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https://sofrep.com/news/4-airmen-awarded-the-distinguished-flying-cross-for-rescue-and-evacuation-153-us-citizens-and-afghans-from-kabul/

Any day now, right?

That's a fair statement. I suppose what I meant was from a pure bodies to billets perspective, farm more O-4/5s than O-6s. I think the idea has merit but some significant problems would need addressed to not short fall flying squadrons.

I've found "easier" means that the folks in the squadron are left dealing with the shortfalls of that course of action.

It’s not possible to rollover your Traditional TSP to ROTH TSP. Best option would be to roll it into your ROTH IRA post separation/retirement, if it is still allowed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Overall I agree stacking up Russians should convince them to back off. But as is often the case Putin doesn't appear to feel the pain of their sacrifice. I thought I saw a quote (no way to ascertain veracity) from a Russian Mom who lost a son in Ukraine and blamed the US. for supplying the weapons used. She supposedly said Russia should send us a nuke to get us to back off in Ukraine. If thats the sentiment on their side this could really get ugly. At a minimum I hope they have good control of the people actually minding the button.

No word yet from the 121st. Question for the older applicants, are you all still applying regardless of their age limit? I haven’t, but a Guard guy told me to apply regardless and at least try? Don’t wanna piss them off and apply when I’m over 30 and some squadrons list below 30 only.

It’s because they cut absolutely everything out of the RPA pipeline.

When I was there pilots only did up to the solo then they had their pre check and check rides. For RPA, we started doing the nav routes dual and solo plus the cross country and night flight before pre check and check. Makes sense if you think it's the only time we get actual in aircraft experience. Are pilots doing more than just solo, pre check, and check at IFT now?

No worries, it was never taken that way. This lifestyle is basically a niche in the industry. Well compensated (not extremely well), interesting and fun flying job/hobby touring the world on very decent schedule (not the duration, but it is less compressed). You are undoubtedly correct, the majority of the world has great responsibility and $$$ creates freedom and security; therefore, it is prudent/logical to plan/prepare your family’s future with the best investment/opportunity. The driving factor is to chase the most coin for the least amount of effort. Over time Big 3/Purple/Brown have provided these attributes hands down and are the most stable in this cyclic industry. Nothing is solid, but they are the best bets. *Like the premier question from a High School counselor decades upon decades ago: “If you had a million $ (Use $5 Million today), what would your occupation be if you must choose one?” My Answer - Flying Pirate - I would still be here (specifically) only because it meets my needs/wants, I get bored too easily and this provides enough adventure to stay awake. Honestly, with $5 Mil I would do something else if I couldn’t do this vagabond flying pirate gig. If you can, fulfill your priorities not someone else’s - everyone needs to find their niche! You only have OneLife, make good choices - make them count!

Indeed. Even grandmothers are getting into the act: https://www.mediaite.com/tv/displaced-88-year-old-ukrainian-woman-laughs-as-she-recounts-telling-russian-soldier-fck-your-mother/ Also in the good news department despite the spin: https://thehill.com/policy/international/3261917-kremlin-spokesman-admits-we-have-significant-losses-of-troops-calls-it-a-huge-tragedy/

Just to triple check - the FAA Physical requirement is only for RPA.. Correct?

You're refuting a point I didn't even make. My issue is with the broader themes you're trying to push. I even had a section in that comment that laid out specifically what I was talking about. Let's not get bogged down going in circles over the details.

5G could be the culprit. Nothing a quick FDR download can't see. The 777 has been a tried and true airframe for decades without a whole lot of problems. I can't imagine this is a widespread sysyems issue.

The FTU. Duh!

