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Bite your tongue and punch yourself repeatedly in the balls. That...[expletive deleted]...was not, nor will he ever be, a herc guy. Never. He might have been a tanker guy, but I don't want to put that on any of the tanker bros either.

FAA doesn’t give you wings. Hence they can’t take them away. FAA has no right to know who you are when operating military aircraft. Never identify yourself to the FAA.

The niche they can fill is dying for their country.

Oops. Where’s that AP “fact checking” now. the gig is up. The “experts” were wrong. All vax mandates need to be demolished. All vax passports (I still cannot believe some of you crossed that bridge) need to be removed.

There’s a whole lot of people out there who evangelize about the life decisions they made, which often seems to be rooted in insecurity about said decisions. The “Bro why would anybody want to be in the Air Force,” guys are almost as bad as the blue Kool Aid drinkers that scoffed at the guys who constantly deployed and got no strats. The most opinionated on both sides just seem to be fishing for reinforcement from the crowd. It never comes across as understanding of a different guy’s perspective, and it certainly isn’t humble. At the end of your life, the amount of money you have doesn’t really matter as long as your family is safe and secure, just as your personal list of military accomplishments will seem pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

False flag event with near simultaneous cyber attacks Little green men along side separatist militias in the Donbas launching coordinated attacks supported by long range fires guided by UAV spotters Large conventional combined arms thrust from the north to link up with advancing forces in Donbas and establishing a Line of Control either on or east of the Dneiper River Diplomatic push to create Eastern Ukraine / New Russia and bog down the International Community while consolidating new territorial gains Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No they can specialize. They can specialize in night 1 SEAD, DCA, etc.... I don't care if they specialize but theyre going to specialize in the shit that cost casualties and money, not flying around uncontested and won battlespace delivering an occasional JDAM. This is their country. If they aren't willing to die for it why should I be?

Lets face it, there are two events we all don't want to happen: a military intervention of Russia invading Ukraine, and Russians directly threatening more countries. No western nation has the stomach to stop the current (continuing) invasion, yet no one wants Russia on their own doorstep either. It's a Catch-22. If we (western nations) don't want to deal with an increasingly power hungry Russia tomorrow, we have to do something today...which we don't want to do. Long game, or short game. Sometimes winning at one means losing at the other. I don't have the right answer. All I know is that America's current leadership is clearly not up to the mental and moral gymnastics needed to successfully navigate these waters to an outcome that is beneficial for our nation, not to mention beneficial for other nations and our collective future.

You are putting words in his mouth. He is saying some people like more money. Some people like serving. Some like both. Some prefer one over the other. Some had a different experience and aren’t as jaded. Some got screwed and are super jaded. Do whatever makes you happy. It’s weird that someone that doesn’t care as much about making more money threatens you. All he is saying is don’t judge people for making their own decisions, including taking the opportunity to go get a bunch more money or getting out and living in a 1 room shack in the woods.

Once had a Dutch pilot tell me the NL was wasting money on the F-35 when all they needed was newer F-16s. I asked why he thought that and he said the F-35 was so expensive because of the stealth and EW technologies, which is only day 1 stuff for kicking in the door. He said the NL can just wait for the US to do all that and then they can come in week 3-5 and just help with bombing targets. So let me get this straight? The most dangerous and dynamic part of the air campaign to defend Europe should be handled by the US alone? Why? Infuriated me how he said it. 2 weeks later I spoke with a Belgian pilot at another occasion. Exact same sentiment from him. Belgium was wasting money on the F-35 because Belgium shouldn't be fighting the first week of the war.

I genuinely think we need to get out of the military model of rotating troops home after committed to action. Don’t come home until the war is over. See how hawkish the political elites are to attempt the recent bullshit we’ve seen with that model. And also maybe the Congress could do it’s actual job WRT declaring war and/or preventing presidents from just sending military wherever for however long.

If you want a (hopefully, a little dependent on the person) no shit read out of your record and where you stand get on your SR's calendar. Ideally him/her should've gone through it prior to the board but honestly time and numbers play into this. (They)'re leadership; part of their job is honest feedback on records.

