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I wrote this while deployed after watching "good kill". Lots of words, some of them funny. I rented good kill from itunes the other day, and within the first 5 minutes i was p1ssed off. I thought the only good that could come from this movie is to reign in its bullsh1t by correcting the inaccuracies. I am exceptionally qualified to offer such corrections, as the film is a biography- melding the personalities of ###-### and myself to form the protagonist maj Eagan (coincidence?). please enjoy and learn from the following first five minutes: you can't hear jet noise in the GCS unless you flew your droid into a wormhole where it was teleported within earshot of the parking lot of creech and you buzzed yourself. Unless the government has invented wormhole-proof datalinks, the driod would immediately lose connection. further, the mq9 is a turboPROP. The least the producers could have done is dubbed in some droning propeller noise for accuracy but these are the same clowns who took footage of maj Eagan dancing on the rudder peddles like he's sweetening up a guns kill at WIC. NO ONE touches the rudder peddles unless you dropped your can of chew, and even then I'd use a pencil or some other inanimate object to fish out whatever fell behind those funny looking foot peddles. The opening scenes also show the driod at 9k AGL or something ridiculous. You might as well send in a 4 ship of vipers because they'd have the same noise signature at that alt. Other stupid shit in the first five minutes: the camera doesn't click- it's not a polaroid the sensor operator doesn't talk enough about world of warcraft The people in the back of the GCS talk way too much not enough awkward silence. minute 6: a car with unknown occupants (collateral) rapidly approaches from the north. Eagan and the SO get all worked up in a dither because they can't "take the shot" if it's within their FOV- never mind actual CDE numbers. Jezus, if it's the FOV they're worried about why don't they drop that bird down another couple thousand feet or just zoom in-problem solved. anyway, Eagan is in such a hurry that he expeditiously counts down from three to zero before he shoots his hellfire. He's not launching the space shuttle atlantis, therefore you don't need a stupid countdown-just shoot the weapon. However, you would be surprised how many tools would practice their counting skills before shooting a missile in the UAV world. It was a habit I tried and failed to break and i see it made it all the way to Hollywood despite my best efforts. minute 7: Rando lt col busts in the GCS to blather on about what a great strike it was and barks random orders. then exclaims "careful eagan, you're beak to beak with an mq1" and the sensor ball magically picks up some other driod trundling through the airspace faster than an IRST sensor could have. There's a lot wrong with this, like why would the mq1 be co-alt while entering the stack, but then i thought it was probably some JSTAR pilot sent to driods so that made sense. the most irritating thing was the colonel being there to begin with. You ever heard of CRM? don't mess with it and GTFO of the GCS. minute 8: the movie shows some place that is not creech AFB. there are few HumVees at creech yet in the movie they drive around like it's Baghdad circa 2004. Eagan makes a right turn out of the gate to go home. He either lives in reno (nope), the director was practicing good opsec (absolutely nope) or they consulted no-one about this movie other than some tin-hat clown on chemtrails.net about military accuracy. Eagan is then shown cruising through vegas in fancy classic car. The car is accurate-plenty of heart broke aviators tried to subdue their pain with large purchases. one need look no further than your's truly to see what happens when a figher pilot tries to replace all he's lost with large ticket toys (mooney, sports car, electric hoverboard skate thing), but no one lives south of the 215 that goes to creech because the drive is too damn long and costs more money over time. you'd rather spend that money on Avgas or up your montly on your pittycar than waste it on an extra half hour of commute time one way by living near the strip. On the plus side, his wife is accurately bummed out when eagan announces he's moving to nights. you may as well be TDY for 7 weeks. back to the inaccuracies: Eagan then refuses his wife's advances. bullsh1t. Nothing is more satisfying than wasting terrorists then going for a role in the hay. no current or former fighter pilot turns down the advances of his wife/girlfriend - ever. Eagan then drives to work the next day via las vegas blvd. I don't even take LVBVD when i'm on the strip because the traffic is so awful, let alone use it as a thoroughfare. minute 9:15- lt col says "fvck" in his welcome brief- would be instantly fired. lt col talks about how hard it is to take off and land these "birds". WRONG. many pilots have demonstrated that they can't land their previous airframe but can land the MQx just fine. minute 10: six to nine more "fvck" from the lt col during brief. Dishonorable discharge for sure. "3k viper hours as a major?". this has never happened. There are no co-pilots in UAVS- there is a pilot and a sensor operator. Let me rephrase that- there are plenty of co-pilots in the UAV community who spent 5 years in whatever platform they came from and were never upgraded, but as far as duties within the UAV community, there are no co-pilots. The new "co-pilot" is touted to have 500 hours in the MQ-9. 500 whole hours!!!! average day = 7 hours of "flight" time. that's about 80 work days of experience. Whew, the day is won and we can all relax. Eagan asks "what's the lag at?" Well Eagan, it's probably exactly the same as what they told you in the TX course and it hasn't changed since ever. But maybe I'm pessimistic and today is the day that the USAF paid general atomics a gagillion dollars to solve that latency problem. It seems like all the shots are around 10" TOF. either they doubled the size of the rocket motor on the hellfire and they now cruise through the sky with the speed of a meteor or the bullsh1t factory that is hollywood just got away with another doozie. The lt col is still nervously hovering about. I've seen leadership hover inside the GCS. when you're out of bodies and all you have left is the C130 navigator to put in a kenetic situation, godd@mn right leadership makes sure he arms the weapons and doesn't set the autopilot to roll inverted and stay there until it's out of gas while permanently shutting off the datalink but Eagan is a superstar, so seeing the boss hover around (and even give clearance) makes me more annoyed. 