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True dat. This was an enormous feat for MX. They must have worked their tails off to make that happen. Good on 'em. They should be basking in the glory of that mission.

The Sec 3 in the BUFF should be titled "More Normal Procedures".

Torres suspended indefinitely. Hossa's out of the hospital; isn't playing game 4.

What could possibly go wrong?

Shit, I'm a Space guy and I don't even know everything space does. Skip to the last line if you really don't want some rant. Here's the rift - and this is all assumption because my ass has spent all its time firmly in an office chair: aircrew has community. It doesn't matter the type or mission, there are very core tenants to your world. Lift, grav, drag, thrust. Stay between the spacy and earthy parts of air. 2 gets the fat one. At least from the flyers I've met, they all have a pretty good, if not functioning, understanding of what each other do. From that, you build identity, history, and comradeship. Sure. The next CSAF or whomever gets crap for the type of mission he flew, but as long as its someone who's been there and done that as an operator, he might not be immediately dismissed. Look what would happen if a Logistics guy got the glance at the job - doubt galore. Why? He doesn't have that common thread available to the rest of the (still most visible) Air Force - aircrew. Space isn't like that. In my impressively short time in this AF, experiencing nothing other than the Alcohol Sex and Booze Course, I was given a ten week course containing only three weeks of information about the rest of the Space world. It was barely in the secret level, and my instructors all deferred to ignorance for all details not contained in the lesson plan. I get to my first assignment and am promptly cut off from the entire space community at a geographically separated unit, like the vast majority of my and other wings. No Flags, no higher education unless you claw for it, and a four year tour doing something of questionable relevance to the last twenty years of war. If I stepped on Schriever for a little while and tried to shoot the shit with my 'peers' in Space, the disjunct between their ops world and mine would be difficult to bridge, what little information we could exchange for security or understanding reasons. So, foul on the 13S guys for not being able to know ourselves enough to have that community. Without community, you can't build a heritage, for ourselves or as a part of the larger Air Force. Very few, without being burnt out by a few isolated tours and some bullshit staff work, really seem to have that span and connection to the rest of the field to have that community build - I'm thinking the Weapons officers and some of the really good bros that are here to get the job done (also, the only reasons I'm considering staying in). Its easy to drop into the trap of office days/crew shifts and not see the reason for doing all of it. Operators become checklist monkeys, myopic to the ripples that they could induce. If we can't even get our shit straight, how can we expect you guys, an established community and force, with real and tangible results in your work, to follow our occasional frustration? Most of our guys couldn't care about getting praised for their day-to-day work, so making our efforts known is a low priority to the operators. Our photos and stories are the best and latest in Christmas Party planning, poorly coordinated exercises, and DWI abatement efforts. Our CGOCs are active as hell. In other words, the only parts of our work that most people see, to include many of us "on the inside", are the parts we hate the most. It's epidemic of the AF as a whole, but seemingly all the worse in our little part of the force. Others do the same thing, keeping the Silent Professional card close to the chest, but these people also know the connection and difference they make to the world. That's not an easy jump for some wearing the Space Insignia (I refuse to call them Space Wings or Spings). I'm lucky. I had good mentors that have crossed my path and really set me straight. They got me to apply to WIC, to hunt down the best and most training I could outside of my lane, and recognize that shitty leadership comes and goes, but the bros get shit done because that's what we're here for. Space has a future, both in mission and community. Gravedigger, I'll guess you've got more time and experience than me, so call me out if this is bullshit to you - it's what I see. I'll be heading to the Springs in the future, so maybe that will change my tune. Don't mean to step on your toes, man, but we've got to work on ourselves before anything else gets better. Unappreciated? Maybe. Sometimes. But all I could give a ###### about is that somehow, somewhere, some ripple that I started in the process is helping some 18 y/o kid with a rifle lay waste to some stone-age ###### in the most expedient way possible. They don't (always) assume room temperature themselves. Rant off.

They got rid of TIB? Awesome!

Well gunners are border line retarded, so they actually add to the overall cost to the Air Force as I have to buy a second marker set of crayons to brief to them. So I'd say that FEs are more valuable but less costly, average value is incalculable. I mean how do you put a value indicator on a guy who will happily charge into a hot HLZ with you, who's only thinking about how many Hadjis he's going to get to kill?

It depends, are we talking about flight engineers or gunners?

Cannon 2013!!!! Please please please make it so... I will attend! Who am I kidding I will probably PCS there anyways...

Tell that to the guys getting shot at on the ground. Danger Close, Don't F#cking Miss!!! Cheers, Cap-10

cheers to the BUFF.. I was doing a walk around on the gas wagon at PGUA awhile back and a 4 ship took off. I just stood there in awe, as if I was witnessing the four horsemen of the apocalypse taking to the air to end the world.. thankful I'm on their team..

You're doing it wrong

My mind was just blown thinking about what it must be like to be at a wing that actually can produce that number of sorties...please have your MX call our MX. Sounds like an awesome day of flying and killing...well done.

Welcome folks to the 69th Annual convention of the Player Haters Ball. Hate hate hate hate hate hate.

We have a Nav that is a high school teacher and was a wrestling coach.

Earth Day

This is bullshit. We don't need more than them. An equal amount would be fine.

Dude, most of the CAF gets what Space provides. So much so that there are briefings given about what would happen if all our space assets went away and it isn't pretty. I think you're letting your chip get the better of you, I will happily mock a space dork about being a dork but I know what he actually provides and I am grateful for his efforts. More on line with this thread, you guys need to be allowed to develop your own culture that rewards excellence. The WIC model is a damn good one, but you guys need to make it fit your world. Only you guys can really figure out how to make it work but I don't think wearing flight suits will really help.

In other words, he's an A&M grad.