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Glad to know you’ve got such a good grasp on ground truth. I make no claims on understanding the root cause of the invasion…and there likely isn’t one such singularly cause. NATO expansion, demographics, a weak US president, rising US isolationism, EUROPEAN UNION SPINELESSNESS, good timing with Ukraine internal politics, Putin being megalomaniac, Russians being Russians? All of the above? But sure, go ahead and believe you’ve got it sorted. When you make claims like that, does it strike you at all as melodramatically black or white? Or do you genuinely believe it was solely ‘NATO expansion’? If so, why? *Side bar: NATO didn’t go out looking for new members. New members saw Russian aggression starting in Georgia during the GW era and started asking for membership. I know this because I worked in NATO, and membership was a hot topic. “NATO Expansion” is a known misnomer propagated by Russian media and intelligence agencies. Call it whatever, NATO expanded due to Russia invading its neighbors over the past 30 years.

Idk if it’s funnier if he was named CAT-5 before or after he knocked down all of those trees 🤔

The below letter was written by Commander Robert A. Green Jr., U.S. Navy, and signed by 231 current and former Service Members from all branches of the United States Armed Forces. There was a time when I would have been put off by the tone and language here. Not anymore. I think it is entirely appropriate. https://freedomfighter1776.com/dma-accountability 1 January 2024 An Open Letter to the American People from Signatories of this Declaration of Military Accountability “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” –John Adams In the course of human events it sometimes becomes necessary to admonish the lawless, encourage the fainthearted, and strengthen the weak. We have reached just such a time in our history. The affairs of our nation are now steeped in avaricious corruption and our once stalwart institutions, including the Dept of Defense, are failing to fulfill the moral obligations upon which they were founded. Standing upon our natural and constitutional rights, we hereby apprise the American people that we have exhausted all internal efforts to rectify recent criminal activity within the Armed Forces. In the Declaration of Independence our founding fathers sought separation. We seek no separation, but through this letter and the efforts we pledge herein, we pursue restoration through accountability. We intend to rebuild trust and restore the rule of law, particularly within the Armed Forces. Ultimately, we strive to once again become a moral people, restoring our nation, and making it again worthy of the great gift of liberty won by the colonial-era American people. While implementing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, military leaders broke the law, trampled constitutional rights, denied informed consent, permitted unwilling medical experimentation, and suppressed the free exercise of religion. Service members and families were significantly harmed by these actions. Their suffering continues to be felt financially, emotionally, and physically. Some service members became part of our ever-growing veteran homeless population, some developed debilitating vaccine injuries, and some even lost their lives. In an apparent attempt to avoid accountability, military leaders are continuing to ignore our communications regarding these injuries and the laws that were broken. For GEN Milley, ADM Grady, GEN McConville, ADM Gilday, ADM Lescher, Gen Brown, Gen Berger, Gen Smith, VADM Kilby, VADM Nowell, VADM Fuller, LTG Martin, Lt Gen Davis, MG Edmonson, GEN Williams, ADM Fagan, VADM Buck, Lt Gen Clark, MG Francis, LTG Dingle, Lt Gen Miller, RADM Gillingham, and numerous others; These individuals enabled lawlessness and the unwilling experimentation on service members. The moral and physical injuries they helped inflict are significant. They betrayed the trust of service members and the American people. Their actions caused irreparable harm to the Armed Forces and the institutions for which we have fought and bled. These leaders refused to resign or take any other action to hold themselves accountable, nor have they attempted to repair the harm their policies and actions have caused. Since there has yet to be any accountability, the undersigned give our word to do everything morally permissible and legally possible to hold our own leadership accountable. We intend to rebuild trust by demonstrating that leaders cannot cast aside constitutional rights or the law for political expediency. The flag and general officers are far from the only ones complicit in recent illegal activities, as a significant number of SES leaders and political appointees contributed. Evidence indicates that other executive agencies are engaging in illegal activity. However, as service members and veterans, we feel particularly responsible for the DoD and, in accordance with our oaths, we will make every effort to demonstrate by example, how an institution can put its own house in order. We the undersigned, on behalf of hundreds of thousands of service members and the American people, while appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for guidance and purity of intention, mutually pledge to each other that we will do everything in our power, through lawful word and action, to hold accountable military leaders who failed to follow the law when their leadership and moral courage was most desperately needed. In the coming years, thousands within our network will run for Congress and seek appointments to executive branch offices, while those of us still serving on active duty will continue to put fulfilling our oaths ahead of striving for rank or position. For those who achieve the lawful authority to do so, we pledge to recall from retirement the military leaders who broke the law and will convene courts-martial for the crimes they committed. For those of us who attain legislative offices, we pledge to introduce legislation to remove all retirement income for the military leaders who were criminally complicit, and we will ensure none serve in or retire from the Senior Executive Service. This endeavor will be a continuous process with a long-term time horizon, but fulfilling our oaths to defend the Constitution requires just such persistent vigilance. Likewise, we are obligated, and so commit, to train those who come after us to fulfill their duty in achieving this accountability and safeguarding against such leadership failures hereafter. Our nation was once great because it was good. It was built on moral principles founded in natural law and yet, the recent acceleration of moral relativism has us headed towards a precipitous implosion. While all good things come to an end, we refuse to allow our nation to go quietly into the depths of decadence and decay. We promise to exhaust all moral, ethical, and legal means to restore the rule of law and will begin by attempting to hold senior military leaders accountable. The Constitution is the supreme law of our land. We will fight to enforce that law and put an end to the two-tiered justice system. May future generations see our efforts and, God willing, may they also be recipients of the great gift of liberty that we have had the honor of safeguarding.

