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Bus - I would like to agree but history has repeatedly proven otherwise. In short, China is likely to have a LOT of young disgruntled men who cant find jobs or women. Everytime that has happened in past history leaders have used war to focus the anger elsewhere and cull the herd. I hope I am wrong.

It does no good for conservatives to delegitemize the Supreme Court. You think ACB is rooting for the Democrats? The Supreme Court is how conservatives are going to fix many of the problems we have. Throwing a tantrum when they force you to find a better strategy that aligns with the constitution is a short sighted and stupid plan. I hope Abbott doesn't dick this one up.

From what I'm seeing in that recent update, it looks like they are aiming to post to regular myFSS on the 31st and Secure by the 29th. I think the 7 day advanced notification isn't happening this year due to the delays in staffing the PSDM placing them behind schedule on getting the results out. I imagine there is 2nd and 3rd order effects from this such as MFS appointments not able to be met by those that received CRS not having the 30 days to submit their records and just the human factor of people having life events that might take priority over the short notice appointments. With all that being said, I am hoping and being overly optimistic that results come out this week and they were being "safe" with their projection of next week. Especially since it is already in the PSDM staffing phase.

Just looked at mine. In 8+ years of flying C-17s, the most I was gone was 220 (deployment with COVID quarantine on the front). One year was 188 (non-flying deployment). Two years around 150 (120 day deployment). One year at 110 (90 day deployment). The other three years were <90. Not an Airdropper, SOLL II, or PNAF and my friends that were flew less. The only guy I knew who had more than 280 took a CAOC tour then a EAS deployment to chase his short tour credit (his choice). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm not israeli either for the record, while we're on this virtue signaling tour.

You are the king of posting small Twitter clips and adding your own click bait title to it to try and steer your own narrative. Maybe I missed the woman getting beaten in the first video? I mean yeah I see a man, silencing her since he knows they’re being recorded, and that’s definitely not good, but welcome to mass patriarchy of Islamic society. However she didn’t get beaten like you so emphatically claimed. Where’s your source that those Orthodox men were protesting the war? There’s zero evidence in the clip either way of what’s going on in that video. Not endorsing the police officer body slamming that man in the street, but you have absolutely no way to prove what’s happening there. I tried to find an article referencing that incident and the only one I found was Al Jazeera. And we know what straight shooters they are. Now I’m not debating the wrongness of those videos, and perhaps more will come out and back up what’s happening there. But what really gets obnoxious is over and over on this website you post links to short video clips on Twitter with some sensationalist title or post about them, and most of them are easily proven to be false or carefully cut and crafted to take a small snippet out of context. Be careful how much 10 second Twitter clips you’re consuming as your “news”. I realize I’m probably wasting key strokes here, but shit like a this just proves how fucked we are as a society. It’s mind blowing how many people, both left and right, will get sucked into a 10 second video clip with a short title that has no basis in facts, and take it as gospel, so long as it aligns with their own personal views. I haven’t been on this site as long as some, but I’ve been around long enough to remember there was generally a lot more critical thought that used to go into discussions here. It was a real gem of the internet, now it’s just mostly shitpost central like everywhere else. It’s no wonder some long time posters have left this site. Whatever, long and probably useless rant over.

Gents, Time to figure out my next assignment, seeking insights. First tour was as slick nav, 2nd has been in flight test. Will be moving right at my 10 year mark, 9 months or so after Major's board. Mobility mission I knew is pretty much gone. Could go to Pensacola, AFSOC, or ACC to keep flying, but I know staff is coming sooner or later. Considering option of instructing at ROTC. I think it'd be rewarding (in a different way), fun, stable, and conducive to family time & hobbies. Anyone know what happens to aviators after a tour instructing? If it means never returning to cockpit, that might be a deal breaker.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens if a DEI hire in the future plows a fully loaded aircraft into the ground; reference the Atlas Air crash. That whole story should be a big red flag to the industry. Honestly kudos to Mesa, often known as a bottom feeder regional, for refusing to upgrade that clown. It’s not hard to imagine why Atlas was maybe afraid to fire him. All this to say, it doesn’t matter what skin color you are, gender you are, etc… to be able to competently fly an aircraft. But if you use purely immutable characteristics as your guide to hiring, you will eventually get a poorly qualified candidate at the controls. If you want diversity in aviation you have to start at the ground floor. You need to get kids involved who are from communities that have little or no aviation ties. One of the coolest things I’ve done is be involved with Young Eagles and CAP in the SoCal area. We got lots of kids up in the air and around airplanes who otherwise would never even gotten near that opportunity. Hopefully a few of them stick with it. The problem is, those long term changes take 20 years to show up in statistics, and no CEO is going to let his or her follow ons take credit for something they could fix in a few short years with just biased hiring practices.

But you don’t ever pay for it, because the nature of AF moves means no one will ever be held accountable for decisions that provide a short-term benefit with worse long-term outcomes. Big decisions on acquisitions and personnel don’t come home to roost until the people who devised and approved them are several assignments in the future. There’s no personal or institutional financial penalty because the budget always goes up and the bad decision makers always get a defense gig afterwards.

