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PFT measures your medical FITNESS, not your capabilities. A fit woman should not meet the standards of a male and vice versa... BUT But your PFT should not measure your capability to do your job. If anyone (male or female) cannot do the job they are assigned/volunteered for, then they need to work harder at it or find a new job! You may be able to max the PT test, but if you cannot lift a zodiac with your teammates or haul one of them 1.5 miles on your back, then you don't need to be a SEAL. I will be honest, I don't really care about gender (or even homosexuality). I care whether you can do your job.

Until the male and female PT test is the same, I can't take seriously any discussions of equal jobs for men and women.

It varies by size of year each year group, but the numbers I've seen show a 25% in-residence rate for IDE over the past 10 years. ASG = Advanced Studies Group. There are three primary recognized ASG schools: 1. SAASS = School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, a year long USAF program at Maxwell AFB, 40 total students. 2. SAW = School of Advanced Warfighting, a year long USMC program at Quantico MCB, 27 students. 3. SAMS = School of Advanced Military Studies, a year long USA program at Ft Leavenworth, 120 students (too many, dilutes the intent of a focused second year program). There are two other programs that claim the same moniker but are not. NOPC is a 13 month USN program taught at Newport NB. I am not sure how many students they have, but this program is like an advanced elective for students attending IDE at Naval Command and Staff. All of the other programs are a complete second year of study after IDE. NOPC students are picked part way through Naval Command and Staff and spend an extra 4-5 months at the end. The claim to be equal to SAASS, SAMS, and SAW, but they are not. JAWS = Joint Advanced Warfighting School is a year long joint program taught at Norfolk. The program has only been around for a few years and I have heard good reviews, but they mix O-4, O-5's, and O-6's in the same class which would seem to dilute the focus for some. ASG grads get a special identifier when they graduate and their assignments are completely different from all other PME grads. ASG assignments are typically validated and approved by the VCSAF.

In light of that, people like shadyisgay, who have no frame of reference or personal experience, should stop speculating what the perceived problem is. While they may have an opinion, they also have no foundation of knowledge with which to base it on, so it is just a waste of time/bytes and makes them sound like idiots. All the while this nonsense rambling on their part impairs the intent of the forum because people who don't know any better reading this forum for help and direction in their career read it and think that the blowhard knows what they're talking about. The reader is thus dumber for having read it, but doesn't know the information is crap. And now everyone's time has been wasted even more.

There is an entire list of reasons why pilots despise UAVs. Most have nothing to do with ego. 1. Stuck in a box w/o windows on the ground instead of the open skies. (I'm not a fan of all the psycho-babble, but this does have negative psychological effects) 2. Most dangerous part of the job is the drive to work 3. Pretty much no job satisfaction/pride. It is now just a pay check. 4. Almost no challenge at all in operating the UAV, that's why all the other branches utilize enlisted (not knocking enlisted, I was one, but it doesn't require much training) 5. Monetary drop in earningsdue to almost zero TDY's, and deploying once every three years. I understand that we joined for reasons more than just pay. But it is demoralizing when our peers from our previous/desired mws's are making extra from all the above opportunities. 6. 365 days of the yr for up to 4 yrs + are in a box with no break, no downtime, no real weekends. Only the scheduled days off, and the little bit of leave that gets approved. 7. All positions in UAV's are now a numbers game, the numbers game was one of the things that I really hated in the army, and now we're to that. 8. Currently there isn't much in the civilian world for UAV operators. It is basically exactly like becoming an infantryman that has no real skills that apply to the civilian world except for other gov't agencies. And those will fill up fast once ADSC are reached beginning later this year. 9. This does not foster any form of the term leadership. It is all management. Our UPT guys are going to be well behind the power curve when/if they hit the real flight line. 10. Senior AF leadership has no clue of how to take care of the current pilots in UAV's. They claim that they want breadth in their officers, 11. Pilots have no idea of what their future holds at all, AF leadership has finally come up with a plan with the Crossflow Board. 12. A good portion of the time UAV's play back of the bus when supporting ops, goes back to lack of job satisfaction. 13. As the future looks to be pulling away from kinetic wars it will be more ISR centric, "burning holes in the sky", w/ no reason having a rated officer there for the lack of kinetic possibility. I understand the importance of UAV's more than most. I was an enlisted infantry paratrooper way back in the day. I am still good friends with almost all of them including the platoon sergeant (SFC Patterson) that was shown in Restrepo. So I have a deeply vested interest that the UAV community does all it can to support the guys on the ground. But I know the manner in which we have organized our UAV manning is completely incorrect and wreaks of fraud, waste and abuse. I won't just complain. It has been discussed before, but I believe the optimum workforce for AF UAV's would be to mirror the Army Aviation manning. The backbone of the operators would be warrant officers and you have your 18U's that provide the "leadership" needed to manage the squadrons. That is a compromise from what I truly believe, instead of WO's it should be enlisted guys operating them. I have heard it come straight from senior AF leadership's mouth that he does not except the idea of WO's. That comes from a complete ignorance of what it really does entail in operating UAV's. I suggest that you keep your uninformed opinions to yourself until you are actually operating them. Now I will say that the 18u's do enjoy the msn. However that comes from a completely different perspective. AIRBORNE!

Ladies, ladies, chill... This is a forum where varied opinions are welcome and hopefully our combined knowledge can lead to a better understanding of whatever subject we are discussing. No need to start attacking anyone personally. Some people like RPA's, others dont like them but acknowledge there usefulness, and others flat out think they should all be scrapped. Post your opinion, discuss it, list your reasoning and sources, then drop it.

No, I'm not, and neither are you. Boxhead: exactly. I'm a rated guy with plenty of experience and this ability to form "opinions" based on "information"...crazy, huh?