Along with the rest of the post...in all sincerity, we throw a lot of shit around here when in reality we were all highly motivated, highly excitable teenagers who wanted to go do cool shit and serve our country. Turning 40 only helps us lose sight of that perspective. Thank you for doing what you're doing in AFMC. I've heard that can be a dodgy place to be in leadership. I've also heard things like "if you can dream it, we've figured out how to do it" Yeah, AFMC does some really cool shit. But I digress I'm no academy apologist. USAFA is currently ALL KINDS of fucked up. But the idea it represents to America's young bright and shining warriors hasn't faded a bit. The warrior mentality will always be attracted to hardship and challenge. It's the job of we sage warriors to make sure the institutions don't drift. Thankfully, that impulse is not provided in the realm of internet discussion forums. We gain a lot of perspective as we get older with one bold exception: We often fail to remember what the world looked like when we were 18 and making life impacting decisions. That insight should inform our vision as we get older. Elite institutions should always be upheld regardless of how imperfect we find out that they are (and always were) as we gain the perspective of age. America's youth should always be challenged to do difficult things for the fact that difficulty cultivates character, and in real eye-gouging, life altering combat, character is critically important. Designing those preparatory challenges and environments is what being old is all about. Sadly the vast majority of our sages have decided that retirement and golf is more important. Regardless, I stand by the fact that elite American institutions still do push that button quite well, and I'll continue to challenge the vision of those who see those institutions as worthless.

His apprentice however...

HeloDude coming in defending the upstanding honor of 11Hs everywhere like...😂

Happy new year to you all! Wishing everyone an awesome 2024, hoping it brings good news to us all !!

A little humility goes a long way. Almost every mustang I knew, if not outright humble (most of them), at a bare minimum knew when and where to turn that switch on. A solid argument can be made that all officers should be enlisted first, a la Robert Heinlein. If nothing else it’s a solid thought experiment.

And you think ROTC is spitting out anything different? Nonsense. I taught pilots from every commissioning source. They were all fucking morons with the exception of one group, the prior-enlisted. Maturity, confidence, and wisdom come from experience, and experience requires independence. The prior-e's weren't smarter. Most were actually dumber, and well aware of it, but they knew how to make decisions on their own and act in a professional, non-college non-frat non-dorm environment. That's why they got picked over the other enlisted who didn't mature as well or as much. The academy kids knew how to study in a way that made pilot training easier, but that only gets you into the jet. Good hands were agnostic of the commissioning source. Once the zoomies and ROTC dorks had a little unsupervised life under their belts, the groups were mostly indistinguishable. But I suspect the academy sets the example that ROTC lives up to. I mean the programs themselves, not the cadets in them. After all, we never sent Zoomies to the ROTC programs (that I know of), but they sure did send them to us.

Based on what I saw coming into CVS I’d 100% agree with you. My personal opinion/observation is there was a serious absence of leadership at the Wg/CC level (I’d argue the whole Wing command team and staff agencies) from time I arrived here till the UEI. I told my boss months before the UEI that I thought the Wing was in serious trouble going into the inspection; unfortunately events proved me correct. I say unfortunately cause now we’re suffering through the 2nd and 3rd order effects of playing catch-up/prepping for the re-inspection, which is real annoying. It’s been said on here before but the general belief, at least here at CVS, was the Wg/CC wasn’t fired because he’s AFSOC’s first black general and AFSOC leadership (CAT 5) wasn’t going to fire him based on that alone. I have no idea if that’s actually the case but I personally believe there’s truth to it.

