JS

Outstanding book. Very short and readable. Required reading for anyone who makes any type of economic transactions in their life. For a good business book, I liked Made in America by Sam Walton. It is dated, but I found it interesting to trace the origins of Walmart and how Sam Walton founded the company on his basic values of thrift, honesty, and hard work. It has lots of good stories about him getting great deals on surplus pallets of junk, etc. It was also funny to read about how proud Mr. Sam was that Walmart had grown from a $20B company to a $30B company (by 1991). If only he could see his $375B company today. A good self-help book I read a while back is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. He basically says that you have to find out what it is in life you want - not necessarily money - be it love, a house in the mountains, that job, etc. From there, you have to passionately and with all of your energy relentlessly pursue that goal. It was another quick read, but worth taking a look at if you into those kinds of books.

Wow. In looking at my bookshelf, I realized that three-fourths of my books are military/aviation books. I guess I need to get out more and read some of those fake, I mean fiction, books that my liberal cousin always gives me. Anyway, I would suggest Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell for a readable, enjoyable look at how the economy and the world work. The book explains with real world examples and facts why things like rent control causes housing shortages and why if the government interferes during a corn shortage, for example, and demands farmers charge a "fair price," why there will be a shortage of corn as well. He pretty much backs all of his arguments with facts, but I would say he is right-leaning and heavily in favor of capitalist markets. The only things that can really be questioned in the book are some of his economic assumptions (like everyone having perfect information, for example). Other than that, it is a fantastic read that I think everyone should take a look at. If you are into science, I would recommend Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman. Very readable book about by a crazy physicist who worked on the bomb. How to Win Friends is always a classic if you want to improve your social skills. I re-read it periodically.

Here's an idea. Why don't they ban that stupid WOW game so people can talk to their g-damn families on Skype?

I agree again. We have a bunch of folks who run their own businesses on the side doing things like contracting, fixing computers, financial services, etc. and that seems to work out OK.

First of all, the screening tests for color vision are just that - screening tests. If you fail, they will do "further color testing" to include the anamaloscope. I was told by a civilian doc that because I could not see the numbers in those tests that I was "color blind," which is of course not true. But just to be sure, I paid out of pocket to see a civilian doc before heading off to my FC1 with the Air Force. She gave me multiple versions of the Farnsworth test and told me that I actually did better on those tests, which are more accurate than the books, than most people with normal color vision. Bottom line - don't give up or get discouraged if you can't see all the numbers in the book. It just means that you may have some color issues, not that you do have issues. But just to be sure, I went ahead and ordered the color vision books on my own to "practice." There is nothing illegal or unethical about testing yourself ahead of time. When I went through, the Brooks thing was further down the training pipeline (after you were commissioned but before pilot training), so I wanted to be sure before I started my Air Force journey that I would be able to pass the tests. If you want to invest the money (and they are very expensive), you can order the tests online. Otherwise, try and look up the names/ISBN numbers and find them in a library. Ishihara 14 plate test - used at most FC1's Dvorine test - used at some FC1's SPP 1 test used at Brooks SPP2 test used at Brooks SPP3 is just a combination of plates from SPP1 and SPP2 I wouldn't' recommend wasting too much time with online tests - they just are not the same as the books, no matter how good your monitor is. Again, don't give up because you think you might be color "blind" due to a crappy screening test. To this day, I still miss several of those plates when I break them out. But after a few minutes of conditioning, I can see all of them in random order, backwards, upside down, and from a distance in low-light. Not to mention that I fly in a "colorful" cockpit and do a lot of low-light NVG operations. I have no problem seeing the colors, even when we have the lights in night-vision mode (which limits the color differentiation in the cockpit even more). Good luck.

Concur. A lot of this is just good to know to threaten bosses, landlords, etc. As a side note, I had just finished my master's through my civilian employer before joining the Air Force. They paid for it and required a 2-year commitment. When I left for the Air Force, the human resources person asked me for 90%, or whatever, back for the cost of the school. I told her that I was not quitting, but just going on leave for 5 years. That was over 6 years ago, and sure enough, she emailed me a few months ago and let me know that they were going to close me off their books. She never asked for the money back, since my military time was still considered with the company.

I had a question about Reservist rights that I could not find through the search function or through the ESGR website FAQ's. In general, do ESGR reemployment rights apply to a spouses job in addition to the reservists job after an activation. For example, my wife and I work in the local area. If I am sent TDY to a school for 6 months and she leaves her job to accompany me, must HER employer hold her job for her as well as mine?

