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Lieutenants...Real American Heros! Cheers! M2

I respect the courage to admit that--especially with your obsession with German automotive engineering. :D

Civil Air Patrol Cadet Col. Katrina Litchford (right) and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley listen as Cadet Litchford's grandfather James Litchford Sr. shares an anecdote about flying B-17 bombers in WWII under the command of Gen. Carl A. Spaatz. General Moseley had just presented the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award to Cadet Litchford during a ceremony in the Pentagon on Thursday, May 11, 2006. Observing are Cadet Litchford's sister, Dominique, also a CAP cadet, and other family members. (U.S. Air Force photo/Donna Parry) Actually, don't be too quick to judge. She looks like she'll be a perfect squadron twinkie one day. Same with her sister in the back. And someone tell T. Michael that is projects an unprofessional image to put your hands in your pockets...at least that is what the SNAPs kept whining when I was on AD... Cheers! M2

Wow, an Air Force/CAP award that is equivalent to the Girl Scout Gold Star! I wonder where that goes on T. Michael's new uniforms? Over the volunteer medal? Cheers! M2

Not soon, now. MG Koziol previously commanded the 55th Wing, the largest wing in ACC and second largest in the USAF. The squadrons under his command were: 38th RS (RC-135) 45th RS (OC-135/RC-135/WC-135) 82nd RS (RC-135) 95th RS (RC-135) — RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom 343rd RS (RC-135) 338th CTS (RC/OC-135) 1st ACCS (E-4B) 97th IS Koziol has non-rated officer aircrew wings from when he was the commander of the 488th Intelligence Squadron (RJs) at Mildenhall. Cheers! M2

My 20 was over before I knew it. Being prior, I actually ended up with almost 25 years in uniform, if you include Reserves and AFROTC between my enlisted AD time and commissioning. I can remember when I hit 10 years, I thought it was wild that I was halfway to retirement. Next thing I knew the USAF was telling me it was my time to leave. The retirement check easily covers the mortgage and minivan payment. Cheers! M2

Actually, the v-necks were being worn long before they became the norm... Cheers! M2

Or at least let us wear white undershirts with a collar that shows instead of the John Travolta look with all your chest hair sticking out.

What I don't like about the "prop & wings" is that it makes us look more like the Army (those are Branch insignia like the Army wears on their Class As). And the one thing I wouldn't want is any indication that we desire to be like the Army. There is already too much of that going on. Of course I need to caveat all this by saying I no longer wear the uniform, but as I still work on an AFB I would have to not laugh at people who came to work dressed like this! It would be tough! HerkaDerka gets my vote for the best post in this thread! Cheers! M2

I quickly downloaded those pics in anticipation that an Air Force "Information Warrior" will be ordered to hack this site and remove them in the very near future! To be honest I had to have another sip of JD to keep from throwing up at the sight of them! What is with the Billy Mitchell-wannabe look on the far right of pic #2? And how does T. Michael get any points on the Body Comp portion of the AFPT with a gut like that? What scares me the most is that with two wars going on, force reductions and the pressing need to get fighters and airlifters to replace the aging fleet, senior leadership is spending their time and effort on costume changes. That in itself should be a FW&A IG complaint! And CH, thanks for the pic of Denise Richards, that got the blood flowing again! I just watched Undercover Brother again the other night (my 8-yr-old loves that movie and so do I, but for different reasons). Cheers! M2

I have yet to see a force reduction done by the USAF that made any sense. It didn't back in the early 90's, and it doesn't now. Berman's 3 truisms of the Air Force are spot on, it has nothing to do with how good of an officer you are. I've seen a lot of damn good officers shown the door, while some total douchebags go on to make O-6. Don't take it personally... Cheers! M2

Go read CH's post about his Mom, then think about how much USAF "love" these lieutenants are feeling at this time. Now check your priorities... Cheers! M2

BaseOps It has been a while, but Ft Bragg had an automated operating service at DSN 236-0001. I haven't used it for a while, so it might be worth checking before you add it to the list (can we call you 'Earl'?). This is a great initiative, good on ya! Cheers! M2

One word: Rüdesheim! Cheers! M2

OK, so some legit advice would be to talk with your security folks long before you tie any knots. The worse thing you can do is get married in a drive-thru in Vegas by "Elvis" and then show back up base hand-in-hand expecting everything to be hunky-dorry. If you have an SCI clearance, your SSO will know what to do as you won't be the first person to marry a foreigner. If you get married before OTS it shouldn't be a problem, you won't need anything more than a secret (collateral) clearance to get you through UPT. If you require higher clearances, it may take a bit longer with your Czech wife, but like many have said, it is easily done as long as you are up front about everything. In other words, don't lie as they will find out and that will put you in deep shit. And congrats in advance if you do marry this girl; I spent a little over six months in the Slovak Republic on a military liaison team and I did see a lot of beautiful women there! However, I was already engaged and my future bride had my motorcycle hostage, so I had to behave! Cheers! M2

You can read about it and watch the videos here. Cheers! M2

Now THIS is dumping fuel! Cheers! M2

Really? Dang, I should look into that. AAFMAA looks decent as well, how do you like them? I did a quick quote with them and they weren't too bad (about $30/mo for $750K, but thing I don't like is the fixed premiums and fixed death benefit to age 50, then decreasing death benefit to age 60. I am 43, so that isn't that far off! Cheers! M2

Johann I concur, hearing that you cannot drink while on ROTC orders knocked me over for a loop! Heck, I can't think of anytime in college when we weren't drinking! The secret to getting through AFROTC is not taking it too seriously... Cheers! M2

Linda What form are you talking about? I have never sent anything into Florida concerning income taxes as the state has no income tax for individuals (just sales and property taxes, and there is a corporate income tax). The full gouge can be found at the web site Florida Tax Information for New Residents... Cheers! M2

The video of that Flanker crash... Cheers! M2

Considering the other photos of the same type of pass... I would have to say it isn't a fake. Remember that the Russians crash a lot of aircraft during demos, so their safety standards aren't quite up to those of the US... Cheers! M2

However, it may be a good idea to spend as much as you can afford on a house, depending on where you are going to buy. With home prices increasing on an average of 8.7% annually here in San Antonio, buying a house is a good investment. I bought and sold one in less than three years the last time we were here, and still made several thousand dollars profit. Had we rented that entire time, we would have gotten nothing, nor would we have had the tax benefits. I was looking in the $180-200K when we moved back here last summer. We ended up going up to $240K as once we calculated what our monthly mortgage payments would be, we found we could easily afford it. So do your homework and invest wisely... Cheers! M2

Actually, we had our house inspected twice, once by an inspector we hired and again but an independent inspector the builder hired. Both found things we would've never known about, so I concur with Stagger Lee's recommendation of getting at least one inspection done before buying, even on a new house. Cheers! M2

Just the numbers, but we borrowed $184K on our house in S.A. and are paying around $1600 a month. That's a 5.875% rate on a conventional 30-year loan, with very little taxes as the property is still listed as undeveloped (as it was a year ago when it was last surveyed) and we are outside of the city limits, so no city taxes at the moment. When the property gets re-assessed, the taxes will be increased as will our mortgage payments. Cheers! M2