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While the venue may not be the best place to voice policy, the decision is wholly welcomed. If we could continue this trend and focus more solely on our purpose as warfighting organizations I imagine a significant portion of the glaring retention issues would be solved regardless of the incredible outside opportunities.

I'm retired now so I hope all you assholes get off my lawn and move to Destin.

As a former Flight Chief of 100 Crew Chiefs this has to be welcome relief to today's Officers and NCO's. With Iran ,China, NK ETC ,rattling sabers we need to be mission focused. It was bad enough when straight Amn Snuffy married a stripper and then cried in front of my desk complaining that the other 99 Crew Chiefs know what his wife looks like naked including me. Also you know for sure that POTUS is no politician. All those other guys who ran would have not had the guts to pull the trigger on this.

Good luck using the Intelink search function. Completely useless, unless you're looking for an unrelated 2009 PowerPoint file that requires registration to view.

What a ing moron. Everyone should have seen the email by now stating that all lap dances are to be booked in DTS on the initial authorization... Sent from my Vitamix 450x Professional using Tapatalk

May not be an issue anymore Trump announces ban on transgender individuals serving in military https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-announces-ban-on-transgender-individuals-serving-in-military.html

Sometimes I feel like the SIPRNet is like the dark web...if you don't know where you're going, you ain't going anywhere fast. Bendy Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

This sounds promising for those of you still toiling away at Human Trafficking and Sexual Harrassment CBTs... "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wants to overhaul military education and training to “regain” the art of warfighting following complaints by thousands of servicemembers that their time is being wasted by hours of mandatory training...The training that is the subject of complaints covers everything from alcohol use to active shooters to sexual harassment to stress management." https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/25/mattis-moves-to-refocus-military-training-on-warfighting-after-complaints-on-senseless-exercises.html

Just let em build up steam until tonight. It should be interesting though, everyone in the military will see who supports them today in the media.

Makes more sense when you figure out Tweets read from bottom to top. Reading it how one normally reads the English language I thought I was going to have to become transgendered in order to keep serving.

Interesting that policy decisions like these get rolled out via twitter. I signed up for a twitter account solely to follow Trump. I'll just leave this here: Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Serbia is considered a second world country.

My first question: what exact problem are you trying to solve? Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network Forums

I'll believe it when I see it. About the same time I expect to see my squadron "revitalized". In the meantime I'll be in the vault. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Check out Rebuild Northwest Florida too. FEMA will pay for 75% of hurricane safety upgrades to your house which will reduce your insurance further and better protect your family/property. Also great for increasing your resale value. https://www.rebuildnwf.org/ Marty Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good stuff. Wait until the winter when some of the leaves are gone and the air is cold and more dense...the sound really travels. I was at a soccer camp last night east of the high school and had a great sunset view of some CVs with the gunships wailing in the background...its like music! PM if you need anything.

Can I do the pt test as a female and then transition back after lunch?

I know you are left of center brother but a lot of operator types and commanders just took a sigh of relief. You need to look on the other side of the coin, the Army commander that has to deploy his unit next year but Bob wants to be Sara and will be out of the deployment due to elective surgery. And lets not mix anything up, it is elective, they don't have to do it to survive life and a lot of people would say their mental state is already fragile. We kill people and break their stuff, anything else is noise. Anything else Duck said, unless he's drunk, which is a distinct possibility.

This is bull$hit. I mean all 7 of those people now can't join. Thanks a lot Trump.

I've heard the same rumor

You mean we don't have to be a leftist social experiment for the time being? Good.

Interesting. I thought boards were moving in the other direction. I'll check when I get to work next week if not already answered

I've seen CAG staff and others dual qualed in multiple platforms. Basically they were exceptional in one TMS (typically the one they were "birthed" in), and NATOPS safe for flight/bring the bird back aboard the carrier in the other. Tactically proficient in the second (or more) platforms : "no chance Paddles". In this aviators experience; airborne ISR/CAS is something I wouldn't mix with RPA (keep your drink neat). ATIS

In 2010 I was told that I'd received an assignment to RPAs. At the time, I was told that RPAs would be a "one way door": that I would likely never get a traditional flying assignment going forward.. Let's suppose that I would have a choice between the following two options: A) I could participate in a dual qual program, where there would be ____ available to fly 1.5 times per week while I was in RPAs. All else would remain the same. B) With my orders, I would be loaded into a TX to return to my grey-tail jet in FY+4yrs, reflected on my orders. I'd take B, hands down. Two of the three hypotheticals that you state are RPA, and the idea of having an ACE or companion trainer program in RPAs is not new. However, two points: first, while in an RPA assignment, it's a full time gig. Whether in lean times and you're spending large chunks of time as seat meat so that your bros can take leave, or when big blue starts to scratch the surface of adequate manning, leaving time to get in the vault, develop some skills in a CT setting, etc., it deserves full time attention, just like ALO, DAO, white jets, etc. Let me go for a day so that I can go do AHC in the MOA or at best pew-pew some .50 cal into the rags, and that's a day that my bro can't take leave, or at the very least that the mission suffers. Second, an ACE or companion trainer at RPAs wouldn't have sweetened the bitter pill of the "one way door" mantra being peddled by HHQ. The only antidote to that was when guys started getting jets (TAMI, UPT-d, everybody) in 2013. Time out of the cockpit is not a new concept. You're introduced to the idea in your commissioning source: remember the career progression pyramid that includes a "broadening" tour somewhere. That pyramid also showed that broadening is followed by a return to ops. Here's the rub: big blue hasn't been budgeting for a return to ops, at least not in the decade that I've been paying attention. Everyone departing for some gig out of the jet always had the same concern: having to "compete" for a TX to get back in the jet. "TX slots very limited, likely only available for leadership, Chief of Safety, or BNR this cycle. Korea will be the highest Pk for all others,..." Remember that boilerplate caveat on the Fighter Porch page in the portal? That's what folks saw (likely the first thing they looked at) when they had orders in hand to ALO/RPA/AETC/Staff, and it set the tone--it sent a value message to those that big blue NEEDED for the task on their orders. Takeaways for Big Blue: 1) If you're not planning on a TX for every "broadening" bill paid, then you will reap what you sow for failure to adequately plan. It's nothing more than paying off one credit card with another. 2) Pulling the CPIP punch at 10.0 crews/CAP? Fuck you, Big Blue. Standby for another round of soul searching (RAND, CBO, CPIP-II report) in 4-6 years. You never learn: until an RPA squadron is staffed and put on the same battle rhythm as any other AF squadron, the rest is all BS eyewash. 3) Someday, you'll need 11x's to help out and/or broaden in areas that might be fenced off today. When that time comes, if some A1 good idea fairy utters the idea of a "one way door", act swiftly and surely. Crush that idea in the crib, and quietly (or fuck it, publicly and loudly) remove said nearsighted dipshit from any remote chance of doing damage in the future--allow them to seek opportunities elsewhere.

No no and no! Maintaining qualification and currency let alone proficiency in any USAF MWS is a full time job....the ground duties/admin queep is a second full time job. Being an instructor/flight CC/commander is arguably a third. Oh I also like to spend time with my family and get time off. We aren't going to assume another full time job because the Air Force has royalty mismanaged its rated force and shot itself in the foot due to its own incompetence.

Tell us what you'd have done differently. Start with the brief.

Lmao, wow. You probably don't respect John McCain's service because you like people that weren't captured?

It's a big party, I kinda like it.

If you and the kids want to see them up close shoot me a PM and I'll get a static worked out for you Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Thanks! Bought in Navarre. Of note, my kids are now enthralled with gunships. We're close enough to the range that we can see and hear them practicing. One of the really little ones has even indicated that he'd rather fly the airplane with cannons than the fast and loud ones from our last base.

I'm telling you, TX isn't all its cracked up to be. The gun laws in AZ are SO much more relaxed and the property taxes are way lower.

Thanks wave for these specific recommendations. I followed your recommendations to the letter and got a $2k/yr discount on homeowners insurance.

You may need to go back to acronym school brother...

