Gravedigger

What? Cambodia is awesome! Not nearly as nice as Thailand but your dollar goes farther, literally, they accept and use US currency over their own. I've got friends that live in Siem Reap, which oddly enough has some of the best Mexican restaurants outside of Mexico. I wouldn't live there permanently, but if AFPC were offering a 3-year assignment to Creech or Cambodia, I'd take Cambodia. If I had the cash, I'd have homes in Thailand and Colorado and split my time between the two. I would also very seriously consider expating in Dubai. Had some friends go there after college for a 1 year deal and ended up staying 5. They loved living there. My dad and grandparents were expats in Iran and they really liked it there...until they were threatened and forced to evacuate in 79. There are tons of great places outside the US to live for a while. You can travel, experience new cultures and come back whenever you want. I've always though expating would be something I would like to do. I'll just have to wait until I'm done with my clearances.

Space guy or acquisitions type with a space badge? Most folks in space ops work 12-hour shifts 24/7/365 for at least part of their career. Most folks in LA work 0900-1500 with breaks for lunch and PT and bi-weekly down days. Their hours make FSS look like a North Korean labor camp.

What do you think women in our Air Force want? Times have changed. You sound like the people I grew up with in Georgia that wished segregation was still around. Rebel flags and lynching black folk are our heritage! How dare some white hippy politician tell me I can't continue my heritage. I've heard that shit too many times. In the 60s, women weren't in flying squadrons, now they are. For too long they've been forced to either become one of the bros and tolerate things that offend them deeply or be ostracized and penalized. That's bullshit. Be man enough to evolve. You can still tell as many dirty jokes and look at as much porn as you want outside of work.

You're missing the point. What needs to happen is for good dudes all over the Air Force to be positive influences on their peers. We don't need polarized hyper-sensitive martyrdom on either side of the issue. The vast majority of the Air Force has a pretty damn clear understanding of how to have morale in the squadron without crossing the line into harassment. The problem is the vocal minority that causes the pendulum to swing too far because it seems the message isn't being understood. It's the same shit in Congress. Instead of people just being fucking reasonable in the first place, people have to take things to the extreme. As for being offended, it takes a lot more dead babies than that to offend me.

WTF? That's what you've gathered from his posts. You're proving his points. While others have made some decent arguments about the issues at hand, that diatribe proves nothing except your opinion of yourself is not congruent with reality. I think liquid wants people to realize that it's possible to be both the ultimate badass, and consummate professional. The "witch hunt" has probably gone too far in many cases, but that's not to say the entire message is crap.

I had to brief that dude last year! He was a pompous douche. Justice.

Doubtful. As crazy as the dude was, his grammar and sentence structure were usually not a factor. Some of slick's posts are almost unintelligible, regardless of content.

I had guys in my IFS class working on their masters. When I reclassed to space, I started mine, doubled up every semester and finished as a 1st Lt. Most of the people in my classes were other Lts. It is not unusual for people to be working on classes during training, on the flying side and the non-flying side. Working crew as a space person, you are pretty much expected to be doing homework during slow times in ops. I'm honestly glad I did it then, because that was the best timing for me. The problem is the Air Force expects that of junior flyers too, which is asinine and unrealistic.

That's an awesome picture! Not a bad way to go for a frog either. Rocket looks like the Minotaur that launched LADEE from Wallops last week.

From the CCIR it sounds like the dude is a complete asshole; an entitled asshole. He's a reservist not on orders by the way.

Hmm, I'm not sure the last 60 years support that claim.

