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1. Read this. https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/af_te/publication/afi99-107/afi99-107.pdf 2. Don't sacrifice being the best pilot by splitting your attention on a degree that won't get you closer to your goal. Every iceberg can only hold so many penguins. 3. TPS gives you another masters.

I think the bigger difference is in how we employ. Reaper is a precision/surgical/assisination strike tool, we have reallly gotten away from doing traditional CAS, which is what the light attack would be doing. I will be the first to admit, I would probably need some extra rides, I’m by no means arguing that you can take someone from a ISR/ GCS platform, give them a quick T-6 refresher and call them a expert in the A-29/AT-6/whatever. The drone is very misunderstood plane, and it draws hate easily, hell I still do hate it, but I caution against assuming it’s a walk in the park. There are some very complex environments and situations you find yourself in if you aren’t the shitbag doing transits (or forced there because you suck) and not having a window forces you to develop a lot of your senses and tools to build a solid battlefield picture. It really does help build your aviation skill set overall when you return to normal flying. Again, not trying to argue that a RPA bubba is equivalent to a 4 ship A-10 lead, but I caution people to being closed minded, I was before I went to them and have be surprised. I went to CBM, and was a UPT D, maybe in your cases they grabbed the bottom of the barrel, But I can print you my training reports, and vouch for several other bros from CBM and the other bases that dudes were getting snagged from the middle and top ish portion of their classes.

First year or six after upt you should be burning up every available brain cell learning how to master your field. Especially if you’re a fighter pilot.

I keep seeing the argument about Reaper weapons equivalency which I don't understand. Sure there are some similarities but there is a huge gulf between being in a GCS and flying in a 2 ship A-29/AT-6 and employing. And then there is the argument that most of the new UPT-D guys from T-1's were from the bottom of their AD class, at least that's how it worked at CBM. Edit: This isn't to malign RPA dudes, it's my opinion that they probably would require a significant additional IQT/MQT spin up.

Sure, but I think the AF is missing a large pool of potential drivers by making the program a -38 only assignment though. Reality is we have a shortage of pointy nose types, and the trainer we are using to make new ones is only getting older and more expensive to maintain. Using a initial cadre of CAS experts (A-10 guys) to start off think the AF could motivate a lot of MC-12/RPA/U-28 types to stay in and utilize the ISR/attack training they have already received. Are some dudes going to wash out? Sure. Send them back to where they came from or a large airplane that needs bodies. In the end, what is more feasible, safer, and cheaper? Trying to shove even more UPT trainees through -38s to go to this program and/or replace all the pointy nose types they send to light attack, or take already winged pilots that need a home? Whatever ac they buy is going to be cheaper to fly than a -38 per flight hour, spend that money on a extended syllabus for dudes that came from T-1s. And I don’t for a minute buy the “mindset” argument. There are plenty of 18x ers that never have flown in a T-6/T-38/T-1 that have kill numbers well into triple digits (and some of them 1Lts). Just my 2 cents, and a solution that minimizes the pull the program would create on the 11F community. Disclaimer: I am biased, I have a T-1 and RPA background and would give a testicle to fly light attack.

I know the Bone's radar is far and away better than ours and fulfills much the same function as this would, but I wish they'd hang a Dragon Eye pod on the left pylon, keep Sniper/Litening on the right and give us another MFCD so we could dual wield sensors.

As desperate I am to leave the AF, I would volunteer for a 3 year tour for the OA-X. Which would be an amazing deal for the AF because although I am extremely lazy, I’m also the best pilot I know, just ask anyone who knows me. On second thought, I see the AF messing this up too, nah I changed my mind, I’m still out.

I have no qualms with pulling shooters from other platforms to stand this program up. My beef is the authors claim that his MC-12 experience gives him the cred to be a first-in flight lead/IP for this program.

Draken is expanding fast. The euro stuff is all locally sourced pilots so far (apart from management). Don’t know if that might change. Seems to to me that they want full time guys then want all part time, back and forth. Agree that the pay isn’t competitive; it’s really for dudes that just want to keep flying fast jets. As that stands the dudes running the show at Draken are good people.

