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I'd say alot of things TSA does are counter to intelligence.

Gen Austin Miller made the call, although Biden & Blinken put him in a box: they imposed a troop cap which made staffing BAF along with the embassy/HKIA impossible. Then Blinken said we cannot withdraw from the embassy due to optics, ergo BAF must close. And because they were unimaginative and underestimated the enemy, they assumed GIRoA could hold out until 2022. Miller pushed back but ultimately saluted and executed. He should have resigned instead. McKenzie, the COCOM/CC, took command from Miller (meaning the COCOM absorbed what had been its own 4 star command, you can imagine how butter smooth that COMREL change was) in July of 21 I believe, after BAF was handed over and when the assault on the outskirts of Kabul began in earnest. He failed to take any bold action although several of us were sending very clear recommendations and security warnings. By early August it was an insane situation: the Taliban was moving openly in large formations massing artillery and supplies as close as Maiden Shar and all ANA checkpoints on Highway 1 had fallen. Camp Commando had fallen. We were going Winchester and not slowing them down; our own FIRES process was complicated by surrendering ANA personnel and enemy use of their (our) equipment /uniforms. The AAF ran out of munitions and ceased flight operations. I landed in HKIA after one sortie and stated clearly: we must initiate the NEO now. The front office for the 2 star in Kabul (senior US Officer in country) told me “not possible, the Turks won’t allow it.” The Turks were running HKIA at the time. 3 days later the Turks were burning all their papers and excess equipment as they ran to their own aircraft to escape the fall. A lot to digest from the experience. My biggest surprise has been that absolutely no one higher wants to hear about it. There was no AAR, no hot wash, no internal mil attempt to investigate and figure out where it broke down. Just sweep it all under the rug, too embarrassing. The AF history guys did a quick report, although it was mainly focused on the 2.5 week mobility surge and they didn’t even know my unit existed. My AAR is now in their secret addendum, but the document is shortsighted by exclusively focusing on the evacuation rather than how the hell we allowed July-Aug to ever occur. Without any accountability and with the same idiots in charge, we should unfortunately expect another epic strategic humiliation.

I can’t think of anything more weak than a president who has to use the baby steps into Air Force one, has to be pumped up with uppers to deliver speeches, and who only makes the decisions/takes questions that are approved by his handlers.

OPSEC!!!! When Col. Bill Grimes wrote “The History of BIG SAFARI” he went through the proper requirements and it was approved for public release by WPAFB Public Affairs under Case Number: 88ABW-2013-1703, Disposition Date: 12 Apr 2013 The mission Danger41 mentions against the Iraqi Kari Radar systems is covered in the book.

Which handover? US to the ANDSF or ANDSF to Taliban?

That is mentioned in the book. It was called SCATHE MEAN and BQM-74C Chukar Drones were modified and used similar to what the Israelis did during the Yom Kippur War against Egyptian Radars. The ad hoc team had to buy camping gear and other supplies from Walmart and Sam’s Club. Trucks were purchased and painted desert tan but had to be deployed so quickly they were never registered which created problems when they were returned to the states.

At least he knows only women have pussies…those on the left don’t seem to believe so.

Too true!

thanks DORK

Hopefully Boeing stacks its house of cards quickly during/after these investigations are done so SWA and United (UA decreased hiring/ton of Max 10 orders unfulfilled and substantially less 9s and 8s delivered monthly) Delta slowed up a bit supposedly. Wonder if SWA has a batch of retirements coming while awaiting Max 10 certification…? *SWA being triple in size to UPS (which is hiring something like 300 for their USPS contract and probably some retirements) has perhaps 400 maybe 500 retiring 2024-25 so things could change for the good. **Hopeful for those interested and spitballing of course.

Hey, Penguin is still here. @brabus What's going on with F-16 JMPS WRT FPM, TOLD, and validating SCLs has been eye-opening (learning just how bad/wrong/out of date certain data sources were). Trying to help be part of the solution! Also, the Flight Performance Modelers work at the other end of my building, they build the FPMs for JMPS and the newish TOLD app that is coming out for most airframes. They were glad to have me to come bug about helo TOLD and interpreting H-60 E-M charts, lol.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/04/14/russia-sent-70-year-old-t-55-tanks-to-ukraine-without-even-upgrading-them/?sh=41432a5534d2 Surely the only reason they would be doing crap like this is they want to do it… It wouldn’t possibly demonstrate they are consuming their best equipment faster than they can replace it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Experienced this as well in Europe and Africa...but I realized, they shouldn't be competent at operational planning...that's what military planners are for. State is supposed to be diplomats. They're also supposed to have the brains to realize that operational planning (especially in military related activities) should be pushed to the military, because we're pretty damn good at it. The perennial American diplomatic problem is that when things go beyond diplomacy, our diplomats seem to think they are always the smartest in the room...and they never are.

Dammit. I retired last year!

Good. Hope he ends up on the wrong end of a $75 drone (with a hand grenade taped to it).

What’s in the water in New England? Homeboy that leaked TS to his gamer friends, fire man, hunger strike guy, and now this clown are all from there.

One of the topics I neglected to mention was where I got some of the information on the RB-57. For a fascinating history of this and other specialized aircraft I recommend the book “The History of BIG SAFARI” by Col. Bill Grimes. This book was a trip down memory lane and brought back memories from when I was a B-52G Crew Chief back in the ‘80s and my line supervisor worked on RC-135 aircraft in Alaska before being transferred to Bombers. He would regale me with tales of fantastically modified RC-135 aircraft (sometimes for a single mission) that I sometimes thought he was just embellishing to make a compelling story. After reading this book I wish I could remember more of those stories since they were all true!

Not a fan of Trump, but there is no way you can convince me the last four years under Biden were better! Had Trump won, our economy would most likely be doing better, our foreign and domestic policies been more focused on important things than wokeness and transgender recognition, and honestly I believe most Americans would have a lot more pride in this country! The fact that Biden even won (if he even did!) and pretty much every action he has taken over the past four years has been a major embarrassment to the US. This has got to be the largest amount of horseshit claims I've ever seen in my life, and I did 25 years in the USAF! The Biden-Harris Record | The White House Does the White House really think everyone is so stupid to believe all that?!? Again, I would prefer a different candidate to vote for, one more along the lines of Reagan in the 80s; but once again we are stuck between a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich. I for one would rather endure the Giant Douche then to spend another four years having a Turd Sandwich shoved down our throats!

But the administration says it’s all Trump’s fault.

FYI: nearly all pilots will get deneid reclama is the scuttlebutt. I know of 1 approved of many. But that's not all. TIFWIW. What MAJCOM? Do they use TM? AFSOC doesn't, it's a facade for them it seems.

I’ll tell you that if the AF wants more talented leaders they need to stop focusing on exec, aide, PME etc and actually pay attention beyond the spreadsheet of who has leadership talent and who doesn’t.

Not exactly F1 but still fun to make fun of Ferrari.

FOLKS!