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Ngl I was debating turning down ABM. Very glad I didn't after being offered the CSO slot. Things work out in the end!

Gangnam style!

Sigh. Okay, I'll pretend you guys are as dumb as you're pretending to be. Right. So, from the article posted: This is what we call "lying." The official knows damn well that the database hasn't been finalized, because everyone (yes, including you) knows that pictures of the Enola Gay aren't going to be deleted (intentionally). However, a stupid person might not engage their frontal lobe and realize that if you are on a quest to purge the DOD of a decade or so of intersectional nonsense, and you were going to do it in 2025 when you have this neat technology called a "search engine," you would probably search for key words that are heavily associated with DEI initiatives, collect the results into a "database," then go through the database to pick the content that will in fact be deleted. A military officer with the cognitive capacity of a rhesus monkey would realize that the people in charge of this process would definitely search for the word "gay" and get a bunch of DEI nonsense, with, you guessed it, some pictures of the Enola GAY mixed in. But of course, "the official said it’s not clear if the database has been finalized," so until the Enola Gay is actually deleted from the DOD history books, why don't you guys stop acting even dumber than you are and just chill the fuck out. Nah babygirl, you're just so lost in the media-induced desolation over the surprise-domination of the Trump candidacy that you are clinging to anything that feeds your intense desire to have your fears justified. And what would be a more justified fear than watching the history of WWII erased? But just like the Russian pee tape, the not-a-chinese-lab origin of COVID, the Hunter's-laptop-is-fake story, and so many other too-good-to-be-true progressive fever dreams, this one was obviously a nonsense story put out by a desperate journalist feeling completely helpless to stop the erasure of the last 20 years of progressive change. You aren't out, and we both know it. You need this place because you need somewhere to scream into the abyss, but you don't want anyone to know it's you when you do it. It's not a coincidence that all the progressives/liberals/never-trumpers are coming back now that the Boogey Man is back in office.

I have a full stamped FC1. I skipped WPAFB because I did it when I commissioned 8 years ago. lol.

sounds like the BP was much better at apprehending people under Biden 💅

Believing anything published by the AP would be the same as taking the Babylon Bee seriously.

Is anyone surprised the organization that made people take photos of their wives off of desks would also over-react here? The DoD only knows bang-bang control logic.

How many helo dudes did she cheat on you with? Where's Biff..

Oh look aircraft availability is in the toilet, better give billions more to Israel and Ukraine. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/03/06/air-force-aircraft-readiness-plunges-to-new-low-alarming-chief/

You were right! This goes against everything I’ve been told over the last couple years. But I’m stoked more people are getting the chance at their dream!

UPT select! First time applicant. 98 Pilot, 98 PCSM, #1 at Wing, and no PPL. RPP attendee. Just received my assignment. Headed to Columbus! RNLTD 16 JUN. Start 25 JUL. Grad 21 DEC. I’m not sure where I’ll be going for IPT.

"You see brue roof?" "Yes, I see 1000 blue roofs." "Ughhhh....brue roof not your targhet."

Funny, I was an ABM select and got notified the 5th about an open CSO spot.

"My bad" - Korean Viper Pilot

I went round and round with a Korean ground FAC trying to talk me onto a target. He kept asking me to identify a Yankee in the road. I can't find anything remotely related to U.S. equipment. After numerous "Negative contact on the Yankee in the road", he comes back with "Yankee in road, you know, Y." So, important safety tip, if war breaks out in Korea, do not stand on a blidgee or a Y intersection.

Just so everyone is on the same page. This is a continuation of a previous cut, right? So spending cuts are required to prevent a tax increase. While increasing the deficit and saying you're decreasing it. Anyways Continue flinging poop at each other boys!

That bridgeee not your target.

You’re funny. Someone’s team lost? It was the pilot´s wife’s name. History down the toilet. Those that might actually have some input to the decisions the affect our service shrug their shoulders. If anyone actually cared, they should just delete the whole damn thing and save everyone some time. Don’t worry about sorting thru it. Another waste of resources. They should just take the PA guys, and turn them into maintainers. That would be better for the force. I’m out, really out. Good luck.

Imagine being “on the team” that has to pretend the Enola Gay is offensive. Sounds very snowflake-ish, doesn’t it?

Imagine pretending like you care that a bunch of government social media posts are going to be deleted. Seriously guys, if you really cared this much you'd be doing a hell of a lot more than posting about it online. It just feels better to be angry that your team lost instead of sad that your team lost. Take a breather. Go pet a cat, or enjoy a sunrise. These people aren't spending one second thinking about you, stop spending so much of your precious time thinking about them.

If you only read those articles you referenced, I see how you take it as overwhelming evidence of western involvement and therefore the "coup" happened only because the west directed it. Yet, a few issues with these... First article: Its an opinion piece written by Seumas Milne. Among many questionable views he has is this beauty from 2006: In a 2006 Guardian article, Milne argued: "For all its brutalities and failures, communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality. It encompassed genuine idealism and commitment ... Its existence helped to drive up welfare standards in the west, boosted the anticolonial movement and provided a powerful counterweight to western global domination. I dunno, but I might disagree with this author's take on world events. If you agree with his take, then the downfall of the Soviet Union was a net negative for the US and Reagan was wrong to tell Gorby to tear down his wall. Second article: no proof in that that the US/West directed the "coup". Third article: this one was more thought provoking but yet still leaves doubts as to the ground truth of who really made the "coup" happen. For example, per the Rand study here, Putin immediately started the Crimean operation within days of the "coup". What are the chances the Russian military (so famous for its centralized control, decentralized execution...I kid) was able to pull that off within days without a whole lot of planning? Lessons from Russia's Operations in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine | RAND Guess we can agree to disagree on the 2014 "coup" in Ukraine. From the article I referenced: But the truth underlying the events of February 2014 is far more interesting: The preponderance of evidence suggests that it was Moscow itself that triggered Yanukovych’s departure in order to launch a pre-arranged Plan B—the invasion of Crimea and an engineered “uprising” in eastern Ukraine—after Moscow’s Plan A—a new treaty with a pliant government in Kyiv that placed it under Russia’s de facto control—was about to fail. Indeed, the timeline shows that preparations for Plan B were well underway before Yanukovych’s removal from office. All this, in turn, demonstrates that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans for Ukraine were far more predatory all along than merely preventing the country’s drift toward NATO, as many of Russia’s Western apologists contend. You can call this spin but I'm going with it as more than likely what actually happened especially seeing as how Putin has operated over the last few decades. Not to mention the famous quote of his that the fall of the Soviet Union was the worst geopolitical disaster in the history of the world. With that mindset, his main driving force is to recreate it and he can always use the threat of NATO to rally his people to get behind his efforts toward that effect. With that said, going to leave this argument at that from my end. Onto what the future holds: More solid analysis from the ISW on what's going on in Putin's nugget. Sure doesn't look like he wants Peace. Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 6, 2025 | Institute for the Study of War

Oh yeah? I give you the Rap God, Boomhauer.

Pic on Page 246. I modified the Ruger Marlin 357 SBL with hand guard and stock modifications. Made more sense with 357 revolvers lying around. I couldn’t bare to modify the Ruger Marlin 45-70 version when I received it since it was just too gorgeous = I ordered the 357 version and the quality with Ruger is even better than the original my friend has. Stay away from Remington versions it’s simply atrocious what they did to the Marlin name. Absolutely painful waiting for about three years while Ruger brought about 100 semi’s worth of equipment to their North Carolina facility to revive the brand, but definitely worth it… now.

Why should government civilian employees have some special luxury of not being let go when cuts need to be made?

Interesting. I was originally a CSO select and got bumped to UPT the next day after our Feb 4 date. I wonder if IPT has opened up some more slots that they need to fill, and grabbing some alternates was the easiest way for AFPC to accomplish that.

2 guys in my squadron who were alternates got word yesterday that they were selected. It's happening.

Sunday March 6, 1836 At midnight on March 6, 1836, Santa Anna's troops began moving into position for their planned attack of the Alamo compound. For several hours, the soldiers lay on the ground in complete darkness. About 5:30 A.M., they received the order to begin the assault. The massed troops moved quietly, encountering the Texian sentinels first. They killed them as they slept. No longer able to contain the nervous energy gripping them, cries of "Viva la Republica" and "Viva Santa Anna" broke the stillness The Mexican soldiers' shouts spoiled the moment of surprise... Inside the compound, Adjutant John Baugh had just begun his morning rounds when he heard the cries. He hurriedly ran to the quarters of Colonel William Barret Travis. He awakened him with: "Colonel Travis, the Mexicans are coming!" Travis and his slave Joe quickly scrambled from their cots. The two men grabbed their weapons and headed for the north wall battery. Travis yelled "Come on boys, the Mexicans are on us and we'll give them Hell! "Unable to see the advancing troops for the darkness, the Texian gunners blindly opened fire; they had packed their cannon with jagged pieces of scrap metal, shot, and chain. The muzzle flash briefly illuminated the landscape and it was with horror that the Texians understood their predicament. The enemy had nearly reached the walls of the compound. The Mexican soldiers had immediate and terrible losses. That first cannon blast ripped a huge gap in their column. Colonel José Enrique de la Peña would later write "...a single cannon volley did away with half the company of Chasseurs from Toluca." The screams and moans of the dying and wounded only heightened the fear and chaos of those first few moments of the assault. Travis hastily climbed to the top of the north wall battery and readied himself to fire; discharging both barrels of his shotgun into the massed troops below. As he turned to reload, a single lead ball struck him in the forehead sending him rolling down the ramp where he came to rest in a sitting position. Travis was dead. Joe saw his master go down and so retreated to one of the rooms along the west wall to hide. There was no safe position on the walls of the compound. Each time the Texian riflemen fired at the troops below, they exposed themselves to deadly Mexican fire. On the south end of the compound, Colonel Juan Morales and about 100 riflemen attacked what they perceived was the weak palisade area. They met heavy fire from Crockett's riflemen and a single cannon. Morales's men quickly moved toward the southwest corner and the comparative safety of cover behind an old stone building and the burned ruins of scattered jacales. On the north wall, exploding Texian canister shredded but did not halt the advance of Mexican soldiers. Cos's and Duque's companies, now greatly reduced in number, found themselves at the base of the north wall. Romero's men joined them after his column had wheeled to the right to avoid deadly grapeshot from the guns of the Alamo church. General Castrillón took command from the wounded Colonel Duque and began the difficult task of getting his men over the wall. As the Mexican army reached the walls, their advance halted. Santa Anna saw this lag and so committed his reserve of 400 men to the assault bringing the total force to around 1400 men. Amid the Texian cannon fire tearing through their ranks, General Cos's troops performed a right oblique to begin an assault on the west wall. The Mexicans used axes and crowbars to break through the barricaded windows and openings. They climbed through the gun ports and over the wall to enter the compound. General Amador and his men entered the compound by climbing up the rough-faced repairs made on the north wall by the Texians. They successfully breached the wall and in a flood of fury, the Mexican army poured through. The Texians turned their cannon northward to check this new onslaught. With cannon fire shifted, Colonel Morales recognized a momentary advantage. His men stormed the walls and took the southwest corner, the 18-pounder, and the main gate. The Mexican army was now able to enter from almost every direction. In one room near the main gate, the Mexican soldiers found Colonel James Bowie. Bowie was critically ill and confined to bed when the fighting began. The soldiers showed little mercy as they silenced him with their bayonets. The Texians continued to pour gunfire into the advancing Mexican soldiers devastating their ranks. Still they came. When they saw the enemy rush into the compound from all sides, the Texians fell back to their defenses in the Long Barracks. Crockett's men in the palisade area retreated into the church. The rooms of the north barrack and the Long Barracks had been prepared well in advance in the event the Mexicans gained entry. The Texians made the rooms formidable by trenching and barricading them with raw cowhides filled with earth. For a short time, the Texians held their ground. The Mexicans turned the abandoned Texian cannon on the barricaded rooms. With cannon blast followed by a musket volley, the Mexican soldiers stormed the rooms to finish the defenders inside the barrack. Mexican soldiers rushed the darkened rooms. With sword, bayonet, knife, and fist the adversaries clashed. In the darkened rooms of the north barrack, it was hard to tell friend from foe. The Mexicans systematically took room after room; finally, the only resistance came from within the church itself. Once more, the Mexicans employed the Texians' cannon to blast apart the defenses of the entrance. Bonham, Dickinson and Esparza died by their cannon at the rear of the church. An act of war became a slaughter. It was over in minutes. According to one of Santa Anna's officers, the Mexican army overwhelmed and captured a small group of defenders. According to this officer, Crockett was among them. The prisoners were brought before Santa Anna where General Castrillón asked for mercy on their behalf. Santa Anna instead answered with a "gesture of indignation" and ordered their execution. Nearby officers who had not taken part in the assault fell upon the helpless men with their swords. One Mexican officer noted in his journal that: "Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without complaining and without humiliating themselves before their torturers." Santa Anna ordered Alcalde Francisco Ruiz to gather firewood from the surrounding countryside and in alternating layers of wood and bodies the dead were stacked. At 5:00 o'clock in the evening the pyres were lit. In this final act, Santa Anna's "small affair" ended. On the thirteenth day of the siege, Santa Anna’s forces advanced toward the fort before the sun rose. Awakened by the sounds of Mexican soldiers shouting, “Viva Santa Anna,” the Texian defenders quickly returned to their positions on the walls. Travis and his slave Joe made their way to the north wall to coordinate artillery fire on the Mexican troops. On the third assault, those troops began breeching the north wall of the Alamo. Mexican soldiers, who had also captured the south and west walls, followed the retreating defenders into the Long Barrack where a final stand was made. Before the sun came up, the last defender had been killed.

