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The Air Force could make a blow job terrible.

Dear President Trump, It's now been three weeks and one day since you took your Oath of Office. I don't mean to be unkind, but we all expected you to have solved everything, everywhere by now. I mean your predecessor had already issued his first executive order to close Gitmo and would soon abandon the agreed-upon at some risk to themselves missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland at the behest of Russian demands. Speaking of dang foreigners, you replacing the bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office during your first week in direct contrast to the last guy who removed that thing in the same time frame absolutely merits the Speaker of the British Parliament not wanting you to speak there. I mean, really, recognizing in a very public way "the special relationship" in direct opposition to the way that relationship was immediately telegraphed in 2009 is the height of ill manners. Your, perhaps, negotiating ploy of not calling the Russian president a psychotic publically would seem weak sauce compared to being caught on open mic with his creature Medvedev and "having more room to maneuver" in order to appease Putin. I am truly surprised you haven't sent your Secretary of State over with the whited-out reset (translated incorrectly) button. The guy's been sworn in for nearly a week. Time's awastin' it would seem to most of us. Please don't even think of establishing any red lines anywhere either. And while your predecessor had already made his plans for the first of his 'round the world apology tours denigrating the idea of American Exceptionalism and been brushing up on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech for not being GWB, you seem to be fixated on trying, however inartfully, to follow through on some of your campaign promises. And please don't even think of resurrecting that Monroe Doctrine also publicly repudiated. Everyone gets to interfere now, right? Except you and America. You and she should lie back and think of England... I mean really, is stopping the flow of unvetted refugees from failed nation-states that have a history of trying to kill 'Muricans really something you should be bothering with now especially since the last guy did the exact same thing and for a longer period of time? Lena Dunham and Madonna have called you out. I respectfully recommend you "Giddy-up" on burnishing your talk show appearances and not waste your time or my tax dollars on cheaper F-35s, defunding locales that refuse to follow federal law, or such nonsense. You might upset some folks and that's not acceptable.

I laugh quite a bit every time I hear AF "pilot shortage". There is no shortage of pilots wanting to fly planes in the AF. There's a shortage of the AF placing those pilots in jobs that allow them to be pilots, and to teach other pilots. There's plenty of bag wearers sitting at group level positions, in staff jobs, at IDE, etc staring at a computer screen. I've flown less than 200 hours a year the last 3 years as an experienced MWS instructor because the AF values keeping the self fellating bureaucratic process running more that it values flight experience. Senior Capts and junior majors are begging to be 'allowed' to get back to teaching the young pilots, only to be told that they're more valued behind a desk. No thanks, see ya, welcome aboard Delta 4962, non stop to Chicago.

Speaking of capsizing, here's one that never gets old... Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Look on the bright side. Flight pay hasn't changed in 69 years, so you're losing less money than if they had adjusted it for inflation over the years.

Why TF would the FAA give two shits about this? FAA: Why should we do this? Goldfein: All of my people are leaving for a better QOL. FAA: Your concern is noted.

Here is the question I've asked every GO I could the past few years, provided the forum was amenable to such discussions. I've racked up several blank stares and uncomfortable shrugs, followed by platitudes about my generations hard work. Nothing substantive. Anyway, lastest iteration pasted below (I modify it slightly depending on venue, but the core is the same): "Recently General Thomas, commander of US special operations command, expressed his assessment that the United States is "losing across the board" in our worldwide campaign against al Qaeda and the Islamic state. Currently, the preponderance of our nations kinetic activity against these groups is prosecuted by the US Air Force. We are fighting, but we aren't winning. In your opinion, why?"

Does anyone else feel stabbed in the back by this? Instead of fixing the problems that make people want to get out, he wants to make it harder for his pilots to get hired by the airlines? What a low blow...or am I reading this wrong?

I'm pretty sure Obama did more to help the Ayotolla in Iran than Trump has helped Putin in the last couple of weeks. And I remember the silence on the left when Obama helped the Ayotolla...it was deafening...

on second thought, given Russian aggression in Korea we should probably start that war! Anymore troops on the peninsula and it might capsize......

Still would have minimal effect on AF pilots IMO. It would be easier for civilians to get hired on by regionals, but legacy carriers are hiring at well above the 1,500 hour requirement anyway (closer to 2,000 - 2,500). Most military guys aren't flying for regionals after getting out, so they aren't directly competing with low-time civilians. You could argue that this will make it easier for civilians to build time at regionals since they'll be able to get hired at a regional faster. However, they will still need to be there for a long time to start logging PIC time.

