Scooter14

No, I did not read the eDodo board. It figures. I'll shut up now, because there truly is no justice.

] On the flip side, don't make your SRO be a Nazi. I was bestowed with the honor as well. I never walked in saying "You know, I'm going to be a prick today..." but there were days where I was. If everything is all jacked up, you have to take charge. True, you have no "authority", but you are a Captain, and they are Lieutenants. If you flip for rank, you will always win. Never forget that. It sucks to have to pull rank on your peers, but a fact is a fact. It's not just a bigger paycheck. You are in a tough position when it comes to this: you are a student, but you hold the rank. You have to lead when it is necessary. Honestly, between being SRO and having a Marine Tweet Flt/CC, I learned more about how to lead and take care of your troops in those six months than I did in the 4 years of ROTC and 8 years of being on a crew prior to that.

Here's what it boils down to, in eqation format... Major > Cadet It doesn't matter how harsh he was, or how much of a dick he was. It's his perogative. Like a MSgt chewing a SrA's ass, or when you are on the carpet in front of your DO because you just left the secrets unattended, it's never fair. You sit there, and you take it. Why? Because it's the military. ***** all you want to your friends, but it won't do you any good. Like HD said, you reap what you sow.

Two countries divided by a common language...

I think we're all missing the point a bit here. IMHBAO, I think the issue was with the grieving mother's picture. It was a closeup of her in extreme grief. I share CH's view that this photo is intrusive and unnecessary. The rest of the photos are respectful, solemn, honest representations of the internment ceremony for Maj Gilbert, who gave his life for his nation. His family solemnly walking toward the site, the honor guard detail, BGen Jones presenting the flag to Troy's wife, all represent the ceremony in a dignified manner. I don't think anyone is trying to curtail anyone's freedoms, but the one photo of Troy's mom really served no purpose. You get the full story from the other seven photos, as well as the seven photos from the ceremony honoring Kermit Evans (lest we forget). Just my 0.02 before we all go off the deep end. Now that's funny right there.

Much like Bergman's noise complaint, you can't make shit like this up. Hilarious.

Well done, Rotorhead.

...so to speak

I think you're some kind of deviated prevert. I think general Ripper found out about your prevertion, and you were organizing some kind of mutiny of preverts. Skibum, Sorry to disappoint you. Guess you are going to have to go elsewhere to find some man love.

Niether do I. If this is the way Chicago chooses to pay respect, go for it. The clear intent is support and respect for the nation, the flag and the troops. I have no problem with it. It's like a rally. The Olympics are not much different, with flags waving and anthems playing all over the place. After all, it's not Taps, it's the Star Spangled Banner. You have to know what to do in the given situation. A "when in Rome" kind of thing. Now, if during a Blackhawks game, a few people decided to just sit there, not stand, and were text messaging their friends, I think the reaction would be similar to ours here in this thread. Hell, I think people might resort to physical violence the way everyone's all fired up. You would probably see the offenders cell phone land at center ice.

That whole Final Tribute in the Rocky Mountain News that Sleepy reposted was outstanding. I just re-viewed the slideshow and was again speechless. You ought to bring that up there and read them some accounts, especially Lance Cpl Welke, being a high school athlete and all. Lance Cpl. Welke's ceremony reminded me of the one I attended for Lance Cpl. Larry Philippon. He played hockey at my high school, well after I graduated, but he and my brother were teammates. I decided last Feb, since I now live somewhat close to my hometown, to attend the annual cross-town rivalry hockey game. It's been years since I had been there, and now that my son is playing, I decided to take him to where I learned to play, appropriately called Veterans Memorial Skating Rink. Well, they started with warmups, but before they announced all the seniors for thie last game of the regular season, they lined everyone up. A Marine Corps honor guard appeared, and they presented the school with memorabilia, and the team spoke about Larry and paid tribute to him. They then told the crowd that they would be retiring Larry's number after the game. They had to wait until after the game, because Larry's little brother, a senior on the team, is wearing his jersey. I was not expecting any of this, and it really caught me off guard. Seeing the Marines, the colors, his brother standing there in his jersey, right there in my hometown... Of course, the aforementioned 7 year old silently took it all in (this is post Cub Scout screwing around incident, so he knows it's serious). I guess my point (if there is one) is for every picture of heroism and every story from the battlefield, there are stories for how it affects folks back home. Obviously, these kids are not affected by it. I see it all the time, we are not a military community in my town. We have lots of people that work at the Navy Yard, but as for people who go out and deploy, pull alerts, fly all night, spend holidays away, it's few and far between. These people have no clue. But, every time we bring a hero home, people have lost a brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter, husband, wife, friend. Seeing the pictures and hearing the stories and knowing that the soldier killed in Iraq the other day may have been a basketball player just like him will remind them of what the flag and the anthem stands for. [ 10. December 2006, 21:11: Message edited by: Scooter14 ]

Rotor, Call me old-fashioned, but when I see older kids and adults who obviously know better talking, text-messaging or doing whatever durning the Anthem, it drives me INSANE. My oldest son is a Cub Scout. They have the kids bring the flag in and post the colors. The first time he did it, the kids in his den were screwing off during the posting. Needless to say, he now knows my feelings about it and stands perfectly still with his two fingers together on the brim of his hat in perfect silence until the colors are posted. Anything less will bring dire consequences to his 7 year old world. Do you want pictures posted here or e-mailed?

As for the flight physical, you may want to query up in the medical forum. I was able to get one, but I was Active Duty. I have had folks apply who were able to get them and they included the results with their apps. My best guess would be to call and sweet talk them. If you know someone on base, they may be able to help. I'd ask the medics/docs in the Aviation Medicine forum.

thebrown, This website is pretty much your help for putting together a packet for the ANG/AFRC. LOTS of folks on here have been through the process. Read and search this board and the aviation jobs listings at baseops.net, and if your questions still remain unanswered, we'd be happy to help you out. There is no specific person for the ANG to help you get your stuff together, but a lot of units typically have websites with all of the requirements listed (NH, AK, ME, VT all have good Officer Hiring pages on their websites - you should check them out) as well as a POC. The POC is usually either the chief pilot, DO, or a new pilot whos responsibility is to collect the apps and make sure they are complete before they meet the board. They are also a good source of info. I will caveat that by saying don't call them and ask them to hold your hand through the process. If you call them (I'm one of them for now) and ask them a question that is clearly stated on the website, you are wasting everyone's time. Plenty of folks out there are able to find the answers on their own and take the initiative. It's not a secret. The info's out there. Best of luck and check back with any questions.

Yeah, that guy is the most famous guy at the Died besides "Oh my God, it's Juan Baca".

Toro, I'll check on the "bean count" to see how many PP RZ's we need. It depends on you training level, newer guys need more. I know right now we're in the home stretch of the all-encompassing bean count, and everyone is scrambling to get that last ILS or Rendezvous. Or Tactics sortie (don't ask). I believe a Fighter Turn-On doesn't count as a RZ for a checkride (pilot or nav if we've got one on board), so that may be why they are asking. We have a good mix of receivers here, so we really never need to ask for a PP from the fighters since we get enough on the airbridge and from the local KC-10s and C-5s.

SpyGadget, That's histerical. Thanks for the laugh.

Mmmmm, Ghengis Khan I still make good use of my Camp Foster PADI card when I go to Guam and stuff. I always had a blast when TDY to Kadena. The staff there always believed in "island living" as opposed to being uptight. One of the last fun clubs as of a couple years ago. Yeah, they have the liberty passes and 0-0-1-3, but who doesn't. Haven't met many people who didn't like it.

Two. I'm definitely all for "ILS for Beers" or "see if you can put it down exactly 2690 feet down" or whatever. I do that after a long day in the pattern. The elephant walk (besides the horrific frat hazing ritual image it conjures up) is just not something I'm gonna try with those low slung pods and my fists of ham. With my luck, my post flight walk around would look like I sandblasted the underside of #2 and #3. My point exactly. One of the threads I remember from way back actually taught me that C-17 and C-5 guys don't care what we squawk. The KC can "tag" any mode 3 and display it on the TCAS, and it's a technique we use to build SA when we have multiple targets. When our receiver shecks in, we typically ask for it. A lot of my squadron-mates used to then tell the receiver pilot our squawk. They'd just say OK, but it was wasted comm. Now, if they do that, I say "Hey, I have a buddy who flies Fred/Barney, and they don't give a shit what our mode 3 is." "Really? Oh, well I guess I'll drop that from my radio call" is the response I get back. Big deal, no. Gee-whiz knowledge? Sure. There's probably a group of people out there that read about the French "Landing Attitude Demo" yesterday and never read our rebuttals and are now going through life thinking that a KC-135 does a landing attitude demo at 30 feet above the desert at 369 KIAS and when we're bored we like to bounce 49 year old airplanes down the runway for fun and profit. Big deal, no. But the last big tanker discussion we had was the "Tanker WIC" and it's curriculum of dragging receivers through the WX and turning left. I believe that was even brought up in the Low Level thread by a C-130 guy. That's fine, it was funny and I enjoyed taking the hits, but when something that actually educates people about the tanker shows up, it gets killed. Bullshit.

KC-135 = 4 months

SoCal, Dance with the one that brung ya. Stay with the sure bet. If you decline a slot, it is VERY difficult to get picked up again. The first question I would ask you on a hiring board is "Why didn't you go to UPT with the AD and then come to us as a rated pilot in a few years?" Technically, yes. The AF goes through changes almost daily. When I left AD, it was virtually impossible to get out of your commitment more than 6 months early. I had to wait until the end of my commitment. Now, they are paying guys to leave and letting them switch as 1LT's with 2-3 years of rated time. BL: You have a slot. It's too late to try to switch anything iwthout some sort of ramifications. Go as an AD guy. Enjoy your time on AD. You will learn a lot, have benefits, make friends for life - guys that will literally be your brothers. When you get a few years under your belt, the Guard is a great place to be. I used to say that I wished I had known about the ANG before I joined AD (and sometimes I still do), but as I look back on everything I have gotten to do and see, as both an AD and Guard guy, I really wouldn't trade it.

I trust that you are not including stay at home moms in the category of "that wife".

Hydro, You better believe that the reflective belt must be properly worn around the waist. The last issue of the Desert Whatever-the-****-they-call-it base paper that went out before I came back had uniform "do's and don'ts" as the "centerfold" if you will. There under the "don'ts" column had one of our AMC warriors wearing sandstorm goggles on his head (bad) and a reflective belt across his chest (also bad).

I was walking back into Life Support with my IP after my end-of-block Form Ride part Deux. I had hooked for echelon turns, and form did not come quickly to me (sts). It was a marginal ride at best, my echelon turns had improved, but not by much. So, I'm not saying much as we walk. I have a chip on my shoulder because I think it's stupid that this tanker guard guy has to go through this much ass-pain to do a maneuver he will surely never do in real life. IP "What's wrong?" Scooter- "Nothing" IP-"What's wrong?" S - "Nothing" IP - "WHAT THE **** IS YOUR PROBLEM TODAY!" S - "YOU KNOW WHAT? I ****ING HATE FORMATION. I HATE FINGERTIP, I HATE STRAIGHT AHEAD REJOINS, AND I ****ING HATE ECHELON TURNS!" IP - "Oh. <pause> Know what I hate?" S - What?" IP - "I HATE SPINNING WITH YOU JACKASSES WHO CAN'T EXECUTE A PROPER RECOVERY. I HATE HURTLING TOWARD THE GROUND WITH SOME 2LT AT THE CONTROLS. SO I GUESS WE'RE EVEN!" S - Yeah, I guess so. Somehow, I was able to get an E on my form check. I'm sure I had an echelon turn in there somewhere, and I somehow kept in there, but we had bad WX. Altus was the alternate, so we had to abbreviate the profile, so I'm sure that helps. Now, every time I fly cell in the tanker, I wish we could be closer than 1NM.

During my pattern solo, I had such a death grip on the stick that I was actuating the trim button nose down. As I turned crosswind passing about 400 AGL, the plane started feeling real heavy. Since I wasn't climbing as fast, I was accelerating, and started slowly descending at the same time at mil power. I'm sure the people in Sunridge were happy with my lower than normal pass over their houses, but I figured it out before I flew myself into the ground.