17:00 - choppers at creech. no one lands there except the thunderbirds with EPs because real pilots don't like the uncomfortable looks they get from a thousand heartbroke aviators. It's like bringing chipotle to refugee camp in Somalia and not having enough for everyone. 21:00 someone asks eagan "i heard you want to go back to combat". And i heard that octo-mom isn't a virgin. 26:00 lt col still hovering about, giving clearance to engage and pi$$iing me off about the whole bullsh1t hollywood establishment. 26:30 "3 2 1, rifle" good grief. 29:00 after whining about being a droid pilot, Eagan's boss tells him to take the day off. I'm delighted that the manning situation has improved so much that they can give days off to disgruntled majors who can't handle the stress of sitting in a chair for 8 hours a day. 33:00 enter the CIA, who apparently thinks that in between hellfire shots is the best time to discuss foreign policy with combative droid crews. 35:00 there's some doubt as to whether Eagan can make the shot happen due to turbulence. that's like asking me if i can still do a good carrier landing on a veneer table top vs marble- it doesn't fvcking matter. 36:00 cafeteria food at creech- WRONG. they had a casino next door that served good food but the AF demolished it. they have your standard bullshit subway, but most importantly there is a delicious Korean restaurant on base (I know, WTF, right?) that has decent seating outside. 43:00 mouthy sassypants good-looking sensor operator opens her lippy piehole again with her politically driven vitriol and asks "what are we, Hamas?" well ms sassypants, maybe we are, it depends on who our enemies are at the time. If we're fighint ISIS, then I suppose we are on the same side as Hamas. If we're securing bagdad in 2003, then no, we want to kill Hamas and the other Shia militias but she nor hollywood has any idea nor do they give a sh1t. 45:00 more political discussions than capitol hill. shutting the fvck up WRT political viewpoints is a survival mechanism almost all of us have developed after our first 6 months in the military but having a stoic disposition and com discipline doesn't sell movie tickets. 47:00 the "date" between ms sassypants and eagan is awful. If I could have taken my wife up for an f-16 ride like eagan claims he did, just think of all the money I could have saved had I not had to court her and get her to look past my ginger good looks without the expensive dog-and-pony shows at nice restaurants and spontaneous, impromptu, fun, rebellious dates. "hey wife, just strap in the back seat of this D model and stand by for marriage". Fvck you hollywood. 48:00 "the thrill of landing an f16 on a carrier". Hollywood, fvck you. the whole date with ms sassypants is bullsh1t. I saw several officers lose their sh1t (and careers/families) because they submitted to the siren's call of ms sassypants. pretty hard to get a job as a washout uav operator with paperwork. 54:00 when egan "turns off the video recorder", he is actually turning off the pilot and sensor consoles of the GCS. Hollywood got away with another one. 55:00 eagan is texting in the GCS. this isn't the ops desk at base x-cell phones are not allowed. 59:00 and the rest of the movie- they've finally found a way to make that elusive hover-mode work. 1:05 Hollywood sends eagan on a huge pitty-party around this time, where he confesses to his wife that he blows everyone up to include the attendees at funerals. It's so full of bullsh1t the septic tanks here at base-x have less fecal matter in them. but during this whole time what pis$es me off the most is Eagan has been wearing his leather jacket the whole time, in vegas, in the summer. Bro, i get it. Those jackets look SHARP and I love my custom jacket from dark-horse more than any man should love a piece of clothing. but if you want me to listen to your bullsh1t about how you kill women and kids, don't distract me with your wardrobe. 1:22 I was blown away when i noticed a small detail in the briefing room- the 8 point orbit drawn on the white board!!! that is accurate, as were some of the other things drawn on the board. These clowns talk about landing f16s on carriers but had the hired expertise to accurately draw stuff on the whiteboards? I'm so confused right now. 1:23 ms sassy pants has to be told twice to turn the laser on. weird how I've never had to tell my index finger twice in the viper. 1:29 sh1t looks pretty bad for eagan. his wife left him, he's never going back to the viper. looks like it's time to execute plan B: "Plan B" is when you target your own GCS with a hellfire missile. think about it, it's some existential, deep futuristic sh1t. 1:30 eagan stops drinking after his wife leaves him. Wife=drinking problem. The rest of the movie is full of more horrible inaccuracies, and we all remember the "i'm still first class" line of crap ms sassypants ends her hollywood debut with. Of note, he turns off his "video recorders" (GCS) again and shoots that bearded crazy at the end of the movie. never mind that there was no laser energy guiding the weapon. Finally, at the end of the movie, he makes a left turn leaving creech. I was relived that the producer finally got something right but not 14 seconds later he's in Reno. Verdict 2/5 stars. the two stars come from the accurate portrayal of the compensating-for-somethin car and the 8 point orbit drawn on the white board. the rest is sh1t. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hey guys, after a little break from Baseops, was checking back in with you all to see what stuff I need to be aware of. Are there issues out there you think I need to know about or concerns, etc? Im not going to engage in debates or complaints about votes I have taken, but was curious if there is anything I need to be aware of. I'm still flying in the guard so I know about many of them, but wanted to see what was up Feel free to PM if youd rather, cant guarantee Ill be on often but Ill take a look occasionally. Hope everyone is doing well.