I'm not advocating a WWE-style rant about how terrible Putin is. Rex Tillerson made a tactful reply during his hearing when he stated that he couldn't state that Putin was a war criminal (he is) because of the international legal implications of that statement. You can say things that get your point across without stating "I don't respect him." You could simply state that you respect the Russian people and that you do not condone the actions of their President, and that his actions are massively destabilizing. I don't want to fight them either. I'm well versed on the threat and I disagree with your assertion that we'd lose, but I agree this isn't the forum to discuss it. There are other ways to pressure Russia. They are exceptionally dependent on hydrocarbons and they have terrible internal issues (demographics alone may bring them down without our help). I also don't want to see Russia collapse entirely due to the effect on the European and international economy. We have other tools to bring to bear to influence their decision matrix. Sanctions have been effective, and there are ways to exert our own influence in a similar manner to how they've influenced other nations in Eastern Europe. We need to step up our own information operations in that region to counter their propoganda. Russia is Putin...for now. The Russian people like him because they see him as having made their country powerful after the humiliation of the 1990s, and something in which they can take pride. The history of Russia is one of nationalism and patriotism - for the state, not for the individual leader. Since their history is also one of monarchies and authoritarian rulers, it's easy to confuse that with blind loyalty to their leaders, but the fact is they support a great(er) Russia, and will support anyone they think can effect that end-state. Putin is that person right now, but won't be forever. The reigns of Russian leaders usually meet abrupt ends.

100% officers in the military.

Agree with snoopy. When I was competing for a pilot slot I thought there could be no more rewarding job in the world than being an Air Force pilot. I was not alone in this opinion. 12 years later I was exhausted, fed up, and burned out. If Big Blue can't figure out how to make this job rewarding enough to keep people around, I have little sympathy.

@tac airlifter so you upvoted @daynightindicator's post and so did I...guess we can agree after all! BL: no need to go crazy war-hawk and start threatening to nuke Russia, but no need to tickle Putin's balls either. Several previous admin have tried a middle ground somewhere in between those two, I guess now we'll see how far kissing the ring gets us...

FIFY. If they think it's bad now, I'm sure they're really scared about what it will look like in a few years. In 2020 Delta starts retiring 500+/year, and doesn't drop below that number until after 2030. Five of those years are 700+. Thats 51% of the current seniority list in 10 years...not accounting for early outs. I'm sure UAL/AALs numbers will follow closely.

I think you're missing the point. The current requirement is 1500 hours TT for any airline including regionals. If you lower that requirement, you're basically opening up the hiring pool to more off the street types that didn't have the luxury of logging monthly pond crossings or 8 hour orbits over Afghanistan.

The US would absolutely lose our most likely fight with Russia (Kaliningrad). It can't be debated here, so let's agree to disagree. But I'm curious, have you attended any wargames on the myriad potential scenarios? Is it possible there might be something here you don't know? Rhetorical only. let me ask you this instead: everything you wrote above is even more true about Iran. Did you disagree with Obama and vociferously elucidate the errors of his policies WRT paying them billions which they've funneled to terrorists? Do you think Russia is more likely to foment regional conflagration than Iran? And what's your take on the Obama led Russian reset? Was he foolish for trying to start a new relationship, or did you give him the benefit of the doubt? From my perspective, I don't know what Trump is doing. He's definitely not following the standard playbook of graduated response starting with verbal chastisement; and saying he respects Putin seems weird to me. But you know what? We've been following expert advice my whole professional career and we're worse off now than 15 years ago. I listen everyday to PHDs blabber on about how we just need to try the same IR policies, and when I inquire why none of those policies seems to work in the real world their answers are unsatisfactory. Trump is trying something totally new. Looks crazy. I'll withhold judgement, the experts have all been wrong thus far. Besides, Trump called the super bowl almost perfectly when everyone around me thought he was nuts. That counts for something!

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-kara-murza-acute-poisoning-blood-israel-kremlin-critic/28285215.html Another Putin critic turns up in the hospital...suspected poisoning. Actually, the 2nd time in two years he's been poisoned. But Putin should be respected [emoji849] Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

The next AFRC Board 17-01 will be held 16-17 May. Apps are due Apr 28th. Unsponsored applicants will be considered.

Interesting point. There have been so many times in my career that a basic administrative issue was encountered, an issue I'm sure is common, and yet no one knows the standard despite having an AFI. Is there no continuity outside flying squadrons? Is there no "Stan/eval" function that can adjudicate regulatory interpretations real time? Apparently not. Also, why are so many non-flying AFIs seemingly written with obfuscation rather than clarity in mind? No good answers gents.

What Huggy failed to mention, is the two 30K-hour jets were built in 1968. The rest of the active fleet entered service between 1981 and 1989. Soooo....

