brabus

Because in theory he could have made a joking statement like, "fuck you AF FO guy, I'm going to tell the passengers how badass I was in the Navy and why I'm such an awesome pilot"..."Manchester." And then he made good on the claim, thus slapping the FO. A quick lesson in Manchester...also nearing zero pk that's actually what happened, hence my sarcasm.

What were the demographics of the polls? I'm not a health insurance expert by any means, but from my family's experience, the ACA has fucked over the middle class big time. Examples of that is small business was hurt (e.g. my in-laws had to let their employee count drop because they could not afford ACA mandates) and my parents' premiums and co-pays went up substantially, to the point I think they're very close to being in the same position as some others' family members mentioned above. Even the blue collar world has been affected to some degree (reference less jobs available in my in-law's town). Now, I do know there are a lot of blue collar/choose to be on welfare types that love ACA (again, referencing my in-law's town). It's damn near free health care for them, why wouldn't they like it? That crowd also doesn't care about less jobs in reality because they're happy to stay on welfare/suck at the government's tit for the rest of their lives. Bottom line, healthcare is fucked and needs an overhaul, and it blows my mind that anyone in the middle class with sense thinks ACA is the answer.

" 1035 APPROPRIATE ACTION FOR FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE REGULATIONS A command/unit is expected to take appropriate disciplinary action when a traveler and/or AO fail to follow these Regulations. Disciplinary action should be for willful violations and may be in the form of counseling (oral/written), non-judicial action, or other appropriate personnel means. Disciplinary action must not be through refusal to reimburse unless no authority exists or is so stated in this regulation." 1. Is your CC REALLY going to give you counseling, NJP, etc. because you didn't use your GTC, or booked your airfare through delta.com instead of DTS (especially when the ticket price is < the govt constructed cost for the city-pair), etc? I'd wager not in all but the most bizarre cases. I could see those types of things if someone was defrauding the government by submitting doctored receipts, loading cinder blocks in their trailer for a DITY, etc. But we're not talking about obviously bad stuff like that, we're talking about you getting reimbursed for airfare you bought to go on a TDY you were given a couple day's notice on right before a weekend (no time for the standard DTS timeline). 2. If GS-15 d-bag is the ultimate AO holding the key to your unit's LOA, then shouldn't he be the guy approving DTS? Sounds like you're saying TSgt Smith is an AO, approves your DTS, but because "god" didn't know about it, he won't reimburse. So I think you have two COAs... COA 1: Shove 1035 in his face and say no JTR portion was violated and you had authorization/orders (notice there is no where in the JTR that says there is rank among AOs...though FM can trump an AO, but he's not FM, so his argument is DOA). COA 2: Don't write bullshit emails, just use DTS normally and refuse to go on anymore TDYs until your GTC is paid per the JTR (hypothetically saying this happens again). Saw a bro who was fighting the finance reimburse GTC battle, he said fuck it, he's not going on any more TDYs until it's fixed (and this is a guy who has a lot of necessary TDYs for his job). He missed a couple big TDYs, nobody could officially fault him, problem was solved shortly after. I personally like the idea of simultaneously executing both COAs.

Maybe he won the manchester; unfortunately the camera was turned off before he delivered an epic bitch slap to the FO. At least that's what I hope happened...or he's a giant douche.

I book airfare all the time not through DTS. Also, it is in violation of the JTR to not reimburse your personal card...though you could avoid the issue with your RA by using your GTC to self procure airfare. Clearly you have a good reason for doing so. And in the end, the catchall in the JTR is they CANNOT "punish" you via non-reimbursement. Finance MUST reimburse you - the JTR essentially says they could tattle on you to your SQ/CC, at which point your SQ/CC could "counsel" you, but doubtful even a shitty CC will do much more than hit delete on finance Amn's email.

There's always the option of deploying with another wing...I'd be surprised if any wing out there who was tasked doesn't have at least one AMMO dude who would rather stay behind and would be happy for you take his place. Tell your leadership what you want to do and they can keep an ear out for opportunities.

