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F-8C wing failure at the fold mechanism, in case anyone was interested.

A cool story. https://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/segments/117011

I delved into the world of 1911. I like, a lot.

Quiet, scoobs.

Obligatory https://youtu.be/_CIYR_XgBSY

This gave me a good laugh. It's so true.

Slife.

What?

Fuck You Air Force. If you are going to offer to pay me $25K/year less than my coworkers doing the same job with the same rank and experience, I'm going to do $25K/year less work. Sorry for those who have to pick up the slack... The Reserve option is looking better, even at 16 years TAFMS.

Didn't Rainman go from helos to fighters?

Huh?

I think the least they could do is have a system that takes your number to call you back when there's a wait, because "5 minutes" is always 50+ minutes. It would save a lot of people having to wait on hold for indeterminate amounts of time.

Can we ask communications questions in the cyber thread too since 85% of Air Force cyber stuff is just comm with a futuristic sounding name? The Enterprise Service Desk system sucks. Sorry, that's a rant, not a question... Why does the Enterprise Service Desk system suck? zb

"Thank you for your service and thank you for your daughter!" Nicely done, Jimmy, nicely done.

Well they'll pass you by...

Plus, a CSO will get paid way more.

^What he said. I was a prior 1A2(loadmaster) and I am now a CSO. To dissect it a little further, you need to figure out exactly what you want to do. 1A9 will do flight engineer/loadmaste/gunner on spec ops platforms. A CSO can be a weapons officer and drop bombs, an electronic warfare officer, a navigator, or a blend of them all. On some platforms the CSO and 1A9 share some of the responsibilities.

I flew gliders for many years both before and after UPT. One very hot summer my Mom and Step Father came for a visit and hung out for a week where we drank and BBQ's to excess almost every night. At some point during the week my Step Father said he wanted to go for a ride and do some aerobatics. If for no other reason than to put it on record, let me state that my Step Father is the hardest working man I've ever known, a proud farmer, and a damn good man. He treated me as his own from the time I was 13 and if he wanted to do aerobatics, I was gonna make it happen. That Friday night we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing poker and drinking...apfelkorn. By noon the next day we were feeling somewhat human and decided to head for the airport. On the way My Step Father insisted we stop at Burger king where he bought and ate a Double Whooper meal. The glider crew was already set up and launching so we were airborne in minimal time. A quick tow to 2000' and I quickly found a thermal up that took us up to 8,000'. I started off gentle with a few loops and rolls, then moved on to a cloverleaf, he seemed to be handling it well so coming out of the cloverleaf I got a ton of smash and pulled straight to the vertical and held it there...As we slowed to a stop I kicked in full rudder and held the stick full aft and right at which point we departed into a very healthy spin. After the recovery I asked him how he was feeling to which he replied "I'm ok, but got damn its hot!" I looked up at the mirror and in the back seat I could see he was covered in sweat. I didn't want to get him sick so I rolled out straight and level and started heading back to the field. He was really quiet for a few minutes...then all of a sudden he yelled out "LAND THIS FUCKING CRATE!!!" .69 seconds later I heard him let go with a thunderous BURRRAHHHHHHH! Followed by another and a "GOT DAMN!!!!" The smell was overpowering and for a minute I thought I was going to puke. The glider has a solid plexiglass canopy with small squares cut in the side for airflow. I put my left hand out the vent on the left side and bent down with my face to get fresh air. I also dropped the nose and flew back to the field at maximum warp...or as much warp as you can have in a glider. I came screaming in over the trees, popped the spoilers and landed in the grass. We had no even stopped moving and I had the canopy open as I unstrapped and jumped out of the glider. I took a few steps and looked back and he was just sitting there covered in puke and laughing. In one hand he was holding my wife's camera and flicked his hand..."Here, Take a picture!" When he made that movement a chunk of hamburger came flying off his hand and almost landed on my leg. He got out and unstrapped and started to clean himself off...the worst part was when he knew he was going to get sick he was afraid he was going to throw up on the back of my head and somehow make us crash, so when he actually started to get sick he puked down his shirt...it was truly disgusting. We walked over to the hanger where he proceeded to take an outdoor shower with the garden hose. My Mom and wife jumped in the car and drove over to Walmart to get him some clothes. As he is stripping down and washing himself off he tells me he has lettuce in the crack of his ass...later we would learn he puked into the battery compartment of my wife's camera...we laughed so hard we cried.

I will never complain about an "uncomfortable" sortie. Hat's off to you U-2 guys!

If you take the view that the AF trained you to see the big picture, calmly make quick decisions under pressure, occasionally tactfully convince higher ranking folks that they're wrong, and get the job done with not enough resources or time, then the AF trained you quite well for the outside world. Yeah...being a civilian nav...WTF? Ironically, I was offered a job as a civilian F-15 WSO in the St Louis area, but turned it down....