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Which one uses LOX? Buy that one.

Sounds like you kind of wanted to tho

Well Gents, it’s been fun but Duck is now a twice passed over Captain on his way out the door. I appreciate all of you who reached out and offered me advice throughout the years. I know that I will have a ton of questions going forward as I transition to the next step. This community is awesome and I love (most of) you guys.

That's interesting. I'd be curious to see in what way they document that fact in your records going forward. Is it noted anywhere that your letter was explicitly what caused your non-selection? If I was in your shoes with $69,000 on the line, I'd at least make DFAS tell you no.

I got the word from my commander that beers are on me.

I posted up in another thread, so sorry to beat the same drum, but being a firefighter (or cop) is another option if you don’t want airlines or an office job. A lot of larger-city options might be off the table if you did 20+ military due to age restrictions (36 is a cap in a lot of cities; but many smaller cities don’t have age caps), but it’s worth looking into. Most cities give points to veterans, let you buy back 3 years military time, are very conducive to Reserves/ANG if you still want to fly, may provide another pension, and are seemingly (only say that because I don’t have military experience...yet) similar mentalities/excitement levels to military service. There are 12 other people all day, every day in my firehouse, with nearly 60 assigned to the house in total. Lots of different personalities to keep things interesting. We have each others’ backs, are close-knit and social (both at work and with our families), help each other through thick and thin, laugh a whole lot (at ourselves and one another), and get to do some pretty crazy/exciting things that change daily. 10-20% of guys are prior military service, too. I’ve not flown a military jet (yet), but driving a 70,000lb fire truck through traffic, pulling up to a building with fire blowing out the window, and heading in when everyone else is heading out is pretty damn exciting. You’re forcing open doors and heading into an environment that’s hot and you can’t see your hand in front of your face to look for victims, or pushing a hoseline that’ll unleash 180-250 gallons of water a minute and nearly send you flying backwards. You will save a cat. Likely many cats over a career. I’ve heard of guys rescuing a cop, who got stuck in a tree trying to save a cat. In front of a playground full of school children... You’ll see the best and worst; often times within a few hours of one another. You’ll laugh pretty damn hard. You’ll go home feeling like you made a difference, even if it’s just a small one like opening up an arthritic old lady’s cat food can or making sure the local drunk is still breathing when passed out after his/her latest bender. It’s not a perfect job always, but it sure isn’t a bad one. Especially if you already have the mindset, as I’d imagine many pilots/military members do.

I didn't find it scary until the last 20 minutes or so. Suspenseful. Thrilling. Emotional. Quite a few "Oh fuck!" moments that you weren't expecting. A ton of foreshadowing and clues given out, but you have to pay attention to the details. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not so much as a horror, but because I think Toni Collette did an outstanding job of acting in this and I liked following the trail of crumbs that lead to the conclusion.

I was a senior exec for the prime, but eventually got tired of "Taco" stories about how great we were. A-29 is a good aircraft as a whole but design for USA was not the same as the one build in SA for years therefore needs to be considered like any brand new design and it has some severe struggles that people on the end side probably don't know about.. Has four fuel pumps because known failure rate of these is 90%+ Has only one hyd pump which known failure rate is 65%+ Have to fly with two tanks to ensure any sort of reasonable range however when you fly with tanks the .50 casings bounce off the tanks and get stuck in the flaps damaging them once you move them. Guns jam all the time due to design issues with empty shute If you fly with a POD then centerline station is unusable Hud is basically worthless as the PSU failure rate is 98%+ Fuel system wont transfer, single point fueling is problematic at best. Gear handle switch down doesn't always equal gear down. OBOGs is like trying to sucking air through a straw It goes on and on, so as I said before AT-6B would be my choice based on Beechcraft's years of experience and working with a known design. A-29 is really a new design that has never been tested before that is being directed by SA mgmt that has no experience or idea how to build a US Military aircraft.

Man, Fire, Ready, Aim! doesn't even do it justice. If they were aiming after firing, I'd expect the next shot to be on target. It's more like: fire, fire, fire, make a huge show out of adjusting the sights, fire, fire, complain about the target, fire, fire, complain about the equipment, and fire again.

Now we know you're trolling. Nobody learns anything at SOS.

New lurker, new poster, trying to help straighten some things out. AFI 36-3207 3.4. Officers Who Aren't Selected for Promotion. The DOS for officers not selected for promotion for the sec-ond time to the grade of captain, major, or lieutenant colonel normally falls no later than the last day of the 6th calendar month after the month in which the report of the board that considered them is approved. NOTE: This applies to officers twice not selected for promotion and selected for, but who decline, continuation on active duty. 3.4.1. The officers may request an earlier DOS once they know they weren't selected. 3.4.2. The MPF discharges regular officers and releases reserve officers from active duty.

USAF OPS NORMAL - Whichever way is worse for you

You are in desperate need of a topic sentence.

No one is arguing that we haven’t done good work. Lots of good guys alive; lots of bad guys dead. The argument is whether or not it was worth the financial cost or the loss in ability to wage/deter a war against a peer enemy.

Killing ISIS while your friend shouts at you on the radio and getting a big hug from him when he got back in one piece. Best/most rewarding days of my life. Outside of combat, SEAD and FAC(A) are great because they're both very dynamic...I like the challenge of flying into the fight with a decent plan, but knowing it will change 69 times in the next hour and I'll have to make those 1 sec decisions that will determine win or loss. Flying fighters is like playing a very competitive team sport...it never gets old (but the queep and AF bs sure does!)

It's not binary. I've strafed and dropped bombs in troops-in-contact situations. I've given numerous "cleared hot" calls from the ground. I've spent many nights far removed from the FOB, and enjoyed that "first hot meal" after a few weeks that you reference. Happy to do it. None of that changes the takeaway here. How many RPA orbits have you seen pissed away by the Army SPC sitting at the S2 desk on the TOC floor who doesn't have a real task, so tells the MQ-1 crew to just start cycling through the target deck looking for "suspicious activity"? (Rhetorical, but I saw it nightly for the better part of a year). Big Army asked the Air Force to go all-in to throw resources at a problem that the Army maneuver elements didn't have, and nobody on the ground knew what to do with any of it. Your argument can be distilled down to "you haven't seen the ground truth, but the USAF focus on supporting US Army COIN actions over the last decade saved American lives and killed some bad guys." To that I say "noted." We stopped F-22 production, TAMId a bulk of our talent, extended deployments to 180 days, and deployed weapons officers / test pilots / instructor pilots to do non-flying jobs that could be done either stateside or by an A1C with no training. We RIF'd a bunch of experience, and then grounded half the fleet in 2013 for "sequester" because we wanted to fall on our sword rather than playing the budget shell game we finally started playing in sequestration every year since then. RPAs are cool, they do good work, they're far superior than a Hawg, Viper, Buff, or Strike Eagle for a persistent ISR tasking. No disagreement. That doesn't change the fact that we hollowed our entire force and culture, perhaps irreparably, to fight a war against enemies equipped with little more than small arms, rocks, cell phones, and motorcycles.

A DTS voucher covering the location and dates should suffice. If you got the tax free a non-traditional way (like overflight of that one area near Kosovo that is still somehow tax free) you need to explain it with an 1881. Anything 2017 finance can't pay out directly. I think the best they can do is give you a corrected W-2 and then you will need to file an amendment with the IRS for the 2017 tax year.

I think it's cause dudes are afraid of the unknown, and it can be a big step. It is much better on the dark side with few exceptions.

Few things validated our purpose in H-3's back in '06 (IMHO), more than being launched for a live AE ALPHA Alert - extremely rare. One hour from the call to wheels up headed to OAXX x 2 to hopefully make a difference. Was an incredible symphony of coordination and precision, all with the Top 3 there at the plane, watching our every move. Agree with the last two as well!

Glad someone got it. BTW, when you Google “Big Pussy” a lot of disturbing images come up before you get to Sopranos characters.

What you like the most will change based on your experience, how many times you’ve done it etc. A few hours ago I was doing a 500kt low level through the mountains for 30 min followed by 30 min 2v1 DACT. When I was young I would’ve given my left ball for that flight. Today I wanted to land, debrief early and go pick up my kids from school. After ~3,500 hours and 16.9 years, what things I look forward to flying have completely changed. I’d have traded today’s flight for an out and back to get a good meal. Overall, I’d say providing support to a TIC in the Koranghal from an alert launch was the coolest rush ever. Nothing has compared to that or come close. Killing bad guys is as cool as it sounds. My *overall favorite “rewarding job” 3 years was as a T-38 UPT IP. Right now, it’s all about lifestyle so where my family lives and work/home balance is key. Lastly, I have friends who got their #1 fighter out of UPT and were miserable. I also have friends who dreamt of being fighter pilots and got a heavy who are loving life. Have a good attitude, realize no airframe / mission is perfect and don’t be a blue kool aid drinking d-bag...it’ll work out for you. Now I’m gonna go flog myself for liking my AETC tour.

As an F-16 guy, I enjoy every mission... even if I have no idea what I'm doing because I haven't flown that mission in a year.

I enjoy flying as little as possible, to give myself “white space”. White space, as I have learned from management, means time not uselessly flying, but sitting in my office doing fun things. Fun things like help a copilot come up with 60-90 bullets for an awards package that I found out about yesterday and is due by COB today. I find that using a thesaurus and using little tricks to massage more fluff into bullets in order to use all the space on every line in a desperate attempt to appease my vanity while being dishonest about the actual work we do is thrilling. Its the worst when flying gets in the way of my real job. Since flying doesn’t help me get strats, I like to avoid it to the max extent possible. I strive to plan parties, volunteer for dick-watch, support mission support troops by doing their jobs, and volunteer to help others learn to stop their inner rapist. If I do these things well, I can go home after a long days’ work, and masturbate to my OPR strats in good conscience, like a good AF officer.

I bet your very active in your Homeowner's Association and was the kid who always reminded the teacher they forgot to assign homework on Friday afternoons.

You bite your commie mouth there Stalin.

Spoo approves.

Interviewed at a C-130 unit: Tell us about our unit. Tell us about yourself. Tell us about a time you...disagreed with a coworker/lost your cool. Talk about your leadership experience and how you dealt with leading people with more/less experience than you. I also had some more tailored questions based on my work history and resume, as I’m sure everyone does.. so you are a lawyer, why do you want to become a pilot/serve. One very tough scenario question, so the regs say no drinking within 12 hours of a flight, you are co-pilot, the captain is drunk at the 12 hour mark the night before a flight and showing no signs of slowing...what do you do? What are your plans post-seasoning? What are your plans to prepare for UPT? I’m not sure if I’ll be selected, but getting the interview and visiting the unit/seeing the planes was an incredible experience.

*Calculus Spelling should be a concern for your 5 year old. 😉

I don’t know about you people, but wearing a bag is one of the few things (other than flying), that I love about my job. I’m simply not interested in wearing OCPs or any other wannabe army uniform. I’m probably an elitist, and that’s totally fine. But I don’t want to look the same as a finance officer. No thanks AF, I’ll keep the bag. I like being a zipper-suited sun god.

That's how all this shit started in the first place (but to be fair, it was the Marines who started it)... And the ABU has always been an embarrassment. The USAF is back to having a decent utility uniform. I think it's a smart move, but I am sure some future CSAF will fuck it up.

For whatever reason, I never hear the proposal of increasing the pilot commitment. Let's say we move it to 15 years or even 20. Of course a number of people will say hell no but I wouldn't be surprised if the AF reached their SUPT recruiting goals. In the 1950s, it was 3 yrs and a degree wasn't a requirement. Then in the 60s, a degree requirement was established and 4 yrs for SUPT. In 70s to 5yrs then to 6yrs. 80s went to 8yrs and in the 90s to 10 years. The AF NEVER has a problem of recruiting pilots. Keeping them in during an airline hiring boom is the primary issue. One other major problem in keeping pilots is that most are single when joining and marry during their commitment. The spouse becomes a key player in their decision making, and the family comes in second place during his/her military career development unfortunately. In addition to a number of changes in the near future in helping retention, they need to seriously consider increasing the pilot commitment even to 20 years. You can't logically compete with the airline industry in quality of life and income for pilots. If the USAF wants to meet their pilot numbers, increase the commitment. Enough young people will bite on the increased SUPT commitment especially after viewing Top Gun 2 Maverick.