Torch169

Thread bump- If anyone wants some firsthand information on the program, let me know.

Sorry for the delay... Gearing up to head out the door. I ended up staying with my unit and biting the bullet. The training out at McGuire had some good stuff and bad stuff. Lots of army-centric training that I hope to never utilize and plenty of culture training. From what I have been told, the entire advisor program is not going away for a good long while. I'm just glad I've been through about 5 million dollars worth of training for this. On the bright side, I get to come home to a MICT capstone inspection next year, so I've got that goin' for me...which is nice.

I appreciate the words of advice, boys. I really do. One of my other concerns is whether or not my current unit would even release me to another unit since my name is "in the system" for the AAF stuff. Any thoughts on that? As well, I feel like I'm screwing over my alternate. Like Discus said, it's not helping America and it's not worth my life, but I can't help feeling as though I'm simply passing a turd down the line. If this was a normal deployment with the boys, I wouldn't think twice about going; hell, those are some good memories you make when you're hackin' the mish. But this one ain't normal and flying with guys who struggle with jumping jacks, well...

So, when I found out that I was selected to be our unit's IP rep on this whole advisor program, I was not actually an IP yet. Obviously, no one was going to volunteer to actually take this assignment. My big question is, is what the unit did (putting my name down on paper as the IP deploying without actually being a qualified IP) legal? To clarify, I will be an IP by the time we would head over. I am really struggling with this whole thing. I don't want to go, for obvious reasons, but I don't want to look like a vag and burn bridges by possibly jumping to another unit. There's not a whole lot in aviation or the military that really frightens me, but this is one of those things. If anyone can shed some light, I'd really appreciate it. Cheers to ya, Discus!

:beer: :beer: It's certainly not going be the same without them. Rest well, brothers...

I won't use names here, but the relatively new OG commander here at Bagram with the 455th is rapidly taking over the number one spot on the "Most Likely to be Shot by His Own People" list. At the very least, he has alienated the entire C-130 community here by deriding our maintenance, calling us lazy, disrespectful, unprofessional pilots, claiming that he could fix our scheduling issues in 2 hours, and calling at least five members to meet with him about "blatant disregard for rules" (Their shirts were untucked while walking to the overflowing porta-johns). Another story involving his wrath was told to me by a FAST guy we had today. I had to sit down when he was telling me the story. Here goes: Airman so-n-so lives in the same dorm complex as Col. L___. As the airman is using the facility, he notices that his hand has broke through the one-ply toilet paper, resulting in fecal matter being on his hand. When he completes his ass wiping, he proceeds out of the stall with shirt untucked, so as to prevent fecal matter from getting on his shirt. Col L just happened to be in the can at the same time and spots the airman with his shirt untucked, washing his hands. The colonel proceeds to chew the kid's ass, asking him why he would choose to break the rules and demonstrate irresponsibility and a lack of integrity. In the end, the colonel ordered the airman to meet with his boss, the MSG commander, about his shirt being untucked. I asked the airman if he honestly has to take time out of a mission support group commander's day to discuss a t-shirt being untucked, in a latrine, while the kid is washing his hands; all the airman did was nod. I am still in disbelief. Obviously, we have all had some incredibly horrible bosses, but I think this guy might be the worst that I have seen in 11 years. He, along with his two XO's (yes, he has two executive officers), have been on a nightly rampage for the past week, busting people for everything from no disco belt, to shirts untucked, to shoes not tied, to strings hanging out of pt shorts, to smoking in unauthorized spots, to shirts that are visibly wet from sweat that has acquired during workouts. B-hut row is now known as "Tin Pan Alley." LOR's are being threatened for uniform violations. In what is, perhaps, the biggest sign that this slug has completely lost sight of what his job is here at Bagram: a flying line has been lost so that he can have a meeting with two crewmembers regarding their shirts being untucked while conversing outside their B-hut. This man's personal quest to ensure that everyone is following rules of dress and appearance is adversely affecting flying operations. I've began wondering if that is suitable material for filing an IG complaint. I almost forgot another funny story: We had a guy meet with the wise colonel about an illegal (Hawaiian) shirt that was being worn in one of the common areas in Tin Pan Alley. The colonel, in his grand wisdom, asked "So, when you were wearing the illegal shirt, was it tucked in?" Please let me know if you know this colonel that I am talking about. I would love to know where he completely derailed...

