MexicanHouseRULZ

To be fair, it was the runner-up to the Fighting Falcon.

AFSOC has been a soup sandwich for quite a while. Biggs AAF late 1994. A Talon squadron is spinning up for a real-world PR mission to recover remains by landing hooligans and their transport on the south side of the border on a dirt strip. The plan is after we land, they build up, load up and go over the border to the crash site to SSE and come back with what they find. Since the Talons have been landing mainly on paved runways, the crews are going to land on the dirt LZs around Biggs to get used to them for the big night. The squadron DO is a former Talon I nav and is standing in the hall of the condemned office block the force is using as a planning space. There are no doors and the narrow hallway has small offices on either side. While standing in a cluster of us in the hallway, the DO points to the open office that the hooligans are using for their planning space and in a loud voice says, “You don’t want to fly those guys, they’ll send you on missions that will get you killed.” This DO also thought it would be a good idea for the pilots to walk on the LZs they’d be practicing on, and coordinated with the STS bubbas to drive out to the zones. The pilots, DO, and STS bubbas piled into a van to drive out to the zones the premiere STS unit had just finished surveying for us. At the LZ, everybody piled out of the van and started kicking rocks while the DO stepped around to the back of the van, pulled out A MEASURING WHEEL and proceeded to walk off and check the survey's dimensions of the LZ in front of the premiere STS bubbas. For the duration of his time as DO, the highest profile customer his squadron of $155 million, all-weather TF insertion, extraction and resupply Chariots of Armageddon flew was the 82d Airborne Division Band from Bragg to MacDill for the SOCOM change of command. AFSOC gave him command of the training squadron at HRT, promoted him to O-6 and gave him command of the Special Ops School, before sending him to Maxwell to be the Air University SME for AF Special Operations. This stellar performer was teaching AF and joint students what AFSOC and SF were all about. This may be the root cause of why nobody really knows what AFSOC is/does – including AFSOC personnel. Based on his attitude, it would be safe to say that if he could’ve kept the aircraft parked in the chocks, he would have done it to make sure there weren’t any safety incidents on his watch. Someone misheard someone else calling him the penguin - tubby little flightless bird - and an order for pen flap patches was made for PINK ONE with a red slash through it. His own squadron painted his parking spot pink. While working at the Plans Office, I got a call from an S3 Air at one of our customers that his troops needed some static line drops to avoid losing their jump pay. He offered some short field work for our pilots, and some rapid onload/offload drills for our loadmasters in return, so I told him to wait while I went over to the squadron to see what they had that night. There was a night tac line that was going to fly around the hills with conditioned air in the back and sandbags with no tanker or EWO work – perfect to get some better training for our crews and support for our main customer. I walked into this DO’s office and laid out the training proposal, emphasizing the actual training we’d accomplish and that we’d be working with our main customer on TTPs. To my surprise, he said no, we need to fly that NTAC sortie. I said, “Yes Sir” and exited to the schedule desk right outside his door. I made a detailed study of the board for about five minutes to cool down before I turned and walked back into his office. I laid out the training proposal, emphasizing the actual training we’d accomplish and that we’d be working with our main customer on TTPs. To my surprise, he said, “That sounds like a good idea. Go do it.” Before he could change his mind again, I walked back out to the schedule desk, made the changes on the board, and called the S3 Air to coordinate times for the evening sortie. As NSplayr said, it isn’t just the muppet you see; it’s also all the minions he’s grooming and encouraging to be just like him in the future.

Ouch.

Is this an actual e-mail from the APA PHL LEC? Fellow PHL Pilots, Below is a chart provided by Delta Management that outlines the disparity in profit sharing between Delta, United, and American. Since we are employed by American, we will only focus on the disparity between Delta and American Airlines. Not that we want to rub it in, but pilots at Delta will make substantially more than pilots here at American. This is even before Delta's industry-leading pay rates take effect. This disparity is only further worsened by this management's insistence that all wholly owned employees be included in the total profit sharing pool, which reduces the profit sharing payout for American Airlines pilots by about 10%. So even if this management team can figure out how to match Delta profits, we will still receive 10% less profit sharing as a result of the larger payout pool here at American. Many pilots have told us that improved quality of life is a "must have" in our next agreement. Since the release of the Delta TA, we have been consistently asked by our newer pilots whether they should remain here at American or possibly jump ship and head to the more lucrative and pilot-friendly Delta. While this determination is ultimately the decision of each individual, we can tell these pilots that if the past action by this management is any indication of how things will go, this "cost advantage on the backs of its pilots" management team will not change and will not come close to what Delta pilots enjoy as it pertains to quality of life. Let them prove us wrong. With this in mind, and thinking of our newer pilots with less than 5 years here at American, we thought it would be helpful for pilots to see the upgrade DOH for the two most recent Vacancy Bids at Delta. We have been told by newer pilots that they came to American because of the quick upward movement and upgrades. Not so fast! Delta's most recent bid includes upgrades after just a few months at Delta. Captain upgrades with less than 1 year seniority highlighted in yellow. A=CA B=FO 765=767-400 7ER =757/767-300 No one knows what our next contract will include, but we can't just ignore this management's history. Specifically, its unwillingness to improve work rules/quality of life. We know it will be difficult for even this management to offer anything less than the new standard when it comes to pay, However, we believe, unfortunately, that's where it will end. If you're OK with Delta $$ (at least initially) and spending the next 25-35 years of your life working with horrific work rules and little scheduling flexibility, then do nothing and just live with it. However, if bottom-of-the-industry quality of life isn't what you signed on for as a professional airline pilot, and quality of life is important to you, we strongly recommend you APPLY TO DELTA NOW AS A PLACEHOLDER, and at least start the process and get in line so if our management continues with their "just say no" approach, you're ready to make the move. As difficult as it may seem, think about where you would be (see charts above) if you had left for Delta a few years ago. We are not the only airline with significant upward progression. It's everywhere! Delta pilots hired in August 2022 were just awarded captain!! Don't just hope for the best; hedge your bet and Apply to Delta now. Finally, your representatives saw where prior negotiations were heading during the Spring of 2022. We were not Johnny Come Lately in opposing the failed TA; rather, we were very vocal in identifying the inadequacies early on, whether it was fighting to rescind the sub-inflation, Negotiating Committee's unilateral pay proposal reduction last Spring or voting against reducing our pay proposal by an industry lagging 50% in August 2022. We (and other pilot groups) understand the value of an airline pilot in today's environment and refuse to sell ourselves short just to get a deal. Paul DiOrio, Chair Kevin Wilkes, Vice Chair PHL-REPS@alliedpilots.org

Nothing special about AF Special Operations. Showed up as a squadron commander after schoolhouse and staff-weaseling without a single Air Medal. Tried to make up for this by counting every leg he flew in AFG as a day to get one. A now-retired two-star (that should have had this job) reminded him of the rules, and had him count 20 days like everyone else.

Does anyone else find it ironic that the West is discussing carving up another European country for a dictator in Munich? I haven't done it yet, but I'd like to read Robert Harris' book after running find/replace for Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hitler and Sudetenland with Ukraine, Russia, Putin, and Donbas. The book has been turned into a movie on Netflix: Munich - The Edge of War and is a shallow look at the conference that kept Hitler going when he could have been full stopped.

Just to keep the derail going. I tell people I fly for the Delta of the airlines.