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Girl in my class FAIP'd to T-1s (her husband was a couple classes ahead of us and FAIP'd T-6s), they were both T-1 students. They both tracked B-1s after their FAIP tour was over. Both made major, she was an IDE in-residence select but decided to separate at the end of her commitment.

Dude, it’s so bad. Areas I used to go for a pleasant run in, on layovers just a few short years ago, have turned into absolute unrecognizable cesspools. It has done wonders for my mile time, however, as I’m running for my fuckin life.

Idk what your current qual is but I had a buddy do a -35 marine exchange following a viper tour and he was given lowest priority on upgrades (like he left as a 2E/section lead whatever). Phenomenal pilot, so not a skill issue. I've seen AF commanders treat guard dudes in TFI spots like this just because they, "didn't want to spend the resources on someone that would only be around for one assignment." I'd consider asking your functional who the last guy was to do an exchange and hit them up on the global. If you don't want to do that you can jump on the CAF Fighter Career Field FB page and ask. I know there's dudes on there that have done what you're looking into.

Funny story time... As I was getting close to retirement I was going through the evaluation process for a couple of claims. Even though I live 25 minutes from a large VA hospital with all kinds of specialists, the VA in their infinite wisdom decided to send me three hours away to Biloxi to a contracted ENT doctor. I was having some serious back issues which required injections under partial sedation and wouldn't you know the C&P exam was scheduled the same day as my back procedure. Knowing you never want to skip a C&P exam I came up with a plan to do both. The day arrived and luckily my back procedure was first thing in the morning...my wife took me to the hospital, they got me all doped up then crammed a few needles and meds into my discs and spine. My wife was flying to DC that afternoon to help her parents and was going to cancel but when my two best friends heard Biloxi and they volunteered to "help" by taking me to the exam...in reality they had a plan to turn it into a gambling trip. One of them has a large SUV so they put a bunch of pillows and blankets in the back, tossed me in and took of for Biloxi. I woke up a few hours later still out of it and asked how much longer.?..they were slow to reply..."we are not sure, we think we have the wrong address!" I slowly sat up expecting to see a medical center and instead I was shocked to see we were driving through an industrial complex. They was a towing company, a welding shop, a junkyard...all metal buildings. We arrive at the address and it was a metal building with a dirt parking lot. The Dr's name was on the door so I went inside and checked in. They took my name and told me to have a seat. I was still VERY groggy and when I looked around the waiting room it didn't make sense...right above me was Tweety Bird and Sylvester!!!! I actually thought I was seeing things from the anesthesia. I pulled out my phone and took the attached pictures to prove I wasn't crazy. The waiting room furniture was best described as medieval with swords everywhere. My buddies were waiting outside in the ruck so I texted them these pictures as proof, half expecting a trap door to open and drop me into a dungeon. Eventually they called my name and I go back to the exam room which was even more weird. The walls were completely covered in movie posters and there was a top shelf with all kinds of collectable toys...see video! A short time later the Dr comes in and starts asking questions. I had already done an audiology exam with a different provider and he was going through the results...finally he asks me "when you shoot your gun are you right or left handed?" I was kind of taken aback so he said "you know, your rifle you carry in the service." I replied - "Dr I am not an infantryman, I am a pilot." He seemed confused then he said...."well what kind of airplane?" I replied "AC-130 Gunships"...he looked at me for a second then he said "well what side of the airplane are the guns on?" I replied the "left"...he looked at the paperwork and said...."well, that makes sense...exam complete." He then spent the next 20 minutes telling me how he used to work in the VA hospital but was fired for speaking up...her game me a rundown of his manifesto, which he later emailed to me and send me on my way with validated hearing loss in my left ear and Tinnitus. My buddies laughed all the way to the casino, then they dumped a bunch of booze on top of my anesthesia and we played craps and blackjack half the night. IMG_6631.MOV

AETC is. In Georgetown north of Austin. 35 students. A SGTO right now. Contract initial pilot training (ipt) then a short T-6 syllabus. That means a super DOSS for ppl, ifr then multi tickets then go to a UPT base after. This isnt a PTN/19 AF thing. It is straight from COMAETC. Although congressional approval would be required to move ton this model and there are a whole lot of risks associated with it.

