Leaderboard

Thanks for that, I actually lol'd. Back on my first deployment as a young 1Lt, I had a Nav who, while a good dude, was super loud/brash and would forget his head if it wasn't attached to his body. He kept leaving his shit all over ops and the plane, so by month two of the deployment pretty everything he owned had hogs drawn all over it. He finally loses his shit one day on the all of us in ops, yelling, unspecified threats towards the next mofo that draws a dick on his stuff, pretty epic rant honestly. After a couple minutes of this he storms out the door in a very angry fashion. Unfortunately for him he forgets his snack banana, left it lying on the table. No one says a word. I picked the banana up and drew a big veiny triumphant bastard on said banana. 5 minutes later he comes back in to get his snack, picks it up and sees this giant cock drawn on the side of it with the whole crew sitting there silently staring at him. Hangs his head in defeat, unpeels it (looking disturbing like very loose foreskin at this point), and walks out the door.

There's no logic behind this paragraph, just emotion. If you were being logically consistent, you would just say that we should wear masks forever. Because masks also marginally reduce the spread of flu, which kills people. So why now? Should we just be a masked society? Negatory posted an excellent explanation of why the math doesn't work either. If we lived in a universe with an unlimited population, then small percentage changes in spread would have meaningful impacts, but we don't live in that world. With a fixed population, a highly transmissible disease is largely unaffected by single digit changes in spread. The only thing it affects is the speed at which the inevitable occurs, which is relevant for a hospital capacity, but not relevant for saving lives. Since hospital capacity in the overwhelming majority of the country is doing fine, then there are no remaining justifications for mask wear. Except, of course, and emotional desire to feel like you're doing something, even if you really aren't. And at this point, anybody advocating for masks who isn't wearing a properly fitted n95 that they are swapping out every day, is blowing so much smoke up their own ass it's amazing it's not coming back out their ears. Same goes for people who advocate for masks but eat at indoor restaurants.

In short, female was allowed to "quit" at several events, including a pool event and a land navigation event, but was readmitted to training each time. Additionally, she slandered the ST community on several occasions by decrying the standards as unreasonable and concluding that those upholding them were doing so out of misogyny. Furthermore, she was offered exclusive assignments to continue training, in some sort of weird barter, including placement in a highly selective unit that has additional screening processes and is normally only available to seasoned special tactics members. Additionally, she had exclusive access to the AFSOC chain of command including the training wing commander, and AFSOC senior staff. Lastly, in between her training failures, she was allowed a prestigious job as a special advisor to Gen Slife, (the above poster) where she was apparently given jurisdiction to adjust training standards for the ST community, despite the fact she was not a graduated STO at this point and never made the standards. Finally, she was allowed an appeal to her course completion status that has once again reopened her training status, and had allowed her to restart the pipeline, after she adjusted all of the training standards coming off the staff.... Basically she was allowed to adjust the bar to something she knew she could hit and then readmitted to training. If the allegations are true.... It does not look pretty. But the undertone is that senior leaders are trying to change norms in the community to make quitting acceptable, and then allow someone to be trained to hit a lower bar. The bars were gamed to be lowered based on weak arguments for mission accomplishment and the requirement that candidates possess the mental fortitude to take on extreme task without quitting is being removed from the culture.

If condoms were as effective as masks, nobody would ever wear them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had a bro several years ago get in some slight trouble due to some hijinks. Whenever a spare flight cap was found around the squadron, it was quickly turned into a canvas panel, and a dick was drawn in the cap in permanent marker. All fun and good until it occurred to the WG/CC, who was unaware and took his flight cap to an O-6 meeting in D.C., and then subsequently forgot said cap at the table, only for the SARC representative(no shit) to pick it up, look inside trying to find a name, and was struck by the sheer power of the dick drawing. Maybe some slight verbal counseling occurred, but the best part was that same guy ended up going and getting a rooster stamp and stamp pad, and that became the new marker for abandoned flight caps.

@UCThopeful If I was a bettin man I’d put my money on you getting that CSO slot. For whatever that’s worth lol.

Bro amongst bros!

Obese people cause higher rates in general because others have to subsidize the, often, poorer segment of society who make up a larger portion of the obese. At age 65 the rate at which someone causes a motor vehicle accident begins to increase significantly. Should we take away all drivers licenses for people when they turn 65?

You put that bad juju away! We don’t speak of that lol Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

But it did accomplish exactly what some of us said it would. Create more division, foster distrust, and ruin the credibility of "expertise." The failure to consider (and value) second- and third-order effects by the American Left is catastrophic in both scope and effect.

one person offended is too many #StopTheSpread

Mosul on Netflix is worth watching if you have some spare time and are looking for a war movie. Pretty good depiction of brutal urban combat against ISIS. Plot was a little thin but was still overall a well done movie.

First offense? Blues for week/month, give some briefings in said blues, and LOC an LOR at most. Art-15...GTFO. If we gave punishment such as this for off colored jokes, we wouldn't have anyone to lead the AF or the government.

Just heard back from Mr H at AFPC. He said he briefed the AFPC/CC today and he certified the board results. Now he just needs approval for the PSDM from his bosses before releasing the results. Expecting next Tuesday or Wednesday for the release.

FWIW I’d say it’s more about the content of the letter than the rank at the bottom. While these boards can be brutally competitive a redeeming factor is that they’re looking at the whole person and not just a few data points.

I don’t disagree. But I do think there is culpability on both the left and right for anti-mask attitudes in general. On the left for being militant and on the right for overblowing the small nuisance that masking presents.

And this is why we can’t have nice things.

You think someone who dropped hundreds of bucks on a plane ticket and has somewhere to be is going to cancel his trip? People have hacked up lungs up on airplanes for decades. Noone gave a shart. It was all part of the human experience. If there's one positive from this entire experience, sick people will wear masks on planes and in public generally. But with how badly the mask narrative was abused by the power-obsessed, I suspect there's too much baggage for any good to come of it.

Tell that to the guy in 17C, next to me on the plane yesterday who was hacking up a lung. Unfortunately we live in a society where many people think it’s ok to fly, use public transit, or go to work while sick, even in a pandemic. Personally, I’m glad ‘Typhoid Mike’ was forced to wear a mask.

Lots of speculating going on here, so I just sent a message to Mr. Hornburg to see if he could tell me when they anticipate the release. I'll message back here if he responds.

SFO and EWR are givens as they are very junior, and are in every class drop. I've never heard of CLE going to a new hire. Next month will see the first 777 and 787 new hires. Unprecedented at UAL.

They had the winter storm last year and they were still able to work remotely and get everything out close to on track, so I think we will be good. The folks in the office down there at AFPC are pretty transparent so I will take them at their word.

Actually unvaccinated people who are sick are less likely to get others sick because they are aware of their issue and can take action. Those who are vaccinated are the bigger and untested (because no symptoms) of covid spread. See the difference? Masks are for vaccinated and sick. Not the unvaccinated and symptom free. Follow the logic?

Let’s assume for sake of argument you are 100% correct pooter. Take the next step in thought. What if anything should be done about it? If people who are aware of the vax and choose not to get it die, is that bad? Then apply your answer to the major causes of death in our society and issues of health. Heart issues. Over weight issues. People choosing to end the life of others medically without giving them choice, cancers, smoking, drugs, etc. are you going to make choices for those people or take away health care for them or charge them more insurance because they are exercising their opinions? It’s a really big open question. Sorry. Allow me to break it down or retort based off your answer.

Been a long time lurker on here… but doesn’t “Our understanding of the best way to get trainees to meet standards and be ready to join the operational force has evolved”. sounds a lot like lowering standards to me…

I graduated in 2014 and my little sister graduated in 2018, both of us from Columbus. I could not tell you a single difference.

Guard, off-the-street: Selected - Jan ‘21 MEPS Approved - March ‘21 FC1 Approved - April ‘21 Officially Gained - Sept ‘21 NGB Submission - Jan ‘22 Hoping I can get OTS in late spring/early summer, and hit UPT ASAP after that…fingers crossed as the process has slowed a good bit after moving much faster out of the gate than anticipated.

Strange statement.

Back in the day 4 stars’ hats weren’t safe. Maybe the best part was the General’s butt boy negotiating with the LPA when he discovered both primary and secondary hats were dicked and the tertiary (but still unmarked) one was being held hostage. Man those were good days! @DirkDiggler I spit Laguvulin 16 out when I read that…and I’m not even mad. I wish I could be a fly on the wall seeing that one play out. Well played!

This info is 14 years old so take it with a grain of salt. I went to SOS with a Viper driver (previous B-1 WSO, not sure which he was when he was matched) who had been a bone marrow donor. He didn't make any specific comments regarding the AF medical process (at least he didn't say he had any issues with it) itself but he did reinforce that the recovery was pretty rough (they're driving large bore needles into your pelvis/legs I believe). He said he was on crutches for a week and it was a pretty painful recovery. That said, he was pretty happy he was able to help (rightfully so) and said he was back flying not too long after the procedure. I'd tell you to reach out to your local Flight Doc but given my recent experiences there's a good chance they may not know what bone marrow is. Best of luck!

