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Russia is and has been a threat to US interests since 1945 (maybe 1918?). China is a bigger threat right now, but if you're fighting two guys at once and one falls to a knee, it isn't time to ignore them, it is time to stomp their face so they are out of the fight for a long time allowing you to focus on the other guy. Is it expensive to fund Ukraine? Yes. Are we getting a way better return on that money compared to much of the other junk we burn our national treasure on? Absolutely. This is another Russia in Afghanistan scenario except the "good guys" aren't Islamic terrorists. We'd be foolish to walk away from this opportunity to spend some money and help an enemy bleed themselves out. Way better to defeat an enemy via a proxy war than face them directly in a war yourself. And that doesn't even address the good of helping a free people defend themselves.

These blanket pardons should turn the stomach of every citizen. Absolutely disgusting.

milley is a disgrace to the uniform. and a fat fuck.

The left and the power structure associated with it knows that the truth will come out. And it’ll be sooner than later. Pardons don’t prevent investigations or info from being released they just prevent charging someone for their crimes. Let the truth come out. All of it. We just witnessed the most destructive 4 years in our nations history, politically speaking. Today it all changes. Let’s get to work rebuilding this nation.

Disgusting.

I posted in the "The Next President Is..." thread, but if Milley accepts the pardon, the admission of guilt is included in it. He shouldn't accept the pardon if he's not guilty of anything...if he or any of the pardoned do, you legally can say "Confessed criminal Gen (ret) Mark Milley" every time you refer to him. Again, I'm not a lawyer nor stayed at a holiday inn last night...

Pathetic.

*yawn* more sophistry. I'm already on record, I only timestamp these rants on the interboobs so the forensics can go back in 10 years and go "yep, we knew". We've been through this all the way back to 2018 fam; it is a dilution of quality, definitionally. Tell your bosses to put down the hopium pipe and grow a back bone, and tell their SES overlords at the Puzzle palace to tell SecAf no buck no buck rogers. Kids need new MILITARY trainers and hours with their brain behind their ass at .7M+ and no automation, herbie drivers too. I was a CFII before I touched a single military airplane, let alone instructed in one; I can speak 61/141/135/121/one-WGAF. I was also in academia before the military; I know ballwash pseudointellectual fodder for paper degree issuance when I read it. Hell, I used to teach it! 😄 To the degree which civ-only folks don't understand the historical rigor behind undegraduate USN/USAF military aviator accessions and initial traning, it is also true that many mil-only folks really don't understand the quality control morass that is 141 (forget 61). I won't rehash the dissertation on here, the BLUF is that abrogating our military pilot accessions to 141 is to admit defeat. Considering the US record as a combat operational loss leader for the past 50 years, I guess losing at pilot training is par for the course too. Empire in decay, happens to the best of 'em I guess. Honestly, I'd be more on board if they just cut the shit and 1) admitted they can't effectively lobby Congress for more cowbell for the UPT enterprise, and 2) admitted they have to send it to the civilian prop schools just to pad the logbook with negative transfer hours of little import. Heck, by that cockeyed COA's order of merit alone, again just cut the shit and go full up MPL (Euro standard, sim only) for your copilots (3/4 of pilot accessions for the USAF) and put their money where their mouth is. Padding the 141 with excess federal pork is the only thing this will accomplish anyways. Excess crew deaths down the line in grey jet initial/continuation training are on them though, not on us dinosaurs "getting in the way".

Indeed. It doesn't even have an internal ladder. And isn't stressed to be able to hang a ladder on the side, a la T-38. Nice job, Boeing. The T-50 was the obvious choice. But no... couldn't award another contract to Lockheed.

I was flying my plane home from a trip today, at 1203 Guard came alive "We have been unburdened by what has been"...then EVERYONE jumped in...not a single negative comment.

