HeloDude

Here's the deal with gold (as it's been explained to me many time before)--gold HOLDS it value, that's all. The rising/falling prices of gold has to do with inflation, short term spikes in the economy, etc. That's why you see it fluctuate so much over time. Someone once told me that if you had one gold coin back in ancient days, you could get a very nice tunic, robe, head piece, sandals, etc. What will one gold coin get you now?--a nice suit, shoes, etc. Grant it there are a lot more factors to look at, but it's a pretty interesting comparison.

Actually having to tuck in your PT shirts in the AOR is an AFCENT and/or CENTCOM policy. I just can't stand those guys are just waiting for the chance to correct someone after walking 10 feet out of their pod to take a piss.

I don't blame you for being disgruntled on a non-vol'd 365, missing the family and all, but come on!--the Died is cake! You get all the tax free stuff, combat pay, and hazard duty pay that you get in Iraq/Afghanistan but yet there are no combat operations directly taking place anywhere near there. Plus, you have hardened rooms with indoor plumbing, 3 beers a night, free wifi, a day off once in a while in which you can do downtown and shop/eat a real restaurant while wearing civilian clothes, etc. From everything I've seen and heard, the Died is going to be around for a bit, so why not make them all 1 year remotes? We do it in Korea, and some of those are even going to 2-3 year tours. It's a freaking joke when it takes your support folks 3-4 weeks just to learn how to do a job correctly and then 2-3 months later they leave and you have to start the whole process over again. There are such things in things in the Air Force called 'short tours' and I think the Died is a pretty chill place to get credit. I'm not directing all of this at you afnav, I know you're doing your part, but there are so many guys out there that seem to try and get out of every little thing. Guys need to know that volunteering for a 365 to the Died is wayyyy better than getting non-vol'd on a 365 to Iraq or Afghanistan. On the recall program, hey, if they volunteer to come back, they 'volunteer' for anything--just like the rest of us. How bad do they need money?

I know you haven't been in long, but let me bring us all back to about 4-5 years ago when the then Chief of Staff (Gen Jumper) masked master's degrees for the promotion board because he said something to the effect 'I want people to focus on their jobs and their PME...and if the Air Force wants you to have a masters degree, then we'll send you away to get one'. What happened when he left and Gen Mosely took over? That's right--masters degrees became unmasked again and Captains/Majors were scrambling to get their masters done it time before their boards (the new rule went into affect 2 years later to give guys enough time to knock out a masters to be competitive). See what I'm getting at here? Things change, 'promises' are broken for whatever reason, and that's just the way things go. Did you even happen to read what they're doing to guys returning from 365's? They were 'promised' a year of no deploying and it was just recently announced that due to manning, 6 months will now be the minimum time off. The sooner you realize that these things happen, the sooner you can spit the koolaid back out and just focus on your job as an officer/pilot and put in for what you want to do later. As for your 'morale', hey, what can I say man--you guys got something you didn't want, sorry. This happens to guys (officers and enlisted) all the time. What makes you guys so darn special? The Air Force needs you to fly UAV's. That might turn out to be your only aircraft, and if so, just the way it is. Your job is to do the best in your position, whatever/wherever that may be, and if after your ADSC is up if you want to get out, then that is your right and I'll say to you what I say to anyone who has served 'God bless you, and thank you for your service'. I agree--always fight for what you want, regardless of what it is. If you or anyone else can make a drug deal/work the system, I say go for it! I'm happy for people when they work hard and get what they want. Just don't think the Air Force 'owes' you any anything, especially anything more than they owe others who have taken jobs they didn't particularly want. I volunteered for a 365 and was told that we would get our first choice location/follow-on's when we got back--guess what?--didn't happen. Needs of the Air Force trumped my desires. It's cool to bitch for a while to your friends and family, but after a while it gets old, trust me. My old man gave me some awesome advice years ago when something didn't work out they way I had planned and what he told me is 'You can't plan out your entire life and expect it to go that way. All you can do is perform your best in whatever situation you're in and good things will happen'. What a wise man my father is. Be the best UAV pilot you can be and good things will happen to you--whether it's getting back into a cockpit or some other path God has chosen for you in life. Edited for clarity.

Go deploy on a 365--they give you one for free!