Since you offered, here is what I will say about "the man." The only "process" The Man knows how to work is the promotion process. I personally witnessed The Man put his career before the mission and his people several times I saw The Man sacrifice a mission to make his guys (himself) look good and as a consequence, troops on the ground did not get their shit and lives were put at stake. I have witnessed The Man destroy the lives of several crewmembers for actions outside the cockpit for no good reason. And when all the people around him advised him to act differently, he blew them all off. Great leadership skills!! And then The Man has the fucking balls to put himself in for a Bronze Star after all of the debacle with the first deployment - and he doesn't even know how to start an engine on the J-model. The ultimate of insults to all those who have earned the Bronze Star in the past. The Man puts self before service and careerism before mission. If Al Udeid is the place that has come to symbolize what is wrong with the Air Force today, then The Man is the person who has come to symbolize what is wrong with the Air Force today. Although he is a decent person to converse with, and is by no means a Folgelsong, he is pretty much the worse I have seen in terms of careerism in my (relatively) short time in the Air Force. I can't wait to see the door hit him on the ass on the way out, but unfortunately I know that the door hitting him on the way out will be the other side of a door to his new general's office.

Some of the guys from that class were allowed to graduate and are currently doing fine. Not sure if that is what you were looking for.

Too bad there weren't any news media outlets named in your post. Just entertainment cable stations sensationalizing events in the hopes of higher ratings. No different from MTV, TNT, Oxygen, or any of those networks that have those dopey reality shows. That was my point. I try and get my information (not "news") mostly from reading. And I try to get a diversified mixture of sources - liberal, conservative, plenty of international news outlets, and of course lots of books. I usually skim the headlines online (yes, I know some of these outlets are owned by the above mentioned big media conglomerates) of the NY Times, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, and of course the best source of diversified, highly-accurate news - the baseops.net message board! That was the basis of my joke (ha ha). One watches Fox News, reads foxnews.com, and then reads articles on baseops.net about stuff that Fox News reported on TV or on their website. We just have to be careful about the sources of the stuff that we are fed...I mean the news that we get. Yeah, I thought about adding something to this effect in my original post: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." - Attributed to Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (about 220 years ago) ..but you said it just as well.

What is even more sad than that will be when they look back 30 years from now and say "$3.27 Trillion for stimulus handouts when the entire annual federal budget is only $2.6 Trillion." WTFF - what the fucking FUCK - were you idiots thinking?????

I actually heard they were getting in for a closer look at a reported yellow glow from what they thought might be nuclear radiation:

Damn. Read Fox news much? Good thing Fox has never been accused of being biased or anything.

Agreed. That is what I meant to say. Along those lines, there is also the issue of civil unrest due to the global recession, soon-to-be depression, if the Obama administration keeps up the good work. Similar economic circumstances of course contributed to the Beer Hall Putsch, The Bolshevik Revolution, and the Great Leap Forward; these events ultimately cost hundreds of millions of lives. The Economist had a good spread a few weeks ago about the growing "bourgeoisie" of the world. Long story short, nearly 20% of the worlds population rose out of poverty and into the middle class in the past decade. That is like 1.3B people!!! Obviously, most of that progression took place in third world or developing nations like India, China, etc. Once those billions taste middle class lifestyles, they are not going to be too happy going back if that is what this economic climate calls for (which it already is). The Chinese may be able to wait it out a year or two and spend some of that cash they hoarded, but if this really does turn into a decade-long depression, we have a lot more to be fearful of than losing our access to cheap Chinese rubber dog shit and inexpensive flat-panel TV's.

Sounds a lot like how the world looked in 1939. Germany exported about 15-18% of its GDP before the NSDAP took over. Today German trade makes up about about 30% of it's GDP. With regards to Japan/US trade leading up to WWII: "the United States was Japan's largest trading partner with a share of 29 percent of all Japanese foreign trade. As Japan's industry expanded, U.S. companies formed joint ventures there to manufacture goods under U.S. licenses. Western Electric (1899) and General Electric (1905, 1908) were pioneers, followed in 1917 by the rubber company Goodrich. Ford (1925) and General Motors (1927) set up factories in Japan. Other U.S. firms, such as Columbia (1927), United Steel and Signal (1928), RCA (1929), and Otis Elevator (1932), followed suit. Japanese firms continued to form branches and subsidiaries in the United States to support Japan's trade with America. By the early 1930's, Yokohama Specie Bank alone financed more than 50 percent of Japan's purchases in the United States. Japanese ships transported 73 percent of its imports from and 63 percent of its imports to the United States." Chinese/US trade in 2007 was a paltry $386B (about 12% of the Chinese economy of $3.2T, depending on the source) compared to the amount of trading that was being done with Germany & Japan before WWII. I too used to think that the "global economy" and the fact that our economies are so inextricably linked together would prevent all future wars. But the reality is that you can't put anything past human beings - we would much rather destroy trillions in global wealth and slaughter hundreds of millions of lives (in 1945 numbers - God only knows what the next world war will look like) than continue trading with one another peacefully. An old college professor who grew up in Europe before the war summed it up pretty well. He basically said that war and the world back then was viewed much the way we view nuclear war today - that it would be too destructive to be possible; the end of the world as we know it. Plus the global players - Germany, Japan, France, England, Russia, US - are too advanced, civilised, and trade too much with each other to ever engage in a global war. In some ways, it seems that the world today looks a lot like he described it in 1939.

