nsplayr

Some entire airframes have civilian MX...not sure how we would fly in the short-term if our MX got furloughed or the contract was terminated.

Enjoy! I'm definitely fairly read-in on survivalist stuff believe it or not. Born there, lots of family still there, love to ski, makes for a winning combination. Mormons are generally very nice even if their religion isn't for me.

Read this before? +1 to Utah, great place for the most part.

Duffle Blog is on this development already.

Joint spouse assignment?

Might be worth asking them to recoup those fees. Here's (in part) what they told me: I had already been charged my first $75 and just recently got it refunded...it's possible they would refund 3 years of fees in the same way. Dibs on a beer if this saves you $225! It did take about 2 months and 2 follow-up emails through the secure message center but well worth $75 per year for the rest of my career.

I just sent an email via their secure contact once you log in to your account. Took like 6 weeks to get it "approved" but supposedly it's always approved for active mil. Some buddies have the cards that carry a $400 yearly fee and it gets waived just the same. They claim it's under the SCRA; I'm not sure how or why that applies but I'll take it.

+1...got this card about 4 months ago and it's been great so far. It's annoying that the cash back isn't just automatically applied to my statement and it takes over a month to get your money from the previous month but whatever...quibbling when I'm getting 6% on groceries. $300 in the bank per year on groceries alone (5% more than I was getting on my last card), plus the annual fees on all AMEX cards are waived for active duty mil. Also love my target redcard...to me it's really the best deal because you get 5% off directly at the register when you swipe. No ifs, ands, buts, or waiting, just 5% off, I go online and click "pay balance" from my checking account. Honestly could not be easier. Like you said, if you're disciplined there is absolutely no reason not to use the various kinds of credit wisely.

Well since there's not a lot of money involved (i.e. you still don't get dependent BAH), I don't see it happening. If DOMA got repealed and you could get dependent BAH perhaps you'd be right. Guess we'll see on both countes...like I said, if you wanna lie to your employer and claim you're gay to get your BFF non-mil roommate an ID (or dependent BAH at some hypothetical point in the future), go for it dude, this policy seems to allow for that just like you can paper marry some rando chick and profit. Like I said, I frankly don't care and if people want to exploit loopholes and sign papers without integrity, that's on them. If it involves lying to pretend you're gay that just adds a little LOL factor to it for me at least. DOD should not give benefits to people who don't warrant them (i.e. "dependents" who are on paper but in reality not), that's efficient governance, but I could not care less what the gender of a person's legitimate, designated dependent or beneficiary is and I don't see why anyone else should care either.

Yea, good points and agreed that it's unlikely due to the entangled legal web constructed around marriage. I'm not really sold one way or the other that the government should or should not promote marriage although I lean toward that it should. Really though you could keep the same system now, just replace in all instances the word "marriage" with "partnership" and keep the same benefits and incentives. Allow any two consenting adults to enter into a partnership, make dissolving them the same as getting legally divorced, and call it a day. Churches can then choose to do marriage however they see fit WRT who they want to allow to marry. I'm sure it's a gross oversimplification but that doesn't mean I don't with it could be made to happen. Seems like nothing other than integrity. If you really want to lie to your employeer by pretending to be in a homosexual relationship with a non-military male friend and roommate in order to get him a mil ID and commissary privileges, be my guest.

People aren't asking to be full-up cops, just concealed-carry firearms. Is there "a lot more" to national CCW than shooting and proper safety?

Re-read attachment 3. Seems like the new benefits apply to declared domestic partners, which it defines as, "...a person in a domestic partnership with a service member of the same sex." I'm fine with doing the same for heterosexual couples who are in a "domestic partnership" but not married but that doesn't appear to be Dod's position here. I guess the fact of the matter is that if you want those benefits you can easily get courthouse married in any state you choose, so if you don't you are choosing to restrict yourself out if free will. Homosexuals are not afforded that opportunity so until that's the case I guess this allows them to affirmatively choose access to those benefits in a similar way. Hell, I think the government shouldn't be in the marriage business in the first place, that would make all this way easier. Set one standard the government recognizes, fill out a form, and two people can be legally bound in a partnership. If you want to get married, which to me should be a religious practice, go to a church. Churches can then set whatever standards they want to be married by their adherents. I agree.

Google the Respect for Marriage Act, it's been introduced in both the 111th and 112th Congresses. Not sure if the sponsors have brought it up again this term. There were 3 House GOP co-sponsors at the very end of the 112th, although at least one gave his support only as a lame duck after being defeated and is now gone.

