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I agree with you that many people don't understand how hard flyers work. However, in a similar way that you educated your physiologist, do you ever ask somebody in support offices about their problems? From a CE perspective, I would LOVE to eliminate training days, staff a night shift, or get all of your work orders done, but I don't have the resources to make that happen. Here is why: - Training Days: The Air Force has elected to implement a dumbass deployment process in which my CE troops will probably never deploy to support the homestation unit that they are assigned to. The homestation wing commander has no buy in on what his combat support capabilities are. Of course, if this gets fixed, it means your homestation base doesn't get maintained when the entire wing deploys. Additionally, more than half of CE taskings are outside the wire...and no, these guys aren't EOD...just your average plumber. What that means is I have to have all of my airmen proficient enough in combat skills to show up at an Army Power Projection Platform and succeed. This requires an entire syllabus of training in order to meet the combat and engineering training tasks...this is before any taskings are issued. So you spend somewhere between a full day per week, or maybe one day every other week to train these guys up, and then you find out they are deploying to the Deid. Fantastic, we just lost thousands of man hours that could have gone to supporting a homestation unit. All because the Air Force can't figure out how to manage deployments. But, I have to train each engineer like he is going to get shot at, or I have failed. - Normal Duty Hours: I simply don't have the manning to implement a night shift. With somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 of each shop deployed at any given time, I can't effectively cover 24 hours a day with enough trained, experienced guys. So, we run a standby team for airfield and infrastructure emergencies. That is in addition to normal duty hours, so if you worked an emergency on standby all night, you are going to work all day in the shop, too. For this reason, I'm not going to run a guy out at night to fix a leaky faucet or an electrical plug that doesn't work. But, you can be assured that an airfield lighting problem or water main break is going to be worked all night until it is fixed. - Work Orders: The bottom line is, a big facility complex like a base requires that you spend 97% of the forecasted maintenance every year, only deferring 3% per year. The Air Force is funding sub-50% right now. Additionally, the more you defer maintenance, the more money is required the next year. The fact is, Big Blue has rightfully decided to invest in other places, such as very expensive airframes. It's time to pay the price, it's as simple as that. CE is also one of the largest unfenced pots of money around, so it gets taxed at HAF, MAJCOM, and the wing. Much of your squadron O&M money that gets used to buy flatscreens at end of year was pulled from money that was originally budgeted to CE O&M work. This is INCREDIBLY frustrating when the flying squadrons are up your ass about work not getting done. Now, one area that we need to improve is communicating with you guys. If work isn't going to get done, you need to know that and the underlying reason. This business of work orders going into the black hole to never be heard of again needs to stop. I worked directly with three fighter squadrons in my last assignment...great bunch of dudes, most of who treated me very well. However, there were a few that really knew how to burn bridges with a number of organizations on-base. Are there some really terrible support organizations out there? Absolutely. However, at the end of the day, I feel like I've done my job if I put 100% of my resources against the top priorities in the wing, which is a pretty tough thing to figure out.. That may have only covered about 25% of the overall requests, but there isn't anything else that I can do. Sorry, this wasn't supposed to turn into a CE specific post, but that is what I know best. Maybe finance has a similar story, maybe not. I'm going to drop the rant here, because we are getting way off topic from the thread topic of CGOC buffoonery. Have a good one!