An anecdote: I have not taken the jab. My company (Big Fortune 100 behemoth) is subject to the Federal Contractor Mandate. They have been spamming my inbox for weeks, warning that I need to submit my proof of vaccination, or else I'll "be subject to discipline, up to and including termination." The deadline was Tuesday. It's now Thursday. I'm still here. I have had no word from HR or management one way or the other.

Probably worth a whole thread. I read all that and I would like to see actual proof versus some brave anonymous CCT on the internet calling this woman out by name and exposing things that I guarantee he’s not privy to. For example…the offer of some ST student (female or not) to get fast tracked to the 24th STS makes zero sense and wreaks of rumor amongst students. No way did that happen.

Yeah, I feel my odds are pretty solid. I had my rank order: CSO, ABM, RPA and Pilot. Qualified for all, but with the ability for me to retire in less than 10 years I like to keep my options open. I also worked for a CSO and ABM previously and drank all of the kool-aid. I was 1 of 1 out of my Wing, my AFOQT scores are decent and the whole package should def be competitive for CSO or ABM. Knowing that the rank order holds significant weight helps as well since they want to push people into career fields that want to do it, instead of pushing people who put CSO number 4 into it knowing that they will likely decline it. I had to get a ETP for age and was approved for all Rated Career Fields and would be more than happy to go to the operational world in ANY AFSC. This was a major factor in putting CSO and ABM 1 and 2 as well. I have a 64 PCSM and do not have a PPL so I know that puts me below those who are usually selected for Pilot already.

Just close all the bar so no one will be offended...problem solved.

I hear you brother… I was afraid that if I laughed at your original post that the Air Force would track me down and give me an Art 15.

It seems you skipped over my first attempt to provide you clarification. Please post my statement where I said cases would not exceed 250K per day. You know what, nevermind. I'll do it for you. Here's the first re-attack again if you choose to read it. From this point forward, I'm going to have to defer to someone else on this forum to help explain to you that I was doubting the sincerity of the people in charge given the assumptive death-rate you panic-stricken posters seem to think is imminent. Not that we would get to some arbitrary number of infections per day. Anyway, I guess the big guy (and maybe #2 also?) is giving some speech right now about how Jan 6th was supposedly the end of America as we know it. I think you should keep screaming from the mountain tops, @Negatory, because it's not possible in my world for them to be so highly dedicated to political theater in the face of impending doom. I feel like you know something they don't. Hell, you probably do, and if so, you really need to be spending your time reaching out to people who can make some substantive change, rather than enlightening all of us air force pilots on this small corner of the internet called baseopsforums.com because I really feel that we're not your intended audience. You have received knowledge that needs to be delivered to the people at the top of our government, because it's obvious to me that they don't have the same information you purport to have. No one here is going to be able to implement any further societal restrictions, or enact a lock-down that will save us from the tidal wave of death that is headed our way. You're really wasting your time with us. Sorry to say, you have been standing in the wrong line at the DMV. By way of implication, you seem to believe that for a few weeks starting in ~ mid-January the USA is going to experience about 300-500K deaths, right? This approaches Civil War deaths. They PTB cannot both know that we're going to experience that level of pandemic death and destruction, and simultaneously be placing focus on a riot that got out of control a year ago to make a political stump speech. Or hell, maybe they can because they are that cynical. I guess we'll see. In the meantime, I'll continue to scoff their sincerity, competence, and your reading comprehension.

Noone is ever shocked when they catch the common cold, which typically has an R0 of 2-3. They are saying Omicron is around 7-10, approaching that of Chicken Pox and Measles. The only difference is, the Chicken Pox and MMR vaccines are highly effective against infection and the COVID vaccine is not.

I would think that a ten year old could look at the available data with airline hiring and the lower production than desired and realize that a maximum bonus would be the only sensible decision. But, if the AF made sensible decisions all the time, then the bonus wouldn't be as vital to keeping people in anyway...

"Headed?!?" And no, that's not a 'STS' question, nor is it a grammatical one. I am surprised at your claim we are "becoming" a military that allows zero thinking. Many will argue we reached that point years ago!

And that’s one of the ways throughout history militaries have been used to conduct atrocious actions against a group of humans. If someone advocates for black and white no questions/shut up and do as they’re told, they are part of the problem. Never have seen somebody with that mentality in the military do well at anything.

