Gravedigger

Fair enough. I come from the land of feelings and sensitivity. I don't see shit flipped at people unless it is accompanied by at least 4 positive statements. He works down the hall from me; pretty much just puts squares into circles all day. Ha! It seems you have the chip on your shoulder because my job only makes you more useless. Actually, never mind, the dudes in front with the 11X AFSC make you useless. Once again, my point has been missed.This isn't about aircrew not being respected for the shit they endure. It is about aircrew disrespecting space ops folks. Irrelevant, I'm whining, got it, moving on. Our CDC is hiring.

That's exactly why the angst. After I SIE'd, I showed up at Vandenberg knowing not one thing about Air Force space operations. I never heard a single mention of it in ROTC, and the only people I knew that got assigned to Space/Missiles were retards. That is a foul. You are exactly right that this is the Air Force, but space is a pretty important component of the Air Force, that nobody gives a shit about. The problem is that other countries do give a shit about it, and they have some really smart people working their shit, while we have sociology majors and UPT flunkies. Advocating, not whining. That's quite an assumption. I'm glad you know so much about space. You are the 1%. You are completely missing the point of my post. When was the last time you heard a space guy say "those fucking pilots sitting in their fucking cubicles don't do anything?" I hear that shit all the time about space, and it's just stupid. I'm not saying you should know the nitty gritty of sat C2, but you also shouldn't think space is a bunch of desk jockeys that don't care about ops...like the vast majority of non-space folks do. I have spent my entire life flying and around military/civilian aircraft, I get it, trust me.

Ok, so this topic was already discussed in a previous thread, but a couple of points: 1. As has been stated Missileers are in AFGSC, space operators (who this applies to) are in AFSPC. 2. The wear of green nomex flightsuits was originally brought to AFSPC by a pilot as a cost-savings/culture enhancing measure. Space and missile operators previously wore blue flightsuits. One day a general (pilot) said all operations should wear a common flightsuit. 3. This decision actually has zero to do with money. It has everything to do with having standardization in the command between space and cyber ops. It either came down to letting cyber dudes wear the bag, or taking them away from space. 4. The majority of folks in AFSPC don't give a shit about not getting to wear flightsuits. We partially had a distinct culture back in the day with blue flightsuits, and much more strict education/experience requirements for members performing space operations duties. In standard Air Force fashion, Big Blue tried to normalize space ops and bring it closer to the flying Air Force, and subsequently started pumping the command full of the bottom-third types from each of the commissioning sources, and converting a significant number of officer billets to A1C billets. Fortunately, we have not had any significant challenges to the space domain...but I foresee a shit show on the horizon. Except I am not confident we can survive a space "Pearl Harbor." 5. Space deserves a little Goddamn respect from the flying Air Force. I don't blame most of you for having absolutely no idea what we do on a daily basis, because you should be focused on flying. That said, it wouldn't kill you to learn a little about something the world would literally stop functioning without. You don't get SATCOM and navigation from a dude working 7 hours a day in a cubicle. There's a reason we work in OG's and not MSG's. We come in for training/evals/additional duties on our days off. We are working at 3am on Christmas. But we do it without appreciation and without any pay incentives or special privileges. We don't get to see anything cool other than windowless buildings and computer screens while we work. Just something to consider when you bash space nerds.

For the DUI/LORs, I totally agree. One of the UPT washouts was for motion sickness, he then had a delay starting training and had one OPR when he met the board, and his OPR was for training. Nobody at my base really put a lot of thought into PRFs last year, and I think this particular Lt got passed over because of it. Had his squadron taken care of him and given him at least another draft OPR to use with some actual mission bullets, he probably would have made it. He's not a stellar Lt, but he isn't bottom 5% either. That's just the way things go in the Air Force now. You really can't afford not to complete initial skills training any more, for any reason. A few years ago, washing from UPT wasn't a huge blemish on your career. I personally have no stake in this matter, other than I am the OG exec now and have 71 PRFs waiting for me this week....

My post was unclear. The Lts that had derogatory information (failed training, DUI, LOR) only had two TRs and one bland OPR on top, so they could not possibly cover-up or recover from their derogatory info. Out of the 8 Lts that didnt get promoted from my group, 3 failed UPT, 1 DUI, 3 with LORs, 1 failed ASBC. We have about 7 other Lts that failed or quit UPT that did get promoted, so it was all based on how people did after being re-classed, as it should be. Yes, I really do. It's nice for the Lts at that wing. It sucks for the Lts at another wing that might be passed over because they are their wing's bottom 20% competing against top third Lts from the other wing. The promotion system blows as it is, it can only be made slightly better if everyone plays by the same rules.

Can't find the numbers from last year, but there were a few folks promoted above the zone. This year, there will be substantially more APZ promotions, IMHO. Many wings (including mine) didn't take the board as seriously as they should have, and had a pretty substantial number of non-selects (8 not selected from 45 OG Lts). Almost all of those had some sort of negative mark in their records. Much of it came down to them having an ASBC TR, IQT TR, and one OPR. Many commanders have taken a "special interest" in some of their Lts that they feel should have been promoted. For those Lts that meet the board with a DP, the PRF is blank. One way to ensure an APZ gets promoted is for them to get a DP. I have a feeling these blank PRFs with DPs will be used for a number of passed over Lts. I have heard of other wings giving their DPs to the folks with only one OPR or with weak OPRs and letting their strong folks with strats compete with P's. That's bullshit if you ask me, but it looks good for the Wg/CC if all of their Lts get promoted. Our Wg/CC last year gave out about 6 DNPs...he felt like promotion decisions should be made by the Wing Commander and not by a central selection board. Bottom line, your friend has a chance, but only if someone is looking out for them. If he meets the board APZ with a P, he will not be promoted.