This is one of the most abused lines of false reasoning I've heard used in attempts to back up nearly any argument these days. "I didn't see it so obviously ... *insert claim*" It's arrogant, irrational, and lazy. In my military career it was the go-to argument of every arrogant career climbing O-6 to justify why he didn't want to implement the COAs his team had just spent days creating to solve some problem. Absence of evidence is not evidence of anything. You choosing to be actively ignorant about what actually happens at the academies is simply evidence of your own intellectual habits. Are you grad? Have you ever been to the academies? You are looking at elite centers of education and research that are service centric and saying "I don't know why we have that." The Jet Lab at USAFA by itself sets it apart as an elite development center, not to mention the R&D done on aviation tech that takes place at the airfields. Have you ever seen the 105 hanging out the side an AC-130J? The aerodynamic fairings on and around it were initially designed by cadets as an aero department senior project. Or perhaps the cadet chemist who created a whole new style of body armor. I know for a fact the USA and USN both have equivalent stories. But I'm sure those kinds of developments would definitely happen at Berkley or Embry Riddle, so yeah, clearly we should shut down the academies. Come on man. If you're going to make an argument against them, please do. But put some meat behind it. Otherwise, pull your head out of the sand and do some observing.

Problem those people will move to other states and continue to vote the same way. "You know, I really like this new place, but it could really use some more government programs, more legal drugs, and way less guns..."

The cool thing about all this is....eventually the super libs will get tired of having no budget and strange humans living in their front and back yards. CA economy will fail. Then people will vote differently. I'll be surfing and eating tacos the whole time.

@HeloDude is 100% correct. Thank you Sir! Biff 11H

His desire to rebuild the USSR/Russian Empire?

I didn’t say anything about intelligence. I don’t doubt USAFA grads rank high on that. Having said that, I accomplished commissioning 16x faster than you at OTS so as a vastly superior intelligence, you should listen to me*. I agree with everything you said about independence and experience. In that case, why the hell isn’t an Academy grad getting that prior to showing up? They should absolutely smoke UPT in all aspects because (as a tax payer) I want Academy graduates to be BAMF at their jobs. Pilot candidates should show up with a bunch of time in T-6’s or something else to advance them through UPT quicker**. I could care less about their ability to do advanced engineering math (systems engineering anyone?) I say this as a DO in AFMC that’s full of Test Pilots who do all this math as part of the course and then never do it again because we evolved past the slide rule. And the Academy absolutely sets the standard for commissioning sources. If it didn’t, shutter the place yesterday. Regarding @FourFanscomment about prior E’s, I agree in theory but reality is very different (and I’m the son of a prior E pilot). In my career, the drastic poles of Officer quality were with the prior E’s. Fantastic or giant turds and everything in between. Off the top of my nugget, I can think of 6 O’s doing UCMJ and criminal type offenses and 3 were prior E, 1 Academy, and 2 were from classic military ROTC schools (VMI and VT). I don’t think that means anything big picture, just interesting. Maybe it proves that my 16x accelerated course didn’t spend enough time on not being a criminal turd. I got pretty good at flicker ball though. *I applied to and got appointments to all 3 service academies and was really wrestling between being a pilot, SEAL, or SF officer (I even took 4 years of French to prepare). I ended up going to my state college to play football and OTS but I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought “what if” about going to an academy. If that doesn’t prove that I was a dipshit 18 year old, I don’t know what does. **The obsession with fairness and whatever at UPT is super gay. I don’t care at all about fairness in UPT assignments. If USAFA grads get tons of extra training by getting into USAFA, good on them. I only got picked up for OTS because I was a CFII so UPT went well for me. That wasn’t fair for most of my classmates that didn’t have much experience. With how much money gets poured into a cadet at USAFA, for them to show up and find out they don’t have hands is a serious waste of money.

Anyone want to give an over/under on how many years before @Biff_T moves?

This. Not only am I client, I'm also the prior-e club president. It would be sad f it wasn't so true.

I think we’re actually in agreement here. I would agree that just because someone is great at their primary crew position doesn’t mean they’re a great officer/leader. The best Sq/CCs I’ve had all happened to be extremely credible in the airplane; I know guys in other Sqs who have had CCs that were great in airplane but shit leaders. At least in my corner of AFSOC most guys/gals are willing to call out leaders who are bad sticks. Reference Sock Puppet as a prime example. Didn’t stop him from making O-6 mind you, but everyone acknowledged he was a bad pilot with great paperwork. I’d also argue that just because a guy isn’t a bro or great fun to hang out with outside the cockpit doesn’t mean they’re a bad leader, people/leaders come in all flavors. Curious, which AFSOC O-6s specifically did you fly with that you felt were good pilots but bad leaders?

