Homestar

Fortunately unit tech refresh costs are on the Wings, you they can get them if they want.

I see your King of Jordan and raise you a Leader of the Free World.

But Chang is the officer the AF deserves...

A Lt Col signed your PRF to Major? Then asked you for a LOR for your airline? Nice.

Isn't AF1 EMP hardened? I could imagine that would increase the cost. Kind of like how the Beast is a bit more expensive than a regular Cadillac limo.

Perhaps part of the solution is to separate pay from the rank scale, especially in this instance. I suppose that is what $1,500/month incentive pay is attempting to do. Like you say, I'm sure there are people out there who would do the job if the price is right. This is why I do not believe that enlisted operators of RPAs is a good answer. Not because they couldn't do an excellent job, but rather all it does is allow the Air Force to pay a SSgt half of what they would otherwise have to pay a Captain/Major to do the same exact job. The Air Force shouldn't be let off the hook that easy.

After January 2015 TSP removes the option to simply elect an amount to contribute (as opposed to a % of base/incentive/bonus pay) making the math problem to get as close to $18,000/year without going over more...math-ey.... What happens if my last TSP payment of the year takes me over the limit by, say, $100?

Truth.

Right. Oil industry paying high wages.

Someone clicked on that link about "This One Weird Trick"...

If the monetary incentive to live in Minot or Clovis was right I'm sure there would be volunteers. Money talks. The Air Force would rather do if for nothing though, so I don't think this rock will roll. Wouldn't really work well for FAIP jobs, as previously mentioned. But I like the idea of applying for your job though a professional "Linkedin" type of system. Allow people to apply for the jobs and locations they want then let them homestead. Want a raise? Apply for a job with higher "location pay".

Yes, in morse, with your lip light.

It's not so much the feat of engineering as the simple reality that the program is moving forward. I realize that the 767 is an old design, but these pieces of metal are fresh off the factory assembly line, no? Kind of like driving a car with zero miles....

Pegasus flying into the rainbow... Man, it must be a really cool feeling taking a machine into the air for it's very first flight.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30507836 Pakistan Taliban kills 132 school kids and 9 staff. Even the Afghan Taliban is like, "What the..." This is who we're dealing with. Tell me again how sad it is that KSM was waterboarded 183 times. Tell me again how that makes us "no better than the terrorists." I appreciate that in the 1st world we can have this discussion without resorting to violence, but this event in Pakistan should serve as a stark reminder of what's at stake when someone in the CIA interrogates a terrorist.

That wasn't my point. My point is that waterboarding a guy doesn't put us on the same level as them. A battle of wit? Far more innocent people have died in errant drone attacks than have been rolled up accidentally because they happened to live next door to a terrorist. There is a cost to war.

We are better than them. Waterboarding is better than beheading. Rectal feeding is better than mass murder on 9/11.

Nailed it. Exactly. When I hear that some methods included yelling, slapping faces, and telling lies I just want to ball my fist up and punch a terrorist, because that kind of stupid stuff isn't torture. So you're basically saying that waterboarding KSM 183 times is just the same as beheading civilian American journalists on YouTube. Got it. I don't need to see it from "their point of view." They are savages and should die where they sit.

I was perusing the AMC Mobility magazine this week and noticed that there were 3 motorcycle fatalities in 2014 and 3 motor vehicle fatalities (one involved a GOV--a HUMVEE I think). Driving to work in your POV is still the most dangerous thing you do all day. Two of the motorcycle fatalities in AMC involved excessive speed and/or alcohol--in which case my sympathy factor goes down a bit. If you want to race, prep the bike properly and take it to the track. Only 1 class A flying mishap, which is great news. PMV 2 Whl · Member was speeding on a highway under the influence of alcohol and struck a vehicle that was turning across his path of travel. · Member was speeding, lost control on a highway exit ramp, and struck a guard rail. · Member struck another vehicle that was turning into the path of travel. PMV 4 Whl · Member was driving during a snow storm, lost control, spun, and was struck broadside by a large truck. · Member was towing a trailer, lost control, left the roadway and rolled several times. Sports and Recreation/Miscellaneous · Member jumped into a mountain pool and went over a waterfall. · Member was a passenger in a commercial vehicle; operator had a seizure and struck a guardrail. · Member was pulling a mower backwards up a slope, slipped and pulled mower over foot (permanent partial). Government Motor Vehicle Member was run over by a HMMWV during an exercise. edit to add linky https://www.amc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123432071

Today several news sources are reporting that ISIS beheaded 4 Christian children for failing to convert to Islam. Waterboarding KSM 183 times is *not* "stooping" to their level. Their level is in a different universe of depravity. I'm not saying that the ends justify the means. I do believe, however, that KSM an his ilk should have been killed in combat like Bin Laden was. If we didn't get any actionable intel from these guys, then we should have just put lead in their heads and taken their laptops.

Not according to John Brennan today. But yeah, he's probably a liar... I find it hard to believe that the Senate Intelligence Committee was so out-to-lunch that they had no earthly idea that this was going on. This report is just a CYA job. I'd love to know what Feinstein knew and when she knew it. Too bad the CIA didn't have $40M to drop on a "report."

Isn't the normal around 90%

Excel doesn't really work that well on my phone, and I've always wanted to just plug the stuff into my phone after I land and have it update everywhere. Numbers on iOS makes that pretty painful.

I recently downloaded MyFlightbook for iOS but haven't had a chance to really use it. I don't think there is a desktop client, so it may not be robust enough to handle an entire career of military flying, but seems like a reasonable free alternative for light civilian flying. Too bad about the LogTen Pro pricing. I use a simple excel spreadsheet with columns for every 781 category and it's has served me well enough.

I honestly only found one or two things objectionable. The USA Today listed the torture as: Sleep deprivation, Transport by plane (the horror! and shackled!), stress positions ("including slapping al-Nashiri multiple times on the back of the head during interrogations; implying that his mother would be brought before him and sexually abused; blowing cigar smoke in al-Nashiri's face; giving al-Nashiri a forced bath using a stiff brush; and using improvised stress positions that caused cuts and bruises resulting in the intervention of a medical officer"---well boo hoo), nudity (I would actually consider this torture for the CIA honestly), waterboarding (the closest thing to "torture"), and "rectal feeding." Okay. that might be torture. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/09/worst-horrors-cia-torture-report/20146081/ I'm just not very sympathetic at this point, what with 3,000 american civilians dead (9/11), thousands of American soldiers dead, and most recently innocent civilian journalists cruelly beheaded. Which is why this is all much simpler if the Rangers, SEALs, and bombers just kill the enemy when they find them.