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When I turned down school on AD, and the WG/CC made me come to his office and talk with him about it, the conversation ended something like this... "Well, Brabus, I'm going to non-concur and you really have two options. Go to school, do great things, blah blah blah...or get out and go to the guard." "Well sir, I guess I'm going to the guard then" "...what? Really?" He genuinely seemed shocked at my response. Best move I made in my career...until I made an even better move by going to the airlines! And all these years later, I'm living the good life while that guy is probably a 2 star pepper grinding and getting yelled at for not having enough whip in the 4 starts mocha latte.

Hopefully this Little Rock guy wasn’t quite that pathetic but I’d rather have a commander at least try to show people they’re valued instead of “let them go, we’ll just train more.”

Here you go

Showing people that they’re valued takes a lot more than talk. It’s also far easier and faster to destroy peoples’ faith that they’re valued than it is to restore & rebuild that faith. The AF should keep this in mind when airline hiring falls off (and it will….someday) and it is again tempted to treat people like garbage because it can.

“My Air Force” …okay dude, it’s not *your* Air Force. The Air Force will chew you up and spit you out just like the rest of us peons.

Sounds likes the 2-Star that recently told a group of pilots at Luke the quoted text below (2nd hand info). I think this dude has put his finger right on the issue at hand, expect retention numbers to turn around any day now lol. If you looking in the mirror and say, I'm a fighter pilot first and love being in the bar, then the Guard and Reserve are for you. If you say, I'm an officer first and love serving my country, then there's a place for you in my Air Force...

Retro install 737 "thrust levers"* where the G/A button is on top. Cost category - MX, $$$$$. or Put your arm on top of the "thrust levers"* while using the speed brake from the right seat, removing the threat of inadvertent G/A switch engagement. Bonus, one can feel the throttles, er, I mean "thrust levers" move at level off/power up and stow the brakes. Training, $ or Don't hire people that should not be flying. High startle, low SA, overreacts with a crazy ivan vs a trained maneuver. Hiring, free; or Training, $ for starting and washing them out. * Boeing and its use of weird terms for airplane things.

National Museum of the United States Air Force™ > Upcoming > KC-135 (af.mil) Looks like the NMUSAF will finally have a KC-135R 60-0329, this jet did a buddy air refueling during Viet Nam May 67 having the drogue hooked up to an A-3 Sky Warrior, (USAF EB-66) who dropped its drogue to air refuel an F-8 Crusader which all receivers had fuel emergencies. The backstory I've read on this event was that in those days SAC had a death grip on all KC-135's and all mission planning had to be approved by SAC HQ Offutt. This mission was done on the fly by aviators in the air working this out. SAC was if there isn't a checklist you don't do it, so nothing is done on the fly. They wanted to crucify the crew, but CINCPAC intervened. As I grow older, I'm reminded of how much water is under the bridge that I have tail #'s in museums that my signatures are all over the 781's forms binder. NMUSAF will now have two tails I've worked personally, VC-137C and now a KC-135R. Awaiting a 3rd when they take ownership of a E-3 Sentry. My question is what gallery does go into, cold war, Viet Nam, Desert Storm and everything in between?

Yeah, how about I show you a summer of $30k plus paychecks month after month with 15 days off and no BS to deal with… tell me you can’t find a sense of purpose. They abused my sense of purpose, now I’m in it for me. Go to the show!!!! Oh and enjoy roll call in the heritage room with the boys on Sunday of drill doing the real work part time on your own terms.

The preceding two posts sum up the entirety or retention problems to me. 1. Capitalism is the cornerstone of our society. Why would people with valuable skills not pursue more money? Especially if… 2. The AF values the wrong thing in the selection of its leadership. So much time and effort is put into making the next CSAF and glosses over on the interpersonal level that ultimately plays a huge role in retention. I don’t know a single person that has ever said “the boss really has impressive academic credentials, I’d follow him anywhere.” I know plenty that feel like they can’t relate to their boss and the guy doesn’t care about them so why try anymore.