It is in my corner at least, that sucks it's not in yours. Sounds like a leadership shuffle is in order.

I hope your commander says no. And then the OG says no. And then the wg/cc crushes the balls of the ass hat who thought this made sense. Wait..that's the guard, or hopefully your leadership is part of the micro-minority that are actually leaders.

I get your point, but remember what a colossal fuck fest happened when Libya kicked off and a tanker general was in charge. Not a slight against tanker bros, but we all have our place. What would have happened had a cyber general been in charge? Either it would have been worse, or they would have had more sense/humility and stepped aside and let the CAF guys take the reigns. The latter being better, but still shows the inadequacy of placing the wrong experience in a position. That said, cyber is extremely important and a huge problem (and capability) for us. They should be their own force; the AF is holding on much like the Army held onto the air corps. Let the cyber experts run their domain without a pilot thinking they know better/think they can effectively make the calls...it goes both ways. We are the AIR Force as Matt pointed out, keep it that way and split off the domains to a separate service that while complimenting air, should not be under our services purview. Same with the Army, get their grubby fingers out of the cyber pot as well.

CRM is not limited to heavies - it fully exists in the fighter world, you're just working with guys in another jet (single seat world). Flight hours are less overall, but flight hours are also not "equal" either...1 hr in a C-17 is not a direct comparison to 1 hr in a F-16; there's a reason fighter guys are getting hired by airlines at the bare minimum requirements, so I wouldn't personally be extremely concerned with "total hours" if airlines are eventually your desire. The guard fighters GENERALLY do 2-3 month deployments, unlike AD's 6 month standard. QOL in good; the flying/mission is phenomenal - do you want to fly at 100' AGL and 50K in the same sortie, blow assholes up, shoot missiles, fly in all corners of the world, go on awesome TDYs, etc? It's a great lifetstyle, but not for all...it's competitive, can be more stressful (good and bad), etc. If you enjoyed sports in high school/college, the camaraderie and competition, then you'll probably like it. If you though those guys were assholes and don't feel comfortable with competition amongst your peers, or think being 33 yrs old and still studying for several hours on a day you're not flying is bullshit, then it may not be for you.

I think some of the tech he mentioned seems like it could certainly enhance training, but none of that will replace air time. I fully support finding ways to do things better and not sticking with the status quo because "that's how it's always been," but what HAF won't admit is you can't take this tech and replace air time, let alone cut UPT length by 50%. We're already in a shitpie with dangerous, non-mission capable FNGs, cutting 6 months out of the pipeline, regardless of new tech, will be disastrous. If HAF would admit this new tech will improve training (but won't replace air time, i.e. UPT stays 1 year), then I'd applaud them for doing something that makes sense.

I think smokin's post is spot on. Pick the mission that appeals to you, not what "seems" to be the current leader in the stacking bodies game, because the latter is very much time/luck based, could change at any moment, can even be squadron based and not MDS based, etc. I had a sq/cc who was a C-model dude, said when he was casual in an A-10 sq he naturally liked the idea of the Hawg, but at the time they weren't doing shit and everyone thought the next likely thing was shooting the Iraqi AF down, so he went after Eagles. Well, guess how that worked out in terms of going to war. Of course I think you should list all the fighters first based on my biased love for those missions, but I have worked closely with the gunships and U-28s, great communities that do awesome work. Certainly worth an immediate "second" to fighters on the dream sheet in your case

Step 1, single seat. Step 2, list fighters keeping step 1 in mind. Step 3, list AFSOC over big wing ISR, MAF, etc. Step 4, consider how bad you want fighters and if listing FAIP ahead of AFSOC is worth it for a second chance at fighters three-ish years from now. You will get biased answers no matter what because we all generally love what we do, even if for some it wasn't their first choice out of UPT. Nothing wrong with that, just be aware.

Flying an F-4 felt like driving a dualie that had been in a wreck. I cannot imagine taking that thing downtown; those guys had huge brass balls. One of the best 1.0s of my life.