Full text of the memo that lays out specifically what's covered.

Yea...real quiet considering I haven't heard of it either. Unless we're talking more than 5 years ago...

Let me google that for you... Then click here.

Humm...interesting. More efficient hopefully? One can only hope. Thanks for the info, haven't seen this in practice yet but perhaps soon.

My wife LOL'd at the hurricane one...we just did that one last fall!

Any back story to this?

Brand new home in Navarre can be had for less than that for sure. With the market picking up there is finally new construction again. I live right by Navarre High School, good school district, sidewalks in my neighborhood (try finding that in Holley by the Sea), walking distance to a park, sports fields, and the YMCA. Great for wife and kids. And seriously...if you've ever spend any time living in a real city you will laugh when people complain about traffic on 98. I can count on one hand the number of times it's been horrible in 4+ years but my baseline is DC so take it FWIW. I find the aircrew schedule (i.e. not 0900-1730) is very conducive to missing the worst of the traffic. P.S. - If you're looking to move-in sometime in July-August and want to rent vs. buy I've got a great place in mind you should check out!

Thanks to anyone from here who supported us. Big shout out to all of our supporters and partners along the route too! Great success, raised close to $30K including off-line donations for the Special Ops Warrior Foundation. This is why we did it...never forget

Ask them because they'll tell you don't sell yourself short, which is exactly the big picture point I'm trying to make. Not sure why you wanna have a real post-AF career path discussion for a nav since, like you said, you're not a nav. WRT what you said, anyone have real data on that claim that more navs stay in? I don't, but my anecdote is that I've seen just as many dudes punch from both 11S and 12S, timing is a little different due to different initial commitments. YMMV. Anyone who thinks the only thing they can do for money is fly is an idiot. That applies especially to navs who think they'd better stay in because they have no prospects on the outside.

Holy shit, outstanding photos. A loss to art as well as the world Def post something when there's a fund created for his family.

Dude, listen to yourself. You're jaded, you've seen good dudes get fucked over and bad dudes get promoted, I got it. But if I'm so green and young and getting some "words of wisdom" from wise old dsigruntledemployee, then why am I the one basically encouraging dudes not to sell themselves short and you're the one telling them to just stay in, stop giving a shit, and collect their paycheck? Or are you really saying that? I'm necessarily totally disagreeing with the factual parts of your assessment of the current system and if you've read my other posts in this thread you'll see I'm pretty much in favor of some of the more sweeping reforms that Tim Kane called for in his articles. Here's what lead us to this point in the first place, and it wasn't something you yourself said: Do you agree with this attitude? This is what I most disagree with. Maybe if you're 5-10 years further down the road you can speak to this and whether or not dudes should just put up with just enough BS to get by. Dude, I'm not monster.com, you can easily find this information out. If someone is looking to be a navigator in the civilian flying world obviously that's not really gonna work out, but... Imagine, outside the narrow confines of exactly what you or I do in our airplanes, what a military officer with a security clearance, combat experience overseas, a Master's Degree of some kind, self-discipline and a good work ethic can bring to a civilian company. Is it seriously so hard to see why a HR person would want to hire someone like that? If you don't believe me, fine, I'm still on active duty and haven't been in the civilian job market for 5+ years. Ask the old heads around here if they think a lot of mil guys sell themselves short. Ask Rainman how he's doing in the civilian sector. Ask M2 if that AMU degree was truly worthless. Ask CH if some of his peers who didn't stay in as long are making it outside of Big Blue.

Yea, I really don't get the negative, uber-jaded, whoa is me, can't make a difference so I'll just stop trying attitude. Why would I want to get that? Disgruntledemployee is a fitting screen name. You may be entitled to a free shoulder-chip removal device if you go see a flight doc. A) I know several jobs on the outside that offer basically the same thing as what some of us are doing now with +50% pay, but that's besides the point B) If all you think you can do is fly planes then we've discovered the root of your shortsightedness. If you want to fly planes then great and that gets you up in the morning like nothing else, you can fly planes and make good money, I know several guys who are doing just that. But if you're willing to open your eyes, even just a crack, you might realize that dudes can retire or get out, do something completely different yet apply the KSAs they got on active duty, and do very well for themselves and whatever field they choose to go into. BL: Saying mil officers, especially aviators, don't have many options on the outside is complete and utter BS.