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Try being his assigned C-21 IP..... Enough said. All I remember, and what really counts, is someone took a stinker in his helmet bag at Spang.

Camouflage it and label it "Combat Mailbox."

...but a washing machine actually does it's job!

All ATPs gave me a full refund. I wrote and sent the company's executives an 8 page paper highlighting my training, some shortfalls, safety concerns, some recommendations, and a list of options on how I anticipate moving forward with my training (or lack thereof). I am happy to share it, PM me if interested. Weighing options on completing the ATP, but I need to wait on assignment info before I make any plans.

Rather than continue the pointless arguing about social media and young soldiers being stupid, I propose we encourage the Israeli equivalent: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10096047/Israeli-women-soldiers-reprimanded-for-posing-in-underwear.html Enjoy!

It's telling that the man didn't survive a year as a president of a state university. The patch in my sister squadron at Lakenheath was a genius: he crafted his own combat plan to track aircrew performance titled "Combat Combat."

Or maybe since he was such an ego maniac and "loved" by everyone he couldn't make a big deal about it because then the rest of the world would see how much he truly was hated. I don't know, but just a thought. Who knows what goes on in these psychopaths minds?

Why is it so rare for a Sq CC to get fired for creating these toxic environments? Can the Wing CC not see what's going on? Are they not aware of the MEO/EO. IG, fraud complaints? I've watched Sq's just tank the mission when one of these hard chargers rolls in and they do their 2 years and go off to school. Watching it right now in an Ops Sq. That's the part I don't understand. I get that the way we select will let a few stinkers get command billets. But for some reason the AF won't fire the under-performers, or the toxic destroyers. Is it they figure the Flt CC's, and DO's will protect the Sq? That the careers destroyed and the qualified people driven away are worth the command experience? I've seen situations where the Group CC hates the Sq CC.. but nothing happens. Well, except promotion to full bird for Sq CC for being a "performer". Just realized it's not even at the Wing level. I've seen this reluctance to remove someone in NCOIC positions, and Lt's/Capt running a shop. Why are we so scared of firing people who are harming our organization through neglect, abuse and malice?

Exactly. The production value was amazing, and it was the first time giant monsters/robots had a real weight on the screen. Additionally, while the cities got destroyed, at least the characters attempted to not break everything and keep the monsters away. A small plot point that I really appreciated.

Hey, look on the bright side - At least somebody actually read that giant wall of gibberish you posted! I gave up after the first paragraph.

So does a washing machine

Out loud: I learned that in SOS. In my head: Damn it. Bendy

What a great thread! Here's some of my Doc stories from my EGUN time. 1. I watched O-5s and O-6s picking up cigarette butts for Combat Proud. My first realization that the AF had screwed up priorities. 2. He came in to shoot a commercial. All the parking curbs (they held the rank placards for the spots. We didn't us sign posts) had to be reprinted brown. We did a squadron cleaning that would make Martha Stewart jealous. Took us three days. He landed, went straight to the commercial, then left to visit Lakenheath. 3. We got tasked to fly him and his band around USAFE (and the Deid IIRC) over the Christmas holidays so he could bring morale to the troops. Each show was a mandatory formation for the base. On Christmas. 4. On flying Doc and his band back to ramstein, the jet had a fire in one of the engines. Crew handled it like pros, pushed on the ETAR. After landing, no thank you, no good job, no recognition that there was a fire and the T.O. says to land as soon as practicable. Just walks his happy ass off the jet like he flew himself home. Wow. I feel much better!

