Leaderboard

A couple months into my first tour my family asked what it was like..."it must be so exciting." I started to think about it and could not find the words to describe what a life drain it was. Walking into the building every morning, with every step closer you find yourself looking down, no one makes eye contact, no one says hello...you enter with the sole purpose of trying to survive and mark another calendar day off your sentence. In the beginning I was idealistic, maybe I can make a difference, then I saw how the sausage was made and the absolute selfishness, the dysfunction and the parochial decision making that defies logic and the good of the nation. It didn't take long to become jaded and salty. I watched the Navy lie and runs deal behind everyone's back to absolutely screw the Air Force AND the nation. During my second tour I watched a now sitting three star outright lie and manipulate the system to screw warfighters...AFSOC could have had all J models to replace the most deployed AC-130's and MC-130's YEARS ago AND they were already paid for, but this absolute scum bag argued AMC needed to homogenize the slick fleet at Yokota...which was doing one AEF rotation every 18 months at that point. I remember sitting across the table from him after a meeting with DEPSECDEF trying to appeal to his common sense..."these are by FAR the most deployed and used aircraft in the Air Force...63-64 year model MC-130Ps and 69 year model AC-130Hs that are flying three times the programmed hours every year and need to be replaced now...think of the young men and women we are sending out to fight in these machines. He just looked back at me with a blank stare...sickening. I have no idea how these people look themselves in the mirror. Speaking of mirrors, this was one of the best days in my career.

Best post in this entire thread. For everyone who hasn’t done a tour in DC/Pentagon, who’s forgotten what it’s like, or who’s old and angry and wants somebodys butt, keep in mind: 1. DC is a cesspool. It is a terrible terrible unwholesome crazy 68 square miles surrounded by reality. What happens there is as much theater as truth. 2. Everything is deliberate. 3. Politics is about power. Power is about money. (In the end, everything is about money. Follow the dollars.) 4. You don’t know the full story, nor will you. 5. DC is a paradox. Not everything is newsworthy, or as bad/impactful as the news makes it. Unfortunately, when things unravel they unravel quickly, and you never know whats going to tip the scale, so pay attention to everything. My advice for anyone going there is to enjoy it as best you can, learn to swim with the sharks without chumming the water via your mistakes, then get the hell out of there as quick as you can. Because its fucking terrible. Chuck

I’ve received lots of anthrax shots and most people will say they make your arm the most sore of all the usual mobility shots. The J&J was like a factor of 3-5 more “painful”. I got mine before any of the mandates were published and it’s caught up with IMR and I’m green. Side effects I experienced: splitting headache and general malaise for a day. Sore arm persisted for 3 days. Other possible side effects: I never lose 5G service, women (and men) are suddenly more interested in me, and I’ve discovered hidden treasures buried deep in the ocean.

Haha! I separated at the 15 year point of my AD career. Came back to the U-2 two years later and on AD. A few years later, I retired from AD while flying the U-2. Returned to AD again to fly the U-2. We have another pilot here that did the same thing as me, albeit a few years after I did it. The U-2 is The Land of Misfit Toys. We are an odd lot.

