lloyd christmas

Send Me. Tells the story of the withdrawl from Afghanistan. Find it on Amazon. https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3011166745/?ref_=tt_vi_i_1

I’ve posted this before but I’ll tell the story again. I’ll never forget sitting in the base theatre in the Middle East around Xmas 2020. We had the opportunity to listen to the CSAF, CMSAF and the Sec of the AF. I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. There was a lot going on at the time. Most notably, Covid. We had been through a lot just to get in theatre with quarantines and such. I sat there and listened to two women and a black four star general talk for an hour about social issues, discrimination and how we all needed to do better. That’s all they talked about It was one of many turning points in my long AF career. And it was one of the most disappointing. I can’t even say that they thanked us for being there during the holidays.

Chief is an interesting rank. All other enlisted ranks up to Chief are pretty well defined. It’s almost like you hit a completely new rank structure when you look at how many different types of Chiefs there are. It’s like that scene in Forrest Gump. Shrimp gumbo, fried shrimp, shrimp scampi…. You see Chiefs out there in squadrons, groups, wings, first sergeants, staffs, etc. There aren’t many Chiefs in the AF but yet they seem to everywhere. Some genuinely care and use the rank to better their organizations and their people’s lives. Others are power hungry assholes just like some officers.

My wife works for one of the largest and well known companies in the world. She got an email last night stating that travel expenses are now included in her health care plan if she needs to travel to get an abortion. I hadn’t thought of this potential response from employers. It’ll be interesting to see if her health care costs go up. And it will be interesting to see what pro-life employees like her think about her premium going up to pay for this.

I sat with a few scientists down in Antarctica while doing the Deep Freeze mission on days I wasn’t flying. They were there studying the climate. I asked them what the deal is with this whole climate change thing and listened for a while as they talked about it. There were a couple big take aways. First, was the amount of variables involved in their work. They didn’t even have consistent climate measurements going back 50-100 years. Where were the measurements taken? When were they taken? With what equipment? By who? How was the data stored and what data has been shared, etc. Second, they all absolutely agreed that the climate is changing. It always has. They study the environment and climate to better understand it. That doesn’t mean they were trying to validate future climate catastrophes. They were simply trying to understand it without predetermined findings. Lastly, they said it’s another example of something being used for political gain. Everybody has an angle and everybody has a different set of goals and motivation. I believe the climate changes. I don’t believe it’s something to be scared of. “Climate change” is a source of power and money. Fear is a tactic. It’s really no different than the 2 years of Covid shenanigans. Gotta get people scared so we can spend endless piles of new money.

It all depends and there are a lot of variables just like everything else. There are minimum and maximum seasoning days allotted per course. This year, the various continuing resolutions made a mess of things. The guard bureau gave out 66% of the minimum this year. With that said, the program is a “wing commander managed” program. They can direct the comptroller or FDO is prioritize different groups in the wing. There are wings out there that burned through days at the beginning of the year thinking they’d eventually (once a budget was passed) get 100% of the days only to find out the NGB only sent 66% and no more. Some folks returning from school will not get any days because of this.

When does life begin?

You need to get out more. We are all products of our life’s experiences. My personal views are shaped by a few things. I did get my daughter’s mom pregnant when we were dating. She considered getting an abortion. I was living through the worst part of my life when that happened. Raising her was really hard in the beginning and it took a lot of sacrifices. We got through it. She’s 23 and is the light of my life. I dated a girl once who had an abortion before she met me. She was emotionally ruined by the experience. She regretted that decision to her core. My buddy and his wife had their daughter at 24 weeks. His wife had preeclampsia. Their daughter turns 7 this weekend. She’s a happy and healthy child. The medical community is making incredible progress towards helping women with medical issues while they are pregnant. There are answers to problems we encounter in life whether they are self induced or not. I don’t believe killing our children is the answer.

That is hands down the most evil, sick and twisted description of a mother carrying her own child I have ever read. And it is exactly why the pro-life side should, and I believe will win in the end. This type of thinking is how you justify aborting babies up to the moment of birth.

