Lawman

Or look back to the 80/90s at how long we had Century series fighters still flying in CONUS Guard units. Or how long it took to totally phase out the Phantom from our ranks when it had long been proven inferior to every other aircraft in our toolbox. We’re they part of a national defense strategy? Absolutely.... one that realizes the Montana Guard isn’t going to be doing the merge with Flankers over Bismarck. There was still a useful spot for them to perform. The 15X is the definition of requirement creep because all these “wouldn’t it be nice if....” The fact we are talking about spending more money than on Lightning just to get a fresh jet 15 should immediately sound insane. Especially since whatever “cost of operation” math trick you do we don’t just stop flying our old worn out beat up planes tomorrow when we sign the contract. It’d be one thing if they were coming down saying “hey we updated the C a bit to replace components that simply don’t exist anymore, it’s 45 mil a copy and won’t take a bunch of new training” but they aren’t after that. This whole idea looks exactly like the perception that if you’re not a fighter pilot you’re a second class citizen that was my dad’s Air Force. We are flying 50+ year old aircraft across the spectrum in critical low density high demand positions some of which are retiring with no replacement, and what do we commit money to fixing... a fighter jet so it can chase down a lost Cessna that strayed too close to a restricted area with a bitchen new AESA Radar.

Yeah there is a solution to that, stop pretending that every scenario requires you to fly your well worn but useful for the low intensity mission to the edge of the envelope. The Tomcat had a 6G+ limit and half a dozen additional limitations (inverted flight etc) placed in it for most of its last decade in service specifically to stop people from breaking stuff doing unnecesarry stuff and that was in a plane still deployed forward to combat. Accept the fact that a population will perform said boring stateside air defense mission, and tailor the beating you put on a jet to maximize its life instead of “train worst case” on every airframe and melt the life out of them through fatigue. Thatll piss people off to find out they are JV and not Varsity in the lineup, but that’s smarter than burning F-35/F-whatever/specialty mission aircraft money to buy the random guard unit a jet just so it has a new car smell.

The real BS about it is that it’s not confined to Hillary... You know who still has a clearance? All of her inner circle. That’s right the peons she blamed for sending/receiving still got to keep their clearances much less not face charges. Meanwhile Joe says the wrong thing in a Facebook message to his wife dropping a callsign in the conversation and his ass is in a sling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Until I hear a president say “I’m withdrawing and recalling all troops from Kuwait” the deployments will do nothing but change location and day to day ery. It’s hysterical to see this sudden concern for Iranian influences by the same people screaming at us stopping the actual proxy shooting war we are having with them in Yemen against Hezbollah Part II. Trump is F’ing over the Kurds who did the lifting for us and expected us to back their bid for Independence, just like every president since Bush I. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They’re still upset we finally bought an M9 replacement so now they can’t just run that story every 4th issue. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The only person happy about this new PT test is whatever A hole created it and got the Above Center of Mass rating on his OER. I give it 2 years before they issue a waiverable status to is where units can “in case of necessity” just use the old APFT. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Same thing coming out of the field for the Army. Every call to the boss just goes ”I need a one time flight approval....” and 2 hours later there is a flight of 4 outbound from Irwin/Polk/etc where only is FMC and 1 should be flat out red X.

It’s the ghost of BQzip... back to take his revenge. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why are you wasting your time here. You have so much to tell the guys at TCM. Don’t forget your suit... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Neither were you jackass. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Dude not just an Apache guy (though former now), I was overhead at Frontnac We were useless. And that was a situation where I didn’t have to spend 8 minutes launching an aircraft while the horde closes in around me chucking grenade and small arms fire at my incredibly vulnerable aircraft. Yes despite the fact making fun of SF is fun, they do in fact have a point. Security is produced and maintained at the lowest level and will be made or broken there. Saying “who needs crew serves and other stuff we’ve got Apaches on the flight line we can launch” is something said by idiots. Either maintain and train a security personnel cadre that is equipped to deal with the real world threat (small team synchronized raid style attack not drunk mom in minivan breaching an ECP) which we could find both in COIN or as an asymmetric use in near peer (NK SF forces on OSAN for example) or just kill the mission entirely and pay the Army or somebody else to do it for you. Otherwise you’ve learned nothing that hasn’t been repeatedly demonstrated since the Rat Patrol first took the legs out from under the Luftwaffe in NA with nothing but a couple Lewis Guns and Jeep’s. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No.... no they do not. I have been fighting this mentality for years. Even Army leadership doesn’t understand the error in this thinking. We were told the same BS this last rotation through Iraq with the security risks from some of our “partner forces.” Having Apaches or Cobras on the field did literally nothing at Bastion. They will do literally nothing the next place and time either. You’ve got an enemy dressed like the good guys fighting small pockets of good guys in close proximity with nobody aware of where anybody is. Even if you could get the aircraft launched under fire then what? I get to just start picking and choosing my best guess and laying out 30 and rockets? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dude seriously... This... exactly what you just said is the attitude that fuels the notion the Army gets that the Air Force is disconnected and uninterested in supporting the warfighter. You say this to some Ranger riding in the back of a Chinook to the X night after night or to the poor bastard that’s rolling down Route 1 doing yet another IED clearance patrol and you get (and largely deserve) a complete scoff. To think otherwise means Kuwait is a Deployment, active combat operations actually ceased, and dudes getting IDF’d at Dahlke we’re tragic victims of some accident as part of a forward deployed “supporting effort.” Is it perpetual and self serving, absolutely. Does our collective leadership seem to be writing its guidance in sand/crayon... no doubt. Are we still actively engaged in combat with a military force who seeks to do us harm both there and abroad... to deny otherwise would be foolish. And no that attitude isn’t exclusive of service. God knows the Army Fobbits turning people away at the Independence Chow Hall because they have dirty uniforms don’t understand it’s a war either. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They did “sue” the Navy over that exact COA (and somehow won which I don’t get). Really the Marine thing is just stupid. They did the equivalent of the kid that gets handed the candy licking it all and saying the other kids couldn’t have any. Especially considering all they did was steal a Canadian pattern and with the help of some Army money “develop” and patent a unique pattern like we hadn’t been wearing the same pattern at the time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah I misread that, yeah that makes more sense. Fair warning, the Velcro they use isn’t high quality. If you wash your stuff with the tapes/ranks in place it’ll fray at the stitching holding the back on after a while. If you remove the Velcro every time you wash it will quickly turn the Velcro it’s self weak and probably tear the stitching up as well. I’ve got it both ways for sewn on for “regular” and Velcro for “beater.” The prisoners making our uniforms are really sh!t seamstresses. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m surprised you’re allowed pin on. It’s not in the Army specifically because it “negates fire protection” by no measurable and meaningful amount. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edwards had one, but it went somewhere with DARPA. I recall they only built 2 of them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The shit people forget is Bastion wasn’t the first attack. It was the 4th. Salerno, they hit it and got plastered. Just a poor combined attack and timing basically blowing their wad on the VBIED and then strolling in after the shock and audacity effect had already worn off. Frontnac, they hit well and got in but had no clear goal other than “attack!” Ended up dead but took the chow hall with them. Shank... huge VBIED cement truck. But they hit the bazaar and really only killed a lot of Afghans. After each of those we did... pretty much nothing. After Bastion people suddenly remembered this was a war and actions like the brigade at KAF put the pathfinders on the line in the dark because we had no idea if we were next. T walls instead of a cheap unguarded chain link fence. Crew chiefs were launching aircraft strapped, because of anything is more vulnerable than a parked aircraft it’s a parked aircraft with an APU and engines running. Really it was a wake up call to stop pretending just because you could go to the boardwalk and get ice cream you weren’t in a war zone. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It was also over in minutes. Not before Marines on the flight line led by the squadron commander (who was KIA) dropped whatever they were doing to stand too and fight. Those Marines were reinforced by Rangers from TF 3-10 and the insurgents basically died fighting in place. They took out every Harrier in the squadron (9 at the base) with a platoon size element that snuck through the post incident identified serious security hazard of a shanty town allowed to build up next to the perimeter fence. Dudes were wearing a cobbling together of stolen Coalition uniforms and sneakers/small arms with a bunch of grenades they used to demo the aircraft. Once they got a fire going, the moved to the next in succession. Doesn’t take long for aircraft in parking to end up like this It didn’t help the night of the attack it was near zero illumination and crap ceilings. So complacency of “nothings going down tonight, let’s play some Xbox” was in full effect. After that we finally got some level of security with T walls and an active security force in the towers at Mustang Ramp in KAF. We obviously completely forgot all those lessons though after my last trip to Taji. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just love watching the Pilot/Nav or for my gold wing bretheren 1 anchor/2 anchor fights. It’s all one rating on my side so what seat I was in never mattered. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Heads down like prison rules... ”I better not catch you looking at the damn sky NAV!”

Which is on its own enough reason. If you seriously have time to spend policing people’s uniforms (on the flight line no less) then your job is either not being done, or not important enough to justify trading you for somebody we could use under forcecap. Either way somebody should be re-examining what exactly is your purpose... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

1. It is incredibly comfortable. It’s amazing that the SOF guys don’t have something comparable since it really gives you great freedom of movement but good warmth during that early onset of winter in locations. 2. This is the refined version.... the original vest that came out with the ACU pattern was the ugliest most gawd damned awful thing anyone had seen which just encourages me to wear it more. It looked like some kind of nasty green Christmas sweater and it seemed like the only place people had it was Korea (which just convinced people it was something commercial and not authorized). We had a pair of pilots that wore that to every field problem in Germany just to drive our Sgt Major nuts. It is the boonie cap of cold weather jackets. Kinda like the first gen fleece aviator jacket. It had no provisions for name tapes or ranks. Just a jacket with my hat to tell you I was an officer and no idea who I was or who I worked for. I loved that jacket. You could walk by some waste of forcecap with your sunglasses on and hands in pockets to the chow hall or stand on the flight line with boots unbloused and sunglasses on head fixing a log book and they didn’t know which LtCol to go cry to when you told them to politely go find a different place to fornicate with themselves. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don’t know what all you guys get with the deal as far as the FREE aircrew stuff but if you get the full selection you’re going to have a nuclear option to throw at the uniform police. Of all the gear they give me that I have no use for in deployment RFI, this was the one thing our Sgt Major got taken off the list because he so hated to see pilots wearing it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk