JarheadBoom

Fair winds and following seas, Lt Zilberman. Rest In Peace.

As some wise folks have said here, several times before... Don't suck.

It's not very imaginative, but "Deucebag" seems appropriate... Or: Bagboy Bagman Shitbag OK, none of those are very good. I'll STFU now.

I have an Inova XO3 in the knife pocket, a red Inova Microlight on the main zipper pull, and a white Microlight on my dogtag chain. Now that the tech behind LEDs has matured, I'll never buy another incandescent flashlight again. I tested a Phantom Warrior for a few months when I was in the other service (we had a Reserve MGySgt in our Flight Equipment shop who worked for NAVAIR's Flight Equipment DT&E division at Pax River for his .civ job, and would often use us to do "real world" testing on gear that NAVAIR was looking at) . The NVG-compatible white light was nice to have, but having to explain to grunts and other crewmembers from outside our squadron that it was, in fact, NVG-compatible, got old real quick. At the time, they weren't cheaper than SureFires, but that may be a different story now, since SF has some really expensive lights available now.

Couple new(er) ones from my collection...

I've got an XD45 Service, a Garand, an '03A3, and a 10/22; PA LTCF is on the way. [OPINION] I'm mildly concerned about the future of EBRs, now that the "health"care deal has been jammed through the Congress despite... ehhhh, let's just stop there and not open that can of worms. I know I still need a shotgun to round out the "well-armed home" (plus something for the wife) , but I don't see shotguns as big on the 2A hater's radar as semiauto pistols, ARs, AKs, and the like. [/OPINION]

No, they are my "current" employer. I'm on .mil leave since I'm on LTMPA orders until the end of the FY (hopefully...). Full benefits - I was/am a full-time employee, just not in the traditional "8hrs/day, 40hrs/week" mold. Both the HR folks and the Director of Maintenance were/are 100% on-board with my schedule, as long as I worked my 40hrs. I have no idea re: small firm vs. big firm as far as the reception to odd schedule requests. I just made sure that when I pitched the idea to them, I only briefly mentioned my need to maintain flying currency with the AF, and kept the emphasis on their benefit of consistently knowing that I'd be working/not working the same days every week.

Would be nice to see some AF shitbag shoes fired for fucking off instead of doing their job. But... Will I hold my breath waiting on it to happen? Not.

My .civ employer was cool with me working four 10hr shifts, with every Friday off, when I went back to work after my school tour was done. The Friday AM local at WRI is the most reliably-scheduled flight for me to maintain my currency while I'm in TR mode, so that's what I "negotiated" with them. When I proposed the idea to them, I made it seem like I was doing them a favor by knowing exactly when I'd be there and when I wouldn't, rather than doing a shotgun-pattern of "Oh, by the way, I gotta fly with the AF, so I won't be here tomorrow." Make it seem like they're getting a better deal out of it than you are.

Having a hard time deciding between a 1911 and an AR-15 build for my next firearm investment...

What a gift combo... Nice rifle, too!

Earlier this morning, one of our newer booms was asking why we have to repeatedly enter the same tailnumber into the system, to account for each individual offload during the Coronet he just returned from. During the ensuing bitch-fest from some other booms in the office, my Chief Boom related that he PERSONALLY has been fighting the giving-of-tailnumbers issue for over 15 years now, since the fuel is billed to the wing that owns the receiver aircraft, and not the receiver aircraft itself (for anyone keeping score, this means I was wrong earlier). For those of you ACC types who don't like ATP-56B procedures, you submit the changes you want to see - AMC is tired of hearing about it from us, unless it's a flying-safety issue. Straight from AMC Stan/Eval to OG Stan/Eval. Rainman: If knowing the regulations that govern my career field makes me a reg Nazi, then so be it. As for the rest... noted.

