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I found an obscure article that just came out that might explain.........😁 Fallon, NV (AP) An American hero is back. Following a desperate call by the US Air Force and Navy for retired fighter pilots to consider returning to the cockpit, Pete Mitchell, better known as “Maverick” is returning to the skies. Turning 60 later this year, he is one of the oldest fighter pilots to answer the call. When asked if he’s concerned about being able to keep up with his younger counterparts, he quickly dispelled any doubts. “I’ve been working as an instructor at Air Combat USA”, Maverick explained. “I’m one of the most requested instructors and I always tell the customers that they can be my wingman any time…… They really like that.” Mitchell also touched on his fitness routine which involves, “A LOT of volleyball…..Just a whole bunch of volleyball.” Beyond his time in the spotlight 33-years ago, Maverick has had his share of ups and downs. There is much about his time in the Navy that has been relatively unknown to the general public. He enjoyed a storied 30-year career that began with fits and starts trying to escape the shadow of his controversial father and some misdeeds of his own. His story took a turn for the better following multiple MiG kills, a spin as a Top Gun instructor and tying the knot with his new sweetheart “Charley”. Success was his new back-seater and for the next 25 years, he lived a charmed life. However, as the twilight of his career approached, things began to unravel. Expecting to be promoted to Rear Admiral, Maverick ran into trouble when a faded polaroid surfaced and began to make its way around social media. The picture clearly showed him extending his middle finger to another country’s fighter pilot at very close range. Once it was learned that this foreign pilot was, in fact, that services first woman fighter pilot, it was just a matter of time before he was facing the first of several sexual harassment law suits. Other women fighter pilots from the United States as well as several European allies came forward with similar “me too” charges of airborne insults. “It…was just awful. I felt so marginalized and ridiculed. That kind of behavior just doesn’t belong in a fighter. We’re up there training to kill people and he just took it to an ugly place. It’s hard to see the HUD, let alone gun someone when you’re having to constantly raise your visor to blot away tears.” said a French Mirage-2000 pilot on condition of anonymity. Feeling pressure from all directions, the Navy began to re-evaluate Mitchell’s pending promotion. The final death blow came from retired Admiral, now California Senator Phillip Benjamin. Benjamin was able to build support in the Senate to disapprove the promotion. It’s unclear what his motivation was, but it apparently involved his daughter Penny and had something to do with Mitchell’s flying as the Senator was overheard saying to himself, “How’s that high-speed pass looking now, Mav?” Forced to retire at the rank of O-6 in 2010, Maverick put the Navy behind him and began to look for new career opportunities. Three unsuccessful major airline interviews were all marred by persistent inquiries by HR about the polaroid and rumors of his use of the women’s bathroom at the Miramar O-club. His attempts to deflect the questions usually involved agreeing to answer on condition of murdering the interviewer afterwards. Needless to say, Mitchell’s transition to airline flying never really left the ground. To make matters worse, it was at this time that it became readily apparent what had really been behind Charley’s overly enthusiastic pursuit of threesomes with Maverick. Unable to remain in denial any longer, their threesomes became twosomes and Pete wasn’t invited. While difficult, this period carried a silver lining simply because even he had come to admit that Charley had pretty much let herself go to the dogs. Childless, thanks to Maverick spending 4000 hours sitting 5 feet behind a 3-Kilowatt radiation source, the marriage dissolved quickly. The last 8 years haven’t passed without some difficulties for Mitchell. There have been several failed business ventures including a Karaoke Bar. Patrons typically left frustrated because there was only one song on the machine and Mitchell usually insisted on singing it with them. He does admit he took a while to adjust to civilian flying, even the mock dogfighting he now teaches at Air Combat USA. “It was tough at first”, Maverick explained. “It got better once I got them to install the locker room for the post-flight showers. A lot of good learning happens in there. I think everyone comes out a better combat pilot than when they put that towel on and walked in”. But now Maverick is ready to put that part of his life behind him and begin the re-launch of phase two of his Naval aviation career. The world is watching and MiG pilots are running scared. Look out.

"Beer for life if you can land this thing." - Some OSO

Whichever SRIDs didn't properly read submission rules should be hand slapped and publicly tagged as an idiot. Probably AMC. Amirite?

I think you hit the target. If you have access, take a look at AMC's Phoenix Eagle list sometime. While there is always a pile of good potential CCs on there, many of the top candidates in the rack-and-stack are laughable. It's full of career ass-kissers who have little operational experience and multiple exec/ADC jobs. There was one year where I literally saw only two names (did not know either) who looked worth the risk. Just like the only good predictor for future pilot performance is past pilot performance, the only good indicator for future leadership performance is past leadership performance. Placing a career follower (exec, ADC, etc.) in a command position is risky.

Cancel IFR

Spoo approves.

Do us herk dudes a favor and stay elsewhere. You’re a herk guy or you’re not... ...and you’re not.

How how quickly we forget... At least do a USAFA liaison job. The airlines will tank again, and your life will be much easier if you can go fly something versus selling insurance and waiting for that call back.

This! I’m pissed off watching Airmen shirk duties for the sake of extracurricular activities, often on the backs of other Airmen. My last office had a SNCO who was too busy doing other shit and pawning off her work on others to make the time for it while complaining about how busy she was.

Username/airframe checks

Pretty sure it was posted pages back as well. My RUMINT (same as here, but different source) was there wasn't a good enough scrub by CC's/SR's and individuals who should have been auto-non-recommended were still sent up as DP/P. So SAF/HAF had to scrub them all because CC's/SR's didn't "do their job." Apparently, like we're doing with school and the rest now, SR's are supposed to be the arbiters of good/bad news...which is fine with me. Ya'know...leadership. Now, whether those CC's/SR's got that guidance was not made clear to me. But given how we're all confused over what's different this time vs. every year before it...I'd guess not.

This is going to ruin my technique of sending myself a ginormous powerpoint file every time I want to shut off my Outlook queep for a few days. ... just remember to also delete it out of your sent items when ready to go again...

Synopsis: Admiral Mitchell gives commanders call to disillusioned CG's / FGOs about how bad life is on the outside of AD. Later pulled over by base SF after going expired on his MSF course. *spoiler* Gets fired after non-green dot approved statement outside empty O-club.

I hope they are positive too. I must come across as a huge naysayer on this forum, but I'm only trying to make sure people don't get their hopes up too high only to get turned away late in the process. Best of luck!

If they bought the jets they’d still have no pilots to fly them. The contractors utilize ex-military pilots which frees up the smaller number of AF guys to train and focus on their tactical proficiency. If they did try to purchase jets, you’d be talking an even larger burden on UPT to grow the 11F ranks in order to fill cockpits. We’re already seeing the strain and cuts to UPT in order to boost production just to man the jets we already have.

This is worth what you paid for it, YMMV, etc, etc I've seen a lot of my young enlisted guys tell me how they want to be a pilot. They enlist for tuition assistance, money, experience, whatever. All good reasons. I'd say more than 90% of them never even get an application together and submit it. Various reasons - most common is they drag their feet through school because they like being a crew chief/med tec/engine shop guy or the unit deploys and they have to go. One thing leads to another and they are all the sudden scrambling at 29 to take the tests, finish school and rush the squadron. Never works. If you enlist as a means to become a pilot, be warned: you aren't the first one to try it, some make it most (IME) don't. I love my enlisted dudes, couldn't make it happen without them and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the work they do or the career they chose. For a lot of them it was their second choice - just know that going in.

But to their credit the Democrats used the power given them to ram ACA through. Whereas the GOP has and is repeatedly deliberately ignoring the large portion of voters who didn't want ACA or the ever-increasing government intrusion into daily life. Rise of the Tea Party and, ultimately, the election of Trump over 16 variations of the same them weak Republican candidate seems to be something that the establishment does not want to acknowledge, let alone obey. Hence, the GOP couldn't/didn't kill dead the ACA. A pox on them.

How is it you are burning your mil leave? We have many GS-13s in Userra right now serving as AGRs. As of 1 Jan 2017, we were told that the use of the 120 hrs of mil leave is no longer allowed each year, so our AGRs lost the ability (which had been standard up to that point) to earn a few weeks of GS pay each year by filling out time cards with LM. That’s all been taken away as of last year. What state are you in if you don’t mind my asking?

This is a great story of no shit heroism by some professional aviators. Just out of curiosity, have any Stan Eval dweebs gotten their panties in a wad about not following the checklist and punching the other guys out?