Which is what I said in my original post. There is a big difference though between being tried internally and being tried internationally, and none of our folks have been tried internationally. The US position on this has been that we maintain good order and discipline within our ranks so we dont have a requirement for an international body to hold us accountable. Russia will make the same appeal. All of this is kind of pointless to discuss anyway because I dont think the ICC actually has jurisdiction in the Ukraine conflict because neither party are full signatories. Best-22 is one of those people that believes everyone who disagrees with him must be the victim of some disinformation campaign and not realize that maybe they just have more facts than they do. Fine. Whatever. But its just the reality of the circumstances. All I'm trying to explain to him is that in conflict, there is a game that states play. And Russia knows the game and they know how to play it and they are playing it quite well because they are doing a pretty decent job of insulating themselves from any widespread prosecution against the state. Its like Covert Operations and the concept of plausible deniability. It doesnt matter if the whole world thinks its bullshit. If its plausible, its good enough to evade most international consequences. All states do is look for something that is just strong enough that other states with significant ties to them can internally justify to their populace why they are not making retribution.

So essentially your point is "America is bad too and who's to say what the truth is because it's all so murky" , "Ukraine does propaganda too!" Your whole post is a real life example of method 2: It's like I predicted the future. I'm sure you're an expert on the LOAC and just war theory, but that doesn't mean we can chalk up all of Russias crimes to a simple targeting error because they don't have enough PGMs... do you think we're all stupid? The more details that come out the harder time you're going to have selling the "russias just acting in its own self interest like all rational states" line. I'm looking forward to seeing you flail around with that.

Russian misinformation seeks to: 1. Sow division between existing divides (political, racial, etc) 2. Introduce enough "noise" that you give up trying to find the objective ground truth, or start to feel that "both sides are the same anyways" (through false equivalency, historical revisionism, multiple conflicting reports or versions of the same event, and so on) It rarely is overtly pro Russian, and often aligns with some of our previously held beliefs in some way. This makes it hard to spot and easy to spread.. Some users on this site exclusively post things that align with one or both of the above. It doesn't mean they are part of the Russian propaganda machine, but they have likely fallen victim to it. I agree with everything you posted, calling out BS like this helps clear up some of the noise.

PROPORTIONALITY is key here. While civilian casualties are an unfortunate reality of war, it is still not ok to commit murder. Have a look at the multitude of evidence of Russians executing civilians with their hands tied behind their backs & tell me they’re not guilty of war crimes. How about deliberately targeting hospitals and clearly marked shelters? How about raining down artillery on residential areas with no military targets in sight? Not exactly proportional now is it? Have the Ukrainians been operating 100% in accordance with LOAC? Probably not. But it’s their neighborhoods, their cities, their farms that have been invaded here. They can’t possibly be guilty on the same scale as the Russians because they aren’t ransacking Russian neighborhoods, raping their women and killing their children. Putin and his enablers are absolutely responsible for all of this reprehensible activity & frankly a hanging at The Hague is far to easy on them. Once again I’ll remind you that there is no gray area here. Only one side is guilty of a violent invasion & subsequent atrocities. There is NOTHING that justifies that. Not an expanding NATO, not an actor turned president who Putin doesn’t like, not Ukraine defending its own claims to Donbas. NOTHING JUSTIFIES RUSSIA’S ACTIONS. NOTHING. Fuck Putin and all of the Russians (and anyone else) supporting him by covering their eyes and ears to everything but the absolute garbage the Russian state is spreading. One final note here: It’s sickening and offensive to those of us who have served and still believe in our country that we have American military members making a moral equivalency between our own targeting processes which, while less than perfect, are NOTHING like what the Russians have done in Ukraine. It literally turns my stomach.

So, it’s been awhile since I was deep in this stuff, so please check my work. But, if you’re over the Roth limit, you won’t be able to write off the Traditional money, either. The income limit is what cuts you off from either benefit. That said, you can still open up a Traditional IRA that you CANNOT write off the contribution and quickly wrangle the backdoor Roth re-characterization. Seriously, you can open your Traditional one day, put your contribution in, then roll it to the Roth the following day. You should avoid tax implications/pro rata if you don’t invest in anything in the Traditional account. Here’s a good article that goes over it pretty well.

No I'm just saying you're following the misinformation playbook exactly..With nearly every post you make on this forum regarding Russia (including this one). Specifically: you continue to double down on flimsy logic with this ridiculous theme pretending that since "America is bad too" then we can't fault Russia. Your insistence at this stage of the war that Putin is some brilliant geopolitical Chessmaster is laughable. Very rarely do I see accurate predictions regarding this war from the "both sides are the same" camp.