This. Don't give a drunk a drink. Until they tell you they are ready to quit growing the blob of non-mission relevant bullshit and the shoe clerks who feed on it. Make them squirm and publicly state what will be dropped, eliminated and changed. The SECAF & CSAF made a step in the right direction with the attempt and some success in the elimination of excess / unnecessary additional duties but it has MUCH further to go. You're going to have get him to strategically change the career intent, focus & development in the officer corps to level the wings. There are issues in the enlisted cadre also, careerism at the expense of primary duty competency, but the lion's share of the problem is that the AF stuck in an Industrial Style HR system (particularly in the officer cadre) that strives to maintain a force structure not really suited for today's workforce, operational environment or financial realities. Also, make them buy a LAAR - that would be the cherry on top.

Do you have information regarding a future bill to remove firearm supressors (aka 'silencers') off the NFA list? Thanks!

- Status of repealing Obamacare? - Status of introduced 50-state reciprocity bill and likelihood of both Houses passing? - BAH shenanigans (see the thread and get McCain to an old folks home) - Re-opening F-22 line? - Chances of getting the budget anywhere controlled? -edited to add - how about a lil friendly Congressional enquiry to the AFDW/CC regarding his General Order #1? That seems both ludicrous and has overtones that are scary.

Congressman, Thanks for checking back in. Here is what I've got: I sat in a fairly small room with a 4-Star who told us that the bonus was going to be $48K per year and that flight pay would go up to $1,500 per month. This was roughly 2-3 weeks before the NDAA was finalized. I'm curious about what went down with all of this? Do you know if the DOD was lobbying for $48K and Congress just decided to go with $35K? This 4-Star was extremely confident about what he was saying concerning the bonus. I'm just curious if he was full of it, or if he got blind sided. Or, did Congress change its mind last minute? What happened? The message being sent to me as an eligible bonus taker this year is this: 1. Congress either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the pilot shortage. 2. The AF is trying to fix the shortage by increasing pilot production and isn't trying that hard to retain pilots. 3. Neither Congress or the AF are giving me anything close to good enough to hang my hat on when it comes to keeping me in the military. In fact I'm getting strong negative signals from both.

I made you aware of several things and NOTHING.

Ah.. ye of little faith.

