Leaderboard

100% valid. I knew & flew with all 3 when I was hercs. Embarrassments to our service. Self-centered, lacking empathy, contemptuous of new guys, but most importantly none were actual warriors who embraced risk and led from the front by example. The truth is no community has a monopoly on good or bad leadership. In my opinion the best leaders put outcome over process, and value their team mates who do the same. Assume the best about others, use subordinate mistakes as learning points, and ruthlessly close with and destroy the enemy… or execute their support mission with similar single mindedness. It’s not rocket science.

Most things aren’t Biden’s fault (just like most were not Trump’s). The global shame that was the *way* we pulled out of Afghanistan, STS, falls squarely on Biden and his useless senior officials. There was no contingency plan, the timeline was purely political. If nothing else, we left Americans behind, we left our interpreters who risked their lives behind. Not one member of the cabinet fired over this.

13 dead Marines and a hand waive of both responsibility and compassion by some on this forum. Whatever you think about staying or leave Afghanistan what happened was an absolute abortion and lays squarely at the feet of the Commander in Chief.

It’s sniffles and coughs now. It’s all a clownshow now - all this mask business. Everyone just making shit up like an elementary school game when for most people, covid is not a factor, never was a factor, and is sufficiently protected against - also - it’s their choice to do as they see fit for their OWN protection. Clownshow Example: Amex lounge DFW…. Get a whole warning from front desk about the rise in cases (not deaths) from the all powerful OMICRON, and how I need to wear a mask bla bla bla. If you’re eating (have a plate of food on your table)…. No hassle from the employee being the gestapo looking for violators when you don’t wear a mask. BUT! If you don’t have a plate of food, but are instead holding a cup of coffee and taking sips while talking to your group of people surrounding your table….. you get hassled for not wearing a mask and told to wear it and replace it between sips of said liquid. Zero sense. Zero critical thought. 100% clownshow, sheep, fear. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Embrace the us vs them; You are trying way too hard to make everything Biden’s fault. A potentially coherent argument started falling off the tracks as soon as you tried to pin inflation purely on the Biden admin. Last time I checked, the highest amount of quantitative easing ever along with the highest unemployment rate in recent history occurred in 2020. Oh, and the first President to give out economic stimulus checks… And supporting the filibuster is inane. There are actually no coherent reasons for it - it entirely “cheats” the planned way government legislation is supposed to work and forces supermajorities when they never were supposed to be required. The only argument is “hurr, durr, it’s been this way for a while.” Oh, and it typically helps conservatives more than liberals.

Shack. True in the Navy as well. Scooter…you might be the exception (I kid…I kid). You can stop by my office tomorrow and give me shit. ATIS

I should have been more precise, "MY" gains have been wiped out (too much tech), or were wiped out until the bounce back on Friday. That being said is your "believe what you want on the other points" a hand waive at the other issues? I choose to believe Biden completely screwed the Afghanistan Withdraw, I guess you disagree. I choose to believe Biden and his massive government plans have caused inflation, I guess you disagree. I choose to believe that Biden stood in front of a camera during the campaign and said "I am going to shutdown the virus." He also said of the pandemic "I am going to end this. Finally, during the last Presidential debate he said "anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America." This clown now has MORE deaths during his term than Trump did. I guess you choose not to believe those facts. I don't want a war with Russia and yes it is a very complicated situation that has a long history including a security promise made by the United States if Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. I don't know if Trump would have defended Ukraine (from his recent statements saying it is a Europe problem probably not). Regardless, Biden's diminished mental capacity and continued word scramble makes him and us look weak. Good look up his "small incursion" comments...to me it sure sounded like a green light to Putin. Before taking office Biden announced he would end Trump's tariffs on China, and aide had to walk those comments back. Yes I know it is a complicated situation but the mixed messages...When Biden took office he immediately suspended a planned arms sale to Taiwan (and other countries as you are aware). At that point China started ever increasing incursions into Taiwan's airspace. Those incursions are not weekly with large force presentations of 40-50 aircraft strike groups. It took Biden until August to "re-approve" the paused sale. So yes I choose to believe China is doing whatever they want thanks to us looking weak. I choose to believe Biden campaigned on bringing the country back together...he said it multiple times. Looking beyond the record number of Executive Orders he signed. He also has supported ending the filibuster, he opened the borders and has secret flights dumping ILLEGALS into our cities every night, and has supported a lot of far left proposals. Sorry but I choose to believe that is NOT bringing us back together and governing from the middle. I choose to believe he has NOT re-established America on the world stage as he promised. Also, when he calls a reporter a "stupid son of a bitch" I don't think that is restoring dignity to the office of the President. Again, Trump is an ass, a horrible person, but I don't see how the haters simply hand waive the lies, mental decline and failure that is Biden the meat puppet.

It's almost as though local control is an effective way run a massive nation. 🤷🏻‍♂️

CZ - “If you want mentorship from a future general officer, come by my office…” Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Is that what Harry Reid told you?

I agree, Scooter is good shit! Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-gamble-ukraine Long but well researched/reasoned article.

CZ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-czelusta-5b143788 Whenever Herk bros talk shit about leadership from other communities, remind them theirs spawned CZ, DD, and the Fun Burglar.

Sleep Apnea and the FAA As far as getting your FAA medical it is pretty much a non event. You will walk out of the Flight Surgeon with medical in hand. As far as keeping your medical, the FAA requires 75% usage at 6 hours a night. You are required to print off your machines data and submit with your medical each year. 50% VA disability is nice, but realize that you will need to get a travel CPAP in addition to your main CPAP for all your overnights. It sucks wearing the mask, but you do really feel better in the mornings. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

We have a lot of provisions that are not friendly to pilots, and heavily favor management. If you commute, the problems are exemplified... if you do what @Lord Ratner does, the issues are mitigated significantly. Off hand: No double dipping, no reassignment premium pay except for actual time flown outside original sequence block in, Recovery Obligation for a sequence that has a Misconnect, Illegality, or Cancellation that extends to 0159 the day after for domestic, or +30 hours from block in for international, only 150% premium, premium is seniority based (great for those at the top), trips blocked for IOE rather than being bought off (can still be bought off, but less common), significant disagreements with Management on Notification rules, negligible profit sharing, a near incompetent IT team, Loss of License (LTD) monthly pay capped at 60% or $8k, whatever is less, 60 hours of sick time a year, no timeline to settle grievances so there are 100+ of them pending, and the company enjoys "Fly and Grieve" afforded to them by the RLA, etc. All of these are largely Scheduling issues that can be fixed contractually. The other half of AAs problem are pilots who have seen the worst of the industry, and are 1) permanently jaded about life 2) constantly believe they should be made whole and are mad that it hasn't happened yet 3) refuse to learn how to manipulate our contract to their advantage 4) blame everyone else for not fixing their personal pet peeve (x6000 other pilots with their own personal pet peeve.) Despite all the above, I still enjoy working here. If you live in a mega hub, you can make a lot of money by working very little comparatively. If a pilot gets wrapped on the Union forums or the Facebook groups... well, misery loves company... and there's several hundred vocal pilots who won't be happy until you agree with them on how awful everything is. edit: still leaps and bounds better than AD, and I have more free time then I know what to do with. pilots having an entire second business is a real thing here.

SWA: Phoenix is fairly senior but prior to COVID the wisdom was that a new FO would hold any base they wanted within 6 months. With us hiring 1,500 new FOs this year, I hope that goes back to the norm. Mil leave at SWA is about the easiest thing I have done. Fill out a form on your company issued ipad and you are done. No sending in orders or getting harassed by anyone. I am not even sure if SWA truly tracks the 5-year USERRA limit, unless you were to drop a long term AGR order or something. As far as scheduling flexibility, SWA is pretty good. When I was commuting I would usually just give my whole schedule away and then pickup out of give away at my local base where I wasn’t senior enough to hold. We have something close to 6,000 FOs that all fly the same equipment as you and a good majority of them are greedy who will pick up your flying if you let them. I could clear a whole months schedule in about a day or so. Pay lags behind the big 3 airlines in years ~2-4 but somewhat catches up according to what I’ve seen our Union post. Of course Capt upgrade is probably 10 years+ and that would still require you to commute to Oakland. We are in contract negotiations now and it seems like the pilot group is all pulling the same direction so hopefully we get some good meaningful improvements. Hope that helps! I don’t come on here much anymore but I stop by now and then to check on all you guys. Let me know if you all have any questions! Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Careful. He started a list when he first became a nav. (Cue Steve Buscemi making a list of people to shoot and putting on lipstick) Just kidding. Any reason for a Billy Madison quote.