I seem to recall a guy from a few years back who was offered an interview by SW who cut his King Air ISR gig short to be back for the interview when they called to say the offer was in error. About an hour outside of Dallas. 🤦‍♂️

Hi all, Longtime lurker, first time poster; just want to take a minute to thank everyone for their contributions over the years as it has been incredibly helpful throughout this process. After extensive searching between these forums, the USAF Medical Standards Directory, and the Air Force Waiver Guide I still have a question regarding visual acuity. On airforce.com/careers under the Pilot FAQ’s in response to “What are the general qualifications to fly, including height?” the answer includes: “Have normal color vision with near visual acuity of 20/30 without correction and distance visual acuity of no worse than 20/70 in each eye, correctable to 20/20.” Under the question “What are the vision requirements if I hope to be an Air Force Pilot?” the answer includes: “Pilots must have normal color vision, near visual acuity of 20/30 without correction, distance visual acuity of no wore than 20/70 in each eye correctable to 20/20 and meet other refraction…etc, etc.” My confusion here lies with the comma. The response to the second question makes me think one can have 20/30 near visual acuity, so long as distance visual acuity is 20/70 or better and can be corrected to 20/20. However, the answer to the first question makes me think that both near visual acuity and distance acuity need to be corrected to 20/20. I also found on page 14 (table 1) of the USAF MSD, approved on 13 May 2020, that distant and near vision in each eye corrected under the first column “FC I” are both listed as 20/20. Can anyone confirm that this is this still the most current USAF MSD, or is there a newer one that allows 20/30 uncorrected near acuity? In short, due to a work accident that left me with a minor corneal scarring (will this need a waiver under unusual corneal topography?), my right eye has near visual acuity of 20/30 (distance unaffected and remains at 20/20), and I’m hoping that will satisfy the flight doc, but it seems like I might need to get a contact for my right eye to get it 20/20. Any insights? Thank you.

He was on centerline. Just a little short.

3 Viper tours, a ROK visit, and throw in a sweet gig flying the hornet with some Northern friends takes me just over 20. I picked up an ATP before the big change over during a white jet tour. Turns out I may have wasted my money. I did like flying the Barron around though. i thought about doing the Guard job/ transition a while back, but the AF kept pulling be back with some sweet assignments. I have no regrets. I am looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel, but im sure im gonna miss the Viper.

Just throwing my two cents, don’t crucify me. If you’ve already made it to commissioning then you should know you won’t get far in life without pushing boundaries. My biggest successes in my short time in were all due to me just walking up to people I didn’t know and into places I wasn’t known. Thinking “I don’t want to try this thing because I’ll be the only *insert characteristic* person…” is a pretty good reason itself that they shouldn’t do that thing. If they’re an amazing candidate but have the mindset that their skin color or whatever else might make it harder and therefor they won’t do it, I don’t think they’re an amazing candidate. I would rather have a system that might make some people feel that way than a system that instills doubt in everybody because you never know if you’ll get the spot or not due to things you can’t control like you race or gender.

I can’t be the only one, so cranimum’s up everyone… Did ACSC while on full time orders several years ago. Just realized my PCARS only granted PME points during that timeframe instead of giving me the active days points. So until fixed, I am about 6 months short of owed active days towards an AGR retirement. Check your shit guys, I’m an idiot for taking this many years to figure it out.

A tour of the old neighborhoods and clearly a message.

Just looking for some advice here. Short background: did some time as a nav before reclassing to pilot in a different MWS, eventually non-vol'd to a non-fly deployment in my first post-UPT ops tour. This added about a year to my upgrade timeline. While deployed, managed to earn a top 3 AEG O-4 strat on an LOE. Returned to home station and was strat'd bottom 50% in the next OPB. Subjectively, I don't think I'm a POS. In garrison I bust my ass off. I am complete with ACSC and Masters will be done next spring. Weak points are zero awards and, due to becoming a pilot, being roughly 7 years behind my peer group in terms of my current MWS experience/crew position upgrades. I have one OPB left before my O-5 board, with an ADSC several years beyond that. Do I have any end game orthogonal pulls left to turn this thing around or do I embrace my lot in life and focus on being a solid pilot and a bro for whatever time I have left?

Happily let folks drop their dog's poop bag in my trash bin; grateful that they're at least picking it up. 👏 But then again, I don't wash and wax my trash bin so...🤷‍♂️ As a technique, I take my dog on a "short loop" prior to the full walk, so I can leave his leavings at home before we go.

Maybe his exploits volunteered him for a FAIP tour instead of what he dropped. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They are suing to avoid the $130M exit fee. Very short-sighted in my opinion, will damage their basketball team and other sports.

