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@VMFA187 Did a great job of raising important questions and issues, let me try to calmly pitch in because I simply don't understand how a rationale person agrees with much of what Biden has done AND many of the socialist policies his is supporting if not pushing. To be completely open and honest, I voted for Trump. I found it a painful thing to do for several reasons the most important being I found him to be a bloviating narcissist. Additionally it might surprise you but I am socially liberal; I support gay rights including marriage, I am 51% in favor of abortion (it is abhorrent, but as a nation based on personal freedoms I don't think the government has the right to tell a woman what to do inside her body...we will circle back Jenn to that one shortly), and I think we need some social safety nets to protect those who can't protect themselves. That being said, Biden is an absolute idiot who is clearly in mental decline. He has been wrong on EVERY foreign policy decision over the past 50 years. I would invite you to read Chris Wallace's new book on the Neptune Spear for more on that topic. In totality I believed as a nation we would be in a better situation and I think that has CLEARLY played out over the last year. I think the economy is worse now and under Biden for several reasons. While both parties have issues with deficit spending, by all measures of reason Biden has taken that to a stupid level that will drive us down a dangerous road. There is much to debate about Trump's tax cuts and the impact on the national debt, but a large portion of his deficit spending was COVID expense. Is the market up under Biden? Yes, even with a 9% correction over the past two weeks (we were due), but the underlying dynamics have completely changed. We now have inflation and it is going to get worse. The repeated stimulus packages are fueling what could turn into a terrible storm given the second and third order impacts caused by global supply chain issues. In general the DNC policies (paying people not to work, $20 min wage and general malaise about getting back to work), have caused incredible secondaries throughout the market. There is currently a major shortage of truck drivers, the backbone of our supply system and I would invite you to look at the situation at the port of Los Angeles. There are so many ships lined up waiting to offload they had to tell them to stop coming. As of the report I heard yesterday there are 500,000 shipping containers waiting to be offloaded and entered into the supply chain. Also as of yesterday, there was one...I repeat ONE large crane operational and manned to offload those containers. When people don't want to work unless they are paid $100,00 a year to flip burgers, you will feel it in the system. The current administration is completely removed from reality as demonstrated by an "absurd" comment from the White House Press Secretary who thinks businesses won't pass increased taxes and costs on to consumers"There are some … who argue that, in the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers," Psaki said. "We feel that that’s unfair and absurd, and the American people would not stand for that." How you can defend or accept comments like this is simply BEYOND me. Yes we left Afghanistan and yes it took balls. Trump started the ball rolling with a conditions based deal. A few points of order. 1. The Taliban were not in compliance with the conditions. 2. No I do not think 2500 troops could have sustained Afghanistan. 3. Biden claims his hands were tied by the deal...he undid almost every other Trump policy but this is the one that got him? Gimme an Fing break. More importantly, regardless of your opinion on the decision to leave, we left Americans behind...I say again...WE LEFT AMERICANS BEHIND. You with a straight face can say this puts us in a better position as a country? Those four words should be my only reply to this post...it should be game, set, match to anyone who has every served. Seriously? A more coherent message? Our policy is a mandate for all military, federal workers and companies that do business with the government but the hundreds of thousands of illegals that pour across our borders each month get a pass? In what universe my friend? For the record, Trump enabled the system to deliver a vaccine in record time and despite assurances from Biden he has NOT handled this better than Trump. As of yesterday more people have died of COVID under Biden than under Trump...WITH A VACCINE AND APPROVED THERAPEUTICS. I have to disagree with this twisted assessment. If you want to close loopholes I am ok with that as long as you account for the unintended consequences. A few items in particular and I would love honest feedback on how this is fair to rich people. The current U.S. economic system is already highly redistributive Taxes – How much more should the rich pay? Seriously, the DNC mantra that seems to hate rich people is “the rich should pay their fair share”…give me a freaking break. What is “fair” given the following facts from the IRS. #1. The top 1% pays 40% of the U.S. tax burden while earning 21% of all income. #2. The top 5% pays 60% of the U.S. tax burden while earning 37% of the income. You used the example of the marginal tax rate of school teachers...we should rich people have to pay a higher tax rate? If a teacher makes $50,000 and pays 10% they are paying $5,000 a year in taxes. If a rich person makes $500,000 a year and pays 10% they are paying $50,000 a year and taxes, but this is not "fair" Lunacy. Regardless, the progressive tax system is EXTREMELY unfair. Under the current tax code that rich person pays 37% or $185,000 a year in taxes...but that is not their fair share...you and Biden want more? Going back to 2012 In 2012, individuals in the bottom quintile (that is, the bottom 20 percent) of incomes (families with less than $17,104 in market income) received $27,171 on average in net benefits through all levels of government, while on average those in the top quintile (families with market incomes above $119,695) pay $87,076 more than they receive. The top 1 percent paid some $812,000 more....but that is not FAIR right? From your comments it seems you agree with the DNC that we should go after unrealized gains, I don't even have the words to describe how unfair and dangerous that is. That is straight up income redistribution right out of the communist manifesto. Again, seriously? We have a vaccine mandate, we want to tell women they don't have the freedom to control what they put in their body, but they do have control of what they take out of their body? Mixed message much? You don't find that to be authoritarian? What about the admin suppressing free speech? The Biden DOJ has again weaponized the FBI and will investigate parents who push back on school boards as DOMESTIC TERRORISTS. That should be staggering to anyone who has sworn an oath to the Constitution? And to make sure I understand the policy, it is okay to protest social injustice by burning down cities, rioting, destroying government buildings and property, and attack the police but if you attend a school board meeting and push back on Critical Race Theory you are a domestic terrorist? I actually laughed when I read your comment. #1. We abandoned Bagram and our ally in the middle of the night with no warning or notice. #2. We left Afghanistan to burn to the ground despite a conditions based agreement that was not satisfied. #3. We denied our ally air support and left them and the ones who supported us to die. #4. We negotiated with a terrorist organization and left them in charge of a country. #5. We LEFT AMERICANS BEHIND. #6. We screwed NATO. #7. We left the Brits so mad they officially condemned our President in Parliament for the first time since the war of 1812. #8. We pissed off the French so bad over a Sub deal that "Biden was unaware of", the French recalled their ambassador for the first time ever. If Trump did one thing right it was stand up to China while we still have tools and levers to pull. Pull back the curtain, China is going to go high order either internally or externally, much sooner than most think and hope. The United States could go to net zero carbon emissions and it would not make a difference, look at the numbers. The issue is China and India. I would rather see the U.S. remain energy independent and pour those taxes into innovation, accelerate a Manhattan like project toward fusion, clean energy and renewables. The only real solution seems to be fusion. Instead we have decided to wreck our energy industry, again become dependent on OPEC and others for our energy and give up the leadership position. I guess we disagree on the lesser of two evils. I see us as far weaker today.

