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Speaking of Epic Vaginal Responses...

Anyone from Cannon, throw spears if I'm painting the wrong picture for this dude. -ACC (Creech, Whiteman): 8 hr shifts (3 non-overlapping per day) which at Creech will end up being 10 hrs away from home when you count transit and showing early for the shift brief. 5 days on-3 off, or 6 on-2 off; depends on job manning (P/SO/MIC) and squadron [for instance, some sqs have pilots on 5-3, whereas the intel kids are 6-2 because the intel manning is short]. Change shift about every 4-5 weeks. -AFSOC (Cannon): 12 hr shifts (3 f'ed up overlapping per day... at least how it was explained to me). Probably have similar transit issues in the Clovis/Portales metropolis. In ACC most SQs deploy for LRE, and from what I've seen it is on a volunteer basis as often as you please, 4 months at a time. Some guys deploy and end up going right back because they wanted to. Less than it used to be. The AFSOC SQs are people hungry, and Whiteman has just opened. Many of the guys dropping UAVs lately have been tagged for Whiteman, but the SQs still at Creech are all still growing (except the reaper only sq, which is offset by the greater magnitude of growth of everyone else there). Supporting ground units, helping eliminate terrorists, defending freedom. Working with return to AD Lt Cols; some of them have some crazy life stories and they're all good dudes. You become pretty close with the people on your shift. Also: Supposed promise that all from UPT will get to go to a real cockpit. -Having to experience the "liked" activities from a UAV GCS (it is NOT the same as flying, but it's better than "working" in MPF [except that the MPF "work" schedule seems to be every third Tuesday, which is probably nice]) -95% of the time it isn't mentally engaging, and there are no windows -Having a community with no coherent way of operating. Every squadron has radically different standards, techniques, and operating principles. Our "tactics" are devoid of any useful information. When you put these together, it makes the collective operation inefficient because the people we support expect one thing from working with one unit and get another from the next, or they have inexplicable and unfulfillable expectations. -The Pred/Reaper and GA GCS combo... quite possibly the most poorly designed weapon system, ever. Given the lack of contract/bidding process, testing and evaluation, and buying a computer company's airplane, we have an abominable control interface paired with an equally abominable aircraft. The "upgrades" we keep getting are stiiiiiiillll total crap. In the last 15 years, and $690 million they haven't had the time or resources to employ anyone who has human factors or aircraft design experience. What the TEG does is also questionable. -Having the intel community talking to you for 8 hrs straight (i.e. back seat driving, sq dependent) -Switching shifts is awesome NOT -You really only have the chance to know 1/3 of your squadron, and due to 24/7 ops in most units, it is pretty much impossible for a whole sq event to take place -The commute -Vegas (Great place to vacation, weird place to live, but that is def a personal opinion)

Found this over on Airwarriors. So I though I'd share. Source: http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php/155343-Where-have-all-the-Fliers-(or-is-that-Flowers)-gone...long-time-ago Some interesting thoughts on current events. Sent by a retired Air Force F-111 pilot. Where have the Fighter Pilots gone? The Fighter Pilots are sulking in the Ready Room and waiting for the Skipper to return from the Psychiatric Ward and his girly man "Shrink" because he would not take the new "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Jack Wagon" for his wingman or much less in his Squadron! To think that a "Fighter Pilot" could sit in an air conditioned trailer at Nellis AFB during the day and at the Sands Hotel at night in Las Vegas and draw combat pay because he/she was under "combat stress" is enough to gag a dog off a gut wagon Dick Mudgett ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++ Read it, weep and pass along Think about this when you read the rest of the letter below. What happened to our Air Force? We used to go to the Officers Club Stag Bar on Friday afternoons to drink, smoke and swap lies with our comrades. Drinking became frowned on. Smoking caused cancer and could "harm you". Stag bars became sexist. Gradually, our men quit patronizing their clubs because what happened in the Club became fodder for a Performance Report. Same thing at the Airman's Club and the NCO and/or Top 3 clubs. Now we don't have separate clubs for the ranks. Instead we have something called "###" Air Force Base Club. It's open to men and women of all ranks....from Airman Basic to General Officer. Still, no one is there. Gee, I wonder why. The latest brilliant thought out of Washington is that the "pilots?" flying remote aircraft in combat areas from their duty station in Nevada or Arizona should draw the same combat pay as those real world pilots actually on board a plane in a hostile environment. The Politically Correct Logic? The remote vehicle operator is subject to the same stress levels as the combat pilot actually flying in combat. REALLY!!!??? Now that I've primed you a little, read on. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where Have All The Fighter Pilots Gone? There are many who will agree with these sentiments, but they apply to more than just fighter pilots. Unfortunately, the ones with the guts to speak up or push for what they believe in are beaten down by the "system." Unfortunately there is a lot of truth here. Supposedly, Secretary Gates has a force beating the bushes to learn who wrote this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Where Have All The Fighter Pilots Gone? Answer: Good Question. Here is a rant from a retired fighter pilot that is worth reading: It is rumored that our current secretary of defense recently asked the question, "Where are all the dynamic leaders of the past?" I can only assume, if that is true, that he was referring to Robin Olds, Jimmy Doolittle, Patton, Ike, Boyington, Nimitz, etc. I've got the answer. They were fired before they made Major. Our nation doesn't want those kinds of leaders anymore. Squadron commanders don't run squadrons and wing commanders don't run wings. They are managed by higher ranking dildos with other esoteric goals in mind. Can you imagine someone today looking for a LEADER to execute that Doolittle Raid and suggesting that it be given to a dare-devil boozer - his only attributes: he had the respect of his men, an awesome ability to fly, and the organizational skills to put it all together. If someone told me there was a chance in hell of selecting that man today, I would tell them they were either a liar or dumber than shit. I find it ironic that the Air Force put General Olds on the cover of the company rag last month. While it made me extremely proud to see his face, he wouldn't make it across any base in America (or overseas) without ten enlisted folks telling him to zip up his flight suit and shave his mustache off. I have a feeling that his response would be predictable and for that crime he would probably get a trip home and an Article 15. We have lost the war on rugged individualism and that, unfortunately, is what fighter pilots want to follow; not because they have to but because they respect leaders of that ilk. We've all run across that leader that made us proud to follow him because you wanted to be like him and make a difference. The individual who you would drag your testicles through glass for rather than disappoint him. We better wake the hell up! We're asking our young men and women to go to shitty places, some with unbearable climates, never have a drink, have little or no contact with the opposite sex, not look at magazines of a suggestive nature of any type, and adhere to ridiculous regs that require you to tuck your shirt into your PT uniform on the way to the porta-shitter at night in a dust storm because it's a uniform. These people we're sending to combat are some of the brightest I've met but they are looking for a little sanity, which they will only find on the outside if we don't get a friggin' clue. You can't continue asking people to live for months or years at a time acting like nuns and priests. Hell, even they get to have a beer. Who are we afraid of offending? The guys that already hate us enough to strap C4 to their own bodies and walk into a crowd of us? Think about it. I'm extremely proud of our young men and women who continue to serve. I'm also very in tune with what they are considering for the future and I've got news for whoever sits in the White House, Congress, and our so-called military leaders. Much talent has and will continue to hemorrhage from our services, because wanna-be warriors are tired of fighting on two fronts-- One with our enemies, Another against our lack of common sense.

What, a SOCOM unit that doesn't declare everything accurately on a load manifest? Color me shocked!

Hey, thanks for the same courtesy, benefit of the doubt that is. FYI, I did - first I asked him if he was sure it was the USS Oklahoma, then I asked him what kind of ship it was and he said battleship, then I asked him if it were possible that he might be mistaken about the name. He was positive he was on the USS Oklahoma, battleship. I can remember the exact dates of all of my assignments, to include deployments (well to the month/year anyway). Every navy person I've ever talked to that has served on a ship can do the same, especially the name and type of the boat - crap it's stenciled on everything they see. So, no, I didn't stand on my bar stool an scream at him that he was a liar. I hope that helps settles your sensibilities and thanks for being so conscientious.

I might have a chance to pick up a TEC-9 (yeah, you heard me right) for cheap... Yeah, I know, it's a ghetto gun and prone to jamming; but it's got a certain pimp-slap, Grand Theft Auto drive-by shooting appeal to it... ...and the guy who has it really wants to get rid of it (he's a Boy Scout leader and it doesn't fit the image)! Plus, Kurt Russell used one in Big Trouble in Little China! Maybe I'll put a rail and a Red Dot on it! Cheers! M2

Small world and another sign I'm going senile. I dug a little deeper and turns out the guy and I were classmates at USNA (89) and actually in the same major. I have no recollection of him whatsoever. He was Navy enlisted prior to entering the Naval Academy and left the Navy in 1993. He's served in the Army ever since. Not sure why he'd still be wearing an enlisted surface warfare pin. But...whatever. Still doesn't make sense to me, but it is what it is and I apologize for questioning his integrity.

Yes, it was a response intended for a douche.

Is it possible he was referring to the USS Oklahoma City? It was in Japan for all of the '70s. Not a battleship, but I'll try to give someone the benefit of the doubt before calling them out.

If there was a thread for 'Epic Vaginal Responses' this would be in it for sure. I asked a question. An answer without the drama expected from a 15 year old girl would have been appropriate in this circumstance. Since I wasn't there, and it was your experience, I wanted clarification. You've provided that, albeit bracketed by a whiny, childlike response. You can go tend to your swollen ovaries now.