That's what I had to do...she hooked me up with the inside track to 422.

On the contrary, I had 3x CFIs in my class, 2 of which were below average in phase 2 and struggled heavily. The other kicked ass. I don't think civilian ratings directly correlate to good UPT performance, but I'm sure they do help for some people, clearly not for all.

I understand di1630's point, and it has merit. That said, it's still important to be prepared for the other things that could flare up outside of our current conflicts, regardless of how many years it has been since X happened or what our opinions are of the probability the NoDAKs will cross the line this Friday night, 5 min before curfew starts ("which one of you is least drunk?") Would it be nice if guys knew more 9-level shit about bombs or were slightly better at X (i.e. the stuff we're doing right now)...sure it would, but until I see continuous, rampant fuckery downrange (not just isolated fuckups) or we're starting to lose the war due to aircrew inability to perform, I think we're doing alright with balancing current war with preparedness for potential threats that exceed ISIS, Taliban, etc. Last point, if you seriously think we are investing way too much effort/money into "other/possible war" stuff, you are woefully uninformed about what's out there. We'd be fools to not do what we're doing right now, at least in a general sense (there are million things that could be done better, but the big picture approach/understanding and prioritization of the threat is not necessarily wrong).

I believe you man; leadership is horribly failing at multiple levels. But that's old news...

Not a single line IP should say the word time line. That's for DOs/CCs to argue about, maybe. If the line IPs aren't holding the standard, we're all fucked. There's a bar, either hold people to it or go get some remedial training on being an IP.

to stuck. Crossed paths with him multiple times over the last 10 years...great dude. Rest easy buddy.

What we have right now is completely unsat, and the staff is kicking around ideas like cutting phase 3? Fuck you staff. I can't believe what were getting out of the FTU...not a spear at the bros teaching or the FNGs, but at those making the decisions that think this kind of shit is acceptable. I am truly concerned about dudes killing themselves, don't even get me started on combat capability. I've experienced what Jaded referenced; it's a trend across multiple squadrons, and will only stop when the ass clowns running this ship aground call a spade a spade and go back to valuing quality over quantity.

That website only shows me leaving AD, but no mention of the periods I've been on orders during my time in the guard so far. So, how do I either make that website reflect correctly, or do I just send AMEX a copy of orders?

Glock 43 with a good gun belt and a single mag carrier on the other side...I wear it for hours, in and out of the car, with no real comfort issues. I even forget it's there when driving, sitting at a restaurant, etc. A proper belt/holster set up will take care of the desire to throw your gun in the center console after 15 min. For times I don't have a belt on, a pocket .380 does the trick.

Trend item: dudes are afraid to divert, go around, or eject. First step is admitting we have a human factors problem...several years ago I randomly had a bro in the backseat during a sortie (he MND'd, decided back seat was better than queep); a standard shitty wx approach to mins with rain/wet runway and extreme canopy pooling - it was his, "we just passed the 5 board" that made me go around. I was fixated on trying to land and time distortion made me feel like we couldn't possibly be more than 1.5K to 2K down the 10K runway. No good divert and the next try he called my flare off the RALT. Only time in my life I was glad to be in a D-model. Point is, canopy pooling is a real bitch and we have a cultural problem to some extent regarding decisions to divert, go around, or eject. Now that I"m more experienced I feel like it's less of an issue personally (but not totally gone), but I see it fairly strong in the younger guys - it's a thing. Monday morning QB'ing is great and all, but it's better to acknowledge this issue and be proactive in teaching the less experienced to understand when to divert, go around, or eject and more importantly, make them truly feel such actions are the right thing and not looked down upon.

To lessen the impact described by crosswind, get out ASAP from AD. That means do not accept another assignment past your UPT ADSC, no matter how awesome it is. Your time to jump is ~11 years, do one more assignment and have 13 years in, you are far less marketable for reasons stated above (not unhirable by any means, just lowe chances/will have a tougher search). And whatever carrot AD waives to get you to do one more assignment is not worth missing out on the guard job you know you want IMO.