“The Times They Are a-Changin” Seriously…take a look at politics today: If a progressive Congressman/Senator had to choose between funding our retirement or getting amnesty for illegals, government funded abortions, “free” college, etc then our retirement would lose every time. Now I’m not suggesting that said Congressman/Senator wouldn’t support funding our retirement and these other programs, but rather just telling you where we rank in the scheme of things. The military is back to being an avenue for pushing social change and less about being a well prepared lethal fighting force.

It's starting to appear that your genetic profile is going to be the "expert" on how to deal with a medical emergency like this .. If an organism like C-19 appears again, let it run wild in the population, offer a vaccine, and see what happens. Those that survive will pass on protective genetics for the next time, esp. if (when) it changes shape and needs modified vaccine. For sure this will be the science experiment from hell. But with an incredible amount of medical (and sociological) knowledge gained. As usual, I feel bad for the medics..I got a flu shot and a bug shot today and the nurse said that they are worn out. It could have been prevented. Now I'm going to get lectured by my pal who is convinced that I got a microchip.

https://skillbridge.osd.mil

You can move as soon as you have retirement orders in hand. Those will come a couple weeks after you apply. You should be good to go.

Covid hysteria is a useful tool for big government democrats (and republicans). It got Trump out of office, it increased dependency on government programs (why work when your Covid check is > your paycheck?), it continues to serve as a distraction from the mass importation of future voters from the Southern Border and mask the negligence behind the Afg pullout. If you were a big government corrupt politician I would never want the Covid hysteria to end!

