Lawman
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Posts posted by Lawman
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The disconnect is the customer. The person between the engineers designing this stuff and the end users flying it.
The customer has 6900 different metrics to juggle and tries to do it all on a budget. Since they are the ones buying the shit we're designing, they get to make the calls at the end of the day when it comes to the final design. A lot of the time that means a suboptimal design to meet budget constraints.
So... What your saying is we need better people skills.
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The more time they spend killing each other, the fewer of them there are and the less we have to worry about them attacking us. Seems like a win-win IMHO.
Alternate ending... This turns into the new Yugoslavia and we spend 5 years slowly winding into involvement and 20 years of actual involvement with no idea what we are trying to accomplish.
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Many tactical a/c have GPS/INS that are good enough to drop weapons... the problem is the lawyer/FAA driven certification $$$
Yup.
Most advanced helicopter gunship on the planet.... Just got dual VOR with ILS this year. And still has an NDB. But no GPS certification.
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How do you run out of gas in a tanker? That's like a whore house running out of -tang
It's like going in the back with the stripper and getting one too many dances... Sometimes shit happens.
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Wow that is out of stock already. I need to start caging the local walmart for when they get ammo delivered.
Good luck man. Every Walmart ive been too in recent years has a small cadre of old retires who know the schedule and are there stranding around like vultures to buy up as much as they can......
Doesn't really piss me off till I go to a gun show and see the same ass clowns selling the ammo marked up 5 bucks a box.
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I can't hold a candle to the guys who flew in Vietnam, and nor do I think I deserve to...those guys were true badasses. Don't get me wrong, a lot of awesome dudes are doing a lot of awesome things these days in a shitty country as well, but not like the Vietnam guys. Years ago when Rucker was still a half Army/half Air Force program, the old Vietnam Vet-era contractor IP's would tell us some pretty amazing stories...what's even better is it seemed that nothing we did (ie fvcked up) ever seemed to scare those guys (unlike the FAIPs that I would scare on most Tweet flights).
Awesome post man...he definitely speaks the truth.
One of my IP's was a Vietnam pilot with 40 years of service (guard guy).
He had been a scout pilot in Vietnam and after hearing his story of the day he was shot down 3 times in the same area we were just in awe. Especially when he was talking about trying to get a bird that was down for MX up so he could go out a forth time.
Dude could barely walk the flight line to the birds, but he could make a one man air show in the helicopter.
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Mark my words, in 10 years the FDA will discover this pill gives you brain cancer. Don't take it....if the USAF can't build a flying schedule that depends on you medicating to make it work--that's their problem (i'm sure they'll compensate you for your brain cancer though)
Ill be long dead of some sort of chronic lung disease from spending too much time around Burn Pits and the Poo Pond at Kaf. But yeah you are spot on in the mantra of this isnt the way it should be and us ######ing ourselves up to help it continue isnt fixing the problem.
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I had an instructor during pilot training who would deviate from the training corridor to check up on his habitually cheating wife. Lesson learned: Park at least a block away if you are involved wife a pilot’s wife.
I had one in flightschool that would always deviate out on a long crosswind to fly over the residential pools during the Summer and catch the nude sunbathers.
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Maybe I'm missing your point, or maybe my math is bad, but why would anybody stay in that Battalion for 7+ years? Pretty sure I would've punched during the "home for 16" part.
Warrants can IPCOT (In Place Continuation of Tour) and 6 years is actually more the norm. Doing 3 and punching typically lends you no rewards or support from the Battalion/Brigade as far as getting the right jobs/schools for that next promotion board your looking at. So we've got a lot of guys that are locked in for all that bullshit. One of those deployments wasnt supposed to happen, but when another unit failed its NTC rotation so badly that they were deemed undeployable this battalion got the bad news.
Our favorite part is that our Brigade HQ went home on this deployment about 3-4 months in to it and left all their battalions here. So on Paper it looks like as a Brigade we will get our 18 month mandatory dwell time.
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That's a lot of dwell time waivers...Although last year they were running the OEF/OUP scam of deploy to OUP, deploy to OEF during your dwell for OUP, then go back to OUP.
