SuperWSO

The only time that the F-4s flew without WSOs was a brief period during Vietnam when the AF tried to put two pilots in a jet. It didn't work out well, and the AF went back to the pilot/WSO team. It is worth noting that two of the three AF Aces from Vietnam were F-4 WSOs who subsequently attended UPT. As for other fighters, there were the wild weasels - both F-4 and F-105(EWO, but still wearing Nav wings) F-111s, F-101s, and others I'm sure I am forgetting.

Opinions may vary, but WSO/CSO is undeniably a career field in decline. With that said, I am confident that you could serve out a full career in the Bone or F-15E. The AF does not even have replacement platforms on the horizon for either aircraft. The F-35 (sans WSO) is supposed to replace the F-16, A-10, and Strike Eagle, but it won't have the same legs or many of the Strike Eagles capabilities. Besides, the F-15E is one of our newest fighter airframes - it should have lots of hours left. Navs may start to phase out of the traditional Nav airframes in the next decade, but WSO platforms were designed for two or four bodies, and pilots won't ride around behind other pilots, so I think your odds are pretty good.

Oh crud, I'm gonna have to start checking the NOTAMs before commercial flights. At what RVR do RBs become mandatory? Departure or landing airfield?

REMF, I'm not "over there" at the moment, but I think your time has been well spent on this thread. It provides some perspective instead of continuing a one sided rant. Please continue.

I'm starting to wonder if someone at Air War College is now briefing this site to the future leaders of the world based on recent responses. We had B52IR99 coming off the top rope on his first post over in the "Minot Wing/CC canned" thread." We have REMF who is actually value added, but looks like he was sent to quell the uprising, and now we have Cptmorgan - again trying to come off the top rope with his "shut up and color" first post. I'm seeing a trend toward more supervision at BaseOps. I never had the illusion that this was completely anonymous, but it appears that the word is getting out - we even had a tops in blue dude in that thread. WTF?

So if you can't have your glasses on indoors, but they can't be on your head, hanging from your shirt or suspended around your neck - where are they supposed to go? In your PT pockets? Oh those don't exist! Do they have an airman running a "sunglasses check" at the door of each facility? It seems like they have regulated away every conceivable option in this case.

You've got a point. I still don't understand how it can be a uniform without rank insignia. Just imagine, 12 months from now, you will here the tink, tink, tink of your ribbons hitting the concrete as you do pushups in your modified PT/mess dress ensemble.

2? I missed that nugget of info if it was mentioned previously. On what grounds was he arrested. I've only seen that for blatent violations of G.O. 1 (ie falling down drunk in Iraq.)

I wonder how many dudes send theirs back because the altimeter stops climbing at 8,000 ft in the airplane. I suppose it could double as a "CABIN OVER 10K" light, provided you look at it. Can Herk guys open the side window and hang their arm out to check the altitude?

Nice Pawnman. I'm still laughing. Maybe you could give somebody the gift of food. Folks in Abilene love BBQ and a buddy just sent me a picture of his girlfriend's favorite.

Its been days without input on the biggest topic on Baseops. Has the leadership improved dramatically since the Officer call, or did the lobotomys do the trick? It got really quiet really fast.

I'm with HD. Those of us geographically separated from the land of tucked t-shirt belt wearers are eager to hear the latest installment. Did they postpone the update or did the com nazi's cut off all access to Baseops?

Huey, you guys should have done this... I'm certain that would have helped, plus you could have taxied into the chow hall legally. Barring that, make the FE wear a reflective belt (inside the aircraft) during ground ops on all future sorties. I'm sure the glow from the cockpit would grab the drivers attention. [/sarcasm]

I don't even think retirement is required. The boss should have broken this ass chewing/motivation into smaller groups. If you get a group of about 50 aviators in a room and try to talk down to them, you're going to hear at least one bullshit. If the group of aviators has time to stew before hand, critical mass is reached at about twenty dudes. I bet at least two or three bags are going to jump up and call bullshit if this goes as expected. The finance troops and dentists will all be horrified.

Ralph Peters rarely has anything good to say about the AF, but this is the first time I've ever seen him take a shot at the Army. Interesting perspective on the end result of political correctness in the military.

Major Stone was an instructor when I went through the schoolhouse. He was an outstanding instructor and a person I remember who made a difference for everyone he worked with. The news is currently stating that Maj. Hasan made threatening remarks on a number of occasions. Nothing was done. This may finally be the event that pulls the plug on runaway political correctness in the military.

HOLY SMOKES! This line of discussion lead to a Google search. I'm amazed this hasn't been posted yet, but just in case you wondered what was under that outfit... I'm starting to want to golf.

Nope, never. I looked for 30 minutes and couldn't find em.

This is so easy that even the Army can figure it out. When I was in Baghdad in 07-08, the rule on the FOB was reflective belt after dark except for AF PT gear. They all agreed that it was more than suitably reflective and a belt with AF PT gear was redundant.

I'm glad to see the folks at Dyess have taken a pro-active approach to the problem. I say this because the same thing happened when I picked up a 180 to Baghdad departing in Sep 2007. Skycops could not spare a single M-4. LRS had to do a hostage swap involving three separate bases to get me an M-4. Clearly, they identified that they needed the other 150 or so M-4s to prevent an invasion by the incredibly friendly population of West Texas. At least they went ahead and fixed the problem so it would never happen again... never mind.

Irony is good stuff. This story makes me laugh every time I read the latest update... FDA Warns of 'High Levels' of Disease-Causing Bacteria Found in Certain Hand Sanitizers https://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525520,00.html

Emphasis on item #1 I've been snacko in four different organizations. The trick to item number one is to make it simple - Make absolutely everything in the snack bar 50 cents. Then take the car on down to Sam's Club and look at the unit cost on the shelves. Don't buy anything with a unit price over about 40 cents. We had one retard buying stuff that cost 80 cents a piece and selling it for 50. Don't be a charity.

This isn't a book, but it is very interesting reading. It is a personal account of a B-17 crew member who flew from Sep 1943 to Feb 1944. I've read numerous other books, but it never ceases to amaze me what these guys endured, and kept hacking the mission day after day... without the aid of reflective belts or PT gear. B17log.pdf

Just a bomber guys opinion, but I believe that there are Pave Hawk MH-60s still flying and the MH-53 Pave Low helicopters were recently retired. Either way, I would expect that there are a great many guys still flying that had experience in either platform who could be considered "Pave" guys. Just my 2 cents.

According to BUFF guys I know, the wings on the BUFF move almost 18 feet vertically from full droop to the opposite extreme. I'm not an Aero engineer, but that much flexing in a metal structure over the course of sixty years just can't be good. One day, the wing tips are going to meet in the middle and the AF will have to start revising their long term plans. To quote the Commander in Chief "It just isn't sustainable."