The Texan

Roll the balls.

Just moved down here with the family from The Rock. Took me 69 minutes to find a rent house. 15min to the CSO schoolhouse via back gate. But I used to drive 20-30min one way at The Rock so it's all good. Plus it's less than 2 miles to Perdido Key and I can see Perdido Bay from my house so it makes up for the commute. Living off the back gate is a must. There are 2 rental property management companies run by retired military guys that will get you settled fast. From selecting the house to signing for the keys took me less than 3 hours. PM me if you want my rental management recommendations or if you have some ?s about the area. I leave for OTS at the end of the month.

Anywhere in PACAF. But I've got stage 4 Yellow Fever so my .02 cents comes with a slanted bias, if you will.

Glad to see affirmative action is still alive and well.

I still need to stay employed for 10 more years. Lock and load.

I vote for Hawaiian shirt Fridays.

On one of my military travels (in civies), my itinerary started at LIT and ended at Guam with 2 stops in Houston and Hawaii. An ice storm delayed me from LIT which screwed my whole itinerary. After leaving Houston, I would go direct to Tokyo then Guam instead. When I got on the Tokyo flight, the attendants directed me to business first class. Apparently the rep back at LIT had hooked me up while changing my tickets. Very cool of her. My own reclining seat, 10 course meal, and unlimited booze for 15 hours.

Here's 4 more from Angaur. Cemetary that has U.S., Japanese, and Palauans. Angaur Liberation Memorial: "This monument was built by Angaur State Government to commemorate the time when Angaur people were liberated by the U.S. Army during World War II. The people of ------- Ucherbelau Masao, Ucherremasech Naoru, Ucharkemul Tomel, Rengaul Orrenges, and I, Theodosta F. Rlatles, Governor of Angaur State wish everlasting peace to Angaur State Republic of Palau and throughout the world. We pray that the same calamity of war will not ------- to the human race again." "On October 8-10, 1944, about one hundred twenty on Angaur came out of Metukelianges cave after spending more than a month hiding from the ravages of war" From the plane on the previous post

I got back from a 7 month stint on Palau back in August 2011. Part of my duty was maintaining the WW2 sites on Peleliu and Angaur Islands, the battles that had the highest casualty rates in the Pacific campaign. Most of the battle sites and memorials have been left untouched to this day, and even now if you stray off the beaten path you still have a 50/50 shot of stepping on an UXO. I took the time and tried to get a thorough photo documentary of what I saw and thought this would be a good place to post some of the photos. I don't want to overload it on the first post so I'll just throw a couple on for now. These 2 were on Angaur Island:

If the sheep would've been wearing a reflective belt, this wouldn't have happened. Just a simple case of mistaken identity. If they'd shot the sheep, the AF would've held them accountable for the spent ammunition. It could've been worse. They could've pissed on it after they beat it to death.

It's already started. Just got the AFPC notification email so MPF can cut my OTS orders. Good except it wasn't my last name. That was caught by the shoe. However the other information to include the SSN was not mine. I kindly brought that to their attention. Doesn't surprise me anymore. About par for the course actually. Refer to my post in the navy nurse TMO debacle: Nobody is covering your 6. It's your career. Take necessary precautions.

By water you mean Iran. Don't worry. Although my friends and I don't 100% agree with the overall strategy, we still deploy down range and execute as ordered.

couple of months ago. Vote for me. Edit: Fresh off the presses... we got another one of those bastards. With an airstrike. In Pakistan. Again.

We're not the Peace Corps. We exist to break shit and kill people. Had we stuck to that principle we would've been out of there in 10 days vs. 10 years and then we wouldn't be worrying about people pissing on dead bodies, EPOW scandals, reflective belt-less individuals, and how sweaty I am when I enter the DFAC. And I will bet you the strikes that have taken out all the top players would've still happened without 300K+ on the ground winning hearts and minds. If you can find any place in recorded history where a form of dictatorship existed before 1948 in the Middle East, enlighten me. Truth is democracy is just like everything else in the world... it's not for everybody. Let folks handle their own business. If there is a national security concern, snuff that shit out quick and go back home. If people want a revolution and there's advantages, throw them a bone and bounce. Perfect examples: Libya 2011 and French aid in the US Revolution.

Broncos by 316.

I know right? Here's something funny to think about: The gym has been the designated TIB concert area for some number of years. If you're here, you know the gym floor has been redone with an actual wooden court, but FSS says no one on the court unless wearing court shoes. Coincidentally, the TIB concert this year was supposed to be at an auditorium somewhere in downtown LR I think. When it was on base, the gym couldn't handle their 'optium performance power requirements' (their words, not mine), so CE always spotted them a whisper-soft generator. I wonder if they skipped LR because FSS didn't want them dicking up the gym floor, the downtown spot couldn't handle their power requirements and they would've had to pay a contractor for a generator, or a combo of both. Doesn't seem like budget is the reason they skipped town because they're pressing on as is evident by the other posts on here...

