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I get what you're saying, and I get what joe1234 is saying. I managed to do almost 22 years and never had a position that wasn't flying, instructing, or evaluating and my thoughts have been all over the map on this issue. There's always been the constants in the Squadron: A few stick and rudder guys that just nailed everything, few GK gurus, a couple deadbeats, and then... everyone in the middle. For whatever reason, I marked 2012 as the year when I saw a notable decline in the middle of the squadron's "give a shit" attitude and emphasis toward flying skills. That's also around the time I noticed a massive increase in complexity of simply being a pilot/member of the Air Force. It was around this time when the Great PC Witch Hunt occurred, more inspections, budget sequestrations/less flying, new finance policies, etc. After a while, every checkride/training folder began with conversations along the lines of "Hey, I'm just trying to get through this. I've been working on MICT checklists for the past month and have been cancelled for MX/WX/Ops six times." And they weren't lying. So then I go to the SQ/CC with my concerns and he says, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I just got back from a conference and had to jump on a line and seat swap with 2 other pilots last night to get my one to/app/landing for the month. Maybe we should schedule a GK/tactics briefing this week to up everyone's game." Surprise, no one dropped their deployment prep, CBTs, OPRs/EPRs, Wing staff circlejerks, training summary reports, FEF reviews, travel voucher puzzles so Petey Patchwearer could lecture everyone how to calculate a tactical descent profile into Baghdad international. So I would debrief the flight, I'd try to offer techniques, get in the weeds a little, and they'd rapidly nod while checking their watch. They all had to make slides for the next morning's staff meeting, send an email, meet some sort of deadline for more important matters. My point is it's a math problem. I don't think the quality/character of the average pilot of the squadron has declined. But if you increase the complexity of the job and therefore reduce the time available to dedicate to improving flying skills, the result is the result. On top of that, the Air Force doesn't require or reward you for being better than you were yesterday in your primary duty. I 100% agree that everyone should strive to be better than the minimum. Challenging oneself and being the best pilot you can be for your country and coworkers should be reward in itself, but it still competes with, and is secondary to, the other time and tasks the Air Force requires.

Uh, have you ever met a nurse? Break break Are we ready to stop pretending like this thing is a threat to healthy people? We flattened the curve, forestalled the infections long enough to get ventilators and hospital beds ready. There's no cure or vaccine coming soon, so let's just stop pretending like the world stays paused for however long that will take. We are going to open up, and more old/unhealthy people are going to die. That was never, ever going to be avoided. We didn't flatten the curve to keep people from getting sick forever, we did it to make sure there would be a bed for them when it happened. We're there now, so let's stop ****ing around. The world doesn't stop just because a disease exists. We had to adapt our medical system to this new reality, and that required social distancing. We're close enough to go back to living again.

Getting the public to trust the decisions being made would be a helluva lot easier if our elites hadn't totally thrown their credibility in the toilet long before. We now live in a world where there is no penalty for failing or being wrong if you are in the elite class. Yet they expect us to do as they say without question....

it's rich that the people screaming "STAY HOME" the loudest are the ones with the steady paychecks continuing to come in like clock work every two weeks https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/20/amid-pandemic-unemployment-checks-can-take-longer-to-arrive.html https://medium.com/@jbgeach/changing-the-goalposts-four-more-reasons-it-is-safe-to-open-america-560cfc0ab4c3

Negative. Those documents are what your MAJCOM demands of you, and the distinction is important. Are we to seriously believe that AMC is on the cutting edge of organizing, equipping, and...to the point, training its people? There is significant empirical data that shows AMC crews are not up to standard. Performance in exercises and downrange for one, or the MAJCOM’s love affair with the Q-3 another. I think it’s quite apparent we do have a training problem in the MAF, despite “meeting the minimums.” As IPs, we have the choice. Accept what the bobs have written down as gospel. Or we can look at it, acknowledge the rules are for what they are, and still make the choice to be better. I’d also argue that pursuing excellence is procedure and not a technique, as you seem to imply. But i’ll spare the philosophical for now. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

That’s a good point. I think the majority have done a good job, there are whackos everywhere and they don’t represent the majority. But an alarming trend is the false dichotomy so many people appear to be clutching - if you don’t blindly support total destruction of liberties or policy making based on unreliable data, then you 100% don’t give a fuck about health or safety and are a window-licking idiot dumber than the dirt on my boots. What if there’s a middle ground where people do care about health/safety, liberty, and don’t want decisions made based on knee jerk data, but instead acknowledge there is a moderate approach to problem solving. All three of those areas of concern can reside in one person, but the far left/right zombies following their “leaders” and wielding online pitchforks refuse to acknowledge it. The “my way is the only way” crowd needs to pull their heads out of their asses.