Douchebag GenZ social media influencer is flying across a National Forest, and just happens to have 3 GoPros recording it, when he just happens to have an engine failure, and just happens to have a selfie stick in hand when he parachutes into the mountains below. FAA didn't buy his story, and now they violated him and he's lost his license: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/us/trevor-jacob-youtube-plane-crash.html I hope the likes and follows were worth it. 🙄

All good man! I didn't think you were dinging VAs. I'm glad you posted it because it gave me a good opportunity to throw out some nuggets of info that hopefully will help fellow vets. It's all about education in my biz especially as rates rise. Nothing rate wise will beat a VA so I just want people to be armed with the most accurate info out there. No need to pay more in interest than absolutely necessary. Good news is that mortgages are traded on Wall Street just like stocks so while they are up now there will be dips in the future once inflation gets curbed for everyone getting loans now to refi. VAs are even better for that because of the IRRRL (streamline) refi program. I'm 100% positive that I'll be refinancing everyone I'm writing loans for now in the future (just not sure if that's 1 or 3yrs from now). Jon

The casualties continue to mount and the numbers are staggering. In 60 days Russian has suffered 30,000 casualties, 10,000 of which are KIA. For context that is four time what the U.S. lost in Afghanistan in 20 YEARS. I read a report yesterday that said Russia has lost 25% of its combat power.

My airline buddies say their jobs yield the most amount of money for the least amount of work. Wrong!…we found the actual winners.

From the article “Here we are, trapped in the sky with our 8-month-old unmasked baby (you can’t actually mask a baby that young) under the supposition that everyone who can be masked would be masked, and the flight 325 crew has taken our choices away from us,” one Twitter user said. “Very very angry about this.” So apparently, if you give people the choice to wear masks or not, you’re actually “taking away choices” from others. This only makes sense if you’re a progressive.

Happy to hear that shoe clerking isn’t just an AF pastime. /s

Thanks guys! Great to hear we’re living up to/exceeding expectations! We love working with y’all and we’re laser focused on having the best rates + customer service in the industry! Congratulations to both of you on the new homes! Let me know if you ever need anything! Jon 850-377-1114 PS…we also just found out that Marty was ranked the #1 VA loan originator for volume in the country last year and I was #8. Not too shabby for some small lender in the panhandle of FL that doesn’t advertise. https://www.scotsmanguide.com/rankings/top-originators/2022/top-va-volume

In regards to the vax effectiveness discussion. I know two fighter squadrons that have had 95% of their ppl contract COVID at one point or another. Around 50% contracted it at some point prior to getting vaccinated. After being fully vaccinated + boosted about 60% have contracted it. All of those that have contracted it twice (before and after being vaccinated) have had no change in symptoms from the pre/post vaccinated cases. You can make the argument that the symptoms weren’t as bad the second time because they had antibodies, and to be honest that doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter because the trope were being pushed is we need to get vaccinated to maintain readiness. When 60% of the bros contract COVID after being fully vaccinated + boosted and get taken down for 10 days of quarantine the readiness argument doesn’t hold up. The vaccine is not effective at preventing our demographic from contracting it, which is all that matters for the readiness discussion.

"Interesting" in the sense that you can show people this video as an example of everything we learned at SERE being applied in real life. The interviewer pretends to be an independent western journalist but is actually employed by and under armed guard of the FSB. He used to be an amateur blogger doing reviews of prostitutes before the FSB picked him up. He's done such a good job they even gave him a medal. https://m.censor.net/en/photo_news/349247/graham_phillips_british_pseudojournalist_as_a_tool_of_russias_fsb_and_kremlins_propaganda_photos https://www.stopfake.org/en/british-citizen-exposed-as-a-tool-of-russia-s-fsb/ Also, im pretty sure the dude isn't a mercenary he's a member of the Ukrainian military and has been for like 5 years. The interviewers constant prodding about "and everything you say is of your own free will right?? We aren't forcing you to say anything right??" To the guy literally wearing handcuffs should have been your first clue something wasn't right here.

Possible some people started spamming comments about him and they removed it for the family. I get the accusations are very serious but I also believe to his family he was someone very important and I'm sad for their loss. Noone raises their little boy to be a sex predator. Whole situation is just tragic. Like I said. I knew him as a different dude. A little arrogant but overall decent. If the accusations are true, I'm truly sorry he didn't choose a different path because he had potential to be a decent human.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110216/

Two holes? Still about 6-9 less than Putin's mom has.

Rare photo out the windshield of an OG Talon doing night TF/TA

The WGASF and the Strike Eagle have been absolutely phenomenal assets for the USAF but the airframe is not conducive to advanced threats (in a night 1 scenario anyway). It’s like upgrading your ‘69 Shelby with touch screens and a new motor. The thing just can’t compete with a Tesla. Unless they pulled a “My Cousin Vinny” and got the laws of physics to cease to exist on the old flying radar reflector that is an F-15, I don’t get it. I guess I should say if they’re looking for additional Eagles, go to DM and dust off the hundreds that are sitting in the boneyard for a fraction of the cost.

interesting interview.