Don’t know about this particular one, but it’s astounding the amount of parents I see/hear of who are lazy fucks and don’t do shit to parent their kids. And then they wonder why their kid ends up all fucked up. It’s not the kid’s fault, it’s the parents’.

The only Power 5 Florida school that didn’t lose a bowl game this season!!

I was surprised the WG/CC wasn't fired in addition to the OG.

Well, to be accurate, he’s an 11S, but I get your point. Slife the knife.

Why do we have UPT? Just take civilian pilots with commercial licenses and go straight to the FTU. After a couple years you won't notice the difference. And why do we have ivy league schools anyway? It's not like you can't become a doctor or a lawyer online. Just do that instead. Having trained UPT 2.0 students, the answer is clear: You don't realize what you have until you don't have it anymore. If you want a high quality product, you create competition and a set a high bar. That's what every elite university does, or should do. Judging that process by the vocal minority of arrogant asshats it creates is not how you measure the quality of the process. Yes, military academies need to improve (and get rid of the social experimentation bullshit). So does EVERY university. If you can't understand the reason for having a process that's competitive and pursues creation of elite levels of education, university level R&D, and leadership, you're seriously missing the point. Zero hit the nail on the head. We need USAFA and the other Academies to live up to what they're supposed to do: create and cultivate high quality mission focused military leaders. I think they still do that to a degree, although they've noticeably strayed into social activism. That means they need to course correct, not cease to exist.

Sorry dude, you communicate like a frustrated toddler. If I had to bet on who's just the random person on the forum, and not an educated officer with leadership experience, you are probably my top guess. And considering we have Biff here now, that's saying something 🤣😂.

Dude there are complications to EVERY military conflict. South Korea is still independent and flourishing. Libya was stopped from pursuing nukes. Kosovo like you said ultimately got our way. GW1 and the liberation of Kuwait was a clear success. I view GW1 separately from events after 2002. My point stands, “zero success” post-ww2 is hyperbole. If we’re going to have an honest discussion, it starts with being objective.

Why does the USAFA even exist anymore? It’s an expensive way to make an officer and I can’t see any notable difference in quality between the rotc/ots/academy grads. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I'd like to get that job and do it remotley from somewhere nasty. Like Songtan? @brabus I'd prefer somewhere more towards Thailand, the PI, Spain, Germany or Ireland (Fuck Enlgland). STAFF MEETING: GEN Buttlove: "Biff, how are the zoomies doing on the internet?" Biff: "What?.. .I mean. Great Sir"

HAHAHAHA!!! Fuck, you got me. Who is this? Chang?? I fell for that one hook, line, and sinker. Well played. Sorry for the thread derail. Goodnight

I’m currently on mil leave finishing up my retirement but looking at the January Bid lines out of Orlando they varied from 60-80 hours, some of them with 18 days off for the month. Since I’ve been gone for a couple years, I’m not sure what the high time flyers are getting, so I’ll leave that question for an active guy. Before I left though, the sky was the limit and as long as it was legal and you could put it on your board, you could bank $$$. Personally, life is great. I ended up having to take my ex back to court and won full custody of the kids (hence the reason I am putting the airline life on hold temporarily and finishing up the mil career). We are all extremely happy. I did end up getting remarried and she has been amazing and my kids all call her “mom”. My older two have pretty much nothing to do with their birth mom, and my youngest is the only one that goes for any sort of visitation. It’s funny what a little bit of wisdom, maturity and life experience will do for the second time around. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Studies have shown, it do be like that sometimes. “I do not envy you the headache you will have when you awake. But for now, rest well and dream of large women.”

$10,000 fine per worker per day for any business that hires any employee without verification of the employee through a federally-operated verification system. The problem goes away overnight. Neither side (politicians, not voters) wants the problem solved.

