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RF-4C 1. Ops tempo: Outstanding. Best kept secret. Basically a flying club. As a 1Lt it's your airplane with great responsibility; "All we ask is bring it back in one piece." Flying is mostly low level single ship to where ever YOU and your WSO decide to go that day. Not flying, review your film from previous day, do a tour in the RSU, perhaps a little studying in the vault, shelf check at the BX. TDY's and deployments minimal and considered a good deal. AAR training every couple of months. Night AAR is always scheduled with a full moon. If stationed in Germany always save a little fuel for the fur ball with whomever is trolling along the Rhine. 2. LIfestyle/family: Could not be better. Home every day by 5. No working weekends. If stationed in Germany most have a rental Swiss chalet for the winter skiing months. 3. Community morale: Excellent. Surprising amount of fellow pilots UPT DG's. Some turned down fighters to fly Recce. Everyone works and pulls together. 4. Advancement & Future of Airframe: Terrible, once Recce always Recce according to MPC although I managed a 4 yr OA-37 assignment to DM. (another flying club). NO future dedicated manned Recce airframes. 5. Preferred PCS locations: Zweibrucken, Alconbury, Bergstrom. Oh crap, just got up from a nap. Dreaming it was 1977 and not 2017! Sorry guys, you missed a great time in the AF. 10 years AD then off to a legacy airline.

you're a fucking tool. gtfo

The only person responsible for this tragedy is the sick motherfcuker who pulled the trigger. Big Blue contributed by incompetence, but doesn't bear ultimate responsibility. I also don't necessarily want SAF/CSAF fired now unless there is a chain of firings from lowest to highest. THAT might get some attention and put lasting pressure on folks to do their job AND be judged by job performance. But, now that both the HASC and SASC have weighed in to grab some political attention, you can bet some senior heads (er, yes...) will roll. Because, you know, do something... BTW, I, as a gun owner am not responsible for this tragedy. Neither are the millions upon millions of legal, responsible gun owners in this country. I do want to, you know, do something, because... It is ultimately about control. Those who want to blame me want to assert their control. I'm agin that.

So, there I was. No shit. Middle of an ORE at Shaw, first of three sorties for the day turning ACT x ACT x RED. I was a brand new CMR #2, all thrust, no vector; I'm a pitbull on a fvcking leash. Brief and ground ops were uneventful, up to the point where PFL (wussy flight lead) calls Ops and tries to cancel due to isolated VCTS. Fvcking FAIPs. Ops recommended he grow a pair so we took off and headed west. After precisely 69% of the vul covered, with a clean picture and most of my missiles expended, the SOF calls on AUX - mushroom cloud overhead; we need to divert to WRB. PFL quibbles, something about it being his turn to cook dinner that night. Those of you who know MatMac are aware: this is no joke. Anyway, Georgia is a state where (up to that point) I had yet to slay so I tactically declared BINGO and reached back with my right hand to make sure my helmet bag contained my trusty mark-1 divert kit: deodorant, toothbrush and a box of rubbers. On vectors to WRB I've got snowplow called up and I wisely aimed for every rainshower I could... On the ground, we talk to TA about turning our jets. Well, I talked to TA. PFL was on the horn with his wife and then PF Chang's ordering food so he didn't get in trouble. Turns out TA will take 3 hrs to turn the 8 jets so we go to the bowling alley to get lunch. This is where the fun starts. It's summertime, so school is out. I spy a group of four lovely ladies (who were looking for heroes) on lanes 6-9. I give PFL a 5-spot and directions to order a burger, then I go anchor by the ladies. Turns out the outgoing blonde is the wing king's daughter and the others are her friends from the nursing program who happen to be visiting during the summer. Shitty food is consumed. Numbers are exchanged. I depart for Base Ops with digits and the hope of a road trip some upcoming weekend. I proceeded to do the most thorough pre-flight inspection of my life. Low and behold, I find an EMS bit ball had popped after landing! Sure, if I had noticed it on my post-flight then maybe they would have had time to send dudes from Shaw to fix it that day. Not likely though. Now, everyone knows that flight through precip is likely to trip one without any real problems, so PFL comes over to survey the situation. He closes the panel and asks what I'm gonna do. I give my best pep talk about how happiness comes in small doses and opportunities to be true heroes are rare. His response: "I know dude, that's why I need to get home. I'm only allowed two TDYs a year, I don't want to burn one in WRB." SQ policy was to divert as two-ships but I sit idly by with a shit-eating grin on my face as 7 jets blast for home and I walk off to the Qs, helmet bag thrown over my shoulder. Aftermath: he told me the lettuce wraps were particularly good at home that night. Me, on the other hand - I got back the following afternoon and was completely spent. 4 nursing students not worth burning one of your allocated TDYs on? For me it was, and all it cost me was a phone call to my neighbors to take care of my dog. Well, that and I did have to replenish one divert kit.

