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Whhhhaaaaaa??! are you telling me state doesn’t have their shit in a sock ? color me surprised. Again.

The vaccine for COVID-19 does not stop transmission. This is not disputed at any level. It reduces it somewhat, but only if you are susceptible to infection in the first place, which teenagers and young adults are not. The concept of herd immunity never involved low-risk demographics increasing their exposure to negative outcomes to protect high-risk demographics. That's an insane proposition.

Wild that the same people who fell for Russian talking points are now falling for Hamas talking points...

Most of what you said was true, buuuuuuuut it's also wholly irrelevant. Since the vaccine doesn't stop transmission, it's not anyone's business whether or not you decide to take it. This is a free country, and that means people get to make decisions for themselves, both good and bad. Think about your logic for 2 seconds dude. The vaccine was forced on all of us, and yet everyone got exposed anyway. Read that last part over and over until it sinks in.

Russia invades Ukraine. We send over 100 billion, who knows how much ammo/weapons and deplete our oil reserves. Iran waits for this to happen. They then use their proxy militaries and attack Israel. We send more money and ammo/weapons. Two carrier strike groups, fighter squadrons and a marine amphibious unit are now tied up. China makes a run at Taiwan next? Terrorist cells go live in the US via the open border? All without a functioning congress, a president in bad health who is probably compromised with a son facing felony charges and a ex president in court. All while we fight over identity politics. Nothing to see here.

When judging truth I tend to lean towards the side that does not machine gun and behead babies, but that is just me.

Rog. And I hear you. I will say though, that I've yet to see such immediate and blatant disregard for the rule of law. Exhibit #1 is the student loan "forgiveness" debacle. Joe Biden loses it in court, and then immediately turns around and says "fuck that." This is dangerously corrosive to the underlying system we have in place.

Ukraine uses secretly shipped U.S. missiles to launch surprise strike Ukraine says it destroyed 9 Russian helicopters in airfield attacks

I didn’t mean to imply it didn’t do anything at all. But it was rushed to market to make Big Pharma record breaking profits. When you own the government organization who’s supposed to provide oversight, your money based incentive mindset drives your actions. If you trust Pfizer, I’d watch Dopesick, or read the book. They care about one thing, money. The end users are unimportant, when they know they have immunity from vaccine injuries. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Your quote could be attributed to literally anyone who has ever had to sit in a staff briefing or execute a NEO/HADR run by Dep of State… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Most forces headed to eastern med are going there to support NEO. That is if DOS ever gets its heads out of their incompetent arses and enable DOD to do their job.

1) I’m proud of you for not ‘laughing out loud’ for a whole post, Biff. Well done. 2) There’s still a chance!.. depending on how froggy this (and the rest of the world) gets. …lol

God damn did this Covid narrative absolutely collapse. You Covid freaks are backpedaling so fast!

F-ing NitWit sold off half of the SPR for politics...what could possibly go wrong when we might have a hot war in the Middle East. Biden sold off nearly half the U.S. oil reserve. Is it ready for a crisis?

I went back through 10+ pages of archives here to see if there was a thread I could bring back from the dead. I couldn't find one so I'll make a new one. I just recently transferred from the ANG to an AFRC IMA job. This post and thread will be a place holder for more information when I have more time to sit down and write a novel of my experience with this process. Like anything military personnel/administrative related, it was a nightmare... so far. Hopefully it'll all be worth it. I've got my 20+ years already, but decided I didn't want to fly anymore or do the UTA thing anymore and didn't quite think it was a good idea to retire yet so I decided to try the IMA world. *****EDIT***** I'll start answering some of the questions below. I really had to seriously compare the pro's and con's since my brain was pretty much committed to retiring when I stumbled across the IMA vacancy, but my main reasons for staying in were: I've already been an O-5 for a bit over 3 years. I was one who was good going out as an O-4 and then I promoted to O-5. When I did the math, an O-6 collecting an ARC retirement in 2037 with 6,000 points was over $20k per year more than an O-5. Well beyond what I had imagined, so it was a big factor in my decision. The opportunity to promote to O-6 is a good possibility in the position I'm in. There are a couple of O-6 positions above me in the unit already. I also decided that I wanted to stay in and try something different before I pulled the plug. The ANG has it's advantages in that you can be a flyer for your whole career if you want and retire as a mission-ready line pilot, but a part of me felt I needed to try something else. Military flying wasn't doing much for me anymore and I felt I needed to put that phase of my life behind me. There's only 24 IDT and 12 AT plus MPA when made available (reduced retirement eligible). I really don't need military days to augment my airline schedule anymore as I am very senior in base/in seat, not commuting and loving life. With the amount I was having to participate in my Guard unit (the ops tempo just never seemed to let up), it was basically starting to hamper my ability to pick up open time and make more money at the company anyway. One 2-day premium pickup is worth more than a whole month of ANG pay. No UTA's. I was really done with the whole one weekend a month thing. I won't work weekends and the schedule is very flexible. I'll be the only reservist in the squadron (it's all AD) and the position is basically a deputy Sq/CC augmenting my AD counterpart. So, I figured I'd give it go. Worse comes to worse, I hate it and I pull the handle in a few years. No commitment. Still eligible for TRS healthcare as an IMA (A or B, not C). THE PROCESS (I may add to this little by little): 1. Find the position you want. You do this by going on the Reserve Vacancy site off vMPF. It's in the same area you can find the PERSTEMPO and PRDA links. Click on that and go to IMA vacancies. If you're a flyer, you'll pretty much be eligible to apply for Pilot IMA (11XX) and Operations Support (16XX) vacancies. Note that IMA positions are rank capped, so if you're an O-4 close to meeting your O-5 board, you probably won't get hired into an O-4 IMA position and probably don't want to because you will not be able to promote until you find an O-5 position. If you're already an O-5, you can sit in an O-5 IMA position until your MSD (not a bad deal). 2. Find an AFRC recruiter. I'd imagine this process is a lot easier if you're already AFRC. The recruiter can get you more info about the IMA position. If there is no POC listed on the vacancy announcement, they can get you this info. I'd advise you contact the hiring official via email or phone and discuss the position. If it's local, you may even want to show up for a meet and greet, which I believe goes a long way in showing your interest. Lots of people apply for these positions and many of them are not local. There are IMA positions all over the country. The recruiter will probably have you fill out a bunch of AFRC application-type paperwork to start a file on you. 3. If you're ANG, you'll need to get an AF 1288 drafted and routed through your Guard leadership. Your unit may have other local processes for a separation, but it'll go up through your CoC (up to TAG) for approval. This takes a while. It shouldn't, but it does because FSS manages the whole thing. For me, it took about two months. Once the AF 1288 comes back signed, it goes back to your recruiter. The recruiter will have to put a separation date on your AF 1288. Picking this date is very important as I will discuss in a bit in my take-aways and how I would have done things differently if people actually knew what they were doing and gave me the correct information during this process. If you explore the IMA world from the ANG, expect that this will be the first time everyone is doing this and in the end, you're the one who can get screwed if it's not done correctly. 4. Once the 1288 is ready to go, the recruiter will submit it to HQ RIO/DET - X. Depending on what MAJCOM this IMA job falls under, that Detachment will vary. RIO/DET will review your application and send it to the hiring official after they review it. Keep in mind, you may have already had a hand-shake agreement that you have been hired into that position by the hiring official. If you haven't been hired, your application may just go into a pile with everyone else's. These IMA jobs may be a lot more popular than you may think so it is important to network and/or rush the unit. RIO/DET had my application for almost two months, which at the time, I was told was longer than usual, but apparently there was a hold up with their HARM reviewing my flying records. We're now at about the 4-1/2 cumulative month mark from when I began the process. 5. RIO/Det adds some things to your AF 1288 and will send the package back to your ANG unit's FSS. Your FSS will submit the separation package to ARPC. This happens through the new "myFSS" system, which at the moment, is a colossal train wreck (because vPC-GR was so broken, we had to change it, right?). Even though your 1288 got routed through your leadership for you to apply to get out of the ANG, your separation package will now be routing electronically through myFSS to your leadership again (at least through SQ and OG/CC's) for approval. Even though this should only take a few days, expect another month. 6. Once the package is signed by your leadership, FSS will submit it to ARPC. If there are any errors in your separation package, ARPC will kick it back (there were thanks to my FSS). This will delay the process more. 7. The ANG and Reserves like to play games with manpower numbers so depending on what time of year and what those numbers look like, they may not let you out until it's good for their PowerPoint presentations. Mine sat with a technician for three months. Depending on what separation date you put on your 1288, this could screw you. More about that below. 8. When my 1288 came back from RIO/Det earlier in the process, my FSS told me that once they submit the package to ARPC, it'd only be several weeks for an approval. Why I believed them, I don't know, but I did so when I chose my separation date, I picked one out ahead about a month. Well, the process took another six months. With each and every day that went by past my separation date, my separation was to be back-dated. The catch with this is that I could no longer do military duty with the ANG past this date and I could not do military duty with the AFRC yet prior to being gained, which meant I was pretty much in limbo. Depending on your points situation and your R/R date (which stays the same going from ANG to AFRC), you may back yourself into a corner getting your 50 points for a good year. Your 15 ANG membership points will be prorated based off your separation date. My recommendation is to set your separation date out further in the future and make sure you get 50 points for the year before you separate. I was already past my 20 year mark, but I'd still not want deal with not getting a good year. Also, if you are using Tricare Reserve Select, back-dating your separation will screw with that and DEERS as well because you may show a break in service for a while until the AFRC gains you (could be a week or more). Expect disrupted military email service, CAC certificate issues and you will come up "terminated" when they scan your CAC at the front gate. It will also not work at the commissary (but they let me shop anyway). I am also hearing "rumors" that approved reduced retirement applications that were done in vPC-GR are "lost in space" and especially so going from ANG to AFRC or vice-versa. I am in the process of trying to track mine down. It is no-where to be found in the new myFSS system and vPC-GR is gone. What is even sweeter is that ANG AROWS doesn't talk to AROWS-R and once you are separated from the ANG, you will no longer have access to your orders. So, it'd behoove you to download all of your orders from AROWS-ANG and store them somewhere safe (maybe multiple places) because you won't be able to get them. Ask me how I know. Of course, don't expect anyone to tell you this very valuable information at your unit or find it on any out-processing checklist (probably a good place for it). Luckily, I was able to talk my ANG FSS into downloading and emailing me all of my 200+ orders after I was separated. Don't expect the same treatment. More to follow....