I think this will follow the progression space ops followed. 20 years ago, satellites could only be operated by officers. The next step was allowing enlisted folks to build contacts and run ground systems, but not send commands to satellites. Next enlisted were allowed to send commands with an officer verifying, but they couldn't be vehicle experts or engineers. Now they can send commands, become vehicle experts and engineers, and they are breaking into other mission areas. They are still trying to figure out what to do about having a senior Captain sitting next to an A1C doing exactly the same job, but the point is it's happening right now, and you really can't tell a difference between the two. Young enlisted Airmen in OSS and OGV teach and evaluate Captains on a daily basis. It's pretty common to have a SrA teaching an IQT class full of Captains. For many career fields, officer vs enlisted matters only in the paycheck. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out and whether RPAs will follow the space model. With the budget the way it is, why wouldn't the Air Force want to pay half the price for the same result?

Standard baseops; bitch about too many people in theater that have no reason to be there, then bitch about people that have no reason to go to theater not going. What do you want ICBM guys to do down range? There are plenty of space badges in theater, but from many services, and not more than need to be there. Why would we deploy to operate GPS, Milstar/AEHF, WGS/DSCS, ISR satellites, launch shit, etc.? We have patches, advisors, support teams, liaisons and space control units deployed. That makes up about 1% of Air Force and National space. Everyone else is CONUS, where they belong, not getting in the way, and not wasting valuable money/resources.

They (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' team) recently found some of the Apollo 11 launch vehicle pieces at the bottom of the Atlantic. https://theweek.com/article/index/247192/found-the-space-rockets-that-propelled-neil-armstrong-to-the-moon

Do you know what an IED is? It doesn't refer to roadside buried explosive 100% of the time. It could be anything that is improvised, and explosive, and a device. You could use a few more expeditionary skills CBTs.

Ha! I actually threw that one in there because with 24-hour alerts in the capsule and very little to do, how could you not have the time to knock out an AAD?

I've worked with A-shreds and I'm pretty familiar with what they are doing on a daily basis. I think it's great as a B-shred that you are working towards an IA degree, I think that fits well and will pay off. The 17DXAs on the other hand really need to get deep into Computer/Software Engineering, CS, and EE. They can get a lot better at their jobs by really understanding the 1s and 0s and the micro level of cyber ops. The things they are doing to contribute to the fight are great, but without smart people, we will fall behind. We aren't the only country that has realized how much cyber can accomplish. Break. Rant on. In 2001 a commission led by Rumsfeld, Peter Teets and others formed to evaluate the management of space professionals, and recommended that the selection, education and training should be modeled after the Navy nuclear program. Well, September 11th happened and priorities quickly shifted away from space cadre management to fighting terrorism, and justifiably so. The result, however, has been a career field manned with the less-than-stellar cadets from each of the commissioning sources, and absolutely no focus on technical expertise. While pilots receive world-class specialized training that fills in any gaps in knowledge they might need to perform their duties, that has not traditionally happened in space. On the contrary, AFPC had the 13S career field as a dumping ground to send bodies, and the mass crossflow of missileers made system experts a rarity. As a result, our growth and progress has not been nearly what it could be. With new leadership, all of this has changed. Space and missiles officially split into separate AFSCs, training has been completely remodeled, and accessions must now have a technical background. Additionally, we have tons of SPEED programs, advanced courses that count as Masters classes that we attend, and multiple degree programs around the country that are specifically tailored to space operators. As a Lt or junior Capt pulling crew, you have tons of time to do school work during your swing/mid shifts, and all of the other Lts around you are working on the same classes. On top of that, what these junior officers learn during their degree programs directly relates to their jobs and makes them better operators. Moral of the story, real leaders showed up, used their positions to change things, and everything has improved. Now compare that to the flying world. Young pilots are working their asses off to become system experts, because their lives actually depend on it. At the same time, they are getting hit over the head by leadership pushing degrees that will not contribute a single thing to mission accomplishment. They are deploying frequently and many of them are trying to deal with the stress of marriage/family at the same time. It's no wonder so many members of this forum are dissatisfied with the Air Force. Thousands of people have pushed through it and completed their AAD in spite of the other demands, but WHY? What has been the cost to the Air Force and the American public from those that choose not to deal with the bullshit any more? Are we as effective of an Air Force as we would be if no AAD was required until O-5? I would wager the answer is no. Now it's time for leaders to step up, and make some fucking changes. It's a crime that young fliers were passed over for Captain, it's a crime that they are being pushed into worthless AADs, and the leaders of the Air Force that are also pilots are waiting for what? It is entirely possible that the Air Force could have separate promotion boards with separate requirements for different career fields, like we already do for some. How about a mission support promotion board, non-rated ops board, and rated board, in addition to the Med/JA/Ch boards? Each group sets the requirements and priorities for those in the corresponding AFSCs. It will take some work by HAF/MAJCOM/NAF staffers everywhere, but whatever they have plenty of time. It makes sense, it's good for the service, and it ensures the right people are promoted in each mission area. /rantoff

I still think we need different promotion boards for different career fields. I don't think 13S, 13N, 17D, 61S, 62E, 63A and a few others should even make major without an AAD. We have plenty of time and opportunity to complete a degree as Lts and Capts, and honestly these career fields should be required to pursue degrees that are relevant to their AFSC. I got an MS in Space Studies that directly contributed to my operational knowledge and proficiency. Our engineers that have AADs in their fields save the Air Force millions of dollars with unique solutions to anomalies and better ways to operate. Rated folks on the other hand don't have the time nor need for an AAD until O-5 maybe even O-6 boards. So, to answer your question, it really depends on AFSC IMO. Edit: Why does the Air Force have separate boards for JA, BSC/Med, and Chaplains but not differentiate between rated/non-rated? Are they not just as different and unique as the separate boards we already have?

I've got to concur with Rusty here. Mr. Chang you seem content with riding Liquid's coattails. You both arrived around the same time, initially posted interesting info, got flack, and now Liquid has continued to provide perspective/opinions while being perceptive to the dissenting views out there. You seem to be stuck in the "oh my career is perfect so fuck you guys" mentality. I once learned this awesome model of forming, storming, norming and performing. Liquid is in the norming phase, you are in storming. It's time to consolidate your feces if you plan to have utility on this forum. A final note, not agreeing with the way Big Blue operates doesn't ID you as a bottom-feeder. I've been fairly successful thus far, and I think a lot of the things we do are idiotic. It sounds like Gen Welsh and others agree on some level. It's important for leaders at all levels to remember it's not only ok, but essential for people to question why we do the things we do.

So just to clarify, you are suggesting that DPs compete against other DPs regardless of IPZ/APZ, and Ps compete against Ps? Thereby giving you 3 "IPZish" looks at major with a P? That's what I'm taking away here. Not a bad idea, but I wonder if DPs would still be allocated against IPZ numbers or if under that construct they would use a total population. Obviously it depends on end strength, so rates would have to drop for the Ps to accommodate.

I used PiPS for the second time during my recent PCS and I have to say the experience was incredibly painless. There are a few software glitches still, but nothing major. My base is over 30 minutes away from the servicing finance office, so not having to step foot in an office was a huge plus. I also have to give credit to the finance troops at Andrews. They didn't just reject my voucher like my last base, they called me to personally ask about corrections and make edits for me. When I wasn't around, they left detailed messages about what I needed to do and how to contact them directly without going through the Andrews 1-800 number. What a refreshing experience, and kudos to whomever is the CPTS/CC over there.

"Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence in your ability to help, or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." - Colin Powell

Under those conditions, my ADSC would have changed by 0 days.

I'm going to use context clues here and say Liquid is not a Wg/CC. He probably was at some point, based upon the comments about signing PRFs previously. I'm going to say GC is a Brig Gen and Liguid is either Maj Gen or Lt Gen. Irrelevant, really, but Wg/CCs don't typically have the same access to high-level decision making as these dudes seem to have. Here's the secret to being a good officer and human being: treat people with respect, regardless of gender/race/religion/sexual orientation. It really is that simple.

#fatbitch The worst kind.