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pbar

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Posts posted by pbar

    PME and Career advice

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I was told that in order to be competitive to go to the Army/Navy/MC or foreign service ACSC-equivalent you are expected to have completed AF ACSC via correspondence before the IDE selection board. I did so and got picked up for a foreign ACSC. For what it's worth...

    PBAR

    Respect after graduation

    in Squadron Bar

    Posted

    Until you EARN respect, you won't get treated like a member of "the club," whatever that is. The reason this job is fun is because it is challenging. Step up to the challenge and grow some thick skin. You will end up being a bro when you earn that right, but you will never stop getting shit on when you fck up. Right now, you fck up a lot. If you don't recognize that, you need to re-assess your attitude. Eventually, you will be smarter and more experienced and fck up less. Then you will get shit on less. If you cannot take shit, you will never make it in this job. The trick is to realize that it isn't personal. Dudes are just trying to make you better. If you take it personally or need a hug after a debrief, go join a sorority. But the day we stop shitting on each other when we fck up, is the day that we have given up and accepted mediocrity.

    Well said...that is why we are the best AF in the world. We go into debrief and call a spade a spade and tell an O-6 he screwed during the flight without the sugar coating. I was having a conversation with a Korean AF Weapon Schools grad (their WS, not ours) and our USAF exchange professor here (I'm an exchange student at the ROKAF ACSC) and we were comparing instructional techniques. The way they teach is strictly one-way lecturing with the stud just sitting and listening and absorbing. The instructors don't ask questions two-way interplay style to provoke the students to think. He told us that he would feed the students a little bit of info/his techniques at a time so that they could fully memorize it/absorb it. He said his goal was to have his students be as good as him. We in turn told him we want our students to be better than us as we might have to fly in combat with them someday (my first combat sortie was with my FTU instructor). That's why we challenge them with questions during instruction so everyone can learn (including the instructor). Also, I can find out how much he knows/doesn't know and adjust my instruction accordingly. He was dumbfounded and came back a few minutes later and told us he realized he'd been doing it all wrong for the last three years and wish someone had told him this sooner. My Korean classmates are incredulous when I tell them that even the Wing CC can get beat down in a debrief. Never happens like that in their AF (nor according, to my fellow foreign exchange students, in the Japanese, Taiwanese, Brazilian, or Turkish AF...)

    PBAR

    Boycott Clovis New Mexico

    in Squadron Bar

    Posted

    I diverted into Cannon one time and when I got a look at the city, I was thankful to be living in Abilene (Dyess). And Drabilene sucks too.

    I think all of us joined the AF with the expectation that we might have to sacrifice our lives in the line of duty but I, for one, never considered giving up having a life off duty because we had to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Even more, having my family put up with the same thing... There are some good points to small towns like Abilene and Clovis, i.e. no traffic, little air pollution, buying a good house for a reasonable price, low crime, etc. but I don't want to rot there for ten years because my jet only has two bases.

    Anyone know if AFSOC's move to Cannon is going to adversely impact Dyess's and Barksdale's access to the ranges?

    PBAR

    Remote to Korea

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'd disagree on the car, but that's that's just my perspective. I lived off base and worked in the AOC. During exercises, the difference between walking from work to the gate or walking from work 50 yards to the parking lot in full gear was reason alone to bring a car. I found that shipping it was easier than I thought. You can buy a cheap car while there, but its really not necessary because of the ease of shipping your own.

    I wouldn't bring a nice car. We brought my wife's Lincoln LS and in six months it's been in a hit-and-run fender bender once and was vandalized last week while parked at the PX on a Korean Army base (I'm an exchange officer at the Korean AF Staff College which is on a Korean Army base) to the tune of $2000 (top of the bumper got smashed by a rock). Thankfully USAA covered all but the deductible. You can find a nice used Korean car for under $2000 and I would recommend having a car so it's easier to travel about. Despite the vandalism incident, we've had a very positive experience here and staying on base the whole time will make for a miserable experience.

    PBAR

    New Service Dress

    in Squadron Bar

    Posted

    We've changed the service dress 3 times since I've been in the AF but we still have the same short-sleeve and long-sleeve blue shirts. Those need to be changed far more than the service coat. How about permanent press/wash-and-wear like the squids have? How about changing the color to something a little less lame? Dark blue or grey would look nice but a wash-and-wear option is a must.

    PBAR

    B-1 (Bone) questions

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I can tell you from an FTU standpoint the BONE is hurting for new WSOs coming into the program. There aren't enough WSOs around, apparently.

    That's because about 18 months ago the wait at the B-1 FTU was almost a year and F-15E was short of WSOs, so B-1 WSO production got cut back. Standard afterburner to idle back to afterburner system of personnel management....

    PBAR

    Weird jobs you never thought existed..

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    There are many opportunities for exchange school slots when it comes time for that. Many of them require being rated, but not all. Also, USAF can/do go to USA and USN schools and vice-versa.

    Would be cool, I think, to go to a different country's IDE/SDE and learn something new vs the canned "We're great!" mantra of ours.

    The coolest part I've found so far is that you also attend with other foreign officers and you get to learn a lot about their country/AF too. I have a Mongol, Brazilian, Turk, Japanese, and Taiwanese guy in my class here at the Korean AF ACSC. It's pretty interesting getting their perspectives on the world.

    PBAR

    CSAF Considers A-10 COIN Squadron

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    That's nothing compared to B-1s, A-10s, and F-15Es out there trolling around doing "Air Effects" or XCAS in Afghanistan for hours and hours on end, only to be called in to drop a $20,000 bomb on that same guy with an AK or an RPG.

