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You can Skillbridge for up to six months. I chose to do four. On Skillbridge you’re essentially PTDY still making all your AD pay and benefits while working as an unpaid intern at whatever company you’re Skillbridging with. I got my ATP out of it, paid for by the company I was working with, and I’m working full time for them now after leaving AD. https://skillbridge.osd.mil

And we lost. can you provide an example of a war that was won by the side that respected and protected civilians when the other side doesn’t? I think you’re expecting the impossible from Israel.

What the fuck are you talking about? 🤣😂 I'm sure I haven't called you a Muslim extremist. There is only one group involved in this conflict that outright desires the death and starvation of babies. That is Hamas. Not Israel, not the US, not you, not me. Only the Islamic fundamentalists are deranged enough to believe that the death of their own children is a good thing. You just keep repeating a bunch of points that imply that Israel is somehow intentionally starving people. They have done more in this war to protect the civilians of their enemy population than any organization, the United States included, has ever done in the history of humanity. There is not a single example that comes close. Considering your background, I surprised at your minimization of the unfathomable difficulty of distributing aid to a population who hates you, under the governance of a terrorist regime that is not only actively engaged in military combat against you, but has and continues to steal the aid in an effort to intentionally exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the hopes, sadly successful it seems, of convincing westerners that somehow Israel is in the wrong here. The Washington Post article does a remarkable job showing why the aid is so difficult to distribute, though it conveniently starts with Palestinian allegations, easily ignored, glosses over Egypt's regular to accept refugees, then covers the many different Palestinian factions that steal, riot, or refuse to distribute the aid. There are two countries with larger gdps than Israel, and nearly every country with more space and people, yet somehow these Muslim countries aren't responsible for the Muslim humanitarian crisis. It's Israel, the attacked, who are responsible. It would be nice if Israel wasn't fighting an enemy that used years and years of humanitarian aid repurposed as weaponry and used to construct defensive tunnels. Even the notion that Israel 's historical stance towards the Palestinians somehow created this mess is laughable. What were they going to do? Integrate the Palestinians into one country, immediately creating a majority voting block that openly calls for the immediate genocide of all Jews? Recognize Hamas in a two-state solution and solidify a militaristic terrorist government next door, with even more undeserved rights given to them by the UN? Do more is meaningless. Do better is meaningless. Saying this is somehow different, or a different time, without explaining exactly how, is meaningless. More Israeli participation in Gaza means more dead Israelis. Doing more or doing better means more dead Israelis. We incinerated tens of thousands of civilians to protect American lives. And we would do it again in a heartbeat if any country strapped GoPros to their chest and fucked the bleeding corpses of our wives and daughters. I'm not accusing you of supporting Hamas, or even the Palestinians. But this strange Western tendency to reflexively build moral equivalence between two diametrically opposed populations is being exploited by the real bad guys to continue on to the next rape or murder. And as unfortunate as decades or centuries of human history can be, the Israelis alive today should not have to sacrifice themselves because of what a bunch of dead people did decades ago. There are poor and hungry populations all over the world, but only certain ones are participants in a religious death cult that glorifies the shedding of blood, be it their own or their enemies, in the pursuit of eternal Paradise. Treating those civilians the same as civilians who believe in fundamental human rights and dignities is an immoral stance.

Honestly it was a ballsy move by Iran, if they had killed any US with the TBM strikes on IZ I think things would look different right now. The mood was lethal. When we had zero casualties (granted many folks had TBI) the decision was made to stand down. It could have easily gone the other way. Fun side note: since they destroyed our hangar with TBMs I used the event to clean up 5 years of property book shenanigans. Seriously, it was very beneficial. For anyone reading this: if your stuff ever gets destroyed by the enemy, seize the opportunity to do your unit a solid.

Another important distinction is that while losing Afghanistan, it wasn’t an existential threat so we had the luxury of pretending to avoid civilian casualties more than we actually did. So it’s pretty ridiculous that Biden has the nerve to try to tell Israel how to conduct war after losing two urban wars. The only one that we “won” was bombing every city block to exterminate ISIS. Hamas (and by proxy Iran) are an existential threat to Israel that embed themselves in the local population as shields. They’re honestly doing a great job limiting their impact to civilians. All the numbers are dubious in the news because it relies on what Hamas reports. Definitely trust those guys.

