Hacker

The ball is retractable...STS.

At a minimum it will scare the crap out of everyone who looks at that ghoulish face.

Agreed...total class act to do that.

I take it that you're asking Herk guys? Every fighter squadron does this, and has for the decade that I've been doing this business at least.

Yeah, as soon as it's "authorized" by big blue, a journal officially loses what is most attractive about it -- the ability to speak your mind freely about your experiences. I give that a big thumbs down. Nice try, blue.

To steal a quote from Mr Raw himself (before he become Mr Klump...): "Even if the pussy was great, and sparks shot out the woman's ass, and cannons blared and the mountains crumbled and the seas roared, no pussy is worth [your wings, your navy career, your spot on the Blue Angels, etc]!"

Bravo Zulu to the ad agency who thought this one up. Hope they find LOTS more work in the future.

I'm not so sure this is actually the root cause of your point. The T-Birds have "always" had a DOC statement requirement to be able to become a combat-capable squadron in 72 hours (although I am almost certain that in my CONUS storage I have their 1983 promo brochure that says this time frame is 48 hours and not 72...). This was true with the Phantom and the Hun, at least, and continues to be true with the Viper. Of course, it's complete hyperbole -- hell, actual C1 combat capable fighter squadrons could barely get to night 1 of a war in 48 hours...I can't imagine what the ORM would be for dudes who hadn't flown anything but fingertip formation for the last 6 months to go out and fly SAT in indian country.

Here are a couple of her blog entry replies: https://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...logID=447529067

It's usually Maintenance leadership that squelches painting of noseart. The problem is that maintaining the art becomes an extra layer of stuff they have to pay attention to. Like it or not, the three times I've been involved with painting noseart on USAF jets, it's always been the Maintenance O-6 who has rallied the hardest against it. The MX crewdogs on the line and their supervisors are usually 100% behind it, but by the time it gets to the MXG/CC level, the lobotomy has completely set in.

"Stunt Pilots". Nice.

Just for fun, here's her photo from last year. Small, but the only one that Google Images produced:

RUMINT over on Airshowbuzz.com says the Admin Officer, Lt Gretchen Doane, was involved, too.

Yes, that's part of it. I highly, highly ENCOURAGE people to keep a journal of their experiences. I equally as highly DISCOURAGE USAF officers from putting that journal on the internet. No good can come from it. Seriously. To the OP....dude, I did this 10 years ago and, although I recieved a lot of feedback that it was helpful to many people (to this day guys I don't know still see my name tag and say "thanks for writing that journal!"), in the end it was nothing but a headache for me. If you want to know the specifics, shoot me an email or PM and I'll give you the lowdown. Bottom line is this: You're not doing something unique -- literally dozens and dozens of other guys have "blogged" their UPT experience, even before there was such a thing as a blog! -- and as a military officer you are putting yourself and your family at risk by having so much personal data about yourself (and your profession) on the internet. Keep a written record of it for yourself -- you will thank yourself in 10 or 20 years when you are able to go back and refresh old memories that have faded and emotions that have long since disappeared. If you want to share that with your family and friends, distribute it via private channels. As far as the callsign goes....well, this website is certainly part of it, but the whole ordeal is a story best told over a bartop and liberal amounts of Jack and Coke.

The current issue jacket is (was) made by Avirex, which has since had a corporate name change to "Cockpit USA". They sell the current issue jacket for something like $350 if you're really that hot and heavy to get one. IMHO, if you're not a historical snob like I am, go get the Pop's Leather one that everyone and their brother on here has recommended. Best fit and best quality that I've seen for an "issue" jacket.

Sorry to hear that you're sick and tired of that line of discussion. Unfortunately, nobody sympathisizes, hence the "holier than though" (nice spelling, BTW) reaction you've been getting. Guess what -- we all had a tough road in our careers. We've all had expectations that weren't met. We've all had "promises" from Big Blue (whatever the hell those are) not kept. We've all had letdowns. Yours are no more or less than we've all had to deal with. Prove that you're not a whiny entitlement generation b*tch by stowing it and driving on.

What difference does it make? It's an avatar of a chick dancing.

The telltale feature that it's an AIM-7 and not an AMRAAM (aside from the size of the front fins) is the wave guide on the side of the body. Looks like a little cable tunnel running up the side of the missile body from the tail end.

Why is this so surprising to anyone? The decisions made in 2004 were a previous administration maneuvering against the bandit that it saw then (ergo, trying to cut people in order to save money for airplanes). The maneuver didn't work. That administration is gone. There is a new bandit we're maneuvering against.

AIM-7...but who's counting.

Which is in conflict with the recent Heller decision in the Supreme Court...so, at least there's one monkeywrench in the plans.

The $25K bonus is also pre-taxed. Comes out to about $18,500 delivered to your account.

Well, don't panic yet. Not even a new president elected in November can do anything until he is inagurated in January. Plus, we're talking about something that will require a Congressional bill to pass two different houses. So, this won't happen overnight. But, by this time next year, we could potentially be looking at new firearms control legislation...my money's on AWB part II if anything.

Public Service Announcement: Buy evil black guns now while you can, before Obama bans 'em.

And here I thought you were talking about one of these airline-killing pieces of FOD: