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O-5, Command list, flying with the majors now. Didn't hurt my professional livelihood at all.

Today, there's some cadet, sitting in his academy dorm room decorated to look like his mothers basement who's only wish is to be a space geek. With his thick glasses perched on his pale nose, he is going to hammer out a letter on his Doritos stained keyboard to Captain Sandecker telling him that, as a cadet, he is ready to sit in and be a satellite jockey. He was a member of the rocket club, has his HAM radio license, and is well versed in all things Dungeons and Dragons. Captain Sandecker, reflecting on the reply from one each Mr. Toro, will answer this young, ambitious basement dweller that the Satellite Operations facility is no place for an amateur, radio operator or otherwise, hazards like hot coffee or tipping over vending machines abound. Discussions of Kirk vs Picard would probably not be understood by just a cadet. Staring at computer screens is for professionals so stop calling, texting, #leaveusthefuckalone. So, the dreams of a lowly cadet get crushed because of a prior Toro Fox 2 to the face (nice shot!) of an earlier wannabe.

What a lot of people -- apparently yourself included -- are missing is that the letter was "fighter standard" straight-talk, despite what Killer's public response to it was. As a fellow Strike Eagle dude when this all went down, I can tell you that 99% of the bro network thought Toro's reply was right-on, because that's how we talk to each other and how we keep each other on the straight-and-narrow when we stray outside what is acceptable behavior. So, it is no surprise to me that Toro made O-5, and had a fine career afterward, because he's a damn good officer, aviator, and instructor, and the vast majority of his peers and leaders knew that, too...as well as not thinking the email was some wildly-offensive douchey move.

Hookers and blow.

STFU SNAP. WGAF. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm thinking bigger.

You should try to find Lt Smalley, I think it was, that wrote the letter to the CGOC at F.E. Warren suggesting that they not participate in a pub crawl in Ft. Collins or better yet the female from Ramstein that responded. That email made it around at the GO/FO level by the time it was done. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Spending my spare time waiting in the pharmacy and counting down to 1 April so I can bum-rush the Commisary and Class VI.

There was a RAND study published that said building three different models specifically for each service would have been cheaper. Too late for that, I guess.

So you're saying there's a chance? Did you get a DP? If not, this has already been decided and there is no mystery. If yes, understand all the other DPs have records just as good...how much does it even really matter. Go to school, keep up the good work, stay if you want, leave if you want...if not this year, you'll surely get your promotion next year. I've seen dudes move mountains and get 'P' 1-BPZ and dudes just plodding the standard HPO path get a 'DP' for nothing much special... The promotion system leaves a lot to be desired...despite all the very solid people that will tell you, "we get it right most of the time." You'll be fine...I humbly suggest you focus on something actually important in life. Bendy Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

So you are retired now.......

All that AND he got rid of the HIV... Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network Forums

So we're really concerned about the feelings of a cadet now?

With a 95 PCSM in addition to your other stuff you're probably extremely competitive for an interview at any heavy/bomber unit out there, and probably have a good shot at fighters too (just can't speak from too much experience there). If you get the job, well, that's a lot more down to interviewing well and meshing with the squadron personality-wise.

It's because every time someone does some kind of cool deployment morale video, it ends up on YouTube, Air Force PA flips their shit and heads roll because of "unapproved" footage. After a while, it's not worth even trying anymore.

In the immortal words of Snooze, "being a fighter pilot won't get you pu$$y no more." And also Top Gun is really old. The kids these days were born in the late 90's. They don't even understand the SNL reference... ICEMAN - The Later Years - watch more funny videos

Indeed. I live about 3 hours away from the airport so when I had short call, I'd drive 1.5 hours closer, then double-dip some pay at Starbucks doing my quarterly CBT, or go cruise Best Buy or CarMax for a while. Sometimes go to the beach or do a short run (they never said you had to show up clean!) Thankfully I never got called for a true short call, usually just assigned flying at 0600 the next day...so I'd just drive to an airport hotel and hit the pool and/or bar until bed time. Rough life.

Yes. Yes, I would like fries with that, Colin. https://nation.foxnews.com/2017/03/18/nfl-gm-some-teams-genuinely-hate-colin-kaepernick

The lessons should have been learned but they were not, there is blame on both sides. The pointy nose crowd was running the show and lived by the "nothing but 5th gen mantra" at a time when it was not affordable. The did everything within their power to crush the rebellion including having the CSAF personally take a WIC patch away from an Albino kid who wrote a blasphemous IDE paper that dared to suggest when didn't so many F-22s. The rebels...well they are rebels and in their effort to fight for enough table scraps to build 1,000 lite attack airplanes they ended up pissing off everyone and created just enough doubt in Congress and DoD to let people like McCain and Gates dictate our terms of surrender. If you think we have enough fifth gen or we won't need it, go into the vault and have an honest look. If you come out still thinking we have enough, choke yourself. We are and were our own worst enemy. The truth is, we need BOTH and a LOT more. Space and RPA are bills USAF pays but take away from our piece of the pie which hasn't gotten bigger. It is time for a CSAF to stand up and put it all on the line...communicate the urgency and if they don't listen, RESIGN and make a stink. The guy behind him should do the exact same thing until someone listens.

I watched them take off last night as I left work, sad day in the office today, to them, here here,

So let me get this straight... The suggestion is that we should invoke the ghost of John Boyd to buy a bunch of Gripens, which most people view as a complete POS, but it will be better because we'll buy it without a (big) radar. And since they have no/small radar, they won't be as hot so enemy IR sensors won't see them as well. And without a (big) radar they can have a smaller nose which of course makes them harder to see on enemy radar. It's RCS will even be smaller than an f-16 even though it already has a tiny nose and tiny radar. To make them useful as combat airplanes, we'll still have to hang a bunch of external pylons and missiles and shit on them which reflect RF energy, but it's okay...because it won't be as hot without a radar. Then it's one tiny motor will let it supercruise for long periods of time, despite the drag of hanging a bunch of shit under its tiny wings. Which is awesome because supercruise lets you surprise the enemy even though they see you on radar. Because you're going wicked fast. But that's okay because magically it will never get very hot because even though it's blasting through the air with a hot motor it doesn't have a (big) radar. So that means they won't find you as easily with an IRST. Even though they see you on radar. And it will have fantastic range because it won't have a (big) radar so the gripen's already tiny, pointy nose can be tinier and pointier because that's where all the drag comes from. And heat. And RCS. And the lack of radar will make it super cheap. To make up for that we'll embed some wicked awesome magic sensors in the wings but they won't cost very much of course because it's not a big radar. And radar is bad. Because it's hot. And because it won't have a radar, the price will somehow go down by $20 million enabling us to buy a few more of them so we have enough to get shot down because an attrition game plan aligns perfectly with our modern political will to accept huge losses. But that's okay because we can turn more sorties with the ones we have left so pilots can fly more so we'll retain more pilots. The ones that are still alive anyway. Did I get that about right? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And they have a long track record of stellar decision making.

He's flying the friendly skies now! Gotta get that line number early...

I would skip the single stage press unless you're only interested in reloading for bolt guns. If you shoot in any volume at all, it's a non-starter. My first press was a Lyman turret(which is really a glorified single stage), which I loaded on until it had paid for itself in savings and promptly moved on to a progressive, Dillon 550 in my case. The Dillon's are a bit more expensive (the 550 is around $450 vice $390 for a Hornady LnL AP) given the feature set and it's arguable whether they're actually worth the premium at that price point. Once you bump up to 650 and 1050 land, the DIllons don't really have any competition. Something else to consider is how much you shoot will probably increase once the cost per round goes down unless you're strictly budgeting. The turret press made more sense before I doubled my shooting volume. I loaded somewhere around 20k rounds on the 550 before upgrading again. I still have it though, and use it for all calibers other than 9mm.

I have a single stage RCBS RockChucker Press (w/powder measure and case trimmer), which I got as a wedding/housewarming gift from my FIL 30 years ago, but cost about $300 or so today. Dies you can get anywhere (Academy, Bass Pro, Cabelas, Midway USA) and run about $30 per set. There is a local gun shop I frequent for bullets, powder, primers and shot--I like the fellas there and don't mind paying a couple bucks more there since even their prices will beat online guys + shipping. Next to my Rockchucker my son has his MEC Grabber progressive in 12 ga (was ~$450) and a Lee Load-All II in 20ga ($60). For infrequent shotgun, the Lee Load-All is fine. For volume, you definitely want a progressive. I can do: .300Win Mag, .30-06, .223 in rifle, and .38, .357, and 9mm in pistol. I thought about "upgrading" to a progressive press, but when you factor in changing calibers as often as I do, it's actually simpler (but a little slower) to use the single stage--just plan your loading in stages. I collect all brass and deprime with a universal deprimer die, then tumble/polish as needed, and separate into calibers. Then I try to prime magazine batches +2 of each caliber (i.e. 4 mags 223 (122), 4 mags 9mm (62), etc) all at once before switching calibers and dies. Once the brass is cleaned and primed, the charging and bullet seating is a simple affair--put on some tunes and crank away (sts). Since I'm single stage, I have to seat/check each bullet seat and crimp each time I set up--that's the reason for the extra (+2) rounds per batch. I tend to give a lot of my handloads away (Birthdays, Christmas)--ammo makes a great gift!

I'd like to point out the great success of the SJW's and just how indoctrinated everyone has become ..... by calling manning "she."

I believe they're called Undocumented Democrats

This is nothing more than a way for 0bama and the libs to redistribute migrants to red states, to believe there's any human interest story here is laughable.

I would advocate for a pivot towards America, the United States of... What's really funny to me is the towns in California that are staging protests over illegals showing up. My guess is they still haven't connected the dots between their vote and their new illegal neighbors. How's that damn change working out for you now that Jose took your job and his 13 kids gave your 1 TB? I should probably stop there... Laws?! Oh those laws?! Yea, those don't apply. Look, I signed a piece of paper.

You mean Democrat voting surge?

Wow. You were a total d!ck to that kid, and the whole world knows about it. Maybe the kid needed that, I don't know. Either way, good on ya for getting thru that unscathed. For grins, what did the boss say to you when he pulled you into his office?