Read my lips, if you’re on a Forum spouting off Russian talking points about how Ukraine belongs to them historically, or that NATO expansion justified them invading by force a sovereign nation, or insinuating the CIA ran a coup to overthrow Ukraine’s government (all points he’s tried to make) you’re a shill. Putin has expressed his interest in realigning the old Soviet satellites as vassal states. Pretending otherwise would ignore the last decade of action by him. So yeah Ukraine is as many have pointed out the stepping stone in a lone of stones already crossed leaving us with the next step having a 4/5 chance of being a NATO country. I’ve got no interest in trying to convert Bashi, I’m pointing out to the rest of the room that may think he has a point how incredibly stupid it is. Why are you suddenly trying to defend him? If he stuck to points about budget he’s fine, but he is repeating known Russian talking points advanced and stimulated across social media. And DCG would be deputy commanding general. We have one currently and he’s Polish. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

ive read all of them

I respect your views but with regard to Russia, it is not about the price per acre of Ukrainian land. Instead, Russia has been humbled, their Army is in tatters and they are no longer a threat to the rest of Europe and beyond. You've invested in the geopolitics and some of the economics, look at the demographics, this is a turning point for them and it will take a generation to recovery...if they ever do. Demographic wise the U.S. population in the late 60's was around 200 million, we lost 55,000 Americans over 20 years in Vietnam and it changed our country. Russia today is a country of 143 million and they have lost approximately 120,000 in a year and a half. Russian birthrates are again on the decline after a sight recovery to years ago, they are in real trouble. Bottomline, for about 15% of the DoD budget we have taken a superpower out of play without the loss of any U.S. troops...that my friend is not a waste, it is a bargain.

No, dude. You asked a bunch of strawman/loaded questions based off of one of the most clearly biased pro-russia American commentators and Russian aligned sources. THAT is why so many called you out. It's not zealotry when people criticize clearly biased and VERY often wrong sources. Ukraine is fighting an existential war vs. Russia pursuing an entirely optional one. That does mean something. Additionally, UKR is getting a LOT of external support. That doesn't mean they will win, but it does mean they do have a chance.

I looked and cannot find a single "pro-Putin" quote from Trump. If you could provide something specific, I would possibly better understand your point. FYI, a world leader saying "hey I met this guy, he's not the devil, we can work together" is normal dialogue. Post UKR war Trump maturely stated (paraphrasing) "yes Putin is a killer, but there are lots of killers and I'll work with everyone to secure a peace deal." If you can find actual Putin knob gobbling please post, otherwise your point is disproven. For your second point, yes, I'm sure you would rephrase it to sound cleaner. However the coldhearted truth is we are sacrificing a generation of Ukrainian youth to attrit our historic geo-political foe. We are military professionals not politicians, I'm not being judgmental about the tactic. But speak plainly to me rather than disguise the action with flowery language. Yes, paying a UKR dictator to forcibly conscript his citizens to kill Russians, blow up their stuff at scale and ascertain which of our systems work best is effective. Let's sidestep the morality discussion. This tactic is an elegant solution for now, but I don't think we can afford it on the time scale UKR would require to eject all Russian forces from its territory (their definition of "win"). Starting from that assumption on my part (that our country is incapable of multibillion-dollar aid packages in perpetuity) I think it's strategically in our interest to find a new approach forward in UKR to secure our interests. To be clear, that likely involves accepting Russia holds portions of the Eastern territory and we cease NATO expansion eastward. I'm fine with both concessions, we have bigger concerns elsewhere. Korea? Not a single Korean War vet I've met thinks the effort was a "success" and worth watching their buddies freeze to death. And the unfavorable situation has continued to plague us. Libya? Last time I was there (post invasion) it was a total shit show that the world has forgotten but terrorist organizations have not. Our countries interests were much better served with Kadafi holding an iron grip on the country. If you know anything about the war or were involved in fighting it, you'll know that his massive arms stockpiles were stolen and proliferated both to Syria (throwing gasoline on that simmering Civil War) and also across the African continent resulting in the rise of leaders like MBM and organizations like AQIM & Boko Haram. Kosovo... curious why you think this is successful. Yes we stuck our fingers in a small scale regional conflict and ultimately got our way. But at what cost? I spent some time studying the rise of Jihadi culture in the 1990s, which academically I find an interesting time period for them as the movement rode success against Russia in the 80s with a season of self-discovery (was I merely a regional phenomenon whose time has passed, or do I have a broader, global future?). Lots of informative literature showing we would have been smarter to encourage a generation of Jihadis to spend themselves in the Serb meat grinder. For that matter, we should have encouraged both Chechen wars & used Russia to attrit our foe. We could have done to jihadis (for free) what you're desirous of doing to RUS in UKR. No, Kosovo is not a win. GW1? That definitely looked like a win in 1994, but once we got bogged down with ONW & OSW then everything post 2002 i'm wondering what about that conflict leads you to conclude it was decisively finalized the way World War II was? In hindsight it looks like a strategic failure to me, managed by weak-kneed leadership convinced of their own intelligence while lacking the fortitude to see enemies vanquished. A consistent theme of our recent history, resulting in consistent failures worldwide. i'll grant you Granada. Good job USA 🇺🇸