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Learjetter

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Posts posted by Learjetter

  1. Great Thanks! I am just trying to schedule my flights before they shoot through the roof.

    Technique only: call your new unit, ask for a flight commander, and make sure you at least get a verbal before you spend the dough.

  2. Stop-loss: lots of newly homosexual officers who fail PT tests and are non-flyable/ non-deployable due to weird, hard to diagnose illnesses and allergies.

    Just pick one and stick with it...first gay and fat and DNIF pilot probably gets court martialled publically as a malingerer...so just pick one and stick with it: my buddy's plan is "OPERATION Bon Bon".

  3. My understanding is there is a max time in grade as Capt (high year tenure or something like that) and the only folks I know who were able to retire as O-3s were prior E with enough years in that it wasn't an issue...there's got to be more to this story....

    The rest of the story: folks twice deferred for promotion (2 times non-select) SOMETIMES get offered "selective continuation." instead of involuntary separation. Depends on your AFSC and the current manning situation. Normally, you gotta make O4 to stay in to 20. There's a 36 series AFI that discusses these things, if you're interested...

  4. Anyone been to safety school lately? I'm doing the FSO course in January and wondering what the lodging situation. Is it still good gouge to request the old rooms? Has anyone skied Sipapu? AD Military ski free!

    http://www.sipapunm.com/index.php?option=com_lodge_management&task=special_detail&id=16&startdate=&enddate=&Itemid=71

    Highly recommend Wolf Creek just east of Pagosa Springs CO for weekend skiing. 4+ hour drive from ABQ, but worth every minute. Spent 4 weekends there during AMIC.

  5. SEI? I also have AIS in May in addition the other two. Do tell about SEI.

    SEI is "special experience identifier" and on your SURF or DVB it's just a code attached to you. AIS SEI is "OEV". Once in a great while, the big blue TDY machine generates a UTC for a deployment that requires an SEI: a JTF in Uruguay may require a Portugese -speaking female field grade fighter pilot with acquisitions and previous staff experience and who is an AIS grad. So AFPC can generate a list of all the folks who fit that bill and task someone. Just another way of keeping track of "who's done what" in the service...

  6. I'm curious if anybody has been to JAOPC or CWPC in the past few years and if either, or both are worth the time. I have been offered both but don't want to waste my time. On the flip side an old boss also said to take whatever schooling they'll give to ya. Thoughts?

    I did JAOP course in 2006. Good course. Since AETC/AU pays, the CC usually doesn't mind sending folks. AU has several courses (funded) like that. Check out their website for more info on them. Normally, every good deal has a sharp edge: AIS gets you a SEI, for example, making you eligible for SEI deployments...

    Two schools of thought: don't go TDY anymore than you have to, since you're away from family too much already... Or..

    Every course you take makes you smarter/more valuable to the service, and therefore is better for your career choices.

    I fall somewhere in the middle: volunteer ONLY for TDYs and take courses interesting to you or that lead to better jobs...YMMV...

  7. They just implemented the DG a couple classes before me.

    All in all, I don't necessarily believe that the Air Force takes ASBC seriously as a PME. It won't hurt to get DG, but it's like trying to judge who is going to be your starting line up in a football game based on one half-assed practice. I'm not going to lose a whole lot of sleep over not getting it.

    The reason a "DG" is important is very common: 90% of officers (pilots) are equal in piloting ability. It's the OTHER stuff you do that gets you stratified amongst your peers. Everytime you are in a group, you are competing for stratification--be it at ASBC or in the squadron. You belong to the group of "copilots", or "wingmen", or "tactics cell", or "training shop", or "SELO" or "SDO", or even SNACKO. Makes no difference. Your SQ/DO and CC are looking for ways to tell you people APART. Why is chucklehead X better or worse than chucklehead Y? They both got Q1's on their checkrides and didn't screw up on their first deployment and are progressing normally through upgrade. How do I tell them apart? The answer comes in all the OTHER stuff you do to enhance my unit's effectiveness: administrative excellence/morale booster/unique program management/inspection preparation, etc...that's what the CC needs help with--UPT and IQT do a good job of making you a good technician with an OK skill set, and our training shop has a program to get you up to speed on the mission...so since you're all equal in those regards, I need to know what ELSE you bring to the table to differentiate you from all the others...

    ANYTIME you get a chance to distinguish yourself from your peers (by getting a DG, Top 1/3, #1/3 Asst execs, etc) this helps BOTH the CC decide who to go to bat for (early upgrades/choice PCS/another flying gig) and who to send on less desireable assignments, or even to approve the bonus $$ for. Works in reverse too--the copilot who gets two DUIs in a week probably wont get to go to SOS in-residence...Know the rules of the game you're playing. Blow off ASBC and you lose a chance, perhaps five/ten years from now, to attend WIC, or go in-res to ACSC- because the dude you're competing against THEN got the DG from ASBC, and that became the CC's deciding factor on who to send. It happens.

    Since you don't KNOW for a FACT you're separating at the end of your commitment, or you're on track for CoS, might as well learn early the rules of the game your playing, and do everything possible to set yourself up to be a contender for WHATEVER job/career goal/aspiration you have. Get off course, even a little, and your decision maybe gets made for you and you lose options. Whether you want to be a SQ/CC or a terminal iron Major with 25,000 flying hours, or separate ASAP, you should probably try to garner the same distinctions every chance you get. You'll either make your goal and be a CC, or make your goal and turn down Lt Col, or make your unit CC cry when you separate. But the key is, it was YOUR CHOICE every time. Fail to follow the rules, and you don't get to choose.

    Its your life and career--work it any way you want.

    /off soapbox...again...

    • Upvote 1
  8. Anyone have any recommendations for a good hunting rifle? Specifically looking for best all-around chambering/caliber & make/model...it will be the first one I've purchased. The Remington 700 CDL looks appealing...anyone have experience with these? Thanks -

    If you can only have one rifle, you may think about Thompson or SIG arms SHR 970: interchangeable barrels/bolts/mags means you can have your .300 win mag for elk or bear, or .270 for whitetail or pronghorn. Other calibers also available. SIG stopped importing the 970 in 2005, but you can still find some in various cals on gunbroker or other sites. Good luck...

  9. ...I'll also have to qualify the long range thing with the fact that I have shot more than one million rounds of just .45acp in competition and practice, according to records, and at least that many more of smaller calibers...

    That's quite a claim. If a guy shot 1 million rounds of anything, 1 per second, that'd take nearly 12 days. If I had an ammo budget like that, I'd throw my paychecks away...

  10. No one knows the future: therefore set yourself up for success--you don't get that many choices while in uniform, might as well think about this: even if you plan to get out ASAP, your future employers will want to know how you performed in the AF--did you upgrade on time? division chief tour? Flight commander tour? Get your masters? Get your PME done? Even airlines will ask about that. So, what I tell my young Lts and Capts is this: the flightpath to decision height is the same whether your choose to land, or go around. If you get off course, or way above or below glidepath--your decision is made for you, you lose options. So play the game righteously, and you give yourself options. Fail to play, or play poorly, and your decisions get made for you.

    I recommend everyone go to the AFPC/VMPF sites and the AMS site and read everything there. On your AMS profile, actually look at the briefings that detail the "typical" pilot career path. Educate yourself as to what jobs are out there: search AMS authorizations and requriements (+/- 1 grade)--you may surprise yourself with all the stuff out there you know nothing about. Flying staff jobs (like mine), flying HHQ jobs, special flying programs, green door stuff, etc. Not to mention cool jobs that have nothing to do with flying. They're out there. It may be up to you to find them.

    I've been in since 1990, and have been flying continuously since 1994 (five separate airframes). I'll never be a squadron commander, nor a general officer, but I've never regretted staying in.

    /off soapbox

  11. Thread revival. Anyone know where to get the extremely thin laces that were issued with boots from Addison Shoe Company. I've got a pair of their boots that I absolutely adore (fits like a glove) and the laces are shot. Addison closed their doors 3 years ago, and I'm having no luck finding the ultra thin laces that go with the foldover tops, velcro boots with the speedlace and the metal cinch. I'm checking surplus stores, but no luck so far. If you've got any ideas, I'd greatly appreciate it.

    I have three pairs of those and love em too. Replaced laces with regular boot laces just fine. BX and Mil clothing used to have those laces--good luck with the search. May also want to try shoetreemarketplace.com.

