Toro

What an absolutely horrible set of polar opposites.

BFM tenet - don't point at something unless you plan to kill it.

Outstanding. The Onion ought to come hang out with the Air Force for a few weeks - they'd have a field day.

Apparently nobody here has flown with Saudis. "Hey - you've got an engine fire!" "Allah Akbar....."

It's because the programming provided to AFN is done so free of charge - they don't pay re-broadcasting or syndication fees. The reason they don't have to pay for any of the programming is specifically because they don't have advertisements - and are therefore not making money of it. I do agree that free commercials should not mean lame commercials - apparently a job prerequisite for AFN commercial director is to be legally retarded.

That sounds about right. I am very good friends with the guy who was the class leader of the whole thing. He was a prior WSO who upgraded to instructor as a Lt in the F-15E and whooped ass in the portions of UPT he completed. He was on his way to a DG when the whole thing came down, and is the first to admit that he could have handled the whole situation better. When the hammer was falling, he went back to his bros in the F-15E community to write letters of recommendation to prevent him getting a dishonorable discharge, and it should come as no surprise that we all come forth. In the end he received an honorable discharged and is now working for Boeing making three times as much as he would be in the AF. Another retarded decision made by the Air Force - a great fighter pilot was lost because some idiot FGO/GO was trying to prove a point. On the other hand, the wife of the IP in question actually tried to petition this board for help. She started a thread titled something to the effect of "Help the students at Columbus" that said she wanted to start a petition for BOps members to sign which (in her mind) would clear the students (but mostly her husband) of all charges. When I tried to take the discussion off-line to tell her to not disclose details of the incident, she took offense. I don't think she knew I was friends with the class commander (who had provided many details of her husband's "issues") and she threw down the gauntlet with an "I'll contact your commander" speech. So I found her .mil e-mail (she was a SVS civilian) and basically told her my commanders name and number, as well as my own, and told her that she'd have an ugly road if she wanted to pursue the matter. Funny....I never heard from her again. This is a sad sad example of how the Air Force distributes justice with an uncalibrated scale.

F@cking outstanding. Best post I've seen here in a while.

Regardless of the particular situation, it's always a good idea to have your ADP updated. Sputnik's explanation is right on. We've all seen the e-mails from the AFPC robot spamming us with wonderful deals it comes up with like 365s to Iraq and aide-de-camp butt boy exec type jobs. Having your ADP updated can give you a leg up when the occasional good deal (or bad deal you're willing to volunteer for) comes your way.

In no way to detract from Sgt Rhyner, I'd like to give props to the bros in the air. As it turns out, both guys in the article are former students of mine. F-15E pilots protect ground forces in massive firefight

Yes, I have used it twice. I took back the interest on my most recent deposit in December. I would seriously doubt you'll earn a better interest rate on something else with the current state of the economy.

I don't know whether you are allowed to put in more than 10K, but you don't earn interest off anything above $10K, so there is no need to put in more than that. Any interest above the cap is not automatically deposited back into your regular pay - you need to go to mypay and request an SDP withdrawal of interest accrued that puts your balance over 10K. Sounds right, but I've never seen that statement about net amount due before.

Probably number 4. 1-3 are BS and in all seriousness, it's probably very close to #4 - they're trying to prevent any confusion arising from issues like 1-3.

"As long as you're trying to be somebody else, the best you can hope for is to be second best."

Having flown Ryan Air many times, I can tell you that they're great with an almost bait-and-switch tactic. Log onto their website and you'll see great deals that turn into monster bills by the time you're done. Example - London to Belfast = one way for 99 pence (about $1.50). Awesome deal, right? Not so much Taxes/Fees for each flight = 25.26 pounds (so 50.52 for round trip) Fee for airport check in (which I must do as a non-UK citizen) 9.50 pounds for 2xflights Fee for checking in one bag = 19.00 pounds for 2x flights So the round trip flight that started out as 1.98 pounds (about $3) actually costs $79.02 pounds (about $112). Now don't get me wrong, $112 is a pretty great deal for a round trip from London to Belfast, but when you add to that the cattle-car mentality of Ryan Air (you have to pay extra to board first, otherwise it's a free-for-all when the gates open), the no-frills (no services on board that aren't purchased), their tendency to cancel flights with no remorse to customers (had it happen twice to me), and absolutely HORRENDOUS customer service, they become pretty unappealing.

Okay, I just did some research on this as it may apply to me and I want to make sure my caveman brain got this right.... The DFAS 2009 Military Pay Table has a note that says, "For the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Chief Master Sergeant of the AF, Sergeant Major of the Army or Marine Corps or Senior Enlisted Advisor of the JCS, basic pay is $7,143.30. Combat Zone Tax Exclusion for O-1 and above is based on this basic pay rate plus Hostile Fire Pay/Imminent Danger Pay which is $225.00." So the max amount I can receive tax free is $7143.30+225=$7368.30 a month. Let's say - for the sake of making the math easy - I currently pay $368.30 in Federal taxes a month. With that excluded, I am eligible to receive an additional $7000 tax free (which jives with the figure Herk Driver posted). If I were to receive a bonus of $25,000 during a month when I was deployed, I would receive $7000 tax free, then I would be taxed on the remaining $18,000. Assuming getting a take-away of about 75% after taxes, I would take 13,500 from my taxable 18K. This, plus the $7000 I received tax free give me a net take-away of $20,500 from my bonus. As Hacker mentioned, you normally (without tax-free) take away about $18,500 from the bonus. So - based off these figures - you take away about an extra two grand from being deployed when you get the bonus? Math in public, brain hurts...but does this look right?

