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I am IN! Where do I sign?

I'm confused.... so are we allowed to protest in the halls of convening legislative bodies or are we not? Which one is it?

Used to catch rides with Army UH-1s (yeah, I'm old!) out of Tipton AAF at Ft Meade. They'd regularly get clearance to fly down the Atascosa through DC and northwest past Georgetown along the Potomac to Great Falls with the doors pinned back (if the weather was nice) and below the scenic overlooks along the river. It had a real Apocalypse Now feel to it! 😁

JADE HELM much? I've worked with Federal and local law enforcement agencies since retiring, and they regularly train in commercial facilities. I role played as a Second Amendment nut (not a stretch) and hostage taker during a large regional FBI training event a while back. The exercise controllers were impressed on how well I did talking with their negotiators (a lot of PSYOP on my part) given very little of what I said was scripted. I was also a "mass shooter" named "Angus McAngus" (I had an impressive red beard at the time) during a municipal multi-agency exercise conducted in a business park in west San Antonio many years ago. The SAPD used to use Billy Mitchell Housing on the former Kelly AFB for cadet, PSD, SWAT and EMT tactics training for years (it is owned by the city, and has since been converted to low-budget housing). With the cadet training, if they forgot to lock their patrol vehicles or even worse, leave the keys in them, the FTOs wanted us to "steal" the cars and hide them. There's nothing more hilarious than to see the faces of cadets round the corner of a building only to find their vehicle gone! If they took their keys but still failed to lock them, we'd turn all the lights on, shine the spotlight in their faces, and sing the reggae theme from Cops over the PA. Sure, it was ugly; but it's better they learn such hard lessons during training than out in the real world! The bottom line is such training is very useful as compared to using simulated facilities at local police academies. Most medium and smaller departments don't even have them; and those that do find the students have memorized the layouts and anticipate what is going to occur. Changing the location to one they are not familiar with adds a great deal of realism to the training!

A wise CC of mine always said there are always three sides to every story. In that perspective, here are my thoughts: After reading the report to congress: US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf (whitehouse.gov) For the unclassified version, IMHO, it is a thoughtful look and after action report on what went right and what went wrong and what they have applied to similar scenarios subsequent to the withdrawal (Ethiopia and Ukraine). I think as long as you're not trying to win some political argument out of it by cherry picking a few things to write a short article with a catchy headline then there are some valid takeaways that hopefully congress will dive into during the AFGHANISTAN WAR COMMISSION So, just reading the headlines, from any of the media outlets is not going to do it justice. Watched and read what Kirby actually said about being proud: "Just because the mission changed over time, under previous administration and leadership and scenarios, doesn't mean that anybody who served in Afghanistan doesn't have something to be proud of doesn't have, doesn't have, --sorry -- doesn't have service to this country that they can take with them the rest of their lives and feel honorable about it," he said. (he breaks up a bit at the "doesn't have --sorry" part which I do believe was an honest reaction to him thinking about some of his service or peers who served and possibly were lost in the war.) White House official is asked why Biden admin taking no responsibility for Afghanistan debacle | Fox News Video “The president is very proud about the manner in which the men and women of the military, the foreign service, the intelligence community and on and on and on conducted this withdrawal,” he said. “I’ve been around operations my entire life and there’s not a single one that ever goes perfectly according to plan.” Doocy continued to push back saying, “There were children being killed. There were people hanging off of Air Force jets that were leaving and you’re saying that you guys are proud of the way this mission was conducted? Of that?” Kirby said: “Proud of the fact that we got more than 124,000 people safely out of Afghanistan? You bet. Proud of the fact that American troops were able to seize control of a defunct airport and get it operational in 48 hours? You bet. Proud of the fact that we now have about 100,000 afghans our former allies and partners living in this country and working toward citizenship? You bet.” “But does that mean everything went perfect in that evacuation? Of course not,” he said. He later added, “Nobody is saying that everything is perfect but there was a lot that went right and a lot of Afghans are now living better lives in this country and other countries around the world because of the sacrifices and the work of so many American government officials. So yeah, there’s a lot to be proud of, Peter.” I certainly hope that any of us who served in Afghanistan, supported it from afar, or supported any of the execution of the withdrawal are proud of what we did and agree that we would hope an administration would be proud of us. If we are directed to do a military operation and it fails or goes poorly at no fault of our own (the enemy has a say as Kirby acknowledged), I certainly want to be supported afterwards. As for the media outlets coverage (which surely most Americans aren't looking at considering the other shiny objects floating around these days): I thought this one was about as close to the "third side of the story" as they can get... Biden admin acknowledges mistakes in Afghanistan exit but defends decision to leave (msn.com)

He’s still and will always be a dude. #Science #Biology

💯 - It seems the past few years the FBI has been more than willing to overlook or simply forget the Constitution. 45 minutes of interrogation in the shower?!?!? That agency has run amok!