Short podcast about Batman Begins

No, they haven’t but that doesn’t stop them from trying when the alternative powers are not friendly. I think things would have been much different had the UK and USA had not been on good terms post WWII. During the Civil War, England recognized the Confederacy’s “Belligerent Status,” stopping short of recognizing the sovereignty of the Confederacy. The Confederacy had envoys on British Naval vessels, Ala the Trent Affair. At risk were lucrative trade deals etc, but you could also argue that fomenting conflict between the two sides by respecting a belligerent status and remaining neutral was sacrosanct endorsement that either the South could win or a stalemate could emerge. Otherwise they would have supported the North. Neutrality equates to not caring about a return to the Status Quo - Ante. Applying a realist view to this, smart on the part of England because a divided America would have reduced the overall power balance by shifting it two nations instead of one. Thus increasing or safeguarding its status as the leading world power at the time ala Pax Brittanaca. Also we are not an empire. IMHO. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Okay. Way ahead of you here. Economic: They achieved multiple milestones from the 80s to present day ahead of schedule. They have delivered on promises to virtually eliminate poverty and increase the quality of life of their society. You said that we don't have to do anything to beat China economically except wait. I think a lot of other countries think that about the US. We are not closing our debt gap and we are not becoming more competitive (except in niche areas in tech). Also, our middle class is shrinking while theirs is growing. As one example of international competitiveness, Tesla is getting F'd because they can realistically only compete with the 15 other Chinese EV makers in a tariff environment like the US, where we make it cost 25% more for them to deliver. In Asia, the EU, and everywhere else, American industry is becoming less competitive. As another example, we lost the Chip War for microelectronic chips in the 70s through the 2000s. We literally only have Micron, which produces RAM, because we were not competitive with other countries. Military: They have achieved multiple milestones from the 90s to today. They are set to deliver on future milestones that challenge US dominance. They also don't have to maintain an empire, they get to operate in an A2AD environment or within the bounds of close asia environments to achieve their goals. I'm good not talking about specifics here, but I am sure you'd rather us not go to war in an away game with China and understand how it wouldn't be a good thing for us. Also, good luck closing the Strait of Malacca and just chillin. First, doing that militarily is not trivial especially with anti ship systems the Chinese have. And we live in a glass house too, you know? Don't think our society or economy would like it very much either. Diplomatic: They are actively shifting the tide of public perception in ASEAN, Europe, and Africa. Just this year, perceptions have shifted, unfortunately not in our favor, with, for the first time ever, most ASEAN countries saying that they would choose to align with China over the US if forced to choose. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/03/us-loses-its-spot-to-china-as-southeast-asias-most-favored-ally-survey-finds.html Information: They control the information narrative in China. We control very little here. This is unarguably an advantage for a great power competition. https://freedomhouse.org/report/beijing-global-media-influence/2022/authoritarian-expansion-power-democratic-resilience Pay: https://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/global_labor_rates_china_is_no_longer_a_low_cost_country You'll like that because the title supports your point that China isn't a low cost country. But then the data inside shows that managers in the US are paid 6 times as much as managers in China, and it shows that they do production for $12,000 a year. They say US machine workers will work for $33,000 but give me a fucking break. Not a chance. You know literally no skilled blue collar worker that would accept less than $60k a year. There is no realistic factory lifestyle young people can go do. Here's another one for you to look at, again, biased to the US because it was created by us: https://reshoringinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/GlobalLaborRateComparisons.pdf I'd love to see a non-biased, non US produced (without a political agenda), source that shows that wages are near parity. You aren't gonna be able to find it. I'm not going to argue that there are cheaper places like Mexico we can exploit. Great, let's go do it. But they can do that too (what is stopping China from finding a country like Mexico for these types of tasks?), and their population doesn't need their decadent wages to stay happy. We are still at a wholesale disadvantage. And if you want to talk about military, nationalizing defense companies turns out is getting to be pretty fucking effective. Try to argue with me that Lockheed and Boeing are better than their companies. I will have to disagree from a cost effectiveness perspective and a time perspective. There are many estimates that their $200-300B they spend a year goes significantly farther than the $800B we spend a year. And they have been able to develop truly disruptive capabilities like hypersonic missiles and other assassin's mace weapons because they don't have to get 50 senators to agree to cancel an outdated weapons systems concept like the Carrier. https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/china-isnt-just-spending-more-its-spending-smarter https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/hypersonic-missiles-america-military-behind-936a3128 Remind me what hasn't followed plan again? Demographics: This is our one point of potential advantage. But this isn't going to happen for decades, and if they can keep their population mentally prepared to work by identifying the problem early and banding together (their society is infinitely more collectivist than our individualist society), they actually have a chance to emerge victorious. And for us to maintain our advantage here, we have to accept significant immigration to bolster our deadening birth rates. While Hispanic and minority birth rates and population growth make up a huge portion of our young demographics, we are currently becoming more isolationist and closed-borders. Yeah, and they have an inherent anchoring bias. Ray Dalio paints a picture that the US is on the decline - not that China will long-term supplant the US. He says it's likely that China will supplant us in the short term, but he doesn't really talk about the longevity of their empire other than to promise us that, one day, they too will fail. That is the argument. I am fine with believing that China can only momentarily usurp us, if at all, especially due to demographic issues. But then someone else will take over. It won't be us. Again, I ask, has an empire beat the long term cycle? Why will we be able to sustain power forever?