So the memo is out, 40,000 Airmen assigned to and under OPCON of the AFDW are banned from consuming alcohol for 48 hours surrounding the inauguration. Air Force civilians are strongly encouraged to adopt the policy as well. All of the promises from Fingers made to look like a steaming pile of poo in one moronic action.

The F#CK did I just watch!!

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The Air Force District of Washington (AFDW) commander, a two-star, issued GO #1 ordering that USAF military assigned/attached/OPCON to him were forbidden to drink during the 48 hours prior to and after the coming inauguration. Department of Air Force civilians were "highly encouraged" to follow GO#1. His rationale was members need to be ready. WTF? As small potatoes as this is in the entire DC scheme of things, it is another brick in the load of "Screw this, I'm out" that Big Blue seems to not understand. For me as an old retired fart, this has either domestic disturbance implications or a Maj Gen who needs his sails trimmed. There is an entire thread on this. F-22 - 189 minus the ones lost thus far, ain't enough.

I think most folks would agree the DOD wastes a lot of money on the acquisitions/contracting side. The Pentagon is to blame for some of this, but some lies in the enormous infrastructure required to comply with the FARs. Simplify the FARs as much as possible (a quick initial fix, eliminate "preferred" vendors and set asides for XYZ owned businesses. Small businesses are awesome but too many get stood up deliberately to compete for contracts and end up not being able to follow through and cost more than if the product/service was purely competed in the first place). Similar to #1, let the DOD roll over money between FY. We don't usually have budgets anyway so it would increase capability and eliminate the flying around the flag pole/buying pallets of flat screen TVs that happens every September. Let DOD recolor money. When a MAJCOM is trying to sustain their aging aircraft, being able to pull in the flat screen or flying hour funds at the end of the year will help instead of waiting 3 years for a POM to kick in. Allow services to waive admin rules in the interest of personnel/mission accomplishment. A lot of the additional duties (records management, etc) or training (trafficking in persons) or X program of the day are impossible for the AF to get rid of because of an obscure congressional mandate tasking the DoD to do it.

There is a recent record of proceedings that said something along the lines that SASC told the AF they could go themselves if they wanted $60K or even $48K and they should feel lucky they got $35K. Something else about how they wanted info on QOL fixes because they didn't think throwing money at it would fix the retention.

Well this bill doesn't technically take our benefits away but it increases our taxable income significantly and actually make our BAH worth less than the 95% congress already is scaling it back too. Where it's really going to hurt is the junior enlisted, a married E-3 makes $25,500 a year with approximately $20,000 in BAH. Right now in Washington state that family would qualify for WIC assistance. Under the idea of making BAH taxable income their taxable would be $45,500+, which makes them ineligible for WIC unless they have 3 kids. (https://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/WIC/Eligibility) I haven't looked at any other programs caps, just this one for now, but I imagine they are about the same.

Welcome back. No legislative questions here, but I will say that it's nice to know you're still around. Hopefully you'll be able to add your unique perspective when able. Cheers.

I know you said you weren't on the SASC, but what is the over-arching plan on rolling BAH (and BAS) into a "single-salary" system? From where we sit, that seems like it would be a huge pay cut due to the spike in taxable income, while not actually increasing the size of the pay checks. It also seems that the NDAA had language directing retirements to be "held stable", as in, retirement checks wouldn't stay 2.5% per year of service of the new "single-salary", but would instead be closer to the current 2.5% of base pay excluding BAH, BAS, and any incentive pays.

How about concealed carry reciprocity for AD service members stationed in IL but residents of other states. The Governor or his staff doesn't answer his emails.

WAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZup

o shit waddup

I think you could make the case that direct election of the Senators makes them less accountable to the people, because the constituency has become those bankrolling the campaign. When there are two seats per state at a term of six years, wealthy people/corporations can find it easily palatable to throw their full weight behind a candidate that they'll then have an in with.

Time for whales humping!

Bingo. The Russian hackers may have been targeting Hillary, but she gave them a target in the first place. It wasn't the hack, it was the content of the emails that hurt the campaign.

Airline life is like a stripper. Once to get your hands on her and see how nice she feels, you'll never be able to go back to your ugly, fat bitch wife. Sure, the stripper isn't perfect by any means...but it's oh so much better than your previous witch...

