Smokin

"Points", at least as far as most guard guys talk about points, don't matter, it is the active duty equivalency days that matter. If you look at the PCARS on vMPF, the far left 'AD" column is what you care about to get the active duty retirement. Even for AGR guys, that number will be less than the total points, but the AD number is the one you care about in this case. The ARPC website says you need 20 years AD service, I'd assume that means you need 7300 AD days, or 7305 if they really wanted to be exact. Also a good idea to keep check that yearly, I've had to have them fix it multiple times for me. A bit dated, but from the horses mouth and I can't imagine it has changed: https://www.arpc.afrc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/366456/officials-offer-guidance-for-active-duty-retirement/

Timing is everything and there is no justice. You could get fighters and spend your first decade doing theater security where you basically do the same training as if you were at home. Or you could get the Buff and level an ISIS city a month out of the B-Course. Plenty of both have happened. Put down what you want to do, don't play any games, enjoy where you end up, and don't look back.

That sage green jacket is not a civilian jacket, but a newer flight suit jacket. He probably had a quick TDY and didn't want to bother with checking a bag. Or dropped a jet off a depot and was flying back. Might want to slow your frat roll down a bit.

For the gun argument, I think it makes sense to hope for the best and train for the worst. Ideally, I'll have wall to wall 120's with a Pk of 2.0 because I shoot them in fingertip from their formation takeoff. But when I can never get a lock because he's jammed my radar so bad my MFD says "FCR OFF" and my 9x misses (0 for 1 right now), I'd like to have a weapon that won't decoy or get jammed.

It would be easy to put checklists or approach plates in the CDU for the Viper as a PDF, but the problem is the interface. Since it's not a touch screen and you scroll down through pages via buttons on the side, there's no way to skip down 50 pages to get to a critical checklist I need right now. A software change might be able to make approach plates user friendly on the CDU, but I just don't see digging through the CDU with an EP looking for a checklist.

You can do anything.... once

All the better for the pilots if the Navy goes top rope. Undue command influence should be an easy sell.

I've been at bases where we had to carry alternate fuel for somewhere without rain, but that is not the norm. I've only had it happen to me once in 12+ years of flying, so not common enough to justify the loss in training. Go around and try again. The time it happened to me, it basically obscured the HUD, so no big deal, just don't be a HUD baby. I've seen it happen to friends where it obscured +/-30 of the nose, but that is really rare. In that case, divert. If you can't divert, then you could do a formation approach.

Unfortunately, not only can I imagine it in the CAF but I've experienced it without the transitions you've mentioned. You get a squadron leadership that came from the pentagon or similar assignment and you're likely looking at a guy who's been out of the jet for 3 out of his last 4 years. Combine that with the decreased flying hours over the last ten years and the average fighter SQ/CC has substantially less flight time (experience) than SQ/CCs had 6-9 years ago. SQ/CCs should be the most experienced dudes and leading the first flight in a war. Now the O-3 patch is taking that role with <800 hrs under his belt.

Hughes may be part of the problem, but the real 'problem' with banning items is innovation. As soon as the government passes a law or the ATF issues a letter making a specific thing illegal, people will find a way to get the same result using a new work around that accomplishes a similar result in a legal manner. It's not just the bump stock, but the arm brace and countless other things to work around the law. In modern times when a middle class American can afford to buy automated milling equipment and manufacture their own parts or even entire guns, arbitrary laws banning specific items are obsolete before they even take effect. The problem is only going to get worse as technology increases and prices decrease. I'm actually surprised we don't have a bigger problem with people buying ARs and retooling them to be full auto, but that will probably happen if the bump stock gets banned. But the true root cause of attacks like this is America as a country deliberately walking away from the moral foundation of our country. We have banned God and related religious morals from our government and society while simultaneously crying out against the evils of society that inevitably result. Hatred of people across the political isle is given only cursory public condemnation while de facto encouraged within both political parties. While a problem with both sides, the easiest example is the "love trumps hate" slogan protesters carry just before they start throwing rocks or worse.

Almost every time I have done the M9 requal shoot, there have been cops there doing their same YEARLY qualification shoot. Not a single time has any cop there shot better than I did and I'm a decent shot, but I'm not going to go win any 3-gun competition by any means. Granted these are AF cops, but I've also been at private ranges with civil police and the same general rule has applied. I think the average person would be shocked at the most police departments shooting requirements.

You can see how many really care about making a political statement when the Cowboys threatened to fire anyone who knelt. All stood. Either everyone on that team feels very different than the rest of the NFL, or the NFL players in general really don't believe in whatever it is they're 'protesting'.

Debt should only a problem if it is unreasonable for your background. You went to med school for two years and then decided you wanted to be a pilot? Shouldn't be a problem to have 100K debt. You went on a week long bender in Vegas and racked up 50K in gambling debt? That's a problem. Your no kidding credit history, how many credit cards you've had, etc, is only relevant in so far as it determines if you are a responsible individual that can be trusted with our nation's secrets.

A little off topic, but I'm not sure what you propose is any different than it is now. Guys get selected for school out of their major's board are auto leadership track unless they decline (which you can do now without being a 7-day opt). Others get picked up for school on later looks and join the leadership track. Want to be on the flying track? Don't go to school. Done.

Just the latter? If they really start involuntary mobilizations for individual non-combat deployments, I think you'll see guys across the board start to walk. Even guys within a couple years of 20 active time would consider walking. Won't get sent away from your family for six months only to make unnecessary powerpoints with the airlines. Interesting point to ponder, is a command tour something you can really non-vol someone into? If said commander does literally nothing as a commander other than sleep, eat, and workout, will he get sent home for 'lack of confidence'? With squadron commanders getting fired right and left over the past five years, seems like it would be easy to turn a 6 month tour into a 6 week trip. And since he's guard, if he did get sent home, could big blue really do anything about it if his TAG had his back?

I know every airframe is different in terms of STRD vulnerability, but your risk level has to be approaching extreme. Last I heard, before I went to the guard and quit caring about STRD, F-16 guys were getting non-vol'd out of cycle around 5 years after their STRD. No way would I take the two year bonus (at least at current prices) knowing that it'd put me on a 365, but to each their own.

At least they finally updated it to be 'run, hide,... oh yeah, and I guess fight back if there's no other option.'

With how many non-combat deployments (TSP, etc) there have been in the last 15 years, I'm actually surprised there aren't more senior guys with no combat experience. Maybe other types of air frames are different, but for fighters you are at the mercy of your squadron's tasking. With the possible exception of one or two random attached guys who may be given the option, you're either going or not going and it makes no difference if you want to go or not. I personally have known multiple fighter guys who as majors and lt cols had 1000+ hrs and zero combat time just due to timing and bad luck. I also have known capts with more combat time than non-combat time and they were well over the 1000 hr mark. Timing is everything and there is no justice.

Agreed that you should start high and then it all depends on the moving company initially. I just finished this process a few months ago and actually felt the end result was fine although it took a lot of time. They lost about a dozen boxes and they offered me the full amount claimed for everything they lost. I put in a rough guess on replacement costs for various things that were totaled. They offered on average about 2/3 the amount I claimed for broken stuff. Make sure you don't get rid of anything unless it is dangerous to keep (broken glass, etc). Even with pictures, I was offered nothing for a couple things I threw out saying the "damage was not able to be verified". I over-estimated broken and damaged things to leave room for their counter-offer, which ended up being pretty fair.

ACSC might actually be the best analogy yet to big blue's, an apparently Congress' approach... 'I don't care what the facts are, I don't care about getting to the bottom of the cause, I don't really want to even be talking about this. What is the absolute fastest way to make it look like I care, make it look like I did my research, but really just get a passing grade so I can move on.'

I don't blame those dudes for voicing their opinions, but they probably could have framed the argument better. If money doesn't matter then why is the bonus thread on page 139? If money doesn't matter, then why do all the airline guys talk about how much money they can make and all the AD guys ease drop whenever the conversation comes up?

Or maybe no one is talking about it because the AF has zero credibility for things like this. I'll believe it when I see it on my LES and it's more than a $50 pay jump.

Shooter's name is Monalisa... that should be enough said as to why no one figured out this was a bad idea.

A 30 mph crosswind gust could cause a runway departure. If the grass on the side of the runway wasn't level then that would cause the far side to dip while the crosswinds lifted the other wing. The wind could then continue to lift the raised wing further and maybe flip it. Not saying this is what happened, we'll hear it from the AIB/SIB, but the theory is possible.

It'd take a lot more than that for some hurt feelings around here. The single engine thing is a common jab from other platforms, but generally over-rated as an actual problem. If you go back and look at all the Viper Class A's in the last decade, very few of them would have turned out any different with a second engine. Even with engine issues on two engine fighters, if one engine shells itself and starts throwing blades, that probably isn't good for the other engine sitting a few feet away. Just reference the F-18 crash in San Diego a few years ago. One bad engine soon led to no engines.