I'm not imagining 'deployed' as the desert, and I'm well aware that we use civilians on the daily for target practice. Hell, I've done urban E&E myself. It's great training, and it's needed. There's a reason it's not readily disclosed how and where we practice with military skill sets. Civilians simply wouldn't understand. However, being on the business end of an ISR lens, bombsight, empty barrel, or HUD is one thing. Doing practice interrogations in public lodging is something completely different. The deployed locations that mirror a major US city where DoD would need these skills are many and varied. We definitely need to train for that. That's why we have secure facilities specifically built for the purpose of replicating those environments (with obvious limitations). There are times when a major US city is the only place to practice employment, tradecraft, etc. But, practice interrogation should not be happening in a civilian environment for the exact reason that they hit the wrong target and didn't immediately realize it. That's all kinds of unsat. Interrogation...as in get information. If they are brand new to this, it should happen in a controlled environment. If they aren't new, the instructors should be fired. It should have taken all of 5 seconds for the instructors to realize they had the wrong dude/wrong room. Field interrogation is one of the few times we question someone without knowing much about them. I get this guy probably just sat in a tub while an academic situation was occurring, but that is precisely why this kind of training should never happen in a civilian environment. FBI training DoD, I get it. There's nothing wrong there. But they HAVE to weigh the risks of making a mistake like this though. It really does make them look like the gestapo, especially in today's social and political environment. Hitting the wrong target in a person-to-person environment, possibly even disclosing some ways and means, speaks to a serious problem in the system. Risk vs reward analysis is way off somewhere in that training process. I sincerely hope this isn't an indicator of the proficiency levels in our federal agencies. That all assumes this was actually a training event. I'm not willing to discount that it could have actually been a real event that missed it's target. "Training event" would be a likely cover story for such a miss. That's no conspiracy, just a statement of fact. We can't be immune to the fact that this is precisely how federal agencies interdict bad guys. All the more need for well planned training. Either way, I think you're right: that dude's getting paid.

The American public would be SHOCKED if they knew how much training takes place using civilian assets as "targets." I spent MANY years shooting Antioch churches, seizing civilian airfields and interdicting semi-trucks all over Florida and Alabama. Back in the 50s-60s USAF bombers conducted nightly simulated nuke attacks on major American cities all over the country. I am shocked there have not been more incidents like this. I recall an incident a few years back at Hurlburt where a sitting WIC Sq Commander was the AC for a local training mission. When they transitioned from the live fire ranges to a dry fire scenario over P-Cola there was confusion and improper checklist completion that ALMOST resulted in a live 105MM being placed into a civilian target in P-Cola, (one switched saved them from an accident that would have taken civilian lives and changed AFSOC forever)...Didn't hurt her career of course, she was promoted shortly thereafter. Training in an urban environment is 100% legit. Not every Op is going to be conducted in flat open desert...and for the record, urban canyon is real, it has a HUGE impact on ISR, chain of custody, weapons employment and collateral damage.

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/usaf-retires-its-last-mc-130h-combat-talon-ii-89-0280-after-delivering-the-aircraft-to-the-boneyard-at-davis-monthan-afb/ End of an era with the retirement of the MC-130H Combat Talon II. Great and proud legacy for this airplane and the crews have given great service over three decades to this country.

Sorry I wasn't retorting you. Perhaps I wasn't using enough sarcasm, lol.

Yes. Weirdly enough it took almost 10 minutes of google searching to find out that Reps. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson used a megaphone because, after stating their opinion in the assembled state congress, they didn't like the response they got from both republicans and democrats of all races, so they used a megaphone to shout down their opponents and excite and and embolden protestors. CNN claims it was a "rally" (because rallies happen in congressional chambers...obviously) when in fact it was an assembled session of congress. It was almost like google didn't want me to get the raw facts...weird. This wasn't the first time they disrupted sessions, and obviously the state leaders were tired of their childish behavior. They are 27 and 28 years old and, according to google, haven't done anything with their lives outside of politics. But google and CNN say they were ejected because of their race and the fact they were supporting gun control...not because they were acting like petulant children and refusing to let the state legislative body proceed with it's business. The 60 year old lady with them wasn't expelled, but she says that's because she's white. Seriously, these are people responsible for leading a state. Apparently Jones isn't new to the megaphone. If people don't like what you say, yell louder until they respond the way you want them to, right? They are nothing but entitled bullies.