Yup. The MC-12 alumni may not be the deep well on AD the author believes but there are some likely still on AD who would volunteer and do well in an OA-X program, some in the ARC now who would take an MPA tour (3 yrs or so) and other pilots / navs / csos who would volunteer. It's an all of the above COA to man this quickly if the AF procures OA-X. OA-X meets a valid operational need, builds a strategic pool of officers and aircrew with direct experience in tactical / kinetic operations and is but one of several things to do for the AF to re-blue itself to an operationally focused force.

Nope. We initially tried to mount it on the left, but turns out that's where the water separator dumps all the water... So...

Learned something new.

I agree Clark. The authors overall point was that USAF self-imposed limitations, some might say outdated and arbitrary limitations, on how to utilize their pilot force is an obstacle to mission success. On that point I agree; I fully expect AFSOC to acquire OA-X if the CAF does and it would be dumb not to use U-28/AC-130 folks for initial cadre. That cadre would be valuable, assuming they were good in their SOF platform, because of their experience not the trainer they flew in UPT. We put way to much emphasis on track select. Prepare to be triggered T-38 students & FAIPs: you still don't know shit about fighting! That said, the author failed to convince me on his more specific recommendations. Good conversation starter, and good on him for publishing his thoughts.

Instead of focusing on "shithole", focus on the "why". "Why do we want all these people from shithole countries coming here?" "We should have more people from places like Norway here" As if the nation of your birthplace determines your capabilities and your worth. The implication of his statement is those that come from a nation with a bad economy, or a horrible government are not worth letting in, but those from a Northern European nation are good to go with no needed justification. Why does someone from a poor Caribbean nation have to give more of a justification as to why they want to be an American than someone from Norway? Maybe that comment isn't about race (though it's an odd coincidence he specifically picked out nations whose populations are black/brown as undesirable nations, and specifically named a nation whose population is 97.3% Caucasian as an ideal immigrant). Maybe that comment was more about those coming from poverty. Taking that one statement doesn't necessarily paint the President as a racist. Taking his past statements and actions, then we can start forming a picture of who he is an what his ideals in regards to race are. 1- His real estate company avoided renting to black people and gave preferential treatment to whites in the 70's. 2- His statement on black employees in his casino: "Black guys counting my money! I hate it.... I think the guy is lazy. And it's probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks." 3- The Central Park 5. He was still arguing in 2016 they were guilty despite DNA evidence proving their innocence 10 years before. 4- Mexicans coming into the U.S. are "rapists". But some, he assumes, are good people. (nice backtrack) 5- The judge in the Trump University case couldn't be impartial because he is "of Mexican heritage". 6- 15,000 recent Haitian immigrants "all have AIDS" 7- The 40,000 Nigerians "would never go back to their huts" in Africa after seeing the U.S. 8- His quickness to highlight crimes by those of color, while remaining silent on hate crimes committed by whites. 9- Puerto Ricans, who have criticized the hurricane response, are "ingrates". 10- He has often retweeted white supremacists. 11- But that doesn't matter, because amongst white supremacists are some "very fine people" 12- When Indians wanted to open up casinos, which would compete with his casinos, he took out ads stating that "...Indian record of criminal activity is well documented" and that "organized crime is rampant" on Indian reservations. 13- "Pocahontas" 14- Referring to a Hispanic Miss Universe contestant as "Miss Housekeeping" 15- Wondering, out loud, why a Korean-American intelligence analyst was working on Pakistan policy and not North Korea policy. I'm sure there are other examples out there. You can dismiss, or excuse away any or all of them. But to others, the pattern is quite clear. "

This is the same shit that brought us the Black lives matter nothing burger. Try to tell a liberal that blacks in America are committing a hugely disproportionate amount of violent crime, a completely irrefutable fact, and they call you a racist. But in the same breath they scream that we "have to" have a conversation about racist policing in America. Now we "have to" have a conversation about immigration, but call a country a shithole, when that country is by any reasonable analysis exactly that, boom, out comes the racist card. If you dingleberries keep using language restriction and faux outrage to shame people into your way of thinking, Donald is going to tap dance right into another term. Maybe when someone tells you they aren't racist, turn off your inner Maddow and try to figure out what other reasons they have for disagreeing with you.

One of the studs that dropped an AC-130 was a prior Boom (and 1C0). Great dude!

He has 2 DFCs, should have bought him a drink a heard some good stories.