GTFO out of Omaha. We probably know each other. But if you have to commute to a regional, anywhere with a junior base of MSP, DEN or ORD. ORD has a ton of capacity because of AA and UAL hubs, Spirit and Frontier, a bunch of regionals, and to a lesser extent SWA to MDW. DEN has UAL and Frontier. Pinpointing the best regional to work for is extremely hard right now. They're all in the midst of doing everything possible to attract pilots. Air Wisconsin was considered one of the best 2 years ago, now they might not last beyond 2023 (hemorrhaging pilots and airlines getting rid of 50 seaters.) Republic was considered one of the worst because of pay, but is now one of the top choices. Haven't heard anything bad about SkyWest. But I can't stress how much being able to drive to work adds to the airline QoL. From sitting RSV at home, to being able to choose start and end times that don't involve coming in a day early and leaving a day late, not dealing with a crash pad or paying for hotels, to weather that cancels everything and you have uncomfortable calls with the Chief Pilot, to short notice Premium (150-300% extra pay) trips, to trip trading flexibility... Living in base is far superior. You are gone less, and make more money. I moved to DCA after getting out, and then to DFW during my mini-furlough. DFW offers permanent princess parking if you have various military medals, I haven't seen an employee parking lot since I moved here. It saves 15-25 minutes on the front and back half of every trip.

Yeah LL and AD are so much more pertinent to ACC heavies, C-5s and Tankers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If I understand it correctly, you'd forfeit 1/30th of your retiree pay. As a reservist, a paycard is 1/30th of of your pay rate + flight pay, and you can log 2 of those per day. So based on my cursory understanding of the process, you'd make more money in the long run if you're talking just military money. Where you'd really lose out on money is missing stuff at the airline. As an example, when I was a 330 FO, I missed out on a 3 day GS that would have paid me $13k (including 401k), because I was a at drill. My drill check for that weekend was $1,500. Clearly and extreme example, but even now as 717 FO, I recently missed an easy 2 day GS that cost me ~$3,200. This is just GS opportunities, I'm not even talking dropped trips or reserve days that you'll have to do to work at the reserves. That stuff adds up fast! As someone who has done two jobs for the last 8 years, I can say, I've lost a ton of money for being in the Guard (cost of doing business). But more importantly, I've lost TONS of my free time and life on the outside...that's the truly painful part. I've talked with so many guys who've said their only regret was not getting out earlier and they can't believe how much free time they now have. I absolutely can not wait to get out and only have one job. If you want to teach, there are plenty of opportunities at DAL. You can be a sim instructor (paid min of 85 hours at whatever you can hold), if you don't mind living in ATL or commuting to the sims. If not, we have FOs who are part of the line check airmen cadre called LVPs...they do some instruction. Or you could get your civilian instructor ratings and teach at the local FBO on the side. I do this from time to time and find it quite enjoyable. Best of luck in whatever you choose. More than ever, the AF needs good IPs with lots of experience.

@ViperMan I think people are calling it "a pandemic of the unvaccinated" because it is the unvaccinated who are actually ending up in the hospital and dying from this thing. In a pandemic I don't care how many people get the sniffles. I care about hospitalizations and death, which are happening in disproportionate numbers to the unvaxxed. Similarly, you could call it a "pandemic of the obese" or a "pandemic of the elderly" as they're the ones getting the full brunt of the effects. On mask mandates, I honestly think any tiny shred of efficacy could justify a mandate. Wearing a mask is not an undue burden on you, and mandating you put a tiny piece of PPE on your face is a very far cry from mandating you to get an injection. Hell, we all wear flight suits that have been washed thousands of times and have long since lost their fire resistance so apparently you guys are okay with some useless PPE but not others.. I guess as long as it looks cool.

Eh...could also mean we stop training to skills we don't need. For example, do we need to teach marching in our commissioning sources? When was the last time anyone here marched anywhere? That said...this specific case definitely sounds like lowering the bar for a political outcome, not a military readiness outcome.

But health insurance does cost more for smokers...? But putting that aside, someone overdosing on drugs can't make me sick. Someone shoveling down Big Macs can't make me fat. Someone smoking can't give me lung cancer (despite all the screaming about second-hand smoke). Unvaccinated people who refuse to wear masks absolutely increase the probability that those around them get infected. See the difference? It's not a choice about your individual health...it's a choice that affects everyone around you. Which is usually the bar for mandates - government doesn't care if you get drunk, because that won't affect anyone else. But they care if you drive drunk, because your decision now increases the risk for others on the road.