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I'd rather have frosted tip gelled hair forced upon me by a bunch of Eagle (F-15C) gaybros than listen to a nav mouthbreathe and ask me to fly every 69 seconds. Single seat all the way, even if it means being a homo Eagle driver. To clarify: I fly the Viper. The math is easy: take the number of ejection seats in your jet, multiplied by the number of engines, and multiply that product by the number of vertical stabs. Anything more than 1 and you're a homo. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

The Strike Eagle is awesome, and flying with a WSO is nothing like having an IP with you in the jet at UPT. Having a WSO is invaluable when doing DT or CAS, which just so happens to be what we've been doing for the last 15 years. For the initial Libya strikes F-15Es nearly overflew Aviano (F-16 base) on their way down from the UK, while the Vipers sat on the ground. When the COCOM wanted jets in Turkey as a show of force to the Russians last fall, who did they send...Vipers? Nope. Strike Eagles again. If you get a choice, choose wisely.

As one data point, my T-38 drop had 5/6 fighters...the very next drop had 1/4 fighters. Not a track select, but shows how much the pendulum can swing in a matter of 2-3 weeks between assignment nights. You can't predict, all you can do is work your ass off, have a good attitude, and the rest is luck and timing.

All of theses questions become much easier to answer/manage if you are first in your class. Dont suck!

One has a nav, one doesn't....choose wisely.

Yeah, MEZ pen probably won't be an issue...I mean, you just avoid the SAMs, right??? I'll stick with my block 50. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

It would bring it inline with the rest of the training bases in that regard though. Scores in T-6's mean precisely zero after Track Select. Clean slate for Phase III. I believe it has been that way for quite a while. That being said, if they were to do that, they should let the studs know when they start T-6's, not afterwards.

I'm currently in the single best job in the USAF where I'm current/qualified in the Eagle and the Viper. Complete disclosure, I was a Strike Eagle baby growing up. I agree completely with a lot of this sentiment. There are some sorties, both training and combat, that I'll never forget because of the leathality present with a formation of F-15Es with sound crew coord. However, having a bad day with a bad WSO/poor crew coord is miserable. The crew construct really is a force multiplier; for the good and the bad. A good crew is way better than the equivalent effort of two people. Having a bad crew day makes me feel like I need more than double the effort just to make ends meet. I wish I could articulate how obvious it is to immediately distinguish the difference between the designed mission set of these two aircraft on your first Viper sortie. The Viper with a GE motor on a cold day truly is a rocket ship. I've taken a single-bag jet on a sub-freezing morning with a GE-100 to FL300 on an unrestricted climb. It's a ton of fun! I've never taken the Viper to combat. Having said that, I'm not sure I would ever want to. The jet is a nightmare from a human factors or avionics perspective. The RADAR is a joke. The ability to utilize sensors is still a slave to a 1970s construct that has been completely debunked and remains a complete liability to the airframe. Many of the current DT efforts are an attempt to bring the jet to a level that is, in many ways, equivalent with F-15E Suite 5, let alone Suite 9. Except for Auto ICAS. I wish the F-15C/D/E could get that, if only for risk reduction. In many ways, the Viper jet is a true testament to the dudes flying the jet. There's a ton of compensation required to employ it effectively, and the bros have done an amazing job over the last 25 years making that jet as lethal as it has been. Having said that, there's a reason the USAF is spending $10B to maintain the F-15 fleet through 2050 and replacing the Viper. Pick the jet you would take to war. That's a pretty easy choice for the current COCOMs. Good luck on your decision.

It really just depends on which end of the gun you want to be on. If you fly the Strike pig though, at least you won't die alone... Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

OR just join the Guard...[emoji482] Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

I went through the same thought process back in UPT, even filled out two dream sheets the day of. Fortunately I'm straight so it was a no-brainer which one to turn in when I had the gun to my head. I cannot imagine anything else at this point. Imagine having a fvcking WSO as your SQ/CC. That's not some kind of hyperbole in an after-school special to scare people away from drinking beer. It really happens!

We're in uncharted territory so no one know how long it will last. The last time I saw this much flail we ended up (due to our poor leadership not realizing the ramifications of closing FTU squadrons) with dudes waiting 14 months between UPT and the B-Course. The result? We didn't drop a single Viper for a year in order to clear the backlog. History has a bad little habit of repeating itself, especially when you are cursed with management that isn't smart enough to learn from the past and react accordingly. Sound like anyone we know?

Sparkle-- Do you generally have friends spend the night because you get lonely or scarred by yourself? If so, the strike eagle may be for you. Hell, mud pigs may be for you based on user-name alone.

Another one from Tosh.0...

Link takes it site where I have to establish an account. No thanks. If the gist is a 12th century fight to the death vs. "can't we all just get along?," I'm taking a guy who turned millions into billions. Maybe pushing the "button" or the threat thereof is not a bad thing. And married/nailed a serious string of 10s. Keys to the world: 1) Brute force 2) hot chicks 3)money

MULTIPLE studies, papers, proposals with great merit considered and CRUSHED by senior leadership over the past 12 years. The math is OVERWHELMINGLY in favor of a lite attack platform that would provide more CAS capability, help with absorption, help season and solve a host of other problems, but the all jet 5th gen mafia ran a genocide operation to kill any serious consideration. I was personally threatened (career wise), insulted, chastised and nearly banished on several occasions by VERY senior USAF officers. The truly sickening part, we could have had a highly suitable aircraft in the field YEARS ago for pennies on the dollar.

I agree of course, but those decisions (about foreign trainees) get made way above CSAF's level and years in advance. Those dudes can't have their training track changed without SAF/IA, State, and Sec Carter having a pretty high-level pow-wow... Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

More like the Bush 43 administration effectively ended production of the Raptor. It was clearly dead in 2008 at a 183 jet fleet (thanks Bob Gates) and the House Republicans got $50M allocated to buy 4 more literally for the PR purpose of tagging Obama with the decision. Not that he gets any credit for falling for it, but the POTUS was not going to invest in a program his (Republican) secretary of defense opposed.

*actively ignoring all of this as i apply for OTS*

Yes, in general it's pretty easy to figure out who benefits the military more. The military, in general, does supports one party over the other. This, of course is my 30000 foot officer view of the whole thing. I do know things change (read:allegiances) around the O-6/O-7 rank due to internal politics.

What the fuck is going on here these days? Does BODN need a goddamn "safe space"?! SNAPs: less mouth, more ear. If you have time to quibble and bitch on here, you have time to be in the vault or the -1. Hopefuls: timing, skill, work ethic, luck.. Control what you can control; enjoy the ride when the cards are dealt.