Leaderboard

“We need 69 min POL before you can drop $100k worth of weapons on this desolate pile of rocks”.

There is no measurable or attainable stipulations for withdrawal in their proposal. It’s just a vague “it can’t threaten us” that will be used to oppose anyone who tries to stop sending our kids to die in a pointless conflict that started before they were even born and accomplishes nothing. Anyone who actually supports troops in Afghanistan is part of the problem in our government and military. There isn’t a good reason to be there, or a good outcome, Russia and now the US has proven that.

Last time I was there it seemed to be based on how many little rocks we could make out of big rocks.

I’m all for taking a critical look at the training pipeline, but let’s take a step back from the ‘jump to conclusions’ game and see what the actual causes are of this rash of fighter accidents. Mechanical failure, maintenance practices, weather, human factors, or training could all be possible factors. Let’s give the investigating teams time to do their job and then address their findings with the proper focus and effort.

How you can defend those fucks are beyond me, but as usual you are blinded in thinking they are "peaceful protesters" equating them to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. While their tactics suck, those homeowners had every right to defend their property. Anyone who has watched the news over the past few weeks knows how these "protesters" become looters in a heartbeat. Honestly, every time you post, I picture you kneeling...

We have lost a lot of fighters in a couple months. The trend alone should give all pilots a serious self-examination as to how ready you are for the next flight regardless of the cause of the mishaps. I'm sure some safety guys could pull some data, but I can't remember a worse 4-5 month period in my career. A correlation of mishaps with the speeding up of the pipeline would be worth looking at as well. Prayers for this pilot's family and friends.

I was venting out of frustration after some text convos with friends who are still in. Shouldn't have posted that in this thread. I'm recently retired and my assessments aren't as relevant as I'd like to think.

Yes, that is correct. All songs have been purged from fighter squadrons, bars are no longer a part of the squadron, nothing to see here folks...

It's easy to say that we're a meritocracy as a military, but if you look at the comments on this forum, it doesn't seem to play out that way. Maybe to major, where if you work hard and are competent, you can make it pretty much on your own. But past that, it becomes a game of who you know, who is sponsoring you, and luck/timing (which can be influenced by a senior enough sponsor). It's the frustration of the guys/gals on the line hacking the mission seeing guys/gals who do exec/aide de camp have their careers accelerated. That in of itself may not be bad, but many of those interviews are done in person, or the application package required a full length official photo. If it was a true meritocracy, no photo would be needed, and any interviews could be conducted as blind interviews, in order to remove non relevant biases. But hiring boards still insist on requiring a photo, which allows the board to apply unconscious (or conscious) biases in their decision making. Any biases in the hiring decisions affects more than just that one job. It can make the difference between getting on/remaining on the fast track for promotion and not, or for command opportunities. The army did research into whether having an official photo in an officer promotion package affected promotion outcomes, and found that it did, with minorities/women doing better when no picture was included in their file. So now the army is set to remove photos from officer promotions, and they are going to rerun their experiment for their enlisted and warrant promotions. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/06/25/inside-armys-decision-eliminate-photos-officer-promotion-boards.html I get that we don't have photos in our promotion records, but since they are still used in hiring for career enhancing jobs, it still affects promotions by removing opportunities due to potential biases in the board. tldr: I wholeheartedly disagree with having minority quotas for boards. But I'm for any change that removes biases based on race/ethnicity/gender from hiring/promotion boards so that we can live up to our meritocracy ideal rather than just giving it lip service.

Joe Rogan just had James Lindsay on his podcast again today and talked about how the woke culture has started to spread and the "epigenetics" of it, if you will. I found it a pretty scholarly dissection of the climate.

Reminds me of this quote from a book I'm reading right now: "I call it the democratization of discomfort. There were whole swaths of people uncomfortable all of the time. Now we're democratizing it. Now more people across different races and religions feel uncomfortable." - Jennifer Richeson, in Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein, p. 125.

2008, huh? Seems like veiled language for something else, but regardless, Americans have been dealing with matters of race for 400+ years and it only becomes political when people become uncomfortable talking about it or somehow when it involves discussions about equality and humanity. For something that you describe as an immutable characteristic (race, sexual orientation, heritage...) why is it controversial to acknowledge and discuss salient issues that involve them if they pertain to leadership?

Why? FedEx and UPS are hiring right now. So are the ACMIs. 3 years means 1 or 2 PCSs, more time downrange, and a whole lotta BS. Shoot your shot while you're current in an airplane (assuming you are) and go test the waters. I bet you'll be ok outside the cocoon especially with $57k a year and Tricare.