They really aren’t. CDE basically doesn’t exist. Now that said, they absolutely aren’t purposely targeting civs and I find little sympathy for the ton of civs there that actively support Hamas. And I do blame Hamas solely for putting legit mil targets purposely under/around/next to as many civs as possible. Could Israel do better, yes, but are they between a massive rock and a hard place, also yes.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that” Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

Of course! Just like the bread lines and literacy programs in Cuba were A GOOD THING (in my best Bernie Sanders accent). Sure. After various economic factors in the 1970s like oil shortages and the Carter administration we had an uphill battle. Reagan also accumulated ~$1T in debt (if I remember my numbers correctly). But you know what else he did? Spent that money to win the Cold War. A pretty good bargain if you ask me. I love the arbitrary standards we use to judge the economy. Remember when we used to call two consecutive quarters of negative growth a recession but then changed the definition of a recession so we didn't have one? Or when the cost of a 4th of July cookout was down $0.69 from the previous year? The economy *looks good* depending on how you look at The Numbers. My 401K, TSP, brokerage account, IRAs, and college savings did very well the last year or so (14-17% range for most of them). That's great. But I don't buy groceries, pay my utility bills, or my insurance premiums with that money. My family does well, my investments have done well, but I'll be damned if I don't see the difference in the amount of money I have left at the end of the month after I pay all the bills. And for your average American who lives just above the paycheck-to-paycheck threshold, its much worse. But again, The Numbers look good. If you're a wealthy family, The Numbers look even better, especially when inflation, scarcity, and real estate are less of a concern. But for Joe Blow who doesn't have the flexibility to invest when The Numbers look good, well, things aren't so good. That's not to mention the 35T national debt, Social Security going insolvent in a few years (according to its own Board of Trustees and the CBO), record credit card debt, and about 10 million illegals who will need education, housing, and healthcare while simultaneously driving down wages for working class Americans. I never bought too hard into the "party switch" of pre/post 1960s, but it certainly seems like we're in the midst of one now.

You remember where 1200+ Israelis were literally raped, tortured and murdered? Sorry but the hunger of the supportive population does not trump the security of the attacked population. Anything else would be an abdication of responsibility to the Israeli people. And a friendly fire accident is another regular feature of war. Sucks. We sure had our fair share. Unless you are arguing that the WCK convoy was intentional, then just saying "do better" is horseshit. Hamas could do better too. Everyone could do better. Lets make this useful and say how many dead Israeli soldiers are a fair exchange for how many dead Palestinian "civilians." Until then it's just sideline commentary. The Palestinians have a government, that's who should be worried about their hunger and safety. Instead it is up to Israel to move hundreds of thousands of people who cheered the rape and torture of their wives and daughters so the terrorist psychopaths they are protecting can be hunted and killed. But sure. Do better. Funny how the standard is always "do better" up to and past the point that the objective can no longer be accomplished. And how many of those were sheltered over or around the many varieties of Islamic militants? Subtract those. How many were storming the border fences or checkpoints? Subtract those. How many were civilians killed as the primary target, not collateral damage in response to direct attacks on Israel? That's the more relevant number. Once again, do you believe we were wrong for Hiroshima? Dresden? Because we did blockade Japanese oil, and most of Europe made Germany into a pariah state after WWI. Holistically is a cop-out. There is a line between geopolitical competition and outright acts of war. Hamas, not Israel, started this war, to the cheering of their poor, hungry population. It is Israel's responsibility to it's people to end the threat. When Israel starts raping Palestinians, bombing apartments, or dumping humanitarian aid into the sea to "make a point," then we will have the beginning of a basic equivalence. They are humans with free will. Yes, pawns. Yes exploited. So too was every population in history that eventually found their way to peace and freedom. And they elected Hamas in 2006. Hamas has since taken total control, but since when did Americans decide that populations are no longer responsible for their destiny? Once again, how many Israelis should die to save the lives of people who want Jewish blood in the streets more than they want their children to eat or survive? Americans and Westerners have a really tough time understanding religious fanaticism. When death is a reward for killing your enemies, you can't freedom and compassion your way to changing hearts and minds. How we haven't learned this after the last 20 years is mystifying.

