Danger41

I’ve definitely had to remind myself of the days on a roof/finding parts in a salvage yard while fighting off a raccoon that things can be MUCH worse.

You’re a helo pilot. Every input you’ve ever made is batshit and an affront to aerodynamics.

Definitely works great when your team is the #1 seed and absolutely dominating so far #runrabbits

No. That’s a “we forgot to turn this off” type of thing.

The thing with a lot of the divestment of classic jets like the Mighty Eagle, A-10, AWACS, etc isn’t a capability replacement as much as the jets are just old AF and aren’t holding together. When you have to write into your v3 to not put over 5 G’s on your 9 G jet (ref C model) unless absolutely necessary to preserve fleet health, that ain’t good.

“Just doing their job”? Don’t recall my hundreds of combat sorties involving anything quite like the Kabul evacuation.

So many stories beyond what is in the write up for that. I’m very proud to have been a member of that squadron back in the day.

Bin Laden was pretty great but there’s this Austrian vegetarian artist that spoke up against Zionist oppression #standwithpalestine and stood for his people’s interests to spark a national socialist movement. I didn’t make it to the end of the tik tok to get his name because my Gen Z brain can’t focus on anything for more than 15 seconds, but this guy sounded pretty awesome. Cool moustache too. /s

Any concern for ejection in non-approved boots?

Just stay in, have the kid, take a year off, never be available when you come back, schedule kid appointments in the middle of the day, come off sorties constantly because “the baby had a rough night”, get sent to the wing after the article about being a fierce fighter pilot Queen that can do it all, get tagged for a deployment, immediately get pregnant again, repeat cycle.

I was thinking the exact same thing for AFSOC.

This type of thing absolutely needs to happen so we don’t fly the wings off of the F-35’s, B-21’s, and NGAD’s when we get involved in Afghanistan 2.0 in ten years. Won’t happen, but should.

Looks like a T-1 only drop. And 4x U-28? Weird.

I thought Seymour Hersh said we did it? And the Danes said the Russians did it? The Germans said Ukraine. The Russians said UK and US. That’s some serious international cooperation.

@ClearedHot Excellent attention to detail lol.

I think it usually is the opposite of that where they keep decent dudes around and send the turds off so they don't have to deal with them. I think that's why I was sent off instead of FAIP'ing.

You're welcome for the input. And I chose my words poorly with "hammering away". I'll replace it with "30 minutes straight of misses to eventually have an MQ-9 do it." My bad. But that was a U model crew and I know the H models flown by you would never do something like that. Everything you said is valid, btw. Which is why I said in my original post that I think it's a "good tool in the toolbox" if used in the right conditions. AFSOC seems dead set on moving away from the aforementioned right conditions (semi-permissive) and getting involved in MCO. If the writing is on the wall for that, I think removing the 105 isn't stupid. I think that decision is moronic and wish someone would give me odds on some other conflict outside of China that Gunships will be perfect for popping off, but Vegas won't hook me up. I honestly don't understand why AFSOC is trying so hard to fit into that fight where the other SOCOM components are getting more back to their roots while growing from there to find ways to affect a peer competitor. I'm not even in AFSOC anymore so maybe my outsider view is wrong but I don't see it. And I'll definitely take you up on that offer next time I'm in your neck of the woods. I should be in your phone under "Sky SEAL 01"

They got naked gunner hugged to death.

I genuinely hope that all of this crap turns out to be like the Foxbat which produced the Mighty Eagle. If all of this stuff turns out to be a helpless baby seal, I very much hope me and my buddies all have the sharpest and most lethal clubs that the American taxpayer can buy and the military industrial complex can produce.

Interesting. At the interest of being called a heretic, I don't think it's a bad idea*. The 105 is a cool weapon, for sure, but it's easily one of the most overrated in the inventory. It's responsiveness is great compared to PGM's, but the accuracy and lethality against targets (including pax) isn't nearly as good as folks think. I've seen many times where they just hammer away with the gun for round after round and folks keep on trucking. The article discusses and alludes to using AC-J's as something beyond traditional CAS with cruise missiles, etc. which I think is a phenomenal idea. The most challenging part of this will be getting through to the Gunship culture to accept a new mission set beyond CAS via left hand wheel. That's much easier said than done. *If the scenario is outside of dominated air space with permissive conditions, wheeling up and hammering away isn't a great idea. If you have that, it's a good tool in the toolbox.

Where is that, out of curiosity?

Very good points but I absolutely support term limits to prevent lifetime politicians.

Or, I know this is crazy, not every single thing has to be some giant strategic indictment of the American system designed to make you miserable or cream in your Ron Paul boxers. I just like the guy because I bitched to him (my rep) about the FAA and he handled it. Which was nice.

Lol I was also primarily referring to Mike Rounds as my senator in my post.

My limited interaction with elected officials has been very positive. They also were people that you wouldn’t know were senators if they were standing in line with you at the grocery store. The grandstanding types looking for a sound byte are chides and suffer the same problems as IG influencers, etc.