Lol See thalidomide, see Tuskegee experiments, see all the recalled drugs in our nations history. I am the only person who has my best interest in mind. I’m not saying that we shall throw the baby out with the bath water (the FDA and CDC do some good work), but these covid drugs seem much more on the side of thalidomide, than penicillin or Tylenol. I’ve never seen such targeted adds for the use of Tylenol in children, but for covid they are literally paying children to get vaccinated ( see “kids deserve a shot” website ). State gov agencies have raffled off scholarships, lottery tickets and much more in the name of “public safety”. Doesn’t that smell weird to you? If the medicine was so good shouldn’t you have to pay for it? Oh wait, as a taxpayer we already paid for it via a juicy contract to the tune of 2 billion, and to add insult to injury we paid for all the coercive incentive programs for people to take it. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

There’s a lot of money to be made (defense spending) with the situation in Ukraine, and military aid/action doesn’t offend certain groups back home when it comes to politics/support to the left. Back home in the US, there’s not a lot of money for defense contractors to be made with increasing border security (though there is money to be made on border walls, UAVs, etc), but having secure borders equates to “racist policies” and is overall not good politics for the left. Also worth mentioning that many businesses love illegal immigration for the cheap labor, hence why many on the right don’t truly want it either. So like most everything when it comes to American politics—money and power, both on the right and the left.

