pawnman

I'm guessing it would be way less than $100 million a copy to outfit our current Eagles instead of buying new.

I've seen then available at all the "military tailors" both at Ellsworth and Pensacola. The same folks you'd take a flight suit to when you get rank sewn on can usually make them for about $5 a pop.

That only works when your superiors don't hammer your nuts for pulling rank on an NCO, which happens with some regularity. Edited to add an example: http://www.afblues.com/?p=668 Voice opposition, yes. Defy, no.

It seems like LTs in other branches get much bigger responsibilities and therefore more respect. An LT in the Army would be a platoon leader in charge of a dozen guys or more. In the USAF, an LT is just barely above a 1-striper.

This is why the NCOs feel so empowered to treat officers with such disresepect. LTs are still officers. Young, perhaps, inexperienced, yes, but still officers. But because we teach both NCOs and LTs that an LT has no authority, we teach everyone to put up with NCOs pretending they outrank CGOs. The result is guys like this MSgt.

The really sad part is, 30 years from now our kids will look at us and wonder WTF were we thinking.

That was our squadron. One of the guys recently PCS'd...one of his gifts was a gallon of hydraulic fluid..."You never know when you'll need one more gallon".

As a guy new to deploying, I consider this thread as much a part of my spin up as Green Flag and CAS sorties in the local MOA.

1st part, no, 2nd part yes. I think they're doing a fine job of taking over our spot as number 1 through economics, and I don't think they'll start a shooting war that will cripple foreign investment there for years to come.

Bingo. If we're going to be filling our own support role anyway, send the support troops the f#$@ home so I can do my job in peace.

The only two times a mustache is acceptable, outside deployments, is "Mustache March" and "Sex-offender September".

I'm not sure I'm adding much new stuff, but... In the BONE, WSOs do very little actual navigating. Yes, it is still part of the Offensive Systems Officer's duties, but it's not the primary one, especially in a CAS environment. We're too busy talking to JTACs, punching coordinates into the weapons, running the radar and the targeting pod...well, you get the idea. And the defensive systems officer is just as involved...in an unopposed environment, he could be taking the other radio, backing the OSO on the coords being entered, plotting positions on the laptop...all this while the pilot flying is handling all the navigation. In an opposed environment (i.e., threat heavy), the DSO has his hands full running the defensive avionics, the chaff, flares, painting a picture for the rest of the crew, calling out threats to the rest of the package. In short, WSOs are not human GPS interfaces to the pilot...we have a unique job. I don't know about F-15E's, but in the BONE, the pilots CANNOT complete the mission without us. We have the control over the bombs, the radar, the inertial navigation system...But equally, without the pilots, all I have is a $300 million static display. I've seen nothing beyond friendly pilot/WSO rivalry, and for every disparaging remark, I've probably heard 10 "I need a pilot/WSO to answer this question for me". I'd also like to add to the list of O-6's with nav wings, including the OG/CC at Dyess when I went through the FTU, my current squadron commander, one of our O-5 ADOs, and the O-5 acting commander of our sister squadron. While a WSO may never be the "Aircraft Commander", they will very often by the "Mission Lead" (in charge of mission execution for their plane or formation) or even "Mission Commander" (in charge of the entire mission, including other platforms).

If it's the one I think it is, the EOD thing is only 1 part of about 12.

Personally, having done EWO, and having seen how it's applied...there could frankly be a much shorter top-off course for B-1 and F-15 guys.

When I went through the FTU, we had 1 BUFF EWO and 1 RJ EWO in the class behind us. I don't know why they don't put more folks looking for Bones through EWO school...it's not exactly crowded. I would think they'd have more than enough capacity to meet their 12-person (or whatever it is now) quota for pipeline guys, and add additional slots to that. But then, it would only make sense to put 20 guys in a room with 25 chairs...

We told the same when TDY to EWO...TDY! Baffles me that somehow the wing supercedes the US flag.

Didn't work for our intel officer...

Our intel officer had the same thing happen to her. She was being paid the $80/day per diem when she was deployed, and she knew that was a problem...so she went to finance, checkbook and pay stubs in hand, and told them the problem. They said they hadn't overpaid her. She reattacked every week for about two months before giving up. She even got a memo from finance, signed by the finance CC that "This officer was not overpaid during the past deployment" or some similar wording. Six months later, finance wakes up and realizes that they have, indeed, overpaid her and they need the money, NOW. They tell her the memo she got from finance is worthless, because they were wrong when they wrote it. Luckily, she had squirreled all this cash away because she knew this was coming. She wrote them a check, got a memo signed that said she'd paid it. She got the check back in the mail after it had been processed. Guess what happened a few months later? Finance starts bugging her "because she hasn't paid this yet". She walks in with the reciept and the cancelled check..."That's not enough proof, we need more". She eventually had to go not only to her commander, but to his commander (a 1-star), who was STILL given the run around for weeks before this problem was fixed.

I know fraternization is a fuzzy line, but that seems to cross it.

"We don't have a good ETIC, but we'll call you when it's ready." Or, any ETIC given. The rule of thumb around here is double it and add 20 minutes, and you're in the same ballpark as reality.

Sure. I mean, it's not like her picture is on the internet anywhere else...oh, wait...

Oddly enough, when I was TDY at Randolph for EWO, no one even checked my ID, let alone my orders when I ate at the chow hall...Granted, it wasn't that often, but still, this seems pretty dumb.

Asking congress for billions = no jets. Asking taxpayers for billions = jet whenever you want it. Tell'em what, that a round-trip ride to DC would buy them about a month of additional employment, if that?

Really? You think it's the loud music that will tip them over the edge? "Well, we were going to follow the Geneva Conventions...but when we found out those Americans were blaring Spice Girls music at Gitmo, we decided to start chopping off heads instead".

For a while at PCola, guys with a PPL or just shy of a PPL were getting out of NIFT and jumping straight into API. I had thought they got rid of that and everyone went through NIFT now...