pawnman

Me. I'll argue that. We could pull out of a number of bases in the Middle East and save a shit ton of money. We could close bases in the US and get the ones remaining back to 100% manning, and increase the morale at the same time (can you imagine if we closed Cannon and relocated all those guys to places like Hurlburt, Ellsworth, hell...even Dyess?) I'll argue that we've been wasting a ton of money, people, and resources in these never-ending wars in the Middle East. I have no idea what the hell we're still doing in Afghanistan. I have no idea why we thought it was a good idea to execute airstrikes in Libya. I'm still scratching my head at the idea that Syria was worth the first salvo of JASSM in combat. So...maybe I'm in the minority, but I am absolutely willing to argue the cost of maintaining a world-wide empire, both in terms of military spending and foreign aid. I'm also willing to argue it isn't an empire. An empire would result in a net gain being returned to the home country. Our model seems to be predicated on paying for everyone else while getting basically no tangible returns out of it.

Our FTU had a solid dozen O-5s when I got there in 2013. Now they only have one O-5 who isn't the commander or DO.

Still seems like it's defeating the purpose of splitting the categories.

You may be right... But no one in flight med talked to me about the contact lenses, just optometry. Don't know where the paperwork routes after I leave the clinic, though. As for getting them on your own dime, you have to do that on the program as well. The Air Force just authorize you to wear contacts, but they don't pay for lenses.

Second Acuvue Oasys. Also, you need to be on the program with your base's optometrist to wear them in flight.

Like an idiot, I did exactly what the Air Force asked me to do. Then I believed my commanders when they said I was doing a good job.

To think that guys like this made O-6 and I got passed over for O-5...

I don't think we need to go to war. We just need to warn them that bad things will happen if they attack the Kurds. Sanctions. Kicked out of more military programs the way we kicked then out of the F-35. Reduced foreign aid. Reduced military spending at Incirlick. We have options aside from shooting down their jets and strafing their tanks.

I don't know what the answer is, but I know if we keep abandoning allies like this, we're going to have a hard time finding new ones when we need them.

American standard. Same thing we did in Afghanistan in the 80s and in Iraq during Desert Storm.

And that changes the calculus how? Most guys current in their MWS are still tasked for useless BS non-flying deployments.

Sounds about right. The B-1 puts two in min AB a lot when we're high gross weight, like deployed ops with a full weapons load and trying to top off the fuel

Could be padding the schedule due to the new format/categories.

Might be a thin justification, but at the time those statements were made, neither Hillary nor Trump were elected officials.

Yep. When they changed the scoring last time, they changed "shall" to "should" and effectively eliminated PT from the duty day.

By "we" you mean "oil companies". Our government isn't selling it. My bigger point is that even if we have enough to export, closing the Straits will cause global economic impact that will certainly affect the US adversely. We've already got a trade war going... Not sure how well we'd weather a global oil crisis on top of that. All of that said, don't get me wrong. I want the US out of the Middle East. The only people happier than Islamic terrorists about the blood and treasure we've spent there is our global competitors like China and Russia. They are both thrilled that we've beaten our equipment and people to shit over a patch of sand that's been unconquerable since Alexander the Great.

Sounds good in theory, but oil is a global market. Supply goes down, price goes up... Regardless of where in the world the oil is extracted.

We have a block for ETICs longer than an hour. I've never explicitly asked Top 3 to update my ORM, but it's a factor that you don't become aware of until after step.

That's why I refuse to use EFBs and only carry paper TOs everywhere. Kids today are so spoiled...🙄

Take a breather there, J. Jonah Jameson.

If I were an ops SQ/CC, I'd tell the FSS/CC to pound sand.

I don't know how it's worked in your units, but I'm mine it's been "hey bud, when do you have some time? I need to do a PT test." "Sure, how about X day at Y time?" "Great, see you there"

Gotta convince your squadron commander to take back PT tests. I can take one with a same-day text and my PTL will bring all the paperwork to the gym for me.

Yeah, but they were smart enough not to give us the necessary ratings to go to the airlines

Not great