ClearedHot

Look at that, democracy actually works...

Thunderbird crash in Co...He got out. Blue Angel Crash in Tenn...He did not get out.

I am old but when I was at ACSC (2003), one of the bros in my seminar had just come from an assignment on the Fighter Porch. He told me that in 2003 the 1990 year group had 17 X F-16 pilots left on active duty.

That is not gonna buff out...glad the crew is ok.

Choke yourself you sanctimonious prick. For the record, you are not as smart as you think you are, you have simply become a mindless part of the collective, endlessly spewing the same old PA verbiage. Here is the thing, I know the game, I’ve done all the in-res schools….ACSC, ASG, War College in DC…and I’ve sat behind the glass doors on the E-Ring as an exec and watched the buffoonery. Playing the $ money card overlooks a GLARING error, we did it to ourselves. The lack of vision from people like Buzz and Zatar is what got us here, for all too long we have been stuck in the endless Do Loop of “we can only have a fifth gen force” and we are paying the price for it in spades. 10 years ago a LOT of very smart people tried to tell them the $ crunch was coming and we could not afford a force of only F-22’s and F-35’s. Despite the fact that on the second night of OIF A-10’s were fighting inside the “Super MEZ”, the seniors insisted we double-down on fifth gen and now we cry when we have no $ to buy anything else. What do you expect when we are flying Raptors that cost $44,000 a flying hour and F-35’s that cost $36,000 a flying hour instead of a mixed high-low fleet that could have economically fought the fight we have been in for the 15 YEARS! Then as we piled ever more coal into the 5th gen steam engine that we couldn’t afford, we decided to cut people to pay the bill, and we took those people from the admin heart of the Squadrons (CSS), where they were needed most…Now, after purposely cutting people we suddenly come to the conclusion that the Air Force is On Verge of Manpower Collapse…freaking brilliant! Sadly, we had multiple chances to off-ramp this road to perdition and the Navy tried to show us the way like in 2006 when they broke the “no more 4th gen fighters for any service pact.” I was there the day the boss found out the Navy was getting 24 extra Super Hornets and I was in close trail as he barged into the N-8 office screaming explicatives at the CNO and his XP staff. The Navy response “well the Super Hornet is not a 4th gen airplane, it is a 4.5 gen airplane and we probably can’t afford all the F-35’s anyway.” Congress has been more than willing to gift us extra Vipers and Eagles every year, but we foolishly keep saying no and doubled down to the point we had to start closing fighter squadrons to pay the bills. The last ten years have seen a steady retreat from the TacAir redline, No lower than 2,300 fighters!…Ok No lower than 2,100 fighters! There was a huge gasp at 2,000, but we sliced right past that number faster than some late night yaki mandu through your system after a Friday night in Aragon Alley. As we started closing fighter squadrons we suddenly had fewer to fill AEF taskings so the bros and sisters on the end of the whip have to run even faster to make up for the shortage…starting to see the picture now? When it comes to your "retention tools" again, you don’t get it…what you call having bigger fish to fry than keeping pilots on the right side of the happy meter and using STOP LOSS as a retention tool is the PROOF that the entire thing is a scam. How can senior leaders profess to care about the force, mission first…people always, and say things like “Morale is pretty darn good” almost in the same breath they admit the Air Force is on the verge of a manpower collapse? This CSAF has made countless impassioned speeches about caring for people and “every Airman has a story”, but in the end as you admit the people are just numbers and their happiness doesn’t really matter. I get it that you will never make everyone happy and there will always be sport bitching, but this is something very different. This is the heart of your ability to be an Air Force, your professional pilot force telling you with their feet…”THINGS ARE Fed UP!” Only 38% of the pilot force took the bonus last year and the numbers look worse for this year…so I would submit you better make time to fix the happy meter. It is not about hating the messenger, it is about hating the smug asshat that parades around the room showing glee in his pronouncements from on high. You represent much of what is wrong with the current system.

I think I've posted this story before but not too long ago I was in a meeting when this very subject came up and a then MAJCOM Commander turned to his senior staff and said "Stop Loss is a viable retention tool." What makes the current situation different from past peaks and valleys, the end of this "hiring cycle" could be ten years away...do we really think Congress will allow people to be held hostage for an additional 5-10 years? I can see an argument for a year or two... especially when some soulless mind f@ck like Chang helps build the argument that we are at war with groups like ISIS, but going beyond that has real legal issues. The 15 year commitment won't fix the problem, it still takes time to season guys...it will be interesting to watch from the sidelines as I pray for Chang to get ass cancer.

Bump.

Look at the big brain on Spoo...send him to war college and he becomes the acronym police...what's next, off to the Deid to measure socks?

SHACK! Results proven time and time again.

SAASS, SAMS, SAW (not SAWS), and JAWS MAWS calls itself ASG...but it is not.

So do I, but I am still an asshole. Call me jaded but I will not stand and clap for this one...not yet anyway. Probably unfair to bring up the association and situation with his brother, but within context it does have some bearing. For those that don't know his brother is a retired two star who was punished in the time of Moseley for unethically helping to steer a $49M contract to Gen Hornburg's company shortly after he retired as the ACC commander (well within the 1 year cooling off period). I mention it because Fingers wrote a book called Sharing Success and Owning Failure, in the book he uses and quotes his brother's leadership style as a shining example of "providing the vision and setting the environment" of command. A personal interaction with him a number of years ago also gives me pause...in short, while I working as a senior level exec in the puzzle palace then Col Fingers (who was at the time the Holloman Wing/CC), came into the office with his Codell delegation. In those glorious days we could still wear flightsuits even in the most senior offices. The congressmen went in for a private meeting with the boss before the formal meeting and Fingers stayed outside with me. I saw him look at my WIC patch and he walked up to make some chitchat because he thought he knew me from somewhere (in his defense I am a powerful and attractive man), he was asking how long I had been in the job and where I was before this assignment, I told him I came out of the ASG program and he was all smiles and asked about the program. After that he again looked at my patch and said what platform did you go through in? When I answered AC-130's his smile, disappeared he replied "oh", and he turned around and walked away...never spoke to me again. It was such an odd interaction that it stuck with me for the last nine years. Can't say I will care much after I walk out the door in a month, but for those still around I would check six.

It's about to be...

It will be Fingers...

The only thing that saved the Air Force from the late 1990's low bonus take rate was 9/11, the airlines stopped hiring and there was an obvious rise in patriotism. IMHO today is a perfect storm of intense hiring pressure from the airlines (partially do to increased demand but also a function of age 65 retirement kicking in), combined with a force that is fed up with the relentless ops tempo and constant trips to the desert.

If yesterday you could get out whenever you want and today you can't get out until November...that seems like a stop loss to me.

Not seeing any threads yet, but AFRC is instituting Stop Loss effective until November 2016. I would imagine Stop Loss on the active component is right around the corner.

As seen through a gunship HUD, tag team from hell.

I've been saying this for years...if they get details like this wrong, imagine all the other inaccuracies we read on a daily basis.

You are welcome to vote, but there is a $75.00 charge to do so.

History repeats itself.

For those that care I went with the S&W M&P Shield 9, a great fit for me. A bit shocked at how easy it shoots, right out of the box I put the first eight rounds in the center ring. A lot of luck on my part, but my office has a weekly shooting competition (one shot for the pot), I put four mags through the gun then onw shot to win the pot. Also, for those looking for a different kind of carry holster, I give the Sticky Holster very high marks.

Still amazed the pilot survived.

Crashed on the A27 highway...

7 fatalities