I thought it along with the other 2 on base were a waste of money when our folks were setting them up. Now, I think they're the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Glorious.

I've still got most of my old PT shorts from nearly 10 years ago. Still good as new and great for lounging. Never was a fan of the new stuff. Had to buy 2 new pairs of the new sweatpants because the dryer melted a hole in the first pair and now the current ones have mystery holes in the legs, probably from our CC's decision to do calisthenics in a gravel parking lot.

The other selects at my base had the TDY loaded in their DVB information under projected training. May be a base by base case. One, I shot you a PM. I'm on leave until tomorrow so I don't have the AD select instructions in front of me, but for pilots/cso's don't they both have a B footnote in the instructions saying to complete the FC1 then do MFS at Wright-Patt? If CSO's don't, then cool. Probably a sentence I overlooked. Got about 30 things on my mind like selling the house, moving the family, etc. Plus these instructions get clear as mud sometimes. EDIT: I checked the AD reporting instructions and they changed the wording to say Pilots and RPAs only. I promise not long ago it was worded more ambiguously to the effect of 'fliers' or 'rated selects.' One less thing...

I'm active duty and headed to OTS 28 Feb and then CSO school. AFRS is aware I've completed my FC1 and requested the copy from AETC around Dec 1. I haven't heard anything through my MPF or seen anything pop up on vMPF for a TDY to WPAFB. Is it unusual to not get a date until after arriving at UPT or UCT? Just wanted some input before I start badgering the BESO and the folks at Randolph.

Facebook is the greatest force shaping tool in the history of the Air Force. A product of the mathematical enigma that is the WAPS score. Go back on all these asshats' past EPRs and I will bet you they are all 5s. Most career fields have promotion cutoff scores of 320+ and the EPR's give them 135pts right out of the gate. Keep promoting ~25% of E5's and ~55% of E4's, watering down the roles of responsibility, and stuff like this happens. Final Thought: The biggest clowns associated with this cluster are the ones you don't see in the photo.

Well said, LJ. I'm currently a CE Electrical NCO, heading to CSO schoolhouse soon. I've made it clear we take care of our business within our shop, don't care how other shops/career fields operate. The OSHA comment is funny because there are attempted jacks on us by people who aren't in our career field. Been reading and enjoying all these posts about shoe directed queep at the Deid and beyond. Thought ya'll would like another perspective since CE gets to deal with alot of it. My personal top 5 shoe story favorites in my 10yrs of humble service: 1) Emergency! July '10. Power failure. Transformer explosion. Shoe: running at me. "The a/c to the buildings are down!" Me: "Yeah, because of that loud-ass boom you just heard" gesturing to the still-smoking transformer behind me. Shoe: "We can't stay in the building if the temperature gets above 85F." Me: "Then why do I have to show up and work with my guys outside in 100F daily?" Blank stare. After the job was done I get lectured about how to make the 'customer' feel we care at all times. Customer. Last time I checked I wasn't in a company. 2) I was called down from a bucket truck by a chief. Not because of no hard hat, harness, etc. Because of no reflective belt. "Chief, the belt is not arc flash rated equipment." Don't think I would like a permanent disco belt graphed to my waist. <--Bonus: Our favorite SWA location. 3) Best base award people came through therefore had to paint all street light poles another shade of Commander Brown. Why? Shoe logic: Bucket truck + only guys that can reach traffic lights= only guys capable of painting lights. Screw using JLG lifts. Nevermind the bucket truck has to be retested if paint falls on the insulated boom. 4) Shoe: I need you to source $1500 worth of solar garden lights. Me: Ok, why? Shoe: The plywood Christmas cards squadrons put out in the center median aren't properly lit up (but ok enough for cars to drive). Yeah, huge failure. Lights have disappeared from inventory. Base gardens are now brighter. 5) My first base: Base commander conducts a no notice all call because an airman pulled a gun on somebody downtown. Exact words: "If you all want to act like a bunch of gangsters and point guns at people I'll send your asses to Iraq tomorrow!" ...because I'd never get tasked to go on my own. Anybody want to help me write a book on this stuff? "The Book of Queep" Like the Chuck Norris book of facts. So insane it can't be true, or can it?

Can anyone help me out with the usual time given between leaving OTS and the Pcola RNLTD? I'm prior E heading to OTS late Feb '12. Reason being... I'm still trying to sell my house (anybody heading to The Rock? Got a house for ya). Debating on whether to take leave enroute to OTS and setup the family at Pensacola then go to OTS, or get the family set up after OTS. Thoughts?