dream big

Haha are fighter pilot bar songs even allowed anymore? Word is most units axed them after the great PC purge of 2012 under Welsh.

While their are similarities, our situation now is a lot more violent and nasty. Someone can maybe prove me wrong but I don’t believe anyone died from rogue “protestors” shooting up people; the occupy wall street, albeit full of loons, was mostly peaceful. OWS also didn’t have racial undertones to it which complicates matters. Antifa also didn’t exist in full force back then which is now a present day domestic terror threat. Believe me I hope to god this dies down but I have a bad feeling this is going to get uglier before it gets better, especially based on the outcome of the election.

Sweden, Denmark are able to do that for multiple reasons. Inherent wealth, low comparative population, and let’s not forget cultural factors as well, like a highly homogeneous** population. Easy to have a strong collective safety net when most individuals think the same. Also think about the lifestyle and health of your average Scandinavian compared to Americans, of course healthcare costs are manageable. I can’t think of many conservatives that are advocating for removing our safety nets, but a Scandinavian type of welfare/healthcare system simply wouldn’t work in America. What has proven to work is robust capitalism, free markets, individual responsibility with a safety net for those who truly cannot provide for themselves. Edit: words are hard

Not character assassinating, but to imply that the military = socialism and that military members warning about its’ historically documented failures because they live under a safety net comes from a place of ignorance, is intellectually dishonest. Valid points on trying to frame everything as socialist or capitalist. Economic structures exist on a scale for sure. However, economies are more likely to collapse the closer they go to the left end of that scale. Scandinavia is learning that the hard way, their inherent wealth has prevented them from learning it in too hard of a fashion.

Leadership 101, make a damn decision, even if it’s not the best one. Unfortunately many CCs see their command as a checked box enroute to general starship so they can’t taint that by actually having to be a leader.

Are you seriously comparing the military to socialism? Are you implying that military members can’t criticize the deranged narrative of Marxism because the military is socialist? You’re obviously a shoeclerk who sits at a desk all day because no one who understand the sacrifice that military members make, along with their families, would spout such new age BS. “Never had their views confronted,” you don’t know what you’re talking about. Many of us are college or masters educated individuals, you might be too who knows. To say our views aren’t confronted displays your ignorance in full force. If you are so fond of the failed experiment of socialism, I highly suggest you move to a country that espouses it, no one will stop you, I promise. Take your buddies on the street whining about capitalism and tax cuts with you. Otherwise get off your high horse and see the forest for the trees for once.

Neither is Seattle nor it’s conclave “Chaz.” Really sucks that the left has taken over some of the prettiest scenery in America.

Coming from a pilot who can’t imagine doing anything else; I wouldn’t rule out CSO. Yeah, got it, jokes about back seat, whatever. CSOs play a critical role in many platforms. B-1s? The WSO is pretty much running the mission and putting ordinance on target. AC-130s? The CSO is running comms with the JTAC, not to mention the FCO is normally an experienced CSO. CSO on a tanker or AWACS? Probably not too exciting. The point is, flying is cool and all but the mission and reward for mission accomplishment definitely outweighs the joy of simply flying the plane at times.

While that is true, ultimately it’s not the unit’s choice. It is political and much higher than their pay grade. Having flown both the J is multiple times more capable than the H. There is zero reason to keep the H around.

In my experience, most guard/reserve bubbas are some of the best in the business. They are also generally more experienced. I’d fly into combat any day with them. I know you were probably trying to be funny with your post but it came off super douchey especially since our fellow aviators are still in the hospital.

You bring up some poignant points. Don’t go back into hiding..let’s talk about this like adults. If the racism you talk about exists, I’ll bet you a bottle of jack that 99% of us will fight tooth and nail to eradicate it because that’s what we do in the military, we take care of our own. I do not think “systematic racism” exists in the sense that there is no law that prevents a POC from attaining any rank or position because of their skin color. Does racism still exist? Of course it does. How we confront it is how we differ. Again don’t go back into hiding, let us participate in mature discourse. We may not agree on certain things but I’m sure we will all learn from each other.

Mic drop. Love this woman. She has more courage than all the SJW victims combined. I would go as far to say she has faced more racism from her own race than virtually any other martyr the BLM movement glorifies. Finally, racism exists in every single country on the planet, and is espoused by every single race. It is wrong, however it is manifested or by whomever. However, the facts don’t suggest a “systematic racism” problem in America. To quote Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: “You are all equally worthless!”

Tay Tay should stick to shitty country music! I see your points...Trump is abrasive but you don’t win the republican presidency by being dumb. His tweets do make me cringe and just give so much ammo to his haters but, maybe it’s calculated? Maybe it does fire up his base more than it disenfranchises voters in the middle? They are just stupid tweets after all.

In a conventional “popular vote” sense, no, not “majority.” But we don’t elect presidents based off of that otherwise Cali and NY would heaven forbid decide every national election. However, silent majority is a generic term used for an unaccounted number of people that support something or someone (Trump) that isn’t blatantly obvious in the echo chamber of social media. Not to mention the social ramifications of speaking up in defense of Trump these days. Joe “you ain’t black” Biden may not be as corrupt as Hilary but holy s$$$, the guy can’t put two sentences together. If his strategy is to just stay low and let Trump tweets get the best of him; he’s in for a rude awakening. One of the biggest mistakes Hilary made was refusing to put out ANY policy proposals and just play the “well I am not Trump” card. That doesn’t work. Like him or hate him, Trump is backed by action and policy and he will obliterate Biden in the primary if he continues his dementia plagued rants and/or fails to explain what his actual policies will be.

No different than last time. There will also be a lot of relieved people; also known as the silent majority. They aren’t as loud because they get shouted down by the so called tolerant left and groups like BLM.

So I guess we are allowed to openly bash the commander in chief now on Facebook as active duty officers? Or a sitting squadron commander? Asking for a friend..

“I’m a white guy” - good for you? Systematic racism means that the system is inherently racist, it means that we have laws that are racist. Can you point me to a single law that allows discrimination based on skin color? I.e, being black. Racism isn’t a problem unique to white people or Americans. We should welcome peaceful protest and dialogue, from all sides. Rioters and looters deserve to be thrown in jail and I’m glad we have a President with the galls to address it and take action. -Not a white guy

Thought it already happened? Selectees matched with schools released in August.

Can you please elaborate once again? I know you “told the story on this site.” It seems Fingers is well respected across the Enterprise but it’s obvious you have some insider information. Honestly curious to hear the other side.

Texas, Florida and a few other states are a few weeks into “opening things up” and so far so good. The sky isn’t falling and the death rate has peaked. Far stretch from the doom and gloom we heard about from certain people. If someone has a problem with it then they are welcome to stay at home. Michigan on the other hand? The ‘queen’ there is asking for a rebellion.

Yepp, that was my intro to my first ops Sq 10 years ago from my Sq/CC, who on top of telling me to get my masters also assigned me my first task of making sure all the bulletin boards in the Sq had 4 corner thumb tacks instead of two because that is apparently a rule...this from a Weapons Officer. He was a real piece of work. Sidetrack I know but too good not to share

I hear you. This is a constant struggle. However, we are always going to have a steady stream of copilots whose GK is trash..but at a certain point, we aren’t going to be able to use that as an excuse. When shit hits the fan, these guys better know the basics and then some, a lot more than that. Speaking for tac airlift here but the next conflict will demand that they are masters of their craft but are also able to understand integration, datalink, degraded ops, you name it, 6-9 months after they show up to the squadron all while getting the goods to our brethren on the ground. Want to know why the MAF is so far behind the CAF? Why we rightfully get all the ATIS jokes? It’s because our copilots struggle through something as simple as TOLD or comms while their peers are putting warheads down range. Got it, different mission sets..but I firmly believe we don’t challenge our copilots enough. Many of them will rise to the challenge, and those who don’t will be left behind.

No? In my experience T-38 studs perform much better and have stronger hands than T-1 trained folks; another argument for single trainer for phase 3.

Looking back UPT was the simplest and some of the most fun times I have had in my Air Force career. No paperwork, OPRs, EPRs, dealing with Airman snuffy and his financial or marital problems, building PowerPoints or briefings. All I had to do was study, fly, grill and drink beer with the bros and not be a douche. It was awesome! To the OP, take it one sortie at a time and enjoy it.

I see your point, I’m just hesitant to dismiss basic raw skills because “airplanes are more technologically advanced”. Will you need to do a fix to fix over the straights of Taiwan? No, but you may need to utilize raw chart/map/ground navigation because you have no GPS. Will you need to do wing work while dropping the 82nd into a hell hole? No, but those crews will need to handle not hitting each other under stress. Pilot training decisions are, and have always been made by bean counters instead of being driven by MAJCOM requirements. 20 years of low intensity conflict (relatively speaking) allows us to rely on our technological advancements, many MWSs have not had to push the envelop in combat in a while. When that happens, forgoing training will come home to roost.