Last April there actually was CAS at OTBH instead of from OTBH.

I am still reading it trying to figure out what strategy he is recommending to work around assholes like "Dale." By the way, are the "Dale's" of the world currently stationed at the chow hall every day (i.e. the 18th and the 19th, and....from the email) or did Dale just happen to be there eating at the same time that said Captain was eating there two days in a row? Last time I was there (several months ago), nobody bothered anyone at the chow hall about any of this crap until the "new guys" came in right when we were leaving. It seems to come and go with the different AEF's. So what other suggestions are there to handle the senior NCO's who get in the face of the captains and majors there for stupid things like white socks with flight boots and sunglasses worn on the head?

Wow. You ain't from 'round here, are you, boy?????

If you really wanted to participate in this thread, you could always read it from the beginning. And if you really wanted to impress your peers with situational awareness, you would notice that the above Youtube MSU flyover video along with an eyewitness account was posted on page one of this thread, 12th post down. Just saying....

I noticed the same thing. If you click on the "discussion" tab on his Wiki page, you can see all the edits and a few more "realistic" comments about Doc. Apparently this Adam Brink guy, or whatever other alias Doc himself uses, has deleted most of the true stuff that people had posted on there.

I may have posted this before, but.... I went to a Mississippi State football game and after the national anthem comes Doc in some radial/piston old taildragger aircraft (can't remember the type). They hyped it up pretty big on the loudspeaker that he would be doing the flyover and all. The problem was this is what you heard: "Oh say does that star NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...of the brave" As a matter of fact, it even made youtube:

I have tried to read DOD 4515.13R and can't quite decrypt all of it. Can someone please summarize the space-A rules for reservists (not on any kind of active duty orders)? It is my understanding that as a drilling reservist I can only travel CONUS. I also understand that as a drilling reservist my spouse cannot travel Space-A at all. Finally, what paperwork is required for a reservist to travel?

I guess I stand corrected. I thought you tanker guys had them too. Anyway, all rooms in the C-130 aircrew buildings have the pre-positioned computers in them. It is like the 3 buildings or so across from where the tanker guys stay. Either way, I guess if you are not a C-130 aircrew, then you will not have a PC in your room. From what I heard, someone from a few rotations ago worked some deal to get the computers in our dorms. I would think that someone at Tanker Ops could pull some strings and do the same. Just a thought. And yes, I agree, if you use a lot of other software besides Office and the internet, then you need your personal laptop anyway.

Yeah, there is another way of getting on the internet - you can use the government computer that is in your room (if you are aircrew that is - I found out that the MX guys and most non-aircrew don't have the pre-positioned computers). They unblocked all webmail, so you can check yahoo, hotmail, etc. It is still a base computer, but it is totally for your personal use. You can watch movies (they have a good streaming media section on the intranet there with hundreds of movies to choose from "on demand," if you will). They do block out youtube, myspace, and the other usual suspects. Overall, the only thing I would have used my laptop for was to look at the porn that I might have tried to slip through customs. You won't have to give your personal computer to comm, though because you will already have internet in your room.

Lesson to be learned - if you get into a bar fight, don't hang around and wait for the cops to arrest you, the rich kids dad to stir up murder charges, and a political district attorney to go along with it. A veteran bar-fighting friend from home once told me that you should "kick ass quickly and then disappear quickly." Or, you can reference what the great Rainman A-10 once said about the war on terrorism: "It's like a bar fight... Make sure all your bros know the plan before you go in and keep track of everyone once you're in the bar. Once the fight starts, rejoin your crew and start swinging and moving toward the rear exit (where you should've parked your car). Hit anyone you didn't walk into the bar with as hard as you can and keep moving towards the door. Don't survey the damage, just keep swinging and moving. You need to be in your car and out of the parking lot before the cops show up, just like you planned before you went in. If done properly, you can be ordering your next round at the next bar before the cops have finished breaking up the last fight. Easy." https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/index...2117&st=100 Only I would argue that you should probably not be found in another bar after a fight, as this case at Shaw clearly demonstrates.