DC

Has anyone on here started and/or finished the ACSC OLMP? (https://www.au.af.mil/au/dlmasters.asp) If so, a few questions... - What kind of work is it? A lot of reading, followed by discussion boards and paper writing? Any tests? - What's the workload of the classes? How many hours a week is required, etc? - How flexible is the program around our work schedules? I am specifically looking at the Leadership Concentration. I'm an O-3 w/ SOS in Res complete, but I'm just getting going on an AAD and it wouldn't be the end of the world to start over if it was worth it. They tried to sell it to us at SOS, but it was in the middle of a lot of other discussion and got lost in the chatter. Their website is a little sparse on the details. I asked this in the SOS/ACSC thread, but the topic was quickly changed and focused on SOS/ACSC alone and not necessarily this program, so maybe it needs its own thread.. Thanks for the info.

ThreeHoler, How is the work? Is it crushing your will to live, is it too much blue kool aid, or is it interesting and/or useful? I'm a couple classes into a Masters in Education, which will be useful when I'm done with the Air Force, but I really like the idea of free and counting towards ACSC.

It's not the flying rules and regulations that are bogging the AF down. I rarely think anything in the 11-202, 11-2MDS, etc etc are "in my way". As said above, we used to crash a lot of airplanes and now we have these regs to keep that from happening. Instead, it's the rules/regulations culture that we've imposed on ourselves for EVERYTHING else. Creativity is completely stifled in the Air Force today. As our "market" is changing from the Cold War era to post-9/11 challenges and rapidly reducing pots of money, we need innovation and our culture is killing it.

I stayed with Alamo as well (can't remember the name of the apartments they set me up in, but worth looking into.. I know they had a dog policy, but it wasn't "no dogs". Here's the info:

What credit cards are you guys using to get the best rewards? We have no consumer debt anymore (cars are paid off, etc) and we're thinking about using a credit card that gives rewards for day-to-day purchases, staying within our budget as we have since first setting one when we got married, and paying it off to $0 balance every month. We see USAA gives 1.25% for purchases over $17000/year with cash rewards tailing off at different tiers under that. Is there something better out there? Am I misreading USAA's offer? Suggestions?

Peace of mind at ages 44-57 is worth putting up with this crap another 8 years. Take that away, and you can kiss those last 8 years of service from me goodbye, Air Force. I can serve my country in other ways that are better for my family. I'm not concerned, though. This is the bi-annual "cut military retirement" scare that amounts to nothing. Move along, nothing to see here.

That was me (well, my wife) that suggested he post here. I can recommend.. was a pretty easy and good deal to walk into. Once you know you have a Non-A, it only takes a few days (a week at most) for him to set it up for you. My wife couldn't have been happier about how easy it was and she even had a few silly demands of what kind of kitchen/bathroom stuff she wanted and he got them no problem .. and it helped her put the worries of the temporary living situation away. Way better than a hotel somewhere. Also, as ACH mentioned, it is pretty quiet here for an apartment complex. Occasionally the sound of jets on final/departure from RND, but nothing to keep you up at night. The drive to work isn't bad at all, either. Just a shade over 10 minutes avoiding the highway. Going to feel like an eternity to those coming from on-base at UPT, but I'm coming from McChord and 20 minutes in the car a day feels like a breeze. To answer the above question about dogs, this place has weight limits and no puppies. Pretty standard for an apartment.

I did, yes. Our whole class is off base. I'll keep my ears open for ya and let you know if I hear of any place that'd take dogs like that. We don't have a dog (yet) but we were thinking about getting one soon(ish) and I'll ask our place, too.

Thanks guys. I found a Corporate Housing type guy to deal with and it seems like it'll work quite well. Exactly what I'm looking for. G2S, I'm pretty sure we were in T-34s and then 07-03 at VN together... yup, heading back to Vance. PIT starts Monday, can't wait!

I'm en route now, have a few options but they look like a pain in the ass. Looks like we'll have Non-As. Any new ideas?

I'm headed to T-1 PIT this Aug-Dec. Any good recommendations on where to stay for the wife and I? It looks like the renovations there might help us out if they're still on-going in August.. I've found some of these "Pit Pads" online and through word of mouth, but they look more bachelor friendly. What's the latest and greatest? Any specific suggestions?

From what I can tell, most of the Deid TCNs I've ever had the pleasure of doing business with aren't even Muslim, anyway. And the only host nation bozos I ever really ran into were customs police. I'm curious. What are the Army and Marine Corps policies for their personnel that are forward deployed in Afghanistan working closely with the Muslim population? I've heard of a lot of shenanigans that occur down range, as well. Though nothing like the Deid!

Seen Marines wearing that kind of shirt in chow halls all over the AOR. Since the armor goes over it, you wouldn't be able to tell they're wearing it outside the wire. Not sure what their regs say about wearing it without armor, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't allowed. They weren't getting their asses chewed out for it, but it was an AF chow hall, I'm sure the sunglasses nazis are scared of them.

We had an all female crew on our 07 deployment at LTAG, but it was more for shits and grins for us.. not leadership's idea and there was no publicity or patches. They somehow managed to come back safe and had fun doing it. Lots of box office jokes over beer. There was talk of quietly putting together an all bad-PT score crew to prove a point, but weight and balance issues... FWIW, Moose guys at OKAS are all doubled up now w/ nearly no exception.. and most times your roommate is NOT on your crew. We made do w no problems. Its kinda nice to have your roommate gone flying when you aren't..actually. I never worked w/ this guy, but he's gotta be a pretty bad leader if he's causing blue on blue/barney v herc arguments from the grave.

