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It's called a club. There are millions of them. Pick an interest and go. The problem isn't finding a group, the problem is showing up. Religion has always had the advantage of threatening you with eternal damnation if you don't go, and the social pressure from other parishioners if you skip out. Conversely, you don't get the same judgement or shame if you miss the pickleball meeting on Tuesday night. You gotta show up. That's all it takes. Put the same group of people in proximity to each other repeatedly and regularly, and the community and all the associated bonds will form. But you have to miss other things. TV shows, concerts, other parties, rest at home, etc. The internet has let us form more homogeneous groups, which is bad for diversity (mental, not skin color), and all the biological forces that build community are negated because they only work in person. Our brains need it. This is why impoverished cultures don't have the same suicide rates that the West is contending with. We are hyper-connected, yet all alone.

The church community gives our society a lot more than just religion. I see that in my family. My wife needed a circle of friends after our last move. She found that in our church’s small groups and their women’s group. It is where we go to spend time with people that hold our same values even if we aren’t in the same place in our religious journey. And that ties directly into the war on the nuclear family. Families used to spend time together in church. It is a place to grow together, to learn together and to work in service towards others together. Most families don’t even eat together anymore. There is absolutely no doubt that our society would be in a much better place if more people were involved in church. Not just sitting through service on Sunday but involved in church even if it’s not solely for religious reasons.

What Lloyd said. The church was our society’s meeting place and source of morals and values (specifically the ones that transcend religion). Now social media and the MSM has replaced the church, both packed with anti-family and anti-moral garbage. And there in lies Pandora’s box - were never going back from SM (which is probably the worst thing to have ever happened to us in the modern era). So the only course correct now is parents need to sack up and actually work at maintaining a stable family and raising their kids correctly. They need to also help their local communities do this by being involved/aware about school issues. All the millions of people who hate all the BS going on, but are too big of pussies to stand up and say/do something, need to sack up and stop being weak candy asses. Some of you reading this right now are those pussies, I guarantee it. Do some introspection, then get off your asses and do something about the BS. How can you be willing to get in a gun fight, but you won’t speak at school board meetings? Why aren’t you or your spouse running for school board, city council, etc? Why do you complain to your neighbor over beers about all the trans mental health issues being pushed on kids, but you say nothing about your kids “celebrate trans or you’re a bigot” homework? If these describe you, even indirectly, you’re fucking up. But the good part is you can recognize it, and fix it.

Because it's being peddled like crack to our society, especially the children. My best friend is a drug addict with mental issues. He decided in November that, he's adding becoming a woman to his list of stupid things he's done since his life has spiraled out of control. I can't do anything to help his kids. I visit him several times a month. On several occasions, he has answered the door tweaking out of his mind looking like a man version of Cruella De Vil. We've (my family, his parents and his ex wife) tried to help him so much throughout the last few years only to see him do this to himself and his family. It's not some innocent game of dressup we're playing when we push this crazy shit onto society, especially to people with mental health problems. That's why it's an issue for me. After watching our leaders fumble through the Covid pandemic, I have zero faith in what they consider is medically safe. If I just sit back and say everything about the trans movement is OK, I'm not helping my friend. I know that one day, I'm going to find him dead from suicide or a drug overdose. I'm also thinking about a child 20 years from now who decides that maybe cutting off their dong or tits at age 12 wasn't their best idea. I'm tired of stupidity. That's why I can't get behind (sts) the trans movement. I have no faith in out government's ability to tell us about medical issues, especially when it comes to permanently disfiguring our bodies. Thanks for being concerned though.

Absolutely correct. All of that works as advertised & is well worth the time & investment. But it still misses the mark somewhat when it comes to the wider community. I’ve talked & interacted with a lot of interesting people I would have otherwise never met at cycling, car enthusiast, aviation, country club, and other events/clubs. But at the end of the day, the kinds of people that are interested in the things I’m interested in tend to be somewhat homogeneous (Biff, look that word up before you pass judgment 🤣). I think there is probably some utility in casting a wider net & putting people with disparate interests together on a semi-regular basis.

I think what you describe exists all over, just have to promote them better and entice people to go. A tight knit community is a great way to help this problem - it will make people actually care about others outside of themselves. Every neighborhood needs the 1 or 2 houses who are always down to host a weekend hang out or a party for no reason (or reason, whatever). Everyone else bring what’s needed so the host isn’t paying for it all. It’s really that easy, just need Americans to get back to the time where you knew your neighbors and sought out their company. That exists is parts of the US, but it doesn’t exist in too many places.