I’m currently a year out from retiring @ 20 yrs, and have always planned on going airlines as soon as I’m retirement eligible, and then Corona! Ugh. I’m planning on taking the 3 year bonus now ($35K) and doing at least an extra 2 years. Here’s to hoping airlines start hiring in 3 yrs & the 365 boogeyman doesn’t find me! [emoji482]

Colin Noir did a pretty good response on the McCleosky debacle above and what was and what was not within their rights.

Heartbreaking. Losing two of our talented and heroic young men is not a trend, and I'm not saying it is. However, I hope the investigations for these two most recent incidents start at day 1 of UPT and examines each and every training event of the syllabus, every break in training, and every hour they flew or didn't fly an actual aircraft.

Sage advice from someone who saw their country devolve: I just hope her name is not Cassandra.

I don't think I ever made it past the first verse sober....that's my excuse.

Not 4 verses worth I don't, lol

Nah man, I'm sure that gate was like that before the protestors showed up. Didn't you hear one of them in the video, it was a public street, they couldn't have destroyed this gate and wandered onto private property. It's peaceful protesting after all...

I would have done the same as them... but it looks like Bonnie and Rambo have never fired a gun in their lives.

Let me guess. You watch msnbc?

In that case, by your own words, unfortunately you and I are not able to be fellows, friends, etc., and that sucks. I don't agree to that deal. I'll regularly talk politics with people and my friend group is split fairly evenly between more conservative military types and more liberal neighbors and college friends. Amongst all of them, I've honestly never talked with someone, let alone a fellow servicemember, who was crouched so defensively in his or her own position that they would say things like what you wrote above. Some of the guys & gals in my current unit are among the most die-hard right-wing Trump supporters I think likely exist, but there is always common ground, there are many shared beliefs and values, and we are friends. I refuse to believe that any honestly-felt differences on politics or policy or even values are so great as to put us in the situation you describe. Even though I'm not religious per se, I've pledged allegiance to the idea that our nation would be, "One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," and I'm having a hard time squaring your above statements with that same pledge I'm sure you also said many times. Not trying to attack you with any of this, but real talk, I'm genuinely sad about what you're saying here and the mindset that led you to say what you did. I'm telling you all this out of respect too, because to say nothing would be to abandon you to the very division and discord you seem to not only accept, but even promote. My view is that we cannot be separate if we want to remain equal. We need people to do the hard work of finding common ground now more than at any previous time in my lifetime and I want to be able to look myself in the mirror and know that I'm trying my best to heal rather than divide. I hope you will reconsider.

See? You’re making them a victim and blaming it on others. It’s not your parents fault who you are. It isn’t the city you grew up in’s fault. At least after a certain age anyways. Kids are still responsible for their actions. Just less so than adults and that is reflected in the system as well. What would drive me to crime? I intentionally choose not to commit crime every day. So I don’t really know how to answer your question. It’s odd. Could you please confirm that what I understand you saying is if people commit a crime and they are of a certain ethnicity then that crime might not be their fault? Is that what I am understanding?

I’ll give it a fair shake and read and get back to you. It is an op ed though.....from WaPo....[emoji51] 1st paragraph. Never said, you, slack line are emotional. So you claiming I did is disingenuous. But then you go on to say we are kidding ourselves if we don’t think emotion has a place. Do you or don’t you? 2nd. Burden of proof is on you to prove your claims with data and examples. Hence what I said in my response. What statement or opinion of mine would you like me to back up? 3rd. You assume I have some secret thought that you are a liberal then waste a paragraph on how that’s wrong? Let me put it another way. You made up an assumption then carried out a made up narrative based on something in your own mind? That’s just weird. 4th. I provided no such data. That was someone else. I have trouble wanting to discuss things with you if you can’t get basics of who said what correct. No emotion? But I thought you said “We’re kidding ourselves if we think emotion doesn’t play a part in this.” Are you just responding to me and lumping everyone statements that doesn’t agree with you in? Kinda weird way to conduct a discourse. No one is on any moral high ground. It’s evident that when you over and over revert to personal attacks as justification that your point is right that you have absolutely no emotion in this (hopefully you can read into the sarcasm of that statement). And if I don’t agree with you here are some things wrong with me so you don’t have to critically think because it’s me that’s got an emotional bad attitude. (Again, sarcasm) Again. I will go back and read later. In the mean time, if what you say is true, what is to be done about it? Also do you think that if there is stuff like you claim going on that people wouldn’t band together to stop it? Not riots but legitimately stopping it. And you claim there aren’t racist people at the tops just racist systems and organizations. So what does that say about them? They are intentionally looking the other way and allowing racism? Or that after reaching such a high position they don’t have the intelligence or ability and aren’t able to recognize? I don’t get that. But if you could explain it I would like to listen.