#1: You're still in the goldilocks zone IMO. Similar to you, I started this process and took all my tests at 25, and got picked up for fighters of the street at age 26. Age is very unit dependent, some prefer young guys out of college, while others see value in someone with more life/professional experience. Through this process I've seen several people get picked up for fighters at 28, 29, and 30. Furthermore, this may vary by year as units decide to hire young one year and balance it out with an older hire the next. Overall, If you are competitive in every other way, I do not see age as something that will negatively impact you until maybe 28. That gives you a solid 2-3 years to apply/rush as hard as you can. Come interview time, you may very well be asked why you didn't start earlier or pursue an AD commission. Have a real and honest answer ready and it should be a non-issue. On that note though, why wait until spring to do your tests? Definitely give yourself 2-3 months to study, but you should want to get them done ASAP, as the last thing you want to be doing is trying to harass a recruiter to schedule you in time for the spring "batch" of boards. I made this mistake peak-COVID and wished I had started it earlier. #2: Echoing above, but this is again very unit dependent. IMO, the general rule of thumb is that local ties can always help you but the lack thereof won't necessarily hurt you. I've been at several rush events and interviews where it felt like there was only one or two guys from the opposite coast, but they were still invited out the same as the local guys. If the unit really likes you, they're not going to care where you live, as long as you can convince them that you're willing to drop everything and move there when that time comes. Sometimes though, with all other things even, they will go with a local guy as a tiebreaker. You can't control the board's selection process and there's really no way around that except to be yourself and show why you'd be the best fit for the squadron, both on paper and in person. I can only speak from my own experiences, but this is what I've found through the process thus far. Long story short, I think just about everybody in the "circuit" has had these same concerns at some point, it's only natural. Though I wouldn't let either of them prevent you from pursuing this with your full effort, and given your current situation I certainly don't think either would preclude you from getting a slot. Good luck!

Nice 2nd post. Go home. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Who knew?!

Displaced thanks to that bitch rona. If I couldn't stay in-base WB FO (homie don't commute), I just wanted to be as senior as possible while I waited out this downturns. I went from being 90% in seat to 7% in seat, which has been damn nice. If I hadn't been displaced, I'd likely have stayed 330 FO until I could have held Capt on it. For now I'm going to 717 Capt, but I can see myself heading back to 330 FO when these countries stop losing their minds over rona.

Which was my question 18 months ago when we decided to pause life for longer than the "two weeks to stop the spread." So we're waiting for a vaccine? What if they never make one? And if they do, what if it doesn't work? And if it does, what if the virus mutates? Seemed like shakey ground to nuke the economy on. But here we are, about to run out of government schemes to hide the effects of the past 18 months...

Looks like they may filter out more peeps, but I grabbed a rental too in case I end up going. Not sure what the plan will be but I'd be down for food/drinks if you know any places.

WRT smallpox, I was vaccinated in 2019 for CMR requirements. The vaccine (ACAM2000) was administered with the 15 pokes method. Only vaccine I've received with a 3 week care time.

If you don’t think there are bad things happening at higher levels of the DoD then we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Judgesmails - What do you want to fly? What are your other goals? I'll assume your goal is to fly fighters, if not, you'd be best served looking for an opinion other than mine. With that said, if I was in your position knowing what I currently do, I'd prioritize the ANG if at all possible. Quality of life is something you don't initially think about when you're young and all you can think about is strapping on a gray jet loaded with A/A and S/A munitions and delivering hate and discontent to the enemy. But it becomes hugely important when you've been deployed or on det 50% of a four year fleet tour. You can't beat quality of life with the ANG when you compare it to active service. Nearly all the benefits, with almost none of the massive downsides. And you have the added benefit of stepping into your first airplane knowing what you'll eventually be strapping on every day once you've earned those coveted wings. Now, as for going active Air Force versus Navy - That's tough, and it goes back to my above questions. From my experience AF pilots are generally more proficient, all things being equal. This is for a multitude of reasons, some of which may not be entirely accurate as I have no direct experience operating within the Air Force. I believe the main reason this holds true is largely due to aircraft health - You'll likely fly more when you're not deployed in support of combat operations in the Air Force than you will in the Navy because their jets are better maintained, and there are significantly more of them. If you choose Navy, you'll also have to sacrifice more time than your Air Force peers on collateral duties. The benefit, which some see with that, is that you will have more opportunities for leadership experience, outside of the cockpit. This can be a double-edged sword. My priority was always to be as good in the jet as possible: But being responsible for the entire squadron's airframe divison of 35+ Marines with no actual maintenance training made it difficult to perform both duties adequately, let alone to excel at them. Now, that being said, there is nothing like getting launched from the boat and catching a wire once you return. But living on the boat, which I've never had to do for more than a week, likely completely counteracts that positive. Bottom line, both are better than anything you can do in the civilian world. But if you want to be the absolute best in the jet that your capacity will allow, I'd go Air Force.