VMFA187

The Air Force is a war fighting organization. Combat, regardless of whether hand-to-hand, or from the cockpit of a single seat fighter, is a physical endeavor. If all the members of an organization don't have some basis of that, then you're not going to be an effective, cohesive, organization able to deal in war.

In a local San Diego paper - F/A-18 pilots first... Drink the f****in' man.

Say what you will, that was likely the most entertaining post I've read here.

The Royal Australian Air Force does that; you have an option to take the command track, or stay in Never Never Land where you never grow up and stay a pilot forever.

And that is why I really bring my iPhone. We were issued "burner phones" by our Flight Equipment Marines on every sortie we launched on for this purpose.

That's more along the lines of what I expected and what Hornet guys do. More if you have to divert than anything else.

Those images have to be unrelated to the event, or at least staged after? The 'chute appears somewhat convincing, but I have a hard time believing a guy who just got out of a jet is going to dump his flight gear and take a few photos. Even more unconvincing, he's is using a radio in CONUS and not his personal phone.

Duck, you can be my wingman any day.

So that is what is going to likely happen to me, because I didn't do USMC PME, which is a two year program. Does anyone know how Guard units look at that stuff? If it's any help, I have a Master's Degree and will be complete with AF PME - Squadron Officer School, in less than a week.

I'd like to see the source if anyone can find it. I'd imagine this is probably where the USMC is going.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/marines-to-offer-retention-bonuses-to-pilots-again I'd almost be willing to bet it'll be $10,000/year or less. For 6-7 hours a month? No thanks. I'd be somewhat interested in the deal where you could fly for the airlines "for seasons... building seniority," like you posted Duck. But wouldnt that be similar to the Guard or Reserves?

They're just happy to be off the boat with a reliable internet connection.

Hope he's not looking to fly fighters...

It might be because aviation is such a small part of the Marine Corps, but I'm fairly certain it's just as bad, if not worse. At least for the fighter community - I can't really speak to the others. USMC F/A-18 squadrons are at, or just slightly below 50% required manning at the Captain level, and the vast majority, i.e., 80% of the Capts I know, are planning on leaving after their commitment is complete.

Now I made my choice years ago, but you could be a Marine fighter pilot with no bonus who was just told that $5k a year will probably be approved in the future. $28k doesn't sound all that bad. I could put a new street and track bike in the garage with that!

The RAG and VTs are different in terms of follow-on orders in the Navy/USMC. Lower performers, i.e., dudes who leave their first fleet tour without their four-ship flight lead qualification can't teach at the RAG, they can only teach at the VTs in T-6s and T-45s which is why they end up there. Now I don't know personally, but I'd imagine the Air Force isn't sending it's below average dudes to teach brand new F-15/16/22/35 pilots, those guys are probably teaching in T-6s.

I enjoyed that.

From the sheer standpoint of aircrew training requirements/proficiency - This is a bad idea. Especially when you consider declining flight hours. Coming from a multi-role platform, I've always been impressed, and comforted, when we've played with Eagles. I want someone who does that mission exclusively in the fight, when it occurs, because half to two-thirds of my time is spent putting heavy objects into or near the ground.

Time will tell. It won't be this event - Occurrences like these only make things our leaders in the past did for fun completely off limits for current service members. What will really have an adverse effect is allowing everyone to attempt to do every MOS regardless of their abilities its effect on our combat capabilities.

The Marine Corps not purchasing any Supers is why we are hurting so bad now. But yes - Some of those advanced Super Hornet models look pretty amazing.

I was more apologizing for the request for a requirement that likely won't ever be incredibly useful, at the expense of so many other vital aspects critical to fighter performance and capabilities.

Valid. I'm an instructor at Miramar - Where the movie was filmed, where we still send studs to go land on boats... And some of these kids going through haven't seen it. Ridiculous.

Jokes. Make more Raytheon Award Videos or something.

We should have bought only A and C models. The B is terrible. On behalf of the Marine Corps - I'm sorry.

Dudes, Am I dense or do Air Force squadrons not make cruise videos like the Navy and Marine Corps? Akin to something like what the Pukin Dogs' released -