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Amen brother. As a commander I tried to stay old school, there is no substitute for a good old fashion ass chewing...yell, throw in some profanity to get the point across. Perhaps not professional but I saw no need to electrocute every Airman for a simple mistake....a mistake I probably made at one point and was lucky not to get caught doing. If we truly believe people are our greatest asset, then invest in them, not only when they do good, but also when they do bad.

When I was being court martialed for a crime I never committed, I had people turn their shoulder to me. I had people talk shit about me to friends, family, even some people on here on other online forums. Thankfully, I was found not guilty of the serious stuff, but found guilty of the typical malicious overcharging that the JAG Corps likes to do. During the sentencing phase of my court martial the best squadron commander I ever had, now O-6, wrote a letter to the panel saying: ”People are not the sum of their mistakes.” After my discharge board, and being separated less than four years from retirement, I was the lowest of the low. I had senior Enlisted, Officers, JAGs tell me that I would never amount to anything. No one would ever give me a job due to a court martial conviction, etc. I even had a FGO that told me I should just kill myself now instead of making my family go through pain of watching me to turn into a homeless drug addict statistic. I thought about it, and almost did it. But I remembered that saying my former commander said. I decided I wasn’t going to let my mistakes define me. This May I’m graduating from Georgetown with my Masters in Cybersecurity. I just was accepted into an aviation and space doctoral program at Oklahoma State. All paid for by the VA’s Voc Rehab program. I make way more money now than I did as a MSgt working in the KC-46 program as a contractor. I even have a security clearance. What I learned along the way was not just resilience, but I was humbled. I learned a hard lesson that your life can be taken away from you, either by the judicial system, or by those who doubt you so much that you start to doubt yourself. But in the end, you are not the sum of your mistakes, regardless of whom you are. I’m not religious, though I grew up Catholic, but to add onto that quote from my former commander is: 2 Timothy 4:7 ”I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith." To those of you who had the honor of being a commander, and allowed people to rebound from their mistakes, thank you. You’re appreciated more than you’ll ever know.

I voted for Biden because Trump was an immoral option. I couldn’t look my kids in the eye and explain any reasoning for voting for him. I’m a conservative without a home. I’m a proud Never Trumper that actually votes for and encourages actual conservatism. Trump was none of that. Screw that guy. He was horrible for our country in all respects. I seriously don’t care what liberal utopia crap we get in the next two years because it means Trump isn’t in office. Jeez. You guys make it seem that Biden’s EOs are going to ring in the apocalypse.

Kinzinger probably stopped posting in here because he lost faith with the amount of Trump Apologists in here. Dude's the real deal!

Neil Gorsuch. Brett Kavanaugh. Amy Barrett. Kicking Iran's dick in. Not engaging in any new wars - something no President since Regan? Carter? has been able to do. Attempting to normalize relations with NK. Overseeing numerous ME peace deals. No president is morally perfect. Trump and Biden included. I don't think most conservatives are worried about Biden per se, though...most know that Biden is a place-holder; an empty vessel who is merely the wedge the woke machine needed to use in order to regain the executive branch. Look at the rest of people who were in the race - Kamala, Bernie, Warren, Buttigieg, Beto, etc. There are not moderate people. Biden is the lightly salted mashed potatoes who they had to put foward in order to get moderate democrats motivated to think they had a shot and get out to the polls en masse - that wouldn't have happened with a Bernie. Personally I think Joe Biden is basically a good man - would probably have been an ok president at some point. That said, this guy is just getting started with probably one of the most stressful jobs in the world, and he's already (waaaaay) past his expiration date. Look at what 8 years did to Bush Jr. and Obama - they came out different men. Does anyone honestly expect this is a guy who's about to be a two-term president?

Don’t worry about it man. If you are offered the vaccine, take it. FWIW I was vaccinated before my wife who is a teacher, my mother who is 70, or my step father who is 66 & is in a wheelchair and a CPAP. Does that make sense? No. But it’s not like if I turned mine down they would get theirs any faster, so just take it if offered. Mil vaccine pipelines also seem completely separate from local public health pipelines but YMMV I guess. The folks who may get some shit are the ones that knowingly lie or bend the truth significantly to try to jump the line, although IMHO I think we just vaccinate everyone ASAP and spend the energy doing whatever it takes to achieve that vs getting butthurt. General life advice: getting butthurt rarely has a positive ROI. I swear to god if we offered everyone a free meal if they would get vaccinated in chick-fil-a drive thrus we’d have every adult in this country vaccinated in 2 months flat.

Made a lot of LTs cry behind a closed door, then seen them totally turn things around. Rarely yelled btw, the old disappointed dad routine works miracles. I've also had it not work, sometimes you can't fix stupid. I love this last sentence. We have to invest in them at all times, until they've proven that it just isn't worth it anymore. There's a chasm between that and career ending paperwork though.

Problem is now people like Greene and Gaetz. They truly do not care they're destroying any vestige of what was the GOP. You watch, they will burn this mf'r down not realizing the damage they will do to the country. Romney, Cheney, Kinzinger, et al are eating poo sandwiches because people are still pandering to the whipped up base of ignorant voters Trump duped.

This so much. Closing the door and screaming loud enough that those outside can hear (justified, of course) is a wonderful corrective tool. Especially if that's not your normal mode, and no effective leader I've ever met was that way.

Agree we need a plan, but the plan we are signing up for puts an unfair burden on the U.S. ($20,000 per American family), when we are not the biggest emitters of green house gases AND we are already decreasing our emissions. I am not a climate change denier...It is real, it is a threat and we need to take action NOW. The problem is the United States should not have to shoulder an unfair burden. By the way, even though we left the Paris Climate Accord, We have reduced our emissions more than any other industrialized nation...the real threat is China.

If you're not on instagram, do yourself a favor and set up an account and follow bob_thoughts_69. Dude is on a meme rampage against a B2 idiot who loves making tittok videos of himself. It's down right hilarious. I honestly joined last year just to follow a few mil pilot meme streams as these guys are funny! They're all on a rampage against the Chief as well. Another upside to the gram is that there are hot chicks everywhere who love nothing more than to show you how hot they are.

The really crazy thing is that basic levels of organizational accountability are now originating from Reddit forums and Instagram meme pages. B-2 pilots on tik tok, a mortuary affairs patch with flankers on it, a cmsaf who doesn't understand her job or basic personal accountability.. These are all things that were started by and are in the process of being fixed by anonymous internet jokesters. It's certainly not the system we deserve but it's the system we need right now, and goddamn if these train wrecks aren't a treat to watch.

This entire thing is ridiculous. A one sided story slamming a guy, names included, then turned on the girl. No one wins. Everyone loses.

Patton gave zero fucks. I’m not saying some AETC general is like Patton, or that the pilot shortage is WWII. We pay our generals to win wars full stop. I don’t want some candy-ass general who cares about my feels. I want a killer with zero fucks to give when the shit hits the fan. Also, I want a $75k/year bonus.

Concur...reflecting on feedback throughout my career that I use profanity as a verb, noun, adjective....you get the fucking picture.

I never bought into this new-agey idea that profanity is somehow not professional. It is just one of the tools in the professional's toolbox. One that can be highly effective. What is unprofessional is when that tool is improperly used, and unfortunately it often is.

Totally agree. “...the way we’ve always done it” is never a good answer. A Special Tactics guy I’ve kept in touch with called such thinking death of the soul. There are always TTPs, but they must be justifiable and logical.

Chief Ian Eishen (Edwards AFB, 412th Test Wing Command Chief) is a regular on Reddit, and is pretty well received. Seems to provide a lot of good, candid feedback to the Edwards AFB enlisted force. https://www.reddit.com/user/412TW_CCC/ Of course, as alluded to above, if your going to try to use social media in an official capacity, it helps to not be an idiot about it.

She’s not impressive in that role, which requires one to think on her feet. Two observations: - Blitzer did a decent job pressing her to provide a clear answer. CNN leans left, but I’m glad to observe at least one reporter trying to be objective. I can’t recall Fox doing the same with Trump’s press folks. - With regard to the aggressive driver; I hope your family was not harmed. It is fortunate that you had recourse due to the somewhat unique circumstances That’s just a standard day on the road in Boston. It is remarkable we don’t have rampant road rage up here.

You shouldn't get it then. Clearly that individual is more informed than you😂

Ya gotta admit, though, his FB post that started it was pretty damn funny.

What was that old rule? Never talk to the media? Guess that includes being wary of your own social media...

If you have any interest in Delta, they’re program guarantees your app gets pulled and scored ... and has been pretty successful for folks Chet Kreske is a strike eagle bubba and runs MIL2ATP. One stop shop. Check it out

In fact I can! Especially if the operation you’re looking to receive is rapid, unplanned, extreme body modification.

Welcome to the party Brother. Last year my wife said, you are grumpy since you retired, just go buy your damn airplane. Yes Ma'am! I almost bought a Lancair 4P, had a deal in place, but during pre-inspection found out the airplane spent a few years of "unexplained" and unlogged time in Mexico, the maintenance log books were shit. I am 69% certain that plane was flying drugs into the U.S. and had no idea what shape the wing spars were in. Additionally, the insurance on some of the Lanceairs is outrageous because of their accident rate. I was very enamored with the performance of the Lancairs, especially the 4P, they tend to be sleek machines, fast and economical but most models have a high wing loading requiring some extra attention in the pattern. The insurance on the 4P was triple some of the other airplanes I was looking at and ultimately a big deciding factor. I ended up buying a Piper Saratoga TC II. I wanted to fly but also wanted a travel machine for the family. The guy that owned it before me dumped about $120K worth of glass into the airplane (see below). I flew steam gauges most of my career and was shocked by the SA the Garmin offers especially when it is integrated with the autopilot. I put about 180 hours on it in the last year. Four trips to DC (In-Laws live there), A few to Miami (my parents live there), and a lot of shorter trips in between. Once at altitude I typically I can lean for 13-16 GPH and see around 145-155 TAS. I started off using my IPad Pro, but found it too big for the cockpit. There was no place to put it so I kept it between the seats and pulled it out to review. I ended up buying an IPad Air with cell service which is still big but I can mount it with a suction cup. The cockpit of the Saratoga is a bit odd around the windshield/Dash and ideally the IPad Air would be more friendly for space, but we have decided to upgrade to a new airplane and it will accommodate the IPad Air. On trips I can do all mission planning on the IPad and I use it in the airplane with Foreflight running as a back up. As folks have stated above the Bose A2s are great, pricey but they fit is great and the ANR is superb. I tried a few in-ear options, forget the brand name, but didn't like them. My wife's college sorority was having a big get together in the Fall so I flew her to Tallahassee. She is a nervous flyer and at one point said, "it would be a lot better if you had a plane with two engines"...Again Yes Ma'am so I started an upgrade search. I looked at a bunch of options and I am signing a contract for a new SR-22 this week. Yes I know single engine but with the CAPS system I think it hits her "safety button" STS. I'll share my thoughts on the upgrade search and what lead me to the SR-22. We want to travel and we have another couple that usually goes with us. Useful load and range were driving factors. I was going to buy a Baron G-58. Great airplane, fast, and a fully integrated G1000 system. It also has better takeoff performance than the Cessna's. My home base airfield is only 3700' and while I could safely operate a 310 or some of the other Cessna options, the margin would be much smaller. I knew the cost factor would be higher for maintenance and fuel, but again it was insurance that was double that of the SR-22. It has a great useful load until you start accounting for all the extra gas you have to take. It was also the fastest option, although at double the fuel burn. I really wanted the Diamond DA-62, in fact, it wins hands down on all the performance, fuel burn, and operating cost factors. Single engine climb is well over 600 FPM, Cruise speed is superb, great useful load, tons of room inside and it sips 11.8 GPH of Jet-A at altitude. It has one major drawback that for me was a show-stopper, it has a HUGE fucking footprint. With a 49'3" wingspan there is only one hangar on my field that it will fit in and that hangar has been rented by a company for 12 years. They are building a bunch of new hangars on my field, but they are all too narrow...I will not leave an airplane that expensive outside. Finding a suitable hangar was going to create an hour plus drive at about triple the hangar rate I pay now. Previous to this I was not a big Cirrus fan to start with. A great friend and UPT classmate was their chief test pilot and was killed in one. They have come a long way and as I started to look the SR-22 met all of my performance wants. It is FAST for a fixed gear airplane...170 TAS at between 16-17GPH. Faster by far then my Saratoga with a minimal increase in fuel burn. Reasonable insurance (as long as you do the training). Also, depending on configuration, it has the best useful load of any of the other options I looked at. I am getting a new normally aspirated SR-22 G6. Flying in the south I don't need the turbo or icing system (which is very high maintenance by the way). I will still have oxygen if I want to jump up to 16K and grab a tail wind. Dropping the turbo and FIKI icing system bumps my useful load to 1269 pounds. I will be able to easily take my wife and our friends, all their bags and almost a full bag of gas which lets us range Charleston, Key West, Charlotte, DC, Nashville, Dallas non-stop. One other thought in my long rambling post, airplane prices are high right now because of USERRA. If you purchased an airplane by the end of 2020 you could use it as part of a business and go back five years of offset profit on your taxes. Baron Prices are very high, same with the SR-22. I was looking at a 2018 SR-22 G6 and when compared to a new one I can get a new SR-22 for about $60K more, but it will be in my color scheme, have zero time and Cirrus is throwing in a five year tip to tip warranty. Good luck brother and hope to see you out there.

Yes, none of which they mentioned, then the CEO denied they had those issues that night. Why did all the other (Ameritrade, Schwab, etc.) halt buys as well. They ALL were having liquidity issues getting required margin to their clearing houses? Yes, you can have shorted shares > float pretty easily when you're just playing with margin and other people's money. Oh yea, and regulation is so lax to allow it among the Good 'Ole Boys. I'm generally pretty chill. But after 2008 I have an extremely hard time dealing with rage that I get thinking about these bankers and billionaires. For them to get away with no jail time, lying about their credit ratings then wrap themselves in the 1st Amendment, blame the people for buying houses they couldn't afford when there were predatory lending programs they set up. Fines of millions on billions of dollars of profit. And we still have hedge funds that double as market makers, and market makers that heavily invest into multiple hedge funds.

Much better ability to manage their schedule, people, and lines commitments. Active duty is just a meat grinder.

Seriously? So you are saying Jen Psaki is pure as the driven snow and she doesn't lie. Come on man! Psaki outright lied as State Department Spokesperson. Conway and Spice were horrible, I liked Huckabee, she gave what she got...Post Spicer that press room was radioactive and combative from the first day she walked to the podium. The point of the post was they are sticking to a script and if it isn't on the script they don't know what to do. She is the White House Press Secretary, she should do better than fumble through a book for a scripted answer and when she can't find it "circle back." For the record, during my career "I don't know" was usually an acceptable answer especially during my time at the WIC if it was followed up with, but I know how to find the answer. It was not an acceptable answer on a checkride if we were talking ops limits, it was not an acceptable answer in a TIC if I asked where the friendlies were, and it was not acceptable the night my wife was driving our family to dinner off base and a young asshat Airman was driving so crazy he ran us off the road and into a field. Quick story...For two miles this chump tried to pass us in heavy traffic and nearly clipped the back of our SUV both times. My wife is not a slow driver and we were doing 60 in a 55, and he was still about a foot off our bumper trying to pass. He tried twice to pass and almost clipped us each time as he jumped back in line. When he finally did pass there was oncoming traffic and not enough room. He was was about dead even with us and my wife had to swerve off the road and into a field to avoid a head on collision, he kept on going. We got back on the road and wouldn't you know it he got caught at the long traffic light so we caught up to him. I had consumed a few adult beverages at the club and figured it best not to confront someone offbase so I wrote down his tag and called the Mission Support Group Commander to have the SPs run the tag (dude looked military). Wouldn't you know it came back to Airman Snuffy from Mx Sq... he was standing in my office at 0700 on Monday with his Sq/CC and Grp/CC. I asked him what were you thinking..."I don't know?" Did you think about stopping when you ran my wife, my son and my off the road and into that field...."I don't know..." That was his answer to everything. Only time I ever really went off on someone for "I don't know."

"That's the way we've always done it" were some of the only words that ever made me get angry with any of my peeps. People constantly bemoan change until gradually that change becomes the norm, and hence, the "way we've always done it". I used to ask anyone who told me that if there was nothing we could do better, why do things still suck in their ops/training/etc?

You're not missing much, standard people there. Ones that want nothing to change because "that's the way it's always been." Those that are genuinely trying to convey what's going on (if you read these, it actually seems like it has potential). Then the ones that buckle and turn all their posts into a sir sandwich when a General posts on the thread.

That's a lot of "pistol" especially for an MSRP of $799.

I guess since I let the cat slip out of the bag in the VA Loans post, y’all are due for an update. For those who care read on... For those of you who don’t know my story, the short version is came back from a deployment to find out my wife of over 10 years and high school sweetheart had been cheating on me. Once she got caught in the 2nd affair (I know now that there were more than just the two I caught her in) she filed for divorce but let me take the kids and move out of state. I swore then that I would never get married ever again. I did the single parent thing for a while and then randomly her and the boyfriend decide they are going to move to the city I and the kids are living. Then they start coming to my church, then the ex tries to sign up for the same bible study I had been going to. (Crazy, I know). I start dating a girl and the ex starts texting me news articles about her, that she had found online (nothing serious, just some school awards and pictures of her with her old boyfriend). I ended up breaking up with that girl and doing the tinder and bumble thing (for the eagle drivers out there, it’s like grinder but for guys looking for girls). I was on a trip at my airline and the captain saw me doing the whole swipe right thing and he challenged me to hang up the internet dating thing. His wife had left him and his son years ago. He had been in the same situation I was when a widow and her two daughters moved into the house next door. They ended up falling in love and getting married. He told me to trust that God had a plan for my life and he would bring someone into my life when the time was right. I ended up logging off tinder after being tired of dates with crazy nurses and girls looking to tie down any man who would take them. It was just around this time when I decided to sign up for a bible study at my church (the same bible study my ex tried to sign up for before the leader told her that it wasn’t a good idea for us both to be in the same class). On the first day of the Bible study I met the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Total smoke show. She had a very similar story to mine (married to a narcissist, serial cheater/liar, etc). I asked her out for coffee and we started casually dating after realizing we had so much in common. The best part was that both of us swore that we were never getting married to anyone ever, so there was no pressure at all. After a couple months, COVID hit and both our jobs became telecommuting and all of a sudden we were spending almost every minute of every day together. I prayed about where our relationship was going and it became very obvious that I didn’t want to live without her. Maybe it wasn’t fair to judge every female just because I made a mistake 15 years ago and married a crazy narcissist with serious mental illnesses. So I asked her to marry me and she said yes. I’ve never been happier. My parents love her, my kids love her and call her mom. She is just all around amazing. So I haven’t been around here lately because I’ve been pretty busy merging our lives together. Thank you all who supported me and encouraged me through a rather dark time in my life. I am always an open book so if anyone has any questions, feel free to send them here or PM me and I’ll be glad to answer them. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Your comment made me think of this tribalism cartoon from way back. Which applies to basically all facets of life.

No, just leave, letting them know we won’t tolerate terrorism coming from there. Only way we go back is with bombers... Never going to “win” there, even if we unleash the military completely.

All good until you are in the 1% like me. While I am retired and a little older, I am not in any of the risk groups...no underlying heath concerns and it fucking humbled me. Guessing it is because I have A negative blood type. Truth be told I was scared. My pulse ox went below 90% and I was in a world of hurt. Perhaps even more concerning, I had to fight the dochebag military doctors for actual meds. I asked for therapeutics five days after the symptoms began and the reply was "take tylenol and cough drops." After 10 days when my pulse ox dropped to 88% dropped my ICU nurse sister stepped in and went mid-evil so I could get some real help. She had to explain when she wanted me on certain meds to the doctor. When I recovered and had a follow up with the doctor she changed her tune and told me I was her "test case"... I've already reached back to the base with that little gem. Seriously, I hope none of you get it.

Coming in late to this topic. My experience is that persistence and persuasiveness can sometimes result in waivers that others tell you are impossible. 30+ years ago I got my color vision waivered for an AFROTC pilot slot. It took some doing, especially pre-interwebs. I discovered that the Navy was evaluating the then-new Farnsworth Lantern (aka FALANT) as a screening tool better tied to the real world than color plates. I called up the lab, asked alot of questions, and explained my situation. After a couple of calls, I was able to set up a visit. I took the test and "passed" according to the criteria at the time. I got to know the lead Navy researcher and it turned out that he had a colleague at Wright-Patt who was pushing for FALANT on the USAF side. I met and asked him to write a letter to Brooks. I also made sure I volunteered for every ROTC activity to get on the Detachment Commander's good side. He also wrote a letter of support. It took several months after graduation to get it sorted out. Anyways, I got the waiver, went to UPT @ Laughlin and never looked back. It was a great lesson for life in general.