Bigred

I get the combat time, wrong place at wrong time can make all the difference in chest candy. I still think 2,200 hours is exceptionally low for a O-6 pilot. Am I off on that?

Beat me to it. 2200 hours for an O-6 seems exceptionally low, even for a pre 9-11 winged pilot.

Who is the waiver authority for something like that?

Not a commander, but still shows that if you polish a turd you just end up with a shiny piece of crap. https://taskandpurpose.com/airman-sex-assault

The Navy does have a process but the numbers are exceptionally small that do it. The irony is the Navy seems to make it easier to do (as compared to the AF) but less guys do it. From what I’ve seen it’s mainly because of how the officer career path is built and crossing from rotary to fixed, etc, can be difficult to recover from career wise.

Almost got me. Not today ISIS.

It was good, but something about it was just not there. It felt disjointed in the storytelling.

I’ll ask some of my regional buddies, but I think the confusion may stem from any bonuses given. I.e., Skywest gives former helo dudes up to 25k for pilot training to ATP, and I highly doubt they’d be cool with you just leaving after 6 months if a major came calling (unlikely I know, but just an example). I would assume like anything, it depends on the contract. Contrast that with a former Navy O-5 I know. He spent his last three years in the Navy at a desk, so he went to the regionals. He was a F-18 driver so he spent about 7 months there, got current, and got hired on at a major.

The only deployment I didn’t have DTS records for was my one boat deployment. The rest I pulled from DTS. I had them ready when I submitted my info but the clerk working my record never asked to see it for verification.

They tried stringing him up but it eventually, quietly, went away. Me thinks it was because of the optics of trying to punish a guy for saving others.

I disagree. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s the intangible training that comes from knowing the weather is shit for real vs it being the sim.

The problem with only spec ops is they rely on general purpose forces as a buffer. If it was solely spec ops they’d get over saturated and most likely burnt out quick.

There’s also the pucker factor of flying an approach to mins in the aircraft vice the sim.

Absolutely put your TDY / deployments in there. I listed ‘deployed to Hostile fire Area (Iraq) from ###-###, deployed to Imminent Danger Area (Indian Ocean) from ###-###’, etc Its important for things like you said (burn pits), but listing any hostile fire area, etc, can also affect various things once your out. *Edit: you probably don’t need to put every single TDY, but if you deployed to a combat zone, definitely. Or, if you spent 6 weeks at Nellis and went to Palominos every night, that might also have lasting impacts 🙂

The amazing thing is it's not exactly like the API building is just inside the gate either. It's a bit of a drive from any gate you go through to get there.

The Navy started merit based reordering last year. I have two friends that both screened for O-5 and squadron command. One guy ‘merit reordered’ to promote at the start of the new FY, the other didn’t. Both were weapons school grads, had masters degree, and jpme-1 complete. Point being, a lot of squadron commanders (and the rest of us) were left scratching our heads on what was being used to define the merit reorder. It’ll be interesting to see what the AF uses.

They also do English language training and some other training as part of the FMS training. When I went through several of the foreign guys I went through with would be given a lot more opportunities/rollback. They were typically only one or two from their military in the country and so they sorta ‘had’ to pass.

Any chance you can give details/opinion on what is perceived to be inferior?

The FY-18 NDAA created the option for 5 years zones. My Google-fu is weak and I’m unable to find anything about it getting rid of the need for continuation if 2x failure to select, so perhaps a loophole?

Looks like there might be an opening up at Beale for anyone looking for a airframe change. https://taskandpurpose.com/u2-pilot-fired-cocaine-drug-test

So to quote the venerable Lloyd Christmas, ‘so you’re saying there’s a chance’.

Existential threat? Depends on how nuanced you want to make the definition. Can the camel jockeys stand toe-to-toe with the US and threaten our existence in a straight up fight? No. Can the camel jockeys drain our treasuries and bankrupt our economy? Possibly. Afghanistan has been previously referred to as ‘where empires go to die’.

Curtis LeMay comes to mind here. Why? Because the last time we actually did this (WW2), we won. Do we need to flatten or firebomb cities? Perhaps not, but we have been fighting a war since 2001 so maybe it’s time to rethink the current ROEs?

Career timing and post military opportunities. In the Navy, if you don’t screen for squadron command the odds of flying post department head (ADO) are almost zero. For me personally, I’m a senior O-4 that flew helos in the Navy and I was looking at a non-flying desk job for at least three years. With no guarantees of flying afterwards (even though I volunteered for UPT instructor, etc), and the Air Force offering me the chance to fly heavies for at least the next four years, it was a no brainer. Even if I don’t fly till I retire I’ll have a lot better shot at the majors afterwards instead of slogging through the regionals for 5-6 years waiting on flow through. The same applies to a lot of the guys I know that have swapped over. No real aspiration for command but happy to fly our asses off for the rest of our careers. That, and the 75 day tanker deployments are quite ok when compared to 6-9 month boat deployments.

Whether Gallagher was guilty or not, the Navy prosecutors were doing some straight up shady shit. The whole episode, from start till now, has made a mockery of the military justice system.