20 years goes by fast. https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/das-watkins.htm RIP

The angus Mcangus movie could be very entertaining

This! Dude should get paid. I'm all for the military/FBI doing needed training, but you simply can't fuck up like this. I'm with others on here, saying it was a training mission, seems like a cover up. Also this! Unfortunately, if I did that, the people of NYC would probably freak out and think they're being attacked. Meanwhile, in my city, we fly up the river and around downtown and the people on the sand bars raise their beers and the townspeople thank us and ask for more lol. Would be a cool flight though!

I’ve done several of these major city training ops but every time the hits took place, it was in abandoned buildings or the like. I even got asked if I wanted to play opfor in an abandoned mental hospital out on Long Island at 0200 once. Seeing as how that’s the start of a horror movie, I politely declined. Bill de Blasio also saw me almost get simunitioned and detained on the Staten Island ferry but that’s another story from that trip. Also, if you ever get the chance to do the Hudson River tour VFR in your respective jets, be sure to do it. Awesome experience. Getting terrain warnings off the Freedom Tower is pretty wild.

https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/forms/dd/dd1898-d.pdf

F-15Y… Write it down. I’m calling it as gonna happen. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

why would they when the slides were green and we were "making progress?"

https://nypost.com/2023/03/30/male-powerlifter-enters-womens-event-breaks-record/

Old boy is getting paid

Pop a few Vivarins. Smoke a Marlboro red. Get on a stationary bike. Ride stationary bike for 10-15 minutes. Cough a few times. Pass PT exam with an Excellent. This was my experience with the old school "bike test". Eveyone seemed happier back then Lol.

“That’s not a vibrator, this is a vibrator!” - BqZip’s mom

nsplayer I think Rat made a pertinent point in his post, probably not his main point, but a good one - Republicans aren't championing the Proud Boys and whatever other loons claim to be "conservatives/right/republicans. Democrats are championing Antifa rioting, white priveledge, "white men need to be dealt with," Black Lives Matter, the people who can't understand the biology of gender, etc. Democrats are championing that crazy ass shit. That's the difference. And its driving a wedge. If you came at me with an argument about abortion, gun control, or climate change, I'd engage. But for whatever reason in the past 5 years the Democrats have wholesale endorsed the craziest shit that their people at the wildest margins could dream up. To be completely fair, Republicans have fucked up politically so bad since the age I could vote, its embarrasing. That aside, they aren't championing the marginal "wing" positions. The Democrats definitely are.

No regrets huh? These two “leaders” are clowns. The arrogance and hubris of our upper military leadership is disgusting.

For the hog driver’s desk https://csvnewsiten.com/products/a-10c-gau-8-brrrttt-inspiration-pencil-holder-spinner Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

💯 Miley and Austin disgrace the service and would resign if they had any honor. Petty incompetent political creatures.

Don’t count out simplicity. VTSAX and then spend those free brain bites on hand-building a wooden canoe or a kit bush plane or whatever. To each his own. While I think a lot about investing and spending and optimization and the psychology around all of it, I spend next to no time thinking about particular funds or trading or any of that. So many people I know spend TONS of time thinking about that stuff, especially trading, and I’m just not convinced the juice is worth the squeeze unless you really love the thrill of it. I also don’t really enjoy gambling or sports betting so maybe it’s just who I am and I get that people are different. Simple stock indices, simple bonds, some real estate, a mil pension eventually. More than sufficient for me at least to feel rich as hell.

Scores are good, be prepared to explain why your quantitative score is low. I think getting your PPL is key, it checks a big box for a lot of squadrons and the extra hours will do a lot for your PCSM. I wouldn't sweat the LORs, I really thinking chasing letters from generals/senators who don't really know you is a waste of time. A letter from the manager at your part time job at 7/11 that says you're a hard worker, dedicated, etc., is gonna be worth a lot more.

I just F'in threw up...ALOT!