Some of the best sports advice I ever got from my dad was "act like you've been there before." Celebrating your own accomplishments is counter to the idea of team sports. I think Tony Gonzales exemplifies the "act like you've been there before" concept. When he makes a big catch, he gets up and hands the ball to the ref, and goes to the huddle. No self-promoting, no dances, he just does his job and moves forward. That is professionalism. If you are good enough at what you do, you don't need to promote yourself. As for Tim Tebow, I really don't give a shit if he prays or talks about Jesus. He is winning (for now) and wants the best for his team, and not himself, I can respect that. When he starts losing, he will still pray and talk about Jesus, he'll just get less coverage.

I don't think it's old age....I remember the same thing....and I'm not old.

We had the same thing happen to a couple Airmen in my SQ, they had Kuwaiti and American citizenship with Secret clearances. When they were going up for TS, they had to renounce their Kuwaiti citizenship.

As dumb as this article is, jamming devices for both GPS and SATCOM have been widely proliferated, and have had some success.

We have a Captain in my SQ that has a masters degree in financial planning and was told she was not allowed to host a financial planning class...same reason.

Ha, that's spot on. Have any of you ever tried to pick up your alterations without the receipt/ticket? I'm pretty sure it's easier to talk your way out of an on-base DUI than pick up uniforms without a receipt.

Agreed. I think Peterson is halfway there, at least the BX, Commissary, Uniform Shop, Barber, and Food Court are all in the same building. The commissary is open on Mondays too. That said, you still have to shop at each place separately. It doesn't really bother me, because I rarely shop at either place. If the prices at the BX weren't double Wal-Mart or Target's prices, maybe I'd consider giving them my business. As far as renovations, I was TDY to Vandenberg last month and I walked into the BX to get a few items. The place was completely destroyed, and they had signs advertising the Grand Re-opening...supposedly happening that weekend. It looked like they were approximately 3% complete, and had 4 days left until the supposed re-opening. The shopette on base at Schriever closed for 3 days for renovations. They moved the soda fountain and turned the counter sideways...and it took 3 days.

This. Masshole, I think you should re-read these last couple of sentences, and really take them to heart. This might seem like a jab to you, but this is some solid career advice. Once you commission, you will realize this is not some hypothetical joke, it happens all the time. I'm sure everyone on baseops has witnessed the girl in the class/SQ/GP/WG that uses men and attention to get what she wants...until it doesn't work anymore and everything comes crashing down. Don't be that girl. Be the one that takes the attention in stride, and builds a career completely independent of being a woman. I work with some women that I truly respect. Sadly, I also work with some that excel only in using their "assets" effectively. EDIT: I also want to add that I can sympathize with your plight. I joined baseops when I was still a cadet. I thought I was hot shit, because all I knew was the retardedly small and false world of ROTC. One day, I made some smart ass comment to Clearedhot, and he very bluntly called me out, and put me in my place. Here's the take-away, baseops is an excellent place to learn real Air Force lessons, without actually being in the real Air Force. I learned a lot of shit that saved me from making those mistakes when it actually mattered. Learn from this now, while you are anonymous cadet girl. It will pay dividends when you are Lt Whoever and there are real consequences.

This thread needs a reply from Kitty26. I think the responses right out of the gate were so awesome and deriding that she disappeared. What has made threads so great in the past is the OP continuing to deny/dig/defend/deflect until the bitter end.

Just post this in your flight room:

Did that Lt Col have his 5 year-old write that message?

True. Although I wouldn't have minded one bit in this case. From WWII to Vietnam.

1:46. Funniest shit I have seen in a long time.

Hahaha, nice hoodies Rainman! Last year at the AFSPC WEPTAC, one of the new network operations squadron commanders spoke about how things were going. The line I remember most was something like "we've got a shit ton of mountain dew cans and pop-tarts laying around, but the operators are achieving some great things." A lot of these guys were recruited from couches and lazy-boys from around the country, but they are doing some good shit. I would highly recommend that everyone try and get in on a secret or TS cyber warfare brief if you have the chance. The line between domains is fading quickly.

A SQ/CC can't tell you you can't wear the fucking American Flag!!! I think the point was made previously that the non-rated community does not run the Air Force. Pilots are creating and enforcing this bullshit, and this is more evidence of that. We have started wearing the brown undershirts with green boots. Looks like shit, but totally within the regs.

Check out this comment from the most recent af.mil propaganda article. And the article here.

EvilEagle featured in the July AOPA Pilot. Scroll down to "A Major Commute." AOPA Pilot Briefing

Ahhh sooo, I am a space guy (whether or not we should wear flightsuits is an entirely different story). I was remembering the verbiage from the AFSPC supplement, I thought it was from the AFI. Oh well, either way, there's no way I'm not wearing my patch.