I get that you follow Dave Ramsey and like it. If it works for you, fine. It's your money. But you might do well do think for yourself a bit once in a while. Dave Ramsey's "ELPs" are all commission based. They make money when the sell you funds with a load and high expenses. Guess where some of those fees go? Back to the Lampo Group--Dave Ramsey's company--as a referral fee. I'm sure you know this because you've looked it up yourself. It's even on his website. Most credible non-commission based financial advisors would caution you about blindly putting money into a loaded fund, let alone an underperforming, high expense ratio C fund. There's a reason for that. I don't quite understand your need to defend this particular investment because it has "made you money". Most stock funds made better money than that last year. Your fund is consistently underperforming and you are paying extra for that privilege. It's rated only 2 out of 5 stars by Morningstar. You have a 2.2% expense ratio in that fund. That's outrageous! That's all cutting 2.2% into your account, every year. For reference, the typical actively managed stock fund has an expense ratio of about 1.5%. The average index fund expense ratio is about 0.25%. Vanguard S&P500 index fund is 0.18% So you would have to do about 2% better than the index to break even, not even counting the load. Right now, the returns in that fund are averaging about 2% less than the S&P index, so you're in reality averaging 4% down or so. That's pretty big money, especially in the long run. I'm not trying to throw a spear at you, I'm just pointing out that the facts and math are not on your side. When I was a young 2Lt, I got roped into the USPA gig. Nice retired Lt Col pilot was the local USPA guy and sponsored my UPT class. Gave a great sales pitch about how loads don't matter in the long run and "you get what you pay for" with loaded funds...which is absolute bullshit. They put me into a fund that severely underperformed the market for years and years until I finally wised up. That was an expensive lesson for me in the long run and I'm pissed about it to this day. Good for you. But your IRA is neither FDIC insured nor liquid, so you are comparing apples and oranges. I don't think he was suggesting that he uses a checking account as an IRA or as his sole investment vehicle (maybe I'm wrong). I assume you have some liquid savings somewhere? An emergency fund perhaps? 4%, if true, is an unbelievable rate...better than any savings account or even CDs I've seen for years. Then why did you put your money into IAALX? It's a stock fund. Like I said, 12% is a not a great return this year on the scale of things...throw in your 2.2% in expenses and you're not doing very well relatively. A cheap, no-load S&P 500 index fund would be up over 16% this year. You don't need to have a PhD in financial planning to run the numbers. If you like Dave Ramsey and trust his network, good for you. That's an expensive path, but it's yours to take. I'm not advocating any particular path--to include index funds (I don't have them), but I am advocating that young pups educate themselves a bit on investing basics. Learn about expenses, performance, diversification, etc. It all matters. If you don't know where to start, go to the library or bookstore and get an "Investing for Dummies" type book. It will explain all of this stuff at the caveman level. My naivete cost me a lot of money when I was young--which translates to when I'm old as well. Time value of money and all.

Austrian? G'day mate!

If anyone is "investing" with a checking account, they need to be punched in the jejunum.

I didn't have much to say about Chuck back then, since my father was only 6 when Chuck hit Mach 1. I'm pretty sure even I would have been able to recognize the amazing feats he accomplished. Great - and we all know nothing "unpussifies" America like an Austrian base jumper risking it all while being sponsored by an Austrian energy drink company. All joking aside, I'll take a look at the link you posted. Maybe I'll change my mind.

Only because you prima-donna receivers play "I have a secret" with your tail numbers.

Yeah, I know - pretty heartless. I've got zero sympathy for these thrill seeking idiots who produce nothing other than some self promotion. Joseph Kittinger was a true pioneer 52+ years ago. Since his jumps astronauts have been to the moon, space walked multiple times and pretty much done anything else you might need to do in a full pressure suit. It's all been done and the state of the art equipment Felix is using has been proven over a half-century. This guy deserves about as much recognition as the airline pilots who flew the same route as Lindbergh yesterday from NY to France. Just having a little fun, lighten up. I'm just using the information Felix and his bunch posted on his website. By all means, enlighten us with your "inferences".

I'm re-quoting this because it seems people on here just side-stepped it. Is this standard now? Fuckin non-UIF holding line LT flyer getting the ax to Capt before they even got god damn 500 hours in whatever it is they're flying? If so, fuck it, close shop, there's nothing these old heads can inject to alleviate that particular scenario. That's just systemic failure of the machine. That was not even close to being standard 5 years ago. No way anybody can assert that with a straight face. Fuck PRFs and kool-aid. Accept you are now in early 1990s Blue, dust off the Discovery Channel VHS tapes from that era, and make decisions accordingly. The experience of those who were in this guy's shoes only 5-10 years ago is NOT useful; the author of the above would be ill-advised to attempt to mimic their "career" progression. Fuck, mine included. My life philosophy rings true now more than ever: Do something until it no longer is tenable to your condition, or until you get fired. At that point do something else without regret. Don't ever do something under the premise of being afraid of getting fired because that's leaving too much of your self-worth up to machinations that have nothing to do with you. I know the military owes no one anything, but man, what a broken social contract eh? Do they not know people behave according to personal and rational incentives? Golden rule and all that shit? This ain't that cosmic.... Cock suckers or Morgan Freeman is right.....

I'll take the contrarian point of view here. Is your personal morale tied to air conditioning? Let me ask it this way...would you trade jobs with those guys because they worked shorter hours in air conditioning at an "easy" job? Serious question. Would you expect that your morale would be higher or lower than it is now if you worked "in a cooler typing inventory" instead of in an airplane? Fellas, some jobs just suck regardless of temperature. Having morale in some of these jobs would be challenging to put it mildly, especially when so far removed from the tip of the spear. Operators don't get their morale from comfort. We get it from being able to see the j-o-b get done from up close. We get to see the actual fruits of our labor most of the time. These kids do not. They are far from home for long periods of time as well. Maybe not as much as you. But they get less pay, zero glory and don't get to see any results from their work. So yes, I would say their morale is probably pretty shitty...all so you could have a nice cooler full of cold drinks in the middle of a war. Whenever you want to shit on someone else and how easy their job is compared to yours, ask yourself this: would YOU want to do that job? If the answer is "no" then just be thankful you don't have to...and that someone else is willing to do it.

I was at Salem in 2006...went to eat chow after a long day flying the C-130 up north and a NCO sat across from us and he told us he's glad he's at a base that has Herks to deliver supplies. Our FE asked him "you think those airplanes are here to supply Salem?" And he did a "uh, yeah...why. What are they here for?" He had a different perspective that day after realizing we existed to supply the bases in Iraq, and he was there to support the airplanes taking off north, not the other way around. I also remember getting food at the grab-n-go at the Deid one day while we stopped through. It was about 115-120F outside, and our flight suits were soaked through from sweat. That was in 2005 when 18 hour FDPs were the norm. We were all taken back when we walked into the place to fill up the cooler...inside this room (which was cold since two walk-in coolers were on either side) there were several airmen inputting what we took from the cooler and doing whatever queep they needed to do...and above them was a banner that said "Our Morale Suffers So Yours Doesn't". Hmmm...work 8-12 hours in a cooler typing inventory, or spend 18 hours flying in a loud E-model Herk in 115 degree heat...huh. Seems like they definitely were taking one for the team. And for our finance warrior, at Dyess aircrew deployed 120 on then 120 off for years on end. Most people left there with 4-5 four month deployments in a three year tour. They took a "break" from deploying so they could do career enhancement things like SOS or instructor pilot school...but again, they were still TDY and not at home. I was a common joke to claim Dyess was your TDY location and down range was your real home. I spent 12 years on active duty. Two years were spent on casual status and training, so really only 10 years were spent in the real AF. Despite spending 5 of those years as a schoolhouse instructor with AETC and a fairly cush job flying Learjets for 3 years (only one deployment that tour) I still managed to deploy for a total of 30 months. And that's deployments...add in more for various TDYs I've been on...and I'd argue that's LOW for most Herk pilots. I'd argue that most people here don't hate non-rated officers. They just can't stand the disconnect that exists between rated and non-rated. Such as over hearing non-rated people bitch that the aircrew at deployed base X only work every other day, not realizing that we work from show time to engine shut down 16-18 hours in a hot, loud airplane...by the time post flight paperwork is done, you've worked 20+ hours and your are wasted. Plus we were flying around the clock...show on Monday at 1600 for an 18 hour mission, then on Wednesday you show at 1800 for another 18 hour mission...Friday is a 2100 show for yet another 16-18 hour flight...get the picture? Then we hear the kids who work 0730-1600 in an air conditioned trailer/building bitch about how we have it easy... I have more examples...we all do...of this disconnect. I'll save the story about my SOS job brief assignment where several non-rated types critiqued me saying I was too technical, claiming that most people in the AF might not know about this "C-130" that I speak of...but as others have said, you can further this disconnect or you can be part of a solution and learn about the core missions of our service. And no, finance is not a core mission...

But... But...

Does everyone get callsigns now? This reminds me of the "everybody wins" concept that is being hammered into young children. Not everybody wins, not everybody gets to be a fighter pilot (or a shit-hot navigator), everybody doesn't get a flight suit/call sign/leather jacket/etc. The world needs ditch diggers...dig your ditch to the best of your abilities, salute smartly, and move on. I think the main problem is that support personnel forget the definition of "support". They get all bent out of shape and whine when they're told that they are not at all even remotely the tip of the spear. While I am sure many operators in the AF genuinely appreciate your support and everything that is accomplished behind the scenes (I know I did), most find it annoying when they act like their job is more important than any one else's. As far as I'm concerned, those who are legitimately in harms way, deployed or otherwise, are the tip of the spear. Working at a desk at a deployed location and diving for cover at errantly fired RPGs does not put you in that category.

I'm going to like all her posts and hope she's a 1. We all know that a good "support" troop can make a shitty deployment into a mediocre one. With all her deployments, maybe I'll see her downrange!

It's like they combined the AF's knack to come up with shitty uniforms and new tradition with Nike U's hideous jerseys. Personally I think they should have scrapped the stealth MDS's and gone with CBT's. B-2 Spirit and F-22 Raptor might be scary, but if you see "cultural competency", "CBRN" and "SABC" coming at you'll really be terrified!

Or kind of like H-model guys who've never flown the J and think you need an NCO and an officer with bad eyes bossing you around to be a real Herk pilot.