StoleIt

Not taking it as a personal attack. I'm one to dismiss, ignore, and skirt every type of queep/bureaucracy to get the mission done (sidebar: it actually made for a great TMAAT story at my legacy interview). But Mini is what...at least the 3rd 4-star in a row to talk about how we need to accelerate or die, right? What has changed? Has anything gotten better? I see it all as empty words. Go in and publicly fire some people that are holding up progress. Publicly promote the dudes who solved the complex tactical issue that CH mentioned. I don't disagree with Mini's intent but, after 6-9 years of hearing it, and not seeing any traction take place I just can't be bothered anymore.

Kinda weird that the memo is dated 1 Feb (a couple days in the future from when it was sent). But, overlooking that slight anomaly, I think it was a poor attempt to try and (re)galvanize AMC into a wartime mindset. The people that are going to have to worry about their vRED and getting slapped around by China don't need to be told to empty a "clip" (WTF) into the head. Ops and MXG already have that mind set. Get the other groups onboard. But that will never happen. The frozen middle administrators in support roles in AMC make everything harder than it needs to be. I want to be optimistic about what he is trying to accomplish but this memo was a piss poor attempt IMO. February: My bases CATM literally can't keep up with the current demand so all the pilots we have no longer keep up weapons qual. Now they want everyone to shoot in the month February? Okay...that's not going to happen. Update vRED. Neat. Can I just wait until it's mandatory for me to update it or do I literally need to waste time and look it over? Also, thanks for reminding me that in a war with China I'm gonna die. I'll just add that to my pros/cons of getting out of the Air Force list...how much QOL is dying worth? I guess the $400k SGLI will be nice though...anyone know if civilian life insurance covers PL-15's or is that something I have to get specific policy for? March: Go see JAG to get my household affairs in order. Neat...again. Maybe the JAG will know the answer about my life insurance question. I think I'll just push the separation button slightly earlier actually. I can do that from my office instead of going all the way to the JAG. We can't even get a working autopilot on the -135 and you want to modify it to be a drone carrier? How about we get it back into RVSM airspace as a realistic and achievable goal. /rant

Also, what happened to "clear left/right" before crossing a runway?

Last I read it was a CKA and "new" (to the 777) FO. I can't believe they continued either...I guess it must have been premium.

I think we see if that way...asking around to my non-military friends I firmly believe the general population thinks we did a great job. The spin worked. They didn't fall off the plane because of our crappy plan, they fell off the plane because of the Taliban/Afghan's government's failure.

And the majority of pilots rolled over and still departed on time rather than review the procedures on the clock...and now they floated their vacation against APA's direction. Our pilot group is too broken to save at this point IMO. I'm hoping the 7k retirements in the next 10 years might lead to better unity/cohesion within APA (or ALPA if that happens).

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Everything I've read (open source) is that Ukraine has preparations for Belarus to enter the conflict and has massed troops and resources accordingly. It also seems the geography/terrain is highly in Ukraine's favor.

What happened the last time they (USSR) collapsed? I'd imagine, assuming a semi peaceful transfer of power and a status quo in the escalation of the current conflict...it will be the exact same as what happened in 1991.

The ring. And yea, I just heard at todays intel brief we can wear the ring in the vault. And I haven't heard anything official about it being a substitute for the PT test.

We wore the "Whoop" ring for ORM purposes. It went away pretty quickly when the tech dude who did all the work to get set up PCA'd. My only issue with using a wearable device to track healthy/fitness (which I'm a fan of, I love my smart watch for this reason) is that if you work in a vault or do any significant amounts of flying I can see you get flagged and put in the bad camp. Sure, even if I hit the gym and run 2 miles before a flight, 24 hours stuck in a metal tube eating a ton of calories isn't gonna help. I do get a kick out of it when my watch tells me to get up and go for a walk when I'm halfway across the ocean and have 3 more legs to go. Airplane mode needs to apply to fitness!

https://sofrep.com/news/aerial-warfare-russian-pilots-downs-5-ukrainian-su-27s-and-mig-29s/ Can't find anything to back up Russia's claims. But if they are really using SU-57's in combat and MiG-31's at huge standoff ranges than it isn't beyond realistic to see the air war be a bit skewed in Russia's favor if Ukraine is trying to fly more.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/illinois-house-approves-assault-weapons-ban-bill-heads-to-state-senate/

Interestingly, a buddy of mine ended up getting selected for the program to get a Master's right out of ROTC. He regrets doing the program because all it did was put him 2 years behind his peers. I guess if he wanted to go to TPS it would help immensely but, otherwise someone would really have to dig into his records to see he got selected for that program in the first place, unlike Phoenix. It didn't help him at all professionally. So, even when the Air Force claims to value advanced degrees...they really don't.

Yes, but now that the order you pin on is based on your rack and stack at the board (not saying that's a bad thing BTW), getting ranked last costs you in missed pay and BAH at the higher rank. So, assuming how you price out your time, getting a minimum effort degree that costs no more than the TA reimbursement will eventually pay out several hundred dollars higher a month for the extra 6-9 months you wear the rank. O-3 -> O-4 and O-4 -> O-5 are roughly a $500 month difference and BAH is (rough average) about $200. So if that moves you to the middle of the pack it's $4200 extra by getting promoted 6 months earlier.

True, as I get a little closer to my separation date I will just let them know directly next time they come up to the cockpit and ask me how it's going. Granted only one of those people rate my jet.🤣

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-regulate-travel-china-after-he-called-trump-xenophobic Pot, meet kettle.

That's PhD level stuff right there.

I really wish there was an "exit feedback form" we could fill out to let our "leadership" know some of the reasons why we are leaving. It would be cheaper and more accurate than all the RAND studies, IMO. Not that anyone would care...but at the very least it would be cathartic and it could be something our civilian elected officials could use to hold the senior military officers accountable for mismanaging their personnel so badly.

Just looking up who Lt Gen Caroline Miller is...and she has 4 Master's degrees. So, no surprise, she probably REALLY values worthless degrees. Also, skipped being a 2-star and went right from 1 to 3 stars. So that's pretty neat. https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/1955079/caroline-m-miller/

Pretty sure we are all back to not caring about this sport for another 4 years.

Latest update: It was a USAF pilot on loan to DCMA conducting an acceptance flight for the USMC from Lockheed Martin. https://www.coffeeordie.com/air-force-major-crash?fbclid=IwAR3dWKfxZ12U4DWAPwarA0WcAr0SjF-XgEeWf6JRYqFaDxsP27wfWe_YSiI

Hell yea! Tilt rotor Raptor's would be tits. 🤣

Accurate.