Gravedigger

The promotion rate to Captain for pilots this year was over 97%, and many of those not selected had major QFIs. Navs were 92%, which was the promotion rate AF-wide. Almost 50% of APZ Lts were selected this year, comapred to less than 2% last year. The reason was likely that a lot of those passed over last year were good dudes that just didn't have any OPRs. The biggest discriminators the past two years have been UIFs, failed ASBC (seriously), and failed initial skills training. As a side note, Space has done horribly the last two years (~85%). Mostly due to the fact that training and casual take forever, so many folks had 2 OPRs at the most. The Air Force didn't spend much money on the training, so space officers aren't nearly as valuableas their rated peers. Meanwhile, the mission support career fields are well above 95% promotion due to their numerous OPRs when meeting the board.

Exactly

I think the OP inadvertantly typed AWACS when clearly he meant to type JSTARS.

A sincere thank you to Rich/Baseops.net. I have learned far more from this site over the last 8+ years than I ever did from ROTC or active duty. This is truly very sad.

If it's anything like SOS, there is a minimum waiting period between tests. I took the SOS tests cold, but had to wait 3-4 days between tests to allow time for the previous test results to be input into the system at Maxwell.

Fair enough. I'm going to go put some beers on the ole' AMEX now.

I just simply can't comprehend that line of thinking. Some company is offering to pay me several hundred dollars a year for paying one easy automatic monthly payment (from my debit account), without charging me interest, and somehow that's a bad deal? I understand the people that have no ability to control their spending, but I stick to a strict budget, and the money is going to be spent either way each month. You are actually decreasing your wealth by using a debit card. This is not some sort of gimick, for every $7,500 I spend I get a check for $100. When you spend $7,500 you get jack. There is no argument that could ever prove that $100 check is worse than $0 for the same money spent.

I thought the Aim High, I'm high joke was pretty good, as was the PJ's. That's it.

I honestly signed up for AMU thinking it would be a pay the fee get the degree program. I don't know if it was the vector math during orbital mechanics or writing a paper on the affect of microgravity on the subcutaneous veno-arteriolar reflex in humans...but I actaully worked quite hard for the degree and learned a ton! Also, the 65-page thesis was the most miserable thing I've ever done during my schooling.

Get some Nikes. Not worthless. Just over $100 on AAFES.com.

At my base they basically have all of the shitty additional duties that nobody else in the OG wants to do. (Records management, forms and pubs, GPC, SVRO etc). They are also responsible for the OG sharepoint and all comm-related issues for the OG staff, which is their primary job. There are 4 SSgts assigned, although 1 or 2 are deployed at any given time. They work 12-hour days and receive zero praise. After talking to them, their jobs pretty much suck wherever they are assigned, and most of them try to cross-train. As a career field, they work in offices for O-6 and above folks doing basically anything that needs to be done, but primarily focusing on comm. If you have a GO in your office, you have knowledge ops.

I think C-17s need CSOs.

That and it is hard to get a clean shot off when you are choking on tear gas and the theater is dark and hysterical.

Yes it is out of control. With Lts being eligible earlier, the push from leadership is to get it done earlier. Now the new course will be gouge-free (for a while) and take significantly longer than Course 20 and to top it off, in-res is supposed to be 100% now. And when you go in-res, you'll now waste 2 months of your life instead of a month. You can tell Lts they don't need to worry about these things now, but the sad truth is that they do. With so few discriminators at such an early point in your career, you can bet Sq/CC's are using this as a metric.

I'm guessing he has read that the new correspondence course is going to suck and he wants to knock this out while he has down time. With the Capt boards now, you could potentially be eligible for the course over a year before you pin on Capt. To answer your question, you must be a Capt select to enroll in SOS-C. That could be anywhere between 4 months to a year and 2 months before you pin on.

Wow that place is fucking insane. Some of those videos were pretty impressive though.

When I was an exec I was told by a Lt Gen that SOS DG was particularly important because the demographics of your SOS class mimic the demographics of the Air Force fairly closely. If you can stand out amongst your peers there and be the "inspiring leader" of your flight, you can probably do the same thing in your Sq, OG, WG, NAF etc. He was not naive to the fact that many great officers don't give a shit about SOS and therefore self-eliminate from DG contention. As for non-flyers knowing about WIC. Keep in mind that not all patches are aircrew, and the majority of O-6s in the Air Force come from the Ops community, to include Space, Cyber, ICBM and Intel, all of which have WICs. The only thing I would add to Chuck's list is the sample size matters, but strats really need to be from your peer group to mean anything. For example, I have seen numerous OPRs for Captains that say #X of XX CGOs. It's better than nothing, but how many of those CGOs were 2d Lts? I saw a Lt Col OPR with the strat "My #3 of 70 officers". Seriously? In some cases, it comes down to the rater just not understanding how to strat. I looked at an OPR for a Capt that said #2 of 37 CGOs. I asked the rater how many of the CGOs were Captains, and it was 28. #2 of 28 Captains is MUCH stronger than #2 of 37 CGOs.

For motorcyclists, particularly in states with short riding seasons, the warm weather and long days of the summer lend way to a massive flux in the number of bikes on the road. I think the rise in accidents/deaths directly correlates to that increased number of bikes. Additionally, I see a lot less PPE being worn during the summer because of the heat, and riding is more enjoyable in warm weather so people tend to "cruise" and drive less defensively than in the colder months when the goal is just getting from Point A to Point B. Bottom line is there are always going to be motorcycle deaths that cannot be prevented, but the majority of accidents could have been avoided. Ride safe. By the way, gearpig the KTM950 is a badass bike, I really want a KTM. I'm a fellow dual-sport rider (Suzuki DRZ400S).

They don't allow a reflective belt wrapped around the backpack? Is it a new wing commander policy or a new interpretation of the regs?

Very professional and humble guy, which is pretty much unheard of in the NBA. I wish him the best. https://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/story/2012-06-29/Bernard-James-Military-Vet-to-NBA-Player/55906048/1

My wife lived in Atlanta when I was in in California. No issues at all. Just call the 800 number for your region and they'll help you out, they do this sort of thing all the time.

Cavalier AFS, ND. One year unaccompanied, two years accompanied. One of the three space bases that isn't awesome (Clear, Cavalier and Thule). https://en.wikipedia....r_Force_Station As far as career fields go, space has some pretty great spots, in no particular order: Antigua England (Fylindales and Mildenhall) Cape Cod Germany Hawaii (Maui and Hickam) Japan Australia COS Denver Beale Eglin Nellis Hurlburt Cape Canaveral ABQ Vandenberg LA Boston DC/Virginia/Maryland Holloman (awesome mission makes up for mediocre locale) Oh yeah, and the relevance to this thread...we are supposed to be getting several SpaceLO billets to Cannon...

The Atlanta Braves have won one world series...in fact it's the only championship win Atlanta has from any of the major sports teams (I don't count the Knights IHL win). Very surprising when you think about how good the Braves were in the 90's and the Falcons and Hawks having great teams at various times in history. And Henry Aaron will always be the king.

Fuckin A, ain't that the truth. I take it you're a SWS or SPCS dude? And you won't be able to have children following this assignment? Well said One of the positives about the Springs...the CGOC is not frequented...by anyone. I've also never seen a person wearing a reflective belt at Schriever, Pete or the Mountain. You've said it all very well, and I wholeheartedly agree with working on ourselves. Personally, I think that cutting the last of the ties with missiles would be a big step in the right direction. Not sure what your experiences have been, but in the sat C2 world it's a pretty big issue. What do you do with a Captain that knows absolutely nothing about space? You either put them on crew sitting next to an A1C or you make them a mission commander. Meanwhile, the Lts that have been doing the mission for 3 years and are the system experts can't upgrade or take on leadership roles because of the constant influx of new missileers. Some of our units have tried to counter this problem, but that only ends up screwing the missile Capts who are then working for a senior Lt/junior Capt. Anyways, not to get on another rant...it's nice to know there's another space dude lurking around!

Dudes, I don't believe my job is better or more worthwhile than anyone elses. I was just throwing some shit BQZip's way because he seems particularly emotional about this subject. I sincerely respect aircrew for what they do on a daily basis (pilot, nav, enlisted.....even ABMs), I also have tremendous respect for the maintainers that keep shit working, and most importantly the dudes on the ground that live with real fear and cheat death on a daily basis. I take pride in my job because I enjoy being able to contribute at least a little bit to making your jobs safer and easier. That said, space is much more than just SATCOM and navigation. Those two mission areas barely even scratch the surface (although the entire global economy depends on the timing signal provided by GPS). The dudes saying they don't need space only prove how little they know about what space provides. Go talk to the space guys in the AOC if you're in one, or talk to your space liaison if you're in an AFSOC unit. Go find out what space assets are tasked on the ATO. Talk to the space aggressors next time your at Red Flag, or to the space patches. There are tons of avenues out there to learn more about space, if you care, and it might change your perception. We aren't all trying to feel like we're pilots. EDIT: And just to comment on the crew flying construct. I had a vacuum system failure in IMC a few weeks after getting my instrument ticket. I was 18 and thought it would fun to putz around in a storm. The attitude indicator didn't tumble for quite a while. I noticed my turn and skid indicator showed a pretty steep bank when I thought I was level. When I finally got it leveled out, I had some very serious spatial d. I asked my friend who was in the right seat to hold the plane level for a minute while I tried to get my brain back in order. We had no GPS and it took a while for me to get the approach plates together and find an ILS and get us on the ground. Had I been alone, I probably would have augered in, I don't know.