Guess I’m OK with a bunch of self-righteous, fear-driven, incapable of critical thought, bubble dwellers having no means to support their family while willingly handing over their freedoms like lambs to slaughter. But, despite their own dumbassery getting them there, I’ll still do my role to help pull them out of the shithole they gladly jumped into. Because that’s what Americans do. Good Americans don’t say, “well I don’t agree with you, so I totally have no problem if you just fuck off and die.”

careful with this one. "USO's Benchmark is the near month crude oil futures contract traded on the NYMEX. If the near month futures contract is within two weeks of expiration, the Benchmark will be the next month contract to expire. The crude oil contract is WTI light, sweet crude oil delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma. USO invests primarily in listed crude oil futures contracts and other oil-related futures contracts, and may invest in forwards and swap contracts. These investments will be collateralized by cash, cash equivalents, and US government obligations with remaining maturities of two years or less." -https://www.uscfinvestments.com/uso "Since all futures contracts have an expiration date, the United States Oil Fund must actively roll its front-month futures contract to the WTI crude oil futures contract expiring in the next month to avoid taking delivery of the commodity. The fund primarily holds front-month futures contracts on crude oil and has to roll over its futures contracts every month. For example, if it holds WTI crude oil futures contracts that expire in September 2020, it must roll over its contracts and purchase those that expire in October 2020." https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/081116/uso-good-way-invest-oil-uso.asp full disclosure i've lost about 2k on this fund cause my dumbass threw in a bunch of money at "oil" in march. guys on cnbc have warned against retail investors jumping into USO....basically said it's a fund for more advanced institutional investors from FORBES: "The solution here is for USO’s fund administrators to dissolve it, as happened with XIV. Those administrators made a minute change in the fund’s composition last week—shifting holdings to the second- and third-month contracts instead of fully rolling over from the front-month contract to the second-month contract two weeks prior to expiration——but that was merely the proverbial shifting of the deck chairs on the Titanic. USO has outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any." https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcollins/2020/04/20/the-us-oil-etf-uso-is-the-culprit-behind-oils-massive-plunge/#2de48ed524e8

Don’t act like those documents, or any others, are perfect stone tablets handed down from God. It takes continuous improvement from all players to make us all better.

Fear drives some people away from liberty and into tyranny. It happens all the time, we’re just seeing it more pronounced now. People are actually turning in neighbors for not wearing masks or having people over. Pretty crazy stuff. I’d like to think the majority of the American people are worried about the virus, but are becoming more irritated at the size and scope of the shutdown. My parents’ town has had two cases. One death, and the man was in his 80s. They have a mandatory curfew at 8pm. The city police actually pulled over my sister (an essential employee) and interrogated her for her “papers” on the way home. That same area is mandating masks. So... you know what? Yeah. I’d protest too. It’s the most unconstitutional bunch of shit I have ever seen.

Dewey makes some good flying videos.

This can't be true...people would be dying by the tens of thousands and your hospitals would be overflowing. 😁 A pilot I follow on youtube made a few videos talking about his experience with getting the rona. Btw, if you like to geek out on planes that were built 70-80 years ago and have the wheel in the back, check out some of his other videos.

Some data from Texas. A huge chunk of the state pretty much never even went into social distancing if you ask me. I never stopped heading into work, the highways and everything were bustling everyday. Grocery stores ran like normal. Gas stations full of people. Customers certainly were dying to come to our business, frustrated with the quarantine. People were on the trail running every morning (definitely within 6 ft) etc etc. If I somehow avoided the news completely (and man I tried) I would've have never known anything had changed. Anyways from my little slice of the world, like @SocialD said, this shit show won't last the end of the month in Texas. Not here to argue the validity of these choices by any means, just spread some perspective from the good ole lone star state.

