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.

I’d argue a GED is more about commitment than intelligence. I was in boot camp with a bunch of really dumb kids and at that time it was tough to get a waiver to join with a GED. I’m not naive to the fact that recruiting is hurting, but you might be surprised at how many high school/GED kids don’t get a 50.

I’m a weird one, but the more distracting the environment, the better I study. TV on, radio playing, etc, and I can focus and retain. When it’s dead quiet I find my mind wanders and I get bored. Its probably also why I wasn’t ever really good at group studying because most folks didn’t like Metallics blasting at max while reciting EPs

I think it was the 2018 NDAA that forced those sorts of activities to become self-funded/sustainable versus being subsidized by NAF. Shortly thereafter, several smaller bases closed their lodging because they couldn’t afford to keep them open. I don’t know what all activities were covered by that NDAA but I believe golf courses was one of them. Now, underutilized activities on base are closing. It’s also why some Wg/CCs have tried to mandate TDY travelers stay in base lodging. I understand the reasoning but that’s in violation of the JTR and the mandate usually goes away quietly. It’s the ultimate catch-22. Lodging jacked up prices to offset expenses but now the normal traveler that would go on base to save money (retiree, PCS folks, etc) go off base for the same cost and better facilities. The on base activities can’t fund themselves and usually can’t get funding to upgrade to match off base activities. Not sure why Congress felt it was a good idea but it really screwed a lot of smaller bases and their ability to have services and infrastructure available all the time.

Well, if that’s what happened your unicorn dildo must’ve worked.

According to the BBC, the entire US and Japanese fleet is grounded. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67645072

I’m actually wearing my Wardroom tshirt as I type this! That place was great, when I was there the drink ‘limits’ were supposed to be two marks on your hand. Most nights I’d go back to the connex with most of my hand covered in marks. Those bartenders were awesome.

My onwing at Whiting made me make ‘radio calls’ (internal ICS) at every corner of the hover box from my first flight in the helo. He also had me calling every bit of traffic in the pattern at Pace/Spencer as I maneuvered along the hover box. Maybe that wasn’t normal but it freaking sucked, and to do that brand new would’ve been damn near impossible.

I never said it was good or bad, I just said I couldn’t imagine trying to learn to hover while also learning to talk on the radios. Guess you’re a better pilot than me.

I couldn’t imagine trying to talk for the first time while also learning to hover. Talk about the monkey fucking the football bat.

Found on Reddit, gotta love it when The Drive gets the scoop on PA. Good article, I think Big AF is about to get some tough questions from Congress. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u-2-retirement-moves-forward-with-defense-secretary-decision