Great story and hats off to Southwest. Unlike American a few years ago where my wife and I landed late and hit customs 45 min prior to the connecting flight. We ran up to the gate no shit 2 min prior to time and they said, "tough luck." So even though we were technically "on time" (obviously the standard is 30 early or so, but come on...) they could give 2 shits. Too bad those dicks couldn't be more like the SWA pilot/gate agents. Also, any airline guys here know if its possible for gate agents et al to know a connecting passenger has landed (i.e. late land and they know the person is late because of a connection, checked in, but security is out of control, etc. and not just being a no show)? I figure that would exist, but maybe not.

2

I completely forgot about the one at the beginning of T-6s as it didn't matter for shit...the "real" one is at the beginning of 38s. I agree with osulax...you're better off dealing with the med stuff now and possibly postponing UPT start than you are getting to Phase 3 and then dealing with it, leading to washing back several classes, out of flying for a few months in between T-6s and T-38s, etc. Option A is much better than Option B.

You don't take the FACT until the beginning of T-38s, so you've got time to rest/recover from surgery. The question is does it affect your ability to fly at all? I would try to talk to a flt doc somewhere who would be able to find out how long the surgery would DNIF you for. I'm just guessing, but I would think surgery will most likely push your start date back, but a few months may be worth it to get your shoulder back to normal.

Excellent! Well played...

2.

The one where the group orders enough so everybody's got a tupperware with 569 straws and an impending meltdown.

I know what it is. I was referring to you only having one ammo bowl. Come on, you've got to have at least two in a night! Maybe I'll add some loko in the next one.

Ammo Bowl anyone?

What is this singular form of "Ammo Bowls" you speak of?

Guy at my last assignment is retiring this year as an O-3 and 5,000+ hours of flying in the -135. Was Active Duty his whole career. It's possible, don't do SOS.

Wow. I thought you had to promote by a certain year or else you were involuntarily separated?

Completely agree. Guess I should have put leadership in quotes...obviously there's nothing "leadership" about them.

I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading here! I'm with SocialD on this one, all leadership from the Wing/CC down will plan as much as they can (sometimes they can't get away and then they even apologize for not making it to help out with planning...definitely not even remotely required). Many times the OG or Wing/CC will be in for several hours on Sunday planning for a Monday sortie. After the flight, they stay for a full debrief, even if it's 5 hrs (barring anything coming up in the Wing they have to deal with), and they offer great instruction. Depending on what you're doing, they'll go out there and kick the shit out of you...they are good at what they do and are far from needing a "seeing-eye IP." On top of all that, they know everyone in the squadron, don't need any retarded bios, nor do they need any information prior to the flight except what type of mission it is and when they'll be there for planning. Sorry to all you guys out there that have to deal with all this assclown leadership.

I want to say it's known as the "fist of justice" or something like that, though I'll leave the rest of the story up to our mudhen bros...that is if they'll tell it.

Fuck, Toro why haven't you added a breathalyzer to log on to baseops...this would make such situations easier to avoid. Dammit!

Shutup. Your retarded.

You have no sense of humor and/or total inability to detect a joke.

they're

Damn you Hoss and the rest of your grammar posse.

Plenty of time to hunt when you retire. Not much time to be part of the greatest branch of the most powerful military force in the history of the planet. Keep that in mind.

I was just joking around, absolutely agree. I wouldn't trade what I'm doing for anything, including hunting. Though it would be awesome if I can take leave for a week next Elk season...at least there's always that pipe dream.

How do these asshats not realize that the retirement benefits are the #1 reason most people stay in for 20 yrs. This is especially applicable nowadays when everyone is gone 250+ days a year either deployed or TDY. Nobody is going to put up with that shit for 20 yrs if there's not a damn good deal at the end of the tunnel.

Just like one Lt Col told me, "unfortunately, it's the bullshit that gets you promoted and not your ability in the jet." He went on to pretty much say exactly what Leerjetter is saying. ASBC is fucking gay, a complete waste of time and money and serves no real purpose. However, it is one of those "bullshit things" that may matter at some point down the road. That said, it's probably so low on the list of crap that I sure wouldn't be trying to get there if you're one of the lucky people who didn't have to go right away. But, if you go, might as well not just completely blow it off and fail the tests or whatever...had several people do that when I went. First of all, their idiots for failing easy tests, but secondly who knows if that'll bite them in the ass at some point in the next 5 or so years.

Anybody know exactly what kind of survival gear the pilot would/might have with them? Also, would pilots wear extra/thicker clothing when flying in Alaska, or is it the standard bag + t-shirt underneath?

Can't speculate exactly what's in his kit, but there's enough in there to survive. And yes, you have to wear winter gear, i.e. long underwear, wool socks, winter boots, etc. There's a couple different levels of winter gear depending on the temp.

My prayers are with the pilot and his family...I sure hope they find him ok.

Top 50% is the WOM I've always heard/read, but sorry, don't have anything in writing to back that up. Just work your ass off and don't suck. Worrying about some number, class standing, etc. is not what you need to be doing, just put the effort in and you'll probably be fine.

because I was shooting pheasants in non-racist South Dakota where the weather was perfect.

Damn you Rainman, damn you to hell. Fricken AF always ruining my hunting plans!

"that we were looking into the eyeballs of a pilot bearing down on us."

Sure you were...dumbass.

and then it's like being in a war zone."

Oh really, you know what a war zone is like? Tell us about it...bitch.

God I hate jackasses like this.

TUI is 2 papers every 2 weeks...one is 2-3 pgs and the other is around 5. There is no thesis or tests. I can't imagine there's a degree out there with less resistance. Oh, and the AF will pay for 100% of the costs.

Am supervising three young awaiting-pilot-training LTs a few years ago. Orderly room emails me the RIP, in MS WORD format, that sends one to UPT. We edit the doc changing the guys assignment from UPT to ABM tng, prebrief his spouse, and leave it in his v-file. Tough to keep a straight face when he comes to me a few days later...but we manage to simulate a call to AFPC to get him assigned to UPT... Kid may still think I'm a god for that one...vastly improved the other two's motivation to exceed expectations--nothing better than a fired up LT to get some queep done just prior to a UCI...

Did something similar to our flt/cc in UPT. We made up a fake RIP for UAVs (he was an Eagle dude) and got the sq/cc in on it. He was on the phone with his functional at AFPC when I walked into his office obviously trying to hold back laughter. I think he said "never mind" to his functional, hung up the phone and said, "fuck you guys!!!!!" He then turned it on another Eagle guy in the squadron who also completely bought it. It definitely made for a hilarious afternoon.

Please tell me they painted Cocks Rule! on their roof...I would expect nothing less from our Eagles bros!

Give this man a medal for best injury story ever.

Man Awarded $650G After Suffering Injuries from Lap Dance