How are you not getting the concept that a stronger foreign power can lose to a more committed group on their home turf? Did you miss the past 25 years?

i've told Huggy this, but when I was in HS back in the early 2000s I went to Oshkosh and met huggy! didn't know it at the time, but fast forward 20 years later and connected the dots when going thru old pictures and saw him standing in front of the t-38. kind of cool and small world type of thing.

To help with VID:

They have and do. Trump fired every single Biden appointed US Attorney. And before anyone gets upset and screams how terrible it is for King Trump to do that, Biden did the same thing four years ago. And Trump fired Obama's on his first term. And Obama did the same thing. Trump's first term showed him, and anyone that was paying attention, that the executive branch needs to clean house when a new President takes office as career bureaucrats and people that disagree with his agenda will actively sabotage the agenda from within. There's a reason the Constitution was amended to make the Vice President part of the Presidential ticket rather than the runner up. Turns out that people put their own agenda ahead of that of the President. Mass replacements typically haven't gotten very far down the food chain, but the principle is there and has been executed by both parties. It sucks for the people that get fired. I totally get that and feel bad for them. But at the same time, the government was not designed to be an employment service and has grown so much that it is unrecognizable from our Federal government 70 years ago. It needs to be cut. Unfortunately, some good guys that are genuinely doing good work for America will get caught in the cross fire. But the alternative is realistically to do nothing. Wikipedia claims that the US has a higher percentage of the work force in the public sector than four Western European countries. That's pretty crazy.

Performance data, at least in my slice of the DoD, is sent up through the channels weekly. "Pule checks," most likely don't need to happen weekly, which is the current guidance from the SECDEF. There's something more nefarious than that. As someone who signs timecards as a supervisor, I can promise that there are no "dead people" collecting paychecks in the DoD. If any employees' timecard is even remotely late by a day, my timekeeper is bitching at me to ensure it gets filled out, filled out, signed, and certified. My masters is in cybersecurity with a focus on AI/ML. I know what Elon is doing. He's been granted unfettered access to gobs of government data he can force feed into his Grok 3.0 AI. He's using the responses for Grok for it to conduct learning and validating with the data it's given and eventually create org charts of the entire government agencies. If people are using canned bullets and just swapping out the data points because they do the same job as multiple people, Grok could eventually recommend terminating positions it feels are "redundant." I'm willing to bet within 5-10 years Elon is going to somehow have a government-compatible AI to use for all governmental agencies, to include classified information compatibility. Why? Because privatization of the federal government is what the Trump Administration wants. Elon also wants to dismantle all the government agencies that give his companies grief, which is being pretty successful doing. "Create the venom to sell the antidote." I sent my five bullets in yesterday. I also encrypted my response. I received a curious response that the receiver of the email couldn't decrypt my email. Sounds like a problem for them.

Yup, I agree. I did modify 357 version and it works well.

I had some trouble opening the file so I did a little research and found that google stopped supporting a .kmz file on google maps. I ended up converting the file to google my maps and redesigning all the icons. I also simplified the base designation. I did not add any units to the map, however, I did add a few extra airplane colors to the icon selection so that anyone interested could go through and add all the heavy units. If you need more colors, let me know. The map is set up to be editable by anyone for now. This isn't my creation. Give xcraftllc all the credit. I just cleaned it up. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z6Qr1PclgDvM.kXWi2AP0X-xk&usp=sharing

Here's some additional info/video/etc: The two fighter jets mistakenly dropped their bombs outside the target area – the Seungjin Fire Training Field (AKA - Nightmare Range). https://www.twz.com/air/south-korean-f-16s-just-bombed-a-town-by-accident

I’ve been on here since the days when most of us left studentpilot.net lol, so if you want to start your own forum, then by all means, go ahead. On this issue, you’re just arguing for more government spending, shocking since you’re government employee. You made a claim, and I asked for specifics, and instead you posted a link…from the same government agency saying how many great things they’re doing. Call me skeptical, but I remember when government agencies were bragging about how well we were doing in Afghanistan and how well the Afghan military was doing. So yeah, I’m very skeptical of these kinds of government reports patting themselves on the back. Side notea—the few times I would check out the AmnNCO page on FB, I remember seeing quite a few enlisted members talking about how much better and smarter they they they were than the officers…so I’m not shocked by your comments, especially with the one saying how you thought most helo pilots were stupid lol. Fortunately the legacy airline I fly for thought a little differently.