Your Air Force dreams are dead statistically. You have three priorities now: Rack up hours for your airline application (fill the app out now and keep it updated every month). Start learning about the airline application process. Make damn sure you don't get promoted on the second look. You are forever a second class officer now. Some escape the gravity of a late promotion, most do not. Going to PIT should be a great way to not get promoted. Failing a PT test will guarantee it 😅 Prepare yourself mentally, financially, and logistically for a life outside of the AF. Where do you want to live? Do you know how civilian investing works? Are you ready to live lean for a while until your next career starts paying well? If you don't want to be an airline pilot, then you need to start networking aggressively. Spend the next year finding people who work in the field you're interested in and learn everything you can from them. We have people here who can speak to that world, I only know the airlines. As for airline hiring, I think we are possibly in a phase where the people hired today will be furloughed in a year or two. Maybe. Doesn't matter. Being furloughed means no airline apps to maintain and most importantly, no flying currency to worry about while you work outside of the industry. When hiring restarts, you get called back, no questions asked. Your airline will pay for your training and re-currency, which will put you in a spot to change airlines if you desire. This is part of the reason why you always take the first airline job you're offered. Good luck, and feel free to ask questions.

Well said. It's a sad thing, but our modern concept of urban warfare and being able to solve these problems without massive human casualties is a pipe dream - and honestly, Hamas' strategy takes direct advantage of the fact that it's a pipe dream. Someone else said it best, which was that Hamas gave Israel two bad choices. Israel is making the less bad choice. People who honestly think there's a good way out of this are deluding themselves. The entire population of Gaza is will likely need to be displaced in order to solve this conflict. That's a sad thing to confront, but it is what it is, and it's not Israel's fault.

Are helo pilots naturally more creative, or something? Those patches are better than all the others posted on here…Skid marks cracked me up.

It is a giant shitshow, no idea what they are thinking. New AD did a magnificent job with NIL but this makes no sense. You guys beat us in a baseball thriller last night, play again tonight and tomorrow.

For those who say the President has no say in the price of gas/fossil fuels. Thanks Biden. “Minimum lease bonds will soar to $150,000 under the new rules from $10,000 -- a level unchanged since 1960. Royalty rates will rise to 16.67% from 12.5%, and the minimum amount companies can bid at oil and gas auctions will increase to $10 an acre from $2. The rental rate for a 10-year lease will double to $3 an acre for the first two years, eventually rising to $15 per acre in the final years. The fees can be adjusted for inflation after 10 years.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-finalizes-higher-fees-for-oil-and-gas-companies-on-federal-lands/ar-BB1lwNYC

True, I didn't think of that. So in that event, I'd recommend probably write the letter to get the 2nd FOS to a 99.9% certainty.

Anyone watch FBI Director Wray's testimony yesterday on renewing FISA? "A coordinated attack on the U.S. is likely." He tried to say it without saying it, the border has let a lot of bad actors in and we are about to reap the outcome. The administration is now signalling Biden will come out with an executive order the end of April on the border so he can claim he fixed it...even though he has been saying he doesn't have that power for the past three years.

Of course I know 1200 1410 Israelis have been killed since this latest conflict started, many more since 1948. At no point have I ever said "the hunger of the supportive population does not trump the security of the attacked population", AT NO POINT. The safety and security of Israel should come first, I have never wavered from that. However, you seem to be arguing Israel has no choice but to starve the population in order to defeat Hamas. If that is true why not advocate to take a flamethrower to the 68 refugee camps and end this once and for all? Lets just burn them all so there will never be another generation to fight Israel. Total victory right, Machiavelli for all my friends! Of course the WCK convoy was not intentional. Fratricide is a horrible outcome of war, having been personally brought up (and exonerated), on charges I might have a reasonable understanding of the implications. I do not believe we were wrong, but this is a different situation and a different time. Starving 68 refugee camps is not the same as trying to get a nation state to capitulate. Dropping Nukes on Japan saved countless American lives and likely saved many Japanese lives as well. You seem to be caught up in equivalence..."well johnny did it to me so I am gonna do worse to Johnny"...no. And lets be VERY clear, I have never said don't attack and clear Rafah, that must happen, but I am willing to bet there is a nuanced way to accomplish that goal. Obviously you are intelligent and I don't mean this to be an insult..I don't know your career background or MDS, but I am guessing it is/was support and you've never been on the kinetic front end, you've never killed someone, let alone hundreds of people. Turning humans into hamburger is not a puss game, I stopped counting when I got to 700. I have ZERO regrets, they were all bad people that meant harm to do harm to America and out Allies. That being said, I have zero desire to kill babies...if you think that is cool and just part of war, they have free will, good for you, whatever keeps you warm at night. I will always believe we are better than that and can find a way to defeat/destroy HAMAS without starving a bunch of innocent babies. Sadly, I have seen people like this in person. We are trained professionals who will execute combat to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, but that doesn't mean you have to trade your humanity in the process. That is what I have been trying to say by "do better." We have gone to EXTRAORDINARY lengths to limit CDE, that is NOT what I am talking about. All I am saying is in 2024 we can probably help find a way to defeat/destroy HAMAS, protect Israeli soldiers and civilians without starving a bunch of babies.

Disagree, I think Israel is doing good WRT CDE considering they actually need to win. They haven't leveled Gaza which is exactly what we did in Kobani. what precisely should they do differently? "Do better" is feedback I've received alot in life and I must say, it's unhelpful. Again, can you give an example of a war won while respecting/protecting civilians against an enemy who does neither? And given our own track record, are we really in position to be giving advice of how to win?

FlightSafety just got approved for Skillbridge and that includes our sim IPs.

Here's a bunch from Rucker

I took this photo on a visit to CBM back in 2014. Notice how lame and monochromatic my class patch looks compared to the colorful and clever themes from other classes! The one one the right was Class 87-05, the patch said, “The Need for Speed” Top Gun had just premiered a week or so before they designed their patch.

Not a Class Patch. My regular C-141 squadron patch on the left, the 18th MAS “Blue Diamonds. the one on the right was the first SOLL II crew at McGuire, so we kept the same theme, but with our Grim Reaper motif..

My Class Patch, perhaps the most boring annd uninspired ever designed. I can draw decently, so I was tasked to come up with some designs. I like heavy metal music and came up with about 5 other patch designs, one with Van Halen’s “Light Up the Sky” as a theme. My lame classmates chose this one, the worst of the bunch! Then the guy who was tasked with getting them made chose a bargain basement company who only offered a few colors, he thought he did us a favor by saving money!,,The one on the right was another I designed in 1991, for a Special Ops crew I was on. Metallica’s Black Album was big at the time, so “Sleep with one eye Open” from Enter Sandman was perfect. The Grim Reaper was our mascot..

I know, I know, two seasoned veterans having a serious discussion about ethics and yes, innocents dying is legitimately never good and it's a tough situation...but all I keep hearing is:

I'll go in pieces: Israel is not starving anyone. Hamas is. It's not Israel stopping the aid, it's the complete absence of anyone to receive and distribute it. Because Hamas wants more dead Palestinians. They have stolen aid for years, and continue to do so. Those deaths are irrelevant because they have nothing to do with Israel. Because as you are pointing out, what matters is how you wage the war. What does not matter is how many innocent civilians die as a result. You wage the war ethically, and that's all you can do. Especially in this situation where civilian deaths are specifically being used as a countermeasure to Israeli attempts to destroy Hamas, arguing that the arbitrary number of deaths is somehow relevant is literally playing into their strategy. You seem to have bought the Hamas narrative that Israel is starving the Palestinians. Nonsense. Sure, but that's global policy anywhere and anytime. It's not like the Allies didn't have culpability for isolating Germany and turning it into a pariah state. That ended up with World war II, but we still killed a fuck ton of Nazis. The dirt on their hands arguments is always used to draw a moral equivalence between the two belligerents in a war. But there is no moral equivalence here. Israel has never done what Hamas did, and by any rational account would never do what Hamas did. Hamas not only did it, but the vast majority of their population celebrated it. Anyone who has even the slightest difficulty understanding who the good guys and who the bad guys are in this war, and I'm not saying that's you, has no place in the discussion. Ultimately you have to base your judgment of a society on what they do, and what they proclaim. Based on this, I choose 100,000 dead Palestinians today over 100,000 dead Jews over time. I would rather neither, but not all civilians are equal, because not all countries are equal, and not all cultures are equal. Hamas was chosen by and supported by the Palestinians. At a certain point the population has to be responsible for the type of country they create. Again, that doesn't mean you have a green light to intentionally Target civilians. But that's not what's happening, and that's not what I questioned from your first post. The number of dead civilians does not serve as the measure for whether a war is fought ethically. There would be a whole hell of a lot fewer deaths if Hamas didn't purposefully put their military targets under and around civilians. And our long-standing rules of engagement allow for killing those civilians. Doesn't make it fun, but it doesn't make it unethical either.

