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I know the perfect replacement! Gen James Mattis, USMC (Ret)

I was the IO for a Class A where the mechanism of failure was completely mechanical. During the 4 months of the investigation (including several "pauses" for technical analysis), there was never a HF person assigned to the SIB, nor was one ever volunteered. When I sent the draft Tab T to AFSEC to review about a week out from the outbrief to COMACC, I got back "but you need an HFAC in there" and the ACC HFACS chief was hastily summoned to assist. Since this person had not spent the last 4 months on the SIB like the rest of us, it was ridiculous to expect any useful input at that point. There is an HFAC for Acquisition/Design that we ultimately ended up throwing in there to appease the AFSEC QC review. The MOFE process then removed this as a causal factor 90 days later due to lack of evidence to support the claim. I'm so glad we modified our Tab T for that end result. In between convenings of the Class A SIB, I was the SIO of a Class B. The causal findings revolved around a mechanic and a QA supervisor at an overhaul facility failing to ensure a bolt inside a component was properly torqued. The time between the overhaul and the mishap was 4 years, so it's not like I could get any useful info from them; he mechanic no longer worked for the company anyway and I had no way to track him down. AFSEC wanted me to invent HFACS to assign to these two individuals with no shred of evidence (they QC rejected my final message the day my Class A SIB reconvened for the final push to the finish line). Luckily my NAF (convening authority for the Class B) went to bat for me and we were able to get the final supplemental pushed through. AFSEC also told me I had too many acronyms in my one-liner (insert eye roll here). Well if you only give me 40 fucking characters, I have to abbreviate somewhere! I think the QC process at AFSEC is broken. It should occur BEFORE the SIB deconvenes. What's the purpose of having an AFSEC rep (telephonic or in person) if their review and input to the SIB/SIO isn't good enough to pass muster? If every final message needs an HFAC, which is definitely the vibe I have received in the last several years from AFSEC, then the IOs need to be better trained on HFACS, and the convening authorities need to provide an HF consultant to every. single. investigation. The problem right now is that IOs are being forced to simply invent a link to an HFAC when one might not be present, thus skewing the data over time.

I would not agree that it is either one or the other. It is not that black and white. Here is how I break out how the AF evaluates people, at least in the B-1 community. The guys/girls that are in either group #1 or group #2 are the ones that get promoted and have above average careers.The people from these two groups form the leadership of our community. 1) WIC grads, OG & Wing Exec 2) Non-WIC grads that are good at primary job and still get the admin stuff done. (CFC, Party Planner, etc) 3) Guys that are great at primary job of flying, SOF, etc, but don't lead anything 4) Guys that are average at their jobs and do nothing extra I never see the guys in group #1 planning Christmas parties or doing CFC, etc... They don't have to. They are considered the tactical experts or have high visiblity Exec jobs that keep them very busy. As long as they work hard at their primary jobs, they will progress and be near the top of the strat pile. If they can be the squadron patch and also lead projects around the base, they will be considered a superstar. If you are in group #2, you must be good at your job, attaining at least some proficiency (instructor, evaluator, not a dirtbag) but you don't have to be the absolute best in the squadron either. As long as you meet this bar, you are good. Be good at your job and knock out a lot of admin stuff to help your CC and make the squadron look good. The mistake many guys make, that don't want to go to WIC, is to try to be in group #3. It is not enough to be the very best pilot or WSO in the community. You will not be rewarded for knowing more than every single person in the squadron, or taking that extra deployment. When these people don't get promoted or get RIFed, everyone is shocked because they are seen as the backbone of the squadron, but this is not what the AF rewards or promotes. After you become good at your job, don't spend all your effort on being the best, you should back off a bit and aim to be in group #2 by volunteering to lead some projects. Unless you are a rockstar and can be the very best at your job and still able to knock out important taskers for the boss. Guys that are in group #4 usually will have a below average career and may not get promoted or may get RIFed. I'm sure I will take some spears from others for this but this is based on my experience in the B-1 community. I realize that some guys will say this is BS and that you should strive to be the absolute best at your job and to hell with everything else (group #3), like Joe1234. This is valid, but if you want to stay in for a career, it will be very difficult for you to go this route and you probably won't be the CC.

