nsplayr

Obama has proposed this for all almost non-military Executive branch employees already. Including DOD civilians. Much more saved right there than a similar freeze for the 535 members of Congress although symbolically they can go for it.

The $400 billion cut is over 10 years, so by 2023 since the budget request for 2012 is already submitted and includes the original $400 billion Gates has already identified. Story. Most of the time pay "cuts" are really either freezes or measures that slow their growth (like smaller cost of living increases, etc.). Honestly, if we're serious about cutting deficits all of a sudden, why is this not on the table? Everything should be on the table so the American people can really see what the options are, no sacred cows on either side if we're being serious. The voters will see that the sentiments to "make cuts" are not nearly as easily met when the things that are eating the vast majority of our budget are quite popular (i.e. not foreign aid, the department of education, etc.). WRT DoD, it's either make cuts to personnel costs (either less troops or same number and pay them less) or cut R&D, procurement, or operations. A lot of reductions are projected from drawing down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and obviously some major procurement items have been cut recently as well. I don't want a reduction in pay or benefits for active military members but if cuts are gonna come you realistically have to expect that they will hit that aspect of defense spending. Some of the proposals have even been very reasonable (Tricare fees) but have met a firewall of categorical opposition that defies logic. Attached good report on DOD personnel costs with a sh*t-load of graphics and numbers on the issue. Forgot to attach and lost the file...

Could this potentially be a case of non-judicial punishment? Nothing would humiliate me more than to pen a queepy article and have it posted on af.mil to forever enshrine my commitment to the Party line bullsh*t our AF has become. That would be a creative commander.

Clearly this is a box you need to check to make Chief/Colonel. Honestly... Unfortunately, most of the comments were supporting the Captain's sentiment. While I agree crisp salutes are great and all, come on, that's what you're gonna put your name to on af.mil? My god...the rationale of people in the comments. If I hear one more time "If you can't salute properly how can we trust you to fly a multi-million dollar airplane?" I will choke that person out.

Saw that on an international flight. Pretty good, informative without being boring.

Lol, so now that you're no longer AD feel free to speculate all you want. OPSEC be damned! /sarcasm font Whatever it was was probably bad ass and hopefully one day we'll know the truth when the book gets written.

I started mine early so when I'm two years out from my commitment I can be done taking TA and tell the AF to go F themselves two years later if I want to. Obviously not the same numbers game for pilots but starting that early sometimes has a point. The captain's board excuse is ridiculous.

CNN is running a story on how all the leaks about the operational details of the bin Laden raid are potentially putting the SEALs who took part in danger. They then go on to run down all the operational details that have been leaked recently, send a reporter to the supposed base where the team is stationed, and attempt to go to bars and restaurants "known to be frequented by SEALs" to get them on camera. WTF...YOU ARE DOING EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE REPORTING IS DANGEROUS!! Stop making it worse you idiots... Best quote: Ken "Former Special Forces Officer" Robinson, "The executive branch, the legislative branch, friends, relatives, and acquaintances; they need to shut the f*ck up." Well said Ken...or should I say Rainman...

We had some kind of deal where our work for Haiti counted for an inspection last year. Anyone else at HRT remember better than I do?

This whole RIF board thing is a cluster of paperwork. Create PRF-like folder, with 8 lines of narrative, for every 03-05 captain and every 00-02 major in our squadron...oh wait, that's about 69 folders. And I'm willing to 100% guarantee none of these people will be RIF'd since all of our VSP applicants were turned down and there isn't an overage of 11SX or 12SX folks anywhere. Son of a bitch air force...

I think there's credit due all around. The folks who gave the order and carried out the mission would not have been in a position to do so if there wasn't groundwork laid ahead of time. The desire to bring a ruthless killer to justice can and does transcend partisan politics.

I did see a KC-10 refueling a B-1 below me in a country with notoriously high terrain. Keep in mind we don't get up real high with one engine...thought that was pretty forward-leaning of them.

I've heard myself saying this exact same phrase before around 2003...

Looks like the idea to control at locations separate from where the birds are located is finally taking off. Eglin isn't exactly paradise but it's a hell of a lot nicer than the current UAV locations... Link

Also conjecture. Edit to add: awesome video of Obama's alternate speech from Sunday night.

CNN was talking about it just now...not really surprised we brought out the fanciest toys for the biggest missions.

I think that's the judgment call and it apparently has been made in the affirmative. I probably would have been inclined to release the pics, but then again we saw all the violence caused by the Danish cartoon or the Koran burning shennanigans. To me, it seems like a lot of the more radical Muslims out there get their panties in a wad easily and believe "being offended" means "rampage through the streets and kill people and break shit," so if there is a genuine belief that releasing the photos would cause more violence directed at U.S. forces and personnel then I guess it's the right decision.

"We don't need to spike the football. And I think that, given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk." Think that sums it up.

Well at some point you had to overfly Pakistan considering, ya know, Abbottabad is in Pakistan...not sure what you mean by this. Whether they actually launched the vipers to intercept or perhaps passively participated in the operation by letting us in is probably not to be known by us or discussed here. to the BAMFs who put a bullet in his face, dragged his body off, and dumped in in the ocean. AMF, I hope some of the SEALs tea-bagged you before throwing you overboard.

AFLt, PM me if you want a good contact. My best friend from high school is a -135 pilot down there and should have the latest gouge on where to live, the life of a -135 Co, etc. I visited him down there for a long weekend and we had a blast; give yourself a high-five for getting an awesome assignment.

In almost any degree program, in my opinion, you get out what you put in. Granted reputation matters, but if you put in the work to be able to speak intelligently and credibly about what you learned and can connect that with the job you're trying to get then you're doing it right. The stigma of "online" versus "brick and mortar/real" is slowing going away and honestly there aren't a lot of other options for frequent deployers/TDYers. Like some people have said on here, if the AF were truly committed to having its officers getting good educations, there would be many more slots for full-time study from high-quality institutions. The system now gives the illusion of the AF caring about human capital and education, but instead just gives them one more data point to rack-and-stack people and puts money in the pockets of "military-friendly" online schools.

Nice, let's hope so. I never went (many navs didn't b/c there wasn't a huge break in the pipeline anywhere) and was sweating out having to go. They were non-vol'ing dudes from my squadron a few months ago to fill empty seats at that joke of a course. Not that I have a pregnant wife, pin on captain in a few months and a 1/1.2 dwell ratio...that's what I wanna spend my time at home doing, AF second-lieutenant bullshit! I think the idea behind the whole "close the War Colleges" movement is that, for the cost, they do not provide a better education than civilian institutions and to the determent of those who attend, they breed a closed-minded, military-centric way of thinking. I have no idea if those claims are true and it's probably YMMV, but it's hard to argue that it would at least be cheaper to go the civilian route rather than running a whole institution internally. Same goes for the academies I guess...the burden is kind of on them to justify why the greater cost is worth it in terms of better products, a unique education, etc. Either way, I don't expect either the academies or War Colleges to go away b/c why would the military want to give up prestigious institutions and funding just to save a buck for Uncle Sam? They wouldn't.

You're channeling Tom Ricks circa April 2009. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4 He even talks about closing the war colleges in the third link. I'm pretty sure we had a thread on this once too...

The AF is trying to get better ways to PID men/women/children when viewed by ISR/CAS platforms so you don't end up fragging women and kids. Reference this story. As a side note, sucks for those pred guys that everything they say is on tape for critical review by the media after the fact...and they didn't even take the bad shot!

Where do I sign up? On a side note, I totally forgot this thread existed; as my profile pic indicates I'm 100% being the armed crop duster idea, what a sweet machine.