Toro

I heard the exact same thing about Laughin, except it was that they built a new gate and made the original gate the "back gate". I believed it, seeing as how the static displays and guard shack (in 97, at least) look a lot like you would expect a front gate to look.

Tankard from Military Service Co. Send an email to Gina Powell - GPowell@mscebsco.com.

The left hand drive on the right side of the road takes some getting used to, but so does driving on the right side of the road with a right hand drive. We took both our cars over there and never had any problem. I had a compact, my wife had an SUV - I only drove a right-hand drive once. Roads were never really a problem (again, takes some getting used to), but the parking can definitely be a pain the ass. I had a bud who brought over an Expedition and, other than some parking issues, never had any problems. M2 has some good points on the MX. I had a engine part fail that would have cost me $2000 on the economy to fix. The AAFES auto shop (where we got our cars tuned up regularly) was fortunately able to order and fix it for significantly cheaper. We planned to only take one car and buy one when we get there, but were unable to sell the second. If you do take a second car over, it will be on your dime. It cost about a grand when we took ours over (2001) and when we brought it back (2004). It's also a mild ass pain to take the second car because you're only paying to get it to the port of entry (which for Lakenheath was about a 5 hour drive), whereas your first car will be delivered to Brandon (about 10 minutes north of Lakenheath). We ended up paying the contracted delivery guy extra to throw it on one of his trucks and bring it up. No way, go England!

Speaking of Bucs flybys, this here makes it well worth the cost. And if you want to talk about military presence, how about when the receiver scores a touchdown, hands off the ball to a pilot in the end zone, then salutes him and runs back onto the field? Jurevicius hands off ball to pilot

If you're travelling on orders you can get passes for the family to escort you to the gate of your departure. If you land at an airport with a USO, the USO people can escort your family to the gate to greet you when you arrive.

No, Tyndall is the Formal Training Unit.

Not trying to be a dick, but you must be either.. 1) Not on AD 2) Working for a douchebag nazi Why are you asking? Do you have a boss who tells you that can't workout during the day? Do you punch a time card when you get to work and when you leave? Do you get a lunch break? Do you work strictly 8-5? Are you banned from going to PT even if your assigned work is complete? As long as you are not actively engaged in an activity, meeting, briefing, flight, etc., your boss should have any authority to not let you PT. Squadrons conduct PT as a function (MPF regularly shuts down from 1000-1400 to do squadron PT), so I can't imagine that leadership would look kindly on him not letting his people go to the gym in the middle of the day. But no, I don't know where you're going to find a reg that says you can work out during duty hours. Edit: Stract found 10-248 while I typed.

Okay, don't get me wrong. I'm obviously not against flying, flybys, cross-countries or good deals. I'm just against people talking out their a$$es, which both sides were doing in this situation. I don't disagree on flybys, but don't try to sell me a flyby as valuable CT training for a fighter guy. Getting more of a feel for the aircraft? I do that every day...don't need a flyby to help me. Close formation? I can practice that going to and from the area and coming up initial. More comfortable talking to ATC? No way...ATC is ATC. Recovering to an instrument approach? Well, that's just right out - if the weather is good enough to do a flyby, you probably don't need to recover to an instrument approach. There's a difference. In grey jets (at least in Strike Eagles), we don't have too many CT XC opportunities. I went XC almost every weekend as a T-38 IP. I went on about one XC a year in the F-15E. You have your choice of XC opportunities in white jets - I volunteered for all my flybys and used my CT squares to go. In the F-15E, I volunteered for one flyby (Tampa Bay Bucs flyby) for which I only logged RAP squares (same as any daily flight) and I was 'voluntold' for the other two. Chill. It was a saracastic remark to a douchebag "analyst with the Center for Defense Information" who felt the authority to categorize pilots, their training, and speak for us on behalf of what we call "converting gas to noise." He made an idiotic remark, that was my point. Again, here's the point. Flybys are not valuable training for pilots. Can I hone my skills for shacking timing? Sure. But I'd take a 4-ship SAT sortie with a +/- 10 second TOT any day for the sake of training. Would I rather do a Daytona flyby, land, and get to the track by the 25th lap so I can schmooze with the crowd and be a hero? Hell yeah (and I've done it). Flybys are valuable to the military. Relatively speaking, they do not cost too much money But they are not valuable training. Period dot.

Deploying right after SOS is the only reason I could think to bring your family to SOS. While I was there, there were a couple people who brought their spouses, but only a few. It's only a few weeks away from the family and there's not much for them to do while you're in class all day. As far as being 'that guy' who doesn't hang out with the rest of the class, I wouldn't worry about that either for a couple reasons- 1) It's not a UPT class you need to bond with, it's an SOS class. My class only had one (half-assed) extracurricular activity. You're not going to want to bond with most of the shoeclerks there anyway. 2) Even if your family is there, you can bring them to get togethers that your flight puts on. Don't try to fight it, there's nothing you can do. SOS is coming for you.

Stupidity from all sides on this one. I think the story is crap, but the "officials" are doing a crappier job of justifying it. Vegas to Florida just for a flyby is excessive. You don't need the Thunderbirds to perform at Daytona when the Vipers from Shaw (or just about any base in the US since they're all closer than Nellis) can do it. It'd be different if this was an airshow with a full-up demonstration, but $80,000 for a five second event? Bullshit. Yes, it comes of out existing training budgets and schedules, but those flights come from somewhere. In your average squadron, a four-ship flyby comes at the expense of a four-ship upgrade. If the flybys are done during outside of the normal flying week (weekends), the sorties are still factored into the flying hour program. As afnav mentioned, I have seen flybys accomplished at the tail end of sorties, but I would certainly not say "almost always." I did three flybys in the T-38 and three in the F-15 and none were in conjunction with a training sortie. Copy - that's what the fat kids should log as training, not fighters. Yeah, that's exactly what we call it. Dickhead. I looked for the AFI that governs flyby requests and approval. I couldn't find it, but I know the Orlando Sentinel is out to lunch. Having read the AFI, coordinated, requested, and flown in many flybys, I know that - at least on the Air Force side - the approval and coordination is anything but easy and they don't task individuals to 'find available squadrons'. A flyover for an enlosed stadium? I gotta say that's just retarded. It's a flyover - it's great promotion for the military. It seems outlandlish when you list the prices of all these flybys, but how about some responsible reporting here with a percentage of cost that a flyby makes up in the overall daily cost for the military. I'm going to guess that a four-ship flyby comprises about 0.001% of the average US military's daily flying cost. Relatively speaking, it's not that much. You don't hear people bitching about the cost to fly aircraft all over the country and world for airshows - it's achieving the same purpose. Orlando Sun - STFU and go find some real news. Military spokespeople - Stop trying to justify this with BS excuses about training and people who don't have AF bases nearby.

Thread Revival! Got a slide show called "Military Hardware" with a bunch of great pictures from all the services. Right click to download, but here's some samples - Navy Marines Army Air Force pics are the best of the lot - you'll have to download to check them out.

You'll need these.

Un-f***-ing believable Well, that pretty much sums up everything. Code Pink....good Lord. F***ing California. Learn to swim.

Anybody watch it?

I posted in another thread about the TSA making me chuck out my toothpaste while guys with fake bombs are getting on planes. Well, it’s happened again. On the one hand, these guys can’t (or aren’t allowed to) apply common sense to the policies and allow somebody with 2 oz of toothpaste board a plane because it’s in an 8 oz container. On the other hand, a guy is allowed to board a plane with a fake bomb. But as Devil's advocate for the TSA, this is exactly why people need to STFU about being ‘inconvenienced’ by having to take off their shoes, go through extra screenings, and get a pat-down.

Fakes outed everywhere. Personally, if I want to read about ninjas, I go straight to the source.

Apparently you slept through the last couple months.

Anybody else have their Services Squadron merging with the Mission Support Squadron into "Force Support Squadron" "The new squadron will have five flights: Force Development, Manpower and Personnel, Airmen and Family Services, Sustainment Services and Community Services." Great, so now we can have the limited hours of the MSS combined with the daily e-mail spam of the Services squadron. It's the best of both worlds!

Did you just compare this punk who cursed out a three-star to people who don't tuck in their PT gear? UFB.

Yes. No, but neither is being a disrespectful snot-nosed sh!tbag. I say HARUMPH. It's a matter of SA, and this idiot obviously had none. I was TDY at Tyndall a couple years ago and dropped our guys off at the Burger King to run in and grab breakfast. I parked the car, engine running, at the curb outside since they'd only be in there for a couple minutes. While I was waiting, somebody in BDUs (couldn't see his rank) pulled up next to me and (somewhat matter of factly) said, "You need to move your car, you can't park there". He was in BDUs, so if I was a moron and assumed he was some first shirt reflector-belt nazi, I could have told him to pound sand. Instead, I saluted smartly and moved my car. He drove away and, NSTFS, his license plate said "SFS CC". Don't shoot your mouth off when you don't know who you're talking to. Justice served, IMHO.

Not a bad gig IMHO. There are two pilots, they fly out of Dhahran. It's Saudi Arabia, so it sucks, but you get tax free, hostile fire, hazard duty, family separation, etc., without actually getting shot at (hopefully). You're also a 20 minute drive to Bahrain where booze and hot chicks are legal. If you want any details, PM me and I can get you in touch with the guys there.

Okay, then maybe you can figure out who has the right address between M2 and myself. By the way, I sent this to a buddy of mine who's currently in the AOR. His response:

What - can you not type "www.whitepages.com" yourself? PRISCILLA CEBALLOS 1814 KINGSBRIDGE DR GARLAND, TX 75044 (972) 496-3815 My letter's already in the mail. Wonder how long until she changes that phone number?

Douchebag idiots are exempt from OPSEC protection. We're actually hoping the Taliban picks that guy off.

Waitta minute - you mean Hollywood glamorized a story and f***ed it all up? Say it ain't so! That's great insight, Mark, puts the movie in a new light. Where'd you get the info from? Just curious since it was previously mentioned that the portrayal was accurate.