Leaderboard

My perspective is clearly different. Having witnessed the un-brainwashing of a couple T-38 guys who got banished to the dreaded C-130J (where they loved it and did great things in combat while getting shot at), I can only assume that T-38 guys still scoff at things like KC-x to Kadena or Travis (sweet locations), U-28 and C-130J (where they'll get more real world missions than any other airframes around), or anything that's not an F-22 or F-35. Got it. I was bi-polar on my track and drop-nights too. Cannon certainly isn't appealing, as with the Offutt assignments...but wow, perspective boys. There's a preponderance of good locations for the heavies, on top of the fact that the pilot shortage makes a heavy-fighter crossflow much more likely right now. I recall seeing T-38 drops that had a total of 1 ops fighter and dudes being stoked to be FAIPing and not stuck in Minot or Barksdale. Open the aperture. If you call it good, it becomes good. Call it bad, it becomes bad. It's all perspective.

Oh yea. Wedge at 24 AF is pushing it hard. Youv'e got that in a lot of the no-kidding Cyber Ops Sq's. On the DODIN/Base Support side...not as much. They've jacked with the career-fields and capabilities for about a decade straight. Hard to keep that and build up a culture of excellence. Plus, you can go from a hard charging kill our enemies unit to a Comm Sq...because we're all 17D cores. Think about that one for awhile and how that plays in with the folks who don't want to hack, and then the folks who don't want to do mission support! It's very slow going as we've got a wide array of senior leaders who think that putting Amn on "crew rest" counts as making them operators, but not holding them accountable for not executing an order because they think (as a SrA) they've got a better idea. I'm off to a legit kill the bad guys unit soon, so I'll be dipping out of the Win10 upgrades and such for at least a couple of years! Hopefully I'll pin on Maj sometime during this stint.

“Allah has the airplane” - scariest moments for a T6 or T38 IP..!

Hey folks, Big news today. The AF has officially adopted a new (more lenient) color vision policy that is more in line with the Army and Navy. Waivers are now available for ALL flying classes, including pilot applicants, as long as your CCT score is at least 55 with each eye on all cone types (i.e. red, green and blue letters). If you have recently been disqualified for color vision and you think you meet the waiver criteria, PM me and we'll see if we can get a waiver put in on your behalf. This will certainly be no problem for anyone recently DQ'd at Wright-Patt. If it was at a different location, there may be a little more legwork, but it should be do-able. If you are not sure whether you meet the waiver criteria, I'm happy to look into your physical and let you know.

Good evening everyone, I am trying to get either OTS slot in USAF or OCS in navy. I want to be a pilot and since getting a slot is extremely competitive, I am trying my luck for both branches Stats - 23 years old, 5'9 height - Bachelors in Health Sciences with two minors ( Math, Arabic) - Top of my class summa cumme laude (3.92 overall GPA, 3.75 science) - bilingual in Arabic - 3 years of aviation experience ( Ramp agent, airline dispatcher) no flying I know!!! - although I don't have a technical degree, I have a lot of science classes under my belt ( calc1,calc 2, calc 3, phy 1, phy 2, gen chem 1, gen chem 2, ochem 1, ochem 2, bio.............) Pros I can't think of any beside my GPA and language skills. Cons - Less available slots due to many being reserved for academy (both AF and Navy). In addition, many being taken by ROTC's and I have to compete for whatever is left ( OTS or OCS.) - Although I have taken a lot of science classes, my degree is still not technical. - No private license or flight hours. I have taken AFOQT (P 96/N 94/AA 82/V 70/Q 92 ) and currently studying for the ASTB. I know my disadvantages but I want to know my chances of getting a pilot slot in either branch. I spoke to both recruiters (Navy, AF) an no one is giving me a clear answer or indication about my chances. One more question, I applied for Air force OTS and currently in the process of applying for Navy OCS. my navy recruiter told me it's not a problem while my air force recruiter told me I can only apply for one service at a time. I researched online and through many forums without finding anything. So what is the truth can I apply for both programs at the same time or I would be flagged for doing that? Thanks everyone!!!!

I for one hope they don’t figure this mess out for another 6-9 months before I’ll be eligible to 3 day opt. I understand trying to be equitable by using short tour return date and such, but maybe they should also look at retainability as well. I have seen one drop recently, it was 3 day opted. It was for a Sept ‘18 - Sept ‘19 in place with safety training beginning this month. Can’t get out soon enough.

yeah well fuck that snowjob. There's nothing "perspective" about PRP and flying the memphis belle in the 21st century. The check ain't bouncing... it's about all I got outta that one. I'd quit before I do that again. I got my AF wings and I own my own airplane, so I got nothing to prove to myself anymore by wearing a bag and practice bleeding for a living.To each their own. All that said, absolutely, I'm a firm believer of 'it's not what you do, it's who you do it with'. In hindsight (see what I did there lol) I think things are as they should be. I think I would have enjoyed the hell out of physically flying the Viper, but would have probably not meshed well/enjoyed the ancillary/cultural hazy shit that comes with it. Lord knows I've enjoyed shorter debriefs in my life as a result lol. As an older man I've become aware of that nuance, and I'm at peace now. I admit it didn't feel like it 10 years ago. In all honesty, the fact is I got a family and then life got complicated, so the "live to work" impositions of certain airframes in this line of work just became complete non-starters for my current priorities in life. Which is why I do love my trainer job. It's weak sauce to the youngin's, as it should be, but i'm really happy with it. I wouldn't mind a light attack mission if I had to do it all over again. A-29 or the sort. It's a bit more engaging to me than the bomb truck driver without a pickle button thing. Knowing the AF though, they'd prob fuck that up too. Guess should have joined the Army ....nah. LOL

I simply don't believe them.

Quoted for historical context. 5x UAVs for 11X trained officers. Current drops pale in comparison. Also note that Duck has been causing trouble here since at least 2009!

I’m freaking out about this stuff here. If I don’t get passed over it will have been over 5 years deployed thanks to my T-6 and PIT tours. Any clue on when these are going to be dealt out? Last I heard they were starting in April, but I haven’t heard any rumors of guys getting hit up.

Brother, I'm glad we've got guys like you. Keep at it and thanks for keeping it real. Appreciate your insight. Hope you can keep posting here at your next assignment.

The stack will be so short though that being at the bottom of it won't mean much, especially if the top-o-the-stack guys have top cover, or put in retirement paperwork to get skipped over (and then pull it back).

Thanks guys. Gonna do 800k with AAFMA for a 15 year term I think. I’ll be 58 in 15 years. By that point the goal is to have a net worth such that we can consider ourselves “self-insured”. In other words no longer need a policy to cover my loss of income for my family’s standard of living. I guess an airline’s policy will be a “bonus.” Also planning to skip the SSB by the same logic

Not all heavies are equal, sometimes big AMC forgets about us herk guys and I would venture to say that being a herk dude down in the tactical mission set while when we aren’t getting boned by TACC has it’s useful challenges, certainly not easy by any means.

If it's not the number of FGO awards, the programs and amount of money you oversee will be the next discriminator. I swore my buddies package said something like a billion dollars. He just counted the price of every satellite we ever launched. Oh and he managed 300 EKIAs, but only deployed once. I don't even think some task forces kill that many dudes.

“He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; ...” The vote you are referring to was to block legislation to keep our previous president from agreeing to a treaty outside the limits of the Constitution. Definitely not the same as seeking approval from the Senate. Only the in the tank media would spin that as a Democrat victory when he was agreeing to the deal in an illegal manner in the first place. A treaty requires 2/3 of the Senate, period. Now maybe we’ll do it the right way.

What Duck said.

quoted for truth (emphasis added)

Allah always decides

17D I'm glad you post here bro. Keep doing it.

It’s a direct result to the institutional lack of focus on flying. If it’s not a priority to the AF, it tends to not be a priority.

And I completely understand you calling it as you see it with your massive military aviation experience. As a PIT IP, I have been surprised by how terrible a large number of AF pilots are regardless of airframe.

The problem to me is that the GOs who are the actual decision makers on things like the bonus seem to be perpetually years behind the issue. The bonus structure above should have been offered 3-4 years ago. $35K then might have gotten some contract expired folks (experienced IPs/EPs) to sign on until 22 YAS, but now it won't affect anyone. Even with 17.5 years in, it still amazes me the hesitancy HAF has for trying to retain pilots and previous bonus takers. They'd rather spend millions per UPT student and wreck the Air Force for 5-7 years while they "ramp up production" and train brand new inexperienced pilots than lobby to pay experienced pilots/IPs/EPs $55K-$65K extra a year of retention money (yet have no issues doing that for doctors or lawyers). It's as if they don't view your service as pure enough if money affects your decision matrix. They only seem to want the folks willing to sacrifice for peanuts.

T-38 drops look pretty rough to me. Not 2009-2011 rough, but not great.

Phew! Glad those two things were entirely separate. I thought we might be dealing with an R. Kelly-type situation here...

Those are some fantastic drops!

We don't call it weaponized Autism for nothing. Sure. Having walked the halls of Ops Sq's the culture is in the air. The expectation is worn on your patches on the pajamas all us non-air-breathing-operators crave. Everyone knows that the aircrew have spent X years training, flying, fighting. You guys have Sq bars, you're segregated from the rest of the AF by sheer pinnacle of your achievement. As I think you should be, you've earned it. I don't have that in a normal Comm Sq. I've got Airmen who never touched a computer besides MS Office for school that are working the core servers, all the way up to the guy who failed a credit short of a CS degree because he almost went pro in Fortnite. I've got officers who are geology/english majors who got Cyber because "needs of the Air Force." This is on par with the bros who signed up for real flying and got RPA's...but they have to "lead" Amn that are about the same age. How many officers in a Ops sq you know that can't get to work on time? I've had to separate 3 Amn for that. I had to deal with 4 sexual assault cases at the same time, when those finally wrapped up 3 pissed hot. So, the 17D that @HarleyQuinn mentions comes off as a douche from that single statement. I don't agree with ordering it...but it's nice to not get blindsided by some idiot failing at the last minute and having to report it to a douche Wing CC who thinks PT's the pinnacle of leadership. Which is where we been for about a decade. 1 story to kinda illustrate - Airman shithead was late to duty on a Saturday. Boss found him asleep in his car...suspicion of drinking. On Monday we (Super and I) pull him in for a conversation. I order him to stay silent (not self-incriminate), and tell him our suspicions and run him through the consequences. I tell him about the options to driving while intoxicated, and ask him to be a professional, he's a needed team member, etc. I release him to his supervisor and superintendent. 2 weeks later DUI.

1. I am still able to wear my wings. 2. I'll refrain from posting the negative findings from your court martial experience. 3. Thank you for your service.

He sure did Mr. Lose your wing in a FEB by flying into a severe thunderstorm former C-17 guy.