Leaderboard

1961: Beware the complex. 2019: Don’t mess with the complex.

I was in my first semester teaching at USAFA in fall 2001. After 9/11, I got recalled back to the (real) flying world to deploy immediately since I was still qualified. My new gear included a reversible Gore-Tex jacket which I wore with my flight suit when it was raining the day before I left. Some DB Lt Col came running all the way across the parking lot to tell me it wasn't authorized. I literally laughed out loud. I just kept laughing until he walked off. It was funny because it just never occurred to me that anyone would care. It was freaking pooring down rain and a week after the sucker punch. I've been wearing OCPs in lieu of ABUs for two years just because they fit me better. Morons only have power in your life if you let them.

I believe the proper response when queried is something along the lines of “Bless your heart, I’ll take a look into that. Have a great Air Force day!”

Totally agree! And here’s the REALLY funny part: in many circumstances that appears to be biologically programmed as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_equation ALR extreme mission (with clear intent) = huge payoff for the ‘tribe’ = massive opportunity for propogation of similar genetic material (over the ‘tribe’ we might be sacrificing ourselves to destroy) Sitting in a faceless bureaucracy = unhappy mate = no benefit at all to my genetic material’s propogation (through my own reproduction or opportunity for the tribe.) As it turns out, for beings built to fvck, it often comes down to fvcking! (Again lots of caveats [and philosophical issues not to touch], but the issue is much more complicated than changing individual minds over and over again. In any case, more money wouldn’t hurt a bit...)

187 was enough so that we could spend the money and effort for 50 UAV CAPS was a great call...amiright, Bob?

Hey guys let’s refrain from speculating about this our enemies could gain some unknown advantage from us talking about highly unclassified stuff -DFRESH

Exactly. We have to stop being afraid of queep monsters.

Exactly what I did when we bought my wife's new car. I could either pay cash, or take the 0.9% interest rate. With inflation holding at around 3%, it would literally cost me more in buying power to pay cash.

The MCPS fleece vest was the same way. Super comfy and it gave Chiefs aneurysms when we wore it. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Baseops Network mobile app

1. It is incredibly comfortable. It’s amazing that the SOF guys don’t have something comparable since it really gives you great freedom of movement but good warmth during that early onset of winter in locations. 2. This is the refined version.... the original vest that came out with the ACU pattern was the ugliest most gawd damned awful thing anyone had seen which just encourages me to wear it more. It looked like some kind of nasty green Christmas sweater and it seemed like the only place people had it was Korea (which just convinced people it was something commercial and not authorized). We had a pair of pilots that wore that to every field problem in Germany just to drive our Sgt Major nuts. It is the boonie cap of cold weather jackets. Kinda like the first gen fleece aviator jacket. It had no provisions for name tapes or ranks. Just a jacket with my hat to tell you I was an officer and no idea who I was or who I worked for. I loved that jacket. You could walk by some waste of forcecap with your sunglasses on and hands in pockets to the chow hall or stand on the flight line with boots unbloused and sunglasses on head fixing a log book and they didn’t know which LtCol to go cry to when you told them to politely go find a different place to fornicate with themselves. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The sales pitch does not matter. Efficiency does not matter. This would make less money for the top defense contractors therefore it is not viable. I worked in simulator research for a while when we created the first high fidelity simulator based on commercial off-the-shelf parts. We created a C-130 simulator that out-performed all existing variants. We created ours from scratch, in one year using active duty labor. Total cost (including the value of the labor) was under $1M. We were ordered to cease and desist. A group of SESs sat us down and explained that we cannot have this because it would hurt Lockheed who was selling sims for $45M per, and we needed Lockheed to be strong for overall defense.

This conversation makes me salty about an expereince I had being beraded by a squadron commander for $50K of debt. $40K student loans, $10K to finance my car, as a Lt. Said commander was an academy grad and it occured to me he was incapable of seeing a problemset faced by a lot of people. He was making the presumption that everyone started off in the Air Force at 0 and could not rationalize what i spent all the money on or why. He presumed i would be better off as a debt free airmen than a debt free Lt. Now im a debt free captain and presume im way better off than a debt free TSgt.

Just wear it & see what happens.

give me a freaking break

Flying an ALR extreme mission at least comes with a clear intent and a sense of satisfaction.

So here's the funny part. While we all say we need more money to stay in and put up with the Air Force's queep, we'd also jump at the chance to volunteer for an ALR Extreme mission where we'd see a high likelihood of being killed. Most of us have that strange self-actualization trait that makes flying into downtown Hanoi seem more desirable than living in a faceless bureaucracy.

Spot on. Furthermore, the leaders who say “stay in because your country needs you” just don’t understand the dynamics. I’m 100% of my family’s father and husband population. They need me more. Until the situation is better (or at least similar) for the family when folks stay in the Air Force, most will choose to get out. That means the money has to be close. It’s programmed into us genetically. Risk of death? Bad. Provide for kids so that they can continue to spread 50% of my genes? Good. Keeping the wife happy? See risk of death. It’s not selfish to pursue greener pastures. It’s selfish to stay in to satisfy ‘quality of service’ at the expense of a family. There’s always volunteering for the Boys and Girls Club or Coast Guard auxiliary... on my brand new 30’ boat. (Lots of caveats: some families value that quality of service as a unit, some people are psychopaths, some people don’t have families, some people didn’t bald and bloat at 35 and can get new families, etc.)

It’s simple for me... As it stands I’m 100% getting out when my time is up If I could make 250K (approx year 3 money at an airline) in the AF I’m 100% staying in. No, the problems don’t go away, they just can be overlooked if my time is valued properly monetarily. Id venture to guess that most people would feel the same way.

Dude, it’s not about the ability to purchase with cash. This is about the decision to finance because it’s more financially sound to “make that money work for us” elsewhere. Live within your means...agree 100%. To say that people shouldn’t buy new cars or enjoy luxury items is asinine though...especially if they have the disposable income to do so. I assume you don’t have a watercraft or airplane and subsequently assume you never will. Have an extreme net worth doesn’t mean fvck all if you didn’t get to enjoy it along the way.

Every day, I am praying to Allah for guidance to make the right decisions. For me, my family, and the air-force.

In AFSOC at least we have had the option for 2-piece multicam flight suits for a long time. After working exercise plans for a little while, we ended up giving guys the gouge that on a CONUS exercise, it was smart to wear bags as the crew. When one of the team dudes comes into the planning room and wants to talk to the Air Force guys, the bags make it a lot clearer who that is. Personally I see the upside to the 2-piece and have enjoyed the benefits of the Billy Badass combat shirts and quick access for times when ordnance needs to make an emergency egress while deployed. That being said, they can take my green bags from my cold dead hands. Looking cool (and sounding cool on the radio) is at least 69% of the job of an aviator and I won’t have it any other way. If I wanted to join the Army I would have just eaten a few more crayons as a toddler 😎

Truth.

Radio silence.

Sea dogs is is clicking down-vote on all my posts. What a troll.