I was an Exec at Aviano during the height of Doc´s “Combat Programs” reign of terror. A decade later I still shake my head and wonder how this guy ever made O-5, let alone O-10. Anyway, I think it´s good to recount the crazy stuff he did so that he doesn´t somehow end up in politics, or whatever, and do even more damage. Submitted for your approval… 1) He treated Aviano essentially as his personal flying club hobby shop. He would fly down, on average, twice a month, to fly F-16s, use the gym, jog around the base looking for infractions, eat at the club, and sing with his band to boost morale. 1a) He would typically always go to the gym immediately upon arrival. He insisted on being issued locker 001. I witnessed the day he received locker 002 (some SrA wasn´t briefed on the importance of locker 001). Doc was not happy. He was obviously the most important officer in Europe. Therefore locker 001 was the only appropriate locker. Doc let the Wg/CC know that Aviano needed to get it´s shit together. Doc then boarded his executive jet and returned to Ramstein LESS THAN AN HOUR AFTER HE ARRIVED because Aviano was not prepared for his visit. He just took his ball and went home. 1b) Doc does not like onions. I was there when he was served a salad with onions at the club. He looked like he was served a dead baby (kind of like when the French guy first opens the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones before his face melts). Seriously, his eyes got big and he simply looked horrified. The club director saw the onions and whisked the plate away before too much could happen. Fortunately, that trip he was using his flying club hobby shop go give a second (yes, second) F-16 familiarization ride to his good friend, the co-founder of RyanAir (https://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123017607), so he had to keep his composure. 1c) Doc likes things to be painted brown. On one of his jogging trips, he realized that the backs of the stop and yield signs on the base were bare steel (you know, ugly). He immediately ordered that the backs all be painted brown. He was happy with the result, but the Italian police were not. Each sign had an Italian sticker on the back saying who had approved the sign, that it was an official sign, etc. Painting the signs voided the permit. We had to buy all new signs. 1d) Doc thinks dumpsters are ugly. They disrupt the view while he is jogging. Doc also had a policy of “taxing” each wing for a portion of its operating funds (this is normal, but his tax was quite high). He would then dispense the funds to wings that would use the cash for cool projects he approved of. Aviano desperately needed money for real things (sorry, the only thing I can think of now is fuel for the cop cars), but Doc didn´t like that. Instead, he gave (actually, returned to) Aviano $200K to build $10,000-a-piece, brick dumpster enclosures. Yes, each enclosure cost $10K. Ugly dumpster problem solved. 1e) I´m not a pilot, so I probably have some of the vocab wrong, but you´ll get the idea. Doc really wanted to fly in some NATO exercise in the UK. He ordered Aviano to send more A/C than originally planned or really needed because he wanted zero chance of a Mx CANX. Someone in the MXS filed a Congressional complaint for waste. To make it go away, Doc rescinded the order and told Aviano to send the appropriate number of jets. I was at the meeting with the OG/CC and MXG/CC to discuss the “appropriate” number of jets. OG/CC wanted to send the number of jets originally planned since Doc had backed off his request. MXG/CC said “No, it´s a trap. We have to send the number of jets he really wants or we will be punished in some other way.” In the end Doc got what he wanted out of fear, waste be damned. 2) Doc´s combat programs were a metric-based tool to measure quality. One metric was waiting time at the MPF. I seem to remember that 3 minutes was acceptable. However, if Incirlik had a 2 minute waiting time, he would want to know why the other bases couldn´t keep up. So, some bases implemented an MPF greeter, like Wal-Mart. This would create a waiting time of 0 minutes (according to the rules of the metric), but would keep some MPF troop from doing any work, which in reality hurt overall time spent by people at the MPF. He would send operatives (secret police, in effect) to all the USAFE bases to verify the reported numbers. The Lajes SVS/CC got fired for “speeding” when the secret police couldn´t replicate the numbers. Keep in mind that the SVS metric was something like how many children attend story time at the library each afternoon (that one was Combat Wizard). 2a) Another SVS metric was profitability. If a base club or outdoor rec was not profitable for x months in a row, he would shut it down. It wasn´t enough that the bowling alley and slot machines generated enough profit to make the entire MWR suite profitable. He demanded that each section be profitable on its own. Who cares if people really like the auto hobby shop and we can fund it with slot machine money? If it can´t turn a profit by itself it´s gone! 2b) The SFS metric was shooting range efficiency. 100% of the range training slots had to be used every day. So if there was some maintenance emergency and SSgt Smith had to fix a plane at the last minute instead of shoot, it became a big deal (at the f*&%ing 4-star level) because it meant an empty range slot. Solution: if a squadron had X slots on Monday, it would have to send 2X troops just in case another squadron had a no-show. That gives you a 100% UTE rate for the shooting range, but a horrible rate for other mission areas. 3) Not about Doc, but shows the level of hatred. I dated an Army captain who had previously been on Gen Bell´s (USAREUR/CC) staff. Bell detested Doc and made a bunch of AFN commercials just to get more airtime than Doc and spin him up. 4) Stuff I can´t confirm, but I´ve heard the rumors multiple times: 4a) When he was the NAF/CC at DM, he required that the cars at the office holiday party be taller tapped. 4b) Not only did he have airmen at Ramstein raking leaves in a forest (confirmed), but he actually had them raking dead leaves out of the trees. I personally saw Doc´s replacement (sorry, can´t remember the name) shake his head and say “I can´t believe we had US Air Force members raking leaves in a forest.” So, even the higher-ups thought he was crazy.

Reporters are so fucking stupid.

Nothing new on mine, Catbox. It's been "FM hold batch processing" since 21 January. I check mine about every 10 minutes when I'm at work, because I am unstable. Perhaps they're waiting to assign you a retirement number...

Sorry, Bender, but there is so much wrong with this....

Almost correct: 28 of the 32 remaining airframes were built in the 80's (the last being delivered in 1989). The other four were built in the 1968 build. In any case, it's irrelevant: - the airframes have 50,000 more hours of life on them. - the "stuff" that does the ISR mission is somewhat "modular"... i.e. there is a ton of "new stuff" on the jet, in the from of MULTI-INT "stuff". -- yes, it's true! The sensors on the U-2 are from the 21st century! Stop focusing on the airframe as the only piece of the equation!! Oh... and no need to do a bunch of flight testing and integration with said sensors: we've already proven they work on the U-2. Good luck with the RQ-4! And watch out for the icing.

Iiiiiiiiiiiiineresting. This certainly aligns with my belief that the selectively continued officers' eligibility clause means Big Blue really doesn't want us passed-over folks around. To me, it makes sense: If I've been here 15 years, they have to assume I'm staying until 20, ESPECIALLY if they've already offered selective continuation. If they can get out of paying me my six-figure salary for the next 4 years, and replace it with a 38.4% retirement (I'll have 16 years as of August), they come out ahead. In four years they'll save ~$90K/year, then about $10K every year after that as long as I continue to stink up the planet. Plus they get rid of a guy who's clearly no longer interested in any flavor of Kool-Aid they offer. For me, it's an escape to go be an airline guy and get in on a lower seniority number, but with something to show for my 16 years. For BB, it's a chance to get rid of a dude who doesn't fit their paradigm, and is also kind of expensive to pay. And before anyone reminds me that the grass might only appear greener over there, understand this: I'm not interested in leaving because the grass is greener over there. I want to leave because the sh*t is chin high and rising over here.

I propose LRF for the test bed.