BFM, not normal at all. The optics for Biden's legacy is terrible. It's almost as though he's trying to drive has approval ratings to zero. Maybe he's doing it to punish the DNC for dumping him. Or, maybe he had no idea what he was signing...his family members probably offered him an ice cream cone if he'd just sign on the dotted line.

yabut the capitalization malfeasance is the elephant in the room here, and should have been congressionally investigated decades ago. Who are we kidding, it's Congress the one fometing it in the first place. At any rate, you can't handwave that away just because one thinks you have to coddle these careerists' balls in order to get anywhere. This entire situation could have been solved decades ago with COTS solutions that don't impact national security. But industry is a grift machine, and they get in the way every time. Our Country has turned (especially since the 2020 M2 theft, some could argue TARP in '08 was the first mask off moment) into merely a trans-national Economic Zone for arbitrage and exploitation; our Nationhood strikes me as specious these days if I'm being honest. The T-7 dumpster fire is not the bug, it's the FEATURE. A cohort of people, civilians (veterans even) with very little skin in the game otherwise, are getting paid very well for that thing to fail upwards, is my point. Meanwhile the rest of the world laughs at our worn-out infrastructure. Attempting to distract with "psychology of learning" sophistry will not get us to where need to be. You mention not dismissing COAs out of hand. Care to ask that of these uniformed politicians? They sure have a penchant for shooting down COAs left and right, even cost-neutral ones. The biggest one being retention as a stated goal. Nope, never that. Rather surrender to Putin than allow the chatel any discretion in how they keep their home life intact while doing what 99% of the civilian US population deems an occupational choice only fit for "suckers" or economic refugees/people without a better option. 1x addtl base worth of production. That's it. Could even make it a tenant wing of an existing installation (Moody) and still get there. But that requires COTS on the capital + homesteading/QoL/$-equivalent incentives on the personnel side. The T-7 is a poison pill to that COA, as are the whiny competing MAJCOMS that bitch about production and quality control, but won't pay their share of the bill either. I can already hear the shrieking by the FTUs over remediatory training if and when this brain dead idea of future regional pilots setting the military flying fundamentals is ever allowed out of the lab in Wuhan. And they'll try to blame PIT/UPT IPs for that too. *shrugs* I prefer not meeting fiscal end-strength manning, over fraticide in the name of political expedience. Call me a bleeding heart. I'll close out my comments on this thread by adding that, as I round out my sanctuary zone into check of the month IDGAF land, that's really my only personal COA left: try to impart as much flying life hacks onto these kids before they get sent over with not enough hours and air sense as I was afforded. To each their own and all that shit, good luck to all. Cheers.

LOL that didn’t last long.

I'm curious, and a first swing with the Google machine yielded few results: That's quite a few pardons for people never charged. Is this normal? Just something that we haven't heard of because it wasn't newsworthy? How many times has this happened in the past? I know that Presidents sign a lot of pardons in the 11th hour of their term, but what percentage are for uncharged individuals?

The facts can only be laid out for you so many times.

I hope Hegseth puts some real effort into restructuring our acquisitions process. That could pay huge dividends for decades to come if done right.

Yup. It's also funny (not funny) that he is doing this because he fear the weaponization of the judicial system. Wow...

An airplane already flying and in production…but instead we got a paper airplane.

A lot of folks on this forum have been saying this for a long time, but the apologists hated Trump so much they spent the last four years in the notch with Biden. It was obvious....beyond obvious but you attacked anyone who mentioned it and pivoted back to your hate of the Orange Man. Some in the press tried to report it and they were quickly given the body check and put in the corner. Biden is a demented old man, he didn't even know he signed an executive order freezing liquid natural gas exports, he denied it just weeks after signing it. SHAME on his wife and SHAME on the Ivy league inner circle that wanted to retain power. For at least the last year, likely longer, a group of people who were not elected have been running this country. Biden will retire to Delaware and I predict we will quietly hear of his rapid decline which actually started years ago. In one final act of lunacy Biden just pardoned Fauci, Milley and the Jan 6 Committee show members.