You're thinking short term. In the long term suppressed interest rates have inflated the assets that are usually financed, such as houses and cars. And now the workers can't afford those things. Inflation affects everyone, but when the wealth y have quadrupled their wealth, even a 50% haircut due to inflation means they're twice as well off. The rest of us however have not experienced a similar increase in wealth, and are there for much more affected by inflation. Fuck with the economy at your (our) peril. Food is not financed, so that's not a factor. And for those who are financing food, they are way past the interest rate mattering. You are delusional if you think property tax primarily affects people who are "entirely way too well off." Honestly it's kind of hard to conceptualize anything after that statement. It indicates that you live in an alternate universe. Also, ethical arguments don't have to take into account second and third order effects? What? So ethics only matter on the date of legislation? Honestly if this is how you think about anything it starts to make a little bit more sense that you support these emotional "fairness" policies. Sure, this is a Biden problem. It was a trump problem. It was also an Obama problem. And it was definitely a bush problem since QE was invented under his watch. But really this was a Nixon, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, and Bush H.W. problem too since we unpegged from gold in 71. Yeah dude, once again, second and third order effects. I care more about my children and grandchildren having a brighter future than I do the continuance of cheap TVs and meme stocks. The sooner we jam a stick in the spokes of modern monetary theory, fiat currency, and Keynesian economics, the better. We are now in a economic cancer situation. Taking the chemo now is going to suck, but it's going to suck a whole lot more if you wait till stage 4. Biden is not tightening. Powell is tightening. To the great consternation of many Democrats. And don't worry, when Trump wins the election it will be the Republicans spending trillions that we don't have. There are no responsible parties anymore. However the real problem is that we aren't actually tightening yet. The drawdown of fed assets has been exceeded by the drawdown in the reverse repo facility, which is why liquidity has increased rather than decreased. Once the RRP runs dry, if, and it's a huge if, the Fed continues to tighten, only then will we see the effects.

Lawman, your problem is you have righteous belief in government institutions who have been PROVEN to lie, deceive, and manipulate. Blind belief. maybe even extremist belief. and the ironic thing is you can't see how blind you are, yet you accuse others of being blind. you have been so perfectly perfected by propaganda you're unable to have original thoughts, ideas, and analysis. in short: you are a useful idiot.

I like a carry gun to be as sleek as possible, minimize the things that can catch on clothing. I don't like single/double actions either. I used to think it was great when I primarily shot a SIG P229, but since moving to striker-fired (always single action) I've been converted. That's something I do like about a 1911, every trigger pull is the same force. External safeties are (in my opinion) for guns I don't want to unload/unchamber between uses. Trap shooting, hunting, etc. For a carry gun it's just something that can be in the wrong position and hinder a stressful and time sensitive use. If the gun is out of the holster that means it's time to shoot. Same theory behind carrying one in the chamber. Of course that means any holster must have complete trigger coverage, but that's pretty normal. Hair trigger: You're right, what I really was meaning to say is that the pull distance is so short. I like there to be some movement in the trigger since with a carry gun there are many scenarios where your finger is on the trigger but not firing. Obviously that's my preference, I don't think it's unsafe for a trained and competent shooter to carry a 1911, I just think most people carry them because they are cool (they are) or it's what they are used to, when there are much better options. Again, 1911 use in Mil/LEO is practically zero for a reason.

Unethical? You bet your ass. Doubly so in the states where your property tax can go up through no action of your own. I believe it is objectively immoral to change what someone owes on something they purchased responsibly and within their budget simply because a bunch of other people around them have different budgets or spend irresponsibly. Of all the plethora of things California gets wrong, prop 13 should be the law of the land. I would address that problem specifically, and make it illegal. However the better answer is to simply stop suppressing interest rates artificially. These billionaires are only to play this stupid game because banks are willing to give out near zero interest loans. No billionaire is going to do that if they have to pay 9% on it. That doesn't make it ethical. And more importantly that doesn't change the fact that the unintended second and third order consequences of this change can be very messy. However, unforeseen second and third order consequences are a Hallmark of almost all Democratic legislation, so par for the course. The problem is that this is the government trying to blame others for what it created. You want to know why the ultra wealthy in this country have reached escape velocity compared to the rest of us? It's because we have a government that believes fiat currency allows them to print as much money as they want for whatever they want. But they are so fantastically unimaginative with this power that they simply feed it directly into the banking system. Gee, small wonder that the biggest beneficiaries of this mechanic have been real estate, equities, and financial assets. Overwhelmingly things that the rich and ultra-rich own disproportionately. So if you want to fix it, let's lock our currency to something that doesn't allow the government to devalue it massively in a manner that flows almost directly to the richest people in the country. Let's stop artificially suppressing interest rates so that the wealthiest in this country can get nearly unlimited free money to spend in whatever way they see fit. Let's stop protecting gigantic corporations and Banks from the financial Doom of their poor decision making every time it comes home to roost. Too big to fail should be considered hate speech. Anything short of that it's just another trick fuck bit of legislation that will end up having second third order effects worse than the problem it was trying to solve, without addressing the root issue.

Good morning. Well, here we are. My apologies, for I'm about to put you in grave danger, but it's a risk I'm willing to take in pursuit of the truth. I have a full cup of Black Rifle Coffee, Spirit of '76 roast. It's very good. The packaging is awesome, even inspiring. Let's kick this pig. The hosts are starting with the front lines. They report that Russia had broken through the Ukrainian front lines in and captured the town of Avdiivka. Did this really happen or is this false information? Fact check: True. The Russians are (were) advancing on a town called Ocheretyne, which is a small town, but lies on a hill and has a railway junction, making it strategically important. One commenter is saying this breakthough puts Russia in a strong position. He quotes a Ukrainian General that the situations at other places on the front lines are terrible. Apparently Russia is planning a large offensive, possibly to capture Kharkiv. One of the Commenters mentioned former British Colonel Hamish De-Bretton Gordon who wrote this article for the Telegraph detailing how dire the situation is. He goes on to say that the media is full of these types of articles. Now they're talking about the $61 Billion in aid. Some of the funds are for the Ukrainian economy itself, not for the war. The bulk of the money is going to the military industrial complex. He is claiming that only a small portion of the funds are going directly to Ukraine in the form of weapons, and the rest is going to defense contractors to replenish our own stockpiles. Now this is where some propaganda might be creeping in. I should check on this. So he actually underestimated the amount that is being given to the U.S. defense industrial base. He is claiming that the amount being given directly to Ukraine will be used up at once, but the time it would take to DIB to complete the manufacturing process would take years. Debatable, but possible. They discuss the gap between the rate of weapons being used and the rate of weapons being replenished while quoting JD Vance "You can't provide more weapons than you have." He quotes CIA director Williams Burns who said if Ukraine isn't given support it will collapse by the end of the year. Checks out. Their contention is that all of this is about preventing a Ukrainian collapse before the election. That's definitely a biased take, but is it possible? They ask why Mike Johnson capitulated. They assert that key Republican committee chairs have been pressuring him on behalf of the military industrial complex and he ultimately conceded to their demands. He knew that same pressure was being exerted on House Republicans who would be forced to side with the Democrats and vote against him, which would likely pressure him to resign, so he acted out of self-preservation. They again say that committee chairs are close to the defense manufacturers and that the want this appropriations bill passed. They also claim that this part of the Republican party and the MIC would rather see Biden than Trump elected. Hmmm. They say the MIC always wins. They say Mike Johnson's political career is toast for passing this bill while completely giving up on the southern border aspect. They go into what actual systems Ukraine will be getting. They were asking for 150-200 patriot systems and are only going to get a fraction. They make a biased assertion that Russia will simply knock them out with hypersonics and they'll be back to square one. The say this aid bill will slow the war down, produce and effect, the effect wears out, and then you need more. They quote President Kennedy about sending aid to Vietnam: "It's like drinking a glass of water. For a short time you fee better, but then you need another." I can't find this quote. Might be BS. They continue to reiterate that a Ukrainian collapse must be avoided by the election. Anything that happens beyond that is not a concern. And that's it. How are feeling, @Lawman? Was it as bad as you thought it was going to be? I think you're going to be fine. It wasn't a great podcast. Nothing earth-shattering. I did learn a couple things about the front lines and got a new perspective on Mike Johnson's capitulation. There was clearly heavy bias throughout the podcast, but nothing that indicates Russian disinformation. It was simply an innocuous discussion. Some of it agreeable, some of it disagreeable. Take some time to process your trauma, and if you want to comment on the specifics here or point out the false information I somehow missed, I'd be more than happy to listen. Have a good day.

This. I paid a ton in taxes this year, so I guess I'm doing my part. LOL Ahh the hypocrisy. Taylor Swift and her private jet. HAD to be there to watch her boyfriend throw his tantrum in person instead of watching it on TV. What would have happened if any of us had done that to our boss? Not to mention all the electricity used for her Era's tour. Generated most if not all by fossil fuels. I wonder how many in the Go Green crowd would give up everything in their life that contains plastic (think cellphone). A big problem as I see it is the lack of true scientific literacy in Congress. Laws of thermodynamics/physics don't care what is written in a law.

It's the Growler. Dudes go to B course with the Navy and learn to fly the EA-18 then report to the 390th Electronic Combat Squadron at Whidbey. You do a tour with them then transition to an AF airframe. From what I've heard it's because we don't have the EF-111 anymore and this is our last dedicated attack/electronic warfare platform and to bring some of the skills to other platforms. You also don't do any carrier stuff. I've heard from some Air Force guys saying it's a good gig and my Navy friends love the Growler.

This is a concept that was recently brought up in court regarding an illegal immigrant having a gun. The judge ruled in his favor. Do the rights protected by the Bill of Rights extend to all people, as they are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" or is the Declaration referring to other rights? Saying that the Amendments don't stand individually poses the same problem as many of the proposed gun laws... where do you draw the line? Who gets to decide how much "responsibility" one must display to be worthy of the Rights? Obviously there is a limit somewhere, as we restrict the ability of felons to vote and own weapons, but even that is a contested idea, one I struggle with. As to the serial numbers, first you have to demonstrate that serial numbers are reducing gun crime. Not just helping track the gun to wherever it came from. Are criminals avoiding serialized guns? Are they getting caught because of the serial number? So many laws are some nerd's idea that might do this or might do that, without any evidence before or after that it actually does anything at all. Yet the law rarely has a sunset clause like the assault weapons ban of 1993 had. Serial numbers do absolutely help the government track guns. That's bad. So the associated good needs to be clear and supported. I don't see evidence of that right now. With "ghost guns" the problem would be if someone starts making a bunch of guns and funneling them to gangs/cartels. Is this already illegal? If so, do we need another law making it illegal? Is this (meaningfully) increasing the number of guns in criminals' hands? I think the argument for banning ghost guns is that the serial number allows the maker to be tracked down easily. Obviously someone making guns for the cartel isn't going to follow that law anyways, so instead this becomes a law that you can use to theoretically "get" the cartel suppliers for making unserialized guns without actually proving they were selling guns to bad guys. Like how Al Capone was nabbed for tax evasion instead of all the actual murdering and booze-running. But that was a bullshit tactic in the first place, not a victory of law-enforcement. Forensics have advanced to the point we don't need to play games like that anymore to catch crooks. But this is also so niche I just don't care much. I would much rather have the NFA restrictions on suppressors and short barrels addressed.

Live updated Frontline Map Institute for the study of war - Great site founded by retired General Jack Keene - They have a VERY good interactive map as well. BBC has a good site as well (they leverage the Institute for War's maps with their own reporting and analysis). A bit gruesome at times but Reddit/combat hosts new videos of the conflict everyday. Three themes emerged in the video: 1. Early on the Javelin stopped the Russians cold, now they don't attempt large maneuver actions unless they absolutely pummel an area pre-strike with artillery. 2. Ukraine has been very effective at combined arms. Even through they don't have Air Superiority, they have used drones to coordinate fires in both TICs and interdiction. 3. Small drones have changed warfare. Hundreds of videos of drones dropping grenades AND being uses in a kamikaze roll to chase down individual soldiers...it is chilling to watch. If someone added AI... They have noted some gains by Russia in recent week which they attribute to the Ukrainians running short of long-range strike weapons and air defense. If the Senate approves the aid package those systems will start to flow on Friday. Also interesting to note the perceptions of those who voted against the aid, they think we are sending Ukraine pallets of cash which in fact $50B will flow into the U.S. Industrial Base creating jobs in 30 states.

During my sentence...I mean tour... As an ALO with an armor battalion, I was having a conversation with one off the air defense guys and he proudly stated that the AD folks could visually ID 67% of all aircraft. I guess the other 33% are screwed.

In short, the Ruskies SUCK at combined arms so they are of course relying on the WWII proven tactic of mass artillery strikes. The Russians want this to be ground and pound with mass artillery strikes before an assault but weapons like Javelin have blunted those efforts. The U.S. is currently producing approximately 28,000 155 mm rounds per month, with a ramp-up plan to produce 70,000-80,000 rounds per month by the end of 2024. Perfect video to demonstrate what I was saying above. Look at the ground, artillery impact craters everywhere yet the Ukrainians using technology and asymmetric tactics are stopping Russian advances and making them pay a horrific toll for simple operations.

