Toro

For all the peace protestors out there - Peace Activist Etiquette With all of this talk of impending war, many of us will encounter "Peace Activists" who will try and convince us that we must refrain from retaliating against the ones who terrorized us all on September 11, 2001, and those who support terror. These activists may be alone or in a gathering.....most of us don't know how to react to them. When you come upon one of these people, or one of their rallies, here are the proper rules of etiquette: 1. Listen politely while this person explains their views. Strike up a conversation if necessary and look very interested in their ideas. They will tell you how revenge is immoral, and that by attacking the people who did this to us, we will only bring on more violence. They will probably use many arguments, ranging from political to religious to humanitarian. 2. In the middle of their remarks, without any warning, punch them in the nose. 3. When the person gets up off of the ground, they will be very angry and they may try to hit you, so be careful. 4. Very quickly and calmly remind the person that violence only brings about more violence and remind them of their stand on this matter. Tell them if they are really committed to a nonviolent approach to undeserved attacks, they will turn the other cheek and negotiate a solution. Tell them they must lead by example if they really believe what they are saying. 5. Most of them will think for a moment and then agree that you are correct. 6. As soon as they do that, hit them again. Only this time hit them much harder. Square in the nose. 7. Repeat steps 3 to 5 times until the desired results are obtained and the idiot realizes how stupid his/her argument is. 8. There is no difference in an individual attacking an unsuspecting victim or a group of terrorists attacking a nation of people. It is unacceptable and must be dealt with. Perhaps at a high cost. We owe our military a huge debt for what they are doing for us and our children. We must support them and our leaders at times like these. We have no choice. We either strike back, VERY HARD, or we will keep getting hit in the nose. Lesson over, class dismissed. GOD BLESS AMERICA !!

Look here for all your answers on the Aviation Continuation Pay (ACP...bonus). My commitment ended in June of this year, so I signed for the bonus. Around January or so, I went to the ACP website and started checking things out. I completed the application and sent it in - it was actually very easy and I got updates e-mailed to my .mil account every so often. The info on the ACP site is only good through the end of the fiscal year.

In a couple past threads, the subject of wives' opinions on their (pilot) husbands work issues was brought up. Some people (who I believe to be non-flyers) seem to think we (flyers( disregard our wives opinions; nothing could be further from the truth. I value my wife's thoughts 110% and feel that on many issues she has more rationale and insight than I do. However, I absolutely cannot stand when I hear a wife "talk shop" with regards to the details of her husbands work. Why? Because the wives are not in the squadron 12 hours a day to see the details of what goes on and experience the soap-opera BS of AF politics. All they get is what they hear second hand from their husbands or from other spouses, yet they talk with such confidence that you'd think they were the source of the info. Example - I've got a bud whose wife loves to talk about what's going on with him. If I had a dime for every time I heard about how he was "screwed out of" a certain opportunity because "the squadron commander was an idiot", or he "got looked over" for a good deal because "the DO was playing favorites," I'd like to tell her that she has no idea what she's talking about - that I know what's going on, that her husband isn't being screwed by anybody, but rather he just isn't quite as good as she would like to believe. This thread is not to bash on wives 'shop talk', but to give specific examples of when it has happened and why it is not a good thing. My point is that while the spouses are dearly loved, they generally don't have enough information to "talk shop."

No. She would have a decent chance, but there would be no guarantee.

My wife is an RN and had a GS job as a nurse at Lakenheath. I don't remember the office that put out the job openings (I want to say family support center), but she applied through them and got a job fairly easily. There are all kinds of GS jobs - if you see a civilian who works in an AF building (not AAFES or DeCA), they're probably a GS. When I think GS, I primarily think clerical clerical kinds of jobs.

Once you are rated and fail to meet standards in any formal training, you aren't automatically kicked out - you will face a Flying Evaluation Board. We had one guy (former T-37 FAIP) wash out of my FTU class and is now flying C-17s. We had another guy (also a T-37 FAIP) wash out of the MQ program at my Ops unit and is now flying B-52s. We had two WSOs wash out of the instructor unit here at Seymour and they also faced an FEB - both are still flying. Hey now...I learned to drink Weed and liberally incorporate "Container" "so to speak" and "69" into everyday conversation. [ 21. July 2005, 02:21: Message edited by: Toro ]

It is indeed a Viper D model.

No No Shack.