:beer: :beer:

I'm not so sure that taking Bagram anyday is really a wise decision. The other day I was busted coming out of the wood house shower by a first shirt that likes to camp out around 1130 in the shady area and bust people for uniform infractions. Apparently, after pulling my shirt on, my right sleeve became rolled up. As I am walking out of the door, with flip-flops on, a towel over my shoulder and a shaving kit and dirty clothes in my hands, I hear a voice yell "Hey!" I turn around to see a SMSgt shirt with a nicely pressed uniform standing there with a cold bottle of water. Wondering who the hell he was yelling at, he follows up with "You need to roll your sleeves down. Come on, you need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem!" Since I had no idea that my sleeve had become rolled up, but given the fact that he was looking directly at me, I kindly said "excuse me?" He then proceeds to storm over to me and point to my right sleeve. He continued on with "Do you need a refresher on the PT uniform policy?" I kindly said "no, thank you," turned my back and began to walk off. Well, he wasn't done. He follows me and tells me to roll my sleeve down. I roll my sleeve down, say thank you again and walk off. Perhaps if I had not just finished another 16-hour day, I could have come up with a good whopper to fire back at him. As I was walking back to my oven-like B-hut, trying not to roll my ankles on the gigantic chunks of white rock, I began to wonder if the reason that the shirt was such an asshole was because he was unhappy having his own shitter and shower in his RLB. This probably wasn't the case; he probably had to drop off his own laundry that day or maybe he didn't get a good seat at movie night. Or maybe, just maybe, they didn't have enough Diet Coke at the chow hall. Either way, I still laugh when I think about people who have so little to do that they will hang out, doing nothing, waiting to make themselves feel needed by jumping in other people's shit. What do I know though?

Apparently she is under the delusion that by screaming "GRRRRRRRRR!" in every picture, she makes herself presentable. Perhaps her face was on fire and someone put it out with a wet chain? Man, I'm going to hell...

Holy shit! That just made my Rex Grossman-induced vomiting look like child's play. The broad reminds me of Pazuzu from "The Exorcist." Still, one of the funniest things I've ever seen! Here's to having nightmares tonight!

So a ballpark figure for PIQ is roughly around 6 months in duration? Of course, I love the thought of being back in an E-mod for as long as possible but it would be nice to have a rough estimate. JG, you headin' to LRF or are you lucky enough to head to Dobbins? You know you want to be back in an E and hear the sound of a GTC...

Good call, Techsan. Agreed.

The results are in from today's AD drop here at Corpus. And the awards for complete breakdown of the NSS system go to... 2 J-Models - Little Rock 1 MC - Mildenhall 1 PC-12 - Cannon 3 slicks to Dyess 3 slicks to Little Rock 1 to the Cheyenne experience 1 AC-130 - Hurlburt For all those who were wondering what I was referring to as far as the breakdown of the NSS, one of the J-mod recipients had two (2, dos) ready-room unsats. Essentially, said dude showed up to the briefing so unprepared that the IP wouldn't take him flying. The greatest thing about Navy training is that it's based almost entirely on in-plane performance. That's also its worst aspect. So, I guess my words of advice and wisdom are that you can be a shitbag here as long as you have decent hands.

Did anyone else have to watch that CNN video on mute after about 15 seconds of listening to that twit of a reporter and our highly informed eyewitness who experienced this traumatic event? Now I realize why I hate cable news and everything associated with it.

Speech writer?! That's a f'ing assignment?! I guess when you're steady ugly they don't even let you open your mouth...you just have to think about it. Thank God I didn't go to college and went to State.