I first met Rat when he PCS'd to Fairchild 2007-2008ish. Within his first day of checking in for MCT, he cussed out the civilian that ran MCT scheduling, refused to fly with an IP that wasn't a Lt Col (he was a Lt Col at the time), and was just a massive asshole. I was the only boom available, so I was scheduled to fly with him. For what he is as a terrible person, he's a great pilot (old -141 dude at McChord). We ended up refueling Reserve C-17s out of McChord and right before AR he tells the IP he's just going to check off and watch AR (we had another 1Lt Co with us to fill in). He goes back with me to do AR and starts talking to me about what I thought about refueling C-17s. I told them they usually were terrible, it's difficult to refuel them with a -135 because we have to fly it in contact unlike pussy -10 booms who have a computer do it (ALAS), and the reserve guys were usually the worst at doing AR since they're usually just traditionalists. He responds that he was a reserve -17 guy at McChord and starts ranting about how great the jet and community is and how much he hates the -135. He then became my Sq/CC a few months later. I worked in training flight and came back from lunch one day and a copilot I worked with told me that no one in the squadron can send squadron wide emails without removing Rat from the dristo list. I asked him why and he told me he sent out a 93 ARS/All email and Rat called him in the office, stood him at attention, and yelled at him for "spamming his inbox." He then pulled out a red pen, prints out said copilot's email, and proceeds to correct the grammar like a second grade teacher since he was an English major at USAFA and the speechwriter for the SECAF. I was on ONE Alpha Alert at Fairchild and we went out to the alert ramp to do the daily preflight. What was normally a 10-15 minutes daily alert preflight turned into hours because maintenance wanted to do tire rollover checks, service the APUs, etc. Finally, one of the crew chiefs said that all three of us didn't have to be out there and the AC looks at the copilot and I and said we can just go back to the alert facility. I was chilling in my room when the alert shack controller knocks on the door and has the following conversation with me: "Do you know where your AC is?" "Uh, he was with maintenance doing the daily preflight. Probably buttoned up the jet and went to lunch at the BX." "No, dude...he's being thrown in the back of a SF patrol car." I walk out from the alert shack with the controller and see my AC in handcuffs being pushed into the back of a patrol car. I look at the controller and ask him what I should do? He looks at me and says, "I dunno man, I've been in 25 years and have seen some shit, but nothing like this." I go to the copilot's room and tell her to stay in her room and that our AC got arrested. I went to the squadron and found the Chief Boom and was telling him what happened when all of a sudden Rat walks around the corner, stands in front of me and says, "Get the fuck back to that fucking jet and preflight it now!" I scurry off back to the alert shack and see my AC and ask him what happened as we're frantically preflighting the jet. He tells me that he called Rat from the brig, which then made Rat come over to the SFS, find the SFS Sq/CC, who was a Major, and proceed to stand him at attention in front of his own squadron and scream at him that his dipshit low ASVAB Airmen degraded ONE Alert. My AC was arrested because they were confused on how "pre-announcing" worked at alert aircraft and had erroneously arrested him. Rat was in his car with his wife (wife was driving) and she got pulled over for speeding on the base. The SF troop was doing the traffic stop and Rat apparently became unglued and threaten the dude's career, got out of the car, and only got back in the car when the SF troop was about to escalate the use of force with him. So, of course Rat makes up a big lie that the troop was being belligerent with his wife and "unprofessional," pressuring his Sq/CC to Art. 15 him. Rat hates facial hair and would used to get on the returning deployer aircraft and occasionally give out LOCs to pilots and booms who had deployed mustaches. The rule became to shave once you hit your RON from redeploying at Mildenhall/Ramstein and be clean shaven the next day when you landed back and saw Rat. Rat used to have schedulers and SARM print out currencies and schedules for people and hand it to them right after they landed from deploying to remind them that they had to log a P280 event right when they got back from post-deployment time off. I went to instructor upgrade with a pilot and before we both left for Altus we had to go meet with him. He started talking about flying in instructor upgrade in the -141 at Altus, how fun it was to teach, etc. to the pilot. He looked at me and said, "Oh yeah, good luck in whatever booms do in instructor upgrade." I responded, "Sir, you mean teach people how to refuel airplanes in the air?" He sorta picked up I wasn't amused and said, "Yeah, or you could've been a pilot, but I guess that would've required you to do better in high school." He made a copilot, who just had testicular cancer, talk about it in front of the squadron. He ordered a copilot in from his two weeks time off after a deployment with his family to have a formal promotion ceremony to Captain. It pissed Rat off that the guy was super pissed at him for coming in to have a promotion ceremony. Later on the guy was supposed to assume alpha alert early in the morning. The night prior he felt sorta ill, but thought he’d feel better in the morning. He woke up and felt worse, went to the flight doc and went DNIF. Rhatigan was so mad at him, he gave him an LOC/LOR for dereliction of duty since he thought the guy was trying to get out of alert duty (which was a god send to do, since you were away from the squadron and Rat). The guy is in the Guard now last I heard. I personally flew with Rat on a deployment sortie when he was my deployed Sq/CC. Since we had three pilots on board, I took my copilot back to the boom pod and let him refuel A-10’s and F-16’s all day. I felt bad for him since the cruise out to the AOR meant Rat was GKing him on all of the various Soviet era airfields between Manas and Bagram. Oh yeah, one more story. Guy that was a copilot/AC at Fairchild was in Rat’s squadron. He ended up going to Kadena and getting into some “TDY Shenanigans” while on a typhoon evac that got him an Art 15. He ended up deploying soon after when Rat was the new OG at the Deid. Rat sends out an email about his “vision” and about himself as the new OG. Guy in question responds with “Hey, maybe we should lunch sometime dude.” Why? Who the knows? He tells me the next day his crew shows up and the ADO tells him that his crew is off the schedule and that he has a personal meeting with Rat. So, he goes and see Rat in his office during meeting time and Rat says “Hey, ###, come on in. Haven’t seen you in a long time.” He walks in, not thinking defensively, and sits down and Rat immediately stands him at attention yelling at him about how he’s a Colonel and how dare he use lack of email professionalism, how he had the audacity to ask Rat to write him a character reference to the Wing King at Kadena when he got his Art 15, etc. The switches tones and says “yeah, we should do lunch with me and your crew sometime, just let me know!” When I was PCSing to Altus in 2010, I was leaving right before Fairchild had a Aircrew Standardization & Evaluation Visit (ASEV). Right after I left, so did Rat, and the other shitty Sq/CC from the other squadron (Sush R.). Our DO became the new Sq/CC and is a great dude. The AMC/A3V ASEV team comes in, finds out that a pilot in AC upgrade hooked a sim check on a Thursday, got corrective training on Friday and rechecked, then deployed Monday. However, his Form 8 didn't have the corrective training signed off, so they considered him unqualified. They then did a SARM review and found he had flown for six months technically unqualified. That then led them to dig a lot deeper and they found some other bad things. In the end the the entire base aircrew was decertified and couldn't fly unsupervised. Pilot and booms from the Washington Guard had to fly and get all pilot and booms in the OG requalified. The Wing King ended up firing the old DO, the guy who replaced Rat. Their reasoning is that he was in the seat longer than the other Sq DO and they wanted a head for the failure. I always blamed Rat for that because he had the wrong people in the wrong jobs solely for promotion potential, not because of their skillset and work ethic. Rat was never punished for that because he's an old General Selva boy, he's protected. Even when he fired off a majority of Sq/CC's at Little Rock, it took a long time for anyone to do anything to him and in the end he was just sorta told "you're not going anywhere, here's your Legion of Merit, you're retiring." I know to this day it burns Rat that he didn't get a star. Oh well. Oh yeah, he's a Mets fan. https://www.dvidshub.net/video/152055/col-patrick-rhatigan-mets-shout-out