Front page story of the Air Force times is this story. The only real new news is that the instructor in the 'scandal', Capt. Richard Brimer, will be charged with an Article 32. Since you may not be able to view the story, I've cut and pasted the first couple paragraphs below. One instructor charged, 11 punished for cheating at Columbus AFB COLUMBUS, Miss. — An instructor pilot at Columbus Air Force Base has been formally charged for his role in a test-cheating scheme, officials said. Eleven other officers have been have been removed from pilot training as a result of their involvement in the scheme last fall, according to a CAFB statement released Monday. The statement said Capt. Richard Brimer, of the 41st Flying Training Squadron, has been charged with failure to obey a lawful regulation, making a false official statement and conduct unbecoming an officer by distributing controlled test answers. The CAFB statement said the 11 officers, varying in rank from second lieutenant to captain, have received non-judicial punishment for cheating on weekly emergency procedure quizzes, known as EPQs, during the T-37 phase of Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training. The 11 will not be reinstated and punishment will include forfeitures of pay ranging from $250 to $1,675 per month for two months, officials said. Additionally, the officers have been reprimanded for unacceptable conduct offenses including conduct unbecoming an officer, dereliction of duty and making a false statement, according to the CAFB statement. The next step for Brimer is an Article 32 investigation expected to occur in August, the military equivalent of a civilian grand jury.

A lot more similar stories here.

Correct, you have to have them made. I had mine done by an alteration shop at Columbus (can't remember the name, but as you start heading down out of town towards base, it was a place on the left next to a video store). You'll go buy a specified amount of whatever fabric you want for the sleeves and back and they'll sew it up. I would think alteration places in most military towns would know how to do it for you, supposedly lots of people get theirs done in Korea.

Although that's how it's done, I don't think it's right -- for fighters or heavies. That's the point I was getting at. True, but it's exactly bragging rights that most guys are looking for.

This brings up a good point - it seems like things are done incorrectly. If I take off 30 minutes prior to sunset and fly a 2.0, I log 1.5 of night time. If I have my nogs on for 30 minutes of that time, I log 0.5 of NVG. Eventhough it was a night and NVG sortie sortie (granted that's an AFORMS thing and not reflected in the 781 or flight records) I don't log the entire amount of time as night or NVG. By the same rational, just because a sortie is logged as combat doesn't necessarily mean all the time is O-1. If it takes me 45 minutes to get to Iraq from base X and 45 minutes to get back, my 6.0 sortie should actually only be 4.5 of O-1 time. That's not the way I've ever seen it done, though. Thoughts?

Right, all I was getting at is that if you never reach the AOR, the entire sortie is logged as O-2. If you touch the AOR, air abort, then RTB, the entire sortie is logged as combat time. Regardless, it's sortie count (not sortie time) that counts towards an air medal.

I'm not airlift, but I don't see why the policy would be different. For us, O-1 (combat) time is logged anytime you cross into the AOR. We fighters obviously don't land but we all log combat time. O-2 (combat support) is logged when you takeoff but don't make it out there (air abort, mission CNX, etc.)

From MacRae's letter- And he's complaining about a couple jets flying low over the mall? Sounds like a good deal of back-peddling to me. Apology accepted, you're still a douchebag.

I'll buy a six-pack for the first person to find and post Mr. MacRae's e-mail.

Eeyore Malachowski - he's a WSO with the 492 (across the hall from Fifi's squadron). Yeah Right.

Awesome. I'd love to see the WG/CC's response.

True...true. We've had guys over-G on LASDT rides on more than one occasion.

Not so much of a problem for the Strike Eagle. We can pull 7.5 for about 6-9 seconds, then we're done.

Pulling 9Gs feels like pulling 3Gs...just three times worse. Check out this thread for a pretty decent discussion on the matter.

I think 'she' was just some Falcon 4.0 geek with a good deal of knowledge about the Viper (could have come from Jane's or any other numerous sources). 'She' had some technical knowledge, but 'her' practical application of everything was out to lunch.

Not me, I would have still been in England last Spring. Here's a couple - I didn't take any of them, but I'm somewhere in each of them. Our six-ship arrival to Al Udeid AB in mid 2003 - I'm #5. This shot and the next one were taken by an AF combat photographer. Same six-ship a little closer. Refueling with an Aviano Viper prior to some DACM over the East England coast. After I landed at the RAF Waddington airshow, some dude with a huge camera said he snapped a picture of me landing and the following Monday, e-mailed me this one.

That's surprising. He mandated that he be put through an abbreviated (like week long) Strike Eagle program so he could fly one and land - from the front seat. Despite the fact that everyone said it was stupid, nobody told him no. We get O-6s and above that come back to fly the aircraft after a 2-3 year break and we still put them through a month long spin up. Foglesong is a self-serving no-talent ass clown.