Many moons ago I posted on here asking for advice about juggling my small business while going through UPT. I got a variety of comments and direct messages ranging from "hire a manager" to "I can't see how it would work" to "a friend of a friend did something like that". I ended up hiring a manager to run the place while I was gone and gave up a big chunk of my salary to do it. But I trusted him, and with my wife's help running admin stuff from behind the scenes I was able to keep and actually grow my business. I just pinned on pilot wings a couple of days ago and wanted to come back here to thank everyone for the encouragement and advice. I also am back here to encourage others to do press with their dreams no matter how complicate their situation is. Presumably the core psychographic on the Guard/Res forum is someone who either has a job or plans on going back to one while flying for the military concurrently. UPT is incredibly challenging but it's not impossible while juggling stuff from back home. I had a full-time business that services over 1200 clients a year, have 6 staff that I had to manage and additionally had a wife and daughter that I brought with me to UPT that I had to play husband/father roles for. It was challenging but there are ways to get it done. Some things that worked for me: Compartmentalizing - Being good at this skill is essential whether you are a bachelor right out of college with no commitments or someone like me. I saw a dude break up with his fiancee, a bro's wife cheated on him with another officer in the squadron, another guy in my class who was a fellow business owner lost a partner while writing a PhD thesis...all of these things happened in the throes of UPT. Every single one of these guys shared the ability to switch hats quickly and prioritize and press. Being able to focus on the mission, put out the fire that's immediately in front of you and then go on to the next thing is an essential quality of being a USAF pilot in my opinion, and UPT seems to have a way of weeding people out who can't do it. Delegating - Being able to rely on my wife was the deal maker for this to work. She was incredible. Running the household, taking care of our daughter, running my business admin and ALSO working her job at a software company that she stayed on with when we moved for UPT (they let her work remotely) AND packing the house for multiple moves (4 military moves shipping 11,000lbs of household goods in the past 18 months)...she did it all. She was a champion and having someone that you can rely on is huge whether it be a parent, spouse, best friend, whatever. Know when to ask for help, people in your life will step up and you can't do it all on your own. Setting Expectations - When training my manager at the outset I made it very clear that he was going to have to be self-reliant. There were many days where I just wouldn't be able to pick up the phone and help him put out fires. Often he would forward angry customer emails that I wouldn't see until 3 days after he had already figured out how to deal with it. He had to learn a lot on his own or with delayed responses but it wasn't impossibly frustrating for him because he knew it was going to go down this way. Letting people in your life know (family, friends, colleagues) that you will be out of pocket is an important part of building the space you need to get things done and focus during UPT. Knowing your limits - I carried ORM points on basically every other ride. I didn't care what people thought although I got the sense it's taboo or some bullshit to admit weakness (especially during T6's). I wanted to be honest with myself and the crew in the back of my helicopter or other crews in our flight. I even found that my IPs became more honest and carried their own points when I added mine when they may not have otherwise. Having an honest conversation about the stressors in your life automatically helps make things safer because you can move on and compartmentalize. I also said "no" to rides. I was pressured by IPs to go when I felt I would be dangerous and I said no. It wasn't popular but I finished the syllabus on time and did well enough (#2 out of 8 for daily rides #3 for academics). I think being aware of your limits ultimately creates a culture of collaboration. Within my class, my stud bros and sis became more aware of everyone's inherent limitations and advantages which made us all work better together. We knew what we'd have to do when paired up with certain stick buddies or meshing with other crews on a ride. "Cooperate to graduate" can't happen if you don't know how to cooperate. Again, I am eternally grateful to all the advice I've been given and mentorship by those who've come before me, and guidance from the folks who held my hand at the squadron and had my back...including those who were willing to step up and take ownership when bad things happened (like when I came off orders in the middle of UPT). Thanks to all and hopefully this helps someone who is in a similar situation or someone who is considering going Guard but are worried they won't be able to reconcile all the forces in their lives asking for attention.

Dunkirk tonight. So So IMO. Cinematography was good. Story line and phasing of movie takes some getting used to. Dialog hard to hear/understand at some points. If you know the history of this situation, you can make it all work. Anyone that doesn't (like my smoking hot blonde wife sitting next to me)....she would have been lost if I hadn't explained what happened in a historical sense at Dunkirk (before the movie). For the flying parts, most excellent Spitfire action that any aviator will enjoy.....up to a point. Not going to spoil it, but any of you will know when to suspend a little physics. Cheers ATIS

Dunkirk is good. Character development and dialogue are pretty lacking, but the tension is amazingly well done. Definitely worth watching on a big screen.

"Not enough female lead actors or actors of color."

Where's Chang when we need him?

I had an OG/CC tell me he deletes everything once a week, even the unread emails, if it was important, they would call.

This. Unless you're looking to be a martyr, the best answer is the one where they think you're doing what they want, while you do what you want instead Sent from my Vitamix 450x Professional using Tapatalk

You think we can handle that in this community?! We're lucky just to get the gear down on the right runway.

Good. But only because it's necessary to take away the AF's shiny toy in order to impose a refocusing on its core functions.

Unclass footage released

My prediction is that this will be one big nothing, just like DADT repeal. We all do a one-off CBT and get back to work. Can't figure out someone's wacky pronouns ... try Rank LastName or callsign. We're looking at something like 1/3 of 1% of servicemembers here, I have a difficult time seeing how there will be too much fuss.

Maybe an old dude with no experience or credibility is at least more mature or has work experience compared to a young dude, with no experience or credibility?

Mattis at least has a track record. Goldfien got shot down by a third world country. I know which one I think has a chance of succeeding. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums