Who?

So there's a Latin word for jet, but not one for fan?

I don't know how they compare in taste, but Lexington Brewing Co. makes a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale in case you're ever in the area. Not nearby any AF bases but most likely closer than Prestwick...

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Copycat of a copycat prank/urban legend. See the second letter here: http://chicagoist.com/2011/05/17/semen_secondary_education_and_snope.php Sound familiar?

http://www.mardonco.com/ Look under "Military Patches & Stripes." You have to call to make an order, so it's not completely online, but I've always had good results.

Don't give up too easily. I'll preface this by saying my information is dated, but when I rotated out of Bagram in Jan 2008, we were sure there would be at least a 3-day layover in Manas, with accompanying subzero temperatures etc. Rode the C-17 up from Bagram and went to the inprocessing brief, where there were specific instructions for "transient aircrew" to go through a separate process to get immigrated into the country. My compatriot and I went over there dressed in our DFDUs and weren't questioned at all, we just let them take our passports over to the civilian side for about 20 minutes and then proceeded on to billeting to get our private rooms. Much better than rooming with 100 of our closest Army friends, in my opinion. We were transients, and we were aircrew, right? No falsehoods required. Since my fellow aircrew member was female, the billeting airman asked if we'd be needing any help at our alert time since the dorms were separated by sex, at which point I looked at my watch and thought for a second, then told him we'd take care of it. I'm glad he hadn't gotten to the portion of his CDCs that taught insignia and the various types of wings, or he might have realized that there's no aircraft, either stationed at Manas or otherwise, that is crewed solely by two navigators...

Uh, Nagasaki is nowhere near the area hit by the earthquake and tsunami and was not damaged...

Just realized something... aren't there beaches in Hawaii and other places with black sand? So a "sand-colored" t-shirt could be black, right?

Took a self-guided tour of Seoul's microbrewery pubs last Saturday to explore, and while I can't say the craft is terribly advanced here, the last place I visited was probably the best - enjoyed the Geumgang Mountain Dark Ale at Craftworks Taphouse. Much deeper and more flavorful than what I'd had leading up to that. Seems the Koreans like their beer light and a little sweet, even in the microbrew world. The brewers will add a Weizen and maybe a Dunkel to the standard Pilsener for variety, but there were some good choices at Craftworks.

I visited said base today and couldn't figure out why so many people were wearing their reflective belts everywhere, at all hours of the day. The SSgt in line at the food court didn't know either, but wasn't wearing hers because she's "from a tenant unit." So are the feelings of ill will towards the reflective belt being redirected by leadership to make it a "scarlet letter" for group punishment? Also, does it make me old-fashioned to think that the reflective belt's main purpose is to make the wearer visible on the flight line at night? That was their sole purpose when I came in...

It's every 6 months for each language. Otherwise, no one would be able to keep his scores current (test every 12 months) in more than 2 languages. Your plan sounds like it would take quite a bit of work; why not get really good in one language, then briefly study the languages that are closely related to it (and how they're different) and test in them as well? For example, there are people out there who are great at Spanish, and with a little study can pick up enough Portuguese, Italian and French to get OK scores in them as well.

If you'd like a picture, I can take one just about any Thursday around here, since the base I'm at doubles as a training base for those just out of BMT. I'm not sure of the exact rules for wearing it since I don't come under the same supervision as those guys, but I've seen reflective belts over service dress as well as over Navy dress blues. Interesting (but not surprising) that you don't see them on the Army or USMC folks of the same grade and position, though.

Third result on a Google search for "Peter Jake's Private Keep:" 2020 Wines What do I win? p.s. Agree that KY is the only source for quality Bourbon...

Wow. Well played.

Short answer: if you're really, really good, you can get $500 a month for your Spanish knowledge through taking the DLPT. Full explanation follows... The Air Force divides foreign languages into three categories: Immediate Investment, Strategic Stronghold, and Other. The rates of pay for performance on the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) are highest for the first category and go down from there. However, there are certain languages across the categories that are identified as "dominant" and starting in 2006, you could only be paid for your proficiency in them if you were in a language-specific AFSC or billet. Spanish is one of these dominant languages -- even though it's an Immediate Investment language, it's also dominant, meaning there are enough proficient speakers already in the AF. The other dominant languages are German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Tagalog and Korean. Recent changes have brought back payment for these languages for all airmen, including those not in language-specific jobs, but you must test to a higher level of proficiency if you're testing in a dominant language (4/4 for Spanish and Tagalog, 3/3 for the other six languages). You can be paid for proficiency in any language that's not among these eight as long as you achieve at least a 2/2 (Listening/Reading) score on the DLPT. If you're interested, AFI36-2605 has the rates of pay for all languages in Attachment 14 (p.81) and the memo that grants payment even for dominant languages to all AF members (along with a table for determining eligibility) at the very beginning of the pub. There are also explanations of what kind of skills it takes to achieve certain scores, etc. AFI36-2605

The raw score is the actual number of questions you got right on the test, but that number doesn't mean much in the whole scheme of things. Some questions are weighted, so your adjusted (or standard) score will probably be higher depending on which ones you got right. That will be the score used to qualify you in the 4 different categories of languages for DLI. A 95 would qualify you for the easier languages (Cat I) like French and Spanish, but you'd need a minimum of 110 for Cat IV languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.