Americans won't take being locked up that long. People are already getting antsy and fed up with being stuck at home, as evidenced by numerous protests. So as to not lose my mind I've been going on a 150-200 mile drive about every other day (gas is $.99 to $1.10 here...why not) and it damn near seems like business as usual in this part of the country. Went for a $100 hamburger yesterday and aside from the restaurant requiring take out, business seemed steady with at least 4 other planes flying in while I was there. The governor of Georgia has already announced some businesses may open up as early as Friday. Restaurant dining rooms and Movie theaters to open next Monday and the stay at home order ends 30Apr.

Flattening the curve to slow the virus isn't just to slow the spread, it's to slow the spread to allow the hospitalization rates to stay within the capacity of the medical community to treat them. A vaccine reduces would reduce the number of people getting infected and needing treatment, but it's not the only solution. You could also attack the other end of the problem, increasing healthcare capacity to meet the demand. (Or hopefully, do both). But that requires significant investment ASAP, with some things having long lead times. I guess another solution is "sucks to be you if you get sick, you shouldn't have been so weak." That includes beds at the hospitals, doctors and nurses to treat patients, specialized equipment (not just ventilators) and the parts to maintain them, medications and PPE on hand and the ability to produce and distribute, as well as all the other support to make a hospital run. If non-medical companies retool to build medical equipment, how are they inspected to ensure what they are producing is safe? Or will standards be thrown out? So it looks like we're doing okay now, though PPE is being heavily rationed, and a lot of safety procedures and best practices regarding PPE for healthcare workers have been waived. Small sample size, but both of my family members in medicine are surging already at their hospital/clinic. We can't stay locked down indefinitely, my gut says late summer for easing up. But I don't think it'll go back to how it was in Jan/Feb either for a long time.

I think this is what I'm signing when I log off my annual briefing in MUSTT, no? 😄

I grade to the syllabus, but that doesn't mean I stop there and call it good. A "G" or "3" or whatever the MIF calls passing is enough to pass, but I don't want people whose goal is to barely pass to be my coworkers. I don't expect perfection, but being better than you were yesterday should be the dominant attitude in a healthy organization.

Anyone know much about oil ETF’s? USO...I’ve lost my ass but you guys think that with eventual oil rebounds they could be a long term investment? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Apologies on the username confusion boys, that was an old account somehow still signed in on my phone. Not trying to Russia troll farm anybody into changing their minds. I'll shack myself accordingly. Now back to our regularly scheduled bitch sesh

Yeah, I’m well aware of what the actual discussion was, I was just expressing my incredulousness at the vehicle with which the argument was being made. If I had to start over on that, I would have just dropped the, “yeah, but who’s getting the ATIS” grenade.

15yrs are way worse than 30yrs right now on VAs. Looking in the 4s to get a no point 15yr. Everyone is just doing 30yrs and paying it like a 15yr. Other option is you can contact your current mortgage servicer and see what they'll do for you. Seen some offering good rates to guys to keep them on their current repayment schedule. Servicers don't want to lose loans when they are refi'ed because they paid to buy them and liquidity is already tight. Streamlines are the same rates as purchase unless we don't lock and just float the rate. We've had some good success registering the loan, underwriting it and then locking it at the end right before closing to avoid the hedge cost of locking money for 30-45 days. We've got guys as low as 2.75% without points doing this but it all depends on what rates look like at the end of underwriting when we lock it. Good thing is it's no risk, no cost to give it a go and if we don't like the rate we can just leave it hanging out there until we see the good short term lock pricing. Then we lock and close immediately. That's how we've got the best deals for guys on streamlines. That strategy doesn't work good on purchases because there is a fixed closing date and buyers can't just hold off locking cause they have to close. Jon

I think @matmacwc would have liked this bit of history, this is something that was right about the AF: The Army’s only air to air kill since WWII was done with a .50 cal in Vietnam From the article and showing the best traditions of the Air Force: However, two legends of USAF combat aviation in Vietnam were more than happy to initiate him- then-Colonels Robin Olds and Daniel “Chappie” James, known affectionately as “Blackman and Robin.” “I actually knew both of them,” Lee recalled warmly. “Colonel Olds would meet me on the flight line and pick me, and only me, up and take me up to the debrief room. He would have a case of Bud iced down and I would give him targets that I had been working on in Laos the week before. So he was not a stranger. He was a very warm and personable man. I respected him and he knew it. I was not afraid to just sit and talk to him.” Upon hearing of Lee’s hushed victory, the two Colonels demanded a celebration.

I get the whole "If the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be the minimum" attitude...but that's usually what you tell yourself when you don't do very well. Personally, I don't want to fly with aviators that want to do the bare minimum at flying. (CBTs, queep, etc?---sure min/max perform that and get back to your real job!...but your actual job? Shouldn't you be really damn good at that?)

No dude, it’s anecdotal. We are arguing whether it’s okay to be mediocre and just shoot for Vol 1/2 minimums like Joe1234 suggests or be the professional combat aviators that our country demands of us. I have zero doubt as to why our CAF bros scoff at us MAF dudes.

Are we really arguing whether getting vectors to final or not makes you a good IP? Forget that whole mission part in the middle...

Sounds like a lack of passion, lack of duty, lack of responsibility, ok a whole bunch of lackey that needs to be driven out by leadership top to the bottom and Instructors are where the rubber meets the road. As a former instructor I relished the responsibility given to us to motivate and propagate that passion, etc above to maximize training events with vigor and realism with imaginative “what if” moments to our crews and not so much if, but when you find yourself needing to push the flight envelope/long duty periods during crisis/wartime events. (Nice run on sentence) Granted it was a lot easier right after 9/11 broadcasting this sh*t is for real and folks are counting on us - better yet you need to count on each other to stay alive. This is only from a former 141, but mostly my C17 perspective. Went from lackadaisical 2+ hour locals maybe some tanker time, etc. to 4,5,6+ and 8.3 being the longest which was definitely excessive and thought I could have been to Germany by now eating Schnitzel dammit; nevertheless we did double of everything (Tanker run, LLevel, Day Assaults, Grd Ops, pattern work, LLevel, back 2 tankers (dusk), NVG Assaults, Grd Ops, night pattern work dog tired) Definitely pinged the Higher Risk levels and we didn’t do it often, but it’s something when you prove everyone can do it and we weren’t even doing airdrop - kudos to you guys. Learned a lot from former SOLL II guys who pushed us on those extra parameters (legal for them/not for us) which was quite impressive and just more tricks in the bag. So much queep/extra duty/filling squares/CBTs, etc. pushed to the forefront when it needs to be sidelined for your pilot skills which need to be honed/sharpened. It’s not airline flying, you are the tip of the spear when something does rear it’s ugly head and lazy instructors are giving you the shaft. Judas Preist it’s not good when currency is overvalued and not proficiency which has been a cyclic issue. Commanders do your job, IP’s pass your skills, AC’s demand proficiency beyond up and downs, co-pilots push to fly. It’s sad when a few folks become seagulls and you gotta throw rocks at them to fly. I even see that in long haul in the commercial sector which is dumbfounding. Screw it, I want to fly and will steal legs when hesitation presents itself. I want to be up front, that is where the wizardry resides and I want more. “Always play a better tennis player when given the chance.” Apologies, it truly sucks when I hear Instructors don’t give a $h*t. No cents given, just common sense as you all understand. Thanks for the time.

Yes, and that’s what I’m saying is the problem. I’m sure it varies by community or squadron in the MAF, but that is the problem. Again, zero qualms against those who want to serve their commitment and head to Delta, I’m 50/50 and don’t blame a soul for heading off to greener pastures. But while we are here in the Air Force, we have a professional duty to be better than the “vectors to an ILS.” Oh btw, I place 100% of the blame on big AMC and the years of queep and careerism that’s fostered this culture, not my bros.

You're welcome and glad we could help! Great to work with you again! Enjoy the new assignment/house! Jon 850-377-1114 jk@mythl.com

There's a lot to be said for living in the Midwest where we don't live on top of each other or have to depend on a subway or other mass transit (and the pathogens they can harbor) to get to work.

Martial.

I'm OK with this, gotta clean out that gene pool!

How'd you conflate politics with having common sense? Not happy with anyone dying but if people are going to willfully flaunt rules designed to protect lives, then I'm ok if they end up paying the price for it.