ClearedHot

USAA for 16 years with zero problems. I also use them for Auto-Home insurance and have filed two major claims in the last five years for hurricane damage. In both cases they were more than fair.

Alright guys I will be the pinhead that tries to break you out of the USAF mold. If you read one book not related to flying, but will make you a better officer/person, I would vote for "General George Washington: A Military Life", by Edward G. Lengel. I was forced to read it last year by the Marines and it turned out to be one of the best books I have ever read. I will mention in passing that after reading this book, I came to the conclusion that there was never a finer American then George Washington. Give it a shot and you won’t be disappointed

Who has been higher in an aircraft without an engine? FL 190

Not to discourage you, but the "trend" at the WIC in the past few years has been to go younger. The expressed reason for this policy is to get more payback after graduation. By Reg, grads are required to be in a WIC billet for at least three years and they prefer five, which can be tough once folks make O-4 and start rolling off to school. As an example one WIC squadron had six instructors picked up for IDE next summer. Someone will get Ops Deferred, which is not always a bad deal, but it does show how tough the timing can be. That being said, there are always a few sharp "older" guys/girls in each class. Bottom line, do your best and it may well work out. Good Luck!

Ok, I decided to settle this once and for all. I had a few beers last night and I went to the airport and jumped on the moving walkway going the opposite direction. No matter how fast I ran and how hard I flapped my arms, I did not take off, case closed.

Even "stove-pipe" careers can entail a lot of moves over time. I did seven years at Hurlburt but have moved three times in the last two years, (and it looks like I will move again next summer), which will be my eighth assignment in 16 years. Once you leave for school or a broadening opportunity you may find yourself moving several times in a short time period.

As I recall there was a Damons Sports bar just across the street from McGuires. [ 06. November 2005, 09:39: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

Who gives a rats arse where you got your commision. I only care about two things. 1. Can you fly the jet and kill the bad guys? 2. Can you lead other dudes/dudettes to do the same.

Yeah we won't want any pictures of the mighty T-3 to leak out...

As a spare CP I go to Pope for a week of dropping the grunts. It was August and part of the deal was we got a low-level on each lift. We are flying old E-model C-130's (who isn't), and the grunts are packed in like sardines. I am standing during the low-level, and it is typical hot and bumpy on a summer day in North Carolina. The loadmaster calls up and says “it looks like they are gonna blow”, I wonder over to the ladder and take a look at the most miserable group of dudes I have ever seen. They are packed in so tight they can't move and one near the ladder is looking very green. The poor dude is sweating profusely and trying to figure out how he can gracefully puke. With all the gear there is just no way the guy can maneuver. All of a sudden he looks up and projectile vomits onto the face of the guy across from him. Everything after that moment was surreal, as it set off a chain reaction and the back of the plane looked like a vomitorium. Dudes were puking in every direction like dominoes falling in a long chain. The stench was overwhelming and I had to park my face next to the AC vent upfront to keep from puking myself. When we landed and opened the ramp, the vomit was literally dripping off the back end. It was the funniest and most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

How about.... "I have decided to reduce the F/A-22 buy to THIS many".

Just to give another view. The last two BGen selects from the gunpig both had funny wings (1- Nav, 1- EWO). Take the job that will make YOU happy, do the best you can in the job, and the rest will take care of itself.

I don't think anyone does CAS for money. There is no better feeling in the world (professionally), than helping the guys on the ground. I know some guys like A2A and it takes a lot of brain power to do that properly, but for me, hitting crap on the ground is the way to go.

I don't think we will ever see the Four Horsemen again, but it might look something like this...

What is interesting is most of the Marines I was with on my exchange tour were very "un-excited", about having Pace as the first Devil-Dawg CJCS. To quote one of them..."there was never a finer yes man in the corps". Look for another talking puppet to regergitate Rummy's musings.

No, but tomorrow is closer than you think. So what do you do with the money that has already been spent? If you stop production the people with the skills to make those planes will go away. Everytime you push something to the right, you add to the cost. The eye-opener is how much money it will take to keep the Eagles flying (Last one delivered to the USAF was in 1989-1990) or to purchase more F-15E’s, if you push F-22 to the right, it may cost you more. The F-15 initial operational requirement was for a service life of 4,000 hours. Testing completed in 1973 demonstrated that the F-15 could sustain 16,000 hours of flight. Subsequently operational use was more severely stressful than the original design specification. With an average usage of 270 aircraft flight hours per year, by the early 1990s the F-15C fleet was approaching its service-design-life limit of 4,000 flight hours. Following successful airframe structural testing, the F-15C was extended to an 8,000-hour service life limit. An 8,000-hour service limit provides current levels of F-15Cs through 2010. The F-22 program was initially justified on the basis of an 8,000 flight hour life projection for the F-15. This was consistent with the projected lifespan of the most severely stressed F-15Cs, which have averaged 85% of flight hours in stressful air-to-air missions, versus the 48% in the original design specification. Full-scale fatigue testing between 1988 and 1994 ended with a demonstration of over 7,600 flight hours for the most severely used aircraft, and in excess of 12,000 hours on the remainder of the fleet. A 10,000-hour service limit would provide F-15Cs to 2020, while a 12,000-hour service life extends the F-15Cs to the year 2030. The APG-63 radar, F100-PW-100 engines, and structure upgrades are mandatory. The USAF cannot expect to fly the F-15C to 2014, or beyond, without replacing these subsystems. The total cost of the three retrofits would be under $3 billion. The upgrades would dramatically reduce the 18 percent breakrate prevalent in the mid-1990s, and extend the F-15C service life well beyond 2014.