I'm currently in the RAS pipeline and really enjoying it, so I'll try to add some info to the above for anyone interested. The checklist is good advice, particularly #1 -- even if you hate whatever job you're assigned, the CC is probably going to push for a hard worker to get what he wants rather than someone who always talks about getting a different or special job assignment and neglects his current duty. As for time in service, you should be in the 7-10 year range to be eligible for RAS, 9-11 year range for PAS. It's true that fewer flyers are being released to non-rated duties, but as a previous poster mentioned, the CAF/MAF have "bills to pay" to SAF/IA for RAS/PAS selection. I know of several different types of pilots (and a couple of navs) who are in or have recently finished training. Also, the program is not meant to take you out of the cockpit forever - you are supposed to alternate between regional affairs assignments and your primary AFSC for the rest of your career. That has yet to be tested since the program is young, but it's the plan. I would add a step - take the DLAB, the test that is meant to measure your innate ability to learn languages. You can schedule it with your base testing office, the same people who give enlisted promotion tests and language proficiency exams (DLPTs). I've never attended a RAS selection board, but would think this would be one discriminating factor for those choosing candidates - PAS, not so much, since it doesn't require a language. Remember that if you don't get the score you'd like, you can retake the test after 6 months. If you still can't raise your score, you might want to concentrate on the PAS path over the RAS one. You'd need at the very least a 95 or so, something in the 120+ range is a strong point on your side I'd say. I didn't have a master's already (step #2 above), so can't say whether that's a particularly strong qualifier for selection. You would get one from your coursework in the RAS/PAS training program, though. I'm also not sure that you'd need to be a school select already to get in. It would probably help, but selection for Naval Postgraduate School as IDE is a different process than being selected for RAS/PAS. After starting training, you would apply on the next development board to have your NPS (or NPS/DLI) coursework count as IDE in residence. However, you'd still need to complete ACSC in correspondence. My advice would be to knock that correspondence course out as soon as you're able if you're selected for these programs. The "hoops you'd need to jump through" are really not that different from the steps you'd need to complete to get picked up for any opportunity outside of the average path in your field. Make sure to fill out the appropriate section of your ADP ("special selection opportunities" or whatever it's called now) when you discuss it with your CC (#3 above). Unless there are a lot of behind-the-scenes mechanisms I'm not aware of, the technical "application process" was essentially filling out that ADP section and getting CC concurrence. The rest was just building a strong record in general and having an interest in international affairs. Good luck and PM me if you have questions.

Since Alarm Red noted that the Japanese "sukoshi" might be the origin of the former, I'll hypothesize that the latter might come from "hayaku," Japanese for "quickly" or "hastily." Don't have any historical evidence to back this up, but the semantic link seems possible.

So do I have to wear my wings while in PT gear then? They're always required when I'm in uniform, right?

Ha...and I know one who was already instituting his own tucked-shirt PT gear policy at mandatory, twice-a-week squadron PT sessions in 2005...

On Sept 11th, we had flown all of the Herks out of Yokota due to an incoming typhoon that might be damaging to the base and aircraft. We took them all down to Guam, bedded down and everybody had a night out in Tumon Bay (remember that Guam is about 17 hours ahead of NYC). We were planning on going back the next day since the typhoon seemed to be petering out. Just after I'd gone to bed, my AC knocked on the door and said we might not be going home tomorrow, seems there's some kind of trouble in NYC. I just nodded in my sleepiness and went back to bed - plans change, ops normal. When I got up on the 12th, all the footage and reporting was already hours old but being replayed over and over on every channel in the hotel - English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc. We did in fact go back to Yokota that day, and the US-airspace radios (San Francisco Center) were very, very quiet except for us. We took off not knowing what the hell was going on or what exactly had happened in NY/DC - I remember my AC briefing us on what we would do if it seemed like the plane was out of our own control.

Props to Ommegang for bringing some Belgian-style flavor to a US microbrewery. Their Rare Vos is OK as well. New Belgium did it too, but their Abbey and Trippel seem a little harsh to me (esp. the latter). For my choices: Beer: Orval, Rodenbach, La Fin du Monde or St. Feuillien for fancy drinking, Henry Weinhard's for everyday. Wish I could find Henry's around here. Vodka: Stolichnaya all the way. Pinnacle in a pinch. Rum: Capt. Morgan Private Stock Wine: Whichever Monterey County variety is cheap that day. They're mostly OK. I once had an nav I was evaluating give me a 12-pack of Rolling Rock Green Light on his tac checkride. I said, "Green Light, I get it. Pretty clever huh?" but he hadn't even realized the connection. And yes, I drank that swill. It was free, wasn't it?

Can't speak for other aircraft or the Spec Ops 130s, but in slicks the phases of flight when navs (side-seaters) have to have on shoulder straps are the same as the ones when they have to turn their seat to face forward (takeoff and landing).

This was my interpretation too. If I'm not mistaken, the "crew duties" loophole was an addition to the rule for practicality WRT engineers. That would explain why many FEs were (or still are) in the habit of fastening the shoulder straps in with the lap belt, then lengthening them to the maximum and removing their arms from behind the straps. That way, they could obey the reg but still be ready to lunge forward to a switch. Can't think of a reason for anyone else to have them off during takeoff/landing, but I almost always took them off during long legs unless it got rough (see avatar). Probably because they're much less effective when sitting sideways and are a bit too restrictive when handing paperwork back and forth to the FE/CP or when bending over to work the log (sts).