busdriver

A Toast... Some things never change. I went to school with Mark, he built a potato gun so large and powerful that to ignite the chamber reliably, he wired up a bank of capacitors to provide the spark. Damn thing would launch a honey bottle several hundred yards. During Saturday inspections he'd screw around constantly, run by your room (I was a freshman) and wing a handful of pennies into your room.

I don't get the "beneath" part, I do know some people are trying to get our deployment tempo down and the 800lb Gorilla in the middle of the room means the only additional tasking we're likely to be successful in dropping is Medevac. Which I agree sucks, as the only deployment I've been on where I would have stayed for another tour if asked was my Medevac trip.

Good points Helodude, big point on scamming for NVG time. A recent Huey re-tread in my squadron has close to 50% more hours than I do, with about a year less flying experience, but less than half my NVG time. I'm curious how you think we've screwed ourselves, not that I disagree just curious what your take is.

Basically if we stay pure Rescue, we're too "specialized" if we adopt the SOF mission in addition, we're "duplicating effort." Hopefully someone realizes that the 160th is having problems with manning as well and having another pool of crew members to draw from would be a good thing. I guess HCS-84 is slipping under the radar since they're so damn small.

you'll be gone a lot as a 60 guy.

It seems to me that this guy had his heart in the right place, however he gave up on his proper chain of command all together. He should have continued to up channel the problems through the proper chain while simultaneously telling the Ops guys about what he found. In this way he'd have a couple O-5s on his side while still being able to say he was following proper procedure. When you find that shit is seriously f'd up, it's time to find high ranking guys to back your play, not just for self preservation but because those guys can actually fix shit.

Of all places, the 9th circuit court of appeals incorporates the 2nd amendment Interesting read to say the least. To add: We therefore conclude that the right to keep and bear arms is “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” Colonial revolutionaries, the Founders, and a host of commentators and lawmakers living during the first one hundred years of the Republic all insisted on the fundamental nature of the right. It has long been regarded as the “true palladium of liberty.” Colonists relied on it to assert and to win their independence, and the victorious Union sought to prevent a recalcitrant South from abridging it less than a century later. The crucial role this deeply rooted right has played in our birth and history compels us to recognize that it is indeed fundamental, that it is necessary to the Anglo-American conception of ordered liberty that we have inherited.17 We are therefore persuaded that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment and applies it against the states and local governments.

dmeg, if we're talking about the F-117 crash I'm pretty sure the 60 just landed and the PJs grabbed him.

CSAR-X wasn't going to be unarmed either. Lightly armed, sure. And I'm not talking about machine guns.

Yep, pretty accurate. The original intent of transferring CSAR to AFSOC was to combat that cycle. If CSAR forces have a secondary role as SOF, the thought was we could maintain our funding level in times of non-crisis. We never went full AFSOC though, it was in name only.

Just put CAVEMAN on ignore it'll save you irritation

stract, I don't know if you've heard something else, but Sikorsky advertises 22k for the Mike model. The 24k bird is the MH-60K

According to the news, they were shot after pointing an AK at the Captain. In other words, this wasn't an approved rescue attempt it was the on scene commander taking action to prevent the possible loss of life. No doubt the President approved the ROE they were operating under, but to claim the president OKed a rescue plan is false. Either way, good job by all to include POTUS.

The programs you mentioned were sole source awards and generally not nearly as expensive, hence less political. As to the "more joint" solution to the CSAR fleet, it could mean as Buddha pointed out that the 160th would take over the RV portion; but that would mean many more aircraft and crews, and they already have problems with getting as many crews as they want, so still not a cheap option. It could also mean that the AF would get a "joint" HH-XX (just buy the MH-47, an HH version of an MH-60M/S, etc.) this would be an approach similar to the JSF. Or I may be one of the last AF Helo pilots.

bunk22, Have any of the T-6 haters flown it? I ask since when I flew it (UPT only) it didn't seem overly complex or a hand full to fly.

I was told it is kind of throwing PCness back in the "man's" face, but way too many people take it waaaay too far. Especially when you say something intentionally double entendre as a joke and they toss that in. Kinda like not saying box or head, I get the history behind it, but do you have to use container in a written document?

That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks.

Yes, but where is that written?

Is the "commanders can always make it more restrictive" rule in writing somewhere?

I searched for an AFN thread, with no luck (God knows, the ridiculous adds deserve their own thread): Why in the holy hell is AFN still advertising the special operations gunner career on the MH-53, months after the airframe retired?

Why have dedicated CSAR forces: aside from the doctrine/dogma issue, if we ever end up in a conventional cross the fence to bomb the bad guys war, all other CSAR capable forces will be committed to doing their own jobs. That said, having CSAR forces sitting alert solely for recovering CFACC assets in an environment where Medevac forces are just as capable is stupid. CSAR forces should have a primary mission of CSAR, but have stated secondary missions that fall in line with the same skill sets. This isn't a new concept. MH-53s trained to a secondary mission of CSAR, I'd wager a guess that CV-22s do as well. While CONUS, CSAR units will assist the CG on as capable basis (ie no alert) if requested for through the RCC. Generally we only do civi SAR if the survivor(s) are far out to sea and getting there requires air refueling.

As an added benefit of the MI-17, our maintainers could just hit the faulty part with a hammer until it worked again.

Huey, the Chinook is the fastest helo in the US inventory. It will outrun everything, especially in Afghanistan.

Do you really think the stealth aspect is what is making the F-22 and JSF expensive? So you build a stealthy Eagle, how much will it cost to upgrade the avionics to JSF/Raptor standards? We'll just ignore the airframe age for the sake of this argument.

Chinook, S92, Blackhawk, H-71, it would be good for everything.