Predator Follow-on

[SPiF]

Perhaps you need to upgrade your room--I'm pretty sure SERE is an aircrew requirement due to the risk of crash/forced landing/shot down/ejection in unfriendly territory, and NOT something that every deployer does. Ask the next shoeclerk who corrects your wear of the reflective belt if they can spell "SERE"....

Nope, everyone else has the "SERE 100" CBT. I guess in case your computer crashes and you have to go to another building to get it fixed?

[amishflyer01d]

Yep, kinda standard replies to the news, I don't expect people to get it, and I don't really care, we will be doing some interesting things here soon where SERE (well, not so much the "Survival and evasion" part, but the beatings parts etc...are very appropriate.

Glad to see some things never change on here. Crusty old dudes thinking they know their shit...about everything...and they do, sometimes, but sometimes, well, sometimes they are just crusty old dudes.

Clovis must be rough if they need SERE. I am sure the daily drive to your GCS is met with much resistance, IED's, and the like. I guess sifting through all those menu's is like taking a beating.

[SurelySerious]

Yep, kinda standard replies to the news, I don't expect people to get it, and I don't really care, we will be doing some interesting things here soon where SERE (well, not so much the "Survival and evasion" part, but the beatings parts etc...are very appropriate.

Glad to see some things never change on here. Crusty old dudes thinking they know their shit...about everything...and they do, sometimes, but sometimes, well, sometimes they are just crusty old dudes.

Well dude, I'm not old and crusty, and I don't get it. If the terrorists are overrunning Clovis, there are bigger issues. These guys are either at home (where there shouldn't be a problem), or deployed to a base in the AOR where they are inside the wire like 69 other career fields. Are we sending every person who will be tasked to run a convoy through this training? Seems like they might need it more. Making our guys "fly" UAVs seems torture enough.

[amishflyer01d]

Making our guys "fly" UAVs seems torture enough.

2.

[Boxhead]

Well dude, I'm not old and crusty, and I don't get it. Making our guys "fly" UAVs seems torture enough.

That's cool, you don't need to get it.

Concur on the torture though.

[amishflyer01d]

I guess that's why they call it "SPECIAL" Operations. Do they ride the shortbus to the GCS down in Clovis too?

[Guest]

Yep, kinda standard replies to the news, I don't expect people to get it, and I don't really care, we will be doing some interesting things here soon where SERE (well, not so much the "Survival and evasion" part, but the beatings parts etc...are very appropriate.

Glad to see some things never change on here. Crusty old dudes thinking they know their shit...about everything...and they do, sometimes, but sometimes, well, sometimes they are just crusty old dudes.

WTF are you talking about?

Future Super Secret Predator Operator

If you're trying to say you need "the beatings part" of SERE because you're going to be super downrange high risk of capture and torture so you need level VI resistance training, fine. That's not SERE. It is also something you seem to know jack shit about so I seriously doubt you know if you need it or not.

Good luck, sounds like you guys are really going to be in the shit.

[Boxhead]

I guess that's why they call it "SPECIAL" Operations. Do they ride the shortbus to the GCS down in Clovis too?

Na, the MQ-9 sq does have a pimp-ed out 8 person golf cart though.

Bus service...that's all you guys.

[busdriver]

Sounds to me like he's saying they're gonna be putting GCS's in locations other than the current launch and recovery points. Whether you think that warrants any level of resistance training.....

[Guest CharlieDontSurf]

WTF are you talking about?

Future Super Secret Predator Operator

If you're trying to say you need "the beatings part" of SERE because you're going to be super downrange high risk of capture and torture so you need level VI resistance training, fine. That's not SERE. It is also something you seem to know jack shit about so I seriously doubt you know if you need it or not.

Good luck, sounds like you guys are really going to be in the shit.

Sounds like he would know what they are doing better than you. Nice pred bashing though...real...classy.

[bfargin]

No need to take a cheap shot at us poor bastards stuck in UAVs Rainman. I don't know any UAV pilots who think that they are "in the shit".

Porkchop, A thanks to all of you guys who are doing the job and making the best of it. I hurt for any of you who were non-volunteered to UAVs and salute those who volunteered. I can't imagine how pissed I would have been to have done well through UPT and end up flying a UAV. I really hope that the AF gives a real aircraft to the guys who want one, after their UAV tour is up.

[Hacker]

I don't know any UAV pilots who think that they are "in the shit". Our job isn't exciting, cool, or even mildly enjoyable 99% of the time. Most of us would do nearly ANYTHING to climb up a ladder again. "Flying" UAVs blows at home station... and then you get to spend time down range at some shitty air base or FOB taking rocket and mortar attacks on the regular without actually getting to do what you love to do... fly f*cking airplanes. Sure, we're with the rest of the REMFs, Shoes and Fobbits that don't leave the wire, but our locations aren't exactly garden spots either. But that's besides the point because it's not like the real aerial warriors like yourself are are rolling through MiG Alley or trying to take down the Thanh Hoa Bridge right now anyway. In my opinion, the real bad asses in this fight are the heroes getting sent outside the wire to "make friends and influence people" while the Taliban are trying to f*cking kill and maim them. And all they get from leadership are attempts to further disarm and emasculate them with every new tactical political directive they can conjure up in an attempt to appease their favorite Senator or Congressperson that is holding onto their next promotion.

Good post.

[Day Man]

Good post.

2

[1969RPOL36]

Why is everybody so offended? Relax. Maybe some thicker skin might do a little good. That being said, in his last post, Porkchop pretty much summed it up.

[Hacker]

I love all of Rainman's negative rep.

[Guest]

What a goober.

Did you call me a goober? Seriously, a goober? Uh, fuck you.

No need to take a cheap shot at us poor bastards stuck in UAVs Rainman.

That's not what I did. I was talking very specifically to one person that said they needed "the beatings part" of SERE.

BTW, nice recap. I acknowledge the kills, keep going. No one can say shit about the ability of UAVs to put the hammer down and you definitely should not feel like you need to prove that anymore.

Sounds like he would know what they are doing better than you. Nice pred bashing though...real...classy.

Whatthefuckever. Maybe I know a bit more than you think.

In any case, I was talking to one person.

Are all you fuckers on your period or something?

I love all of Rainman's negative rep.

No shit.

[Guest Scoots]

Are all you ######ers on your period or something?

That's funny right der.

[ClearedHot]

Did you call me a goober? Seriously, a goober? Uh, fuck you.

No shit...welcome to 1970...

Are all you fuckers on your period or something?

This thread has turned into a SNAPfest.

[Hacker]

Rainman, I heard a funny story about you from a deployed location...the story's unimportant, but the punchline seems especially appropriate here:

"There's no fucking crying in baseball!!"

[Magellan]

Apparently the same treatment is happening to get them through the Pred FTU, like with the Beta guys, for quantity over quality. So now you have pred pilots who think they can just slide through. I quote, "What are they going to do, kick me out? They can't because they need too many Pred pilots." Certainly not all of them think this, but no one should.

I don't know if this will continue to be the case. Was told yesterday a pilot at FTU is on his way over to a staff job somewhere and not a GCS. Solely to provide context it was a return to active duty pilot(which are about half the pilots going through the creech FTU right now) and not a fresh UPT grad, and that may have been a consideration. That said once the supply of return to active duty guys stop flowing in expect to see a lot more guys upset at assignment night.

[SurelySerious]

I don't know if this will continue to be the case. Was told yesterday a pilot at FTU is on his way over to a staff job somewhere and not a GCS. Solely to provide context it was a return to active duty pilot(which are about half the pilots going through the creech FTU right now) and not a fresh UPT grad, and that may have been a consideration.

So they have failed one of the 690 potential pred pilots at FTU recently? With that circus, expect just about anyone with a pulse to pass.

[Snuggie]

With all this talk about so few people washing out of Pred FTU what is the normal washout rate for other airframes? Has anybody not passed the KC-135, C-130, etc school houses in recent history? Besides IFF what post UPT training has the most people not make it?

[SurelySerious]

Has anybody not passed the KC-135, C-130, etc school houses in recent history?

KC-135s don’t shoot (and they have “those copilots” that make it through instead of washing out). No other weapons employing platform has received so many bottom feeders out of UPT, who slid through and passed UPT solely because of the thought that, “It’s ok because they’ll go to UAVs.” It isn’t all of them, but they exist. These guys don’t study, don’t know their systems/standards/ROEs, don’t know what they’re doing, and don’t have enough self respect to try to excel. If you’re dropping weapons, that is dangerous. The real problem is the training program itself; it is geared for the numbers game, and not for producing quality crew members, so virtually everyone passes. For students out of UPT, it is not stringent enough. More is expected of studs that go to F-16, A-10, F-15, AC-130, etc., FTU, and because these individuals are competent pilots, generally, they can handle it better. When those FTUs have someone that is going to be a liability to their gaining unit, they wash out. Conversely, pilots pulled from other airframes don’t get enough training (working on half the syllabus of UPT studs), and have trouble with the human interface more than anything (because it’s not remotely close to an airplane). That one guy who washed out? He had a few thousand fighter hours. I’d rather fly with him than with some of the riff-raff that passes that FTU. That’s the circus they run at Creech.

[Guest]

That one guy who washed out? He had a few thousand fighter hours.

I’d rather fly with him than with some of the riff-raff that passes that FTU.

No shit. What a party you would throw for the guy that figured out how to BFM the rules and jink out of a Predator assignment by not meeting the FTU standard!

[Guest Crew Report]

With all this talk about so few people washing out of Pred FTU what is the normal washout rate for other airframes? Has anybody not passed the KC-135, C-130, etc school houses in recent history? Besides IFF what post UPT training has the most people not make it?

I've seen people wash out of the -135 FTU. I've even seen shitty pilots sent to Preds/Global Hawk for multiple Q3's after flying the -135 for a few years because the community (or more the Commander) doesn't want them anymore.