Gravedigger

Down for most folks in the DC area, naturally.

Satellite hunting is probably the best use for an F-15A there is... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT

Tops in Blue is performing at Bagram on Christmas Day and I cannot think of a worse way to spend my Christmas, or a worse birthday present to Jesus. I have spent the last few days trying to convince my Army co-workers that Tops in Blue is like Civil Air Patrol, in that their uniforms might look similar, but they are not really in the Air Force.

Traveling, black, and I haven't heard, but I would suspect Scientologist or Unitarian Universalist.

I had knee surgery when I was stationed in COS by an orthopedic surgeon at USAFA that specialized in sports injury/surgery. He went into great detail on my options and what the consequences of each of those options would be. He advised me to go with a surgery with a lower likelihood of success but a much better long-term result. Others told me not to take the chance with a military doctor. I ignored those people, and the doctor did a fantastic job. On top of that, everything was paid for by the government, including months of rehab at a civilian PT office right next to my house. Oddly enough, the surgeon had been a KC-135 pilot prior to going into the medical field. I guarantee you Dr. James Andrews himself wouldn't have done a better job. ETA: Lest we forget the numerous service members that are alive today because of the skill and bravery of medical professionals willing to take on the challenges of combat medical care in deployed locations.

They take the taskers from the MAJCOM and deliver them to the wings. They're people people.They deal with the MAJCOMs so the wings don't have to. Shut em all down.

Since downloading the update today, all posts cut off the last line. At first I thought people turning narcoleptic, after seeing every post this way, I think there's an issue. Using app on iPhone 6.

I remember sitting in Polifka getting a briefing from the AF/A1 and as I was seeing charts about Force Management programs with very detailed information, I was thinking there are about 800 of us getting this information, there are about 330,000 more Airmen that need to be getting it but aren't. None of these charts were available to Airmen because they had sensitive personnel information. The Air Force's inability to get an accurate and useful message out about anything forces us to turn to the only sources that ever seem to provide anything helpful, internet forums.

Damn, tough week for commercial space. Keep up the great work guys; we appreciate your efforts!

Yeah, I honestly don't know about this launch, and haven't had time to read any of the reports. I was just describing the system and how it works in general. From watching the vid, it could have been terminated or it could have been a failure. You wouldn't necessarily hear the termination command on this broadcast. It could have been internal to the crew (sort of like intercom in the cockpit vs. keying the mic). It's also possible there was no command said out loud, and the person just reacted to the telemetry. Whatever happened, the crew knows, and I'm sure it will be public soon if it isn't already. ETA: It could have also been both. There could have been an initial failure and explosion before the termination command was sent.

Yeah, I just like promoting AFSPC. Did I mention the 45th Space Wing successfully launched another GPS-IIF yesterday? Flight termination software/system/signal. A dude sits by a red button and if the launch vehicle leaves the flight envelope or nominal flight profile he sends the command to terminate the launch i.e. blows shit up. Rockets are fast and they could destroy a populated area, so the moment it leaves controlled flight, it gets exploded.

Should have gone with the Air Force/ULA. 70+ consecutive successful launches and counting.

I don't know, but they put an AM radio station player in old planes because of it.

I actually took Toro's initial meme post as a tongue and cheek nod to how ridiculous the body analyzing had become. I think he has done a great job moderating through the years and I've learned a lot from him. My comments are not to further any agenda, burn any witches, or cast a holier-than-thou attitude. I'm stating a view-point on sexual harassment that many don't agree with, but my point is that is ok. The world would be pretty fucking dull if everyone agreed on everything. That said, I personally don't think that's the image we want to give off here at Baseops or in the Air Force. Did you ever see the South Park about the war in Iraq? The moral of the story is that we need to go to war to protect ourselves, but we also need protests and dissenters so that our country doesn't just look like war hungry assholes. That's what makes our country, and these forums, great. Also, I think this horse has been dead a while now, and we're still kicking the shit out of it.

I think the good of this site has and will continue to significantly outweigh the negatives. It would be hard to quantify the number of times Baseops has helped me out in the last 10+ years, but I can guarantee it's more than any official Air Force program/website/resource ever has. As far as my comments in the proposal thread, I don't think sexual harassment is funny. Ever. Whether it's online, at work, just between bros...not even just the tip. If you aren't cool with that, that's fine. I've seen good female Airmen leave because they couldn't put up with the constant remarks about their bodies, from their bosses and co-workers, at work. It's unacceptable. If some female high-school or college student were reading Baseops, would these threads give her a sense of the camaraderie and teamwork the Air Force is all about? Sorry for the rant, but this is something I feel strongly about.

I think this thread started out cheeky and fun, now it's just cruel and tragic. It's one thing to harass the dude for his public love spectacle, it's another entirely to make degrading comments about the fiancées body. She is not some celebrity with no chance of encountering baseops. They are normal people and there's a decent chance she'll see this stuff. I made a similar comment about all of the hacked photos, but would you be laughing if this was your daughter or wife? I wouldn't. JQP commented on the declining state of BODN and I wasn't convinced it was true. This thread seems to reinforce that assertion.

I'm all for this. This is a mission that I absolutely think is in our national interest to support, and the military is uniquely qualified in this arena. Humanitarian support buys us goodwill with the public and international community. That leads to broader support for military funding initiatives and military pay/entitlements.

BSA is signed: https://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-afghan-bilateral-security-agreement-signed-1412076436

Vigilant Eagle (VE) is the board that selects squadron commanders, chief of safety and recruiting squadron commanders. I've never heard of Hawk though.

Haha, nope. I am sure some chief is having a wet dream thinking of all of the possible 1 Jan infractions though. Your email signature still says RC-E?! It's been TAAC-E for 30 minutes now!! Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

No, they are supporting the enduring counter-terrorism mission. CT isn't combat because...we aren't doing that anymore. I'm headed over in a few weeks as well to advise. It'll be cool how my job changes on 1 Jan after OEF officially ends. It's like those people that leave active duty and show up the next day to the same office in civilian clothes. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Had a Chevy truck for 8 years and had nothing but problems. I've had 3 Toyota trucks, one with 240,000 miles and had zero problems. I would recommend a Tacoma over a Tundra unless you'll always be in areas with wide lanes and big parking lots. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

I agree with this 100%. Most of the best space ops folks in the units I have been in did not have STEM degrees. In the ops world, whether it's terrestrial, space, or cyber, you control the quality of your operations force through the quality of your training and certification programs. If a history major can do the job well, awesome. If an aerospace engineer doesn't do well, send them somewhere else where they can succeed. It usually comes down to attitude and natural ability, not what you studied in school. I'm relaying what I think will happen in the cyber ops world, not what I think should happen. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Not exactly. There are cyber positions that require expertise in coding/programming/geeky shit that are tracked and filled by people that have those requirements. These are mostly in the offensive and defensive network ops units. No offense to 17D guy, but base comm folks have no degree requirements because a history major can be chewed out for email not working just as well as a computer engineer. There is an office in AFSPC for both Cyber and Space that tracks the special skills, training and experience that is needed for key jobs. We have separate SURFs for all of this data. IMHO, these guys do a fantastic job tracking progress and ensuring you are getting to the training and development courses required as you progress. As far as developing shitty web pages and AF portal programs, blame the contractor. As of a couple of years ago, you must have a STEM degree (or go to USAFA) to get a space ops assignment. I have a feeling cyber will follow soon, once they are done splitting the AFSC between ops and support. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!