DirkDiggler

MC-130H

No idea honestly. I'll probably have better insight once I get the download from my friend but that won't be for another couple weeks. It seems unfortunate; as an outsider looking in I thought this was a good concept and had potential to be productive.

He's in a bit of a weird spot; he's a LtCol (so older) and his previous MWS is retiring in 20 months.

Thread revival (and also maybe termination). A good buddy of mine was in the first 13O training class; he told me this weekend that the AF is terminating the the 13O career field and that he needs a job. Anybody else hear the same?

Had a really good buddy take this route. He punched at 13 years for the airlines. He didn't get hired by the flying unit at his airline domicile (tough unit to get into) and he didn't want to commute to a Guard/Reserve job. He ended up taking a non-flying Exec position at a Guard Mx Group (think it was Guard) at his airline domicile location. He said the job/work is boring but it was his insurance in case the airlines went tits up. Low and behold, COVID happens; he was able to pickup a year of orders while waiting the his airline to sort itself out.

Good article on Putin/Russia's view regarding Russian power, and Ukrainian neutrality. https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2022/01/10/why_neutrality_is_no_answer_for_ukraine_811228.html

I hadn't heard about this at all until today. The AFSOC/CC just put out an official statement on Instagram regarding it. https://www.instagram.com/p/CYaE5UflyRo/

This info is 14 years old so take it with a grain of salt. I went to SOS with a Viper driver (previous B-1 WSO, not sure which he was when he was matched) who had been a bone marrow donor. He didn't make any specific comments regarding the AF medical process (at least he didn't say he had any issues with it) itself but he did reinforce that the recovery was pretty rough (they're driving large bore needles into your pelvis/legs I believe). He said he was on crutches for a week and it was a pretty painful recovery. That said, he was pretty happy he was able to help (rightfully so) and said he was back flying not too long after the procedure. I'd tell you to reach out to your local Flight Doc but given my recent experiences there's a good chance they may not know what bone marrow is. Best of luck!

Thanks for that, I actually lol'd. Back on my first deployment as a young 1Lt, I had a Nav who, while a good dude, was super loud/brash and would forget his head if it wasn't attached to his body. He kept leaving his shit all over ops and the plane, so by month two of the deployment pretty everything he owned had hogs drawn all over it. He finally loses his shit one day on the all of us in ops, yelling, unspecified threats towards the next mofo that draws a dick on his stuff, pretty epic rant honestly. After a couple minutes of this he storms out the door in a very angry fashion. Unfortunately for him he forgets his snack banana, left it lying on the table. No one says a word. I picked the banana up and drew a big veiny triumphant bastard on said banana. 5 minutes later he comes back in to get his snack, picks it up and sees this giant cock drawn on the side of it with the whole crew sitting there silently staring at him. Hangs his head in defeat, unpeels it (looking disturbing like very loose foreskin at this point), and walks out the door.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2022/01/06/putins_calculation_for_war_is_sincere_810817.html Very good article on Putin's Ukraine calculus.

Mosul on Netflix is worth watching if you have some spare time and are looking for a war movie. Pretty good depiction of brutal urban combat against ISIS. Plot was a little thin but was still overall a well done movie.

Not directly related to the current Russia-Ukrainian tensions, but it will be interesting to see if the situation in Kazakhstan effects or influences Russian (really Putin's) decision making with regards to Ukraine. Russia loathes instability on it's borders, Nazarbayev was solidly in Putin's orbit (one of the last "old school" USSR types besides Lushenko in Belarus), and by all accounts the current instability has caught the Russians off-guard. If the CTSO "peacekeeping force" employs the standard heavy handed repression the Russians are known for things could get messy there. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/kazakhstan-government-resigns-after-violent-protests-over-fuel-price-2022-01-05/

Don't mean to derail this thread but this topic is something that interests and affects me. While I haven't seen a decrease in the quality of the UPT product, our community has gotten much, much younger in all positions, to include IPs (instructors in all crew positions really). In some ways this is a positive, since previously the time to upgrade to IP in AFSOC was sometimes excessive/out of whack with other communities. And honestly there's some high speed dudes that have both benefited from it and had good return on investment to the guys on the line. In other ways I think it's been a negative. In the last 3 years I've heard more incorrect/poorly considered techniques and sometimes downright wrong concepts/tactics than in my previous 15 years. I also think that the ops tempo, as you discussed, has led to a serious reduction in the amount of time IPs have to spend with new copilots. Finally, I think the airline hiring spree is about to crush the MC community. The AF got a reprieve for 18 months in the form of COVID, but now I'm seeing a large chunk of the O-4 IP/EP 2-3,000 hour guys either punching or on the verge of doing so. I've read/been presented the Shaw Class A. It was a tough read, especially as a senior IP. I wholeheartedly agree with your point about FTU instruction versus line instruction; the two just aren't the same. It's not cosmic, but how a line IP approaches student training versus an FTU IP is just a different mentality (and sometime skill set) that I didn't fully appreciate until I was an FTU IP. I'm absolutely not against improving/modernizing our UPT syllabus, but I'm of the personal opinion that actual hours in the airplane CANNOT be replicated, regardless of the level of technology present in whatever training device is being used. Back on topic, think the AF will bump the bonus back up to $35K this year?

What are the big changes in the new syllabus (especially for the T-1 MAF/AFSOC tracked guys)? In the 2.5 years I've been back flying from staff, my community has seemed to win the co-pilot lottery (most of the new guys have been average to above average). We've also gotten more than the average amount of T-38 guys than I've usually seen. A couple folks I know on the AETC side of the house have been foretelling this coming wave of drastically less capable pilots coming out of the pipeline but I haven't personally seen it yet.

Thankfully I bought right before things went really crazy in the market where I’m at. Assuming no issues with the inspection/appraisal I’m about to make a stupid amount of money on a house I’ve only owned for 2.5 years.

My current location went up almost $500….two months before I PCS

Fucking awesome pic. If a military member was interested in this as a career post military retirement, how early would you recommend starting the app and networking process?

That was a really good read for an abstract, thanks for posting. One of the best guest speakers I've ever listened to was a Ph.D advisor to NDU, she was a specialist on international energy security/politics; she came and spoke to us while I was at JPMEII. Energy security is a huge part of and a major consideration in most countries' foreign policy; until the EU is able to secure additional energy sources outside of Russian gas Putin will hold some sway over the continent.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/12/08/putin_can_take_eastern_ukraine_but_he_wont_like_what_he_gets_806873.html Good article about some of the challenges Putin would face in a Ukrainian invasion.

https://breakingdefense.com/2021/12/what-would-it-take-to-defend-ukraine-potentially-billions-of-dollars/ Basic article about some COAs concerning a US/NATO military presence and what it would cost

https://apple.news/AuHOBXX0PTayOagAYVqaS8w Interesting article on interpreting Putin’s view on Ukrainian sovereignty

Would you be willing to spend a significant chunk of the 50K servicemembers lives that you propose to send to Ukraine? Including mine? Honestly asking. What's your threshold in lives spent/material used to stop Russian aggression? If it helps, I'm honestly leaning towards us taking a stand on this. A phenomenal Estonian officer friend of mine is right on the frontlines of this nonsense. The last time I wished him a happy birthday, he said it would be much more cheerful if more Americans were there (he actually gets American sarcasm), and said he had a great birthday mining bridges and stockpiling weapons in the woods in case Mr. Putin came calling (cause that's actually what he's been doing lately). I'd go stand next to him in a heartbeat. I seriously would, despite the horrid consequences of a full on clash with Russia. If it we reduce to emotional tribalism and the US says the Ukrainians are part of my tribe, I'm all for standing up to and if necessary stomping the the Russians the fuck out.

3 pages back you you said you'd be a contentious objector after almost 20 years of service if your religious exemption got denied. So after almost 20 years of service, are you a contentious objector or aren't you? Or more direct question, if you're active duty; did your commander give you a direct order to take the Pfizer shot? And if so, did you refuse the direct order? How deep does your dedication to your beliefs on the Constitution (and what your view as an illegal order) go? More importantly, after 49 pages of thrash over the COVID shot, how many active duty members on this forum have actually chosen to separate over the military COVID vaccine mandate? Not asking Reserve or Guard, not asking waiting on a valid religious or medical exemption. I get that BaseOps is place that some come to bitch about military matters in general; if people stop bitching, there's probably something wrong. But I have yet to encounter an actual mass resistance on active duty to the mandate. I literally know of one person out of probably 500+ that has actually chosen to separate over the vaccine mandate. That person will be civilian in a couple weeks. I wish him the best of luck. I don't give a baker's fuck about the civilian side of this argument; I'm not a civilian and won't be for a couple years at least. FWIW, I don't think on the civilian side that the government should be able to go door-to-door sticking a needle in anyone's arms. That's not my farm and not my monkey's. This isn't even close to the dumbest vaccine the military has made me get (JEV and Anthrax would take that trophy). Seriously, how many on active duty on this forum have actually directly refused the order to get vaccine? And how many people, besides Negatory (noted exception, good for you), have actually changed their beliefs based on the dialogue on this thread?

You're immediately gonna know whether you guessed well once the gumjob starts, blindfold or not......but since that's a pretty tough qual to get probably still worth it!!

That’s enough Internet for today.