Leaderboard

I will scoff it all day long. Patches should never ever be exec; period, dot. Its only part of the Air Force game because retard Wg/CCs are too dumb to think outside the container...they can #1 strat whoever the frick they want, not just execs. Then we have people justifying it for all sorts of dumb reasons. CCs who make patches execs (i.e. secretaries) should be fired for wasting government resources! I hope you will reconsider your thoughts on this because patches need to be in the squadrons making crew dogs killers, not giving advice to the wing commander. If the wing commander wants advice from a patch he can stop by the squadron, look him in the eye and say, "hey captain, I'd like your advice on x, y, z..." That type of leadership is rarely seen anymore. WTF is happening! Seriously, are we that far off track as a fighting force that we can't even get the basic stuff right like letting a patch be a patch. You, my friend, do have the power to change it. You mentor the young dudes in the squadron about the way things should be and set the example. If you continue the status quo, nothing changes. Sad to hear this is happening and fellow officers are actually okay with this.

I, too, have often wondered about the "I gave him a job as my exec to help him get a school slot" logic. Isn't the WG/CC the one drafting the strats? If you think the guy is deserving, you can give him a better strat than your own exec. If you want to push the guy to school, you can push him to school. You don't have to make him your bitch for a year in order to take care of the dude.

All this patch talk goes deeper to another problem: going to WIC was never supposed to be a career enhancing milestone....it was so that an already good IP could go, get firsthand experience and bring it back to the sq. If there were enough resources, everyone would go to WIC.

B-52H Ops Tempo/Deployment- Stable. 18 months home station, 6 deployed, although with the Buff now back in the fight against ISIS this paradigm might change. Deployments have been to Guam alone for the past decade. A generation of Buff guys grew up knowing nothing but golf, scuba diving and snorkeling as their "deployments". What the future holds remains to be seen. In an Ops unit, if you're at KBAD you can expect to see Minot twice a year for STRATCOM exercises. Throw in an occasional Red Flag and 30 hour round trip flight to some far off corner of the globe and that pretty much completes your sight picture. Morale- not bad and getting better. Leadership varied wildly by squadron and wing, and I've seen the worst and the best. Small community, so you get to know each other pretty well. Getting back into the fight has done a lot to give some of the queep some meaning. I'd say it's also pretty family friendly. Work days are what you make them. Some people pull 8-5 and do fine, while others live to work. YMMV. Advancement- if you want to advance in the Buff, you're pretty much destined for WIC. The pilot portion of the community is currently getting pillaged to backfill all the 11F white jet slots so if that's your cup of tea, chances are good. Airframe outlook- Boeing says we've got longevity into the mid 2040s. Like our Bone brethren, we're going through a fleet-wide upgrade called CONECT which is really beefing up our communications and giving us data link capability. A new radar and possibly new engines are on the horizon . Location- do you want to melt in the summer or freeze in the winter? Louisiana or North Dakota are your two options.

Anyone here going? If so, look for the guy wearing the "Huggy" nametag, and say hi. After hours, try Fratello's, Acey Deucey, or Charcoal Pit.

KC-135 1. Ops Tempo/Deployment- New pilots can expect 2 months on, 2 months off for deployments with various TDYs, exercises, alert mixed in. As you grow up in the community the deployments will slow a little. We do not deploy as a squadron but as crews. Because of this there is a lot more fluidity to the schedule with some people getting as little notice as a couple weeks. 2. Lifestyle/ family stability- As you would expect from the above. Squadrons are not as tight knit as the fighter guys. People tend to have their own social circles or just spend time with their family when they are home. Usually day jobs only last 7:30 to 4:30 so you do get a little more time outside of work when not on the road compared to some airframes. 3. Community Morale- Tanker guys pride themselves in being a pretty relaxed community. Most guys/gals are awesome people who won't get wrapped around the axle over little things that don't matter in the long run. 4. Advancements & future of the airframe- For being a 60 year old airframe she's been through a lot of modernization. The latest, Block 45, replaces the last of our steam gauges and replaces our cruddy autopilot, coming to a tanker base near you. The KC-46 is a long way out still and it will probably replace the KC-10 before it replaces the 135. In summary, expect to see the 135 around for a long time to come. 5. Preferred PCS Locations- Two overseas options, Kadena and Mildenhall (or somewhere else in EUCOM in the next few years). MacDill is popular, Fairchild is a hidden gem. Then add in TFA units and you have lots of great options with a couple not so great ones.

Bingo. The MAF is finally starting to get to a point where it knows what to do with weapons officers, but not all (arguably most) senior raters have caught up to those in the CAF. Not helping is that many MAF squadron commanders look at WOs as crack PROJOs that they can fire & forget on those hot high-vis (and non-tactical) taskers from their bosses and produce desired results to pad their performance reports. All because, to them, these guys/gals went to a 6-month school where prioritization and time management were keys to success and that makes them uniquely qualified to do something that really any officer could pull off (not to mention if it's something anyone should be bothering with anyway). They justify it by saying those projects give you "breadth" where WIC gives you "depth" and that boards don't care about how well you trained the FNGs or built/added to a squadron mindset. It's sad.

I know plenty of patches who are great dudes and either already in leadership positions or definitely heading that way, all without any ballwash jobs on the resume (i.e. exec). Even if a lot of OG/WG CCs hold that #1 strat for the exec, the patch is still going somewhere as #2/3 out of 169, so who cares. It unfortunately sounds like some communities still don't understand how to best utilize their WOs; the CAF does a lot of stupid shit too, but WO utilization is something the MAF, etc. needs to take a page out of the CAF's book on. The fact that I can't even talk to one face-face from a certain community while deployed, and have to email a bro back in the states for questions/discussion is fucking outrageous.

1. Ops Tempo/Deployment 2. Lifestyle/ Family Stability 3. Community morale 4. Advancements & Future of the airframe 5. Preferred PCS locations HHH-60Gs 11. Depends on the squadron. Currently deployed to a few locations worldwide. 22. Depends on the base, deployment tasking, etc... Certain bases have better travel opportunities due to their locations, (Kadena and Lakenheath) 3. The Hawk is getting old, thus she flies less and breaks more. The young pups are flying less and less every year and it's not getting better. It's really killing morale at the bro level when the copilots fly ~4-8 hrs a month when there in dire need of experience. The mission is rewarding overall, yet Big Blue seems to still not know the proper use of its rotary-wing assets, which is frustrating considering it has employed helicopters for 50+ years. Lot of hurry up-and-wait, with knee jerk reactions in the midst. 4. We are supposed to get the HH-60W (modified MH-60M) in FY19, I'll believe it when I see her rotors turning on a ramp somewhere. 5. Lakenheath, Kadena, Tuscon, Nellis, Moody (in that order). 3

I want a WG/GP CC that knows to get information from the tactical level (SQ CC/IPs/FLs/Wingman/ACs/etc). Maybe that is the person sitting in the Exec role.....maybe it isn't.

No, IP skills does not always equal the guy who should be leading the squadron...tactics, yes, people, no. Listen, I know a ton of great WIC grads. And I know just as many non-WIC grads who were topnotch IP's but not pushed to leadership because they didn't have a patch on their arm....even though they were the most respected flyers/leaders in their peer group. I know some dudes who went to WIC simply to pad their resumes to get further...all smart, capable pilots but lacking the natural charisma or leadership traits normally desired. Because big blue pushed their paper record, the sq's were worse off when they were in charge. Good tactical leadership in flight , poor squadron leadership. WIC grads are generally above average as a pool to choose leaders from but if they'd rather be an exec than a chief IP, find someone else for WIC. A WIC grad should spend a good chunk of their career giving back to others with their tactical education. The system is broken...when people try to justify WIC grads in exec spots to get promoted, I fear we have lost our focus.

Protip for life right here. Bonus: keeping your felt neatly trimmed helps make your deck look bigger too from what I understand.

On Brexiting BO.net? I don't need you guys. I can make it on my own. In fact, fuck you all, you controlling bastards. On Brexit EU? I think that the underclass majority (non-immigrant, working class) finally got to have their say. After decades of being marginalised by a PC establishment that favours championing the rights of minority groups at the expense of everyone else, they had an opportunity to change the course the country was taking. I'm glad we're leaving. And I'm looking forward to what the future may hold.

The good news here is that the Buff is now in combat. It'll be a minute or two before most of those crewdogs are eligible for Striker Vista, but I think having both the non-LO bombers in the fight will eventually help smooth that transition.