The level of intellectual dishonesty shown by the pro-abortion crowd is astounding. It’s the most frustrating part of the whole argument. You all know damn well that life begins at conception. After conception, life is just a series of periods of growth and development followed by decline and death. It’s a simple circle of life. You just won’t say you understand that out loud. Instead, you all come up with endless endless endless arguments about why you are for abortion as a distraction from the truth. Just admit that you’re pro-self and that a baby will interrupt your life, finances, work, goals, etc. I’d have a whole lot more respect for you and your argument if you were just truthful about your reasoning.

Downgrades establish unit trends. Trends can be sourced from flight evals, testing, instructor meetings, aircrew feedback, etc. Units should tailor training to “close” trends once the training has been completed. Flight supplement evals and ground supplement evals are used to randomly gauge the unit members knowledge of open trends. These flight/ground supp evals are recorded for trend closure but don’t list the members name specifically that was given the supp eval. They are just a random snapshot to see if the training has been sufficient to close the trend. Trends are closed twice a year and are recorded via the Stan Eval Board (SEB). Downgrades on a Form 8 don’t matter for the individual (other than pride). The overall grade matters. Downgrades are key to the unit’s trends program and are actually vital to identifying bigger picture issues in the different communities.

Greetings all. We are in the process of converting to the C-130J. We have a few part time slots available for the right people if they are interested in making the move. Current loadmasters on any airframe are preferred but we can consider taking someone off the street as well. Applicants must live locally or are actively arranging to move to the metroplex. This is a fantastic area with endless civilian employment opportunities. Lockheed is across the runway, Southwest and American are headquartered here as well. This is a great unit with plenty of interesting trips/travel. Shoot me a PM if interested.

Funny how that works.

I had 2200 hours on E model Hercs. They ranged from 61-2358 to various 64 models. I have time on 62-1787 which was the most decorated and easily has one of the most harrowing stories ever involving a C-130. It’s now on display at the AF Museum. https://www.troopcarrier.org/spare617.html

Add the school board members who were recalled and thrown out in San Francisco to the list.

Bigger picture. The vast majority of people are done with the narratives, elitists, hypocrisy, etc. We know this because of the following. I’m sure I’ve missed some. Virginia elections Freedom convoy Joe Rogan winning CNN self destructing Lockdowns ending and clearly tied to upcoming elections Dem infighting Supreme Court Justice retiring early The crazy left is imploding. I hope and pray the pendulum is swinging back to some sort of normalcy. The midterms will be very very interesting.

At a minimum, it’ll be 3 years before anything close to this happens.

The answer will be filled with “the soft bigotry of low expectations”.

This conversation should be near the end. Nothing has worked to prevent the spread. Not the vaccines, not the masks, not the closures, not the social distancing, not the bazillion dollars spent, not the fear tactics. Not anything. It’s here to stay and we will all get it. People shouldn’t lose their jobs over it and we shouldn’t divide the country any further.

I’m in the same boat. I’ve had both shots. Same for my wife and daughter. All three of us are positive. I’m definitely on the mend. Fatigue is the only lasting issue. I am curious if you have engaged your med group. My med group is saying I have to have a EKG and some sort of a stress test to get off DNIF.

Omicron cases are exploding. Folks can’t get tests. Thousands of flights cancelled over the holidays. The Biden administration has egg all over their face. The CDC lowers quarantine guidance from 10 days to 5… The timing is curious. Perception matters.

I can’t believe I’m going to weigh in on this topic at this point. But, I’ve got time as I sit here dealing with my breakthrough case of COVID. I’m vaccinated and I ended up in the ER. It sucked. To me, this whole argument comes down to basic problem solving skills. There has to be a starting point and some understanding based on common sense and predictability based on human nature. My dad used to say “what, so what and now what”. That approach isn’t based on emotion or fear. It’s just a matter of fact approach to a problem. One of the most basic things you would think policy makers would understand at the start is that not everyone will get the vaccine. They just won’t. And it doesn’t matter why. There is absolutely no point in calling people “ignorant assholes” or threatening people with a “winter of death” or whatever the divisive language is. I understand moving the goal line. That’s really all we’ve seen since this started. But, I don’t understand moving the starting line.

The prior enlisted experience will make you a more rounded officer as well. You’ll be an officer first and a pilot second.

I really do believe we are turning the page on the progressive movement in this country. Folks are tired of BS like this.