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Many of you will know Huggy, so he needs no introduction here. Here’s Part 1 of my interview with him, released to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the U-2’s first flight.

Imagine if you will, a place where the Air Force could groom top quality pilot candidates, educate them on flight maybe in their late teens/early 20’s....get America’s best by offering a free 4 yr education. We could call it, maybe an “Academy” or something. Seriously, I’ve railed on this before. Why isn’t our academy and flight screening getting us people who can kick ass? I’ve had academy grads (and ROTC) teaching at UPT I’d gladly trade for the high school educated quarterback at my B-8 football school because that guy working at the local grain elevator had more leadership and pilot potential than the band-geek-chess-club Academy grad. Part of the problem is we aren’t getting America’s best through our commissioning sources. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I'd like to chime in on this great discussion. My comments reflect my own journey so please take with a grain of salt. I've read many comments regarding AFOQT scores and the accompanying scores. Throughout the years of reading this forum, I've seen many comments (not on this thread) to the likes of "my Pilot and PCSM score are in the low 90's, do I even have a chance?" and it makes me cringe every time. If those two factors were solely what gets an individual hired then yes, definitely, you are probably in the top 10%(guessing) of people who achieve those scores and you get the job. Thankfully they're not the only factors. In my experience, far from it. I took the AFOQT in 2013 and my Pilot score was 67 and PCSM 70 (75 flight hours) and the other scores as equally average. Applied to units like crazy and got hired at my very first interview and got interview offers at about half of the other units. Average scores and low flight hours, you may ask, how did I get a job? I had a good attitude, and I put that across in my application and cover letter. I wasn't prior service and I hadn't graduated college either. Numbers on a page don't define you. You're selling yourself, and if you use those numbers as a crutch, the other areas of your application will be lackluster. I get it, 2013 was a lifetime ago now in the world of UPT hiring cycles and changes. Still, I believe what I said to be truer than ever. 20, 50 or 150 applicants you have no control over, and it assists you no way thinking about it. You have to tell the board who you are in your application. Why you. No BS, be humble and be human. You get that golden opportunity of a cover letter for a reason. Trust me, if I can do it, any single one of you can. Good luck, apply like crazy and don't look back.

Usually when people say it's a misunderstanding of economics they are operating under the assumptions of econ 101. But arguing against a higher minimum wage with econ 101 knowledge is like saying black holes don't exist because Newton's Laws forbid them. It's a toy model of the actual dynamics which eventually break down in the real world, and there's substantial research (with empirical data) that shows that the low wage market resembles a monopsony. Under the monopsony model, increasing wages actually increases employment (obviously if you go past market equilibrium then you get detrimental effects). Under monopsonies there is inefficient dead weight loss with excess profits going to employers in a similar way to how monopolies have dead weight loss with excess profit going to supplier. If you think monopolies are a danger to a well functioning free market capitalist system then I encourage you to look into the research on monopsony and minimum wage. If you're free market to the point of allowing anticompetitive monopolies then you would be consistent in being against minimum wage increases, but usually when I discuss this with conservatives they are against monopoly power and have not considered monopsony theory of minimum wage. IMO minimum wage should be increased until the monopsony threshold breaks down, which currently seems to be around the ~12-15 dollar range, beyond which you start to get lower employment (based on current research). This isn't even taking into account the effects of higher wages on money velocity and demand, which would also have beneficial effects on economic output. Now I don't expect the average American to have to delve into economic theory to justify this, so I'd put a provision in the law that would automatically lower the wage back if employment decreases by more than say 5% to increase public support. Sorry for the word vomit but hope that was clear enough. I think the "living wage" talking point on my side of the aisle is ineffective because it completely ignores the (important) conservative talking point on employment, but hopefully this can at least show you that there's some space for agreement here (pro market/economy).

With a high emphasis on meeting you in person. Scores are great and all, but only one small part of the equation.

A look at minimum wages at a national level is a bit clumsy. It assumes that nation wide, all low wage job markets exist in a monopsony. I'm not really sure why locality based minimum wage is bad and a federal floor needs to be set. That said, part of me would be okay with a minimum wage hike of something reasonable ($15 would works out to $30k/yr, which is higher than Germany) and pegged to some sort of CPI. Mainly so I don't have to listen to this shit anymore.

Sure I’ll have 10 or 11...good part is the alley out the back door of Xanadu’s makes a nice nap location while waiting out curfew.

I just googled “fuckin new guy” to find some funny meme to post. Low SA...wish I could take that search back.

Korea is the only place I have been so drunk and yet lucid enough to have the thought, "I cannot believe how fucked up i am right now."

AFOQT scores are only one factor...we have skipped hiring lots of people with high 90s because test scores are not what gets you the job. They certainly are a factor in getting an interview, but so are several other things (cover letter, LORs, meeting you in person prior to interview weekend, etc.) Good advice from Cav.

Did someone say Kettles?!?

Sarcasm detector inop? Though, my cynicism is rooted in the fact that all the people who went through the initial PTN program were well above average performers to begin with, who were cherry-picked specifically for that program. It was a “no-fail” program from the beginning, so of course the AF is gonna be quick to publicly tout its success and use it as a justification for further reducing sorties in UPT (UPT 2.5, anyone?). Just another excuse for the AF to cut corners trying to fast track its “leadership creation” problem. In all seriousness, good on this particular guy/gal. Not saying it isn’t a small feat, because it definitely isn’t. Any one of us who’s done it before knows this. If we weren’t talking about PTN/VR then my bad, I’ll go back to drinking my stale coffee, eating my Raisin Bran and getting on to the snacko for not keeping the snack bar stocked. Old guy rant over, back on topic.....

Add to that stopping illegal immigration and late term abortions. You are citing selective polls. The Medicare/Medicare poll results flip once the cost is added to the question. It's like asking "who wants to be an astronaut" vs "who is willing to do what it takes to become an astronaut." Minimum wage is a combination of not understanding economics, employment, or the reality of who makes minimum wage. But that's another topic.

The free market does not mean the stock market. One of the ugliest manifestations of crony capitalism, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, is to favor any policy or legislation that directly supports the prices in the stock market.

Lol so the guy graduating the course, graduating the B course, finishing MQT, and completing a combat deployment doesn’t pass your standard? Wtf does?!

I’m sorta ambivalent on $15 min wage. It would obviously help put money in the pockets of working people, which is very good for an economy driven by consumer demand. On the other hand large jumps all at once do cause problems. The Fed min wage, along with many many other government program payment numbers, should be pegged to chained-CPI or similar and then automatically raise or lower with inflation. If you don’t do that, inaction ends up being an affirmative choice to devalue current programs which is not what congress usually intends. See the pilot bonus and flight pay issues where they were the same from like 1990 - 2017 even though a lot of the value had been lost to inflation. In principle the AF didn’t value pilots any less, but in practice they absolutely did; same goes with all these other programs. If you had to hold my feet to the fire I’d say I support a higher fed min wage so long as we chain it to CPI from here in out so it doesn’t become an issue again in the future. Seems like the historical high water mark adjusted for inflation would be IVO $12 in today’s dollars so maybe that. Happy to post in good faith from the Dem POV...echo chambers don’t help any of us and I enjoy most of the perspectives here and in my squadron, which are more conservative and/or libertarian than my civ friends and family.

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.

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