Dude, if you don't think that the Air Staff and Gen Swartz had a lot to do with the final decision of taking guys directly out of UPT to go UAV's I think you were asleep most of late last summer/early fall. There's a reason this happened after our previous Chief of Staff and Secretary got fired. Grant it, AFPC/Manpower/Plans crank out the numbers (in terms of option A vs B, etc) , but this final decision was made at the higher level. Found the article below:

First off, like the others have said, good on you for having a good attitude and working hard--this will be key to much of the success you'll have in your career. However, as for 'Integrity First'--that is a core value for those of us in the Air Force, but not for the Air Force itself. The Air Force goes back on their 'promises' or commitments ALL the time. The Air Force, like the other services, is a huge bureaucracy. It is ultimately politically run and thus changes quite often. Big Blue often goes back on what they have originally said at one time or another. The Air Force only has one value--and that is 'Needs of the Air Force' to accomplish the mission as dictated by the senior and civilian leadership, and everything that is done afterwards is done to ultimately support that cause. Why do you think AFPC has such a horrible reputation? They say one thing and then do another. Here's a recent article perfectly explaining my point: Airmen face just 6 month between deployments So, not to be negative, but realistic, IMHO the majority of the guys straight out of UPT to UAV's will never see the inside of a cockpit. Perhaps the new guys graduating from UPT in a few years will have a different story if this new UAV career path goes 100% but you current guys and the ones in the next couple of years will be too far along. Feel like you got hosed?--not disagreeing at all, but that's life, and especially life in the military--some just get it worse than others.

Between 7'' and 8''....wait, misread the topic. Here's a question: How do I make my deck 1' long? --I fold it in half

I know my helo brothers will join in me saying--We don't need a freakin' runway! However, on a serious note, I give CE more props on the non ops side than I do most of the other fields. In a lot of their jobs they work long hours and it's pretty physical. Plus those dudes are deploying fairly often. Also, doesn't EOD fall underneath CE?

Wishful thinking man--not going to happen. 'If' the Air Force gets to keep their CSAR mission (ie it not going 'joint') ACC will not release the 60's. And if AFSOC wanted a spec ops helicopter so bad it should have found a way to keep the 53 alive. Just plain stupid.

Apparently you've never been to Amman, Jordan. Jordan is one of the neatest places I've ever been to and the site seeing is unbelievable--take Petra as a perfect example. Grant it, most people you deal with in Amman seem to speak at least decent English, but I'm sure knowing some Arabic wouldn't hurt, especially if you were assigned to the embassy. I bet Dubai in the UAE is along the same lines. Here are the points I'd focus on when choosing to learn another language: -Do you want to use it when you get out of the Air Force? -If you've got considerable time left in the Air Force, is it one of the languages that will pay you? My best friend speaks fluent Hungarian and they pay him something like $250 extra a month...bastard. -Is it a language you're personally interested in learning aside from the Air Force/future work? This will make you much more likely to stick with learning the language.

Not disagreeing with you on this one bud, but look at some of your previous OPR's (especially before they changed the form)--unless you did several different things spectacular while flying, at least half of your bullets (if not more) was filled with non-flying crap. You had to make sure you participated in a couple volunteer events, gave to the CFC, was in charge of a change of command, blah blah blah just to make sure you didn't have any white spaces left. Thank God it's gotten better with the new OPR's, but it hasn't entirely gone away. Think about how many shoe clerks get base level recognition just because they're in charge of the Air Force Assistance Fund for the entire base. This chick is probably some serious ass kisser but I bet with our wonderful leadership these days that it will pay off. On a positive note, same question, is this chick hot? We need pictures to verify. I bet if you get her a little drunk she could be fun to hang out with--prob wouldn't be a bad lay either.

I don't know about her--but I've been pleasing myself with all the vids on the thread. I think this thread has finally inspired me to get my own avatar.

Dude, that is a freakin' waste of money, especially for a new LT. You finally graduated from college, got commissioned, and are earning a decent paycheck--I understand that you now you want something to show for it, but don't blow your money just because you can get the financing. My youngest brother just got commissioned in the Army and he took the USAA loan and bought a 2 year old Nissan Exterra that cost him a little under $20K. I'd say around $20K is reasonable.

Talk to your commander and then have him/her call your functional. Are you an IP yet? Only way you can go over there to fly with the Iraqis/Afghanis on a 365 is to be an IP. My guess is there aren't going to be nearly as many CAFTT flying gigs with the Iraqis as there once was. Most advisory squadrons are dwindling down, especially since the Commander in Chief has said he wants us all out of the country by 2011. On the helo side, most of what we set to accomplish with the Iraqis is now complete. Afghanistan, that's a whole another story.

PFPS is 'Limited Distribution'--the software rights belong to the government. So like Brabus said, I seriously doubt they'll make an app for it anytime soon i.e. probably never. On a better note--I finally switched to the iPhone and got my new 3Gs last week--it is very sweet. I haven't played around with it as much as I would like so I'm still learning all the different settings, what apps I want, etc. I've been a Mac guy for the last 2 years and can honestly say that they just make better stuff.

I understand where you're coming from...but in the helicopter world, calling someone a 'Pave' guy was referring to someone on 53's, not 60's (even though the Air Force HH-60 does have the name 'Pave' in the aircraft's name). This is how it was explained by a 53 pilot when I was a young copilot and referred to 60 guys as 'Pave' guys. Any of the CSAR dudes want to weigh in on this one...very good chance I'm totally wrong, and definitely wouldn't be the first time.