I'd like to see the proof though, I find 300/yr two years in a row hard to believe.
How about being part of a Battalion that was deployed for 15 months... home for 10... deployed for 12 months.... home for 16,,,, Finishing deployed for 10 months... planning to be home for 13.5.... and already on the patch chart to redeploy for 9 months (just short enough to not get R&R). 18 month dwell time? Bueller?
Keep in perspective guys when your talking about "how much this sucks" most of you are doing it from the greener grass. Not saying 4 month or whatever you do isnt shitty. Just saying when somebody comes up with the "well guys it really isnt all bad for everybody" go ahead and punch that guy in the dick for me.
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Legs (Boat has to be closer to the beach), speed (can't escort/keep up with an Osprey), loiter time, carries different weapons, can't fly high, exposed to threats (small arms, shoulder fired SAMs, etc...) that don't exist when doing a level lay down from higher. No radar in a Zulu, giving it limited all weather capability. And as far as the concept to work?
Outside of Legs none of these are accurate.
I support Osprey with an Apache and we're slower than the Cobra... all he needs support on is the actual Infil/Exfil we arent escorting anything flying around above the coordinating altitude in a low threat environment and thats the only time a MAGTF would be on its own. All your doing in between the boat and the RP is flying in formation with a Tiltrotor.
We have a radar, it doesnt do shit for your weather capability. If you cant see you cant see be it with FLIR or NVG. They arent going to shoot if they cant see so putting them in the air to make rotor noise is what idiot ground commanders do because "Its my asset and I want it" type attitude.
Cant Fly high... show me any time you've had troops above 14000 feet. Thats pretty much the limit for altitude on where rotor guns can support.
Loiter time. Rotory is typically longer than Fixed wing. Ill go 2 hour in the stack while Vipers and A-10s are yo-yo'ing after 20 minutes. If you want constant coverage during FARP turn arounds thats as easy as tasking teams to do battle handovers.
Threat. CMWS works, extremely well by the way. And Hellfire gives you more than enough standoff for any kind of light AAA. The helicopters that get shot at the most and take the most fire are down at 300-500 AGL because they have to be not because its tactically superior as a tactic. There are plenty of ways to mitigate risk.
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High threat to whom? High threat for a fighter is not necessarily high threat for a helo. Things that would drive a high threat for a helo wouldn't even make it onto the map for some fighters. We have crossed borders unescorted to recover people. If the capability exists, the cfacc has a range of options.
C'mon dude. Just because it briefs high in our current environment doesn't make it high. S2 and safety officers combined with nobody wanting to be "that guy" who's battalion lost a bird drives the risk levels now.
I'm a cross FLOT aircraft. Designed to face off against the Russian horde, and I've got some E5 briefing my missions moderate because somebody saw what they thought was a HMG or a pkm on the ground in the last 3 months. God forbid we ever go up against anybody not wearing man dresses and sandals again. First time somebody whispers the words Roland, or Guantlet around S2 we will need the president to sign off on the risk assessment.
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Not so......As an CW5 OSA Detachment Commander, I had full UCMJ authority, pen to paper and was able to promote or shit can anyone who couldn't cut the mustard to include Commanding OEF/OIF for the C-12 Avn Task Force......
Congrats on your position and Im sure it was an awesome experience, but you cannot seriously call that anything but the exception not the rule. Heck there is a CW4 "In Command" of the Task Force in Egypt last I heard, but its not a job Id start as a warrant thinking I was ever going to just get. Technical Tactical expert, thats why we're here. We have one CW5 in my brigade, and Ive never even met the guy, and he sure doesnt put his name on my OER.
Every platoon leader 1stLt in Aviation... every Captain in charge of an Shop in aviation, all the way up from the very start they are told "Here are your soldiers," when they take the job. Nobody ever tells a CW2 or newly minted CW3 with the same level of aviation experience "These are your soldiers." Thats what Im talking about when I say command.
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1,1,1,1, .... ###### Ive been in Kandahar for to damn long.
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Army Warrant's do "Command" CW5s
You shape and mentor, you have influence commensurate with your position if your an instructor, but outside of a place like Ft Rucker where CW4s are flight commanders and immediate raters of the IP Cadre in their flight, you dont command. A PC officer may run the maintenance plan for the Battalion, but he doesnt own any of the maintenance soldiers that work under him, the Delta Company and Line Company commanders do.