Epic creative writing, on par with an -of the year 1206. I withdraw my previous objection.

Tacrep JB? We're gone a lot. Between disaster you name it, channel/contingency missions to Afghanistan/Iraq/Turkey/Kuwait/Jordan, Presidential golf weekends and trips to wherever, locals to make up for the one that got cancelled three weeks ago because the president wanted to go golfing, during the hurricane. Turn around to finish up your deployment checklist so you can hang out at the Deid for 3 months. Return home and hit up SOS after you get recurrent in airdrop. Get back from SOS to find out that congratulations you will be going to AC school in two months then PCSing to Del Rio in 6 and Randolph will be an out and back TDY to save money... ...Still the best deal in the Air Force.

I’ve had them waived with as little as 3 months of ADOS.

You guys are applying the same logic that you bitch about constantly with sweeping punishments for individual transgressions. You think the CSAF and SAF should be fired because some OSI person in New Mexico messed up? What possible good does that do? It's awful what happened and the fact that an administrative issue enabled it is heartbreaking. Punish the right people, fix the process, and ensure that there's corrective action moving forward.

Laws against shooting others as in murder. Check. Laws against using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Check. Laws against felons obtaining/possessing firearms. Check. Laws mandating felony convictions put entered into FBI's NCIS database. Check. Big Blue f'ing this up. Check. So, to some the solution is more government. The same government that can't do this. Sick fcuk, abusing his wife and his infant. Now this. Rot in hell, you motherfcuker. I also hope that Big Blue is named as a defendant in a giant civil case as being negligent and culpable and the families get huge dollars. I also hope OSI pogues and Holloman leaders in place at the time draw, at a minimum, career-ending paperwork. Those who are supposed to audit such processes as well. Do your fcukin' job, morons.

Anything I add would be quibbling.

My take on the whole thing from a NFL fans perspective. I'm grumpy old Crew Chief/A&P who is tired of constantly being brow beat every time I have a opposing view from the left. The term racist and bigot have lost all meaning in today's debate since it is used by weak minds who don't have a decent counterpoint. So I turn on the TV on a Sunday afternoon to watch some football. I used to play in High School and USAFE in the 80's when every base fielded a tackle football team, great times. I just want to watch football and not be lectured by guys who have always been on the wrong side of a conversation with a cop. I have been pulled over for your average traffic infraction but never had a bad encounter, is it because I'm white or is it I just cooperated and said I brain farted. The NFL is entertainment short and simple, I want to root for my team or watch some well played games. Most of the times now even without the kneel downs the product is just not good with the stoppages of play, constant penalties and crass advertising. Now you got black players whooping it up when they destroy a white player, I didn't put up with it on active duty and sure don't want to see on my TV. Now if these players are serious they need some skin in game away from the playing field, some give back with their foundations but most these guys could start setting the example by being decent fathers, husbands and friends and stop acting like thugs between Sundays. Start incentives for good behavior for inner city kids who get good grades and come to games as their guests etc. Now get off my grass.

All I know is the EC-130J PA Guard guys do definitely deploy regularly to one of the hottest places on earth

Every person has a unique situation and at the end of the day I strongly encourage each person to follow the path that provides the most happiness and satisfaction to both you AND your family. Honestly I did not put as much thought into the “after” plan as I should have. I’ve invested well and don’t need to work, but as I got closer I decided I still wanted to avoid becoming a sloth and do something meaningful, at least for a few years. I hit the button a year in advance and the airline gig was really heating up, with over 4,000 hours TT and 2500+ IP time I thought it was a no-brainer, I could work part-time make decent cash and have the travel benefit for my family. I obviously have many bros at Delta and Fedex and they shared the good and the bad, so I decided to make that plan A. My plan had two basic flaws that were mistakes on my part, not insurmountable, but still limitations I needed to overcome. 1. I had been sitting at a desk for the last two years NOT flying. 2. I had not completed my ATP and now had to do the ATP/CTP course. I started flying private again and signed up for the CTP deal (what a complete waste), and built my application on airline apps. I hit the apply button with the written complete and provided updates with the CTP complete, new hours flown and finally added my ATP practical two weeks after my retirement ceremony. When I hit the last update button with the ATP complete I thought, “ok the phone will ring any day now”…it did not. Luckily I talked to a lot of folks (including Rainman), and I had a plan B that I was also working. There are MANY resources for vets and Rainman walked me through several I had never heard of which, one really really helped (https://www.acp-usa.org/). In very short order I was contacted about several positions, I had not applied to any of them, all word of mouth through my network. I made it to the final two for a very senior job and was a bit relieved when I did not get it (location). Over the course of a month I interviewed with several major defense contractors, with Google, with one of the largest food production companies, and with a major university. I don’t want this to turn into a dissertation but I learned some valuable lessons. 1. Industry is STARVED for leadership. 2. Industry professes to love Vets but in reality they are very concerned about them. Many think every Vet has PTSD. 3. Most jobs come from contacts and networking. 4. Industry has all the same problems and BS the military has. As a SQ/CC, Grp/CC, Wg/CC I had to deal with DUIs, Rapes, theft and other buffoonery. I have encountered many of the same issues at my current level in Industry. After a flurry of interviews things went quiet for a while which was EXTREMELY frustrating. Industry hiring moves at a glacial pace and I began to contemplate outright retirement. I was REALLY shocked the airlines hadn’t called and am honestly still somewhat perplexed by that fact. I have since learned how important recency is to the majors, I get it they are the pros, but it does not make sense to me. When I returned to fly as a O-5 it took two weeks to requal. When I returned as an O-6 I was scheduled for 10 rides, I did three rides and proficiency advanced to my checkride as a mission IP. I was flying civilian but still had less than 100 hours in the last six months…oh well it is their ball and their game, they get to make the rules. Four months later I got the call from Delta, over nine months after I first hit apply. The next day I got a call from a company I interviewed with early on…the made me an offer (turns out they were waiting for a senior dude to say yes and he didn’t know he had to say yes.) I sat down with my family and we had some long deliberations. Every situation is different and my family was tired of me being gone all the time. My son was established in school so taking a position with Delta was going to mean commuting and sitting reserve in a crash pad for at least a year. I must say after going through all the asspain it was not easy to call Delta and say "no thanks!" In the end I was able to parlay the industry position into a remote position working from my house. My company flies me to the home office once a month and I generally leave on Monday morning and return Friday night. The other travel has ramped up a bit but some of that is seasonal, some was unexpected because our company is GROWING, and the rest is self-imposed. I ended up starting at about 7-8 year airline pay, well over that with my annual bonus which means I can do this for a few years and walk away with another chunk of $ to add to my portfolio. We bought a few new toys but I have managed to save every penny of my retirement check. It was not a simple choice but it works for me and most importantly my family.

Yes, ignore my predictions, and then be blindsided when they come true. This will be a very interesting week. Prepare yourselves or be inundated by the tide of history. The Saudi hardliners have big plans in store for the middle east.