nsplayr

Don't sweat it too much man, either way you'll be fine and probably love your plane. BUT...if it were me, I'd take the slick because of the greater mission variety, the FAR better location, and the greater importance of the nav to the C-130 mission than to the JSTARS mission. Plus just from the instructors I knew the C-130 guys were cool as hell and I only knew 1 JSTARS guy who was just more removed and didn't interact with the students as much. I was sweating my drop night decision as well (b/c our flight commander let us choose in rank order...is that what yours is doing?), and everything turned out great so far. Similar situation in that my wife wanted me to pick the "safer," burning orbits in the sky option and I kinda was leaning towards the more tactical option. I thought about both honestly b/c family should be an important consideration, but in the end I chose the later option b/c I figured you're only young once and I would regret it later if I had picked something "safer" when I could have been kicking ass a little more directly. Not a knock on the JSTARS mission or anyone else for that matter Good luck & feel free to post your class' drop either in this thread or the track-select assignment night thread.

I've browsed the VA website about the new post 9/11 GI Bill and it seems like they don't really know what the deal is on it yet. It doesn't start paying benefits until June 2009 or something like that and I think Congress is still passing/considering bills that would modify it somewhat. Check out these links and it should be clear as mud :) VA Website Military.com Overview p.s. - hope your husband's having fun...I'm sure it still freezing up there

On the one hand, I think, yes, to some degree we should consider how the enemy perceives themselves in terms of how we should fight them. On the other hand though, 2 things get in the way of that: 1. Is that actually what he believes? A lot of guys talk a good talk and even walk a little walk but in the end they're not much but hype. On top of that, you have to consider the war of perceptions that's constantly being played...is this what the enemy wants me to think? Is he projecting an inflated image of zealous strength just to get me to back down/overreact/do something else, etc? 2. Leaders vs. Soldiers. In my opinion the leaders of a lot of the organizations we're fighting out there are the fanatical "true believers" who are out there to rid the world of evil as they see it. But I also believe that the majority of the actual fighters, along with some of the leaders in truth, are undertaking their fight because they stand to personally gain. Whether they gain respect from their community for being a brave Mujaheddin, whether they gain monetarily or increase their family/tribe/whatever's physical security by joining up with the guys with the guns; I tend to believe that actual, damn-near crazy fanaticism explains a smaller percentage of our enemies' motivations than do other factors. It's a good conversation to have and good on Peters for thinking deep enough to ask what should be a fundamental question.

Seriously...and I'll bet a lot of us here were born in the '70s as well...WTF were our parents thinking??

Dude, the end of the article shows the writer agrees with the policy as long as it's not some kind of concessions party: Translation: So yes, we should try to make deals with the ones that aren't really hard-core radicals, but make sure you don't just appease the truly evil guys. Sounds good to me. Translation: We're sending in some of the best of our boys to lay the smackdown on anyone who decides they don't want to get with the program and work with the government instead of blowing themselves up. We can talk and kick ass at the same time...these concepts are not mutually exclusive, as noted by this increase in ass-kicking potential alongside rumors of new negotiations. You're right in saying we can't just idly talk because while we sit and talk the Taliban are just resting and re-arming, but if we can offer some carrots along with a healthy helping of sticks, that sounds like a policy I can support. Is this change gonna "win the war," I have no idea...Afghanistan is a cluster and has been for longer than any of us can remember, but it sounds like a good start and with Gen. Petraeus as the big boss in Centcom, I'm one to think we can pull off some kind of victory in the long term.

The only thing that might be faster is IFS out at Pueblo. If you can already fly they can push you though a little faster from what I understand (didn't go myself so don't quote me on it). As far as nav school, there's no way to get through any faster than anyone else. It sounds like you might not be going to ASBC if your EAD is May 9 and you start nav school Jun 5. I know in my class only 2 people out of 17 even went to ASBC and the rest of us aren't likely ever to go. Good luck when you do start and PM me if you have any more specific questions. P.S. - you're lucky your EAD is right after your commission date...I know buds of mine that had to wait 6 months and I waited 3 myself.

I specifically wouldn't wanna touch that can of worms with a 10 foot pole. If the CSAF wants to "reinvigorate the nuclear enterprise," it sounds great at the strategic level. But when you're working in a squadron with a nuclear mission, it just means inspections up the a$$ and a lot of puckering. No thanks, props are too sexy to deal with nukes anyways :) Other than nuke stuff though Buffs rock, she's a good ole bird that we'll be flying till the wings fall off (unless we can get it to fly w/o wings, in that case we'd fly her forever)

Might want to brush up on proofreading as well ;) Just bustin your balls... For the dude asking the questions, feel free to PM me with specific questions. If you want an info dump I'd say read this thread and some of the others discussing nav/CSO related topics. As the other guys said, if your orders say Randolph, you will not be flying the B-1 or F-15E, that's just how it goes. There are plenty of awesome options out of RND though, so look forward to the opportunities you're going to have.

Word...our guys were none too happy to be sitting at RNF for months listening to beeps and squeeks instead of learning how to go fast and blow sh*t up at their FTUs

From what I understand the class size is limited because of the new sims...there are only X number of sims and they can't just push more people though because they could theoretically fit in a room. As for pipeline students most classes have 5 slots for EWO out of a class of 15-20 studs. Plus you have foreign students who frequently take up 1-2 slots. From my class that graduated 17 overall, there were only 5 pipeline kids that tracked EWO. The rest of the slots were taken up by 2 Canadians, 2 strike eagle dudes, and 3 bone WSOs. 12 is the max total class size and if there were more WSOs going through, there'd be even fewer opportunities for pipeline kids to track EWO (which was fine by me b/c I wanted nav but if you wanted EWO you hoped for a class that had fewer outside students filling up the potential slots...sts). Of course all of this will change with the new CSO school so opportunities might be more available if they still run a EWO top-off course for already winged WSOs.

Not quite finance but personnel and support related. New story from AF times...best quotes highlighted with sarcastic comments added http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/01/..._course_011009/ 4.5 days! Holy sh*t...they'll be experts by the time they're done with that rigorous training! Perfect example...this Col. is great at her job (training doctors) but didn't know squat about personnel decisions. Instead of training up and paying someone at the A1C or SSgt level, nah, let's make the Col. learn more things that will distract her from doing the job she was trained for and is paid to do. So the Air Force is now acknowledging that they're putting the burden of career-changing decision making on Squadron Commanders who really have no idea WTF they are talking about? Nice. And it's not the CC's fault. He/she was trained to drop bombs/fix planes/etc., I don't expect them to fully know whether it's a good idea for me to AFIT/The Zoo/PME/etc. right now or not... Wow...great use of time. Instead of supporting commanders by providing a subject matter expert, the AF is taking up 30-40% of their time with BS. I'd say those numbers are low even. AHHH...this article made me want to pull my hair out. Even as a younger guy I can see that when the boss doesn't have enough support or info to make the right decisions, he can't make the right decisions unless he's unusually talented and resourceful.

Lucky underwear and t-shirt under the bag...always a must

#1 should be referred to as a keyboard condom from now on...never hurts to carry a rubber IMHO

Looks like an all-quadrant gun for the AFSOC Ospreys is coming to a battlefield near you... http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/01/...rey_gun_010409/

haha, yea, i was never referring to you. didn't even realize someone named "sparky" had posted a few posts up from my comments. I'm glad you've possibly got him to come on here and read what people think of his research...his comments would be interesting i'm sure

Agreed that iPhone rules...got mine a month ago and like McDolands, "I'm lovin' it." Just to clear it up the 15% discount is on your monthly bill, not the price of the phone itself

I'm getting ready to head out to SERE in a few weeks and just finished up an appointment with the eye doc. I was asking him about extended-wear contacts, assuming I could get some and wear them for the field portion of SERE (as changing lenses daily in the woods isn't really feasible). He told me no go on that and that most people wear glasses/prescription sunglasses while at SERE. Does that check? What have other people done? My main problem is that the prescription sunglasses I have (the issues ones) blow and I've never felt I can see as sharply in them. Also, they're not wrap-around and I'd never consider them for wear in a snowy environment where there's lots of glare from the ground. I've got very light eyes so it kinda makes me picky about sunglasses I guess... Was thinking about getting some prescription Wiley X or ESS glasses since they'd be useful in the future as well, but they're not exactly cheap and after Christmas I am kinda cheap. Any advice on what others have done in the past? Thanks

Not to defend the guy, but the answer to that is in his bio, posted like 2 pages or so ago. "...including one semester at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan." Other than that he's clearly a sheltered non-rated guy who decided to speak up and advocate an unnecessary pay cut for pilots who are out there doing the damn thing while he teaches at the zoo...not a smart move sparky...

