Clayton Bigsby

Yeah, that's the Al Udeid logo/crest. They slap that shit on everything. Hard to buy something at the 'deid that DOESN'T have "MISSION FIRST" on it... ...read the back of said t-shirt, it probably says "desert paradise" on the back. 'nuff said.

I guess she didn't pay any attention to the "MAINTAIN A LOW PROFILE" portion of her HRC briefing, at inprocessing... ...and this is a Major for crying out loud! Not just some 19 year old Airman!

Meh, I liked the AWOL stories better, they were more entertaining. Agreed, knee-jerk reaction barring everybody from off-base SUCKS. One of the nicer points of the man's-ass was that you could go experience the culture in a relatively safe enviromnent, and they actually had women there (unlike the 'deid where they run around in ninja suits), some scenery to see and whatnot.

Dude if she got rolled up it was willingly - she made 2 phone calls, left the mall of her own volition, and walked on her own feet to some house somewhere. Then how do you explain the hair dye on her hands??? Yeah... This whole story is f***ed. And now a whole base at a relatively peaceful location, one where you could actually get out and go experience the local culture instead of waiting in line to get an hour on an x-box, is on lockdown because of her tomfooleries and shenanigans, and the local gov't and police force think we're all wierdos. Great. Hey Farva, what's the name of that restaurant you like? You know, with the finger foods and all the goofy shit on the walls?

RIP, thanks fellas.

I've seen it happen. It sucks, 'cuz I gotta deal with it. Not much I can do though.

A friend of mine is an E-8 nav...and he's on his 4th (or is it 5th?) 4-month deployment to the 'deid right now.

Everybody's got to get their start somewhere, flight-hours wise.

My experience with it as an Airman is what was said above, 2 weeks (12 days) of free leave. And it's something that can be done once each year, so I knew Airmen who would go home on leave for 2 weeks, and also do RAP in conjunction - and get a 2 week extension. They did it every year. Yeah it's not totally free time as you "work", but I wouldn't call what I did work...just helped out. I think the hardest thing I did was to stamp and seal a bunch of envelopes for the mail. Don't know what the particularities of it would be for an officer, but I'd imagine it wouldn't be too much of a brain-buster.

I don't think you'd want steel toes - once that toe gets cold, you're done. And as an aircrew member do you really need the protection?

or AETC thing? I've never heard anything to that effect, just that my dubdued desert-color american flag is "not authorized"

no, I was saying it'd be nice if it could be done legally. And the donators would have to be responsible for the drunk. I know it's a bad idea, I'm just looking for a way to get more than 3 beers. [ 13. August 2006, 21:55: Message edited by: Chuck Farleston ]

I think you'll find 3 beers isn't enough to make the boredom/misery go away, just enough for a light buzz. wish they had some other beers that packed more punch, it's like drinking 3.2% stuff or something. Or if you could combine each other's ration cards to get one guy on your crew really drunk or something.

Yeah, the 'deid was the last holdout, and now it's gone. I actually finally got my PT gear yesterday, just in case.

Brilliance on the navy's part to retire the KS-3 prematurely...But I guess it's nice to have one less type of aircraft to support on a carrier. Unbearable noise huh? Aren't there some buddy refuelling pods for fighters that have a "drop-down" feature? Kind of like a mini-boom, lowering down to put the basket another 10-12 feet below the tanker aircraft. I know I've seen it in old pictures...like this

yeah, it's brass. kind of hard to tell it's a gold tint, but you can sorta see its brassiness. [ 09. August 2006, 21:29: Message edited by: Toro ]

I got issued a badass pig sticker/bayonet

I'm pleased that as an E, I now have to wear GOLD "US" insignia, instead of silver like every other piece on my uniform (AFSC badges, nametag, buttons, etc). I understand that tMike is trying to bring the perception of a military under war and renew a sense of tradition, but the feeling I'm getting is that as a "warfighter" of sorts I'm apparently on the fringes of the service while busy doing my job, while others not fighting a war and with plenty of time and money are getting off with hundreds of uniform changes. I mean for chrissakes, not a single uniform has eluded SMSgt Athnos' touch. Yeah I'll admit I wear a bag all the time, and will do anything to get out of wearing my blues, but someday I might have to wear that shit. I'm going to have a lot of catching up to do.

I'm just a fvckin' load, but I'd imagine the boom can give you double to triple the fluid flow rate than a probe/drogue setup, which is $$$ on a big plane like a C-5 or B-52 getting a complete fillup in 20 minutes rather than a couple hours... ...plus, in a big airplane, I assume it's much easier to get into receiver position and let the boomer worry about the plug, than to have to fly the entire fricken' airplane into a target 2 feet across that bounces around. And I've heard the Buff is a fistfull of airplane. Like I said, I'm just a load, but A/R doesn't look like it's exactly easy - my pilots look plenty busy. [ 08. August 2006, 21:06: Message edited by: Chuck Farleston ]

weak...

You'll probably get issued that shit. Why are you paying for it??? The assmaster 3000 is nice for deadheading in the back in the troop seats, but otherwise the existant seat cushions are fine.

Airdrop is a second qualification in C-17s - you don't get it right away. You get to go back to Altus to get it, after you've flown airland for a year or two or three. And not everybody gets to go. I'm under the impression that all -130 people are airdroppers. You will do some low-level stuff in the C-17 - but it's mostly just local training stuff, I have yet to do any of that stuff when flying real-world missions. Basically you stay proficient in it for if and when you might be called upon to actually use it, like combat offloads. for airdroppers, that might be a different story, but like I said not everybody is an airdropper.

if finance can't pay you on the spot in the correct manner, you can get your paycheck as a loan, from finance. They can figure out what you'd make and pay you that amount, in person, and then once you are "paid" in the correct manner, take it back. It's not adviseable as I always felt they took back a little more than I received, but it's the way I had to do things initially - I did not get paid all the way through BMT and through my first 3 months of service. basically you are worthless to the air force while you're in the pipeline, until you arrive to your first duty station following your tech school. Only then are you treated like a real citizen.

I understand your point, mine was that Turkey isn't all that bad given the other alternatives. I mean I wish I could be TDY to Turkey for 30 days or whatever it is you do and have more than a couple hours/days to negotiate prices for a rug, get a fitted and art-emblazoned leather flying jacket at Pop's (f*ck, every other picture in their gallery is a -135 dude or boomer), get patches/luggage tags ordered up, etc. Seriously, would you rather be messing with ration cards for permission to buy a beer limited to a couple times a week, if even that? [ 11. July 2006, 13:07: Message edited by: Chuck Farleston ]

That guy is so, so, so, soooooo screwed. I wonder if he has any idea what he's going to face...ugggh.