I think there is definitely a lot of truth here. Problem is, many of us are turned off by organized religion for one reason or another. Not interested in debating the finer points of religious beliefs here because people tend to have already formed very strong opinions on the subject, but suffice to say that my family has tried several different churches/denominations/non-denominations and have not found any of them to be representative of our values. I know I’m not alone in this. Fellowship doesn’t necessarily have to be about religion though. I sometimes wonder if a non-religious community center/definitely-not-a-church type of venue could serve the same role. Encourage the community to come together, talk about common goals and values, no phones(!), serve some bbq and local microbrews at the end, maybe host some community service events, but no religious bent, no judgment, no exclusion. Do it one afternoon a month instead of making everybody get up early every damn Sunday & I’ll bet you’d get a significant chunk of most communities at least talking to each other somewhat regularly.

I just ask my RA to do it and the Group Commander isn’t in my business as I run my squadron effectively in the manner in which I see fit. Pretty easy to negate the GTC issues.

I see. That makes sense. The question becomes then how do you get back to those morales without forcing religion? I’m not religious but I have those morales because I was raised to be a good person and treat everyone with respect. The question is how does that become widespread? There’s a huge lack of taking responsibility going on right now and how you turn that ship around is a great question. I think the only people living in la la land are the ones saying things are going great. I think it’s pretty obvious if we keep the current course the history books will talk about the fall of the US.

If you flip on the news, one could be led to believe that trans issues are the basis of every problem in this country, no matter what "side" you're on 🙂

I think you mis-understand the argument. It's not about Christianity. It about the moral and ethical foundations of the country. Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values, principles, and morals. In the same way as a house, if you try and move the structure off that foundation, the whole thing collapses. Imagine Iran as a whole suddenly being forced to shift to Hindu, Buddist, or Christian values. The society would collapse. Same with America. The difference being that in America, so many people have had liberty and freedom that they paid no price for, for so long, that they don't appreciate what they have, so they are ignorant to the facts of our society's structure. There's reason Wokeness hasn't caught on in Russia, Iran, or China. Freedom and liberty, unfortunately, often result in ignorant arrogance after a few generations. So it's not about Christianity for Christ's sake, it's about Christianity because those values are the foundational structure of our country.

For a heavy unit tdys are constant and non-stop. You can easily go weeks or months between crossing paths with another dude in the unit. Theoretically our sq could keep everyone on mission critical 24/7 but the reality is we go tell RA if we need it and then it's done.

This would solve 60% of it:

Maybe I’ve been shielded by being in the fighter squadron, but every TDY I’ve been on I’ve been in mission critical status before and after. The last deployment I took my squadron on, I made sure we wouldn’t have to deal with any GTC shenanigans and put all the FS folks mission critical. Is that not usual?

First mistake right there haha! Most TV news gives you brain worms very fast.

"Was it Christian?" isn't the problem. I don't care. I just haven't heard a peep about how trans are treated by other religions. Why do carnies like to bash Christians so much? Its hilarious. I was raised Catholic. I haven't attended mass in over 25 years. I don't need religion, some people do. I don't care what you worship as long as you don't support taking children to the carnival (turning them into trans) before they can get a tattoo. Change all of the laws to allow children to make adult decisions. Send them back to the coal mines as well. I've yet to hear a logical reason to change pronouns and all of the other buffoonery that the carnies are pushing today. Not a single one. This is pure insanity.

Was the US still a Christian nation when the civil war happened ? What is a Christian nation when slavery was ongoing? Was it a Christian nation when not everyone was treated equal? Was it a Christian nation when the Great Depression hit and the world sucked ? The notion that the lack of Christianity and its declining popularity is the driving factor is ludicrous and just a swing a miss to try to get more followers back and get money back to the churches. Overall the world is a much better places than 50-100 years ago but there’s obviously new challenges.

I've been wondering the same thing. It's probably because they have no clue what real racism is. Oddly enough I have yet to see the gay-pride flag version of corporate symbols and logos on anything at all in the middle east commercial market. It's almost as if the big companies only believe in DEI when it's instituted in the USA. Weird, right?

Never ever pay off the GTC out of pocket. The naughty list should be a red flag on someone’s slide for finance … not for you.

A dramatic depiction of the Air Force in literally any deal/program/agreement they put out:

Definitely the recruiter for the particular unit, in this instance. It is certainly possible to enlist from another area. Guard/Res recruiters only answer to their own unit, unlike AD. So, your local guy isn’t going to go out of his way to help out another unit. If you got your heart set on the 302nd, https://www.477fg.afrc.af.mil/ talk to their recruiters. They’ll be your best source of info for enlisting there.

