HerkFE

Okay, disregard. Had a funny story about old Guard guys (Schenectady in particular), bad vision, and AATTC.

lloyd, aren't you at Schenectady?

....and it's Ram with the BODN trophy for the day.

The war kicked off 2 days prior to my 21st birthday. I was a young squid on the USS Saratoga with just over two years in the Navy. We had deployed from Mayport, Florida on August 7, 1990...five days after Saddam invaded Kuwait. At the start of the fight, we should have been making our way home from our regularly scheduled six month deployment. We were still in the Red Sea ten days after the ceasefire when we were finally able to point toward the Suez Canal and begin making our way home. We lost one plane on the initial strike...Scott Speicher. Seems like we lost a plane a day for the first 3 or 4 days of the campaign. Several of our guys were paraded before the cameras. Jeffrey Zaun was one of the more memorable ones. Little did I know at that time but the next 21 years of my 23 year military career would be dominated by the fallout from that campaign.

Sent a PM

We had a hott Lt get taken into the room where she is in with the interrogator and the entire class is in the auditorium watching on the big screen. Interrogator slapped her and you could see a slight smile on her face when he did it. When they brought her back into the auditorium to debrief the whole thing, they froze the video at that point and the instruction said "I guess we all know what you are in to"

I'm just an old (not too old, 45), retired, enlisted dude so I may not have the first hand experience you are looking for but I've been around a little. Take the manned slot with the Reserves. Build some time, go to the airlines, stay in the Guard/Reserve, live the dream. If, down the road you want to go RPA, that door will be wide ass open. May not happen the other way. Just my two cents. Eng out.

This is all the airline's fault for creating a hiring boom.

"This is Pandora's box," he said. "If you say, why can't they be on RPAs, a guy with stripes, why does it matter? Well, OK, why can't they be the pilot of a U-28? How about an MC-12? How about an F-16? F-22? Your prize of all things, F-35?"

https://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/careers/air-force/enlisted/2015/09/28/enlisted-drone-pilots-decision-expected-early-next-year/72806812/

Uhhh, you two need to get a hobby...maybe drinking Sorry, I went back and read the original post, .... those shoes need to get a hobby. Working mids and it's been a long night.

And, for the record, I would never try doing that.

I stole this from somewhere, may have been on here and my apologies if I did. Anyway, the struggle is real.

Well, just found out last week that we are going to be doing a river cruise from Luxembourg to Nuremberg starting on Oct 6, ending on Oct 13. We are going to leave on Sep 30 or Oct 1 and head to Stuttgart to take in Volksfest for a few days prior to hopping a train to Luxembourg for the cruise. Will probably spend a few days on the end around Nuremberg as well. Hoping to get some pics for the Dirndls thread while at Volksfest.

I left there in July 2005 and I THINK we weren't in PT gear but I have killed many brain cells since then. When I went back in '10 it was PT gear.

I've been looking at that drone. I have never flown any kind of remote control anything so my only concern is jumping into too much, too soon. I don't want to F up a $1300 toy right out of the gate. Am I thinking/worrying too much?

The only thing I can offer is to say that I saw a few Navy/Marines cross over to the Viper when I was in maintenance in the Air Guard so it is definitely doable. I'll also qualify that by saying I have been away from the Guard for 12 years now so I know nothing about the current climate. I saw many cross over from all the other branches to the 130 in my 8 years as an FE. Only one of those that I can remember was a single seat guy (MC Harrier). From my limited perspective I think it just boils down to their manning situation and if they think you are a good dude. I'll also add that I have never heard any of them say, "Damn, I wish I hadn't left the <insert branch> to come to the AF". Good luck

"F-35 pilot Major John Wilson " must have an airline job lined up. His AF career is over after that blasphemous statement.

What the absolute Fvck?

B&W Herk

I was thinking the same thing. This could be the key to getting those goat F'ers in line.... "keep your $hit up and pig assholes will rain from the sky"

Makes me want to fire up the Big Green Egg....

I'm curious to know from you Viper and Hog drivers who have used SADL, how much and how well it works for what it was primarily designed for...to prevent fratricide? After we got the fleet modded it sounded like, from listening to maintenance debriefs, that it was only being used as a new, nice to have, toy that helped with SA in the flight. Even then I was doubtful as to how well it would work when trying to coordinate with grunts. After leaving the F-16 community and going to the Herk and seeing just how damn hard it was to work with the Army to just call them on a two way radio to get drop clearance I am convinced that SADL would never work in the CAS mission.