Lawman

Ummm what? You realize we have E's sitting in something with as much Firepower as an MLRS accepting fire missions, verifying coordinates, and releasing what is a metric butt load of Angry explosives right? Your CCTs on the ground control and coordinate the release of everything from a 20mm gun run to a fully loaded B-1 bomber... Do they not have rank and pay enough for that level of responsibility? Because the ALO they work for sure gets paid more without the responsibility. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeah saying Officers should be responsible for effects sounds rational, but only in a vacuum when you don't look at the dozens of other readily available examples of high responsibility jobs done by enlisted personnel where a guy with stripes and no bars has the yes/no on whether something happens. Great example: Jump Master

Leon, Just to be clear on this... There is no requirement for any branch of service to Enlist conditionally as part of an application for Officer Candidate School. If you hear the guy you are working with from any Branch (especially the Army Warrant program) walk out of the room he/she is trying to F you over.

Exactly. The problem is we are combining the ever increasing technology in every modern aircraft with the demonstrated trend to over report the hell out of anything even rumored to be a problem. And that's in whatever modern weapons system development the media makes its money writing against not just F-35. It makes me view this kind of stuff with a lot of skepticism as to how bad it is. Is there a problem, yeah sure I'll bet there are lots of problems, but there are lots of problems with airplane's we e had for 40 F'ing years and they still won't get it all fixed in the next lot/Blk update.

Ok how many times has the quick answer to your airplane waking up stupid been come of power, and come back up on power. I found it funny being told by a viper driver that the "Lockheed Reset" is the same thing we call the "Longbow Reset." We have Mission processors fail in flight near routinely with the E model Apache. It's what happens when you took six black boxes from the D and made it do all those jobs in two. The procedure is to reset the non primary after a switchover or degraded mode so if MP1 is crapping out, hard select 2, then back to auto. These systems are... 7ish years old. This isn't an F-35 specific problem.

I don't know, maybe it's the familiarity with Black Box intensive aircraft, but turn it off/on is a hell of common trouble shooting technique in far more than just the F-35. I think the reason this is even in the news is like any other issue its ignored unless it involves the F-35 and then it's screamed about because the media isnt looking into "flaws" in the Strike Eagle, Apache, or Viper.

Dude it's messy enough getting two people committed by marriage to make equitable and smart decisions about what to do with a house.... Roommates not a chance in hell. Probably the only consensus on spending money you will ever have is "Yes we need a Kegarator."

So I'm curious about this. What's a juice worth the squeeze estimate on moving that APR rate. Like if it's multiple thousands of dollars to refinance what kind of percentage change for say a 200 or 300k principle is needed to make it worth while. I'm asking because I only got into the 300k house 7 months ago on a zero down VA loan and I keep getting adds from other financial institutions offering lower rates. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sending your info to our Swag guy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you want to make the argument of losing funding for the long occupation you're gonna have a bad time making the argument to funnel 5th gen fighter money into another plane. That money you want to ear mark for putting up an A-10 replacement would be far better spent on post war ops having trained/equipped ground brigades and boots on the ground combined with civil service contractors to get the schools built, and the water/power working for the locals. The locals can't tell and really don't care what is on the ATO line, but having Brigade sized footprints go to being managed by Battalions or Company+ size elements doesn't keep the markets open or prevent militants from taking over villages and asserting their will on the people. We aren't seeing a resurgence of Taliban/Haqqani/etc in Afghanistan in the Helmand, Sangin, or Arghandab because we didn't have the right plane dropping the right bombs. We are seeing it because we pulled out any respectable sized ground force.

