Dupe

By dumb luck, I seem to be one of the younger guys showing up to every squadron I've ever been in. As a result, I have rediculous Snack-O skills. Here's my thoughts in random order: 1) Pay-pal -you can have the bros repay their debt via credit card. Pay-pal isn't the only, or even the best pay-by-credit card service out there, either. Shop around. 2) Case-lot sales -Why buy Diet Coke at $2.98 a 12-pack once a month when you can buy it once-a-quarter at $0.50 a 12-pack? 3) Buy in bulk -Is anything in the snack bar perishable? Exactly. Buy a truck load or pallet of the crap you sell the most. 4) Airshows - This is your opportunity to provide T-shirts and patches to the world. I highly recommend Canadian and European airshows. 5) The Home-Station Airshow -Volunteer to help with the planning at the wing level. Volunteer so that you can get first dibs on the beer tent. 6) The Delinquents -You can't MAKE dudes pay. You can make the delinquent list part of the Top-3 step brief, send the list to the DO, or make checking out with you an outprocessing requirement (you can get a snack-o sign off on vMPF). Be warned that your top delinquents will likely be the wing and OG leadership. You can chase down the bros...let the DO tackle the higher-ups. 7) Keep Good Books -You will win no awards for properly tracking snacko cash. The snacko can be shut down and you get an LOR (or higher) for crappy books. Its kinda like SOF or giving the General an instrument check. 8) Random Jobs -The snack-o is the go-to individual for stuff like going-away lithos, awards plaques, and the rediculous painted helmets we give to the honorary SQ/CCs and the local mayor. Make good friends and take care of the people you rely on to create such items. The boss may have no idea that you're out of Snickers, but you'll damn-sure look like an ass if you don't have the framed lithograph with all the squadron RMOs ready for the OG's change of command even though you found out about the tasking two days prior. 9) Landing Fee -the landing fee should cover all the initial patches/T-shirts a bro gets showing up to the squadron. It should also cover his going-away litho or wood. Consider collecting additional landing fees for squadron deployments to Red Flag or down-range. 10) Upgrades - charge dudes a keg when they earn a monumentous upgrade (2Fl, 4Fl, IP in the fighter world...maybe AC, IP, and MC in the heavy world). 11) Kick Ass - As snacko, you are the most visible Lt and the Lt who was given the most rope. You can either lasso the bull with it or hang yourself. I'm pretty sure I'm at where I'm at today based partially on my snacko skills.

100% not true. If you miss the intended target with a penetrating weapon, all you've done is dug a very expensive well. For penetrating weapons, the case takes up most (69%-85%) of the total weight of the weapon. In contrast, traditional GP bombs are about half case and half explosive fill.

It depends on how far along the test program is and exactly how the T&E portion of the contract was written. I'd guess that the Raptor CTF is about 20% civilian flyers. For comparision, the JSF right now has about 90% contractors flying it. As the JSF gets further along in testing, that ratio will squeeze down to 10-20% civilian over the next five years. For those with access, read the SIB report. I'm not sure how often this happens, but the SIB and the AIB reports definately disagree. Anyone with more knowledge of the safety/investigative process willing to comment on the reasons for such a disagreement?

Someone in the missle world please educate us on the purpose and proper use of a crew rest area. If someone showed me to a crew rest area after long shift in a hole, I'd promptly fall asleep.

Right now is the first time I've been back to Seymour Johnson in a few years. A former intel officer then reservist tanker dude here went in with the bros and openned up a bar down town. For a small southern town, its got a damn good selection of beers and the staff treats ya right. Additionally, you don't have to pay $60 a year for the 'privilage' of going there. Its fairly common now to see the bros there (in southern-standard cargo shorts, flops, and polos vice the bags) telling BS stories with Lts listening in. Last Friday, the O-club lot was completely empty. For some enterprising individuals, the failure of the club has turned into a pretty good business for them.

If you're a WSO, the best way to get to be a pilot is to kick ass as a WSO. A former SQ/CC of mine sat on the active duty UPT board one year, and briefed the squadron on the big-picture way that the board looked at dudes. Here's my memory from a briefing that happened two years ago: 1. Each board member looks at your record for no longer than 45 seconds. 2. PCSM matters some, but being DG from UNT or the B-course, being a quarterly/yearly top-gun or award-winner, and having a high stratification from your OG matters much more. In the few times I've seen the process happen, the #1 and #2 WSO applying for UPT from each F-15E got picked up. #3 was a maybe. The board is looking for continuing success....if you did well at P-cola then have been lazy since, you can expect to not get picked up. However, if you were an average guy comming out of the B-course and you busted your tail to earn some quarterly awards and the #1 OG ranking for the board, you stand a good shot of making the cut. 3. WSOs and Navs tend to have a leg up on the board simply because there's more confidence in their overall SA and ability to complete UPT. Here's my random thoughts: -Changing the number of active duty members selected for UPT is the AF's fastest way to alter the size of pilot production. Some years are great...others are droughts. As with everything else in the AF, luck and timing are key. -Be carefull what you wish for. As a former-WSO pilot, you can expect a career progression much like a FAIP. You'll be thrown into 2-FLUG not long after you finish MQ along with being inserted directly into a shop-chief job. You'll be a flight commander while busting your balls to complete 4-FLUG. You'll be a 2-ship while your PRF is being written as compared to your Instructor-qualed peers. Bottom line: you'll be given the responsibilities out-side the jet commensurate with the mid to senior level captain that you'll be but you'll still need to learn to fly the jet like the Lts -be prepaired for the fire-storm that awaits you post B-course (well..the second B-course for you). -Tell your flight commander and DO your dreams early-on and do your homework. A while ago, it seemed there was some stigma associated with WSOs who wanted to leave the rear 'pit to become pilots. I think that environment has ended and all the flight commanders and DOs that I have seen have been supportive of the desires of their people. I watched one guy almost not get a UPT slot because he didn't do his homework and he rushed his application. As a result, the OG simply tacked his name to the bottom of the list and the dude became an alternate. Luckily, someone else fell out and he got bumped up. The ultimate bottome line: nobody really gives a flying ###### about your AFOQT scores anymore (unless they are so heinously bad that the board may think you're retarded). If you want to be a pilot and you are a WSO, then get there by being the best WSO you can be.

It gets to be 115F during the top of the summer at my base. Its an unwritten rule that if you drive a beater (like me), then you are cleared hot to leave both windows full down. The constant film of desert dust in the summer is worth not sitting in a car that could top 140 if the windows have been rolled up for some time. What the hell happened to common sense?

