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Good luck getting any work done in Italy. Don’t get me wrong. I had many great TDYs to Aviano and anyone who has the opportunity to be stationed there should absolutely jump on it. That said, ever try getting dip clearances or even filing a flight plan with the Italians? “A-sorry a-sir. The route-a you file-a.....it not-a available on-a Tuesdays after 1600 when there’s a full-a moon. Come-a back a-tomorrow.”

Timely question for me, as this as recently become a hot topic of discussion on the homefront. Stumbled upon this in Quora of all places, which I think captures what a lot of folks think. Not all encompassing by any means, but you get the idea.

Democrats are STILL mad that established process we use to elect our President didn’t favor their candidate...makes sense. There is a remedy, amend the Constitution. And if you think that 70 representatives purposely skipping the duly elected individuals inauguration, and then calling him an active Russian agent for three years is “accepting” results; then I would wonder what you think them not accepting results would look like.

Repeating, of course.

It is considered safe to mail passports, prescription drugs, driver’s licenses, and a litany of other sensitive documents. States like Washington and Oregon have been successfully 100% vote by mail for years. I’d reckon a vast majority of the posters on this board have voted by mail at one point or another. Is it a perfect process? Of course not. But voting in person can also be a clusterfuck a la Florida 2000. Trump’s claims are, as usual, baseless. He knows the higher the turnout, the worse the results will be for him. Voter suppression and/or postponing the election are just pathetic attempts to keep his campaign hopes alive.

To whoever was doing acrobatics in the F35 today at 0930 at Hill: Thanks! Was headed in to get my Retirement ID, and it was a great send-off while I waited to walk in. (I know it wasn't about me...but the timing was great.)

Nope. Just talked to the recruiter and she says they haven’t made any decisions yet.

You lose track of time. It 0110 past curfew and you're 6 Moscow Mules in at G2's. You try to walk back to your apartment without getting caught but make a mistake detour to EFES kebab for some sleep snacks. As you step out, in front of you is town patrol, walking your direction. You look left, you look right, and in a side alley there is Songton Sally. "Honey... Honey.... Come here....." You have the aircraft:

Disagree. No I won’t elaborate.

Dude... CENTCOM is in Tampa Bay and we have been way beyond “committed” to that region for decades. The strategic and economic value of the region has never been a question. Should we move that to Jordan to let the locals know we are in their corner? Africa is a real suck as far as support and infrastructure. No matter where you placed your HQ element within that continent it was going to effectively be no less isolated from any other portion than being based Across the MED. the difference being as far as effectiveness now you can send people there on non remote tours and get some continuity of work out of them. You try convincing good talent at 6-9 years of service to go work staff without family living in a prefab support barracks Kenya or something. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Concur Recommend Kenya, coastal location likely Mombasa. As to the end of Spang, needs to happen along with the end of most if not all Western European basing. If we have any defense interests in being forward deployed to Europe it is a modest foot print in Central / Eastern Europe and the Baltic states with some basing in Southern Europe for Mediterranean access and logistical bases for ME ops (if absolutely required). They (Western Euros) are not our enemies, they are friends but have different outlook on the world and the use of military force for deterrence, intervention and foreign policy priorities. Their day to day defense is not our responsibility.

Remember all the gnashing of teeth about "diversity" and "change?" Yet, the final one standing (barely) is a really old white guy who has been in DC for 40 years doing...well, what exactly? And if one of his selling points is that he'll only do one term, I'm not thinking that's a strong one to make. And the DC leviathan will literally ignore him and kneel to his VP pick should he win.

And? I don’t care about the things the Dems can’t control, I care about the thing they do, which is their nominee. And they fielded 17 robots with exactly the same view on nearly everything (that are unlikely to appeal to anyone slightly right of center), a socialist hack who scares the moderate Democrats, and a guy who they can’t bring outside.

Thanks gents for the HIANG updates.

It’s super easy to sit back in your home country and hack a website.

One drunk driver is a problem. But if you say there's a drunk driving problem, but the data doesn't support your claim, you either look like a liar, stupid, or both.

People look like dorks wearing full-sized wings with mini medals in mess dress.

Sorry, I probably should have also mentioned Songtan Sally moved to Camp Humphreys and will no longer seduce you into a sewer with a red balloon.

Based on that logic, 1/4 of our military should be in the desert and that's where we typically have fought our wars in the past several decades. But this isn't a military decision, it's a presidential one based on politics. I agree that we don't need such a large force in Europe, but the same elsewhere. I don't think it's as much of a deterrent as we are led to believe. If Kim Jong-un gets the harebrained idea to cross the DMZ, no number of conventional troops in the south are going to stop that. That bloodbath will occur despite our presence. Our current presence in Europe is not about WWII, it's about a commitment to NATO which was never about preventing the rise of another Nazi Germany. It was about the Soviet threat and while the name may have changed, that threat is still real and even stronger. Countering it conventionally during the Cold War was actually easy as it could be done simply through numbers, but we still haven't figured out how to deal with new informational today and it's hurting our ability to shape and influence that part of the world badly. Plus, none of this is about the overall mission of NATO and EUCOM, it's about Trump putting the screws to Merkel. Not that she doesn't deserve it, but his claim that this is all due to Germany not putting enough of its GDP for defense is ridiculous when the countries that will benefit from this move spend even less. Germany does have a stronger economy, but that is not the point. This is an emotional move by Trump and one that makes no sense. And your point about a "33% manning boost" is moot. You act like the forces in Europe are not doing anything, whereas in fact they train as much if not more than those CONUS. That robbing Peter to pay Paul comparison doesn't increase our investment or capabilities. It may reduce the cost of having forces (it's cheaper to station people in some of the shitty assignments Stateside versus Europe), but it doesn't make us more effective operationally. In fact, I would argue the latter is the case. Russia is kicking our ass informationally the same as China is kicking it economically. COVID has put a bit of a damper on it, but they'll adjust and survive; but I believe much of the chaos in this country is due to the amount of misinformation being pumped into it from abroad. To quote Agent K, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." Society in general is gullible and will believe whatever the media (social or otherwise) tell them, and will respond accordingly as they don't know any better. Ever wonder how one dog can control and corral hundreds of sheep? Same analogy. But anyone who thinks this move will somehow improve our influence worldwide is sadly mistaken. It's politics pure and simple, and costly ones at that. I've spent time at SHAPE and Patch, it will cost billions of dollars to accomplish and in the end nothing will change. And I didn't add a 'STS' to that as literally we the taxpayers will be taking it up the ass for this decision...

OK, it's lederhosen and not a dirndl, but it's still a great pic!

Not a typo?

What's sad is that UPT used to be a filter in and of itself. It was a mistake to push that responsibility off on IFF so that UPT Wing Commanders could get themselves promoted based on their percentage of successful student graduation. Thus IFF became both a choke point and a single point of failure...and it sounds like IFF has succumbed to a similar cancer as UPT. Someone has to hold the line at some point. If they don't, then we're going to have smoking holes and flag-draped caskets. Oh, surprise, surprise.

No notable difference between the students who flew ~100 hrs in T-38’s normal UPT track and the guy who only flew T-6’s a few hours and his second solo was in a fighter. Regardless of track, they are all equally bad but will be fine with some experience. UPT next guys are NOT the weakest students going to CAF squadrons. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Back when I was active duty I used to have a similar perspective about police being overly-militarized. But then I went to the Guard, became a cop/detective, and the perspective changed. Its easy to look at social media and think police are out of control. Sure, every department has one or two tackleberries who love gear and guns. But everything our patrol guys carry on their person or in their vehicles has a distinct purpose. Police tools and tactics are inherently reactive to trends in greater society and the criminal element. AR-15s and similar high powered, semi-auto rifles have become more commonplace in American homes. Naturally, they have become more prevalent in barricaded gunman incidents, domestic violence incidents, active shooters, etc. A 5.56 round will go through a patrol car and a soft kevlar vest like a knife through butter. Last year one of my buddies was shot and killed by an armed fugitive despite wearing a kevlar vest. Just a few weeks ago a rookie in my area was shot and killed through a door on a domestic violence incident. I'm sorry if people get butt hurt seeing us wearing plate carriers while we respond to armed subjects...but I'd rather not go to any more funerals. I think there is alot of room for police in the US to be reformed. There are some legitimately good ideas floating around out there. But they aren't getting real traction because of the hyperbole and political agendas that benefit from casting all cops as wannabe soldiers or racist thugs.