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Jimmy.The.Engineer

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Posts posted by Jimmy.The.Engineer

  1. Of all the things that are legitimately complain worthy, the enlisted promotion system is one with which I take no issue. I thank God each day that I don't have to deal with the same promotion system as the ossifers. If I don't get promoted, it is my fault. If the O's don't, it is because a ladybug in Zambia didn't get eaten at 1314 hours by a spotted baboon in the correct tree. We are set to lose a lot of very good dudes, in my squadron, due this idiocy - very good dudes. The ones who will move up are the bake sales reps and PTA presidents. It makes me sad.

    On the 20 year staff issue, If a dude doesn't want to move up, he isn't hurting me; he's actually helping me. We don't all have the same values.

  2. Been my experience that people will even complain if you hang them with a brand new rope. It is about priorities. I have a wife and kids (kids are teen and tween), so I don't care about the local bar scene. Also been my experience that when people mention things to do, it means, "things to eat". My life doesn't revolve around what I eat, so, I don't care. You can shoot, hike, camp, fish, shoot, hunt, dirtbike, snowboard and do all manner of outdoor things here that you can't do in FL. I love mountains (the one thing I would move to this place, if I could). I hate rednecks, overcrowding, humidity, traffic and tailgaters and the beach gets old, after two days. My family loves it here and my wife is about to start working at the university. Is it the best place ever? No but its good enough for now. My priorities aren't the same and this is fine for me and mine.

    Disclaimer, I may be a bit biased, as I am from "constitutional carry" Arizona and can drive home in no time.

  3. I like the direction we are headed with the Multi-Cam 2 piece flight suits. It is functional and comfortable - looks good too. We wear them deployed and are working on wearing them at home, too - one uniform that you can wear, no matter where you go. Hard to take them seriously, with regard to costs, when I have to maintain three different utility uniforms.

  4. I have been absolutely screaming for years about the loss of orderly rooms. I too, like the other old codgers here, remember those days well. The admin dudes/dudettes were called, "702 troops". Then, they became, "IMs". Then, they became gone. Finance was a trip to the CBPO (consolodated base personnel office) building to sign out your gangsta roll for your trip. If you actually had a Diner's Club credit card, you just stapled your receipts to your voucher, upon return, turned them in to the desk, waited 15. The finance officer would review it and the A1C with the pistol in the cash cage would issue you some cabbage. Even the mere mentioning of bringing back "O" rooms makes a bit of drizzle run down my leg. You young guys are in for a real treat, if this is true.

    P.S.

    I hope the guy who invented DTS lives a thousand years with his shame.

    • Upvote 2
  5. When the Commander-In-Chief tells the United States Air Force to service a target, airlift supplies, or refuel fighters, his direction (after much translation from commander's intent and so forth) is encapsulated in a document, much like a uniform reg. We follow the the "O" in ATO, and the "T" comes from our JFACC -- who is also a General. Sometimes to accomplish the mission, we have to flex on uniforms. [someone used the example of a maintainer working on an engine having to place their sunglasses on their cranium in a previous post].

    In any case, what needs to improve is the complete lack of situational awareness on the part of individuals who think 'enforcement' is somehow inextricably related to an improved mission. It's not! What's the higher priority? Getting your crew fed after a 12 hour mission? Or being refused entry to the DFAC for no reflective belt in the daytime. (Actually happened). If an NCO enforces the latter, without a thought about the former, then yes, they do need to absorb the blame--and shame--of their misguided actions.

    Leadership + e-mail = oxymoron. What would be better is if the Wg/CC showed up to their afternoon meeting with grimy ABUs or a flight suit full of armpit sweat. When the NCOs see the Wg/CC working with the operators--seriously working--not a b.s. dog & pony show, I'm certain they'd respect that person much more than the faux leader typing electronic edicts from their air-conditioned PowerPoint palace.

    No truer words. Once upon a time, when I was a young Airman, I was deployed to a Clintonesque CF near the Adriatic. We set up bare bases in various locales. At one, the CC (O-6 type) helped out - and I don't mean he "supervised". The dude even had on some bad-ass suspenders. You could tell, because he - wait for it - took off his blouse. He had weekly pow wows at the smoke pit and he would start em off with, "Smoke em if ya got em!" The guy used the f word and carried a rifle. We all had man crushes on him.

  6. AFSOC in BLUES!

    http://www2.hurlburt...sp?id=123192874

    Tops In Blue claims Hurlburt loadmaster for 2010 tour

    by Staff Sgt. Stacy Fowler

    1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

    3/2/2010 - HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- The Air Force's premiere entertainment ensemble, Tops In Blue, selected the performers for its 2010 tour - and an MC-130 loadmaster from Hurlburt Field, Fla., made the final cut.

    Staff Sgt. Steven Sonnier, 1st Special Operations Group, leaves next week to begin several months of training before taking his performance to stages around the world.

    "Being selected as a member of Tops In Blue is the realization of a dream," he said, "I know what the men and women go through on deployments, and I know firsthand the joy of seeing your brothers- and sisters-in-arms singing music that touches you or reminds you of home."

    Sergeant Sonnier and the other 73 Airmen will assemble at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, to begin rigorous staging procedures and rehearsals on Mar. 7. And for the performers it's more than finding out what songs and dance moves they have to learn, said Sergeant Sonnier.

    "We're not like a USO show. We do everything ourselves - our entire stage, our lights, everything," he said. "On a daily basis I am working hand-in-hand, 16 to 18 hours a day, with professional musicians, choreographers and technicians who are as passionate about music and the program as I am."

    After completing training at Lackland AFB, the 2010 entertainment company will begin a 10-month tour in May, visiting more than 20 countries and performing more than 120 shows with this year's theme: "We Believe."

    "Tops In Blue members are the physical manifestation of the core values and ideals that make the U.S. Air Force the best Air Force in the world," Sergeant Sonnier said. "This program...provides comfort to the people who need it most: the men and women serving their country, and the friends and family of those heroes

    What made you think SOF doesn't have it's fags too?

    Revive Commando Look. Now.

  7. This game is ridiculous. I just played for 5 hours straight. The sound is f'ing awesome, with headphones in, btw. This forum is a bad influence on me. How am I going to do my PME and learn how to ensure people wash their hands, in the chow ha...I mean DFAC?

  8. Yeah. That, and it was the Chief of Staff of the Air Force who personally told him to shave it off. Not some admin clerk NCO with a hard on about the Air Force song and sock colors.

    Some of the most effective leaders I have served with in the Air Force have been SNCOs, but I must have missed the AFI that now requires the most misguided, poorly developed and ineffective SNCOs to leap to the front of the "leadership" train. I'm assuming it's an AFI, because that seems to be the only force that provides vector in today's Air Force. Every single one of these buffoons works for a senior officer. Where the hell are they? WHO are they? I guess in the absence of real officer leadership, it's not surprising that someone else is stepping into the void. But frankly, the net result is making the entire Air Force look like a three ring clown act.

    I guess this is the inevitable result of building "leaders" through online PME.

    AFI 36-2618

    5.1.4. Demonstrate, inspire, and develop in others an internalized understanding of Air Force Core

    Values and The Airman’s Creed. Know and understand the Air Force Symbol.

    We get water boarded with this type of kool-aid. I try to just go to my circle.

    • Upvote 1
  9. I think most officers don't understand the reality of the average elisted family. Most young familes in the Air Force have either both parents in the Air Force or one in the Air Force and another employed elsewhere. Since we have decided to pay our enlisted kids somewhere at or below the poverty level (hence the second working parent), providing some form of child care for working parents is mission required. The fact is that your bridge doesn't keep airplanes turning. Having an organization that supports young families does. Nobody is prying money out of your hands. Instead, we're taking the profits from the company store and applying it to the areas that would best improve the overall base quality of life. Could the store be better? Yes. Are the laws that govern military construction asinine? Absolutely. Is it wise that AAFES and DECA are legally seperated? Probably not. Is accessesable and affordable child care a mission requirement for a base? Definately.

    As a long time enlisted man, I don't sympathize. Both parents don't NEED to work. You just need to cut your f'in expenses. You don't get paid like that. Your wife should stay home and watch your kids. You are a sucky parent, if your wife doesn't raise your kids and your kids will suffer for it. My wife and I would rather be dipped in shit, than to have someone else raise our kids - especially the government. As far as the pay goes, that is the deal you signed. If you want to get paid like an O, go be an O. Grow up. Where else can you walk out of high school into a good paying job with the best bennies anywhere and a retirement at the end? Oh and they pay for your school? My Master's is almost done and I owe nothing to anyone. Man the fvck up.

    • Upvote 5
    • Downvote 1
  10. I find it hilarious that you guys still don't realize that you are getting stabbed in the back by your own community. About half of your "bros" that talk a good game right now are going to promote and then use their new found power to impose "shoe" rules on you. You guys keep referencing this aircrew versus the world situation...but in reality you are eating your own. In the CE world, our SNCOs always greet these new policies with a "I guess now they expect us to enforce this bullshit, too" attitude. I expect that is true in the MX world and about half of the support world.

    The reality is that everybody in the Air Force works for a pilot. It is in your hands to change it. Stop bitching and do something about it. Please, for the rest of us that will never have any real power. If some pilot O-9 out there put his foot down on uniform regs, they would change. If some O-6 flyer said that the "Home of the Fighter Pilot" sign at Nellis will stay up, it will stay up. Trust me. I'll take all of the negative ratings as a reflection of how close to home this hits.

    I like you man. You're crazy...but I like you.

  11. How to guide:

    The FE and load are in the back of the plane talking about a problem with something on top of the plane. This is done loudly and with the intention that all of the PAX hear (at least the ones in ear-shot). The load kinda shuffles off to the front, leaving the FE in the back. The FE leans over to one of the lower ranking PAX and tells him/her not to let them take off with him up there, as he is going to check on the prob. He then proceeds out the rear escape hatch and walks to the front escape hatch (careful not to make a lot of noise up there) and takes his seat in the cockpit. The load comes back and seals up the rear hatch. Maybe someone raises the flag - maybe not. Take-off, fly to dest, land and taxi in. The FE then goes out the front hatch and walks to the rear hatch, climbs back in the plane, whereupon, he begins to cuss the load.

  12. Herk FE,

    I get the same blank look, when I try to describe it as well (some times to the fuel truck dude too). Odd, as it is the most common and nearly the oldest enlisted flying position. Can't get too wrapped up, as I didn't know about it either, until I went to ALS with an FE and he had a hell of a time explaining what it was he did to my dumb ass. Concur with the rest - poor training and poor focus on the mission is to blame.

    • Upvote 1
  13. I'm sure I'm breaking some type of forum netiquette rule by posting after my own post but I forgot to comment on why I really wanted to squawk. I find it repugnant that some of your units out there aren't letting you carry on combat sorties. We carry 9s, M4s, 203s and 249s, for the same reason a dog licks his balls. Maybe you should join the dark side. We have really cool toys.

    This post was just blatant, shameless and self-serving but, hey, we fought a war. This is America and I can be as arrogant as I please.

  14. The AF goes through a major ID change, every five years or so. Stop and take a gander around every now and then and you'll see it. For all of the stupid-ass queep we have these days, things have taken a turn for the better. I can hear all of the post 9-11 types disagreeing with that but they have no reference. I'll explain.

    Before 9-11, we went to places like Saudi Arabia, Turkey (Northern/Southern Watch, OPC), and I still don't know what the fvck that Bosnia thing was all about and I was in it. Point being, we had no focus and we were acting like the 101st guys in BOB on the tenth disc. My buddy, Mambo, rightly pointed out that we needed the Cold War back. The Russians were the best thing that happened to the US military. Sure we have to deal with disco belts, lack of orderly rooms (man I miss them), DTS (I too remember the gangster roll you signed out from an armed finance dude at the cashier cage.), me doing finance/MPF's job (I miss the CBPO) and SNCOs "helping" us with polyester clothing gig lines on shorts that make you leave a ball sweat mark in the chow hall (I won't bend. It is a motherfvckin chow hall, not a DFAC) but we have an enemy again. A no-shit enemy. Be they Soviet, AQ or the Mars attacks aliens, we need an enemy - a bona fide bad guy to curse and we have one. Personally, I would like to see the Soviets come back. I liked getting free pencils at work.

  15. Ha ha "Government cheese". The problem is this place doesn't need to be so bad. There are other places that have the same geographic features and are thriving. The problem is the corruption and "Keep Cannon Shitty" crowd. Aside from here, though, New Mexico kicks ass. I just wish I didn't have to drive three hours to get back to America.

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