For those of you who are regular tanker customers, understand that we're not telling you where to go, or asking you for information that you think is unimportant, just for shits and grins. - We need you to go where we're telling you, because it's required by our procedures. - We need your tailnumber, because your aircraft gets "billed" for the fuel, not just your wing. Hopefully, everyone has learned something, and we can quit throwing stones at each other. edit for bad info

Wow... this went to shit pretty quickly. It's NOT always on the nose, and it's not always legible. Se the attached photo for an example from my collection. What's the lead digit in that tailnumber? I've occasionally seen the numbers painted upside-down (always on LGPOS - WTF is up with that?!?), I've seen only 3 digits (which does me no good), and I've seen no tailnumber near the receptacle at all. "The book" of tailnumbers is actually an Excel spreadsheet that each ARW/AMW's WRDCO (shoeclerk in charge of fuels) sends out to us. The most recent file has 15,213 tailnumbers in it, and it's not exactly user-friendly. I don't have a laptop in the ARO with me to look up each tail as it cycles across the boom, and I'm certain the -135 booms don't have one in their little pod, either. I've been banging my head against the wall with our WRDCO to try to get the spreadsheet broken into separate workbooks for each branch's airplanes, but so far I seem to be the only one who sees the benefit of this; after all, I couldn't care less about tailnumbers of Kiowa Warriors, Blackhawks, Chinooks, T-38s, T-6s, slick Herks, or any other aircraft that isn't AR-capable, but they're all in there. Speaking of head-banging, you haven't had fun until you argue with a WRDCO over the tailnumbers of the aircraft you refueled. I have literally been told, by our ground-bound civilian WRDCO, "No, Sergeant, that is not the tailnumber of the aircraft you refueled", even though I stood next to that particular aircraft on Wake Island, while getting an up-close tour of that brand-new F-18F. Even better is when he emails my Chief Boom and my SQ/CC and tells them that I didn't really refuel that aircraft, and that I wouldn't change the numbers just because he said so... I won't speak for the other booms/tanker pilots here, but personally I don't give a damn what order the fighters come across the boom... and frankly, I don't think it's any of my business whether the fighter lead wants to do 1-3-2-4, or 1-2-3-4, or whatever his preferred pecking order is. Just flow from the left wing to the right wing. So, on that note... Fighter folks: without getting into any OPSEC issues (not that I can think of any associated with this question, but whatever...), why would you want to flow right-to-left, or split your flight to the left AND the right, on the initial rejoin with the tanker? In the 3 years I've been doing this (yeah, I know... FNG thinks he knows it all...) I have YET to hear the word "QUICKFLOW" uttered over the radio from a receiver. That's all it takes, fighter guys - if you want to quickflow, all you have to do is say the word "QUICKFLOW" before you assume the position formerly known as precontact, and you have satisfied the coordination requirements for quickflow procedures. Shack. *edit to fix a quote

1. I can't believe I missed this for over 2 days... 2. This is NOT something I would've expected from ANYONE in AFSOC. 3. This is NOT something I would've expected from a crewdog on ANY airframe. 4. This IS, however, something I would've expected from a flight attendant... UFB......

For those of us who are required by MDS Vol3 to carry concealed, something a little smaller would be nice. NOTE: I am not suggesting we buy a smaller service pistol based solely on the needs of a couple USAF aircrew communities...

Standing by for yet another FCIF about prolonged loss of communication...

For anyone still harboring doubts as to who runs this particular show, crack open/double-click your ATP-56(B) Part 2, and read Chapter 1, specifically paragraphs 105 through 108. The tanker runs the refueling.

For those of us more interested in US mil-surps... the CMP has Greek HXP available again.

Wow... a 6-year-old (almost to the day!) thread resurrection. Wonder if that's some kind of Baseops record...

Well, at least she didn't hide her feelings...

Interesting indeed. Good find... Once again, it's not Friday yet, but so what. You Herk folks will likely enjoy this if you've not seen/heard it before: Homey 302 (from the AC's perspective) Homey 302 (from the Co's perspective)

Just for shits and grins, I tried Facebook at work today. At 2000Z, it was still banned at KWRI. Meh. Personally, I think nothing good can possibly come from this decision, both locally (even in my own SQ) and AF-wide. Cellphones and what little Internet access is available on the NIPR is distraction enough for the "support" clowns around here...

The "stock" -60M gives you 701D engines, wide-chord MRBs (same blade as the S-92, IIRC), a more durable MGB, a glass cockpit with newer/better avionics and a 1553 bus, and some structural mods.