Here's how to get ahead as a WSO/NAV/EWO/CSO/etc: 1. Kick ass at each step along the way. OTS may be insanely gay and in no way relevant to combat. If your value as a future officer is judged by writing staff summary sheets or memos, be the best damn staff summary/memo writer you can be. Work your ass off in OTS and become DG. Being a DG from your commissioning source really does mean alot when it comes to selection boards for things later on in life like WIC, UPT, or special duty. 2. Study your balls off in flight school. During flight school, you need to spend your time either studying or working out at the gym. Pensacola has lots of distractions, but don't get too distracted. I'm not sure how the program will change, but it was very adult when I went through. There was no Air Force-style stand-up. If you weren't on the schedule, you weren't expected to be at work. Some guys took that to mean beach. Those guys didn't do as well as the dudes who worked a 12 hour day regardless if they were in the sim, flying, or studying at home. Put a copy of the dash one (or NATOPS) and the checklist in the crapper. Review one system or EP each time you take a duke. Be DG in flight school and hope there's an airframe of your desire in the drop. Sometimes getting the platform or assignment you want simply isn't in the cards. Don't worry about that....worry about kicking ass in the B-course. All the platforms do some cool shit. 3. Keep up the focus as you enter the B-course. Regardless of which specific aircraft you get selected for, it will have a formal training program associated with it. Sometimes, the wait for these programs combined with the TDY-train that can come in between P-cola and the B-course can cause you to lose your study-game when you start the B-course. The B-course is the first time you establish your reputation in your community. Work your balls off just like you did in flight school. Unlike the Navy, it is expected that you be at work all day every day. You need to spend your day flying, studying in the vault, or working out. Make a good reputation for yourself. I promise that a guy who has douche-bag reputation will have that reputation arrive at his gaining unit before he will. 4. Drink with old dudes. There is no syllabus event in UNT or the B-course for drinking with the old-hats at the bar or the club. For pretty much any platform you go to, there will be old dudes who have gone around the block more than a few times in your aircraft. Their lessons learned are absolute gold for you. You can read about the characteristcs and flight profile of the SA-6 enough times in 3-1 such that you can spit out the paragraph verbatim....but the knowledge of what the ######er actually looks like when it gets shot at you may be the most important damn thing you learn. 5. Once you are mission qualified, become a subject matter expert in something. Your knowledge of your weapons system will be the greatest the day you finish with the mission qualification program in your first operational unit. After that, you'll start to have a side job in your squadron like working in Stan/Eval, Weapons, Scheduling, or Training. Aside from being the Snacko, the best possible jobs are ones that force you to continue to study in the course of your side-job like Weapons or Stan / Eval. Every combat aircraft now flying is so complicated that no one person is a full expert on every subject or system. Pick a system or subject early on and be the squadron's expert on that subject. If I were a young Bone dude, I'd start looking for anything and everything on Laser JDAM and legacy LGBs now that the B-1 is sniper-capable... 6. Let your leaders know what you want. If UPT / WIC / flying until you die is your true goal, tell your flight commander and DO. Your quiet whisper of "I want to do X in five years" may lead to a TDY or sortie that is very specific to what you wish to do in the future. Your leadership, if they're good, will bend over backwards to help you...but they can't do it if they don't know what you want. 7. Do your homework. Know when the selection boards for your desired program occur and what the application process consists of. Some things, like UPT and WIC, have a stratification at the wing level before your package moves on to the respective board. Other things, like selections for Med school, have you mail your package straight to the board with no wing commander input. Know how the gears turn for your deisred program. As you get to a year out or so from the program you want to apply for, buy the wing exec a beer and ask him how the process for X really works. 8. Be ready for change. The overall structure, cascading down to the CSO needs of the Air Force are rapidly changing. There may be more NSA/MC-12/UAV/other platforms in the drops in the comming years than traditional bomb-dropping WSO-run aircraft. Be ready, be flexible, and be open to change. Edited: I added #8 and fixed some minor grammer now that the hangover has subsided somewhat.

Somewhat aside, if you've not had the opportunity to get a seat on the NASA Gulfstream-2 shuttle sim when they do practice approches, do it! Imagine a business jet in a 30 degree dive-bomb pattern with a base altitude of 20,000 feet then taking it to a low-approach. That pretty much summarizes the G-2 profile. They often fly missions into KSC, Edwards, and White Sands and always give up seats to aircrew, tower folks, airmen of the quarter, etc.

Here's a bit of NASA dork humor on 911:

M2 has it right (as usual). Your NTSC TV can be powered in Germany, but it won't recieve a signal. Plenty of dudes I know had an American TV that they used for AFN and DVDs. Most of the TVs they sell at the BXs in Europe are both dual voltage and both NTSC and PAL compatable. Bigger picture, with hulu.com and netflix, you may find you don't need any kind of TV anymore. I think I'm going to try to not pay for cable on my next PCS.

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I'm convinced it should be required reading for all college graduates.

Dash was one hell of a dude. I got up with him a few weekend mornings to brew beer. His beer equipment was mostly homebuilt- old kegs cut or welded together to form boiling pots and storage bins. Heck, his entire house was a science project of some sort. Most of the furniture was built in his metal shop --which was in the spare bedroom of his crappy issued-house on base. Another side project of his was attempting to refine algae-based fuels, and the home of this work was also his living room. Dash made you believe that American know-how still existed, and made you damn proud that he decided to fly for the Air Force rather than cashing in his skills. I have no doubt that he would have been a strong leader in the Dragon Lady test community. He will be missed. Cheers, Dash. Tomorrow's brew day will be for you.

