FLEA

Sorry, I probably should have also mentioned Songtan Sally moved to Camp Humphreys and will no longer seduce you into a sewer with a red balloon.

Here is what I posted to a post from Prozac in a different thread on the topic regarding our national interest in the Pacific vs Europe: Noone here has forgotten the whole lesson about US involvement in European instability. However, that lesson is receiving heavy scrutiny now because of its cost. And it should receive scrutiny. There are no "natural laws" or "rules" in geo-politics. We should always be adjusting our thought. First off, I'm skeptical anytime mentions US foreign policy and "track record" or "history" in the same sentence. 200 years isn't history. Its a sneeze. China has seen continuous governance under a unified identify for over 3000 years. Sink that in a for a bit because its a bit amazing to think about. Sure they've had overthrows and invasions that took power, but they always remained predominantly identified as a single people (disregarding discussions of sub cultures like the Han, im talking specifically, how long has there been a "place identified as China"). So building trend data off of two events that happened only 20 years apart probably isn't prudent global planning on our part. Second, saying that a secure "Europe" is better for American prosperity is a bit dishonest. Europe is a geographical feature that says nothing about where the global balance of power lies. Pre-WW2, many of those powers happened to be conjugated in Europe. Today? Not a single European player (outside maybe France in the UK as notable exceptions) has global influence. The center of power has shifted dramatically from Western Europe to the Pacific. The top 6 military power centers in the world on the Global Firepower Index all have borders on the Pacific Ocean. (8 if you count Britain and France's Pacific holdings) 6/12 of the largest economies are on the Pacific, including the Top 3, the US, China and Japan. The problem with the above philosophy is it puts WAY too much importance on how much influence Europe has on the world order in modern terms. Third, we tend to have a lens that puts too much emphasis on the WW's as what happened in Western Europe. We forget, that they were global wars, and especially in WW2, most of the fighting did not take place in Western Europe. I promise you the Chinese don't frame their historic perceptions of WW2 as something that mainly occurred in Europe. As our #1 adversary, that should be something that we take important note of. Fourth, having the basic premise that a continent cant organize their shit so we have to occupy and pacify them for our own successful aims just doesn't sound like a good long term strategy. We invest 320K DoD personnel in Europe. That is literally 1/4 of our entire military, on one foreign continent. The largest military in Western Europe is the US military. Think about that for a minute, and then think about what your squadron could do with a 33% manning boost? To quote your terms, why are we spending "on peace and prosperity in Europe" when we should be spending on Peace and Prosperity in the United States, the largest threat to which, is in Asia. I totally understand and hear your point of view. But I find it outdated and irrelevant with what is actually going on in the world right now. I think there is a growing crowd of skeptics that question if Europe is "worth" our investment

It's worth noting that in the last 2 years some huge QOL changes happened in Korea as well. Curfew is permanently gone so far as the order is rescinded and would need reissued with new justification for reinstating it. The bases have spent a lot of money upgrading facilities and morale areas. They've opened a significant number of more command sponsored billets. I want to say ~30-50%. Yongsan has moved to Humphreys which added a significant capacity for medical care and other services to the Osan local area. You automatically get to live off base if you plan to be there longer than a year. So lots of good changes.

We have more national interest in the Pacific than we do in Europe. That's all I was getting at. The US interest in NATO is becoming more diminished each year. The Germans don't realise that which is why this move is so shocking to them. You can read my excerpt in the next presidents thread for why I feel this way.

Very true but Italy and Belgium don't have the economic security Germany does either. I would rather see the majority of troops go CONUS though and if any stay OCONUS put them in PACOM.

Well, I made my opinion on this clear in another thread. But my thoughts are "bye Felicia" (to Germany). Of all the countries we partner with and I've worked with I've felt the Germans are the most abusive to our generosity. Here is an example: https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/harassed-by-german-tax-offices-more-us-military-families-face-financial-threats-1.638976

I can help with that. I'll send you a PM.

As in you can't figure out the slide of the software/slide is glitchy and you can't figure out how to get through?

I honestly don't understand why we stand on this pedestal of "we make the worlds best pilots" because of this. I mean you look at our entire history of how we teach aviation its reactive. The origin stories of AIS, IRC, CRM etc... in the military are written in blood. Its really sad. I could see this being another one on the list in 5-10 years.

Thanks for the circular #s. I'm going to look them up.

I think we need to recognize the fact that a lot of this tension is cyclical. The more violent protest/rioters become the more militant the police will become. The more militant the police become, the more violent the protest/rioters become. For federal police i don't see OCP's being an issue as a significant portion of their work often takes place in interagency or covert environments that are very paramilitary in nature often with the DoD as well. I believe the photo circulating above is Border Patrol special tactics which makes sense why they would have OCP's given the work they do in counter cartel raids/etc... I'm also reminded that we, the DoD, sort of asked for this when we told State Department we wouldn't do civil training for Security Force Assistance in Afghanistan and Iraq and deploying as advisors became a key role for federal law enforcement. (Probably the right decision but the ramifications is that Federal law enforcement gained a pretty significant paramilitary mission) The question of "why are they wearing it here, doing this?" Is probably appropriate. But my guess is the department can't afford 400 sets of uniforms for different environments/seasons/weather like the Navy.

I just did a stall/upset recovery module for my FTU. Can you elaborate whats changed. I wonder if our FTU is up to the times. (Doubt it)

This isn't the case but even if it was frankly I don't give a shit. Doxxing is never an ok thing to do. You can be angry at someone all you want. You don't have a right to take it upon yourself to see justice. That is not how our society functions.

Yes, I think the doxxing thing is a real threat that challenges the traditional openess of officers identifying themselves. In all honesty, the public doesn't have a strong need to know who these officers are. If the officers are acting in bad faith, the government/department should be handling that. Not vigilantes who take it on themselves to see justice.

Your points were all fair, it just astonishes me how different people can interpret assignments. I personally didnt like Germany as much as Korea, but I know many people would find that backward. I've never met anyone that likes Cannon though.

I was there married with kids and single. Loved it both times for different reasons. I can't understand why people detest it so much. You have modern shopping, conveniences, English is common enough to survive but still plenty of culture, I just can't see why people hate it.

Don't buy into those press freedom rankings man. Germany is near the top and it is illegal to criticize political Leadership there. Tell me how that is free press. To be clear you can criticize policy to some degree in Germany as they do have sometimes healthy political debate but you certainly cannot criticize the personification of an office.

Why does everyone think Korea is a bad assignment!?!?!?

RPAs aren't an option at the moment out of UPT but that is never a garuntee. Also if you turn down a rated position on AD you become permanently inelligible for rated in the future. My basic opinion is this, if the thin possibility of getting a helicopter or drone deters you from trying to get a fighter, this probably isn't the career for you.

Haha, ironically is he was passionate about that mission you could even argue ranking the MQ-9 on there given how much they were doing in Syria 16-18. Another thing too. You are making a HUGE mistake to discount helicopters so easily.

I was peeved about the same thing but found out your commander has an option to extend you a 4 day pass on either side of the baby leave. Noone ever told me this including my commander who was doing it for other people in the squadron. It sort of irritated me because a full 2 weeks would have been a bit nicer.

Heard the issue raised several times in my squadron but no resolution. Also, it doesn't say you can't use your parental leave to travel. Maybe a family vacation to Disney World or the little ones Grandparents is what you need the leave for.

My understanding is it was a bit of both. The AF realised not getting the full buy order of 380 something F-22s was going to leave us far too short and the fact that after Boeing lost 2 massive fighter competitions in a row, and global F-15 sales were in decline as the world pursues 5th gen, Boeing contemplated closing some of its fighter production facilities.

I feel like my beef is more in his lack of initiative to take any responsibility for the situation. I haven't read the SIB yet however I think blaming a squadron commander for prioritizing operations is a bit short winded. Unless the Sq/CC was delibertly cooking the books on his training I fail to see how a community that prides it's culture in doing whatever it takes to get the mission done is solely responsible for this tragedy.

I think Goldfein is right though. I think light attach is an Enterprise solution. MQ-9s definitely fill a certain niche in that enterprise but we need something a bit more robust to fill in the rest. It is also worth noting that the next generation MQ-9 replacement is in development and so far noone knows much about it. It may be a capable replacement. Who knows.