Actually, it's Billy Madison, and Jenkspaz had it right. Go watch the movie again if it doesn't make sense. STFU...still waiting.

There's one way to find out - I've renabled his posting ability.

Rule 4. Your user name is spot on and your speaking privileges are on time out.

Machts nichts, I recently returned from a year flying exchange with the Saudis and shortly after I returned I swapped 'war stories' with a guy who had just returned from a 365 to Iraq teaching them to fly. Our stories were very similar in the sense of their airmanship, military bearing and general work ethic - very different from the military and flying we are used to. You can PM me if you'd like specifics or a contact e-mail for the guy.

Well hell, since everybody else's uniform is so difficult, we should just flight suits to everybody! Really? Car mechanics wear flight suits? Hmmm...didn't see that the last time I went to Jiffy Lube. Maybe when you've been in the Air Force for more than 10 minutes, you'll realize why things like this irk those of us who have been around for a while.

Wow. Don't know who it is, but I did find this guy without searching too much. And that's not even zoomed all the way in.

Great response. It never ceases to amaze me how many idiot spouses think they wear their husband's rank.

No. What you are doing in the plane does not (unfortunately) have as much to do with your career progression as what you do outside of the plane. The primary things that will affect career progression (i.e. go on to an OPR) in the plane are things like making wingman/flight lead/instructor of the quarter/year, or how WELL you did in your upgrade (finished first, fastest, best seen, etc.). Not only does that not have anything to do with your rank, but as a prior nav, I would expect you to have the SA and airmanship to be at the top of the pack for this kind of stuff. Your OPR does not care what your rank is when you make FL. Ditto to the hours and experience - none of that goes on an OPR unless you've got a bullet about flying combat sorties or flying the most hours in the squadron (sortie hog).

I am not a nav, and while I do not fly with Navs, I fly with WSOs. As an F-15E pilot with 1500+ hours and former FTU flight commander, I have a little experience with some of these issues. Most of my experience is with WSOs and while they are not the same, I am primarily referring to WSOs when I say Navs. "I wasn't going to let this get by me though until I lost many people who I thought were good friends after they were selected for pilot and the reeking attitude associated with it followed with them." Douchebags. They’ll get straightened out by phase 2 of UPT. Don’t worry about them. "However, the sad truth is I have to come here because today's Air Force has this methodology of “pat your friends back and tell him he did a good job even if he's unimportant just to make him feel good.” Although, some jobs in the Air Force are more equally important than others... so it seems." Don’t bring Navs down to the level of the sad-sack non-rated puds in the AF who need to have their egos stroked to feel like warriors and part of the fight. The dude handing out towels at the Deid is not a warrior – the Nav who does his job on a combat mission is. "I find it problematic I am even posting this here. Why do navigators not have their own resources out their. Why must we backseat a pilots forum as well?" Wrong. This isn’t a pilot forum – it’s a military aviation forum. Nowhere on this forum is anything other than individual threads titled with “pilot” Now, on to your posts. About half of them are idiotic ignorant ramblings of the uninformed, and I’m not going to even dignify them with a response. I will address some of the legitimate ones: "*By definition, every pilot could do a navigators job, proven by the existence of single seat Air Frames like the F-16. However, a navigator cannot in fact do a pilots job." Can a fighter pilot do a Navs job? Sure – Viper pilots do it all the time. Can he time share between Nav and pilot duties and do them as efficiently as two individuals doing them on their own? Hell no. "The argument I usually hear to this is that if the pilot has a heart attack on a plane the crew ejects. If the navigator has a heart attack on the place, the pilot can still attempt to complete the mission." If my Nav has a heart attack, I think I might just abort my mission. Any WSO I know would try to land before ejecting. The pilot can still "attempt" to finish the mission, but the only thing that he can positively accomplish without his WSO is safely landing the aircraft. Big difference there. "*Around the office the only thing a navigator really navigates is himself to the coffee pot for all of the pilots." A Nav’s rated responsibilities may be different from the pilot, but this has absolutely no reflection on his abilities with the queep. "*A navigator by definition of his occupation can never reach an O-6 because they can never command an air frame. Because of this, they cannot reach O-6 in the capacity of a navigator and must go somewhere else like acquisitions to reach O-6 as a commander. Even so, a Navigator will never be commander of an operations wing." Wrong wrong wrong wrong. I have had WSO DOs, Sq/CCs, OG/CCs, and a WG/CC. And I have seen a metric shit-ton of Nav O-6s at the staff. "*Navigators have lower expectations than pilots. (IFT, UNT, training on air frame, etc...)" Total and absolute horseshit. Anybody who shows up with that attitude gets pummeled into achievement or is FEB’d. "*Navigators can serve in capacities outside of actually being a navigator on an airplane. (In other words, they finish UNT then go do something else in the AF)" Yeah….everybody does this. *Navigators can fly UAVs. With a PPL, yes. I know two WSOs who have done it. *Navigators must finish a PCS before they can apply for pilot, therefore because of the length of their training period, it takes them longer to be able to reapply for pilot than any other commissioned officer. Wrong. I would have to take of my shoes to count up the number of WSOs in their first Ops tour who applied for, and received a pilot slot. We have even submitted pilot slot applications for WSOs in the FTU. The long and short of it is that you’re letting a bunch of people who either don’t truly know about this subject, or feel the need to speak negatively of it, get you down. The job is what you make of it and I can tell you that if you come to the Strike Eagle you most certainly will not be a second class citizen.