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Lurking.

FIFY

I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Don't give a shit about the politics and the promotions and all the additional bullshit. Focus on being a great pilot and quit when it's not fun anymore. Then go to the airlines and work half as hard for 2-3x the pay!

I took the one year bonus, $30k. Paid in two installments: 25+5. First installment paid today: $18.75k, so taxed at a 25% rate. Second install should arrive in the next few weeks. 18 months left before I hit 20 years, so it was a no-brainer. From submitting my app to the first chunk of money in the bank was 21 days.

I have lots of things to bitch about after a 20 year career in Big Blue. But...as I posted over on the Airwarriors forum recently, getting commissioned and earning the privilege to fly military aircraft for a career was hands down the best decision I've ever made in my life. There are things that I, in retrospect, wish I'd done slightly differently here and there, but overall it was a spectacular adventure and an entirely worthwhile experience. It was also incredibly formative in terms of my character as an American, a husband, a father, etc.Don't have a bit of worry that you'll regret the decision to follow in our footsteps.

Just know what the guard/reserve is if you plan on going active duty.

Most of the bitching here is about how the AF makes a great job crappy in respect to what it "could" be or punching to airlines to get paid more to work less. Still I think my bad day is 69x better than what I imagine being an accountant is like. No offense.....if that answers your question. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Taking inflation into account I am now making the same as a non-bonus aviator was in the 1990s. So does that make me an honorary nonbonus aviator?

Bugger, cock, bollucks, bellend, plonker NATO network ops check good.

Received this message via social media. I guess it's big news? "I had originally talked myself out of writing you altogether but after thinking about how quickly Big Blue turned on you... I've obviously rethought that. I work at AFLOA and you are the talk nearly daily. CSAF has been briefed. I can't help but sit on the sidelines and laugh at this shitshow. Thank you for sharing your story publicly. I hope you press full steam ahead with making as much noise about this as you can on the outside." The AFLOA is the Air Force Legal Operations Agency.

I see you've found the secret to long term wealth.

You should talk to the nice lady on the directed energy desk at MSIC. She will paint your a terrifying picture.

$4 for misspelling comma.

Azimuth, wow man. Sorry you had to go through that. WTF. This is one of many reason my peers and I are leaving in droves. I know countless females in the military that will blatantly lie and desecrate a guy's career if she thinks it will improve her situation. At an unnamed overseas airlift base..there was a brand new copilot. Fairly attractive. Flirting with all the other LTs constantly. No big deal right? Well her boyfriend was an IP at another "desired" airlift base......Break break, out of left field she claims she is being "sexually harassed," and claimed two Lt NAVs specifically were sexually harassing her (they weren't.) She even claimed sexual assault after one of them "touched her shoulder." Despite 30+ witnesses in their favor, they weren't given an ounce of daylight to tell their side. Reprimanded/Article 15 without question, grounded for several months and didn't make Captain. Said female made her way over to the "desirable" airlift base to be with her boyfriend. The military justice system is a joke, corrupted by the SJW and political correctness that has infected this once great military the past decade or so.

Yawn...Just another night at work. For the record the only time I used tracer rounds was for training or a firepower demo and only in the 40MM. We used to use 105MM Willy Pete rounds for training which were developed as a marking and fire starting round.. I had one rupture shortly out of the tube on a day training line, now THAT was a tracer. If you want some real gunship action check out the video below, rocking the 25MM on the AC-130U starts at 00:45. The video title is misleading, actually a combination of several types of gunships shooting. If you check out 04:15 you will see the MK-44 30MM Chain Gun that is on the AC-130W and AC-130J. The new AC-130J actually has a 30MM, a 105MM, AGM-176 Griffin Missiles, GBU-39 SDB, AGM-114 Hellfire, and at some point in the future a variant of the HEL.

Hey guys, Great news! I was selected to go to UPT! thanks for all the help!

To get the thread back on track from my previous rant, here is my top ten things wrong with the AF, in no particular order: 1. Officers that are worried about the next rank rather than taking care of their people. 2. SNCO's doing the same. 3. Cost cutting without taking into account the consequences of that decision. 4. PME that is usually twice as long as it should be. 5. The General should be held to the same or higher standard than the A1C when it comes to punishment. 6. People that don't understand their roles in the AF, and pandering to everyone so they feel better about what they do 7. I want my Aircraft Commander to be the best pilot they can be, so let them be PILOTS!!! Enough with all the extraneous shit they have to do to be promotable. Being a great pilot should count for something. When the shit hits the fan I want to know that the AC will get our KC-135 safely on the ground. 8. Enough with the uniform changes, we don't have to keep up with the Jones's! 9. Stop with the re-branding of the AF every year. I don't feel like a "warrior" so stop trying to convince me that I am one by reciting the Airmans Creed at every event! 10. Get rid of 90% of the bands the AF has. This isn't the 40's, I get more entertainment from my Ipod. Use that money to book a half way decent band to perform. I think the reason that most feel so unhappy with the AF at times is that we see what great potential it has. Things have to start changing, I just hope I can do my small part to facilitate it and see it before I retire......If that isn't taken from me of course.