AnimalMother

I have some nice beachfront property you might be interested in, dirt cheap. PM me if you want to take a look. But back on a serious note, leadership may be able to church it up or issue a plausible excuse, but in the end it's still a falsehood. WMDs? Yup, we know where they are; the Lusitania is a passenger vessel, we swear; all you guys are eligible for VSP. I know guys that have been absolutely crushed for doing the same thing back up the chain of command. I have a lot of good book titles you might be interested in, I'll throw em in for free.

General Chang, have you read or are you familiar with the book Bleeding Talent, by Tim Kane? Thoughts?

"We need to upgrade jimmy ham hands or ricky the retard because it will be good for his career." Direct quote from squadron leadership, no shit. I withheld actual names.

Vehemently disagree. What about easing BS requirements such as SOS in res, OREs, ORIs, masters degrees, uniform madness, etc, the list goes on and on. There are a million things that our leaders could do, from the O-4 level on up, that would demonstrate that appreciation, and they could start by canning the look of incredulity when we ask for more than a week or two of leave. On another note, what is the impetus behind the recent addition of brass to BODN? Honestly I appreciate the insight that you and Liquid have provided, so thanks for that for sure, but I'm curious as to why here and why now.

Is it any scarier then when we signed up for a life in the military? You just need to find the right motivation for making change in your life. If that motivation is there, then change is easy. But guys get old, become comfortable with the apparent security of this job, and submit themselves to continued exploitation; it is an unfortunate inevitability. Furthermore, I would argue that if folks are really concerned about getting a job on the outside, then they need to reevaluate how they grade themselves against the populace at large. The military is full of high performance dudes, and it's easy to feel mediocre, but I bet that almost anyone I work with would excel on the outside if they chose to do so. At the end of the day, I hope folks make their decision based on what actually makes them happiest and best suits their lifestyle, not because of how much money they stand to gain or loose. if money is what matters, then get out and become an investment banker or something similar, shit, you can even use you're GI bill to pay for the schooling.

Do you have a truck and or trailer? That's the best way to move your shit if you don't have a lot of stuff. TMO can be a hassle, but my moves have actually been pretty good. They broke a ton of my shit on the last move but I claimed every scratch and I actually made out ok. FYI, anything less than 100$ is pretty much automatically approved. Scratch on your lounge chair? 25$ easy. Over 100$ and you need to provide evidence of replacement cost, such as an Internet website. I bought a trailer a few moves ago and I get paid cash monies for it on every move now, already paid for itself. Also, if you're just leaving UPT, you probably have a few moves ahead of you at least, and it's definitely worth becoming familiar with the TMO process. Experience and this forum are your best resources. In either case though, moving is a pain in the ass. Either you deal with moving your own shit and wade thru the bureaucracy, or you let the govt do it and still wade thru the bureaucracy.

Ok, I stand corrected then. Are those guys enticed by the new bonus, or are dudes still planning on punching?

No big deal, just turn up the dial on the printing press. Might as well just offer to buy the damn place now while they still accept our money.

Wasn't able to catch any of the briefings. Can someone please confirm if sexual assault is still illegal or not? Just want to make sure I don't miss anything important.

Ill just reiterate one of my main points here. You mean to tell me that 5 years ago we told a bunch of 11fs to go fly toy planes, and now, not only are we undermanned in 11fs, we're having retention problems as well and decide to offer a bunch of extra cash to convince guys to stick around just two years after we paid a bunch of them to get out early!? Good lord, I can't even begin to imagine what goes thru the tiny minds of the folks at AFPC. Oh well, at least with the extra cash a few more dudes might stick around and I won't have to worry about getting stuck with a random 365 to asscrackistan. But, in the end, this is just a cheap bandaid and some voodoo magic...

Japan attacked the US government because we had taken extreme economic and political measures which severely crippled the island nation. And, if you believe such things, it was done deliberately in order to generate support amongst Americans to enter the war (again). Admiral Kimmel made repeated attempts to access information and prepare his base for the attack he knew was coming, he was shut down at every turn and then made a scapegoat for the whole debacle. He even went so far as to order naval patrols of areas he felt Japan might use to stage an attack. His ships were recalled, and japan attacked from one of those very locations. As for Germany, their fate was all but decided by the end of 1941. Invading Russia was complete strategic insanity, which fits with Hitlers military competence. Furthermore, the western front was, to be totally fair, a small sideshow compared to the eastern theater. Nazi troops actually rotated back to the western front for R&R. We tend to get a skewed perspective of history growing up, and understandably so, but lets not pretend that America the benevolent saved the day and made the world safe for freedom and democracy. Not trying to belittle our efforts, just think we should have the appropriate perspective. But, back on topic, The New American Militarism, by Andrew Bacevich is a great read that addresses many of the issues we're discussing about losing touch with military folks as well as how the military has become the go to solution for many problems.

Not that I can remember. Sounds like a solid plan to me, where do I sign up? Oh wait...

Russia, don't you dare arm the Assad regime, that's completely irresponsible! But sit back and watch us pour money and weapons into the radical opposition. What could go wrong?

Haha, looks a lot like some AFSOC guys I know.

I think you're probably correct. At the end of the day, it's hard to justify being a retard if you don't have the appropriate paperwork. And, for whatever reason, the Air Force refuses to get the appropriate paperwork.

3 beers a day is nice, guys in AFRICOM are going to miss it.

Good Lord, after all that this is the best the AF can do? I guess in the end I'm not actually that surprised. I do think, however, that the AF lost at least a few good dudes who were sitting on the fence waiting.

You mean he's attempting to empower his leaders at lower levels to actually exercise their authority? That goes against the fundamental tenant of air power: centralized control/centralized execution. Blasphemy.

...and then the AF would have a decent grip on your ballsack, no thanks.

Good lord, i don't even know where to start on this one. Haha. Just do what the rest of us did, ignore that little voice in the back of your head whining that 10 years is a really long time and go ahead and convince yourself that this is where you belong. Ironically, it sounds like someone like you would fast track to command and then continue the unprecedented castration of what used to be a respectable military force. I think you should join ASAP, thankfully, however, ill be long gone by the time you graduate ROTC.

What a ridiculous article. Unfortunately, many "leaders" will probably support her assertions. Her basic premise: it's ok to generalize the population at large, but in the military, individual actions are representative of the entire military culture. The problem, like so many others, is a symptom of failed leadership at every level.

Ok, I'm tracking that the bonus jumped to 725k, nice try big blue, but that still ain't enough for me. I'm going with the airlines, where ill make that in a month. Keep your devil monies.

Mishap rates are usually tracked per 100,000 flight hours. Historically, the AF has hovered around 1-2 per 100k (class A). The data is usually a year or so behind by the time you can find it published. You can also find stats that break down the mishap rate by airframe, mishap cause etc etc. Interestingly, RPA mishaps are tracked separately.

That'll happen.

Interrogative?