I was told no SDE pushes (my wing only gave SDE pushes to Majors who were IDE in-res complete), no jobs above the wing level (had a non-flying job early, which meant I couldn’t both go to staff and meet flying gates) and my Promote Now pushline was no good (need to have Definitely Promote, even with the Promote box checked). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bashi— on your #4, Agree 100%. Not sure how many people, even in the military, have the appetite for what you’re talking about or even understand it. Weak leaders have tried to breed it out of us, but a willingness and desire to commit ultimate violence against other humans is a healthy thing for warriors to embrace. Instead they’re trying to make gunship pilots feel sad for the bodies they’ve smeared on mountainsides. a topic best discussed around a fire pit with bourbon & bros you trust.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/22/us-in-talks-with-qatar-over-supplying-lng-to-eu-reports If Russia's leverage over the EU's energy security is much diminished, the calculus for could change for Mr. Putin. Russia's economy is heavily reliant on the petroleum sector; sharply diminished exports, isolation from the SWIFT system, and cutting off Russia's largest banks from the Western market would make for an extremely turbulent and difficult time in Russia. This would be further exacerbated if a Russian invasion of Ukraine bogs down and/or is beset with heavy casualties. History doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme. The Russia civil war happened only 100 years ago and while the political and military situation is very different, there are some parallels. If a Ukrainian invasion goes poorly, or ends in a brutal stalemate disaffecting the Russian people, and more importantly, the military, things could get tense in Russia. The ultimate irony of this is that while Russia (really Putin) plays the long game quite well in many instances, an all-out invasion of Ukraine will probably have an opposite effect of what he's trying gain (security and spheres of influence). Eastern European countries like Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic could conceivably start rapid military buildups/rearmament programs (Poland is already there in some respects). The have recent memories of what its like being under the Russian thumb. The Baltic States already contribute more than the obligatory 2% NATO requires on defense (a fact my Estonian friend was always very proud of); a further increase would be very likely as would an increase in invasion preparations like arms stockpiling for guerilla warfare, mining of LOCs, fortifications etc. Sweden and Finland would very likely apply for NATO membership. Even some of the Western European states might start an arms buildup (I see this as less likely for some though). BLUF is that for as strong as Russia is in some respects, they're far from invincible and actually quite vulnerable in many aspects. Russia has few allies and the ones it does have either aren't strong and/or don't trust Putin much more than we do (see Belarus and several of the Stans). Russia's military, while its made some significant advances in the last 15 years, isn't the Soviet military juggernaut of 1945 or 1980. M2's Baseops signature block still holds some truth today.

Here are three lessons from AFG we should be smart enough to apply in UKR: 1. We should not attempt fighting a battle for those who don’t care enough to fight it themselves. The idea Prozac expressed, that we must stop tyranny here before it spreads everywhere, is undercut by the unwillingness of Europe to defend itself. If Germany isn’t worried about Russia threatening them, why are we? We aren’t isolationists; if Europe is banding together against an aggressive Russia I’m in. But the situation looks like we’re overly aggressive defending a continent who is apathetic about our noble notions. We should be smarter. Do not fight a war for Europe that Europe won’t fight itself. 2. This one is tough to articulate: There are boundaries that if adversaries cross we should fight. But we should not artificially move those boundaries, then fight over artificially made boundaries. In AFG we said “AQ attacked us, we have to crush them & their ability to do it again.” Yup, 100% right. I spent my adult life doing it. But then we foolishly transitioned into “we must spread democracy here, as a strategic hedge against AQ ever growing again . Now we’ll stay for decades forcing democracy.” Fighting to prop up GIRoA was dumb, even GIRoA didn’t believe in itself. We should have left after smashing the enemy, let grow whatever political system worked for the Afghans, and come back to smash them again if required. With Ukraine, the line we cannot allow to be crossed is a NATO member being attacked. “If they attack UKR they’ll attack Poland!” Maybe, we don’t know. But if that’s the case, we should fight when they attack Poland (Article 5), not at an artificially made assumption before the one we actually care about. It is hubris to assume you know what the future holds. 3. We should not commit troops to war unless our nation actually wants it and we authorize it correctly through Congress. This thing we’ve all done for the last 20 years was stupid, unpopular, devastating to our national credibility, national debt, and the lives of service members. And ultimately we gained nothing from it. Now the same people are telling us we have to do something similar in Ukraine, and we should trust them. But our countrymen don’t want it, so it will fail. In light of these three items, we should be clear eyed about our prospects for success on this misadventure in Ukraine. And although this final item might seem political, it is relevant: given the obvious and massive corrupt political connections between our presidents family and Ukrainian oligarchs, can any of us trust that the information we are receiving about the situation is correct?

1:1:1 he didn’t say you should do that. He said for him it’s enough. For you to say it’s insulting of him to say that to you means you didn’t read it and are easily offended even when someone’s not talking to you. Be happy for him. He seems to found happiness. So what if it’s different from yours.

What if the European continent spent > 2% of GDP on defense and therefore presented a credible deterrent? Are What Ifs open?

This. There comes a point where you gotta ask: How much money do I need? And once you reach that, it is then up to you to honestly decide if it is worth continuing to work. Maybe you got the FU money and like the job--great. Maybe you get the FU money and decide it's not worth it so you have the ability to walk. Personally I've decided I will LIKELY have my FU money when I retire at 20. Even though the pension is small by comparison to raking it in at the airlines, I just don't need huge sums of money at even this point. Part of it was luck and it's a 12 year Bull market (aside from the bloodbath yesterday), but even in a downturn I figure I can manage with my personal risk tolerance. The value of a pension/medical is heavily discounted here, but the truth is there is extrinsic value beyond monetary value. All that said I've never seen the other side WRT airline life and my situation was different than most. I just don't have any interest in trading in time for huge sums of money if I don't have to.

I quoted my last summary for comparison purposes. I was hired in March 2018. Here's how 2021 went. I'm a line holder. The alternative would be reserve, which at AA means 18 days per month (in blocks of 3-7) where you are either on a 2-hourish callout (76 hours pay/month) or 12-hour callout (73 hours/month). I get a schedule every month from the bidding software. I then use the trading tools to drop my entire schedule, with some rare trips being "sold" to others (I pay them to take my trip). I then wait for what we call makeup flying, trips leaving today or tomorrow that he company needs to fill dues to sickness, weather events, fatigue calls, delays, etc. I fly these trips because they usually have a high pay-to-flight-hours ratio, due to contract intricacies that aren't germane to the conversation. My entire goal is to maximize my efficiency. As an example, at AA these trips pay the same DFW-OKC-DFW vs DFW-ORD-DFW - Both pay 5:15 hours DFW-OKC, overnight, OKC-DFW vs DFW-OKC-DFW-JFK, overnight, JFK-DFW - Both pay 10:30 hours Anyways, in 2021 I flew 295 hours in the cockpit. I spent another 150 or so riding in the cabin as a passenger (fully paid at the major airlines). Lets call it 450 hours of actual uniformed work. I was paid 1310 hours (this includes vacation and training pay, which are done as work-hours) plus per diem, which worked out to $241k Gross earnings, plus $30.4k of company contributions to my 401k. So $270k in my fourth year. Recently the junior captain bid went to someone below me on the seniority list, but I will stay where I am and accrue seniority-in-seat which will allow me to further enhance my pay-to-hours-flown ration by picking up even shorter trips that pay the same as longer trip, as in the examples above. Please note though, I am an extreme case. You have to really work the contract and scheduling tools to do what I do, but anyone can if they can tolerate the uncertainty. I spend more days home than most, so when I say uncertainty I mean you don't know what you're doing until the day before at the earliest. As a side note, $270k seems like a ridiculous amount of money to me, but I fly with people who make quite a bit more than me, yet still live paycheck to paycheck. Please get yourself financially savvy before you start making eye-watering money. My neighbor, a wide-body captain married to a specialty doctor (total of ~$750k/year), spent years wasting everything. They tell me that Dave Ramsey saved them, and I'm a fan of his work, though I've never needed it.