The left has more retards. Full stop. However the right has been in the process of catching up probably since around 2008. As best I can tell that is when the corporatist take over of the government was successfully completed. Starting with the tea party and probably peaking with Donald Trump, the populist movement within the conservative right means that the historical metric of success for Republicans, money making, is being replaced. Sure there are retards who succeed in the business world, but by and large you're going to see more intelligent people if you start filtering by income. But now that the Republican party is more interested in bravado than income as a result of the decimation of the middle class, I suspect we will see Republicans reach retard-parity in fairly short order. Once that is complete and there are no longer intelligent mature people to run the government, we should get ourselves into a nasty shooting war in pretty short order. That will once again reinvigorate the American desire for competent leadership, but only after much blood has been shed.

It'll be an interesting and tough call for Israel. Do they gracefully accept the help they received and use the short term international good will to free up a hand to do more damage to Hamas or do they strike back at Iran in a significant and public way to show they won't accept this type of thing? Striking back may be popular and gratifying in Israel but might end up doing more harm than good in the long run. My bet is nothing happens for a while and then some Iranian leader has 'an accident' or one of Iran's centrifuge facilities suffers a mysterious explosion. Something that everyone knows was Israel but no one is really able or willing to prove thus decreasing the chance of escalation while showing that they won't sit by while a country launches a horde at them.

Wait what? We had interest rates lower than they've ever been in history, and the Treasury doubled down on short term instruments. If they had issued Bonds at <2% and Notes at <0.5%, our government debt would be a time bomb with a 20 year fuse instead of a 2 year fuse. How is that "excellent?" She also sat on low interest rates at the Fed, building this mess up when the economy was doing great. And she didn't see inflation till it hit her in the face over and over and over. Exactly what does she have to do in your mind to be less-than-excellent?

My dude, I'm sorry to hear that. Sometimes the AF gets it right; sometimes it gets it wrong. It's that time of year again for good/bad news depending on the dude. I've linked you the big thread with lots of other advice. Long story short, you can potentially write a letter to the board next year, get passed over again, then punch early. If you're looking to go to the airlines, well, keep an eye on the news. I don't think the training and hiring pauses will last too long, but that's anyone's guess. Keep flying, keep logging PIC, if you can get an instructor spot get one. Staying in the cockpit is 1) fun, and 2) will keep your career going, whether that's AF or flying in general. You gotta keep getting hours. Anecdotally, I've seen passed over guys in AD make rank in the ARC. Not sure if that holds for every case, just seen it happen for a few folks.

You're not wrong that many people are struggling, but then again that's always the case. Inflation in particular punishes people who stupidly overspend and richly rewards those who save. Unfortunately too few people take advantage of that. The stupid-cheap money era particularly since 2008 has also melted a lot of brains and folks have failed to learn how to exist in other fiscal environments that are historically very typical. This was true from early 2021 until early 2023, but is no longer true. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/ I'll make a broader counter-argument though, economic sentiments are often about vibes and expectations. Did you know that inflation today is lower than at any point during the Reagan Administration? Morning in America also had higher unemployment than today. The vibes then were great and the admin was beating expectations compared to what folks got used to during the stagflation of the 70s. Today, despite objectively better numbers on inflation and unemployment rate, the vibes are somewhat bad and this economy has underperformed the expectations of many folks for various reasons. 🤷‍♂️ I will die on the hill that the economy now is good and that it's a fantastic time to save, invest, and live your best life. This is especially true for the types of people that populate this board, people who are are largely well-educated, well-compensated, and likely equipped with the ability to conceive of & execute a long-term plan. I for one don't sweat the price of, and I truly have to lol here, jeans & "nice shirts" at the NEX 😂 #DadFashion to the max there @ViperMan. What's the price of braided belts like these days? My investing advice remains the same no matter what short of a zombie apocalypse: spend less time doing complex stuff, worrying, trading, etc. Just invest broadly in the most successful companies in the world's most successful economy and chill.

Lots of interesting Big Safari history out there but one of my favorites is "Poobah's Party" from Gulf War 1. Took a bunch of retired Army short range nuclear cruise missile type done things and modified them to basically be a bunch of MALD. They got the Iraqi IADS (KARI) to illuminate and were subsequently schwacked by the good guy SEAD players. Pretty awesome story.