Bigred

I stayed because I love military flying and deploying. The pay isn’t airline pay but it’s comfortable. The only reason I’m gonna hit the retirement button is because my airframe is likely going away and after 20 years of never leaving the cockpit, I’ll be dammed if I’m going to a staff.

If you have any chance of using the GI Bill for higher education, for you or a dependent, save it for that. Right now my daughter is getting just over 90k a year for school from the GI Bill. So when I got my ATP, I bit the bullet and paid for it all out of pocket.

The Navy/DoD will do an Officer Grade Determination to decide at what lower grade he last served honorably. In theory that could be as low as an O-1. If he were still active and received a dismissal he’d lose all of his retirement. Since he’s retired I’m not sure if that’s an option. The sentencing will be interesting to see.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2023/04/14/air-force-looks-to-cut-nearly-50-of-tactical-air-control-party-jobs/ Was proposed several years ago. Sounds like Lawman is seeing it actually happen

Bit of a false dilemma because your two options are tactical and strategic ISR. The U2 has adapted to tactical ISR but it was not designed as such, so it obviously cannot carry weapons. To you point, the answer is obvious, but the greater answer is simply having someone overhead is better than none.

I haven't worn a uniform in my CAC ID picture since roughly 2008. My most recent iteration is from deployment where I was rocking a hawaiian shirt and a wildly out of regs mustache. Funny story is that I had recently been around a cat (I'm allergic) and my red eyes and ginger skin ended up with me looking like a cancer patient. It's gotten belly laughs from gate guards all the way to TSA agents at the airpot. There are zero rules saying you have to be in uniform for your CAC picture. And, if there are, no one has batted an eye.

I spent almost a decade in San Diego and it’s pretty common. Developers froth at the mouth at the idea of getting that land. It’ll never happen. Same as people bitch about San Diego airport and how it should move to Miramar and be a joint airfield with the Marines. The department of the Navy is well entrenched in San Diego and I think it’ll be a cold day in hell when they move out and let the city take over.

First time getting notified of a urinalysis in the Air Force, after so many years in the Navy, was an interesting interaction. I get a random phone call in the morning Random GS civilian - "sir, you have to come to office 6969 and bring your id" Me - "ok, no problem, what for? GS - "i can't tell you, you have to come here" Me - "ok, if you won't tell me, I'm not coming. have a good day" I ended up having the urinalysis monitor come to my office and explain it to me. He was pissed but I told him I don't answer to random GS civlians that won't explain what they want. Still had to give the sample but the monitor ended up apologzing to me about it. I still don't understand the AF formality of it all. The Navy, you'd get a phone call or an email and it was essentially "hey man, go pee by the end of the day".

The math checks out

The 6 year commitment changed to 8 years about 20 years ago.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/navy-declares-2-missing-crew-members-crashed-jet-deceased/281-a83540a2-7f8b-44d9-bdbc-762b43076679 Sadly it's now turned into a recovery versus a rescue operation.

Just because you got gay, doesn’t mean you have to disparage God’s chariots by calling them ass helos. But yes, I miss helos. They were fucking awesome

I am surprised land as soon as practical was/is even an option. I would’ve expected it to have been either land immediately for imminent failure or otherwise land asap.

My understanding isn't that the jets are running out of landings, it's that the airframes are timing out. So while I agree with you to a certain extent, the trap rate is built into the design and it's not been a limiting factor (that I'm aware of).

With the U-2 going away, a lot of dudes are trying to find flying jobs. The words passed to us are that a lot of ACU and B-courses have significant backlog. Aka, a lot of the guys are staring at an AETC future.