BQZip01

Or Bush... ...or McCain... Some people will imagine anything and replace reality with their own fantasies...but only in their own minds...

My dad was an "old bomber guy" (I just spent yesterday listening to him and his crew rehash old cold war stories. 3 of the 5 came to my graduation; pretty impressive to see that kind of dedication from guys you knew 30 years ago!). Back in the SAC days, some did eat their own. A lot of commanders were fired over innocuous things (like a memo being filed without being signed by everyone). The same went for the aircrews. I'm glad to say things have changed in the bomber community, somewhat. When it comes to nukes, it is a ZERO mistake environment, but if you just do what you are supposed to do and leadership backs you up by providing appropriate T.O.s, guidance, and support, there is no reason it can't be done properly.

It is a black line for a reason! I've been in an aircraft when I oversped the flaps by 5 knots (the fact that I did it on a checkride and in the commander's jet didn't help the situation...). That overspeed was enough to push the flaps out of their track. You don't crucify someone for something like that, but you make it a learning experience. You can certainly assign menial tasks, but you don't sabotage a whole career over it (BTW, making them sit with maintenance until they checked the whole system [earlier in the comments above] was a particularly creative and appropriate punishment). If you treat non-life-threatening/critical mistakes as career killers, people WILL start hiding things because they have no choice (which would you do? Not report something that you are 99% sure isn't an issue? or face being grounded and possibly sent to a board?). I'll refer you to this board for more GOOD CC stories: http://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/index.php?/topic/15686-af-leadership-done-right/ but here's a preview: Here's a 'war story' as told to me by a Lieutenant Colonel (I'll tell it as I remember it was told to me): "There I was: I was stepping to the [T-1] jet when I was told I'd be getting a no-notice checkride as a Senior Captain. I was told the week prior that I was up for an ADO position after I returned from SOS in-residence (which started the following week). My wife had also been having some medical problems, but still, with all that, I felt I was ok to fly and didn't feel intimidated by all the extraneous "life clutter" on top of a checkride. As we took off, we experienced an engine fire in #1. We ran the boldface, but I felt WAY behind the jet all the way back to the field, to the point it kind of scared me. We shut the engine down and landed. As we stepped to a spare, I didn't feel I was fit to fly and I told the group evaluator pilot that I wasn't going to go. He insisted that I had to. I told him he was wrong. "Well, they took off without me and I went back to my squadron and reported to my commander what had happened. He told me to go home and rest for a few days. Once I got home, I told my wife what happened. She asked, 'Well, what are they going to do with you?' I said I'd probably lose my SOS spot and the chance to be an ADO. Three days later, the commander called me in. He informed me that the Eval IP was none too pleased and was royally pissed about the whole situation and that he took it to the group commander...who kicked it back to the squadron commander to deal with. He then stated that the SOS slot had been given to someone else and the ADO slot had been filled. "The squadron commander then told me that I should go home and get my personal affairs in order and take some relaxation time... "...he said to come back to work when I was ready, but cautioned that I'd need the rest...because I was coming back as his DO!!! He then stated that SOS was available whenever I was ready for it." In short, the commander rewarded someone for doing the right thing in the face of a superior illegally countermanding such actions.

1. You potentially damaged the aircraft. Fessing up could save lives for the next crew(s) that fly the plane. In any case, it is black letter and MUST be followed. 2. Ops checked and it's ok? WTF? You aren't the approving authority for that! 3. Why Q3 the AC? She was the one that wrote it up (unless she was to blame and there was more to it than that). I've been in an aircraft with oversped flaps (big gust after takeoff)...land as soon as conditions permit, write it up, and learn. No big deal 4. Q3 for the Co for trying to cover it up makes sense.

Consider drafting the guy!

I wouldn't worry too much about the ROE, but in a TIC when time is of the essence...I'm not sure I'd want to wait on an aircraft whose top speed is Mach 0.16...

Even flyers command those that aren't. It might be good to make sure you understand their needs better, as in the inadequacy of these flannel BDUs. I think on our base they wear them on certain days because all the commanders seem to wear them on the same day.

I would talk with someone at the 6th Special Ops Squadron. They may have some information for you there.

I'd love to see 'em

Not saying it isn't in their heritage, but could they just have been Friday patches?

Most of the stuff here seems to refer to wearing goretex pants. God bless my former career field where I was issued a full set, but it seems to me they may be a hindrance during the July/August session I'm planning on going to...or are they...? Head lamps (recommended by several people who attended SERE previously) also seem to be a useful item. dry, well-fitting socks prevent blisters, so having moleskin or an equivalent kind of sock seem to be a must. Thoughts? Sneaking food/having authorized food seems to be a must if you can get away with it, but I have no desire to get kicked out or repeat the experience. Thoughts? Any other things?

