Blue

The survivability question is valid, but at the same time, has the Air Force done anything recently to give the A-10 better countermeasures? The other services have put a lot of effort into faster/better/cheaper ECM systems for low and slow aircraft (programs like JATAS and CIRCM). The A-10 (and the Air Force) always seem to be absent from these discussions.

Article published about seven years ago.......

This. The title you're looking for is "Veteran," or maybe "Former Air Force Captain." Also, you're running for political office in a district that's right down the road from Tinker AFB, an area where there are a whole bunch of military veterans, retirees, and civil servants. I gotta think that all of these potential voters are going to have the same kind of questions and critiques that are in this thread.

This.

A Facebook link..... https://www.facebook.com/adam.pugh.56 Also,

Went from ABM to ENJJPT, then washed out maybe? On a related note, is that some sort of goofy photoshop job? Why does the background look like huge blades of grass? Where is he sitting?

I'd think that, given the choice, a politician would pull for a manned unit vs. an RPA unit, just due to the number of jobs. I assume if you go from say, F-16's to Predators, you lose a hell of a lot of jobs (less maintainers, life support, etc).

Honestly, I think that's the only way it would ever happen. If some Governor or Congressman with enough clout wanted a manned mission back, then I could see it happening. I think the likelihood of it occurring are very low.

Big companies should have all of their personnel policies documented somewhere, including the policies on how to handle folks that are in the ANG. It would probably benefit you to go look on the HR website, poke around, and find what the regs are. If you're somewhere where they have a lot of folks in the Guard/Reserve (ie a defense contractor), then it should be no issue. If you're someplace where HR doesn't encounter this a lot, it would pay to get smart on their policies. Edit to add: To put it another way, Big HR is typically dumb. You have some level of protection from USERRA. Know HR's regs, know what USERRA says, and make sure no one screws you.

Had never heard of Snow Aviation. Google brought up some interesting info, one of many links below. So the guy basically wanted to sell C-130 upgrades as an alternative to buying the J, but seems like after ten+ years, they couldn't make it happen. Primarily due to the fact they were good engineers and lousy business people. http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2011/12/09/snow-aviation-owner-pledges-to-rise.html

Eh, I tend to agree with nsplayr. Big Blue will continue to burn hours on the 4th gen fighters, with no thought of trying to conserve them. They'll SLEP the hell out of them, and then point to the "rising maintenance costs" as all the more reason to buy the latest 5th gen wonder toy.

Also, I think when folks have done this before, they've rented the mansion, as opposed to buying it. Always heard it was kinda common amongst the CGO's at the Space and Missile Center at Los Angeles AFB.

Have you all talked to your banks about that? I tend to think getting 3 people on one mortgage for $1 mil+ would be easier said than done......

I'm a fan of Indeed as well. I think your friend will end up on Linkedin eventually, in one way or another. You can post a job there, as well as do some searching on profiles to see if you can find the skills and quals you're looking for. I believe you have to pay to use some of the search functionality, though. I've heard most recruiters work almost exclusively through Linkedin nowadays. I've known folks in the same position as your friend, who were having trouble finding candidates. Some times, it's the employer's fault. Sometimes they haven't done a good job with the job description: no keywords so it doesn't come up in searches, asking for someone with qualifications that are impossible to get (ie 10 years of experience on a technology that came out 5 years ago), etc. I've also seen job descriptions that want a bunch of quals, then say "B.S. degree with 0-1 year of experience." That screams "I want someone who is an expert, but want to pay him like an amateur." That never goes over well. And always, networking. It's cliche, but it's true. Where's the job at? Someone on here might know a guy, who knows a guy.

Deaddebate is the resident expert on these things, I'd defer to him. As far as what's disqualifying and what's waiverable, for peace of mind I'd always strive to see the regs. People make mistakes, just because you have a form saying "DQ'd for X," doesn't mean the person doing that form knew what he/she was talking about. That said, I'd venture it's more likely than not that they know what they're doing, but for peace of mind it's always good to be able to see all the regs yourself. I've never heard of "trained asset" being used in any case when talking about ROTC. That might be something new though. So, yeah. Try to make sure you understand exactly what chapter and verse of the AFI's DQ' you, and what chapter and verse of the AFI's (or other instructions/waiver guides/etc) say that it can't be waiverable. It's one thing for someone to say something, it's another thing to see it in black-and-white in a reg. I'm not a doc, but it would be helpful to read up on the condition, and make sure you understand how it's diagnosed. It's possible the MEPS folks made a mistake. If nothing else, I'm sure you'd like to get a better understanding of WTF that condition means for you personally (outside of the military). Are you going to be at higher risk of strokes, aneurysms, etc? Or is it something you can live with forever with no side effects? Or is there some treatment you should get?

Some thoughts. Offered for free, potentially worth what you paid for. I think Deaddebate mentioned in another thread that your condition was waiverable for commission. Not sure if you're right or he is, but you certainly want to clarify it. Ultimately, make sure you see the reg yourself, and understand it. I know that's stating the obvious, and you've probably done this already. I don't know much about ETP's. I looked into it briefly a long time ago. I don't think there is anything stopping you from doing it as a civilian, ex-cadet, or whatever you want to call it. That said, I think your chances of getting anything done will be much greater if you have someone who wears an Air Force uniform pushing things forward for you. You have a Senator involved? Can you expand on that? Does your det know you've got a member of Congress involved? Have you talked to your det about what would happen if you got your GPA up about 3.0? What kind of GPA are they looking for before they'll help? Or was that just an excuse to tell you no?

If a foreign nation wanted the F-23, they'd have to pony up the cash for the work needed to develop the YF-23 into a fully-capable F-23. I think you'll find that, in general, the YF-22 and YF-23 were very much prototypes, and pretty far from a fully-developed weapons system. It would be cost-prohibitive for just about anyone but the US.

Electronic warfare will always be a game of countermeasures, counter-countermeasures, counter-counter-measures, etc, ad nauseam. Anyone who thinks their shiny new F-35 automatically guarantees them 20 years of invisibility to the enemy is fooling themselves. The bad guy will buy/develop/steal better radar technology. IR detection technology will improve. Some new game-changing technology will come about where jets are detected from 100 miles away by the smell of the landing gear wheel bearing grease. And on and on. If I were the Israelis, I'd buy the F-15SE now, and start buying F-35's another 10 years from now, when the bugs have hopefully worked out. I gotta think the US would be all for this course of action too. Gotta keep those folks down at the F-15 production line in St Louis working!

I had some community college credit that I transferred to State U. The credit transferred, but the grade didn't. I don't recall that it ever entered into the PCSM calculation, but that was a long time ago.

If you've got 62 hours already, then I'm guessing you're somewhat close to being done with your PPL? I know there are places out there that will work with you to get you finished over the course of a long weekend, or several days during the week. Might be worthwhile looking for a flight school somewhere that will help you knock it out. Might take burning a week of leave or so, but seems like it would be worth it. Here's one example: https://www.americanflyers.net/about/pilot_rating_finish_up.htm

Former RAF member gets mugged and stabbed in Chicago. Does not take kindly to it. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-police-1-held-following-armed-robbery-near-oak-street-beach-20151025-story.html

Huh. Well that's a pretty strong statement......

The Reddit post had also been up on JQP's Facebook page. Has since been replaced by this:

Keep building hours, and working towards improving your PCSM score. I assume PCSM scores still take into account AFOQT scores? If so, you can retake the AFOQT if needed. I was picked up on a board in the early 2000's. It seemed like that a lot of the guys who were selected on that board were on their last shot before they ran into limits on total amount of commissioned service, or age. It gave me some hope that the powers that be took an extra look at the guys who were on their last shot. That said, that attitude may have been limited to that board, so who knows.

This can't be right, can it? He must have had more (much more) than 82 hours from his initial qual on the F-16?