To directly answer your question. They end up in the criminal justice system more because they commit more crime.

So AETC is teaching people how not to take stock of their world and succeed in-spite of it? To be a victim and blame others and society? That’s a big reason all of this exists. Everyone’s a victim Flea? You are your decision? You don’t have money? It’s because you didn’t work for it or save what you did get not because the man is keeping you down. Don’t sink to that cop out mentality. It’s flat wrong. No one will get ahead of their own woes thinking like that. Everyone’s life has unique struggles that we have to overcome. It’s what you do that makes you who you are not what you let happen to you. If I was to go off what you are saying, then you are saying no black person should ever get ahead because society is built that way. That’s super racist man. Really. Let’s hope that the Air Force isn’t teaching that.

Facts please. I like your analogy. But need facts to back it. What about the fact that most major crimes are committed by minorities you claim are being persecuted? If it talks, walks, smells, etc like a duck then it’s likely a duck. And you can associate that with other ducks. Everyone profiles. It’s when the profiling turns to an irrational response or trigger that’s bad. How many major crimes are being done right now by these same minorities during all of this that will never be recorded into statistics because of the mob getting away with everything. It’s pretty sick. Everyone agrees: Murder = Bad Police brutality or abuse of power = bad Racism = bad But if you attribute all of this to the White man keeping the black man down without critical analysis of the facts then you are making things worse and stoking a fire that shouldn’t be. Or saying that the cop did what he did to George’s neck because he was racist before any facts or evidence come out and riots happen because of it, then the truth isn’t what you are after.

Facts please. I like your analogy. But need facts to back it. What about the fact that most major crimes are committed by minorities you claim are being persecuted? If it talks, walks, smells, etc like a duck then it’s likely a duck. And you can associate that with other ducks. Everyone profiles. It’s when the profiling turns to an irrational response or trigger that’s bad.

Couldn’t disagree more on systematic racism, majority are peacefully protesting, and that blacks are targeted or harassed by the majority. If you would like to have a civil discourse, please bring facts, references and things to actually discuss not emotion and drama words without any examples.

The problem is that we now call every time a black persons is killed by a White person = racism. I saw a shitty cop doing shitty work and someone needlessly died. I didn’t see a guy getting killed for his skin color. But I got called a racist online because I asked why trump was being blamed. Racism is an easy label to politicize therefore pushed by the media a lot. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

What is happening now in major cities across this country has nothing to do with racism or George Floyd anymore. Anarchy and a hatred of certain aspects of America would be more accurate now. Token caveat that I hate that I have to do: the cop who kneeled on George Floyd deserved to be arrested and charged with murder. That was wrong on all levels. But that cause has been destroyed now.

I think a big part to blame is the media and social media. Everyone thinks that their Facebook post is going to change the world and the more likes you get the more right you are. It seems also we have transitioned that the most emotional or loudest person is the most correct. It’s all BS. I am tired of the Us vs Them mentality for literally everything. Why can’t we all just treat each other with respect and dignity? granted, things can always improve. And they always have. I would much rather live today versus 250 years ago. But do we always have to act like the world is ending to make things better ? What is burning down buildings going to do ? Do you think someone with an opposite viewpoint is going to listen to you when after you offend them? People need to relearn how to listen to other viewpoints and respect them even if you disagree. I’m not saying that America doesn’t need to change. It does. But we can do it in a respectful way. Rant over.

Long overdue for a pullout (sts). Our NCA is speaking out of two sides of their mouth when they say the priority is training for a near peer adversary in a contested environment yet we deploy our entire squadron to Afghanistan where the most lethal threat is Mustafa with his Ak-47. Kind of hard to convince commanders to train for the high end threat when Afghanistan is what they’ll get graded on...

Did you guys actually read the article? They just put in stipulations for the withdrawal, which for the most part appear to be reasonable. Always set performance gates, if you hit them you get a cookie. If you don’t, then you hook the ride. Aside from the partisan headline not sure what the issue is here.