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Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock over all the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around the table looking victorious.

Don't attack strawmen like the media or "leakers." Can you defend what's going on? The Governor of Oregon, Mayor of Portland and local Sheriff are all telling federal LEOs to leave. The President confirms that federal LEOs are there at his direction. Cucinelli (acting deputy DHS) acknowledges that federal LEOs are using unmarked vehicles to snatch-and-grab suspects and that in at least one instance (the guy who's story is out there), they grabbed the wrong person. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland I an not libertarian, not even close. Many times I'm supportive of federal action that goes against the wishes of individual states in the name of having a unified national strategy to combat shared challenges. I am also generally supportive of law enforcement and tend to give the benefit of the doubt to those folks. So I'm asking folks who are more libertarian than me - can we agree that law enforcement officers dressed in multicam tac gear and without name tags or badges should not be driving around American cities in unmarked vehicles snatching people off the streets? Violent protests are bad and I don't support them. Portlanders, bless their hearts, are strange. But in trying to contain and eventually end protests that tend to get chaotic at night, let's not jump to supporting a wildly disproportionate escalation of force by law enforcement agencies that are not supported by any level of local officials in the area in question. I'm also 100% fine with killing Awlaki, yes, I've said that many times. I was there, literally trying to kill him personally if the opportunity presented itself. I'm also a card-carrying member of the ACLU but they were wrong to oppose his targeting and killing. Having seen some of the intelligence that was made available to us, he was unquestionably bad, dangerous, an imminent threat, and actively working to inspire more attacks against Americans. The fact that he was a US citizen who fled to Yemen where there was basically zero hope for arrest should not and did not shield him from justice. If AQAP were a foreign state actor and he as a AMCIT had joined up with them, we would be justified in killing him on a battlefield. AQAP being a non-state actor does add some gray area to the equation, but not much IMHO.

I find it hard to believe that the units who are receiving 150-200 applications have had 150-200 visitors in preparation of the board. The unit that hired me didn't look at apps under PCSM of 80 and STRONGLY recommended a visit. So that has to eliminate a huge chunk right off the bat. Then remove all those apps over an 80 PCSM for folks who didn't visit unless they have some sort of crazy life experience and had a 4.0 GPA in mechanical engineering at MIT (or something) or are prior service. There was only 1 or 2 guys on my board who interviewed out of 20 that didn't visit prior to the board and one of them was a prior enlisted that worked at Edward's in flight test in some capacity. Pair all of that with the fact that probably 6% to 9% of the apps are folks who love the idea of becoming a military pilot and haven't even started the process or don't have a degree or have no life experience. Go visit. Make connections. Fix your short comings. It took me 3 years to get hired by the unit of my dreams. I visited 4 times over 2 years and they were located across the county for me. I spent thousands of dollars of dollars i DIDNT have so i could know the pilots at my unit. I changed my life to make this happen - if you want it bad enough you can too. The ones who don't get hired are the ones who quit - and if they quit applying for a slot they probably would have probably quit UPT too. Cheers guys and best of luck! I hope this helps.

I think we continue to prove how we as a nation are completely incapable of the middle ground. Violent protestors, looters, etc. need to get shut down immediately. It’s bullshit they’ve been allowed to do what they’ve done. BUT, they need to be shut down legally and with as minimal force as required to get the job done. The shit going down with this federal action is just as much the type of stuff we fight to prevent as stopping the dipshits taking over portions of cities and destroying/looting/trying to dismantle the country. They’re both bad, and the people who don’t see that are blinded for one or more reasons.

Current situation bites with not being able to get out and visit units. But still 100% spot on. Helps put those big numbers into perspective.

Haha, ironically is he was passionate about that mission you could even argue ranking the MQ-9 on there given how much they were doing in Syria 16-18. Another thing too. You are making a HUGE mistake to discount helicopters so easily.

Crickets on Duluth for me too. Did get an call from 175th in SD for interview.

I've noticed this as well, mainly based on rejection emails. 😆 A few years ago they'd say things like "we had over 50 applications this year and it was a really tough choice". Now they're sometimes saying "we had almost 150 applications for this board and wish we could interview you all!". That said, there is zero sense stressing yourself out thinking about things like this which are out of your control. Try not to dwell on it. The interviews I landed a few years ago took me by complete surprise, and the occasional interview invitations I still manage to get are pleasant surprises as well. If it were easy then everyone would do it. Hope for the best but expect nothing. Hopefully things will work out, and if they don't, you'll be happier knowing you gave it your best shot. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little discouraged each time I get the "thanks but no thanks email" or see someone here post that interview notifications went out while my phone and inbox stay silent. But I forget about it as soon as I see a new board notification posted somewhere and my heart rate picks up a bit with excitement. Try to filter out all the noise and stay motivated.

WTF does it matter how the police are dressed? I’m all for a good peaceful protest but the simple fact is, the far left cannot stop at that. They’ll push things further and further until they get a reaction. No problem with police in tactical gear, don’t give a foook the design. And I laugh when Antifa is smacked down. I’m a softcore libertarian but when people go too far (usually the left) I expect the taxpayer funded gov’t to lay the smack down to protect the average citizen. I thought maybe I’d vote for the libertarian this election like I did in 16....now I’m firmly in the Trump camp. The progressive left must be stopped. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Exactly I’d like to see the breakdown of competitive applications vs. the number of apps for each unit being skewed higher cause a lot more guys and gals are now shotgunning apps out after finding out about the guard, but don’t have very competitive apps

@KidCharlemagne I've been told over 100 this year

RPAs are unlikely from UPT. I ended up getting RPA from UPT back in the day, there was 1 year surge for RPAs so it opened up to UPT. I was released from my RPA job after 3 years back to real airplanes. Make lemons out of lemonade. My RPA experience set me up real good for my manned aircraft. I honestly don’t think I would have done to well in my manned airplane qualification course without my RPA experience. Helos do some badass things. Assignments out of UPT are about 2 things. Performance and timing. Only one you can control. If you have to have a certain mission set to be happy I would stick with video games. This forum is full of people who ended up in places they didn’t want/know about on day one and are thankful it turned out that way, myself included.

I've been curious about the number of applications they received. Any idea how many they got? Their packet said they usually get 60 apps. Same story here- nothing from Duluth (yet, hopefully), but got an interview invite from Sioux Falls. Looks like I'll see you there!

Perfect response, thank you so much. I was not aware that RPA’s (tentatively) were a different program. From the thread, it seems there’s a decently high chance of getting t-38’s. RPA’s are almost non-existent! Okay thank you. I wasn’t aware that it was such a low chance. I’ve poked around and it seemed like there was a high chance of getting RPA’s, so that’s why I was so worried. Appreciate the info!

Congrats man, good luck!

Watch this video and tell me that police reform isn’t a thing that needs to happen. A previous Naval officer wants to go talk to the feds and ask them why they are there constitutionally? They break his hand in 10 seconds and cover him in pepper spray. You better believe that if had as much as thought about pushing away the idiot who started beating him or defending himself they would have arrested him. You and I will never know who those guys who abused their power were. And there’s a problem with that. The worse problem? There are dozens of videos that have emerged in the last month like this where policed think they are invulnerable. Not over-exaggerating. My vote, make a UCPJ, make all police sign an oath that holds them liable to a higher standard, and actually hold them accountable. The military in my opinion does a great job of separating the good core of the organization from the people who don’t uphold organizational values. I’m sure there are ways to stop or at least limit abuses of power by the police, and that starts with reform. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/portland-protests-navy-christopher-david.amp.html

As reported by the same outlets who brought you "Russia, Russia, Russia." Have you known ANY USG program that wasn't leaked especially if it makes Orange Man Bad point? If rioters are being arrested, I'm looking for proof that they have been unconstitutionally done so. Not the reporting on the "peaceful" protests thus far. But you were fine when Obama smoked an American citizen simply on his say-so.

Not a fan. Everyone who was tweaking over Jade Helm should be damn near ready to start the revolution over federal law enforcement without name tags or badges doing snatch-and-grabs from unmarked minivans on the streets of a US city against the wishes of the Governor, Mayor and Sheriff. The protest situation in Portland is not great, but I once again raise the idea that all parties need to de-escalate violence, not ramp it up with even more aggressive tactics. Good primer on some of the legal questions here. Also meme for the lolz to make my point more succinctly:

So when it comes to searching, I've got two go-to queries for Google: For ANG units, just copy and paste this: site:ang.af.mil "upt" OR "supt" AND "apply" For AFRC units, just copy and paste this: site:afrc.af.mil "upt" OR "supt" AND "apply" You can swap out "apply" with other words like "submit" or "deadline" and see what comes up! I've found 3-4 boards not listed on GuardReserveJobs.com or BogiDope.com this way; hopefully the more eyes searching the more options we'll dig up! Also, another thing to do when searching is to click "Tools" > and instead of "Any time" choose "Within the past month", so you know you're getting recent results. ETA: You can also just search by squadron (i.e. "47th Fighter Squadron" AND "upt", something like that) and see what comes up as well! I believe I've had some luck finding boards that way, too. That way, you can target specific squadrons that you're interested in and see if anything comes up! Best of luck to you all!

1. Legalize every drug? Most drugs are not safe. The FDA regulates them and they become less potent and sold in restrictive quantities and now those who have become dependant on them find other ways to get them. The cartels still exist to meet the "needs" of these people. Drugs are not illegal because they are some innocent taboo thing. They are illegal because they are dangerous and destroy lives. 2. Yep, agree with you there. 3. I'm sure there are ways to speed up the immigration process as it is currently ridiculously slow. Amnesty will only serve to encourage illegal immigration in the future. One of the biggest things that pisses me off is when I see immigrants complaining about America or their "rights" when they are here illegally while waving another country's flag. We need to get back to assimilation and not making our country into 100 other countries. If people want to come here, they need to understand the "why" behind their desire, and understand that America is awesome because it is the opposite of most places people come from, not the same.