skibum

Wait...what? Maybe I shouldn't close my last account.

Switch to Liberty Mutual for auto and Nationwide for home. I found it doe snot save to bundle as every ad says. I've been very happy with each. Only minor claims (windshield for auto and hail for home), but both were WAY better than USAA for customer service. I have substantially better coverage at about 40% less overall than USAA. I find it hard to believe USAA is better at rates/coverage than anybody. I did a cost comparison for all major insurance companies and found USAA was by far the highest rate on everything. For finances, I switch all my managed investments to Schwab and Fidelity. I used these to get a one-year comparison. So far I like Schwab best. I have not yet switched my regular accounts out of USAA but likely getting ready to go to Navy Feb after doing my research.

Also not "latest", but I like Red Flag: The Ultimate Game (1981). My dad was was flying F-4s there at the time so maybe I'm biased.

They don't. The clueless become generals. I never had a non-flying job in my career. When selected for O-7 (and got a similar speech), I said I had two requirements to accept; 1) must be a flying gig and 2) of course it can't be in D.C. (duh). Hence I'm not a general.

Wait -- what? Are the hookers and blow not legit either? This is ridiculous! Why even have a clearance?

Broadway Bro Down!

My bad! Left the switch in "chem" again.

You gotta ask yourself what you REALLY want. You need to be completely honest. With an M7 & a mil background there are plenty of high career trajectories. It won't be the same as if you were 20 something, but it will still get you the high dollar, high paced career. On the other hand, you can make a little less in the airlines, doing meaningless work but get half your life back. Again, be honest with yourself. What you you want?

When did we move past the binary system? Let's not get complicated - she's a 1.

AFSOC's been f'd for a lot longer than that. I think we have short memories...

Speaking from experience (I've actually shot somebody), I do not think I would have shot the kid but it's quite possible I'd have shot the skateboard dude and almost certain I would have shot the dude pointing the pistol at the kid. The image that always comes to my mind is Reginald Denny.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, 2012 Written pre-COVID and even more interesting post COVID. The story is post-apocalyptic with a main character who lives at a small airport and flies a private aircraft around. This is not one of the many self-published and poorly edited post-apocalyptic books. Nearly everyone who has read it with my recommendation says it's one of the best books they've ever read.

It's not about how much you make -- it's about how much you spend. My best friend was one of the top five earners at SWA for three years in a row, never divorced, and is in debt up to his neck. He says he'll never take the shot, but I got money on the table that says he will.

My point is that I believe the U-2 is active component only. Palace Chase = guard or reserve. Perhaps it happens, but I'm not familiar with people jumping back on AD to fly the U-2 after leaving AD. Anyone else care to chime in?

I'm assuming you owe time or you wouldn't be asking. Have you thought of Palace Chase? I used the competing FAM notices in my favor in the past. I had one email saying we were overmanned, so I didn't qualify for the bonus (wouldn't have taken it anyway). I had another one (literally from the same O-6 at HQ) about four weeks later saying they denied my Palace Chase because they were critically manned. I scooped up both, forwarded them to the IG and magically had my Palace Chase approved three weeks later. I doubt that will get you to the U-2, but it could get you your desired location for family reasons. It also opens up the wide-wide world of many other options.

I know several guys/girls who did this with success. Your plan is definitely reasonable. Even if you pay 100% out of pocket you will make it up and a lot more in the future. You might also consider a sim instructor job for the majors. I know a pile of current/former reserve/guard FEs doing that route. United has a bunch, and Southwest is desperate for sim instructors right now depending on your timeline.

Looks like someone's late night wet dream from a parallel universe. If only...

Actually firing the Sq/CC seems even more over the top. It's not that unusual for a next level CC to disagree or even step in. Firing a CC because of it is pretty questionable. I can attest that as a Sq/CC I was a little close the bros and may not have always had the full objectivity. My OG never stepped in, but then I probably never had that crisis moment where one of my buds stepped in a really, really big pile. As an OG I did have to step in and direct a court martial when the Sq/CC had trouble pulling the trigger. I treated it more as a mentoring moment than a firing offense. After it was all over the Sq/CC admitted the charge was clearly warranted (absolute felony), but he just had a hard time because it was one of his own. I sat him down with a scotch and cigar and lamented that this was the hard part about command, and eventually he'd grow into his big boy pants. That said, I usually just stayed out of Sq business -- their time to lead.

I'm guessing there's more to the story...

That's pretty astute! I did an online draft change to my USAA policy to make it $300K/$500K (all the online quotes had this option) to see what the USAA rate was and then compared that estimated rate in the online systems. I then called the companies and asked how much more it would be for the $1M. In the end, the cost was insignificant for all companies but is included in my percentage figures. Because my assets still exceed coverage I carry an additional umbrella policy but that is separate.

Great point, and I feel pretty stupid for just assuming I was getting a deal. I'll not make that mistake again. These are just businesses making money, and the capitalist world turns on competition. I shouldn't act like a socialist consumer. I dumped the BX and commissary decade ago, and here I am hanging out in front of USAA for nostalgia sake.

So I just switched. Still have USAA for banking but not for insurance. I took the emotion out of it and assumed all insurance companies can have customer service issues from time to time. I just compared rates. For both home & auto I used my existing USAA coverages and got estimates that matched (apples to apples). I got quotes from Progressive, Geico, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual, All State, Farmers and State Farm. All had easy, online systems for adjusting coverage to match my USAA policies. I examined costs for auto/home bundles and separate policies. I also looked at each company's app just to make sure it didn't suck. I ended up choosing Liberty Mutual (31% less than USAA) for auto and Nationwide (35% less than USAA) for home. Bundling with one company did not save money overall. Surprisingly, in the comparison USAA had the highest rates by far for both -- and it was even close. They were 24% above the average of all the auto quotes and 17% higher than the next closest competitor. For home they were 22% higher than the average and 16% higher than the closest competitor. For bundling they were better as it seems each company tends to have better rates for one or the other. For bundling they were only 9% above average and within 7% of the next closest competitor. However, the bundling appears to be a red herring as none of the companies had a deal anywhere close to the combined rates when using two separate companies. With my switch I'm saving so much that I decided to increase my coverage. For example, I was able to reduce my auto deductible to just $250 for each vehicle for both comprehensive and collision, zero deductible for glass, twice the liability, add uninsured motorist, add rental car reimbursement, upgraded towing (100 miles free), and "better car replacement" (next year model newer and 15,000 less miles if car is totaled) and still save 26% over my crappy USAA coverage. For home I increased my overall coverage by $265K, reduced my wind/hail deductible to $1500 (USAA was at $12,500), add increased coverage for guns, tools and jewelry (and a bunch of other extras) plus guarantee rebuilding regardless of building cost. That Cadillac coverage still saved me 26% over USAA's crappy coverage. What I learned is that I've been wasting a lot of money with my loyalty to USAA and false assumptions about their competitiveness. I recall looking into this 15 years ago and found nobody could come close to their rates. Now they are not competitive. The were significantly higher than every other company. It's also not small change. As a bonus, my USAA Subscriber Savings Account (some profit sharing thing) pays out in full with give me over $10K cash. That's actually a nice incentive to switch.

Yeah - airline stuff is hard. (gotta get in on page 69)