Fuzz

2, not against it just not above any valor medal. Almost as important is this going to become another generals medal? I.e. AMC/CC, 18th AF/CC, fill in the blank job for supporting the war effort?

That sir is debatable I've been in the junior enlisted dorm rooms (room inspections before anyone takes that in the wrong direction) Great thread by the way for a young Lt. will be a while before I'm supervising enlisted but its good info.

How many tickets?

I was over due for two years granted still in UPT so no one cared, but it is an annual required CBT but it doesn't show up on the dashboard with the other ones on ADLS.

This is true, I guess thinking back across the last 12 years of war there would be definitely some qualified individuals. My cynical side got the best of me.

I guess I wasn't reading the selectivity part, I just see a DoD push for an RPA medal. You don't foresee the AF lining up 15-20 people as soon as this passes and turning it into a photo op? On second thought I was looking through the available medals none really fit this area it covers. Most are non-combat or for higher ranking members. So i retract my earlier statement, if it is awarded selectively I personally don't have a problem with where it is placed or if it was moved just below the Purple Heart. I'm in no way looking to shaft our RPA brethren, I think they truly need to be recognized for the work they do.

The John Wayne picture made this comment.

I hope that was sarcasm, shouldn't rank above the Air Medal IMO. And what is wrong with the Aerial Achievement Medal? Quoting from wiki: "The decoration is intended to recognize the contributions of aircrew members who would, otherwise, not be qualified for the award of the Air Medal." Seems about right, I personally think we have too many medals, but if they do want one just rank it right below the AM.

because it wasn't meant to make sense, it was meant to hurt, because one political party gambled and was called on their bluff and now are acting like little kids because they didn't get their way, hoping enough people will scream and shout.

I know there are options and like people said where there is a will there is a way, however I would have liked to see a little discretion in that area maybe to not suspend it for the guys that were picked up for the program. Not exactly like they have the paycheck of a midlevel captain who probably won't be hurt that bad having to throw down some money to get that last class in the meantime. Its a crap sandwich all the way around.

Huh, had a intel buddy of mine tell me that he worked with a group of Navy dudes and the newbie had the call sign "asspickle", thought he was just making it up.

What about the guys that got picked up for OTS pending the completion of their degree? Now they have to scramble to find the money for their last semester...I know its not impossible but still poor technique in my opinion to do that to them. Rumor mill is they are slashing ROTC cadet stipends by a $100 a month, no word on whether the Academy will also.

He's technically a Canuck, but seems like he found some common sense

FIFY Confiscating personal owned firearms from diagnosed or court determined mentally incompetent people, while it has the ability to become more doesn't bother me all that much. However, confiscating someones guns because someone's grandmother lives with them is off her rocker more than Nsplyr, or their kid has anger issues it absolutely ridiculous. As for the mental health issues, I think to be able to confiscate weapons there needs to be a judicial or legal review process before the police can confiscate.

Just a wild guess here. ETA: As a Lt. I would like to have TA since I want to get a masters (non-box checking one). However, if not having to waste my time and money on a BS crap masters from some degree mill means the masking AADs/refocusing on job performance, I'm happy to loose TA if it drives the change we hope for.

You seem to think that the politicians and appointees actually care what you think.

FIFY

I think I'm beginning to understand the hate for navs, my eyes weren't ready for that.

That would require said commander or board to actually read something instead of just look at a sheet of checked boxes.

Should go see the video I posted over in the daily video picture thred, listening to a female Aussie reporter refer to it as the blow master not once but twice

I see nothing that disproves either claim I made in those links. Also "emergency" is relative to the person that defines it, which we all know how governments will. And the U.S. is still better all around with emergency & elective surgery, I also don't see the government paying hospitals to speed up patients deaths *cough* NIH *cough*

Agreed this coupling of care to employers is asinine, because usually you get a different insurance company everytime you switch jobs. It doesn't make sense nor is it feasible for you to be diagnosed with a say cancer, than change jobs and another insurance company who you haven't paid a cent to, to now start picking up your tab. This is still the case, neither of my parents or a lot of my family friend have college educations and yet they still live a very comfortable "middle-class" life. Here's the thing I'm not strictly opposed to "help-ups" by we have gotten ourselves into a cycle with guaranteed government money going to colleges. The government says we'll pay X amount, the colleges raise their prices to get every last cent of that and more, then the government raises the money cap to cover the new costs. I'm sorry but the government shouldn't be taking our money and throwing billions of dollars at college education for every tom and nancy that wants to go to school. I recently was listening to Dave Ramsey's radio show and a caller called in for some financial advise, his wife had gotten a degree in journalism from some big private school and had gotten $160,000 in federal loans. Well after she graduated she decided she the market wasn't that great for journalists and didn't want to pursue it any further, so now she wanted to get another $20,000 loan to go to cosmetology school and cut hair! This is the problem with easy money, the government gives it to anybody and everybody and doesn't really care what degree you get or whether you'll ever be able to find a job. Maybe we would have more scientists and technical people in the world instead of getting yard-stomped by the Asians and Indians, instead of an army music, art, english and women's studies. What TreeA10 said. I'm sorry if you don't like these ideas being called socialism but heavy government regulation or government ownership IS socialism. Russia is still in the tank, and China opened up economy. As for the Norway and Finland they have pretty small populations (10 million combines) which things like this can work. Canada and England's healthcare system is crap, and most of the other countries lagged behind countries like Greece/Italy/Portugal which spearheaded the progressive government idea, we can see how its working out now. Also if I do believe the 1870s-1920s were a major economic gains for people of all levels of wealth, yeah because the markets crashed because of bad practices (kinda like a couple years ago) doesn't mean the system doesn't work.

Its amazing that people managed to pay for medical care and education for decades prior to Pell grants or medicare/big insurance. The care would be more affordable and therefore available to more people without a bankrupting government program. For that small group that maybe can't afford it, that's where free clinics and other charity programs come into play. Neither idea will cover 100% anyways but one provides affordable and quality care to most through competition and the other provides government bureaucratic care with no competition and costs that will run the government even more into the ground. Income is wealth, and the Estate tax is a wealth tax, how the hell can you justify the government taking up to 55% of someones wealth because they die. Considering cradle-to-grave government structures have yet to be sustainable, I would say the Democrats squarely don't understand how countries operate long-term. Free market ideas and capitalist ideas brought this country from nothing to number #1 superpower in less than 250 years, yet socialist ideas have yet to produce a country that lasted a century. China even realized they couldn't keep going down the track they were started opening their economy to capitalist ideas. The GOP may not be perfect, but they don't punish success and they want to give you the best chance to choose for yourself without being constantly regulated to death by the government.

Stop subsidizing both and let the market drive the cost. Accounting for inflation costs for education at colleges have nearly doubled since the early 1980s, the government gives out more money the colleges raise their prices. Medical is the same way, charge the maximum amount of money the insurance will pay. Its no different than our lodging caps on TDY, are you going to stay in a $60 Motel 6 when the nightly cap is a $150? Its the principle of the matter, once you open the door to the idea that the government can confiscate a super-wealthy persons money because they have "too much", where the hell do you draw the line?