You can even forget about 10-15 yrs, right now I can think of 3 separate places where we're a sneeze away from a total shit storm and everyone not in a 5th gen aircraft starts riding the silk at Vietnam+ rates (or we avoid that by full up quitting, packing our shit up and going home as soon as it starts). Am I saying it's going to happen, not at all, but only people with their craniums in the sand think shit like that is "far away" and not something we need to worry about until 10-15 yrs from now. That is reality now, it get far worse years from now. I'm with you that in the end it probably doesn't happen, but we'd be the dumbest assholes in history if it did happen and we got caught with our pants down. If I and another guy are pointing guns at each other's faces right now, I say that's a problem to worry about now, not in a few years because I'm kind of sure maybe sort of that the other guy isn't going to pull the trigger. I'm not taking that bet. Anybody wants to get to the dark side just get on SIPR and go talk to MSIC about the Syria vs Libya briefing. Those guys will give you a very bleak picture on how much more expensive our air campaigns get for very minor changes in what should be considered 2nd tier venues. Stuff like fights over those islands in Japan, the South China Sea/Philippines/Spratleys, or an Iran with Russian backing and double digit toys enforcing their regime and things get down right scary/ridiculous expensive. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow that's sick. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Question on the bottle openers, have you tried anything with rotors? Just curious how they hold up to bending.

Yep - there's often more than a binary choice than full on 250k boots on the ground, 3 carriers on staton and 15 wings deployed and doing nothing. I'm not 100% sure the COA we are currently executing (Precision Strike, Persistent ISR supporting limited SOF kinetic and Conventional Partner Capacity Building) is going to bring the results we want but for now it is enough. At best it will bring results we can tolerate. Total inaction is just not an option given who would take more action in our absence. I don't think anybody in a decision making position honestly believes the COA we are on right now is the right one. We are just waiting on the clock because the legacy of this administration cannot be seen as recommitting ground forces and restarting the "War in Iraq." For the thousands of US ground personnel already there though that's not exactly a strategy. I for one enjoy reminding my liberal friends that think these wars are over because Obama waved a magic wand that I'll be in Iraq this Christmas, and the rest of my Brigade will be in Afghanistan the following summer. Long after "combat operations" supposedly stopped. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's the sticking point. If there's a power vacuum, other people start asserting the order they want, and it probably isn't what you want. That's the thing about being a Super Power... You only get to be through your own work, not because anybody else wants you to be one.

Really? I was thinking more F-14 & F-15. I was on the Philippine assistance team when they went with FA-50 we had a viper guy for the FW CAS position going over the dash 1. His comments were its so Lockheed/Viper that if he wasn't paying attention it would almost fool him.

Because after the A-12 disaster nobody in the Navy wanted to try and fight to get a multi billion dollar fighter program through their own brass much less congress.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Makes sense - forgot the A-12 debacle Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk There is a lot of loose talk and theory behind the Super Hornet development as being chosen mostly because it was the lowest risk and having little to do with aircraft capes. This is especially true around the Tomcat 21 advocates who see Grummans's wet dream of a Raptor tech/engine equipped F-14 and swear the reason it didn't happen wasn't based on cost or any other factor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Because after the A-12 disaster nobody in the Navy wanted to try and fight to get a multi billion dollar fighter program through their own brass much less congress. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True. I just hate that everybody wants to use the most basic two metrics possible of how many aircraft we bought and how long we flew the ones they replaced. It completely ignores all the stuff I mentioned not to forget the increasingly high pace of technological obsolescence in the digital age. Now you take a fleet of 160 raptors, constantly have say 1/3 of that in depot for either service life extensions or modifications to maintain technological edge and you drop to a fleet of 100+ airplanes. Factor in how many of those are available to train and we are talking 1-2 wings of which only half are up at a time as deployable. We go from the worlds most capable and deployable air power force to having a numerical parity to even small nations let alone the big scary ones like China/Russia. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's not a way tomorrow that is the problem. It's the war 10-15 years from now. How long did we ride the F-16/15 fleet and how many SLEPs and retiring of older portions of the fleet to strip parts off of to do that? How many decades did those assembly lines run and how long ago did they shut off? That's the problem with the we have 169 Raptors argument. Right now we do. Ten years from now how many hours have you burned off those airframes. How many have you planted because let's face it crap happens and sometimes you gotta give the plane back to the taxpayer (even B-2). Now there won't be an F-22C coming online 10 years from now when the ones we have now are worn out and flying on weight/G restrictions to prolong that airframe life some more. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But if PA doesn't vet and publish the video how can any of them get a bullet for their next evaluation out of somebody else's hard work?

