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The guy who taught me to fly tailwheel was a WW2 tank driver. Dude never talked about his time over there, and as much as I wanted to hear his story, I never brought it up. He did have a shadow box hanging in the hangar, dude had 2 Silver Stars, 2 Bronze Stars w/V device and a Purple Heart. Most humble and unassuming dude I've ever met. I can't even imagine what he saw/experienced, what a generation!

RPAs remain an asymmetric advantage for the Ukrainians.

New York Times is out today with a "bombshell" report about Hunter Biden's laptop and it containing e-mails relating to his Ukraine dealings, among other things. One wonders what's changed now and this is 'legit' news but in October, 2020, it was Russian disinformation. As attested to in a signed letter by 50 former senior intelligence officials: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000 But trust the IC to not take political sides...

It’s amazing how these shoe clerks act like you’re trying to withdraw money from their personal checking account, but then they have no problem buying another $50k round of TVs for the wing to replace all the perfectly functional TVs bought 2 years ago…because EOY funds (but not to be spent on shit you actually want/need).

Last week oil was $135 a barrel, this week it is back below $100. The reality of supply and demand is overcoming conjecture and panic.

Meh we got it...

Officer Unaccompanied Housing (580-213-5410). MHO also verified Capts+ are off base

Semi-modern armor meet RPA's spotting your demise. Crazy video, might be a combination of artillery and RPG/NLAWs? About midway through dude on top takes a hit and goes flying like a meat bag, reminiscent of things we did with the 105MM back in Afghanistan. War is a horrible thing and the Russians are being made to pay for every inch they gain...or lose.

This should be playing all over the news networks. Best concise breakdown I've seen.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/american-army-veteran-ukraine/ So found an interesting reddit group of people working in and for the Foreign Legion. Apparently lots of chaos going on in the foreign legion, and lots of deserters. One redditor and US Army vet said "this is a different kind of war than Afghanistan" to which another Army veteran replied "it's the same war, you're just now the goat herder." Seems the reality of fighting a ground war against an enemy utilizing air to ground fires has been extremely traumatic to many, including experienced combat veterans. It's something western militaries have largely been immune from. Some other issues I picked up on was a complete lack of OPSEC. Apparently lots of people joined who lacked military experience or who were doing it to enhance their social media following. They were posting photos with geographic meta data embedded in the image file to prove they were there to their followers, which is presumably what Russia used to derive the target coordinates for major camp attack a few days ago.

One of Murphys Laws of Combat "The easy way is always mined"

His crewmates were not so lucky. The fire blowing out of the turret ring is a standard indicator that the ammunition inside is cooking off. They have lost a LOT of armor and people, to the point they are being forced to bring in replacements from Russia.

Yep. We had to take and pass a PT test although it did not count as an official test on your record. If you passed you got to stay and play the DOSS game, if you failed you were sent home. Not sure if they still do this but we also had regular scheduled PT some days. Sidebar: One day we got to play dodgeball and it was us RPAs vs Pilots/CSO's. We had like 7+ former baseball players (some who even played in college) and we destroyed them. The civilians who led the PT program made us throw with our left hands after beating them so many times and we still won. One of my most proud/fondest AF memories still to this day.

Quoted to establish your rumor as gospel.

PT test + PT hours requirement have been waived due to COVID. Not sure if/when they're coming back but they don't have any of those requirements right now. Mask mandate was lifted just last week, but probably a good idea to bring some masks just in case.