Religion aside, I think it’s because those other countries are doing far better at parenting: building the moral base, holding kids accountable, less kids being entitled shits with zero fucks given for authority, etc. The US has the highest rate in the world of children living in single parent homes, and by a large margin. The “nuclear family” is very important to not creating societal nightmares out of children, and our country is epically failing at this, far more than any other peer out there.

I think you’re on the right track here, but please listen to what I’m about to tell you…Enlist in the Guard!! Don’t go AD if you want to be a guard pilot. Enlist in the unit you want to fly in. They will probably cover your tuition, leaving your GI bill to pass on to your kids one day. You should spend a fair amount of time getting to know the pilots. They’re the ones who are going to select you for a pilot slot. We guard pilots like to pick known quantities, if you enlist AD and show up at board time, you’re just another guy.

That’s a solid plan. Another course of action would be to see if your state’s Guard offers any sort of tuition waivers. I know a lot of the Northeastern states offer 100% tuition waivers for state schools. You could go to school full time and get your degree faster while serving in an enlisted AFSC as a part time Guardsman. You wouldn’t have all the pay and benefits of an AD airman which may be a drawback for you, but you would have free college and a pretty solid part time job with more time to focus on school and potentially get to work with the very people that may someday hire you to be a pilot in that unit. There’s many different ways to skin the cat. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network Forums

Care to cite said nations so we can all compare notes? I’m with Bashi and the rest who see our divergence from Christian principles as a causal factor in the decline of modern US society.

some things don't need data. it's called common sense. since the beginning of time children have been raised with a mother and father. *cue you googling tribes that raised the kids together* look at the plight of black americans and the percentage of black children born single mother household. *BUT RACISM!* cute. God made the institution of marriage to raise children. this country was founded on christian principles and it has since strayed into anything but those. THAT is the root cause. "BUT THATS NOT MY TRUTH!!!" and no i will not entertain any arguments that say the US was NOT founded on christian principles. the other problem is adults have not acted like adults. the safe space generation was never told "no". kids can't just identify as whatever they want. there's reality regardless of how someone IDENTIFIES. we've placated the lowest common denominator for too long instead of telling them NO.

They are getting desperate.

This is where your ignorance shows. Just because *you* don't know the academic basis for the policies being pushed, you assume they must be reasonable, because you feel like a reasonable person. But reading the works of the people who have been publicly embraced by the mainstream left, such as Biden, give a very different picture. Robin Diangelo. Ibram Kendi. Kimberle Crenshaw. This stuff is bat shit crazy, and will necessitate a civil war if it was actually enacted. Remember when reparations was just a conservative fever dream? You say the conversations have changed, but they haven't that much. What exactly are they against now that they weren't 30 years ago? Chemical castration for children? Illegal immigration? Reparations? Gun rights? The only difference is that 30 years ago no one was in favor of cutting the tits off a confused teenager. If the Republicans were inviting David Duke, or the proud boys, or any other right wing lunatic to the White House and espousing their theories to the masses, you would have a point. But they aren't. The difference has always been that the left embraces their lunatics. Saying that Joe Biden is a moderate is meaningless if the people he empowers to enact and develop his policy are radicals. And they are. I have no love for the Republicans in Washington. Just a bunch of assholes there to enrich their families. But they aren't trying to flip over the underpinnings of American society while they do it, so it's immoral, but not dangerous. The people steering the ideological soul of the left today fundamentally disagree with the American system, and their preferred replacement is a time-tested failure. Klobuchar is great, as is Gabbard. Even Ro Khanna (sp?) has reasonable things to say. But they aren't leading the party.

(moved this thread as I realized I posted it in the wrong subsection) Hi all, I'm currently in the ANG/AFR Hiring Circuit looking to make a long time dream into reality. As I'm just starting to get past the point of my first few applications, I have some questions/reservations regarding the 2030 Form and Questions about marijuana specifically. I find that some upcoming and past boards (which I couldn't apply to in time) request a filled out 2030 Form, and some units even specifically ask about prior usage/number of times on their squadron questionnaire. Having searched deep through this site and others, I find much conflicting information and opinions on how to handle these questions, with much of it outdated and before the AF's loosening of policies regarding prior marijuana usage (in 2017 I believe?). Full disclosure, I experimented with weed as a young and dumb high schooler once around 2011. I quickly found out it was not for me, along with any other types of drugs and haven't touched a thing since then. A fair amount of past feedback here and elsewhere points to the idea of incriminating yourself as a foolish notion and it seems to be that the status quo at one time was to simply fib about something like marijuana experimentation, otherwise you are putting yourself at a huge disadvantage. I'm certainly not keen on the idea of lying, but that being said I have a few questions that I'm hoping some Gray Beards and other with past experience may be able to help answer. 1. Are units usually looking at the 2030 Form to judge your character/application or to simply to make sure you don't have any automatic disqualifications for commission? As I understand it, my situation is not disqualifying. 2. In current AF culture, would the average guy on a hiring board or in a squadron look at a decade old one time MJ use as negatively affecting an application? How would you judge it personally? I'm guessing it must be of some importance if they include it on their own questionnaires as well. 3. The 2030 Form says that, although experimentation is not disqualifying, "Preservice marijuana use may render you ineligible for certain skills." Is this true practically from a pilot perspective? Has anyone heard of this applying to any sort of flying mission/qualification or any job for that matter? Like I mentioned before, I don't like the idea of lying, but past info seems to suggest you should never present any information that could hurt you or your chances. I want to be honest, but I also don't want to negatively impact my chances even a little for something so frivolous when the applicant pool is competitive as it is, especially if its an unspoken suggestion to "omit" certain info. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

If it's just once I wouldn't think it's a big deal. A buddy of mine got picked up for Active Duty and had admitted to smoking pot a multiple times. I thought I'd heard that as long as you'd used it less than like 200 times or something, you were in the clear. Don't lie. You'll be stuck with it your whole career. You'll have to lie on every SF-86 you do for your clearances too. Sent from my SM-N975U using Baseops Network mobile app

I don’t know the voodoo algorithm that is used to calculate PCSM, but I would expect more than a 8 point boost to your current score if you “maxed” out the TBAS. You can only improve your 201+ bracket by 8 points however. Since you earned a 99 AFOQT score, that is not negatively impacting your PCSM score from my understanding. For another data point, I had a 92 PCSM in the 41 hour bracket, 95 in the 61 hour bracket, 97 in the 81 hour bracket, 98 in the 101 hour bracket, and a 99 in the 201+ bracket. With your current PCSM score, it is easy to deduce you did not do too well on the TBAS. Shoot for 99 in the 201+ bracket. There is a lot of great advice on this forum for TBAS preparation. I personally spent about 1.5 months doing 1 hour of prep everyday (pilotaptitudetest psychomotor games w/ joystick and rudder pedals, multitasking games, Lumosity, and mental math games). Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

Honestly, most of your packet is slightly better than mine was. And your GPA is way better considering you were in engineering. Like one of the other guys said, one downside could have been the high hours with no license. So I'm sure the PPL will help in that area. The other downside is your age, I even though you aren't in waiver territory, some units will still think you're too old. Most probably won't though. Plus, you're getting interviews, so you're on the right track. Now if you have been getting interviews with no success, id shell out the money on Bogidope. Emerald Coast does guard prep too, but I don't think they typically advertise it. They are both great services and good investments. The cost is a whole lot lower than travelling to 3-4 more interviews and a tiny price to pay to hit the lottery and get hired by a guard unit. Edit: And apply everywhere, you are getting too old to be too picky. Sent from my SM-N975U using Baseops Network mobile app

For the Reserves, you can work with an officer recruiter to get you through the initial million forms of paperwork, get you scheduled for MEPS/TBAS/AFOQT (this will take a LOT of pushing on your part, but they can do it), and they can also have you apply for an Unsponsored slot. Unsponsored means you're picked up by the Reserves as a whole to go through pilot training and you just hustle to find a Reserves unit to sponsor you. If you don't get sponsored by the time you're done with UPT, they send you to whatever unit they need manning at. You can also start doing what others above have said and making contacts at units to set up your interviews. But, unless you're hired by the unit (unlikely if you don't have AFOQT/TBAS scores), you're still going to have to get ahold of the officer recruiter to get those things booked and done. Guard is completely different and each unit runs its own recruiter, so working with one unit's recruiter won't do you a lot of good if you're trying to get hired by another. And, as others said, they're more focused on enlisted folks, so they might not be able to help as much. Active is a different beast and I don't know anything about it, but there's good advice already in this thread about only applying for what you want and don't let them push you into a position you don't want. The whole process can take about 2 years (especially for Active and Guard), so get the ball rolling ASAP if you want to do it. Good luck!