Is that a damn zebra at 00:11?

Drivel, I believe, is the word you're looking for.

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.

flashing blue and red lights? They aren't cops. And you probably need to retake that color vision test...

Hot!

What's going to happen when the CRH comes online in 5 years and Kirtland is training guys on the HH-60W? Barely any of the HH-60 tactical flying outside of the monkey skills will be applicable to the missile field and none of it will be for AFDW. You may have continuity for 10 years but then you're on two separate platforms again. AFGSC/A3-5 is convinced that the UH-60 is an "interim" step until they get another helicopter but I highly doubt that in this tight fiscal acquisition environment. They won't get a new helicopter until at least the late 2030s after the results of the Army's FVL are in production. Keep in mind that they have been attempting to replace the H-1 since the late 90s and everytime it has fallen to more important budgetary priorities. Also I doubt all of the fun toys on the Pavehawk (PDUs, GM/AHS, WX Radar) will be installed on the missile field birds. They are aiming for as cheap as possible. If they were smart they would cash in on the Army's common avionics architecture for their UH-60Ls and have an all glass cockpit, integrated avionics (FLIR especially), and RNAV. I would also hope that they add the gun mounts with GAU-2s for armament. While the M240s may be fine for an H-1 with almost no other options, having the mini-guns would be an excellent choice for the missile field mission. Keeping the internal rescue hoist would be fine, no need for an external one when most of your missions will never require it. Unfortunately I foresee bone stock UH-60A/Ls with round dials, no WX radar, and M240s. If they're lucky they'll keep the CMDS. The UH-60 will continue to fail to meet the same DoD requirements as the H-1 while costing more than double in operations and sustainment costs. The only way that it would make good fiscal sense would be to completely standardize the training pipeline and crossflow opportunities between PR/ICBM-COOG units (ie be able to pull a guy from Warren for a PR deployment with only a tactical topoff and PR specific qual spinup. Hell move the 305th and 101st to one of the missile bases and/or open associate units with the Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and DC Guard. The current H-1 mission is perfect for AFRES/ANG and having a ready source of flying hours and aircraft should look attractive to the NGB.

I'm a trougher in the Reserves, and NO, people aren't pulling down 50K 'easy'. The previous poster caveat was that his unit has an alert commitment. He also is still in training, so he's going by what his bubbas at the unit are selling him. A year makes a lot of difference between what they tell you is the case when you interview and what the overarching reality is when you work that first day after MQT nearly 2 years later. At any rate, alert commitments, full time support of AD MAJCOM contingencies et al, allow a healthy money pot to be accessible to the supporting RC units and their members. This is not the case for all tanker/fighter units though. Your financial success as a bum will be directly dependent upon the airframe you fly, the mission assigned within that airframe, the amount of other bums in your unit attempting to do what you're doing at the same time, the state of affairs among the airline crowd (the furloughed O-4/5s) and your willingness to be away from home to get paid. The best way to find that information out is to talk to the bums in your unit and getting the skinny. The money may be skosh and that sure as hell should be a consideration prior to getting into said unit. Bumming is not for the faint of heart. In general you'll make around 60-70% of what your regAF counterpart gets paid and you'll put more days a month than they do. Multiple weekends a month is not out of the ordinary. There's no sick leave or worker's comp. You get sick a week and can't fly/show up? You don't get paid period. It's freelance work at its rudest. 60% of senior Capt doesn't sound bad, 60% of 2LT and now you're grazing non-technical hourly wages at the local factory, and you're a freggin' mil pilot. I've known Viper pilots do the mexican house antic, 3 to a house 'cause one works for Eagle and makes jack, the other can't get Lowes to take him seriously when he puts -16 driver on his resume, and neither can get a cotton-pickin' manday at the unit. Now, all that said, none of us had to ask for a day off to go off to wherever for a week. Every day you're unemployed is a day you have off, so might as well look at it glass half-full. As a bum, you're getting paid in the ability to say NO to the AD BS. You know, relocations, deployments and disco-belt shenanigans. Now, with the advent of TFI even that apparent benefit seems to no longer hold true, but I'll leave that out of the scope of this thread. Historically, fighter guys have a tough time getting enough days out of the unit to bum successfully. Getting on full time orders for a year to go to asscrackistan doesn't count as bumming either. Bumming is how much money you can pull without having a civilian job and no continuous orders over 30 consecutive days (hence no paid tricare, no leave accrual, no BAH type I). MQT is also not bumming. Everybody gets UPT, FTU, MQT (to varying degrees). Bumming starts when your unit starts feeding you out of their RPA pot and not on the AD MAJCOM MPA money (i.e. the devil's money). I made 45K taxable income last year, which is probably closer to 50K when accounting for the fact that my mil pay include tax-free fractionals of BAH and BAS. That was working 2-3 weekends a month, 3-4 mandays a week (which is way above average to the Guard weekly allowance), averaging about 2-4 more days a month at work than my regAF buddies. For my rank that's about 65% of what they make. I wouldn't call this 'easy' money. Conversely, one of my squadron mates, higher rank by about 1.5 years, spends half his year playing warrior with PACAF and is on full time orders for the duration of that stint. Great, that kid probably pulled about 65-70K. But he was gone as much as his regAF counters were and they still outearned him by about 10%, and they got more leave and medical allowance than he did. So as you can see it's a scale and not a set number. I made 65% and got to carnally know my wife on my own time and when it damn well pleased me. He made 90% and was gone more than AD and missed Thanksgiving, Xmas, the anniversary and Easter, and I sure hope nobody got to carnally know his pretty thing of a wife in his absence; and this is as a "Reservist" mind you. That opportunity cost sucks in my book, but to each their own. So I do think it's possible to clear 45-50K as an LT bumming, but it's burning weekends, and may be outright impossible in units without a decent money pot or with too many bums fighting for the same money. At that point it becomes a choice of either accepting being gone to get paid, or not. Which is kinda AD in nature, and that's really not why I got into the Reserves for. YMMV. If I were you I would do myself a favor and do a long-term look and gut check as to why you would want to pursue bumming. My experience is that long term, bumming outright sucks as a financial plan and is a bad idea. The vast majority of us are doing this to get in line for a full-time position at the unit because we value homesteading and it's probably the only other way we're going to attain a six figure income after vesting our lives into a particular profession in some of the garden variety Guard/Reserve locales where these units are located at. Locations where outside of niche fields or medical, people ain't making jack for money. Alternatively, some people bum to offset an eroding airline industry, either following a furlough or anticipating one. Whatever the situation, all these men and women have probably agreed said status would be temporary. I know too many folks getting into the unit behind me come with expectations of 250K houses and $1000 between two car payments, snicker and pant heavily at the indignity of attempting to fulfill these "expectations" on the grace of whatever bumming they could get out of the unit. That's nothing but piss poor planning. So most do an honest assessment of how long they would be willing to bum for, and if financial landscapes do not change within the time their household could have a tolerance for bumming, they opt out or pursue civilian employment elsewhere and usually leave the unit for another unit closer to the civi employer where they could still min run and get their 48 UTA, 48 TPs and 14/15 AT. I suggest you do that math TODAY versus the day you start bumming at the squadron and your wife gets indignated 'cause your 'job' ain't bringing in half what y'all need to be set like she thought life after college "is supposed to be". That full time job may come in two years, or it could take upwards of five and now you're behind the eight ball financially compared to your age peer group, and your wife is pissed. Good luck to you.

There do not appear to be winglets or raked wingtips: https://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/defense-space/military/kc46a/pdf/kc46a_tanker_backgrounder.pdf