Fact is as a Warrant you can and should work all the way up at the Brigade level (CW5s) but you will never be a rater. You will have voice and dependent on your command climate a very powerful one, but you will never put pen to paper to express someones ability or flaws and why they should or should not continue in Army Aviation.
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Army Warrant is possible.
Worked with a couple Warrants who were commission guys first either in Aviation or in another Branch/Service that converted to come over.
Its a pay cut and you dont "Command" but at the same time you can spend the life of your career in an active Line Unit and never leave the cockpit for stupid shit like staff tours or trips to far away places with UAVs.
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I heard a Female C-12 call out something in conversation out in RC South the other day that had me and my crewmember dying.
"Roger... understand you have a hot load for me?"
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One of our guys has managed to get the phrase "Roger, Im coming inside you" on at least 2 gun tapes of engagements.
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If you cannot fall to your death, you should not be able to get an Air Medal. Simple as that.
More to the point...
If you cant fall to the ground only to be rolled up by a bunch of cavemen wearing man dresses who will gladly beat you, rape you, put you in front of a flag tied and bound, and then cut your ######ing head off for anyone to see on youtube including your family, you dont get an Air Medal.
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Again, even if all the flatiron birds were 60's or 47's and were all broke, there would still be plenty of birds in the area to pick up a crew if someone was hurt.
I think you missed my point. Any helicopter can casevac just like any ground vehicle, but it may be much more detrimental to the casualty. I can throw a guy on the EFAB and D ring him on, but I can treat him. I can't apply pressure to wounds or try to keep him flat on a hard board so he doesn't aggravate injury. And neither can another couple yahoos in a 60 with no medic that was "near" our RT.
That's something we try to drive home when we talk about spur rides in the Apache, I there is a 60 close and your trying to take out a critical casualty you may kill him trying to save him.
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Agree on the overall discussion that the UH-72 would be a poor replacement for the Huey.
Disagree on the part that there would be an issue (due to the fact that the UH-72 can't carry much) if a Rucker bird had issues and there were injuries--you can't swing a dead cat within a 50 mile radius of Rucker without hitting a helicopter. Trust me, there would be more than enough assets in the area to make the pick-up if needed.
Casevac does not equal medevac. And I've personally been in a position where we pl'd near the Georgia/Alabama border and the Lakota could only take one of us. The others sat for an hour and a half till a Huey showed up and took us out of there with the plane guard to watch the bird we'd just parked in a field.
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Correct. They detail-stripped a few Ns (the same way the AF detail-stripped a C-5 a while back) to determine just how much work would be necessary to remanufacture the bare airframes to the Y standard. They found they'd be better off with new-build aircraft (a decision that is very controversial to this day...).
Didnt help that right as the decisions on the "best way" to do things we suddenly got ourselves involved in a whole metric ###### ton of War time Ops.
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Not sure, but I've heard from various sources that the "return to target" that they were doing is a prohibited maneuver in the AH-64. If so, that means these guys knowingly busted a reg and bent a helicopter as a direct result.
Your sources are wrong. Return to target is a perfectly acceptable maneuver. You can brief up go 60 +- pitch and 120 in roll, if your briefed for it. It's just not something you should be doing at 9000 MSL where the aircraft is power limited and the rate decent can't be rapidly arrested. You can do that maneuver for days Near sea level even with a heavily loaded bird.
The crew ######ed up got lucky they didn't kill anybody including themselves and for nothing more than someone trying to show off for YouTube. That's pretty much been the topic of conversation at more than a few company and battalion meetings in my unit.
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Don't hold back. Tell us how you REALLY feel!
:-)
Spend the majority of your time at around 2500 AGL and you'd understand the sentiment.
###### drones.
National Air Cargo 747 Crash at Bagram
in General Discussion
Posted
Pak GLoc has been pretty much closed for almost three years now. We still ship stuff like toilet paper over it but pretty much any and all military end user equipment is a no go. It's either left in country as TPE or airlifted home.