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Congratulations ladies. You can take your place behind every other woman who has stunted progress towards gender equality by feeling the need to suggest that a woman accomplishing something extraordinary is more special than it would have otherwise been because it was a woman who accomplished it. Because of course, we don't expect much from you...you're just a woman.

Please bear with me while I tell a little story highlighting what the AF truly values. Hint: It doesn't involve flying or deploying. When I was a Lt in a B-1 Operations Squadron, I was a scheduler and a line WSO. All I did was fly a lot and bust my ass in scheduling. I received very good strats and excellent OPRs. I never once did a holiday party or any other such BS. When I got to the FTU, I continued that same routine of flying a lot and being great at my ground job. When I received my first OPR, it was terrible. I was furious. I asked my rater why it was so bad and he said it was because I never did any volunteer work. Being the smart-ass that I am, I told him I would volunteer for every single thing that came across my email for the next year and pay little attention to flying, and that is exactly what I did. I really just wanted to prove a point at how ridiculous the AF is. I ran the CFC for the entire wing. I organized, no shit, an ice cream social at the WG/CC's house. I led 30 airmen to paint the B-1 at the gate. I organized a flight line social for the city of Abilene. I led the LtGen Rand visit. I led a tour for Sen Cornyn. I even got myself elected as the VP of the CGOC for a few months. Because I was doing all this, I never flew or sat SOF. I only worked on this BS. I flew only 12 times in 2011 but the strange thing was that nobody cared, exactly as I expected. Not once did anybody question why I was never flying with students or doing my job. I logged maybe 50 hours the entire year as an FTU instructor. I constantly received praise from the SQ/CC and WG/CC about everything I was doing and got all #1 or #2 strats. I won CGO of the Year for the squadron and the Ops Group. The next year I went back to my normal self, and my average OPRs. This example taught me that there is no incentive to be good at your job, or even care about flying. The guys that are logging the most deployments and flying the most with students get shit on careerwise and the guys that shirk flying so that they can go plan the christmas party are getting school slots and becoming commanders. This creates a lot of resentment from the guys actually out there doing the work of the squadron and severely lowers morale. The 3 guys they RIFed in the B-1 were perfect examples of guys that were busting their asses get the job done and they get the boot. Refusing to play this game, I took the VSP a couple months ago and now love life in the ANG. For the young guys, if you intend the make the AF a career, you have to play the game at least a little bit, not to the extreme I did, but you have to lead some stuff around the group and the wing. I have seen more than a few guys not get promoted, and now guys getting RIFed for being very good at their jobs, but not volunteering to do stuff outside the squadron.

Wait - this was you that got RIFd? Un-fucking-believable that they RIFd TPS grads. How much did they spend to send you to that school? Who the fuck is making these idiotic decisions, anyway? Geezus fuckin christ. Well, enjoy your baller job on the outside.

People are fuvking stupid.....

-300F wing and gear allows for higher gross weight; -300F cargo door and floor is self-explanatory. -200ER fuselage is shorter than the -300 and -400 to accommodate the boom (longer fuselage would have caused issues at rotation - possible boom/tail strikes). -400 flight deck has the most up-to-date avionics of the 767 line. AFAIK, the C-17 avionics are .mil only, and were designed with those capes in mind. The 767 avionics were definitely not. Integrating .mil capabilities into .civ avionics is a challenge on multiple levels, of both hardware and software.

That sounds miserable.

If you are an AC "working your crew like finger puppets", you obviously don't understand what a crew aircraft is all about, and god help the people who have to fly with you.

No I'm talking about how nav-centric the missions are, especially the gunships, and even more especially the AC-W and AC-J. The only control the pilot has over the weapons is a consent switch (besides putting the airplane in the right place). It's not a traditional nav roll anymore, but that's why the transition to CSO started a long time ago across the board. Not going anywhere anytime soon. In any case, we're completely off topic now. Master's degrees...if you want to get one, get one. If you don't, don't. It's that simple.

You guys are so predictable. Yes I knew every one of those reactions and comments were coming, but I still felt it was worth saying. If only there were a mighty pilot humble enough to admit that flying an airplane is not the hardest thing in the world to do. But we all know that's not going to happen.

Hi BTLFLYER - 1. Typically weekends are yours. Very rarely did we see a flt/cc or a MTI. Sometimes you have scheduled PT (Saturday) but other than phase 1 which lasts about 3 weeks, you can break up into individual flights on the track and do your own thing. They do a good job of overwhelming you with activites on the weekend if you have an upcoming test/briefing/paper so make sure you are studying the week prior. (Ex: We had our 2nd test on a Monday - that Saturday before the test they scheduled us for community service for most of the day.) If nothing's going on, though, the weekends are yours. Enjoy phase 2 and 3 - we even played golf a few times on the weekend towards the end of the program. 2. I was a non prior as well - and flight leader in week 1 which sucked. Try to practice marching and facing movements before you get there. Your going to get yelled at in the beginning. Just get through phase 1 and then things calm down quite a bit. Look at the OTSMAN (be familiar with it - you don't need to memorize it) Study a few sections in the HAWK - it doesn't matter after Phase 1 but knowing a few things could benifit you in the 1st few weeks - (ex. Airman's Creed, Names of the AMS + squadron commanders (which they will give you to put in your HAWK during in processing) They implemented a new thing during our class where you are tested on HAWK knowledge to be phased up to phase 2.... According to the guys I spoke with we all didn't know a single thing and we still got phased up as a class lol ---- Other points on inprocessing day --- Sunday you should NOT wear your ABU's to the briefings. They will send you back upstairs to change into regular clothing. And wakup on day 1 you should be ready to go in ABU's for the crossing the blue line ceremony. You will then change into PT gear to do your PFA. Day 1 was the only day we were woken up by screaming and knocking on the doors. The rest of the time it's up to your flight to be outside for formation 3. Leadership positions are Flight Leader and FOO. Try to get FOO but most flt/cc try to put a non prior as flight leader with an experienced prior as FOO. If thats the case, try to be flight leader at the end of the program (after Phase 1 at least) b/c the flt/cc don't follow you around after your flight gets their "drivers license" to march independently. For jobs- I was Services which was just getting mail once a week - easy!!!! Visual is also easy - you take pictures of the flight throughout your time there. Those 2 i'd say are the best. Stay away from academics officer- they were always swamped with work. Food was suprisingly good. Your getting yelled at before every meal and while your eating. That all ends after phase 1 (starting to see the pattern???) Pushups are in 5 rep incriments - (Down/Up = 1) Easy..... "1 Sir, 2 Sir......Permission to recover, Sir" Don't get too stressed as a non-prior. You will catch on fast and they will room you with a prior who has been in for a long time. The first few days, especially when you get there will seem like a fire hose and you will be overwhelmed. People will be cleaning rooms, making beds, rolling shirts... Just try not to get overwhelmed. Unpack Saturday and prepare your room. They have a booklet which shows you how things are folded and where they go. Trick - have display items. Technically you can have nothing in your drawers - there is no minimum you need. So what many of us did was have 1 item each (1 pair of socks, 1 undershirt, etc) on display and the rest in our laundry bags as dirty clothing. Then you just do laundry like every other day so your not rolling shirts all the time. Read things carefully and see where you can take advantage of the system. The program is set up to give you vague situations and you need to disect the info to get to the conclusion. Don't be afraid to take risks - if you mess up it's only 5 pushups. And dont freak out about 341's. I had like 15 pulled in one day. It has no weight even though they say it does. Final thoughts - DO NOT TAKE ACADEMICS LIGHTLY! Study hard for the tests. We lost close to 10 people due to averages under 80% The academics are not hard but do not blow them off. We even lost a few people the week before graduation b/c they didn't pull up their grades. Don't get into that position. You will be fine - don't sweat it too much. Take calculated risks. They want to see leadership out of the OC's (Officer Candidates). After phase 1 it get's a lot better and you will make great friends out of it if you have a cool flight. Good Luck!

This attitude is just as bad as the "get it done or else" attitude. Maybe he wants to do the master's to further himself and his knowledge, not to check the box? I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but being an aviator is NOT that hard. I worked on a no-shit engineering master's while in Nav school, finished my PPL, and still managed to be #2 in my class. I know, I know, I'm not a pilot and being a pilot is soo much more demanding I just don't understand. No, you just don't know how to manage your time. BTW, I didn't do that master's to check the box, I did it because I wanted to. I'm not suggesting everyone do that, and if you have a family to take care of, even less so. But I'm tired of all people saying "don't do that because you need to focus on your job, and by god, NO ONE can do all of that at once and still be good at flying an airplane!".

BTW, for those that knew him, I'm helping to organize both the memorial service at Eglin, and a scrapbook of photos and any other memories for his boys. Many of us are writing letters addressed to them to tell them stories and what kind of awesome dude he was. If you have anything to contribute, PM me.

https://www.stripes.com/news/air-force/first-air-force-same-sex-couple-granted-joint-spouse-assignment-happy-to-be-moving-forward-together-1.241381 I bet they'll fit right in with all the judgmental Mormons in Salt Lake City.

Sorry but your would never see any self respecting Naval Aviator wearing a T-45 watch. It's a trainer...