Leaderboard

I chose the wrong word to describe FCF. FCFing is very detailed, and it IS about the little things, but the difference is those little things matter. It's not senseless bureaucratic nonsense.

Tail rotor vibe checks and main rotor track and balance may be tedious but it's a lot less queepy then making sure the correct UEM posters are in the squadron and that the staff meeting slides are updated. Plus when it gets released you have actually accomplished something rather than making a stoplight chart green.

Firefighter

Just reading this thread makes me wonder where the time has gone. I've been out for six years (my career was going nowhere...self-induced...but that's another story) and the only thing I miss are the guys and the flying. I don't miss much else and the experiences I had flying and with my fellow crew dogs is what I'm most proud of. As much as I hated sitting on a frozen gel pad on an ejection seat, beating up the pattern for 2 hours, and the smell of fart, puke, stale coffee, and JP8 sitting in the bowels of the Mighty BUFF, I do miss the camaraderie and the shudder the jet makes when the iron is dropped. Fortunately I transitioned into a career where the caliber (hard worker, high speed, mission oriented, drunkard, bullshitter, ball buster, skirt chaser, etc.) of co-worker is pretty much the same. I still have a lot of friends who are in, and from hearing their stories and reading stories here, I wonder had things gone better for me if I would have got out at this point. While I'm sure there are plenty of people who are pretty happy with Big Blue right now, it seems like things have really gone down hill the past couple of years. I don't fault guys either way for getting out or staying in. You have to do what is best for you, you are your own seat commander, when it's time to go it's time to go.

Christ- I may have to reevaluate my position if Joe is agreeing with me. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Hey Droppin_Loads Can you give us a low down on the what is added to the new 8 week pipeline and what your overall experience was for AMS? Any other pointers would be greatly appreciated!

To the crew of Ratchet 33 and all the others who are gone but never forgotten.

And leave them at the first stopover location for 2-3 weeks while waiting on a replacement aircraft.

Herkbum Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Really? Conversation heard everywhere: "Where did you commission? The Academy. What squad were you in?" Instant bro club in a lot of places. And hot chick sleeping up the ladder? Seen it more than once. Just a lengthier process...and the liberal use of the word hot.

I'll bite, even though I might have a few contrary opinions. The Air Force didn't drive me out with their micro or macro personnel decisions, management actions or culture changes. I chose to get out because I'm ready re-assert control of where I live and where I spend each night, plain and simple. Flying has been fun at times and monotonous at others, but in the end, the benefits of a flying career don't outweigh the costs for me personally. As far as the Air Force queep, I fully expect to find a new but different set of queep at whatever company eventually hires me. I don't believe the grass is really greener on any particular lawn, just different shades of green. The Air Force at least makes a rough attempt to establish a meritocracy, and gets it right a lot. (Flame on) There's a plethora of individual examples of the system not working, but in my decade in the Air Force, I never saw a suggestion for a better ranking system that truly made sense across the board. Objectively and subjectively grading people simultaneously is damn near impossible, but differentiation has to occur somehow. Unlike the civilian world, I wasn't looked down upon because I didn't go to an Ivy League college out of high school. I also never had to put up with the douche-bag son of the company president who's untouchable or the insufferable hot chick who's sleeping her way up the ladder. There's bullshit everywhere. The trick is to mentally rise above the mess and still perform. I finally saw the light on my path about a year ago when I was thinking about the book The Five Love Languages. Since BODN is a macho-centric forum, I'll spare everyone the intricate details, but if you really want to learn more about how you personally relate to others, read the book. My top three methods of connection required me to be in the presence of the other people who meant something to me. So I finally realized I would be an idiot to pursue a civilian aviation career or continue in the military, as I'm guaranteed to be absent from "home" and the people I care for at least half of my life in either pursuit. Why would I knowingly accept a situation where I know I personally don't thrive? So in the end I gave up my promotion and school slot and I'm punching. I'm studying for the GMAT now and I'll go to the highest tier business school that will admit me and then I'm moving back to my home state. I'll still be running just as hard as I was in uniform, just in different directions and I'll have the backing of a community that remains stable. I'll finally mentally stretch out and form real roots. Can't wait... In closing, I actually don't understand all of the "congratulations" people are passing around. I'm glad those who got VSP got what they wanted, but we haven't "accomplished" anything more than those who didn't get VSP. We got lucky. Lucky that big blue needs to downsize now and lucky that our names were picked from the hat. As much as I'm excited to control my own destiny again, I also can't shake the feeling that I'm quitting and leaving my country's service before my agreed-upon obligation is fulfilled. I will accomplish something someday (hopefully soon) that warrants a "congratulations" but I don't feel like accepting the VSP falls into that category. (again, flame on)

"The Last Days of Europe" and "State of Emergency" are also good primers on how the West is doing immigration all wrong for the last oh 50+ years or so. Too many immigrants, virtually no screening for immigrants that will assimilate and have something to offer and no strong effort at assimilation when here. The elites of the West just can't get it that immigration is not necessarily always enriching to a nation, that you may actually be letting in people that will not fit into your society, that Western values are not necessarily triumphant just by exposure to them. Many immigrants anyway are encouraged not to integrate as a faction of the Left of virtually the entire Western world has decided that anything like assimilation or adapting to their new country is wrong, bigoted and these people have a right to be pissed off at the society that allows them in and helps them, the counter culture morphed into some kind of deranged suicidal movement hell bent on destroying any backbone in the West and won't stop until all of it is dragged into the morass. Ok, rant complete. Not against immigrants or immigration, just the way we practice it now, which pretty much is mixture of naive-stupid-crazy-suicidal. Back to topic though, at some point something has got to give to get the US Military on the border in force, deploying State Defense Forces might do it, just by poaching on what has been traditionally the Federal Gov. territory and shaming them into doing it.

Now you're getting it.

You separated because you were burnt out from deployments and tired of the queep, so you took a job that you are saying is entirely queep and still has a chance to deploy. Congratulations.