Yeah but we can make anything A/G. Look at the viper. Strap some bombs and A/G sensors, call the 20mm A/G capable...Pew pew. Solved. Don't forget a tape deck full of Queen songs. In all fairness though to the Viper they are filling up a lot more lines on any ATO than anybody else and have been for a long time. Id like to look at ideas like an F/A/B-22 the way a lot of people probably looked at Strike Eagle when the concept was first put forward. This could very well work but F it up and the money spent would have been better used in another dedicated platform, not teaching a Fighter to be a bomber (or vice versa ala 111B's for the Navy).

Is he writing a book about his experiences? Hindu Thunder perhaps?

I've met both kinds. Get a lot of Ranger/Long Tab guys that go warrant. Some talk some don't. Honestly I think it's a generation thing. My grand parents and them didn't really talk about the wars they were in. Now is more the Facebook look at me attention society. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One of our pilots was talking about with the rest of us today about being here as an Ordnance guy in an A-10 squadron. Mind blowing to think about the scenario he described of literal tens of thousands of pounds of ordnance sitting ready on every pad to keep sorties cycling at max pace and then having what he described as the two dumbest statements he ever heard. 1. "Check it out they are test firing patriots." Apparently they realized what was going on after the seventh one went up and exploded and moved to the bunkers. Followed later by 2. "Go out and check the pads for burning debris" .... You know next to the tens of thousands of lbs of bombs on each parking space on the flight line and not in the AHA. Though I particular liked him remarking how he told himself after DS he would never go back to that gawd forsaken crap hole again... Then spent a good portion of his adult life there as an Army warrant pilot.

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Ray E. Wilson, Jr. (821221), Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty while serving as a Rifleman of Company I, Third Battalion, Twenty-Sixth Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 14 March 1945. When heavy and accurate machine-gun and sniper fire held up the advance of his company and inflicted severe casualties in his platoon, Private First Class Wilson volunteered to act as guide for the tanks after his Company Commander requested tank support. Exposing himself to hostile fire near the tanks to use telephone communication with the Tank Commander, he crept and crawled over fire-swept open terrain for fifty yards to reconnoiter and to guide the first tank into an advantageous firing position. After firing tracers at the enemy machine gun nests to indicate their positions, Private First Class Wilson returned three times and led the remaining tanks to previously reconnoitered positions, on each occasion, in full view of the Japanese and under the continuing hostile fire. After maneuvering the four tanks into position for more than one hour, he moved forward with the company and continued to guide and direct the tanks although he was seriously wounded in action. His initiative, unselfish courage, and indomitable fighting spirit were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. Story basically went that a week before graduation they asked all the candidates "do you have any VIPs coming to graduation." Now VIP is typically E9/O6 and above and somebody always has somebody. Well my uncle didn't think about it since neither of the Marines he was expecting made E9, though granddad was close. Morning of the graduation he says one of the Sgt Instructors just exploded at how he didn't tell them who was coming. And he was like wtf are you talking about. And out on the parade field there sits uncle Ray under the nice shaded area with all these high level O-grades in dress while he's just sitting in a suit and they are shaking his hand and even some of the Sgt instructors and staff are going over to pay respect to the man. Paul had no idea Uncle Ray had received a Navy cross, but apparently there was this one full bird who was kicked off the dais to sit in the sun with the normal people who was just over himself to be apologetic about not wanting to give up his seat when asked.

RESPECT Yeah Pop has this funny story from my Uncles OCS graduation about a full bird Col being pissed off because the VIP seating area was full and he was being asked to leave. Then he found out who was taking the seat and just kinda sank like "wow I'm an A hole." Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk