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https://www.businessinsider.com/cbs-explains-nfl-ratings-2016-10 Wow... such a surprise. Maybe people are beginning to have enough of the NFL, and their uneducated, prima donna asshats. Including Goodell.

I would not.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/f16-pilot-remains-recovered-from-iraq?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB 10.6.16&utm_term=Editorial - Early Bird Brief My buddy was on station when it happened....my crew manned up and pushed early as his relief. What a shit day this was back in 2006. Welcome home. ATIS

Several guys I know did AFIT en route to TPS. If TPS is a goal/something you're interested in, then AFIT is reasonable after your second-ish flying assignment. There is a program that allows you to commission, go straight to get a masters (civilian schools as well as AFIT), and then go to UPT after that. The latter puts you behind your peers and likely closes doors in the flying world...but hey, you got that shiny diploma on your wall (know two guys who did that route and would not repeat it).

You've heard wrong, at least at McChord. We have people 30 day timing out and copilots who have racked up 700 hours in 6 months. Between the TACC taskings and the huge up tick in JA/ATTS & Exercises coupled with the huge slash in manning we are running at max capacity to surge levels consistently. They are also supposedly upping our deployments from 75 to 90 days. Some of the older guys say it's worse now that the 2008 surge.

Stockholm syndrome... Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

I was a phase III UPT instructor around 07-08, what I remember is substantially smaller classes and not many fighters dropped. I remember picking up a track select of 3 T-38 dudes per class for a while, this will come home to roost soon as well.

Ding ding ding! It is now imbedded in the culture that you should be far more concerned about your next promotion, assignment, and/or decoration than you should be about the mission. If you aren't, you will fall behind. The "speech" from one's CC these days almost always consists of something like: "You're a good pilot. So are Bob and Sally and Billy. In fact, when it comes to the actual job, you're all pretty much the same in the eyes of the people who matter. So, let's talk about your roadmap to the vaunted SQ/CC position and beyond. To get ahead, check box X, then Y, then Z (nevermind that none of those are mission related. The mission will take care of itself.) If you do this, you must be a good officer and will be rewarded for your stalwart dedication to the self licking ice cream cone." I have heard this speech or something very close to it from the majority of my SQ/CCs and above and every time I hear it my heart sinks a little more. I'm convinced that the majority of the leadership thinks in this manner and this is why no one seems to be able to take a wholistic view of how to get the USAF where it needs to be. They simply aren't motivated to think beyond the next three years because that's the way we're all told we're supposed to think. Until there is a dramatic shift in this way of thinking, I surely would not recommend the AF to my children.

Questions about FSA eligibility: I commissioned in May and will be leaving for UPT at Cbus early next year. My girlfriend is in law school at Texas Tech--she's currently a paralegal in the ANG but she's set to contract into ROTC in a couple months, and is going to commission into the JAG Corps through them. We're planning on getting married next year, and since we would still be long-distance but she'd now be my dependent, that brings up the question of FSA. 1) Does the fact that she's contracted at her detachment and therefore "unable to accompany" me while I'm at UPT (and vice-versa) make us eligible for FSA? It seems appropriate, considering we're both doing military training (well... ROTC) and we'll be separated well into my follow-on training in Jan 2019 because of it. 2) Also... This makes me cringe just to ask, but is a UPT-LT/contract-cadet married couple considered by finance to be mil-to-mil? That would change the terms of FSA eligibility, so it's relevant, even if saying it out loud that way is asking to be punched in the d*ck. Thanks.

Bone is probably better at air to air as well

So are the last 69ish surveys about the same subject invalid?

The best self-test comes when I ask myself what I'd tell my kids. No way would I advise them to pursue active duty life as a pilot, but I would whole-heartedly support the ANG. There are just too many damn variables today, and the 10-year commitment isn't going away (especially with rumors of its increase). Variables exist in the ANG, too, but nothing like the fvcked-up shenanigans we've seen in the last 6-9 years in the active duty USAF. Honestly, if asked about a mil career by my kids, this would be my advice: Go to a great school on an ROTC scholarship, major in a STEM field, then go be a contracting officer for 4 years and get out as a young captain to make bank at a defense contractor. My kids' father got real lucky so far with his flying career. Couldn't dodge the school bullet but I am walking away with great experiences and the ability to speak an Asian language, AND I'm going back to my F-16 mistress. I am the exception, not the rule. I would not expect the next generation's experience to be as good as mine. They'll be too damn busy turning red dots into green dots and remodeling the bathrooms to accommodate the 7 different "genders" in the squadron. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums