mcbush

C-17s: 1. Ops tempo's varied wildly over the life of the program. Before my time, it was common for guys to be gone at least 250 days a year, but it's not nearly that bad anymore. These days, you can probably expect about one 90-day deployment every 18 months or so, and an average of one 7-10 day mission per month out of home station. As a young guy, you'll also spend a lot of time back at the schoolhouse at Altus. It takes five trips there to go from UPT grad to C-17 airdrop IP. 2. Lifestyle/family stability: highly related to #1. We generally don't get many long deployments, but you'll often be gone for relatively short bursts. Like Jarhead said, it's AMC. 3. Morale: Probably average compared to USAF flying squadrons as a whole. You'll get some amazing opportunities to travel to some really cool places. I've been handed papers before to fly to a country I didn't even know existed at the time (Mauritius, as an example). But the sweet trips are tempered with the usual AF BS. Most C-17 guys who are past their UPT commitments are now based at KATL or KJFK, leaving a relatively young and inexperienced crew force behind to pick up the slack. Like I said, standard. 4. This jet's not going anywhere. Being a newer airframe, she's already got most of the bells and whistles that you want. The jet was designed with a 30,000 hour service life in mind, but several of the tails have already hit 20,000+. That lifespan will be extended well past 30,000 in due time. As far as usage goes, I don't see any real changes coming down the pipe. Wherever the US gov operates, which is everywhere, there's going to be a need for airlift. 5. Besides the FTU at beautiful Altus, there are seven AD C-17 bases: four on the west coast (McChord, Travis, Elmo, and Hickam) and three on the east coast (Charleston, Dover, and McGuire). Charleston and McChord are by far the two largest hubs, each with close to 50 of the 223 tails. There are also some limited opportunities to pick up exchange tours with the Aussies, Brits, or Canadians or to go out to fly with the HAW, a NATO unit based in Hungary. All in all, I've really enjoyed it. If you like to travel and you like working with a team of guys and gals on a crew airplane, you'll have a good time. The mission set is varied enough that it's never the same thing twice. You'll see plenty of Iraq and Afghanistan, but you'll also wake up in Peru, Chad, Myanmar, or wherever else Uncle Sam wants to go that day. Pretty fun gig.

Hasn't even been enacted by Congress - right now it's only included in the Senate version of the NDAA, IIRC.

Looks like the misinformation's already flying, with the Gazette reporting that the Major who punched earned his commission in 2015. Only additional info, which comes with the obvious caveats surrounding witnesses and aviation accidents, is this: "Alexander Rodriguez told The Gazette he heard two loud bangs and looked up to see the Thunderbird slowly gliding roughly 40 to 50 feet above the ground."

For the young punks out there, what's MDOS? My Googling skills didn't turn anything up.

ILS, just out of curiosity, what's your background?

I started to quote specific portions of your post in rebuttal, but it wound up being the whole thing. Not to shit on your enthusiasm, but suffice to say that the term "the most eye-candy" probably isn't thrown around much at the Pentagon.

Israel actually doesn't even stamp passports these days, they just give out little cards. Haven't had an issue with it in my relatively short flying career (since 2013).

How about Richmond?

Quibling, but yeah, NNEMP is a viable strategy. "Examples of such operations include the destruction of electronic control systems critical to the operation of many ground vehicles and aircraft." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse#Non-nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse_.28NNEMP.29

Wouldn't mind reading up on some of those stories if you're willing to share them.

That can't be right... they're closed for training every week!

According to this AF Times article, it's likely her or McDew, so....

I wanted to do an MBA and looked at Oklahoma State too. Wound up going with the U. of Nebraska program in the end. It's pretty well rated and comes in about $200/hr above TA... not a bad price for a respectable degree. I'm about halfway through it now. Some days I actually enjoy the work and sometimes I wonder why I'm even bothering. If you've mind up your mind though and definitely want to knock out the Masters now, I'd recommend the program.

Speaking of which... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-11/boeing-said-to-face-sec-probe-into-dreamliner-and-747-accounting

This is excellent advice. Obviously allocations are ultimately determined IAW your individual risk tolerances, but nunya's right on the money here, in my opinion, especially for a young guy.

Heard earlier today that 8/22 in a current SWA class don't have the type. Also anecdotal, but things seem to be trending in that direction.

In today's WTF news, Playboy will no longer publish photos of nude women as of March 2016. Pigs fly. Hell freezes over. More at 11. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/business/media/nudes-are-old-news-at-playboy.html

What's the best way to find books on tape, by the way? Any app or website recommendations? Got another 20 hour drive coming up myself.

Guy in my squadron used to be Army infantry. Wound up with multiple Purple Hearts before going the pilot route. I can't speak for him, but that sounds less fun to me than chasing girls in college and heading straight to UPT.

I wouldn't mind the same.

For what it's worth, we were briefed that they were reducing the crew ratio from 3.0 to 2.5 rather than 2.0. To answer your question though, at least from my persepective, adding all these Ebola missions on top of everything we're normally covering has us stretched pretty thin. This is even more true considering the restrictions placed on guys once they return from an Ebola-infected country. Regarding the discussion on WIC grads, the only two patch wearers in my squadron are the CC and the DO. Absolutely great guys, both of them, but it's not like they're really able to spend their time sharing all that knowledge and experience with the younger generation. This makes less sense in a C-17 flying an approach in a standard, backside configuration than in other aircraft, because the proper response if you're below glideslope is to add power rather than to raise the nose. Can't say that's not what happened, though.

Note that this is only true for traditional contributions, not Roth.

Huh, I actually would have said the opposite. To me, it seemed like a pretty-well run operation at the time (2011). As long as you can plan it out ahead of time and the schedule makes a decent amount of sense, I'd say go for it. Buena suerte.

Where is it, man? I haven't heard a thing about this.

I did this trip three years ago. Took a bus down to Tarifa and then the ferry to Tangier, spent a couple nights, and then wound up flying up to Madrid. Very easy, I didn't have any issues at all. PM me if you need more info.