It all depends. If it prominently featured something that is either verbotten in the Air Force or a retired/obsolete airframe, it might make sense to alter the patch a little.

Dude, if someone salutes you, it is a sign of respect. Just return the salute as an act of appreciation even if you are in civvies.

I missed the Papas intentionally. It was my understanding that all the Papas are with the Reserves now (711th SOS) and there are no active duty Papas anymore. Globalsecurity.org is ok, but the info is usually quite dated. Yep, missed those folks. My bad, sorry. Missed them too. EWOs and Navs will soon become the same career field (at least in theory; we'll see how it works out in practice), so any CSO could handle that job... ...except they aren't accepting any new personnel as the EA-6B program shuts down and is replaced by the EA-18 Growler. It has yet to be determined if they'll take any AF guys in the near future.

MC-130 well, there's two basic variants: The Talon II and the W model. The W program is still in its infancy, but it is a new bird. It can do some of the things the Talon II can do, but not all...that said, there is talk of throwing a gun on the back and making it a smaller version of the AC-130 gunship. Lots of new stuff, lots of uncertainty. Talon II flies TF/TA at altitudes lower than 300 ft AGL. They fly down mountain valleys and do stuff behind enemy lines. To paraphrase a Talon driver: "We were somewhere around Afghanistan when OEF really kicked off. When we came back from our 1st mission to our camp (which we shared with the Army), we collapsed into our beds for some needed rest. "We were stationed with the 10th Mountain Division and some punk Captain runs his troops over by our tents during their morning PT...and then stops them outside our tents." "'Well, let's see if the lazy Air Force pukes want to do some PT!' He bellowed as they started calisthenics. 'One, two, three!' 'ONE!' "Our squadron commander got up from his bed, calmly walked over to the Captain and told him in a low voice: "'Son. I just got done flying 8 hours on NVGs through mountain valleys, tanked up 2 times in pitch black, landed on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere to drop of some Army folks, and repeated the process to get back here. And I may have to do that again tonight. Our crews need rest. "'Please. Take this crap elsewhere.'" ...and so they did. The MC-130s drop our largest conventional bomb, the MOAB (much as it pains a BUFF guy to admit it). In short the MC-130 mission is cool. It is also isn't for the faint of heart; they fly high-risk, high reward missions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_MC-1...Talon_II_losses Other aircraft to look into: RC-135S Cobra Ball U-28 (don't bother looking online for any mission info; you'll just have to trust people for this gig) AC-130H/U B-52 (it is my career field, so if you have any questions...) MC-12 B-1B still others you could get: KC-135 RC-135V Rivet Joint RC-135U Combat Sent OC-135 Open Skies WC-135 Constant Phoenix C-130 EC-130 F-15E E-3 Sentry (AWACS) Eventually you could get: VC-25 (Air Force One) Test School (they sometimes need navigators for test flights) Did I miss anything?

A MAJCOM

Browsing the boards, they seem to be pretty scattered around the country, but centralized around military installations (which makes sense...)

(unclassified notes; I don't know any of these figures to be true and they are for illustrative purposes only) As far as I know, we have far more warheads than delivery vehicles. Cutting down the number of nuke warheads doesn't cut down the number of delivery vehicles. In actuality, it simply cuts down on the number of vehicles we have to maintain and the maintenance associated with it. If we only have 5 warheads per missile instead of packing it to the brim with 9, that is less maintenance. If we keep more in storage and less in the silos, that is also less maintenance. In short, the number of warheads matters less than the reliability of the systems and their delivery vehicles. If we make them more reliable, there will be less of a need for redundancy and costs should go down in the long run.

I just joined too.

Uniform standards should be simple and standard. If a guy walks into an office in blues, but is wearing white socks, he stands out like a sore thumb. As a buddy, you should quietly talk to him first. THAT is the major problem: "It's not me, so I don't have to deal with it"-attitudes don't promote camaraderie. Then leadership comes down like a brick and promotes these asinine rules. If we would deal with problems amongst ourselves we wouldn't have sock checks or confrontations over PT gear. This week alone, I've told a squadron commander (politely) that his collar was flipped and another O-6 that a patch he was wearing on his flightsuit was crooked. Not one of them took offense, but they thanked me. Reflective belts (at least potentially) save lives, but inadequate guidance and a lack of "thinking it though" like that come from the Department of Redundancy Department when they force you to wear reflective gear over PT gear that is already reflective...

2

Update: Just spoke with an O-6 here at Barkatraz. Apparently GSC is standing up on 7 August.

Unaware of one and google news doesn't have anything. There was a crash on 22 June though. http://news.google.com/news?q=crash%20at%2...l=en&tab=wn