SocialD

Sadly, none of this surprises me. The more I learn, the more jaded I get toward our military/political leadership and what kept us in the never ending quagmires since 9/11. This is proof that no one is immune to the government trying to fuck you and make your life a living hell if you piss off the wrong person. It also puts a spotlight on the hypocrisy around the different spanks for different ranks. Never mind the unwillingness of people to do the right thing so as not to upset their careers. Here's hoping the current administration will fix this situation. Funny sidenote on the point they make about being "frozen" in the rank your retired/left the service. Our OG received a call from a FDX guy about a squadron mate who had the audacity to take MLOA during peak. The dude introduced himself as Maj Gen XXX and to our OG's credit, he made a point to let him know that his retired rank didn't mean shit, then prompted told him to go fuck himself, the MLOA was legit.

Agreed, that's pretty badass! Love to see peope pushing the limits. I'll keep flying my tailwheels where they belong... < 500 ft AGL.

Auburn-Georgia refs possibly suspended...

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the alumni has started passing the hat for the buyout lol. Lol, when I saw that, it cleared away any doubt that these refs were leaning toward Georgia. Not sure who should get fined more, the refs or Kirby.

Another weekend that hasn't disappointed yet. Franklin may be sent packing after yet another loss. Dude was booed out of the stadium. They probably already planted for sale signs in his yard. Man, these refs are trying their best to get Georgia a TD before half. Not even an Auburn fan, but WTF!

After only 40 years of service, what a quitter!

Who remembers the step test? It was a crowd favorite in the winter because we'd run outside down to some damn cold temps/wind chills.

All the pilots forced to be in this video were the last to say NOT IT. The ghost of Rainman lingers...never talk to the media!

Still doesn't know how to act in public...shocking.

Wait, your hats actually leave your desk or leg pocket?

I can't figure out why my insurance premiums keep going up.

Which means it's going to be a great time. Just don't make it a long time.

This. One of our pilots was a former cop. He said if he's asking to do any tests, it's just adding more evidence fort he case WHEN he arrests you after the tests. In my state, implied consent does not force you to submit to roadside breathalyzer. So you can say you want to go to the hospital for a blood draw or go down to the station to use a real breathalyzer machine. Ball walking on your FAA medical, but I could see how a case could be made that you're not refusing the test, just this test (as roadside units are known to be finicky). I'm not anti-vaccine, just anti-this-vaccine, type of thing lol.

So recently a buddy (Captain on my shop) was accused of being drunk by one his FAs. He found out when an ops guy stepped in the cockpit and asked him to step in the jet bridge. After a quick discussion, all of the 4 or 5 ops people were like clearly this dude isn't drunk. So much so that they said it was unfounded and were going to let him fly. Wanting to prove he wasn't drunk, he wanted a breathalyzer. However, after a call to the union, they said do NOT take a breathalyzer if they're calling you good. Reason being that if he hit a false positive, it would open up a can of worms he didn't want to deal with. Hadn't thought of it from that angle. Either way, he said fuck that, I'm not flying with this FA so remove him or me. He got to go home with pay from 4 day.

Real airline pilot talk! This pilot is junior to me so no gain for this guy. 🤣

Ya latest is that it is fake news that somehow leaked before it was resolved. A friend posted on FB that this pilot doesn't even drink. Hope this doesn't cause to much of an issue for the pilot.

Ya, no way I'd see that guy. We can't even see our wingtips on the 717. Besides, dude would have to jump pretty high to get into our engines. One night in Afghanistan, I had a guy walk from the nose of the F-16, down the right side and go between the inlet and the wing tank. I was looking the other way and only caught him out of the corner of my eye when my crew chief started yelling WTF. He was already in a safe area before I could shut it down. Apparently a big lip Block 30 doesn't have as much suck (sts) as they say. As a former crew chief, I can't fathom what made this dude do that. We had a very one-sided conversation later.

I don't really have an opinion on Tim Kennedy because I don't really follow him or know the story. I didn't even know who he was until recently. I'm just truly skeptical when stories suddenly come out of the woodwork about people like this. He's become a political figure, and when you do that, hate will follow as your opposition tries their level best to discredit you. When it comes to military haters, the hate really flares up if your service is used to propel that gain, especially if it puts you in the spotlight. Then all the dick measurers come out to compare number, suck factor and duration of deployments, as if they charge the machine gun nests at Utah beach. Of course many have no problem using their service to get them a high paying civilian job, often one where they continue to suck off the government tit while collecting a pension and VA...100% of course because their sleep apnea and plantar fasciitis flared up at year 19. You must do all this quietly without any fanfare. I've never bought into the idea that the government gets to exploit you for all your worth, but you must not exploit your service to get ahead in the civilian world. Based on their actions, many who tout this don't really believe it either. As far as claiming medals, ya that ain't cool. I truly despise our medal system as it's become more of a check box or a system to help propel the shiny pennies. The ribbon rack on my blues collecting dust in the closet is still the ribbon rack from when I was a SSgt.