I have to do this now :) Listen to Eminem's Lose Yourself 2X, then Rap God 1X, then shadow box in the mirror for 5 minutes... Then break out the agility ladder from high school football and do various drills for another 5 minutes. Next, watch your favorite GoPro cockpit footage video (make sure there is cool music playing in the background and tons of high-G maneuvers to pump you up). Next, do as many pushups as you can in 1 minute with more cool music playing in the background. After that, pull yourself to your feet and wipe the sweat from your brow while simultaneously drinking half a bottle of cold Gatorade with the other first firmly planted into your hip bone--once roughly half of the bottle is empty, briskly slam the bottle down onto counter top, making sure that at least some of it splashes out of the bottle. FINALLY, sit down and write the best letter of recommendation for yourself. You won't be disappointed in the results. :)

I jettisoned any compulsion to be humble in my writing when I started writing the first drafts of my OPRs. You're just giving these people a draft...put in as much detail as you can (actual qualifications, actual numbers, etc), but your opening line should be "Bobsan walks on water" and your closing line should be "Bobsan is the best officer, pilot, and person I know". Let the person signing it make the changes.

Which is why I am enjoying the consternation being wrought on both sides of the aisle by the current occupant of the White House. I hope he shakes things up, shuts things down, and causes people to be fired and defeated at election time. (R) and (D).

30,000 hours... Better look at retiring the fleet soon, since we are getting close to the halfway point of our 75,000 hour airframe limit.

What happened to the commitment to the RPA community?

I would disagree with you. It is so much more than just a trainer. Designed in the 1950s, it has done a fantastic job for 50 years in transitioning pilots to supersonic fighters, and a myriad of high-performance heavies and bombers. NASA astronaut trainers, USAF and Navy TPS usage, test squadron aircraft for chasing cruise missiles on low levels. And most recently, a jet used to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in its F-22 adversary support role. Versatile... and impressive. Did you know it briefly held the time to climb record in 1963? And be thankful: had the T-38 not been selected, it would have been an F-100 variant. I'd bet we wouldn't be flying those anymore. When it came to getting out of Del Rio, Randolph, or Beale on the weekend, the "two-engine, twin-turbine, JP-8 slurpin', dual afterburnin', supersonic bar hopping machine" was the perfect steed. I met a lot of people as a result of the T-38. Even flew six sorties with Steve Ritchie. I got 5 rides in the T-38 in college; solo'd it in 1985; flew it all over the U.S. in some very challenging conditions, and on gorgeous VFR legs through the Sierra and the Rockies; flew my fini flight on 24 Sept 2014. Some trips were solo, some were with my favorite people. Loved it every time I got in it. And I am a substantially better pilot today because of all the sorties I flew in that jet. I've got over 100 types of aircraft in my logbook, including 8 sorties in the Viper (one from the front seat), a smattering in the Eagle, two in the T-45, three in the A-4,... F-18B, F-18F... and plenty more. From my perspective, looking at those other 100 types I've gotten stick time in, the T-38 is pretty impressive. F16 capabilities? Nope. But just because you're married to a Brazilian supermodel doesn't mean every other woman is a let down. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The T-38 isn't impressive either, it's a trainer, that is all.

^Agreed This isn't a black-or-white characterization. You can absolutely say that you want to improve relations with Russia while at the same time decrying their invasion of Ukraine, killing civilians in Syria and meddling in our democratic process. In fact, that's exactly the position I would advocate - you don't want to purposely and needlessly piss someone off, but you don't have to suck their d*ck every chance you get either. I'd love to have "phenomenal relationships" with all the rogue regimes around globe, just as soon as they stop being flagrant assholes at every opportunity. When we can improve things and work deals that are to our advantage, we should, but rhetorical capitulation and ass-kissing isn't typically a great negotiation strategy... Russia is typically a bad actor on the international stage and they're heavily invested in breaking the liberal democratic Western order that the US built and leads. Putin has killed opposition figures with comic book bad guy tactics (polonium poisoning after being stabbed with an umbrella) and the US President thinks, "(sic) He's doing a brilliant job." Great. p.s. - the US would "lose a fight with Russia?" Seriously?

Should Trump also state that he has great respect for Kim Jong Un and blatantly refuse to criticize the North Korean regime for fear of starting a war? It is possible to criticize a leader without it leading to outright hostilities. Putin is a strongman who is not afraid to brutally silence his critics, order his military to openly attack civilians, and disrupt the free and fair democratic process in The West. He absolutely should be criticised by the leader of the free world. Instead, Trump thinks the US is right in there with him. WTF? The man is off the rails. "Any negative polls are fake news"????? I have little doubt that Trump would just love to be half the strong man Putin is.

No relationship with Putin huh? The acceptance of Trump cozying up to Russia by much of the right is the most confusing thing to me. Being oddly aligned with Russia isn't a Republicsn position, it's not a conservative position, it's not a patriotic position. O'Reilly is right - Putin is a killer and drawing moral comparisons between his regime and the US is an insane position for a US President to take.

Burning down the house because the living room is messy isn't my preferred solution, but to each his own. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums