ClearedHot

Scooter, Whenever I make it to that area my kid sister takes me to a place that has awesome cheesesteaks... It is a chain but I can't think of the name.

So did it taste as good coming up?

I don’t see anything wrong with folks that want to fly for 20 straight years and retire as a Maj or LtCol. Given changes on the way, I wonder if LtCol will be possible. The USAF is poised to cut 40,000 folks and you will be surprised at some of the areas they are looking at. A few years ago we thought everyone would make LtCol, hell I did, but it is getting tougher again and I think the trend will continue. Would I like to fly everyday and do nothing else, you bet, are those the guys I look up to, not always. My heroes are the guys that can fly AND lead you into combat. I would take exception to your “actually *working* for Uncle Sam” comment. Not that I do anything earth shattering, but I know a few folks up here who do more work than flying around the flag pole with a few Navy students. :cool: Ultimately, you have to do what makes you happy. For me I love to fly, but I want to continue to be challenged and sitting back with my feet on the desk for the last 10 years of my career was not for me. [ 10. January 2006, 10:54: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

A fine example...? You are right, what was I thinking getting promoted and sent off to school when I could have been getting ANOTHER alcohol related incident.

Yes that is the song, now if you can just find an MP3 of it.

The Gang Bang Song, but I have not been able to find an MP3 of it. Classic tune, espeically when played at a Piano bar.

No

I would not stop in Little Rock, yo umight break there. Get gas at Ellington if you can make it that far, if not got to Shreveport then on to Dallas. At least if you break in Shreveport you can go to the Casio. Dallas has tons of bars, but I have not been there in a few years. Hey all you aggies...whoop...There is a place in Dallas with a bunch of bars in the same place, you can stumble from one right to the next, is that downtown?

L39 Crash

Hacker, Unlike the old days I think the Masters is more of an issue when you are up for LtCol, but I could be wrong. I looked at the demographics from my O-5 board and they no longer track education on the post promotion analysis.

ACSC in residence will get you a Masters Degree. ACSC in correspondence will not.

Yes, they are trying to stop you from doing the course twice. THe education information is block for promotion boards...HOWEVER, the senior rater can still see you education information and may use that to determine if you get a "DP" or a "P" for your PRF that goes to the promotion board.

Here is a bit of information for those of you who plan on making the USAF a career. A quick bit of background to place this post in context for all. At several times during a officers career you will compete to attend Professional Military Education (PME) in residence. Some of you have heard of Squadron Officer School, which is for captains, but this post is really focused on what the USAF calls Intermediate Developmental Education (IDE), usually Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), or similar programs. And Senior Developmental Education (SDE), usually Air War College (AWC), or similar programs. You will compete for IDE and SDE at your Major and LtCol promotion boards respectively. In the past persons identified by their promotion boards as “candidates” for IDE or SDE stood a good chance of going inresidence. The board always selected too many people for the available slots, so if you were a candidate you stood a 70% chance of going inresidence. You may have heard some of the older craniums on the board complain about doing SOS, ACSC, or AWC in correspondence. In order to make your next promotion you MUST complete the appropriate level of school. As an example, if you look at promotion boards over the past four years, Majors who have not completed ACSC by going in residence for a year or completing the program by correspondence, have a zero percent selection rate to .001% selection rate to LtCol, in other words, it is a pass fail block that you have to fill. I bring all of this up because in the past leadership expected you to complete SOS, IDE, and SDE by correspondence EVEN if you were selected to go in residence. It was viewed as a commitment issue I guess. In fact, most Wing/CC’s won’t give you a good “push” to compete for one of the schools in residence until you finished it by correspondence. This led to a process called “practice bleeding” where you ended up doing the program twice to suit the masters. Well things MIGHT have changed…This week AFPC published a memo from the USAF DP – (dude in charge of all personnel issues), which formally states that “selects”, or persons identified by their promotion board to go to IDE or SDE in residence. Part of this is a reflection of changes in the program. Currently, officers identified as selects have a 100 percent opportunity to attend IDE or SDE. Additionally, the policy reflects the contempt that junior officers have felt for the entire process. I HOPE it is true. In the past we were told by one CSAF that we didn’t need a masters degree to get promoted and the next CSAF reversed the policy leaving a few good officer out in the cold. Take all of this with a grain of salt, but hopefully it gives you a better idea of what to expect later in your careers. To view the policy letter from LtGen Brady go to the link below, look on the right side under the title "From the DP", and they actually gave the formal link to the policy letter the title "Practice Bleeding Policy" AFPC IDE-SDE Website Cheers CH [ 07. January 2006, 14:18: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

DACT = dissimilar air combat training

69 The was a story on the USAF website a few days ago from Sec Wynne that said six months may be the more approriate length. The story dissappeared and today there is a story quoting CJCS, Gen Pace which says the following; "The Air Force works with a lot of guardsmen and reservists blended into their units," the general said. "So as they look at it, a four-month rotation works very well." General Pace said the differing tour lengths are confusing and frustrating to those on the ground. "But in Washington, it makes sense for each of the services to be doing what they are doing,” he said. “But that doesn't mean we won't keep looking at the situation.”

You should get a separate one, I always have.

Looking for a used ride?

Toro, Classic...Standing O. CH

Of course.

Vetter, I've never done the wave gig. I made FL190 in a thermal...it was a wild ride. I hoped to do some wave soaring while I was in New Zealand last month, but the conditions were aweful. I may skull out west to Mindin NV this summer and give the wave gig another shot.

Hacker, Sorry but I disagree. Formations like the one in the photo are not meant to look like formations of pointy nose jets. The C-17 in particular has extra separation requirements due to the vortices produced by the winglets. Obviously airlift formations like the one in the picture are not meant to get folks through the weather, but what might not be obvious is that these formations are not for mutual support either, after all they don’t have anything to support each other with in the form of weapons. Large formations like this are about one thing, mass on the drop zone. Slick guys help me out here, C-130 formations that use SKE (Station Keeping Equipment – or an electronic container that is used to fly formation in the weather), maintain a 2000’ separation between aircraft, the separation is not a pure nose to tail relationship but is also lateral. The distance provides safety in the weather, but is really based on a delivery standard developed by the U.S. Army. The Army wants to have the capability to put an entire Brigade on the drop zone in one hour. A large formation of C-130’s can accomplish that task. Unfortunately, one drawback of the C-17 is that it cannot. The problem is the increased separation requirements from the wingtip vortices means it takes the C-17 something on the order of 70 minutes to put the same amount of men and material on the drop zone. Another reason some airdrop formations look “non-standard” is they sometimes purposely fly “ghost” positions. For a formation like the 60 ship beast that was on the way to Haiti, there are obviously spares lined up and ready to go, but once airborne if an aircraft aborts, others don’t necessarily move up and take that position. Usually a large formation will put the heavy equipment on the ground first and drop the people second (for obvious reasons), if an aircraft carrying heavy equipment aborts, the formation may leave that position open so as to maintain drop separation requirements on the ground. I didn’t mean for this to turn into an airdrop dissertation, but if some airdrop guys started ripping a pointy nose formation without knowing the tactics, procedures, or reasons I am sure you would find a way to tactfully get them the right information.

Charleston breaks record with largest C-17 formation (17-Aircraft, to date.

I wounder how Ali G would deal with the situation?

It means the funding line from congress to the USAF to the Contractor was in FY03. 046 is the number assigned by the USAF to denote sequence of production.