Replace hope with expect, and it conveys what most intelligent people knew would happen. Hard to tell if he hoped for American deaths or just knew that this was likely the most expeditious path to peace, knowing that Iran leaders would need to save face. I'm no fan of the anti-American sentiment on college campuses, just not sure this dude actually wished ill will towards Americans.

I'd wager that it was "Attacked." Good face saving move.

Only if you view ALL of it that way, which I do not. I agree that there are plenty of the types you mention, I just question how many of those Afghanis fighting us were only doing so because we had killed their fathers/grandfathers (not to mention Mothers/sisters/siblings) and/or the fact that we were simply occupiers in their land. I can tell you that if you invaded my land, occupied it for decades, killed some of my family, and/or randomly schwacked a neighbor with a hellfire, I'd vow to kill as many of you as I could as well (wolverine style). I'll concede that we may have stopped some attacks on American soil, then again, maybe not. Did we really gain anything by sticking around A-stan after we got OBL? It truly felt like we just played the world largest game of 'next man up," as we killed the top guys, then their replacements, then their replacement, etc... Probably a discussion for another thread, sorry to hijack the thread.

Not under the ROE we had at the end...unless you really like watching ANA/ANP get rolled by the Taliban and being unable to do anything about it. I was specifically referencing camaraderie. Sense of mission accomplishment just wasn't there for this guy. The flying was cool and I did some cool stuff for sure, I'll never discount that. It's just that none of that was used on any of our deployments....[bad] luck of the draw I suppose. Up to a point, I believe that was true. Toward the end, I couldn't help but think we were now just killing (or not) the product of our own doing. The proverbial self licking ice cream cone.

Love the perspectives here and thankful for all you guys who continue to serve. For a different perspective, career part-time Guard guy here. I stuck around becuase I enjoyed the flying, the people, and it was fun...up until it wasn't. Glad I served, but I didn't have the same experience as many above. It seemed every time we found ourselves on a deployment, we did absolutely nothing. The worst being my last trip to Afghanistan (over a decade after my first trip lol) a few months before the pullout. We had an EA (and his JAG), over 1,000 NM away, who had puppet/hand up your ass close control. They also no appetite to do anything but watch the ANA/ANP get rolled. It truly was a demoralizing trip for the entire squadron and really showed that we had no intention of ever winning this 20+ year quagmire. Also, I'm happy to no longer have to fight self imposed road block after road block just to do the mission. Though it may not sound like it, I'm not bitter, but there is a sour taste in my mouth. Thankfully all that is far outweighed by the lifelong friends/experiences from my 22 years in service...the pension will be nice when the time comes as well. I would say I miss the camaraderie, but we all live within a few miles of each other, which is very close to base. As I type this I hear 2nd go coming back into the pattern and one dude just rocked our house (likely driveway check by a pilot who lives across the street from me). There isn't a week that goes by that I'm not having coffee and/or beers with an old squadron mate. This morning, I carpooled with a squadron mate who is a FO on my jet, and we flew a quick day turn for Delta. In a few weeks there are 20+ of us current/former squadron mates going on a 3 day golf outing up in western Michigan. I 100% would miss the camaraderie if we didn't have this dynamic. The airlines just can't compare...it's a job that I love only because I work very little and make lots of money. I need that to make up for all the years of lost time with family.

From a different OSINT site, someone captured the Truman Skippers reaction to this incident. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0-JA1ffd5Ms&t=10s&pp=2AEKkAIB

Ya, I can't speak to the needs of the EX, but I have no doubt the whiskeys would be a better option, pretty much for anything. Of course it's not going to compare to the over water Whiskeys, nothing ever will. I wish we could all have the Whiskeys that the NOLA guys have, but wrt overland airspace, it's right up with with many of the ones you listed. It's 60-70 miles wide by about 150-160NM long if you utilize the northern ATCAA. Much of it has low airspace to the surface (few shelfs) and most of it goes to 50k, an over water restricted for bombs (also connects to a land range as well, though not great), with ATCAAs to the west for tankers, etc... It's certainly not perfect, but has fewer restrictions than many of the overland airspace I've used over the years. At it's widest, the BMGR is 50 miles with much of it closer to 40 NM and it's about the same range if not a little less, if you can get it all. If I remember correctly, the north part of the NTTR is 150ish miles and you get to squeeze into the airspace north of the container which is narrower than APN. The Yukon in AK is great, but of course we all get to squeeze into two narrow bands at X altitudes to avoid the airliners... I've only used the Evans/Saline in the Edwards airspace so I can't speak much to that. But unless there are ATCAAs I can't see, even if you get the entire Edwards complex, it's the same length of the complex. I do think, if you get the entire complex, it would be much better becuase of the the width/depth. Holloman restricted are about 130NM N/S. I've never flown there so I'm not sure if there are ATCAAs connecting the restricted to the MOA in the east. If they do, it looks like you're looking at 110NM E/W for a narrow corridor. I'm not saying it's better/worse than any of these, but it's just as big or bigger than some of the places you listed. If you could get them all with no restrictions, then I'd agree that they're all much larger. But when you look at the effective airspace that you can get on the daily, it's right up there. Lets be honest, a vast majority of the squadrons out there, are only flying with themselves daily anyway.