This is the relevant point. There were only a few select justifications for mandates (masks, school closures, vaccination, boosting). 1. Stop the spread. That's dead. None of the mandated actions *meaningfully* stop the spread. Alpha didn't look like it was responding, Delta killed that idea for sure, and omicron is just making a mockery of it. The vaccine turned out to be the fever-dream of libertarians. Instead of working like the measles vax, which absolutely stops the spread of measles, this vaccine only protects the individual who takes it. Fascinating. Sure, we didn't know that a year ago, but we know it for sure now yet some at the highest levels of government are still clinging to mandates. And if you think these people are up there begging to save the lives of their political opposition, you have a much more optimistic view of politics than I do. This is a case study in our ability to cling to a decision as humans despite changes around us. 2. Don't overwhelm the hospitals. This one was fascinating, because the average person had no idea how overwhelmed most hospitals are on any normal day. Do you really think nurses started using cocaine to get through the day because of the coronavirus? They are businesses, and like any other well-run business, operating near capacity is usually the most profitable path. But this was also confused with "don't burden the hospitals." There's a big difference between overwhelming and burdening. As the last few posts point out, we allow all manner of personal decision making that burdens hospitals. It's just another cost of freedom that is grossly outweighed by the cost of authoritarianism. You think the hospitals are filled now... Go check out the authoritative states. 3. Save the children. This one has been disgusting from the start. Perhaps the best thing about this pandemic is that it doesn't affect children. There's not a single factual analysis that implies children are at risk from this disease. Yet the teachers unions in the most radicalized cities in America have used it as a cudgel, and politicians have jumped on board. Granted, I don't expect the average American to understand the immensity of facial expressions on childhood development, but I do expect experts in the field of childhood development to be honest about it, and they haven't been. The most profound effect of the pandemic is not going to be a few more old people dying a few years earlier (and yes, compared to the rates of death that have been posted here numerous times, this pandemic did not change the game for old people. They died of a lot of things, now there's one more on the list. As those most susceptible to the coronavirus pass, the rates will return to where they were. It sucks. But it wasn't the only factor and we treated it that way). Rather the biggest effect will be the millions of children, overwhelmingly those from low-income and single-parent households, who missed out on two years of desperately needed, in person education. Most of the people here have their shit together, and therefore their kids have their shit together. They have no idea the abject misery that children live in, in places like inner city chicago, new york, memphis, St louis, baltimore, Los angeles, or any number of liberal-run catastrophes across the country. They had jobs that let them stay at home and watch their kids, many of whom already had a firm basis in academics and could handle the transition to Zoom for a couple years. That's not the case for the kids whose parents didn't make it through a year of high school themselves, and spend their days either judiciously working at shitty jobs to pay for food for their kids, or wasting their lives away in a self-indulgent drug fantasy world, where the effect on their children is the same. Unmonitored, uneducated, and mostly just alone. For a lot of those kids, the teacher was the only person who interacted with them in a meaningful way on a daily basis.

Fair enough…so you pick and choose what’s acceptable when it comes to others and their personal risk decisions when those decisions could result in people requiring hospitalization or death, when those decisions effect other people directly or indirectly, drive up medical costs, etc. Just think…if no one did drugs or had unprotected sex (if not attempting to procreate), we could probably come close to eradicating all STDs, especially HIV, not to mention all the welfare costs associated with those unwanted children, or the medical costs associated with abortions. I also wonder how much medical resources could be redirected after HIV is no longer a problem. Condoms…people who don’t wear one (or have consensual sex with a partner not wearing one) are so selfish.

So this “voting rights” bill…who exactly (that is legally able to do so) can’t vote in elections? And what is keeping them from being able to vote?

Sorry, no one has adequately explained why my son should die for Ukraine or Taiwan. If those countries are absorbed into their respective aggressors, is anyone in the US less safe in a quantifiable way? “Defender of the global commons” is insufficient rationale unless it translates to an actual threat to US personnel. Now if you want to start some shit with China because of the US Fentanyl crisis or C19 I’m game to hear you out, but we should probably have a real intel assessment first.