busdriver

That's the understatement of the year.

Welcome to the profession of arms, those wings on your chest are a ticket to learn. Be a knowledge sponge, volunteer for any opportunity to learn and get better. There will always be someone better, faster, smarter than you, seek them out and learn what they know, even if they're obnoxious. Even an asshole can teach you how to not be one. Your knowledge and skill will eventually play a pivotal role in saving the lives of your squadron mates, don't let them down. But at the end of the day, your Air Force life will end, make damn sure your family is still there when you set the Air Force aside. You can be proud of what you have achieved, your family can be proud of what they've helped you achieve, I'm proud of what you've achieved. Continue to make us proud of you. Then I sit down.

Because the bonus reduces uncertainty. Whether that person would have stayed in or not, if you're managing forces levels you don't really know unless they sign on the line and commit.

The fact that my family that works law enforcement in Maryland has basically told me that the inner harbor isn't really safe anymore is telling.. There used to be places (well a few) that were cool, and some places that were on the up turn. I'm thinking that it sounds like the whole place is about to get nasty, kinda like an insurgency the outcome of that outburst of violence will determine whether Baltimore takes a dive into Detroit land or ends up looking good. A shame, I really like Fell's Point and Federal Hill.

I know at least one retired O-5 who did better than his friend that retired as an O-6. I plan to talk to that O-5(ret) during my exit strategy development. As he said, he's making "silly money." He also said, given what he makes he has no question as to why defense programs cost so much these days. Yes, I'm a hypocrite.

https://elementsofpower.blogspot.com/2013/09/debunking-close-air-support-myths-part-7.html It's on the internet so it must be true. But there is a ring of truth to it, basically the AF didn't blow off the Army and CAS, rather the Army and AF just weren't really talking. Joint is hard, so we'll just develop the capability to do it ourselves so we don't have to do this Joint crap. Key West means we can't have fixed wing so we'll develop RW attack to facilitate vertical envelopment. Meanwhile the AF focused on nukes and countering the Russian Bear. Given the history of crappy joint integration it sounds convincing to me. I personally would rather see the AF keep the A-10 and give it a modern DRFM jammer; let the B-1 go away to pay for the long range bomber. But as MD said if they Army really wants it and wants to pay for it and the AF is dead set on ditching it, have at it. As for the OP linked article, seems like a bunch of non-expert shell game stupid. 300 of the F-35As will replace A-10s so we save the A-10 and reduce the F-35 buy.... profit! Very internet pundit type logic.

Helodude, In no way did I mean have large numbers of trainers teaching pilot training and running basic training camps. I meant more at the higher levels, literally advising. They probably wouldn't listen anyways. On the other hand, if Hezbollah and Al Qaeda want to go at it, who are we to get in the way.

The ATC guys may have fucked up, but at the end of the day the dude or dudette flying that plane landed at the wrong fucking airport. Marconi does not make airplanes fly.

I'm rattling around the idea that "the timeline" is at the core of the problem. We "have" to put certain people in certain positions to keep them "on time" and I think it hurts the overall organization.

Helping the Iraqis could be ok, but advise and assist only. The only risk to US forces should be existing in the country, very low key, low cost in both people and dollars. The face on all operations needs to be Iraqi, as long as the integration with the country team is tight and leadership is willing to call the baby ugly early it could be successful. To follow on to Helodude's point, we can't and shouldn't do it for them, they need to step up. We can be there to provide some advice, but it has got to be their effort and skin in the game. This is going to be the future of US efforts abroad, limited means, limited ways, and limited ends. The last point is what needs to change in the American psyche, what can we actually achieve, our ends need to be limited. We can't make Iraq a mini America, it will be fucked up for a very long time. The most we can hope for is help them achieve a semi-stable vector to something better, and help them with the tools to fight to maintain that vector. But they have to do that fighting or it isn't actually worth anything. In other words, sure we'll help a little, but if you fuck it up we're more than willing to let you lie in the bed you make.

A retired O-6 stands to make a lot more in the defense industry if he negotiates correctly.

Bendy, do you have a link to that study?

I think he's saying he's ok with Friday patches, not with morale patches.

Yep, the AF can still screw it away. This gets us a couple DT birds and maybe a quarter of the money needed to do the development. I wouldn't count out anything at this point, other than it seems there is congressional support to keep a dedicated Rescue mission in the Air Force.

I just got back, didn't see anything too bad, but I stayed in my compund most of the time (on alert) but in general dont' give the morons ammo and you'll be fine. The OG there is one of the best.

The fight over how to spend money will always exist, the only thing that will change is the level that makes the decision. All the arguments about the future of warfare are based on speculation of civilian pundits who read a couple books and project their biases without an attempt to hide or recogize them and zero critical thought applied. This conversation is beyond retarded when conducted in the open forum with uninformed pundits.

I have no words. Rest easy my friends, we've got the alert.

Terrible article lacking all evidence of a coherent argument. Van Crevald does a much better job of presenting an argument about the age of Airpower being over. Even if his sentence structure is incredibly hard to read.

Practice bleeding should end at all levels of PME. IDE should change so that AAD is masked at the major board, if you are not a select you are eligible to start the correspondance course, selects go in residence, both are masters degree programs. The first half of correspondance earns you IDE credit, the second year gets you the degree, AAD is unmasked at your 0-5 board. Either way, guys are de-incentivized from working on an AAD at an inappropriate time in their career, and given time to complete it for when it actually starts to matter. Plus it gives the AF a bit of control of the type of masters guys get, the bright and shinny types can appy for all types of gucci degrees/programs at the in-residence level, your average types will be handed a correspondance degree producing program that gives them a multi-year flexibility to make O-5, because let's face it, we aren't gonna be below the zone guys anyway.

5-hundos? What are you 12 years old? Of course he's not serious. It does look odd though, not quite scaled composites odd but still not quite right. The internal bay thing is interesting however.

Much like the rest of the DoD, the current fight in Afghanistan doesn't look at all like what AF Rescue exists to do. Big blue doesn't pay to keep us around to pick up people in a permissive environment with FOBs every ten feet. We exist to do long range CSAR into an IADS type threat environment, and since we are the air component's doctrinally required PR capability that means we pick up fighter pilots. The GSAB has a downed aircrew extraction mission too, it plays last fiddle on their METL, with VIP support being number one. TF Gabriel made good strides in OIF 1 but then disbanded.

Come on, you know. "Look at us, we're all inclusive now." You can get as mad about it as you want, won't change a damn thing.

The safety folks are worried about protecting/ keeping privilege. A decent fix would be hosting the videos/presentations on afsas via streaming, without requiring short term tab access. There's got to be a way to do that securely right?

Still smells like a jock strap don't it?

Those traditions are in civilian politicians' sights. Generals can fall on their swords to your heart's desire, it won't change anything. Doesn't mean you can't have fun or hang at the bar. I don't disagree that it won't fix the true problem. I also resent being lumped in with a bunch of assholes as if my actions create would be rapists.