Either UPT or IPT to T-6 completion then on to your heavy FTU. No more T-1 sims. B-52s go back and forth. Right now I believe they're back to fighter/Bomber track but we had a few guys in some T-1 classes as recently as 2023 that dropped BUFFs.

Valid, but to throw them a bone, how many line IPs are overruled by someone above them when it comes to grading accurately, shutdown when they provide candid opinions on a below average student, etc. Also how many line IPs are grossly inexperienced for the job they’re charged to do, thus through uncertainty, fear of leadership reprisal, or both, they grade inaccurately. It’s not an excuse for all the bullshit inflated grades out there, but the problem is more complex than simply “line IPs are pussies and not holding the line!”

Just got done with SOS, my pilot buddies were telling me once T1s are completely phased out heavies and tankers are going straight to their FTU after T6s. b52s are still under T38 track… but mind you there was a memo published few months ago that is voluntary/involuntarily letting t38 students track heavies/tankers.

You don't say.. Here I was thinking you just like to crack open a thesaurus when you started typing a post.

Hook 'em All!! ☠️🏴‍☠️

My sister-in-law and family lost their home in the first day of the Palisades fire along with the majority of their neighborhood. The pictures were wild: house reduced to rubble and car melted into a heap but trees and bushes still had green leaves. It sent me down a rabbit hole about wildfire behavior and prevention. This article sums up most everything about "defensible space" and what catches fire from embers - especially the test video. Now imagine that with 50+ mph winds https://theconversation.com/how-to-protect-your-home-from-wildfires-advice-from-fire-prevention-experts-on-creating-defensible-space-233847

This picture sums up everything. Most corrupt administration in history.

I’m not making excuses for anyone. Just highlighting there’s more to the problem than “well these guys are just little bitches not wanting to rock the boat/hurt their next assignment/piss Bob off.” That of course does describe some out there, but I don’t think that’s the overarching RC.

Many and many. 60-70% are FAIPs who barely get any planned CT, and see most of the Stans they hooked come back from the 88/89/CR process. And yeah, grade inflation is certainly a thing...and even worse now that it's T-6 direct to FTU. No more phase 3 to help train most new LTs. The only potential upside for quality with these ideas is that the Lts will have some more hours when they graduate. Most are graduating now with ~120-130hrs, when my group had 200-220. I'm not a better student than the kids now, but I got more training...

Mentally most Navs are further behind than the back of the refueling envelope, so, really, we’re all being generous.

You just couldn’t help yourself, could you? https://newrepublic.com/post/190275/donald-trump-vivek-ramaswamy-senator

Five feet? I think it’s a safe bet most of you have never been in a KC-135 cockpit.

I actually just got back from Laughlin. After T-6 you will do a T-1 sim syllabus and then go to your MWS. Later on down the road they are looking to just send pilots to their heavy FTU immediately after T-6. All B1/2/52 slots are through T-38’s.

I knew a few guys from previous YGs who took the bonus then went to UPT with me. Obviously this was a few years ago and things have changed but it might not be something that would stop you from getting released.

The US has completely mismanaged the forest. That is very obvious. the Marshall fires in co were from dry grasslands. But there was a 3 yr period where everything in co was on fire. After the Marshall fires my wife wanted to leave the state. It was the final nail after all the bs in that state. Many suspect It was eco terrorism to push the global warming agenda but you’re right…..we are allowing ppl to live in high danger areas then expecting insurance to cover it. i agree with an above post that insurance will dictate building codes to help mitigate loss. I just read about the architecture of a home that survived in palisades. The material and design all made the home survive. But what do u do when nobody wants to live in states like Ohio.

I lived next to superior CO in 2021 when the Marshall fires raged through that area. It’s near boulder. we had sustained winds over 60 with gusts over 100 mph. The front range was drier than Death Valley that year. this fire was only a day but torched over 1k homes. Not saying there shouldn’t be criticism but fires like this you really can’t stop. It’s really hard to explain just how fast they move. Imo they could have had 10x the fire trucks but it wouldn’t have done much good. Everything still would have burned.

You'll never be able to make personal/moral appeals to these political appointees. Besides, Congressional pork is higher than even their pay grade. That out of the way, let's address that "shitting on" stray bullet you threw in there. If you're talking about my criticisms, you can tone-police my delivery all you want. That's just "Tuesday" in my life/put it on my tab type of thing. The point is that the premise behind all that pick-me coding, hoop-jumping passed as "innovation", is that you can't lobby for the money for the proven solution in the first place. Don't get it twisted, and let me bold the answer for the reading comprehension challenged, as I see the question of root cause keeps popping up. The ENTIRE COA is couched on the private knowledge that the enterprise has been so undercapitalized for so many decades, they can't meet production quotas. And that became an inconvenient boo boo when the airlines stopped sucking again for a fart and a half after 14 years of constipation. Period end of story. Rest of their pitch is as I said, sophist ballwash, I don't care what overpaid cRafT contractor, or civilian 121 job chasing, lawnmower-time builder that offends. Again, for the johnny come lates in the back: This isn't about "efficiency". That's just a bullshit plausible deniable premise that keeps polyannas appeased, and which powerless Generals glob onto as a notch until they can get their revolving door NoVA civilian follow-on. What this is about, is Exodus 5 (vers 6-9, no shit). It's so obvious to the peanut gallery, even illiterate Bronze age goat herders managed to finger paint it on a book of effin' parables JFC. Pun very much intended. 😄 So with all due respect as I sincerely enjoy your brainstorming sessions on here, spare me the ingénue "we just trying to train the kids here man" all-hands-on-deck pep rally. These are politicians (yes, even the uniformed ones) working from a position of dishonesty and career self-dealing; these are not honest-broker problem solvers. Go get mad at them for not having a spine. Don't cast me a malcontent just because I display umbrage about unnecessary O-2/3 deaths at the altar of quality control dilution and political expediency, while being told I'm part of the problem for demanding no more resources than what was afforded to me when I was in those now dead O-2's flying experience position.

copy putin wants to maintain his influence in his sphere. kind of like we do. none of that is a threat to our national security interests. you wrote nothing about putin wanting to keep invading west until he hits the atlantic ocean. crimea has been historically russian. no problem with them taking that. thankfully trump will find a end to this dumbass involvement we've done. meanwhile the REAL threat to US interests is lurking in the pacific.

IF (big IF) syllabus design and quality stan/eval are good for the civilian portion, this could work. It does give stan more flight hours than the current syllabus (which is a definite good, in my book).

What in the TikTok gen z did you do?

A FAIP as SECAF. Dear God…

Heads up for anyone going the Fidelity CMA route. I do still highly recommend it, but make sure you push any transfers from the bank currently holding your funds. Don't pull the funds out of your current account from the Fidelity side. They're putting some stupid long (~3 week) holds on any money pulled in from outside. There's no extended hold on money pushed to them.

Ha, The League is great: https://youtu.be/5ApSY_qjgrY

I miss flying but I really miss mountain flying in helos. The dudes fighting fire from the air have the best job on Earth.

Awesome! I just lost an hour looking at all the other photos that thing has taken. When people ask, can the government really see that from space, I'll refer them to this site. Then let them know that this is just what a civilian company has access to lol.

Haha. What's more embarrassing for you? Announcing to everyone that you're quitting the forum, or being too weak to actually do it?

Four nights ago, Beale did the Monday Night Football flyover at Levi Stadium. Challenging airspace, to say the least, and led by a young ex T-6 FAIP who is a brand new flight lead. This is how it is done. Perfection IMG_1720.mov Edit: forgot to mention... 58 and 60 year old A-models, with an iPad and a stopwatch

yeah ok. my argument is valid and will be proven correct with hindsight. carry on NPC