Because we, and by extension, Israel, are better than that. To defeat Hamas you likely don't have to starve a bunch of kids to death. War is ugly, Total War is even uglier. Using your logic why we just green flag Israel to drop a nuke on Rafah and get it over nice, clean and quick. We were pretty upset after 9/11 but I didn't see us firebombing cities in Afghanistan. Innocents died, but we at least tried to be measured in our response and we most certainly did not purposely starve a population that was supporting the Taliban. Hamas started the current fight but I hope you are not so Naive as to think Israel has no dirt on their hands. I FULLY support Israel and their right to exist. I do not support Hamas in any way, shape, or form but Israel has also done some shitty things to the Palestinians through the years in the name of "survival". An actively supportive population is a very shallow argument given the living conditions, most have not choice. Not an excuse, but certainly a consideration.

I can think of a thousand random courses that the Air Force makes guys go to that are worthless. If a guy/gal thinks they can get through it, I can't think of a better use of time/money for someone who is motivated and wants to do it. It's the military after all regarldess of service. Spent some time up at Dahlonega working spin up with some teams. Stayed in the cadre dorms and hung out at the instructor bar there. Was a great time. One of the school candidates asked us at chow one morning if we could go find a replacement leatherman for him as he lost it and was going to be in a world of hurt. Said he'd pay us $50 for our trouble 🙂 Quick trip downtown one night and got him his $13 leatherman. Hopefully he made it through.

This has been argued at the end of each and every saeculum. You think our differences are more polarized than say, the build up to the civil war? You think the abuses of wealth and power exceed the 1920's? I don't. I think it requires enough of a time gap that the people we could be asking about the differences, if there are any, are dead. They could give us, as a population, the perspective needed to keep from repeating the cycle. But that's exactly why it's a cycle. Because those who lived through it are no longer around, no longer in charge, so we now *have* to experience it for ourselves. Because we have not gone through what the previous generation went through that created the America we long for today. But we will, and if we win the war, again, then we will have another 80ish years of American unity and strength, at which point our great-grandkids will have holodeck arguments about how America is collapsing and it will never be the same again.

Congrats, brother. Seriously. The Air Force itself is struggling to navigate a rapidly changing world and it doesn't appear to be doing a very good job. It thinks it doesn't want you because you haven't performed all the ridiculous requirements to make rank. We have a failing foreign policy, and at some point in the near future, you're going to be caught up in it. If you were to make Maj, you'd be eligible for more non-flying BS with more responsibility and zero ability to affect any change. Happiness is a trajectory, not a position. Is making Maj really going to put you on an upward vector where you'll continuously find increasing satisfaction with your life? You may think so, because I did, but it's only because you've normalized and become accustomed to military life. You can now identify a point in the future where you will have near unlimited possibilities. You'll be young, have received millions of dollars in training in education, an outstanding resume, and the freedom to choose your own path. No one but you will care if you got passed over. I left AD AF as a Captain under a VSP program. One of my best decisions. I did go back to the Guard, which I enjoyed for a while, but then felt trapped to stay in because I was close to the retirement bennies. But having the ability to determine your own future outside the AF is a gift with a bow on it. Now you can just fly and give the finger to all the other AF careerist pressures. If you do go to the Guard/Reserve, they'll pick you up once passed over no problem. Twice passed over requires a big waiver (or at least it once did).

The WB-57F was recently used for the 2024 Solar Eclipse as well. They flew in a two ship formation at an altitude of over 50,000 ft using a special multi camera setup to catch the corona in different wavelengths.

Whoa, whoa... what the fuck, friend?

Depends on what she looks like.

pounding a tweet just sounds right pounding a texan not so much

Vance 22-12.