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xcraftllc

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Posts posted by xcraftllc

  1. USAF Lieutenant Colonel (ret) Matthew J. LaCourse, served 22 honorable years before working as an Air Force civilian. I obviously didn't know that man and I'm not too familiar with Air Force tradition but from what I'm reading he was a hell of a guy.

  2. I toast to the explorers past, present, and future who push the boundaries of flight for the advancement of mankind.

    :beer:

    Indeed, I wish NASA had a more of a mission these days too, seems like the momentum of the Apollo era has been lost forever in our government. At least there's enough of a potential market to make it worth pursuing in private enterprise.

  3. I bet Elon Musk is taking a step back and a second look at SpaceX right now. They've been lucky with no fatalities, although they've had their share of issues. I remember a laboratory explosion here in Texas a while back, and then a couple of Falcon rocket failures:

    http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2014/08/22/spacex-test-rocket-explodes-in-texas/14472939/

    As for Virgin, they appear to be the only company that has lost people in their program, this is now the fourth death:

    http://www.knightsarrow.com/rockets/scaled-composites-accident/

  4. I think what generally happens is this; over time the war-fighters come home and tell their stories, and slowly but surely, a large portion of the country begins to have some kind of idea of what really happened. These wars are a bit different in that there is constant communication between soldiers and their families, but even with this communication, the overbearing negative news and dramatized movies make for a generally mislead understanding of the wars. I think we'll have to wait until these wars end (if ever), and the negative news stream stops.

    At least we don't have it as bad as the 'nam vets. Not only was it a more lethal war, but they had to deal with some serious negative treatment from the American public when they got home. It wasn't until long after they had a chance to tell their stories that people had any sympathy for them. I'm just glad I've never really had to deal with someone calling me a baby killer.

    At least ISIS makes itself very easy to hate. I mean, I can't think of anyone who has sympathy for their cause. It's a pretty clear-cut problem that needs to be eliminated.

  5. Then again, the entitlement attitude is something that is deep and strong. Coupled with obvious anger problems and the inability to have a civil conversation, I'm not sure basic training could break that. Especially now with the new basic training and the cell phones, "stress cards", and "MTLs are not allowed to <insert military training here>" attitude.

    That's been my experience, the immature people I went to basic with are still generally immature. Not all, some of them grew up. I'm very glad that I spent a couple of years on my own outside of high school before I joined, I think it really helped give me a dose of reality.

  6. When asked for comment, the CEO of Italian-based Alenia Aermacchi gave this reaction:

    ...

    lol, sorry for the double post.

    The saddest part is that this is nothing new. I'd heard about what was left behind in Vietnam, but never thought these wars would end that way considering how much control we have over the area and how mobile our modern military is:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/04/billions-in-equipment-supplies-being-left-behind-in-afghanistan/

    Edit: I'm not saying all the leadership involved demonstrated fraud or abuse since obviously most of that equipment is cost-prohibitive to ship back, it's just interesting how much waste there is.

  7. A complete tangent that has nothing to do with rated aviators ejecting; but apparently when Bagram was taken for the first time way back right after Sep 11th, the forces securing the base saw one of the local Afghan workers climb into an old mig cockpit and start messing around. A few moments later the guy ejected up (completely unharnessed etc), and fell to the ground dead!

  8. Pretty bold statement without knowing exactly what happened. I don't disagree that we need some new hardware, but I have no idea whether or not this was an aircraft malfunction or pilot error.

    Concur that the best news is that everyone is ok!

    You're right man, in fact I haven't heard any official results of the previous crash in Virginia either. I'm just basing that on how this one reportedly involves two separate parts of the aircraft located quite a distance away from each other, and that F-15s have broken apart in flight in the past.

  9. Just some quick additional info, the slot is for FY 17.

    I called the POC to ask since I'm 28. The POC told me to go ahead and apply anyway since sometimes they're able to get an earlier slot, which actually happened to a guy they have in training right now. For the time being, I really hope my current prospects with FY 16 slots pan out!

  10. You have 4 days to apply to Tucson, but you must be military already, enlisted OK

    http://www.162fw.ang...-140919-025.pdf

    Thanks for posting that matmacwc, talk about short notice, when did they have that on their website? The date of the document says 5 Sep, but this is the first I've hear of it, must have missed that. I suppose I should scour through all the units' websites again to see if there's anything else out there too. Seems like a lot of the hiring opportunities aren't very well publicized.

    I've heard rumors that the 162nd almost always hires from within, could just be bad gouge, either way it sure can't hurt to apply! As for me, I can't, I'm 28 and their posting says no older than 26 at the time of the interview, so good luck to those who can!

  11. I can sympathize with both sides, as I've met both awesome and horrible recruiters. Some recruiters are really proactive and all about helping you, while others shut you out from the beginning since they aren't exactly having a hard time filling pilot slots, and if you don't seem like a cookie cutter candidate, they don't feel like working with you.

    From my experience, I'd say this; always go through the appropriate channels first, if for no other reason than to be able to say you did. If you run into a road block, you can ask the POC you're talking to if it's ok to ask to someone else about it. For example, a recruiter I spoke with actually recommended that I speak to the Group Commander about some questions I had, and gave me his number.

    Otherwise, like others have mentioned, you will most likely give everyone the feeling that you won't hesitate to go around them in order to take care of yourself first. Also, the top level guys are often very busy and concerned with bigger things. You may irritate them quite a bit which is not a good first impression.

    With that said every unit is different. Just don't do anything on a whim. Ask around a bit and make sure you have an idea of what you're getting in to and who you're talking to. I'm no expert though, I'm just saying so far I've managed to get some rather unique questions and concerns answered without pissing anyone off as far as I can tell.

  12. I'll send an email out. I tried to call them but no one answered. I bet it's FY 16 slot based on how sudden this is. That's a very compressed timeline; from deadline to interview in less than a month. The airlines must really be offering some sweet deals to their senior pilots, or who knows, maybe the Big AF just threw out an extra UPT slot to them. I'll post if I get a reply.

    Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

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