  12. Anyone know if they will pay to let a single dude w/no kids get a vasectomy? Rumor is you have to have at least two kids, I call BS.

    Married, 31 yo, 3 kids, stable marriage, and I had to do two separate interviews with the Flt doc before he okayed mine. Just depends on the doc. Just remember, he says, there's no turning back on this. What if your whole family dies in a car wreck? You get divorced, and then meet the real love of your life, he asks. With my spouse with me, in the room. Makes me wait a week to think on it then return again with the wife, to go over it all again. The way my AF docs did this thing, it's NOT reversible. YMMV, that's how my decision-making experience went.

    PS: had op on thurs afternoon, DNIF on quarters til Monday sick call & RTF. Flew Tuesday am. No complications, loved the frozen bag'o'peas on Friday afternoon. No pain after Friday. Ops checked good on following Friday.

  13. I go off on my own, get stupid drunk for three days AWOL, sober up, come back, tell my tale.

    Who wouldn't prosecute?

    Rainman, me, and a handful of others--but you would get to be snacko again, and deputy asst awards and decs guy.

    I haven't been able to make up my mind because I haven't the faintest clue what the truth is. I've read her initial account, the stuff here and elsewhere on the interwebs....but don't think there's a massive conspiracy/coverup going on. You can stifle the OSI, but who's got the horsepower to shut down an FBI investigation?

    Learjetter - Are you saying that her story being true is really the simplest explanation to this story? Did you read her story? How does any of that sound even remotely plausible? More likely the issue here is big blue being worried about opening a whole bunch of questions that no one wants to answer.

    Ditto on her new post being a very bad choice.

    Yes--I'm theorizing that a more simple explanation is likely than what's been touted on the Internet. And the kicker was the FBI concluding it's investigation w/o the AF prosecuting. To me, that means the investigators could not poke holes in her story (whatever story she told them--not the story reported initially).

    But I completely agree: this is 60 minutes worthy, or at least AF times....where is the investigative journalism? Where are the reporters? How come she wasn't given a frigging AF CROSS for her heroics? So, something in the public news about all this stinks, no doubt! I'm just not convinvced it's a massive governmental coverup--more likely something simpler...

  14. Yeah, I'll buy that. The only problem is, if you or I went UA for three days on a deployment and lied about why, there'd be no opportunity for healing and getting on with life, it'd be straight to a well-deserved court martial.

    Ok--but there'd have to be a convening official willing to put a "traumatized officer" thru a CM, because she made a bad choice? Because she was "mistaken about her facts?". No other discipline issues? otherwise stellar record? No proof the pregnancy wasn't from her husband? Who'd prosecute that mess?

  15. Devils advocacy, just for fun....Ok, I can see some GO trying to accomplish some kind of coverup within the AF. But, the FBI investigated--and obviously decided nothing criminal took place--I say obviously, because the AF isn't prosecuting her. So, if we assume that Jill's story held up under Kyrgyz, FBI, OSBI, and AF SF investigations, why can't we also assume the major portions are true? Wouldn't it take some huge Jason Bourne- type conspiracy to make all this go away for her (like it seems to have)?? Wouldn't a simpler explanation also make sense? She leaves the mall, has the procedure, something goes wrong, makes her way back to frendlies, initially lies about it, tells investigators she was scared and confused and misspoke, then tells a better story which checks out, claims PTSD , gets the dx, spends a couple years "healing" and now wants to go on with her life?

    Any takers on that theory?

  16. Am supervising three young awaiting-pilot-training LTs a few years ago. Orderly room emails me the RIP, in MS WORD format, that sends one to UPT. We edit the doc changing the guys assignment from UPT to ABM tng, prebrief his spouse, and leave it in his v-file. Tough to keep a straight face when he comes to me a few days later...but we manage to simulate a call to AFPC to get him assigned to UPT... Kid may still think I'm a god for that one...vastly improved the other two's motivation to exceed expectations--nothing better than a fired up LT to get some queep done just prior to a UCI...

  17. Fellas, I may have an opportunity to buy a Sig Arms SHR 970, with both the .300 win mag and .30-06 barrels, bolts, and magazines. N.I.B. Guy asking $1000. Gunbroker auctions starting at @650 with scope and only one barrel. Would love to hear your thoughts...

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