in the squadron. Luckily for him, he got picked up for UPT.

I made sure that I had "must send to UPT" as well as a strat in my push lines in my last 2 OPRs before the board. The other guy that got picked up from my squadron also had this in his push lines. These comments by Dupe and Hacker are from this thread referencing a ppt brief put together by past UFT board members -Your 215 is compared to your OPRs. Example: You've said "I've wanted to be a pilot since I was 6," but your OPR doesn't say "Send to UPT immediately." -- OPR comments as compared to AF215 comments (see the next bullet below for more explanation on what this means) - As Dupe mentioned, discrepancies between what is written on your AF215 and your OPRs were a big deal for board members. For example, if the senior rater on your AF215 said something to the effect of "this is my #1 officer in my Command", they would flip to your OPR written by that Commander (if there was one) and see if his OPR comments matched that. All too often, the board member said, the OPR comments were just 'average' and the 215 comments were 'excellent'. This tended to dull the impact of the 215 comments because of the inconsistency there. If your senior rater on your 215 said you were the Heat, and on your OPR it also said you were The Heat, it strengthened the impact.

I would definitely try to get your PPL. As said before, your first goal is to be good at your current job. After that, it's important to have a push line for UPT and strats in your OPRs. These two threads have some pretty good info. Hacker outlines a brief about the AD board which helped me a lot. I believe he also posted successful 215s over at wantscheck, which are nice to have when it comes time to write your own. UPT selection board brief Good luck.

The Direct Commission program is the only one that requires you to be prior rated. You can apply for flight school through their OCS and Blue 21 programs without being rated.

One option if you really want to fly for the Coasties is the Blue 21 program. Guaranteed flight training after OCS. Only catch is that your school has to have a 25% minority population to qualify for the program. USCG Blue 21 Program

The 2.5 years is from the date you get your nav wings. You can apply before that point but must serve the full 2.5 years prior to starting UPT. From this years UFT board announcement: 5. IAW AFI 36-2205, CSO AND ABM APPLICANTS APPLYING FOR PILOT TRAINING MUST SERVE A FULL 2 1/2 YEARS OF RESPECTIVE RATED DUTY PRIOR TO SUPT CLASS START DATE BUT MAY APPLY WITH JUST 2 YEARS OF RATED DUTY SO LONG AS THEY CAN FULFILL THE 2 1/2 YEARS BY 30 SEPTEMBER 2010. THE 2 1/2 YEARS RATED DUTY REQUIREMENT BEGINS ON THE DAY THE APPLICANT RECEIVED THEIR INITIAL AERONAUTICAL RATING. From personal experience, I would say that a majority of people in nav training have the goal of going to UPT. By the time people are eligible to apply, many decide not to for various reasons such as not wanting to go back to the gayness of AETC, actually liking their job as a nav, or not wanting to incur the additional ADSC. For the board I got picked up on, about 60 of 140 applicants were rated with 25 of the 40 picked up for UPT being rated. It looks like similar numbers from this years board. If you are about to start Nav training, I wouldn't talk about wanting to go to UPT all the time at nav school. Don't be that guy that is always saying that he should have been a pilot. When you get to your first unit, I would definitely tell your Flt/CC and SQ/CC your goal of going to UPT. Most of them will be supportive. My best advice is to kick a** at whatever you do. Try to get DG out of nav school and your FTU (without being a douche to the other guys in your class). When you get to your ops unit, be a good bro in the squadron and try hard at everything you do. With some luck and hard work, you should be in a good position to get picked up. Good luck.