I'll concede that your first statement is mostly accurate; looking back, most people on this forum did caveat things with "if true" or something to that effect. Since we're speculating, to your second point, predictability is the is one of the reasons I'm very skeptical about the allegations contained in this latest book. Most 3-4 star generals are politicians or at least very politically savvy once they get to that level, it's how they got there in the first place. In my experience, all the generals I've been around or worked with at that level invoke CYA in almost everything they do and say (I think they take a class in it prior to pinning on that third star). Slight derail, as I understand it (I've never done a puzzle palace tour thankfully) it used to be the JCS was actually one leadership level where this wasn't always true, since once you've made JCS or CJCS you've hit the ceiling, there's no where else to go. My buddies up in the Pentagon have told me that dynamic changed appreciably once Mattis was made SECDEF; several generals now had the attitude that they were still potentially upwardly mobile and started acting as such, but I digress. I find it very difficult to believe that Milley told the Chinese he'd give them a heads up before the US attacked or that he made other officers swear an oath to him regarding the use of nuclear weapons because if he did those things too many people are/were in the know and as has been stated on this forum, those are illegal acts that would result in UCMJ actions. If the people in the room for those calls or the officers he allegedly made swear an oath get hauled in front of Congress, the IG, or a courts martial, they're not going to fall on their swords for the good general. He'd be proper fucked and he's smart enough to know that. Another thing to consider, at least regarding the timing of the first call. What if Trump had won the election? I find it very difficult (though not impossible, as I said I'll be interested in what he says to Congress on the 28th) to believe that Milley would take such actions or say such things knowing the guy he allegedly is conspiring against might still be his boss. Trump sure as shit wasn't going to give him a pardon or be forgiving about it. To be clear, I'm not arguing that Milley didn't do and say these things because of his honorable character, I'm saying I think it's very unlikely because he's a political creature. On the Chris Miller denial point in particular, we'll have to agree to disagree. In a follow up to his statement to Fox about the phone calls, he told Politico, despite his pretty forceful rebuke: "I imagine there was a perfunctory exchange between us and our staffs about coordinating phone calls and messages for the day.” “I don’t recall the specifics, and it certainly wasn’t in a detailed or more formal way," he added. "It was more perfunctory/routine.” Always have an out/CYA. Also, the guy was in the seat as SECDEF for 53 days; before that he was ASD/SOLIC for only 3 months. In most staff gigs it takes a min 4-6 weeks to get your head wrapped around the day-in/out basics. At the time of the second phone call, he was two days removed from the storming of the capital debacle and he also was working to catch up on the transition to the Biden administration, which had been delayed due to Trump's refusal to concede the election results. My guess (once again I'm speculating) is that his office had been advised of the call and that he had other things going on. FWIW, I think at minimum McKenzie and Milley should resign over how the Afghan withdrawal was conducted, I'm just not fired up over this story unless more corroborating facts come out. My personal take on this right now is that it smells of the 10% truth rule on Friday night stories at the squadron bar.

I'm empathetic to his frustration though. GOs are very rarely held accountable for negligence. Short of committing a serious felony like rape or murder, you rarely see them suffer discipline. That said, nothing he does is going to change the situation as it stands. He is only making things worse for himself.

When I was a Captain someone pointed out to me "the game" and I finally realized how it all works. That is, as mentioned above, money is power and everything is money. If you want to be a General in the AF, you need to be getting good at money. That's really all there is to it. Think back to EVERY single GO you've ever heard speak. They will all talk to you about how important and critical their mission is, how it is changing war fighting and guaranteeing 21st century security for the US. Almost EVERY SINGLE speech ends with "but to do this guys we need more money" or "more people" or "more resources." Their entire function is to lobby their service to gain more political power to spend. If you doubt me, think back to you FIRST week in your weapon system. At the FTU, generally a whole academic plan is built around the history and legacy of your platform. Then it goes into the 21st century warfighting strategy with it. At the base, we expect every CGO to be an advocate for their weapon system. This is what jaded me. It doesn't matter if the system is useful or not, to be a good officer you need to advocate it. Everything needs to be a priority because if its not a priority, it wont get money.

Ouch.

I would prefer you to get off this board and take a short walk off of a tall building.

All completely plausible. I will only quibble on one point, that politicians and generals are good at covering their ass. They are very good at not giving answers. But when it comes to what they do (when they think they are) behind closed doors, there I have to disagree with you. McChrystal (sp?), Patraeus, Mark Sanford, Larry Craig. Obama's "after the election" message to Putin, John Edwards... Do I need to go on? They absolutely, positively, always cover their ass. But that doesn't mean that they're always smart enough to know when they should. And honestly, at this point I think it's abundantly clear that there is a negative correlation between intelligence, competence, and vision, vs the drive to achieve the highest levels of political power.

Which is interesting and why they always have a big legal workup before a conflict. Afghanistan and Iraq were both presented as cases of Jus Ad Bellum, the justification for war that says a person always has the inherent right to self-defense and in doing so war is just. This principle dates to the early philosophers including St Thomas Aquinas, John Locke and Scorates.

You might be right. But I assume Gen Milley has a good understanding of the nuclear enterprise, and if the reporting is correct, was genuinely concerned enough about Trump's behavior towards the end of his presidency to take drastic action. If Milley ends up resigning or being fired over it, I bet he keeps a clear conscious on the actions be took. If he remains, I wonder what criteria he will use for the current POTUS in order to establish (in his mind) the inability to wield nuclear decision-making? Rather not test that out.

Nearly everybody on this forum has used the words "if true" or some derivation, and no one said we should bypass his right to a fair trial. Your arguments don't require strawmen to be true. Further, there's no requirement to wait until the trial has been conducted to speculate, since none of us are going to be investigating him. Especially with politics. Politicians (and Milley is probably more of a politician than he is a soldier at this point) act very predictably. One thing they almost never do is allow a false story to float without an outright denial. Think Hunter Biden and his laptop. As I've said repeatedly, I don't trust Woodward as far as I can throw him. However if the journalist is famous as Bob Woodward makes a claim about a politician, and the politician doesn't issue a denial, it's time to pay close attention. There are also some fairly high profile rebukes coming out that I don't believe would occur without some behind the scenes validating. Christopher Miller is one such example. Honestly looking at Milley, a cartoon character of what a military General should be, I'm not at all surprised that he did it, and had the chutzpa to brag about it to a journalist. It seems like a lot of these "dissidents" from the conservative wing get a taste of media adulation for some "heroic" act against the great orange vulgarian and they quickly forget that they are still enemies to the left and will not be forgiven for their unacceptable wrong-think.

Reason #6 why Big Blue doesn't always win. Because Big Blue is made of up of a myriad of sub-organizations that don't communicate with each other. Excellent work, SkiBum.

The good ole days of being a UPT IP are over. AETC “is at war”. Not my quote, that’s from the senior leaders. What it translates to: expect max duty day, min crew rest, minimal CT opportunity, and local weekend flying. Sure, you PROBABLY won’t deploy and you’ll get to sleep in your own bed most nights…but the job is hardly a cake walk anymore. You’re going to trade extended TDYs for the meat grinder of pilot production. Reference the manning crisis threads for further.

Thanks for speaking up. More should. You reminded me of this quote.

Did I say that? You have no nuance or critical thinking everything is either hard right or left. God damn man no one holding your POV can explain the fucking data. Ironic because y’all SCREAM “follow the science”

brutal and insane, we're 193% manned on Cos with a jet that basically doesn't work; something has to give and they need a better plan then venting people to del rio.

Okay, give it 24 hours. If it's still looking like a free pr0n site by then, try clearing cache.

The guy's mental state is clearly deteriorating...I just hope it doesn't end in a suicide. Or a murder/suicide.

Homie needs some therapy.

So we're telling people not to make one health choice based on others not making different health choices? Getting the vaccine is 15 minutes out of your day. Losing a hundred pounds will take someone months.

So Bashi's public health advice is just spit into each other's mouths until everyone gets covid, everyone who dies is an acceptable loss? Pretty arrogant. But maybe it's that single-seat mentality. Fuck anyone who isn't you...you got yours, your own risk, everyone else just shouldn't be old and fat, it's their own fault. Brilliant.

Modern formulations sold on shelves were not produced in the 60s. Those formulas have been tweaked and tinkered with, including the use of the HEK-293 cell line. Pepsi also made use of this cell line. BTW, if you got the MMR vaccine... the rubella vaccine was developed using cells from a human embryo aborted in the 1960s - a different cell line than HEK-293.