What wing are you at with 15 applicants? Your stats look fantastic too, your wing must have had to really stretch to place you #11. We've got a former army officer in my class who's now in the AF Guard so it definitely is a possible route! It seems like such an odd and arbitrary restriction to have.

Always a good morning waking up to burning Russian equipment.

And we hobbled our youngs' (i.e. the future, the warfighters) hearts under forced injections for the old with co-morbidities in society....great long term play, very cheap in the long term? healthier plan?! - no, More lethal effective fighting force - no, More control - yes, less freedom - no. So, C19-vaxxers-at-large, was it worth the inoculation mandates? Was it right to subdue? To succumb to fear? Whole thing was oppressive...

This is a good idea. It makes it very clear what certain things mean (i.e. the 2nd amendment) when you read the document in whole. It always baffles me why people zoom into the microcosm that is an amendment, while discarding the rest of the document. You'd think that the Constitution didn't mention militia anywhere else besides in the 2nd. When read in whole, there is no question why the phrase "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms" was added.

Stock up on XOM/BP/USO/SHELL. Dems never look beyond one dimension when they're making decisions.

It would make for a pretty good office comedy, if people didn't die because of DoS's incompetence.

That's not true. Very at-risk groups, such as those over 70-80, had a very, very high chance of surviving the vaccine, and a not-great chance of surviving covid. Especially if fat. For them it was a no-brainer. What's mind boggling to me is how effective the current corporatist-governmental establishment has "team-ified" so effectively that Americans are now seemingly incapable of seeing anything that doesn't completely inspire their political opposition. The vaccine, especially for the alpha and Delta variants, absolutely reduced serious illness and death from covid-19. It was also rushed into production, had real and meaningful side effects for certain demographics, was misrepresented by the people and organizations that stood to profit from it most, and treated a disease that was almost certainly developed in a Chinese lab, and accidentally released. Making the vaccine mandatory was immoral because it was new, unproven, and effective in a way that did not benefit from compulsory distribution. Not because it didn't do anything at all.

My son will fight terrorists like his father. Shit, I bet my grandkids will be fighting in that shit hole called the Middle East. SWA (south west asia) for life! I would have rather fought in SEA or Europe. I missed out on the good wars.

The border is fine....lol. Everything and everyone is racist but the border. The border is our friend. Science and woke words here.

We're so fucked as a people. Nobody puts ANY critical thought into what they are seeing and sharing. Just, if it looks like it supports my thoughts, fire away.

I call bullshit on that email. I seriously doubt it is authentic.

At this point, I don't think that dude actually reads anything, he just downvotes my username. Fuck 'em. I honestly try to empathize and imagine myself in the position that the average Israeli and Palestinian finds themselves in. There's plenty to be angry about on both sides and plenty of blame to go around. Conflict and killing is a messy business and there will always be a loss of innocent life. It's a terrible thing but an inextricable part of human existence. For me, the difference is that in addition to inflicting death, Hamas planned to kidnap, target women & children & elderly, rape, torture, publicly glorify it, then publicly parade the desecrated bodies through the streets. Whatever sympathies I may have had for the average Palestinan by imagining their plight are instantly lost on anyone who would endorse or make excuses for that sort of thing.

Apparently we learned nothing in the past 3 years. Fun fact refreshers: - According to Johns Hopkins It takes 5-10 years to completely develop and study a vaccine. History tells us it take longer then that. Logic says it takes 20 years to do a 20 year study on the 20 year impact of a vaccine....weird. It's been 3 since this show all started. - Modern news agencies exist to do one thing: Make Money...which they do by getting us to click...which they do by posting scary stories. - Politicians want a crisis during an election. This should shock no one. Stop feeding into the real enemy's game (politicians trying to polarize their bases). They don't care about you, they just want to retain or gain power. Everyone chill out. Frankly, I think @Biff_T has the right line here. Can we somehow link the word replacement game with a drinking game?

None of those bugs are being used to fear-monger and bludgeon our society into all manner of ridiculous behaviors, so apples to oranges much? I'm sure if there were politicians out there beating the war drum over the four horsemen of the yearly flu, you'd have the hypothetical response you're sarcastically looking for. As for me, I'm not confused by this. The powers that be have used the COVID event to shuttle in all manner of onerous policies and shove our economic system off a cliff. In the future, I hope our dollars are worth what we're all saving them for. I hope the trillions of dollars that were printed, someday find the productivity they stole from the future. Flu and Malaria don't make money. COVID does. Your sarcasm is misdirected, and you clearly don't understand what people are pissed about. "Unscorable @ 9, 2".

@pawnman You said if people didn’t get the vax due to doctor rec, you were ok with that. If they didn’t get it for any other reason, you said you don’t respect that decision. So, you explicitly stated you did not respect individual medical freedom in 2021. And you backed that stance up with garbage info that has been substantially refuted since then. Those are facts, not strawmen.

lol Name an atrocity committed in which the people in charge didn't have the legal authority (granted to themselves by themselves) to do horrible things. "I was just following orders..." Integrity first? What freaking military are you in? Zero people at the top have any integrity. I respect anyone who lied or cheated to get out of masking or vaccines. They were right, even if they were legally wrong. I should have just slipped someone some money to squirt the shot onto the ground.

You got all the apology you're gonna get.

While ironically acknowledging my stupidity for bothering to engage you on this...your stupidity is tiresome. When a person is infected by a SARS virus they have an immune response. In a small number of cases that immune response has collateral impacts on the body. When a person is vaccinated against a SARS virus they have [functionally] the same immune response. In a small number of cases that immune response has collateral impacts on the body. Sound familiar? The difference being that they are not also under threat of a replicating virus that can overwhelm the body's ability to defend itself. It's no surprise to thinking people that the same increase in risk of cardiac inflammation that comes with infection also comes with vaccination. It would be surprising if that was not the case given that, from the immune system's perspective, vaccination is indistinguishable from infection (with a few links in the response chain bypassed by mRNA). The only question then is does the overall reduction in risk through vaccination outweigh that of exposing 'everyone' to the collateral immune response risk when a small portion of them may otherwise avoid ever being exposed to viral infection. And the answer is yes...by orders of magnitude. Thankfully the people employed to come to these conclusions are typically not exceptionally vulnerable to tribal group-think conspiracy movements, and they base their conclusions on reality. You may now return to wasting your life away by willfully sifting through all the wrong information in order to find the next trump-card that isn't a trump-card.