Unless there are still some MH-53's flying around that I don't know about--Air Force 60 guys aren't really 'Pave' guys. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 'Pave' part of a 53 had a lot to do with it's ability of using terrain following/avoidance radar which our HH-60's do not have.

Wait a minute....I remember when I was a young lad seeing how Air Wolf could totally kick any fighter jet's ass. Not too bad for having a semi-rigid rotor system.

Dude, that was awesome! See, even little kids know that helicopters rock I can't wait to have kids someday--that way I can play with toys again!

That must be a Bagram/Afghanistan thing. At Taji in Iraq (huge Army base), I always wore my shoulder holster that had my gun pointing behind me with no problems--a lot of the Army guys did the same.

When I referred to the 60 community screwing themselves, I wasn't speaking so much as to the operational concerns between the AF and the Army brought up by you and the other guys--though I agree a lot with the points you all make. I was referring to how the 60 community has screwed themselves into their low manning situation--again, with help from AFPC. Back when I was brought into the helicopter world and was at Rucker 6 years ago, we were told the horror stories that if you didn't get a 60 or 53 out of Rucker that there was a strong chance you would never get one and would 'just' be a Huey guy. Shortly after beginning my tour at my first assignment, we were all told the same thing by AFPC and our leadership--that crossflows to a 60 (53 was then going away) was going to be extremely difficult and you better be one of the top Huey guys to get to crossflow to a 'tactical' aircraft. A lot of the first assignment guys just faced the fact that the timing was bad and that we would all just end up being Huey guys because 60 crossflows were so few--again, also being told we weren't going to be as good because we weren't in 'tactical' airframes. Well towards the end of my first assignment, the pendulum had swung the other way, 60 manning was horrible, and I think the 60 leadership as well as AFPC truly realized that they were doing better with crossflows from Huey guys than from the majority of copilots they were getting straight out of Rucker. At that time, me and my Huey buddies were talking to our friends at the various 60 bases and for the most part were told "The deployments suck; Most of the time we don't get to fly that much; Our leadership isn't the best, etc" and that overall, and I quote, a lot of them said "It's not that great". So now before my deployment, I was told AFPC was begging for guys to go 60's from Hueys, but that a lot of guys were saying "Screw you! My buddies don't have too many good things to say about flying 60's!". Many of them just decided to stay Hueys or try and get one of the Osprey slots. That's my whole take on how 60's screwed themselves--back in the day they made it seem like they only wanted the 'best of the best' Huey pilots and that if you didn't get a 60 that you weren't anything good to speak of. Now Huey guys see how it really is and are saying they'd rather stay Hueys. Don't get me wrong, there are still some first assignment Huey guys who still want to go CSAR, and more power to them, I hope they get one. But the whole "You'll be lucky to get a 60 out of your first Huey assignment" has gone away...most guys now just say you can have it.

My advice if you're at Rucker is this: I you're not dead set on wanting a 60, don't ask for one. Go for the Osprey if that's where your heart is, if not, put down Hueys and hope you get one of your top locations. I would argue that Fairchild (now that Vandy is closed) is the best first assignment Huey base you can get--unless you're strictly going for hours where in that case I'd take one of the three missle bases. The reason I say 'don't ask for a 60 if you're not sure' is because if you get one, that's it--you're a 60 pilot with very little chance of parole. And with the recent changes/discussions with the new administration, who knows what the hell is going to happen to CSAR in the near future. So take a Huey, learn as much as you can, build some air sense, log a ton of hours (push to fly as many NVG lines as possible), and after 2-3 years if you still want a 60, it will be there for you and you can then enter the community with some hours and SA. Right now AFPC is struggling to fill 60 slots with Huey guys who are at the end of their first assignment (most guys just don't want to do it)--unfortunately I think that the 60 community (with the help of AFPC) has screwed themselves over the last 10 years and now they're paying for it. Now having said all of this and as I said earlier, if your heart truly wants to fly a 60 and do that mission, then by all means go for it and I hope you get it. I hear it's an awesome aircraft to fly and I know of a lot of good dudes in the community. But as the 60 guys on here have mentioned, you'll be gone A LOT. Choose wisely and good luck.

As I understand it, those are purchases for the U.S. Army. On second thought...does the Air Force even have helicopters??

Ok, I'm a knuckle dragger, so bear with me: What is this 'non-USO military lounge' at MSP you speak of? I'm aware of the USO outside the main terminal by the baggage claim/car rentals that I thought was pretty nice if you have a layover--comfy recliners, free wireless, etc (too bad no alcohol). Only thing that sucks is you have to go through security again. But is there another lounge for us military types inside the main terminal? If so, more details please!