I almost got an Article-15 from the Army K2 base commander because I would not take the parachute down from our make-shift porch. We flew at night and slept during the day. It was in the 100's and the power kept going out so we would wake up and go sit under the parachute to get some shade. "Sorry Col SIR, I was busy flying ocmbat missions and killing bad guys down range. I will cancel my CAS missions tonight so I can take down the parachute and make it look like a perfect little Army base." Freaking tools.

My favorite crapper graffiti viewed at K2... "Flush twice, it's a long way to the chow hall"

You are correct there are folks at both ends of the spectrum in any profession. I have actually worked with some great SFS folks who were professional and genuinely cared about what they were doing and it is probably not fair that I focus on the negative events. I guess I have just had the unfortunate luck to see a lot of poor behavior. Probably the worst was when I saw a SP who was directing traffic for an airshow, scream at a woman who didn’t understand what he wanted her to do. He literally brought her to tears, with her tow kids in the car. However, at the same airshow I saw a SP pick up and comfort a kid who was crying because he was separated from his parents. My props to your bro and all of the dudes taking it to the insurgents in Iraq.

Shack! Tagteam from Hell

Chapter Seven Skycop Jackass has been waging a war against me ever since the “rootbeer incident”. On several occasions he would follow me out of the parking lot all the way to the front gate. After few months I was lucky enough to take over an AMU and ended up spending a lot of time on the flightline. Our main building was undergoing renovation and we moved into a small trailer right next to the flight line. The only problem was there was no parking nearby so the SQ/CC got us permission to park our Govt vehicles right next to the red line so we could get to our aircraft in a timely manner. Skycop Jackass took exception to this and tried in vain to have us park ½ mile away, I guess the only Govt vehicles he wanted on the flight were the ones he slept in when he was on “patrol”. I thought things had finally settled down because we had not heard from Skycop Jackass in nearly two weeks when one of my guys called and said “you have go to see this”. I guess Skycop Jackass was afraid we were to close to the redline and he took it upon himself to get a jackhammer and drill holes in the tarmac every 25’, then put a three foot pole to string a red piece of nylon rope marking the redline. He also used this modification as an opportunity to close the entry point closest to our building so we would have to drive to the other end of the flightline if we wanted access. I walked outside and watched his clown act and just could not believe it had come to this, “whatever” I thought and went back to work. About an hour later a crew was taxiing out for a local pro trainer when I got a call that they had just shelled an engine, were shutting down, and doing an emergency ground egress. I ran outside and it the aircraft was stopped right in front of our trailer. Long story short, the engine guys found chucks of asphalt in the engine. I put two and two together and started looking where Skycop Jackass had “drilled” the flightline and there was stuff everywhere. He had drilled perhaps 30+ holes and decided to leave all the debris laying right there on the flightline. We took pictures and I had my guys gather the crap and put it into a box that weighed nearly 20 pounds. Within an hour the AGS/CC invited the SFS/CC to come see what happened. I never saw Skycop Jackass on the flightline again.

Toro - Here is Chapter six for you; Not my best behavior, but at one time I did enjoy poking the skycops in the eye. As a young maintenance officer I had multiple run-in’s with a very over-zealous TSgt type skycop. The first event happened one day at lunch when I pulled out of the base gas station and onto the main drag at Charleston AFB. It was hot and I took a long pull on my bottle of IBC rootbeer. The skycop who was himself speeding the opposite direction saw the dark colored bottle and decided it was a matter of national security so he hit the lights and did a power slide 180 in front of all the other cars to race back and get me. He obviously called for back up because two other skycop cars joined him and they are out of the car with weapons before he even got his fat butt out of the car. I know what is going on and decide to play it up a little. He walks up to my window barking orders to keep my hands where he can see them and the rest goes something like this; Skycop Jackass – “Who do you think you are , drinking and driving on my base”. Young 2Lt – “Why whatever are you talking about (while pretending to push my bottle of rootbeer to my side. Skycop Jackass –“Sirrr (with as much disgust as he can muster), I saw you drinking and while driving I am taking you in” Young 2Lt – “Since when is a crime to drink and drive?” Skycop Jackass– “(Temper causing his face to get red), No more "Sir", just “Step out of the car and place your hands behind your back” Young 2Lt – “Sgt you are making a mistake and I would appreciate it if you call me “sir” Skycop Jackass – (skull now shooting blood out the top), grabs my arm and orders me out of the truck. Starts to read me my rights and tells one of the other officers to “get the beer out of the truck”. Young 2Lt – (biting cheek so I don’t laugh out loud), “Sarrrggee, you’ve made a huge mistake I was not drinking and driving with beer”. Skycop # 2 – “Umm Sgt so and so, we have a problem” Skycop Jackass – “What the @#$* are you talking about?" Skycop #2 - (very sheepishly), “Sgt it is a bottle of rootbeer.” Skycop Jackass - “YOU GOTTA BE SHITTING ME, give me the damn bottle”” Young 2Lt – “I tried to tell you sarrrrggee, by the way can I have your name please” Skycop Jackass – “mumble mumble mumble”

All I can say is last night, Dos Gringos, Rocked!!! Awesome job gents, glad I was in town and managed to see it. CH

Try taking the gas in a 130 bra.

Linda, I saw 480GS on the SCNS in a -7 E model during a 250ish descent into Shaky's Pizza with 200kts on the tail. I think we even took a picture. These days my average daily speed is a tad under 1038MPH, the roatation speed of the earth under my freaking desk in the puzzle palace. CH