Probably the only real impact we could make is set up shop along the border, tell Mexico we’ll be operating up to 20 nm into their airspace (and we DGAF what they think about it), and we start killing a lot of bad guys. unfortunately if you’re a “truly innocent” person who is attached to a coyote/foreign actor/terrorist, you may get caught up in it. That sucks, but the truly innocent will learn real quick to not do that (short of kidnapped). Full militarization of the border is the only option we have left that might have some real impact.

Having recently been down to the border in an official capacity, I can attest it is a dumpster fire of near biblical proportions! Honestly, despite the large amount of effort and money Texas ($4.5B spent since 2021, and looking to fund an additional $4.6B over the next two years) and the Fed ($19.9B for 2024) is pouring into the situation, I don't believe it is fixable. The border between Texas and Mexico has historically been porous, almost irrelevant in many places. 188 years ago, it didn't event exist; and to many today, it still doesn't. Does the US have a right to protect its sovereignty? Absolutely! Can we effectively do so along the 1,254 miles from the Gulf of México to El Paso in Texas alone? Doubtful. Should we try? Most definitely. But having been "boots on the ground," and visiting numerous locations where I could have easily walked across the Rio Grande into Mexico and barely getting my feet wet int he process (I didn't, being armed it wouldn't have been the best idea!); the reality is until something drastic changes in Mexico, it is a winless battle. However, on a whim I did re-enact a famous move by Patton at Oppenheim, south of Frankfurt in 1945 when I realized I am the same age he was when he took a “time out for a short halt to take a piss in the Rhine.” 🫡🫡🫡

Saw a trailer for this movie this morning. It's apparently getting people pretty riled up. We had just watched "Leave the World Behind" a couple nights ago. There were some thought-provoking concepts, but the movie sucked ass. Dystopian and disaster flicks are nothing new, but it's unsettling to see these plots and storylines using current events, then pulling on what seems to be a short thread. The movie plans to fill people's heads with this stuff next Spring as the election heats up. Just curious as to others thoughts. Think it'll be good?

WTF. Some days I think nothing shocks me anymore. Wrong. I got a few minutes. Morning coffee rant incoming: Does anyone really think the environment that allows this to occur is fixable? We are a good nation led by degenerates. I'm not talking about gays. We've put the some of the worst kinds of people in power and let them do whatever they want. Why would Cardin choose this guy as a staffer? What kind of culture in DC would the staffer think this would be a good idea? The entire culture/environment there now exists in an entirely different reality than you and I experience. No real consequences for depravity, instead, tolerance and even excuses for it. Maybe..Maybe.. it's quietly celebrated there. I had a nearly immaculate military career. When I joined ROTC, there was some sort of motto that went "Integrity, Service before Self, and Excellence in All We Do." I took that shit to heart. Perhaps my biggest and most regrettable failure was not securing the Tweet control lock on my mid-phase checkride. 2 downgrade U. After that, I never failed to meet any objective AF standard. Maybe the bar was low, and maybe I could have exceeded the standards even moreso, but it was amazing to watch capable peers self-eliminate over dumb shit while I worked hard and tried to improve everything I touched. And I think I did all right. What for? Sure, I did my part to save the country from goat-fuckers, but I gave the country to... To cut this short, every time I see stories like this lately, I feel regret. Not regret for setting high standards for myself, because it made me a better person, but for being duped into thinking there were people smarter than me setting standards for my service that would result in a better nation. That if I continuously did good things during my career, America would inevitably become an even better place. Instead, I wake up and see some dude getting corn-holed in what should be the most sacred places in the nation, being broadcast to the world. If Lauren Boebert was jerking some dude off in the same room, I'd have also spoken up. But nothing is going to happen. Again, not just this story, it's all of them lately. A seemingly unending clown parade from our nation's leadership. It's an undeniable trend in the wrong direction. Instead of trying to exceed personal and professional standards set for me, I should have been demanding higher standards of my government the whole time. Sort of an inverse take on JFK's famous line. But that ship has sailed. Too late. Just write it off as a bad investment, I guess.

Exact timing? Dunno. We are at a fork in the road between an asset-value-crash and reigniting inflation. I have no clue what the Fed picks, but I don't expect them to let the government go insolvent until they have no choice. That means a new tea-party wave of politicians replacing the entrenched incumbents and forcing the Fed to fix their mess. That too will take time. In the short term, they can't stop inflation and protect the government/stock market/investor class. These are now mutually exclusive interests. So if you want to invest in something, keep an eye on commodities. The government can't control the price of oil, copper, etc. But the safe answer right now is to shovel your money into short-term treasuries. No risk from rate-changes and a pretty good yield right now. Whatever you do, don't sit on cash right now. When the Fed starts cutting rates, move your money into something that will benefit from inflation. Fun Fact: Because the Fed has increased their balance sheet so spectacularly, the only way they are able to keep rates above ~0% is by directly paying the banks and money-market funds to not put their money into treasuries (which would push up the prices and lower the yields/rates). So as we speak, the Fed is paying the banks billions to sit on the reserves that the Fed forced them to take in the first place. If you don't think the system is rigged, your aren't paying attention. But I don't think this madness can go on for too long.