brabus

The question to answer is, should individuals with mental illness be allowed to own guns? The hole gets deeper when you then have to answer which ones (or is it all, no matter how “small”), what level of diagnosis/“proof” is required, can somebody be “rehabbed” and subsequently go back to owning guns, etc. Logically I don’t want a mentally deranged individual to have a weapon, but the harder determination is how does that desire sync up with 2A? Is a PTSD claim considered mental illness? This is a tough one.

@slc A visual depiction is easier sometimes…

CH with his Blackstone: (Admin Note: I uploaded the video for ease...) Every Guy With A Blackstone.mp4

Yet another “oh that can’t happen, it’s impossible” LM engineer statement proven wrong in time.

It’s waiverable, but no idea on the chances of that happening. Probability of success will likely be linked to how bad the AF needs pilots (my guess is not bad enough to regularly waive TBI). Hopefully a flight doc can chime in with better info.

Back in the day drawing dicks in a 4 star’s hat and throwing it in the freezer was good to go - probably get you castrated on AD nowadays.

Both things you mentioned - TX slots are not plentiful, so what’s the incentive for a unit to (re)hire a guy who’s already by choice stopped flying once before? Especially considering there are likely several other great candidates for that TX slot who haven’t quit flying before and are probably currently flying some other aircraft (recency). That is clearly subjective, but put yourself in a unit’s shoes - you may be a great dude, but it’s still a pretty hard sell to pick you over the other guys (in this hypothetical).

My hat looks the way it does precisely because it never leaves the pocket (or is on the floor during laundry). Actually couldn’t find it before the last 3 week TDY and went the whole time without it even in my pocket…proof a hat in the guard is pretty much unnecessary!

My current hat has 3 holes, dirt/sweat stains, most of the silver “braid” is gone - as God intended.

I know some guard dudes who went down that road - they never flew manned again, despite their best efforts to do so. Possible, yes, likely to work out, probably not. If you pursue a unit change and go RPA, do so being OK with never flying manned again.

What a turbo douche. Wow.

@ViperMan Valid points again, but devils advocate is using that logic he goes into WAY more debt early in life, betting on the premise his hypothetical future wife and/or kids will need his GI bill for a degree. I know how well my “in 20 years this is where my life will be” thoughts worked out - probably similar to everyone else! The hypothetical scenario is certainly realistic, but is it worth the gamble and taking on a shitload of debt right now? I don’t think there’s a right answer, but it is a large point to consider. Also depends on one’s view of college in general or what they think their future kids are “entitled to.” Some of us max out 529s and encourage our kids to go to college, some of us think college is mostly a for max profit bullshit scheme and useless outside of specific career tracks where it’s a hard requirement. If one is in the latter group, who cares about saving the GI Bill for kids.

@ViperMan All valid points, but that assumes he needs to use his GI Bill for a degree. My take from reading above (unless I’m misunderstanding what Wikz wrote) is he’s currently working on a degree (assuming he’s using TA). That means he’ll eventually have a degree without ever having to crack open the GI bill. I have two degrees (both bullshit FWIW), and haven’t touched the GI Bill. TA is a great deal. If my kids don’t use the GI Bill (at this point I think that’s fairly likely), I’m probably using it to go learn gunsmithing, welding at a pro level, etc. There are many ways to effectively use the GI Bill beyond traditional college.

@wikz If you’re good with commercial flying being your career (even if you never get hired to fly ANG), then the plan is decent. Personally I would use GI bill towards ratings, as it sounds like it’s not necessary to use it towards the degree you’re currently working on (is that correct?) keep in mind major airlines will require turbine time (and usually PIC turbine), so you will likely have to either move on from CFI-ing to fly for a local commercial company who flies turbines, or you’re doing two jobs simultaneously. Either way, it’s going to be bumpy road of low pay (relatively) for a while, but if you truly enjoy aviation (and teaching when you get to that point) it’ll be a fun journey and you’ll be somewhere you really want to be soon enough (199th, HA, etc.) Sure beats the hell out of sitting behind a desk every day!