What the liberals would think of that? I wonder what Americans would think of that? I don't think anyone wants to see our citizens treated poorly by their own government but neither does anyone want to see American criminals executed while foreign criminals are let free. Honestly, I don't think it would come to that because not very many people are executed compared to the number of people in US prisons.

I think the difference is that these guys are coming to DC hat in hand asking for billions of dollars, and did so in private jets that are expensive to operate and maintain. Government officials that use VIP transportation aren't begging the government for emergency money, they're using money that was already appropriated for air transport. The second time the auto execs came to DC they drove hybrids form Detroit and it was a whole thing...

Just for irony's sake, don't those "shrieks" at the Times and Post live in the very two cities that were attacked on 9/11? And what exactly is a shriek used as a noun?? I'm not one to argue that the dudes at guantanamo should be treated like kindergartners, but taking a stand against torture and open-ended detention with no exit strategy sounds fine to me. Charge them in military tribunals and then throw them in maximum security prisons...send them back to wherever we got them if there's no evidence...drop them on a raft in the middle of the ocean...just figure out something. I don't personally know what to do with these guys now that we've held them for so long in a kind of grey area in the law and especially since their intelligence value is shot, but that's something our leadership should have thought of before we captured these guys and brought them to to gitmo. I'd also draw the line at US citizens...if you're a citizen then you should be afforded the privileges of a trial by a jury of your peers...hard to argue against that one in my mind.

Nice...yea, if you have a PPL you should not have to go through the ass-pain of Pueblo...especially since navs don't exactly get a lot of stick time where the skills learned at Pueblo would be useful

Yeah...forgot about that. The two reserve guys who were in my flight did IFS at local flight schools near their unit.

Not to thread-jack too much but I'm just surprised by some of the stories on here about UPT. I completely agree with the sentiment of not getting too close with students if you're an instructor and vice-versa and giving higher ranking officers the proper respect and etc, but I guess it was just a different environment down here at RND, even among the 3 different squadrons I've flown with. In that kind of situation, I think the stud's response was completely fine and there's not too many instructors down here I know that would disagree. If the student said something like "you bet chief," then sure, stand him up and make sure his sh*t is straight. But saying "sorry sir, we'll quiet down" or something to that effect when an instructor pokes his head in your room and tells you to shut up seems reasonable to me. Instructor-student relationships should not be too friendly and err on the side of professional, but there's no reason it needs to be adversarial either. If it was the squadron commander or another O-5 or above, I'd stand up for sure and address him/her a little more formally. But among CGOs and espicially aircrew (or future aircrew in the case of students), even between instructors and students, I've just always believed the relationship should be one of respectful camaraderie. Instructors who had that kind of attitude (i.e. tact > ego) tended to get a lot more respect than the ones who would chew you out for having your zipper 1 inch too low... But I suppose on day one it couldn't hurt to start students out on the right track either...

Yeah, your Col. isn't really up to speed I guess (mine wasn't either when I got my nav slot...and he was a nav!) You won't skip any training at nav school b/c of civilian flight hours...I had a FAA commercial pilot in my class and he did the same syllabus as us. In terms of skipping part of IFS at Pueblo, I'm not sure b/c I went through prior to Pueblo so not sure how things work up there. And while it's true that the new school at P-cola will have shiny new and upgraded training, the current "nav school" is really CSO school. We've been CSOs since 2005 according to the AF and your certificate when you get your wings definitely says "Combat Systems Officer" on it. If you have any more questions and what to try to get accurate answers PM some of the guys on here how are navs. Good luck and don't screw up before you graduate b/c nav/CSO is a good assignment worth being excited about. That's correct...everyone goes to Pueblo now.