Last friday, I got the opportunity to fly in the Good Year blimp. After a long discussion about dirigible technology and how to pick up chicks at bars, the pilot exclaimed "So you guys are the reason people keep constantly asking me if the airship gets folded!" It turns out they really do fly it at 35 mph indicated when they take it cross-country.

Realize that the simulator is just an option. Any time there's a need for a new capability, there's a massive effort to analyze all the options and alternatives availible to meet that need. the lengthy Analysis of Alternatives (and how only some of the alternatives get leaked / pushed) is just one facet of how screwed up the acquisitions process really is. Are sims the 100% answer? Hell no. However, as sim fidelity increases, sims will play an increasing part in any training program. Here's an example: the T-38 doesn't well prepare guys to enter 5th generation fighters (hence the mini-viper B-course for those few selected for F-22s straight from UPT). A possible solution is to have a future jet trainer incorporate a simulated radar to get guys used to radar intercepts.

That was a C-model issue. The E fleet was only grounded for a few days while they sorted the issue out.

Dude, all you have to do is go into any of the fighter squadrons on RAFL, and tell the story of your father to the nearest FGO you can find. Have him get a LT to take you to the shoppette/Taco Bell. There, the LT will buy you a bottle of weed. Its less than $20 at the shoppette.

I once read a story where a fighter dude shaved his 'stache to go chase some stewardess tail while on R & R in Bangkok. Upon his return, he got his unshaven ass shot down. After his rescue, he was ordered to never shave his upper lip again. Anyone have that reference?

I found this on the North Carolina Department of Revenue website: Here's what you do to meet that: Go into whatever program you're using, and enter only your wife's income for the federal parts. Make sure you select "Married Filing Seperately." Work through her entire federal return, but DO NOT FILE IT. Instead, simply print out the results. Using the results (probably just AGI) from your wife's theoretical federal return, fill out a NC state return with her status as "Married Filed Seperately" Since you've already filed a federal return, probably the easiest way to do all that is with a mechanical pencil, a calculator, and down-loaded tax forms. If it flumuxes you too much, walk into your VITA office on base and have them take care of it. I did it all the time when I was a tax volunteer last year, and it was only a few button-clicks to sort out the married with two seperate state-of-residences issue.

-2 I have had exceptional customer service with them. They even do nametags so you don't have to waste your time and hair on Mardon.

Don't do it. In fact, don't take the EWO pill at all if you can avoid it. Here are the advantages of being an F-15E EWO: <none> Here are the disadvantages of being an F-15E EWO: doing a tour as a non-flying mission planner for the B-2 or other LO assets, being a virtually non-flying EWO in a Viper wing that has a crappy locations (all the good locations have a pilot filling the EWO billet), getting non-volled for a counter-IED job on the ground down range, and being a SAM aggressor at Red Flag. Realize that the EW course at Randolph is geared around manual RWR and ELINT systems. You can rest confident that, much like many things generated at Randolph, your EWO course skills will serve you little in an operational Strike Eagle squadron. While the EW knowledge won't help too much with your tactical skills, it makes you qualified for lots of bad deals (some mentioned above). I remember when the AF section chief at Whitbey came down to Pensacola to sell us to on EA-6Bs instead of Strike Eagles (this was in late '05). He basically said 'I don't really want new guys and think its bad idea, but I have to recruit guys anyway. Now let me tell you about the Prowler...' That was some sales pitch. You'll get such a bigger picture by being a young F-15E WSO than if you went off to be one of three EWOs in an extremely underpowered EW aircraft. Bottom line: Go F-15Es. If 'trons make you jizz your pants, then do well and let your flight commander in your ops squadron know you want to go to FECOC (Fighter Electronic Combat Officer's Course). FECOC is much more relevant to tactical aviation than the EWO course at Randolph is. Later on, the EA-6B may be an option for you (if its still around).

The world of those with bug-smasher wings is changing, and changing fast. Here's my background: I'm a F-15E WSO and now a student at Test Pilot School. When I was in the ops world, I shunned this new 'CSO' label that was being thrust upon the rated navigator world. Now that I've seen a bunch of different systems and how they've been integrated on a variety of different platforms, I'm convinced that CSOs will add much to the fight. For all intensive purposes, the job title of Navigator is now dead. It its place is a person who can operate systems and sensors, target weapons, and increase SA to accomplish the mission. I'll talk to the F-15E as an example because I can speak to its background most authoritatively. Since 2001, the F-15E has had a new system, sensor, or weapon added to it every 1.5 years. This doesn't even include enhanced capability that has been added by software updates. The most recent update included the ability to drop SDBs. While the SDB still has much growth to do, the F-15E can carry 28 of these little f$#kers. On top of that, each one can have its own seperate fuse setting. Can a single seat pilot even hope to handle that level of data management while maintaining formation, listening up on a few radios (with smaller kits, the number of radios is going up too), and having SA on the ground picture? Variable guidance weapons have been around for a bit but they're just starting to come of age. Laser JDAM is the current iteration, but I don't think we're that far off from a multi-mode weapon that can target coordinates, electronic emmisions, laser designators, or self-target using electro-optics. Operating those systems is surely going to take more than one dude in the jet. The next thing down the pipe is an AESA radar. AESA radars use lots little tiny transmiter rectifier modules (they're about the size of a 7.62mm casing) instead of a gimbal system to steer the main lobe of the radar. Because its electronicaly scanned, it can move the beam around in the 100s of microseconds time frame. Maybe if the beam moves that fast, the radar can do its traditional roles of air search and targeting and generate synthetic aperature radar maps at the same time rather than having to timeshare the radar between the two functions. If it can do both air search and ground search functions at the same time, will it be possible for one guy to take that all in? Heck, if I can electronicaly steer a beam of energy with a 2-4 cm wavelength (aka...most air intercept radars), maybe then I can rapidly steer a much narrower beam of coherent light in the .5-10 micro meter range (aka... lasers (sans sharks)). Lasers have a greater range per input power and their beamwidths are so small that angular resolution is a fraction of that of radar. I haven't even touched on the crazy potential abilities that various data links bring to the fight. This all may seem like crazy mad-scientist talk, but the bottom line is that modern aircraft are able to generate much more data than one dude can currently handle. Sure, increased automation and presentation styles will mitigate some of that, but certainly not all. There is a place for WSOs/CSOs/whatever in the future Air Force....just look at the airplanes that are currently being rapidly-procured.

Nope. That's the amount of tax free combat zone income that you've earned in the calender year. It includes all of your pay earned during the months that you were in a combat zone, your "daily pay" for days that you took tax free leave, and any bonuses paid while down range (that one's an enlisted-only deal). The 'D' code in box 12 are your "tax deferred" TSP contribuitions and the 'E' code in box 14 are your "tax-exempt" TSP contributions (i.e..contributions you made while down range). Box 1 on your W-2 is the only amount that goes into figuring your taxable income for federal purposes. Your non-taxable combat zone income doesn't usually enter into any tax calculations or problems. One case I can think of was a young enlisted guy who deployed most of the year. Because he didn't have any hardly any taxable income, he thought he wasn't entitled to Earned Income Credit. However, he could elect to include his non-taxed combat zone income for his EIC calculations. I ended up getting him an extra 2.5 Grand for his family.

Your tax-free leave will carry over. The pay amount for those days will appear in block 12 of your 2009 W-2 with a 'Q' code (the generic tax-free code).

DITYs (both full and partial) get seperate W-2s. However, the rest of your return should be pretty simple. DFAS is really good about including all forms of pay (flight pay, etc) and properly deducting for things like TSP and combat exclusion. The tax area that effects the broadest number of military folks is the relaxation of time requirements for exluding the gains on the resale of your main home. IRS Publication 3 - Armed Forces' Tax Guide can tell you more about a host of topics military folks face when completing their tax returns. Let me give the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program one more plug -they're on your base (in the legal office), they know the issues that affect you, and its free (including your state return if you're unlucky enough to have one).