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Say what you will about endless land wars in Asia (and having participated in several I'm not a big fan!), but the small SOF footprint we previously held in north east Syria was absolutely critical to maintaining the somewhat stable situation that was to our advantage. The SDF fought and died for us against ISIS and we quite literally cut and ran on a whim. How long to stay? Will there ever be an independent Kurdistan? What happens to the thousands of ISIS prisoners in the long-term? How do we deal with the reality that Assad is here to stay? How do we handle a dictatorial & increasingly oppositional NATO "ally" in Erdogon's Turkey? Great questions all around and I don't have great answers. But we literally chose the worst possibly path that answers none of those questions. The path we chose, with little to no planning or interagency process, forfeits all of our leverage in the region, cosigns the slaughter of some of best allies on the ground, potentially re-starts ISIS, and threatens our long-held forward-deployed nuclear forces posture. And for what? Great job everyone, hit the showers!

That’s a fair question. One that I don’t have the answer to, and I bet no one does because it’s not an easy solution. What I do know is that the absolute worst way to end it would be to leave with little to no warning, thought, or preparation and to leave our former allies to fend for themselves while they get slaughtered by Turkey and opening the door for high value ISIS prisoners to escape. And well that’s about exactly what happened.

I somehow find this assumption wrong on all levels having been thru meps 3 times. Especially since I have been DQ’ed twice at MEPS for things I’ve never had. While I have no experience with DoDmerb from what I hear from ROTC friends I would recommend 100000 times over going that route. Not even close to be honest. MEPS will DQ anyone so fast, they dont wanna deal with extra shit ever. I almost think they DQ people on purpose to see if they have the drive to fight it lol Edit: i was DQ’ed while going enlisted and DQ’ed during commissioning exam. It is not fun.

Two planes for the Cannon aero club got here today.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-attacks-exclusive/u-s-to-deploy-large-number-of-forces-to-saudi-arabia-idUSKBN1WQ21Z At least our great ally Saudi Arabia, whose military prowess has been key to stopping ISIS, rapidly defeating the Houthis, and directly confronting Iranian aggression, will be well protected.....

Okay so when does it end? 19 years in Afghanistan and the Taliban are still killing our soldiers. 20 in Syria? 40?

I’d say the SDF have done a pretty damn good job of fighting their own battles the past few years. To the tune of thousands killed fighting ISIS. Oh btw, now that US forces have pulled back and SDF have to focus on repelling the Turks, a bunch of ISIS prisoners are now free. Yay

I know we've already moved on from Greta but a friend sent me this a bit ago.

Spot on, bro. Furthermore! They’re not fending for themselves; as it turns out survival instinct has kicked in and they appear to have aligned themselves with the Syrian regime and Russia to attempt to prevent annihilation. (Just as they said they would under these circumstances.) Now Russia and Turkey are in the driver’s seat where Europe meets the Middle-East and we’ve got the diplomatically envied position of “it’s too difficult so we quit” from which to negotiate. Do we really want Russia and Turkey to be the primary voices in the endgame of this misadventure? 20 years? 30 years? On 9-12 any of us would have volunteered personally to go for 100; the long game is worth winning, considering the alternatives.

not good. ______________________________ And over the weekend, State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials. Those weapons, one senior official said, were now essentially Erdogan’s hostages. To fly them out of Incirlik would be to mark the de facto end of the Turkish-American alliance. To keep them there, though, is to perpetuate a nuclear vulnerability that should have been eliminated years ago. “I think this is a first — a country with U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in it literally firing artillery at US forces,” Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies wrote last week. For his part, Mr. Erdogan claims nuclear ambitions of his own: Only a month ago, speaking to supporters, he said, he said he “cannot accept” rules that keep Turkey from possessing nuclear weapons of its own. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-followed-his-gut-on-syria-calamity-came-fast/ar-AAILbg6 ______________________________

If you're physical says MFS pending, you will go to WPAFB for those test on the page described. For the color vision test, yes you do a second one, but it is different from your first one. None of the test you did at your FC1 are repeated with the exception of any they noted in your initial physical to follow up. It's a different CCT. Yes you could DQ, but it is highly unlikely. You will redo another FC1 when you in process at UPT as well. On that page it talks about around 5% will get DQ'd from that appointment. A pending MFS is more of a general follow up, and you can see on the page a large portion cannot DQ you. They are not trying to DQ you. You will already have PCS orders at that point; they don't want to cancel them. I think that thought process comes from people that did ROTC. They are routinely DQ'd at WPAFB, but they are doing their initial FC1s there. You're not. You are only doing pending MFS. Don't stress it.