Hey, during a mass squadron attack on a large target array, I had the largest miss at 330 meters. Wish that had been un-scoreable. (In my defense, I was #24 across the target array and there was considerable smoke from BDU's, smoky SAMs, and flares along with some low cloud cover. I did a level delivery and couldn't see squat so I went TLAR relative to where I thought my specific target should have been but was just a tad short.) On the up side, I did return home with the same number of engines I started with but was justifiably chastised in the mass debrief.

I can tell you (at least roughly) how it's going to play out for the MAF year group(s)--like the one that's currently graduating--which get shorted for bodies, in favor of the CAF: - They'll all start their flying careers being really busy, flying a bunch and getting sq jobs folks in prior year groups would never have gotten so early - Way too early in their careers, the bright and shiny types will be identified, and will quickly join the protected class which rarely flies or deploys/is set up for the string of jobs/assignments that will make them really promotable. The next tier down--the ones not on the leadership track, but who are competent/dependable--will get crushed with all the important, yet non-sexy (read hardship) deployments & home station jobs. The middle of the packers--good flyers, but not great leaders/staff types--will fly their arses off and also get crushed with deployments. Those (at least according to AF perceptions) who are at the bottom of the pack will likely enjoy a level of job security that in prior years they never would have had. That is, until such time that they get RIFd--because, of course, the AF needs to retain its critically manned 11Fs (even though in this year group the 11Fs will be overmanned relative to 11Ms/others). - About 10 years from now, the bright and shinies (the ones who bother to stay on AD) will be in IDE & will already be largely disconnected from ground truths in the mobility community. The second-tier & middle of the road guys--if the civil sector is hiring--will get out in droves. The bottom of the pack folks will likely stay in. - 20 years from now, the bright and shinies will still be bright and shiny, and more importantly will have had careers that in no way reflect the experiences of the masses. The second-tier and middle of the road folks will all be retired, or--at best--will still be on AD, but enjoying cush jobs (the only kinds of jobs that could entice them to stay in). The bottom dwellers who survived being passed over/RIFs/etc. will still be on AD, too. They'll be the middle managers. The O-6 and above MAF leaders will have some really awesome ideas, after having spent so much time in schools/as execs/on staffs. Problem is, their middle managers--the passed-over O-4 and O-5 types--will almost exclusively be the middle of the roaders and bottom dwellers of yesteryear. Those executing the missions will almost exclusively be folks with less than 10 years rated service--i.e., folks who haven't yet had the opportunity to punch. In sum, we'll have a whole bunch of good idea generators, but lack adequate numbers of competent people to put those ideas (whether good--or more likely good-sounding but questionable) into action. Funny. This situation I describe twenty years from now kinda sounds like where the MAF is today: out of touch O-6 and above types, a razor-thin slice of competent O4s and O-5s trying to keep the ship afloat, and a bunch of junior dudes who are 1) eyeing life outside of AD, and 2) unimpressed by the AF clownshow. Problem is, ten years ago, we had the "good fortune" of 9/11, the Great Recession, and FAA rule changes to encourage folks to remain on AD. Consequently, we were able to retain at least a degree of talent. Barring another catastrophe, I don't see the Air Force future as being quite so rosy for the current crop of recent MAF SUPT graduates. The MAF will be even more broken, but at least there'll be enough CAF bubbas to fill the AF's senior leadership roles, going forward. So we'll have that going for us. TT

Un-scoreable at ?

For the record, this is still part of the curriculum down at Maxwell. It's definitely one of the more interesting lessons in illustrating the differences between most rated and non-rated perspectives.

Thanks for the replies, I'll email the registrar and try and get those hours. Unfortunately even if I got 201+hrs it would only bring it up to an 81. I am really hoping that taking the AFOQT from a 68 to 90+ can help me get it up even more. It seems if it is not a 90+ I will not be competitive at all. I wish they would forgo my original TBAS since it was taken 7 years ago.

Yea seems like another hump in the application process that's there to separate those who really *want* it versus those who think it's just cool or w/e their reason may be. That being said, it is an obvious sign of interest and commitment to the field so get it if you can, you might learn more about yourself and what you really want to do along the road. For me obtaining my PPL is what really triggered my pursuit of flying with the military. Before, flying for the military just seemed like a childhood dream.

From what I know you will apply to a flying board which includes CSO, and RPA along with Pilot. If you get your PPL you can apply for only Pilot if you so choose (from my understanding) Sent from my XT1058 using Tapatalk