Lawman

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

/uploads/monthly_2016_01/5692b27ceb5f4_ImageUploadedByBaseopsNetworkForums1452454523.786441.jpg.25fe0af37d79d6c00ba55c0a683e9e7a.jpg'>I'm stealing that. I can think of a dozen uses for that in the next week.Side note, did you not see the video? It works on my browser. Worked fine on iOS for me. Have to love the general public. Ah ok I couldn't tell if you saw the video or were talking sh!t for me making a dramatic four word post with no content. The video terrifies me. Especially the follow your dreams moron. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm stealing that. I can think of a dozen uses for that in the next week. Side note, did you not see the video? It works on my browser.

We are all doomed....

I can speak for the mindset my grandfather and Uncle both explained to me (both retired Marine Corps). Unless the event was specifically military related they wore civilian clothing even if others wore theirs. I recall my grandfather wearing his dress long after retirement to a Marine Corps ball or other event being hosted by the military but other than those type things and the Veterans Day parade where he drove his old restored jeep, the man always wore a suit/tux. Not even his sons commissioning and his brother wasn't in uniform either (though he did have his Navy cross lapel pin on his suit). Ive never seen my father wear a uniform since his retirement. Especially not to my events, and for that matter neither did the family friends who came to things like my graduation and had also retired from the service.

I'm not gonna lie I love old Seaplanes. I don't care if it's fiscally responsible or even mission effective over land based counterparts when you look at our tanker capability. There is a mystique to them that overrides that logic in my head and says damn those are cool Id love to fly one. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pull the Marlins out of museums. Then the Navy has a plane as old as the B-52. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Omg... Setup was just too easy.

What's funny is the reaction I get from my more liberal friends when we get into the discussion of how Russia is a threat Obama pretended wasn't coming. This video pretty much illustrates the point of many half hour long arguments in seconds. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And we haven't been. The Army has enlisted sensor guys and warrant pilots/platoon leaders for our WO community. We don't have the same problem. So there is our chicken or egg problem. Is it rank and money because you guys are throwing mortgage money at commissioned officers and not getting results with double the ADSO. Maybe the problem stems from the fact you guys have a whole butt load of guys in UAS that didn't join the AF to fly a drone. Yeah it's gonna take some time to ramp up drone specific pilot generation to the point that you can stop robbing jet pilots of what they joined to do. Like say... The length of time a senior enlisted drone pilot ADSO would be? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here's an idea, instead of building an entirely new rank structure and providing less training and less pay for the same responsibility in the jet, why don't we bring in more airmen and GS-4's to do the office work that is driving said pilots away and removing their focus on flying, and stick with a system that's been working fine for the last 60 years? Pilots will *gasp* get to focus on flying and being better, smarter pilots. Congressmen get more jobs in their district. Big blue gets squadrons with tons of experience and less turnover, giving them better combat capability and allowing us to focus on getting better products out of UPT and trimming it down, eliminating possibly 1-2 UPT bases and returning all those white jet slots to the MAJCOMs to give us even better manning. Look it's all just COAs from the shit house on here, but if you want to waive how long it's worked as the flag of success the Army has been doing the same thing with a split warrant/RLO community in aviation for as long as you guys have done it the other way. It's not exactly a metric either of us should be using in this discussion. I get what Fuzz and others are saying about how can you expect enlisted airmen to stay when captains/majors leave because QOL... But you guys seem to not understand they don't do what Captains and Majors do. There is a known way Warrants are used and a way RLOs are used and very little overlap besides sitting in an aircraft. The day you leave flight school as a warrant or a Lt you will not and do not show up to a unit with the same expectation. There are a host of duties an RLO will do that WOs will not touch and vice verse. But more important is the longevity in aviation and staying in the cockpit. For one the squadron/battalion is not the identity you use as a pilot it's the company/troop of 8 aircraft and 3-4 officers and 10-14warrants. We have pilots who have been troop pilots all but the last few years of a 20 year career. Some even manage to always stay there because they don't need to leave to make their 20 from prior E time. RLOs are lucky to stay in a troop for 5 of a 20 year career and one of those positions will be commanding it. And all this screaming of "it doesn't F'ing work" without 1. acknowledging it does outside your service and 2. Admitting that whatever you are doing now is unsustainable Is telling the guy with the row boat to "F off your boat sucks" while standing on the roof of a house in a flood. You are going to have to do something. And if this is really more painful than going to a 14 year ADSO or telling people even more often they are going to UAVs after spending the money to put them in a real plane is a better idea I think it just comes down to not wanting to do something because "that's the way it's always been." And that phrase is dangerous as hell. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk