Everything posted by DirkDiggler
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Promotion and PRF Information
Champ, I understand where you're coming from but I have to give credit to Liquid where its due. I haven't agreed with everything he's posted in the forums but in this case he's bucking the trend of his peers. The guy is saying and practicing exactly what a lot of guys on this forum are looking for. He's strating his people based on job performance as the #1 and living the "not practicing bleeding" policy in his career. I understand the overall frustration for a lot of people when it comes to how OG & WG/CCs strat there people and the relative inconsistency between leaders, bases, and units. I really think it comes down to an issue of real leadership. FWIW, I'm one of those guys in minority you reference above. Didn't do SOS in correspondence, still went in residence. Was an IDE select off the Major's board with only a BAC+. Some guys in leadership really pushed me to get the masters done before the board; I told them I wasn't gonna do that to my family, that I viewed being good the airplane more important than my bullshit AMU degree, I was willing let the chips fall where they may and it worked out. Some guys in leadership also pushed getting ACSC done in-correspondence in the first year as a huge make or break deal. I just started it in my second year and still got the IDE vector I wanted from my senior rater on my 3849. I'm not typing this to blow my own horn but to show that if you have a senior rater who really believes that job performance is #1 things can change. It may be different at my next base (TDY enroute right now) and I'll look like a shitbag for not getting my in-correspondence done early; so be it, its a decision I'm comfortable with. Thus far in my career I've had leadership that flat out stated that your ability to hack the mission is number one, if you weren't good at that they had nothing for you no matter how many boxes you checked. I'm really hoping Gen. Welsh gives his much anticipated vector soon and puts out some overall guidance to senior raters that solidifies what's really important. I really hope this because while I think that the morale in my community is still pretty good, its really bad for a lot of my friends in different parts of the AF, partly due to the factors you and others have mentioned in this thread.
- Asiana 777 Crash at SFO
- Asiana 777 Crash at SFO
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German Chicks in Dirndls and Beer (NSFW)
Epic!!
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Promotion and PRF Information
My former Gp had an approved acronyms guide we had to use when writing OPR/EPRs. You could only use a maximum of 5 that weren't on the approved guide. It made writing OPR/EPRs even more of a pain in the ass then usual but I could understand the logic. A lot of the things we do in AFSOC are pretty specific to the community; even other flying communities don't really know a lot of what we do. The idea was to make the OPR/EPR understandable by anyone sitting on a promotion board, regardless of background.
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AC's to Mildenhall?
Supposedly this will happen when the overseas groups start to gain additional assets. That being said, I'm not holding my breath. What NSplayer mentioned above was correct as of 1-2 months ago. With the possibility of the sequester continuing for the foreseeable future, AFSOC is not going to continue to be exempt from cuts. There's a lot of COAs flying around command right now as to what's going to happen IRT platforms and locations, nothing is set in stone at the moment.
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A Toast in Remembrance of the Fallen...
No doubt, really a unique experience. Two of the sim instructors for my MWS were aircrew on Operation Eagle Claw. Every time those guys would talk about that mission and the things they did I always thought it was really awesome and humbling to have been trained by and talked with some true AF legends.
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North Korea at it again
https://us.cnn.com/2013/04/08/world/asia/koreas-tensions/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 And so it continues. I do find it amusing that the media continues to enjoy this constant "breaking news" saga.
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Promotion and PRF Information
Unfortunately this may answer the question but not solve the problem. Everyone in my chain of command has inferred/flat out said that even if Welsh masks the AAD for O-4 we should still get a masters. Its stupid but I understand where they're coming from; they think the next guy after Welsh will reinstate maters/O-4 and then a bunch of year groups will get burned. I just see it as evidence of how difficult it is to get an entrenched bureaucracy to change its course/midnset.
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Aircraft Nose Art
The Iron Maiden actually went away before that; a female airman at the 100th ARW got "offended" and complained. The rest hung around until like you said they all rotated back to the states.
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C-130H Total Force Integration
We'll be lucky if the plane(s) is just dented. I've seen firsthand the results of guys trying to tactically employ the aircraft with absolutely no proficiency or experience. It ends with crashed aircraft and dead friends. Hopefully Congress unf*cks this before things get to that point.
- Info on BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing)
- Info on BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing)
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Info on BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing)
Thread revival. I'm getting ready to attend a 2-3 month training school TDY enroute during a PCS from an overseas base. I know my OHA and COLA go away, but I've read that there's a generic BAH rate (BAH RC or non-locality BAH?) that I would get until I show up at my new base. Any true to this, anyone have any experience with this?
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The dry island of Japan
We were briefed yesterday that one more incident will bring GO1, total lockdown where you're only allowed to travel between home and work. One of the other sqs in our group is on this total lockdown now cause they had a curfew violation this weekend. The locals were already fired up about the MV-22s arriving on island, these incidents are just added fuel to the fire.
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A Toast in Remembrance of the Fallen...
https://www.wtvm.com/story/19785743/2012/10/10/retired-csm-basil-plumley-dies-fort-benning-mourns-loss Rest easy brother, 32 years of uniformed service then another 15 working at the Post Hospital, he served our country longer than I've been alive.
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Squadron deactivation/activation
If you're in a deployed location why are they doing a ceremony? The new dude should show up and start working.
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"No Easy Day" - Book revealing details about Bin Laden Raid (Neptune Spear)
Read it today, was a pretty good read. Author seemed pretty humble and there were some pretty funny parts throughout.
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US Aircraft Crashes in Djibouti, Four Fatalities
I know there was an SIB, we got briefed on it at home station.
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C-17 Pilot Charged in Training Jump Death
Butters thanks for the additional info. Hope the pilot gets cleared of this bullshit, seems like this sort of thing is becoming more prevalent across the AF lately.
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C-17 Pilot Charged in Training Jump Death
So one guy was killed on the DZ and another went off DZ? Or was it the same dude? Either way I don't think the DZSO/DZCO has the authority to clear him back in; any sort of off DZ/injury to personnel means the airdrop is done for the day.
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C-17 Pilot Charged in Training Jump Death
The short answer is yes; at a minimum you don't do another airdrop. AFI 13-217 covers AF DZ operations, directly out of the reg: 2.21.1 When an off DZ airdrop has been confirmed or suspected, the aircrew invovled will not attempt another drop for the remainder of the mission. In the case of an off DZ drop involving injury or death to personnel, the mission will be terminated and the aircraft will land as soon as possible. The pilot isn't being blamed/charged for this guy's death. Most DZ surveys include a blurb in the comments section that the user assumes responsibility for damage/injury to equipment and personnel. It seems like he's being charged for his actions/decision making process after the bad drop occured. I would say that this varies greatly by the unit involved. Army/AF units that jump all the time generally are much more realistic about the inherent dangers involved in kicking guys out the back of airplanes and will set realistic no shit limits with regards to the risk they're willing to accept with training drops. Units that jump once a semi to get their jump pay or guys that just don't jump that often, thats a whole different story (the casualty from this was a Guard SF dude, I'd be curious to know if he was an A company guy or a B company guy, either way he probably didn't jump very often). FWIW, I think the pilot is getting a raw deal, I agree with the above post that a Q-3/loss of cert and living with the knowledge would be punishment enough. Bad situation for everybody involved.
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Two Tornados down off Scotland coast
BBC just said the rescue operation has turned into a recovery operation; thoughts with our British brothers on this 4th.
- MAFFS C-130 Crash in South Dakota
- MAFFS C-130 Crash in South Dakota