Chaff

I was a 62E back in 2012 and did the same thing. Send me a message if you want to talk offline.

Circa 2012 some of the Doss IPs bought a DA-20 that they keep at Pueblo to do PpL topoffs. Find someone at the 558 who recently got back from Pueblo and they should know more. If that doesn’t work call Doss.

I think the flexibility of the platform is already extremely limited by 1) The 2 holding so much of the power 2) All Combat lines being chopped to specific units by the COCOM because the CFACC doesn't have / doesn't exercise that authority I'm pretty sure, at least for the MQ-9 side of the house, the preference would be to work more for the 3 and not be lumped into an Intelligence Command. I realize that we don't belong 100% in the 3 realm, but I think giving the 3 more authority over the MQ-9 than it has now is a better answer.

I turned off Good Kill when he turns right leaving Creech to return to Vegas.

The application is the same for all related AFSCs. You won't get selected for a container you don't check. I have heard of them offering the option to accept another rated field if they didn't have enough applicants check that container but with no obligation to accept. If you're at Ellsworth go make a friend at the MQ-9 squadron. Someone should be willing to talk to you or show you around. PM me if you need a contact.

Possible, but very unlikely.

18x pipeline QA post is a good place to start.

Don't enlist AD in an effort to get a slot at the Academy.

RUMINT is that team of 50 recommended a 4 month on 8 month off AEF cycle to match deployed type ops tempo with other MWSs. Allegedly Holloman will meet the output requirements for that sometime in the next 1-2 years. I also hear that 80% of said team was not aircrew. Maybe finance and MPF have secured a way to make themselves less accessible to shift worker.

Everyone at home is flying real world missions. Half the time MQ-1/9 Red Flag is canceled because ops units are unable to produce crews, and that doesn't require us to TDY at all. Home station training outside of initial qualification is something like 95% getting dudes launch and recovery qualified so they can deploy, 4.9% Weapons School and 0.1% continuation training. I have flown 1 local sortie in the last 3 years and the squadron average over that time is much lower than 1. If we had the crews to support going TDY to fly they would just cancel it and add 2 more ops lines.

Plenty of experienced SOs think they could probably do the job. However, I have yet to meet one that thinks enlisted should do the job.

Ops Sq life is rough and going to get worse before/if it gets better but you really think its worse than all that guineapigfury lol.

The 18X community sounds much worse on these forums than what I have actually seen in the squadron. Shift works sucks no matter who you are, but 18Xers generally seem to be motivated people who enjoy what they are doing, especially when they are single Lts living in Vegas. There are nowhere near as many cranky fvcks around as there were 3 years ago. Still mobility senior Capts / new Majs who have been in RPAs for 3-5 years trying everything they can to get to a manned aircraft but they should soon to be the minority. All the previous UPT directs have been sent to manned aircraft or have decided to stay. All the figher dudes who were good medically and wanted out are back in a fighter or have orders for a fighter assignment.

From enlistment to initial qual would take 1 year of training. Then that 1500 drone hours required to get looked at takes 16 months of flying in an ops squadron. By the end of their 4 year enlistment they could likely be qual'd in two aircraft, Launch and Recovery (if the AF continues to not but auto land) and the hard chargers will be instructors, potential even evaluators if we compare to how SOs and Officer pilots progress now. Unless GA looks at a dude without a degree differently that's 150k+ as a pilot by the end of your 4 year enlistment. I don't know how you turn that down with only four years invested to re-up or take warrant officer pay. But Nuke dudes stay in the Navy so who knows.

In my squadron the only pilots who don't fly shift work are the Patch, DO, CC, and DS. Shop ADOs still fly 6-8 hours a day on shift. Most of the good O-4s that show up get put in charge of a shift fairly quickly. They are like mini DOs in charge of two flights and still fly that 6-8 hours a day.