I volunteered for something once and now I'm stuck doing it for a dozen or more years.

I recently read The Coldest Winter and I loved how it wove the bigger story of the Korean War with the small stories of individual soldiers themselves. And I like reading about famous fighter engagements as much as the next guy.. but with a couple years of airlift in me I'm starting to feel like I should know more about the heritage in my community. It would be nice to feel a better connection to our past... we don't have enough of that. Any good air transport-related books out there any of y'all have read? About Operation Vittles, the Hump or any of the WWII drops, etc etc? The more more stories about the individuals involved and their traditions the better.

Free wireless at several locations on base now (incld. pool). Kind of have to jump through some hoops w/ anti-virus, etc to get it to work and it isn't superfast.. but it works.

The amount of prep time involved in an emergency middle of the night trip to the pisser 150 feet out the tent door at OAKN has been dramatically reduced since our good NATO bros have taken over there and the fear of having to explain that your bladder is about to explode and you didn't care about putting your shirt on inside out in the pitch black tent has gone away. Yet, surprisingly, ops at OAKN haven't ground to a dead halt due to such uniform infractions. Go figure!

HA! This is my biggest pet peeve in the Air Force. While waiting for the crew bus (and waiting, and waiting) at ETAR and seeing the pax buses lined up nicely doing nothing I can see how people get so mad at the picture of the school buses in the flooded parking lot during Katrina.

"Backside" approaches in the C-17 are very easy. Easiest plane you'll ever land. Nothing to fear at all, just takes a couple run-throughs in the sim and it'll click for you.. You set the Approach Path Indicator to the angle of your approach (3 degrees for normal 3/4 flap approaches and up to 5 degrees to get a 1000 VVI at approach speed on full flap approaches). Then select final flaps, engage the ATT (holds pitch angle automatically) 8 degrees above the API and use the throttles to move the Flight Path Vector to the API line. If the API line isn't on the spot you want to land, you drag it up and down with the FPV (it'll basically move towards it). If you need to drag it down quite a bit, in "backside" the speed brakes switch modes to be activated only as you hold the switch in and dump lift off the wing nearly instantly to sink the jet without taking power off the engines (the lift comes back nearly instantly when you let go of the thumb switch). Step on the FPV to center it and use roll to keep it all on the runway. Hard to describe in text, but easy to understand about the second time you try. Enjoy!

Not the funniest EVER, but it made me laugh. Last T-1s coming home for the day, we were coming back from a singleton mission fam O&B. I had a great flight w/ the only problem being a tendency to mix up my radios. While descending into Vance my instructor is joking w/ me the whole time looking at the clock about overflying. I'm doing my best to stay as high as I can to keep TAS up on the descent and then plumet in at the end, which backfires into them giving us retarded vectors. We're the only aircraft on Approach North's frequency. Right after getting vectors he keys up the mic: My IP: "Hey Tora 2, I can't believe these fukers are going to overfly me on a Friday." (he was referring to me and the other student) ATC: "Tora 71, Approach. Its Thursday, sir." My IP (w/o missing a beat on now on correct freq.): "Hey Tora 2, I can't believe I just said that to ATC." A couple minutes later ATC: "Tora 71 flight, contact tower channel 5, and we did the best we could for you, sir. I don't see why you had to be so rude to us." All was well when I pointed out we didn't have to take ALL five minutes of taxi time. He didn't have to fill out overfly paperwork and I didn't buy any downgrades for comms.

My XM signal is completely blocked when sitting in a drive through waiting for my french fries when the window is on the north side of the building. Very obnoxious problem, though pretty limited in scope. Not in Altus though. That town built all of its fast food windows on the south or east/west sides. Something about the restaurants being all on the west side of Main St I think... That being said, I spent a lot of time in my car today and it was great to have baseball coming into my ears again. Ahhh... opening day.

Football or baseball. That's what the choice used to be about. The merger news is true, but it won't happen overnight. So basically, if you're a fan of both sports but like football more, you can roll the dice that the merger will be complete enough by football season (if it is even approved) and go for XM. Or you can get Sirrus and go w/o baseball this summer. I got XM when I moved to Pensacola and saw how long my commute would be. I couldn't tolerate the regular radio much longer and wanted to listen to the ball games on the way home. Baseball was during the week and I just didn't find myself listening to the radio (which is only in my car) as much during the weekend for football. If I want to watch football games that aren't available at home, I just go to the sports bar. Satellite radio is a godsend for long, solo cross-country car rides, though.

I took a class on ear phisiology in college (don't ask) and all I remember is those little hairs in your ear that move back and forth with sound waves only have so much back and forth in them before they fall out. Each hair is tuned to a certain frequency, so you can develop holes in your hearing at certain frequencies over time which for pilots would probably be the frequencies their engines whine at. Overall, more sound waves going in the ear = bad.

Vance T-1s 2x C-17 Travis 2x C-17 Charlston C-17 McChord (me!) KC-135 Mildenhall KC-135 Macdill KC-135 Bangor Maine (ANG) T-6 Vance E-6 Tinker (Navy)