    For the cost of a B-1 or B-52 flight into Afghanistan, I wonder if we'd get better results by going village to village with that cash and buying them off. Also, since Western (Afghan) and Eastern (Iraq) Watch will go on for a long time into the future, maybe we should buy some of the Navy's P-8, strip out the ASW gear, and then fly them around with JDAMs. Probably a helluva of a lot cheaper than a B-1 or a B-52.

    PBAR

    USAF and Operation Anaconda

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I too have been confused at some of the charges leveled by some Army guys that we didn't support them during Anaconda. Every sortie I flew there, I took home weapons (JDAMs) as did my squadron (B-1s) on the majority of our sorties. It was normal for us to leave the fight with gas and weapons when the next bomber (B-1 or B-52) showed up. Thus, it would seem to me that it wasn't a lack of effort on the AF's part. We even dropped dumb Mk-84s just to crater a possible enemy exfiltration route and that seemed very Vietnam-suspected-truck-park-in-the-jungle to me...

    PBAR

    Weaponeering... a skill of the past?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by pbar

    The B-1 community also still does some manual calculations as a backup though I'm not sure how in-depth the Bone WS gets. As an aside, in a previous life as an intel puke I had two weeks of learning to do it manually (sts) and it was a major pain. I don't think you could even do manual weaponeering for a bomber full of JDAMs or SDBs; it would simply take too damned long.

    Also, here's an article from Air Force magazine saying the Japanese can't even do it with a computer ( http://aimpoints.hq.af.mil/display.cfm?id=19057).

    PBAR

    Free USAF language training (Rosetta Stone)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Originally posted by dagoden:

    This really is a good program. However, think twice about using it if you want to study Korean. For some reason their Korean program is absolutely dreadful. I realize it is free, but you would be better off paying for a class or software elseware. Just my 2 cents...

    Two. I'm taking Korean at DLI now and the Rosetta Stone Korean I did helped not much at all... Declan's Korean stuff was a lot more helpful.

    PBAR

    Depth perception issues

    in Aviation Medicine

    Posted

    They do give out waivers for depth perception. I was given one when I was accepted for UNT. My poor depth perception (from suppresion) wasn't an issue for me doing low-levels or landing a T-34 in Primary at Pensacola. I ended up with a B-1 and since we don't really have a window in the back, it hasn't been a problem operationally either. If you get one, make sure you know you have it. I didn't even know I had one and spent two months at P-cola waiting for one after I failed a depth perception test there. It had been in my records the whole time but the clowns there didn't notice it.

    PBAR

    Strike Navs to Buff

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Actually the Bone got 15 more WSOs in the pipeline this year than they have sorties for. That's two whole FTU classes worth of studs. This extra load was never programmed for and the priority was on reducing the wait to start for the F-15E FTU. Finally our AFPC guy was able to get Air Staff notice the 9 month wait at Dyess. Ergo the other airframes at P-cola...

    On top of that, Dyess MX has had more challenges than Ellsworth. First off, the Weapons School and 337 TES get priority for jets and the 28th jets also spend a lot more time doing low level and pattern work. That extra wear and tear is reflected in lower MC rates.

    Incidentally the first two F-15E WSOs from P-cola just showed up to EWO school- the first ones we've seen in almost 18 months. This summer we get a couple who already have an ops tour under their belts. Apparently they are getting another ops tour out of the deal, which is rare in the Strike Eagle from what I hear. We've heard we're going to get 3-4 a quarter for the foreseeable future and there are more applicants than slots.

    PBAR

    563 FTS EWO School instructor, ex B-1B FTU instructor

    EWO Prowler tour

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Boobies, yea, the 9th BS at Dyess.

    Hoser, not sure about whether it's SOP but it sounds like it was a plan by your assignment bubba to get guys to actually want to come to EWO school by dangling the ops-to-ops carrot in front of them. From what I understand, nobody in F-15Es wants to come to EWO straight out of Pensacola, or at least that's what the F-15E bubbas on staff here say. I'd say your assignment guy is clever...

    Nope, nobody goes from the 562 to the 563 thence to Prowlers. Like I said, I've only seen one guy in a year go to Prowlers from here and he graduated from P-cola.

    However, the new EC-130H patch that we just got says he's seen some Compass Call EWOs go to Prowlers. I hear Buff EWOs go sometimes too. Probably your only way to get to a Prowler if you didn't go to P-cola.

    PBAR

    EWO Prowler tour

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Actually there is a student finishing up right now at Randolph who is going to Prowlers. He already has a follow-on to F-15Es. Obviously he came to us from Pensacola.

    Incidentally we're supposed to get a bunch of F-15E WSOs this summer too. Guess it's the only way to get an ops-to-ops tour.

    PBAR

    563 FTS instructor

    Maintenance vs Aircrew

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I was once told the jet (a B-1) was "crew-ready" and when we went out to the jet, it was missing an engine! It was the same tail number they had on the schedule for us to fly.

    There was another time I was moving my ejection seat forward during the preflight and about half-way up, it started to shake and make grinding sounds. It hung up doing that for a second or two and then continued forward. I was told that was normal (which it's not). But then again, I was dumb enough to take it as it was...

    On the other hand, I've seen some dumb things operators do (or don't do) to MX. For example, I use to take the defensive systems and offensive systems maintainers into the sim so that they could see the equipment they worked on actually on and in use. Some of them had worked on the equipment for ten plus years and had never seen it work except in ground tests. That's unsat! I couldn't believe it never occured to any operators to get them into the sim for at least a little bit of a look at how the stuff looks and works in flight. I made a DVD of the radar screen during a low level and most of the radar MX troops had never seen it working like that and loved the DVD.

    PBAR

    ex-Bone WSO

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