Unless something has changed between this year and last, that is incorrect. If you have completed a FC1 at your base, the MFS follow up will take about 1/2 a day to complete, and you are not redoing what you've already done. (I.e. no depth perception testing) It is additional test like computer testing. For ROTC that would be correct, but for AD the FC1 you do at your base counts for what it is. You can find more information here. Please keep in mind that this information does describe the process for how the day goes. That is not necessarily correct, but the test it lays out is accurate. Hope that helps! Sorry to jump in on your thread, just came across looking to get updates on some friends who applied this year. https://www.wpafb.af.mil/Welcome/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/853108/

Which is just about the only thing keeping the program relevant anymore, besides the occasional SAR & Green Flag sorties and largely emasculated cadet training. Still a great route to build cheap hours, though

Ooooh what'd you get !? what'd you get!?

Mattis was on Meet the Press this morning, talking about how much he disagrees with the Syria pull-out. And AOC was all for pulling out of Syria, until she wasn't. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2019/10/09/classic-ocasiocortez-wanted-us-troops-out-of-syriauntil-trump-agreed-n2554471 What a bunch of nonsense. I hope this is just the beginning of our draw-down in the Middle East.

I thought residents of on-base hosing (no, that's not a typo) are allowed to keep firearms in their residence as long as they're registered with Security Forces? Check whatever base you are going to for it's policy. If you have to leave a weapon in the armory (never a good idea but may be the only option), put your own trigger lock on it. In fact, since only the receiver is technically the "firearm," consider removing the upper (if an AR) or other internals (if any other type of rifle) or barrel if a pistol. Nothing says you cannot keep gun parts in your residence, just complete firearms!

Shoot me a text. We can get them for you in Korea.

I personally have seen something I cannot explain. And there are others I know that have seen even stranger things. There are some really interesting stories out there.

They're "board TBD" now so nobody will probably hear anything until it's on Bogidope, unless you visit.

The color vision test I took during MFS and my most recent FC1 were exactly the same. I’ve never had any issues so didn’t require any further testing. I took the test with the red, blue and green letters. However, the standards for passing are now 50% as opposed to 100% 5 years ago. So there’s some wiggle room. You have to have an FC1 done to even apply. So yes we do have ours done. MFS is required if picked up for RPA or pilot. It’s essentially another FC1 with all the same doctors so that the Air Force has a standardized way of medically evaluating all applicants to eliminate any local bias at local flight med clinics. They may also give additional testing if required.

Air Force Concludes Investigation into Aircrew Trump Resort Stays; ""The [investigation] will show that the policies or procedures we had in place for both using civil airfields and lodging, and the crews [decisions] aligned with [current] policy," Gen. Maryanne Miller, head of Air Mobility Command, told Military.com Wednesday." "Miller continued, "There was no violation of anything. There was nothing that was out of alignment with all of that; and we even looked at the perception side of things, and the crews just did exactly what they were supposed to do." "If you look at Prestwick and you look at the rules for lodging that our crews abide by, 77% of the crews stayed right around there," Miller said during an interview here. The Air Force reviewed records and travel vouchers between 2015 and 2019. Another 17% stayed near Glasgow, about 30 miles away; and 6% of other crews stayed at the Trump Turnberry Luxury Collection Resort, roughly 20 miles away, she said." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/10/10/air-force-concludes-investigation-aircrew-trump-resort-stays.html

I don't know what the answer is, but I know if we keep abandoning allies like this, we're going to have a hard time finding new ones when we need them.

Saw a documentary on these things back in the mid-80s.

I spent a lot of time with the Kurds over the last few years and I think we should support them in getting their own state. Drastic, for sure, but the Iraqi Army of ~20k abandoned Mosul to 200 guys and the Kurds basically saved the day (including Baghdad). The only reason they’re so screwed is a treaty from post WW1 that left them in the cold. I know it’s about 15 layers deep with all the regional players and such, but they actually seem willing to join the 21st century and fight for what’s theirs.

Agree with Stitch - starting a local club can be great. In fact, the only con of doing so vs. an AF aero club is you don't have government subsidization, but a non-AF club can win in every other way, from better airplanes to no bullshit red tape. Remember, the best thing the AF does is fuck up something that should be awesome.