Wing Sweep

Okay, okay. First off, is your leadership putting you up to this? Second, if you're a pilot and recently pinned on 1st Lt, the last thing you should be worried about is SOS-C. Here's a little advice: how about you spend some in-residence time in your local vault learning the capes of your MWS as well as the bad guy capes. There is no way in hell you can tell me that as a new 1 Lt you feel you have learned enough to say you're fully confident in your knowledge and abilities that you can put aside your primary job and start SOS. If you leadership is telling you to enroll and get started in SOS now, that is a huge f'ing foul!

"please"

cough, cough...Japanese...cough, cough

"I shacked that instrument approach!" "My pattern work looked really good today!" "It wasn't perfect, but that's okay." "Man, I flew like shit today."

Unsat! This, among many other things needs to be fixed...yesterday. Also, what Wing/CC on earth would take away a patch to an exec job? Maybe the better question is why? Back on subject...JackaL, if you want to go AMC to fighters (which is what I think the intent of this thread was), do your time and a couple of years prior to getting out, start rushing Guard fighter squadrons. Your chances in the Guard are better. Without a cross flow on active duty right now, your chances are slim to none. Short story...Two dudes I met (both tanker guys) while I was at 38 PIT did their AD time, punched out, and got fighter Guard squadrons to pick them up. Did life suck for them for a while...YES - They had to learn a whole different style of flying, a different culture, and a different pilot role (single seat, fighter wingman vs AC in a crew aircraft). Was it worth it? I bet for them, it was. They wanted to fly fighters and they are doing that now. They didn't give two shits about anything other than the fact they were realizing their dreams. Food for thought.

I'm probably getting too much into the weeds here, but even 11B/F dudes in white jet tours that currently have an 11K DAFSC can't apply? I'm just trying to think of ways around AFPC's trick fu*kery. Here's AFPC's next move --- "until further notice,11B/F pilots cannot apply for the U-2 or B-2 programs."

Mr. Mayor... I'd like to IJ the person who started this topic. Oh, and another IJ for knowing there was a CGOC website on Facebook.

Are the pilot jobs at this squadron for TPS grads only? I'm unfamiliar with their mission other than what can be found online. Thanks for the help.

Perhaps Eielson will be the new fighter pilot home? Nah, that might offend the f@cking eskimos! If Nellis isn't home of the fighter pilot, then Creech isn't home of the UAV! Seriously, WTFO?!?! Who are these guys making these decisions, attempting to take away heritage and what rightfully belongs to fighter pilots! This juts reminds me of my last squadron. When I showed up as an FNG, there were no more songs allowed because someone got offended and reported the whole damn squadron to MEO. Apparenty, he thought it was totally unprofessional. Oh, by the way... said person is on the leadership track and I bet he will pull more of the same shenanigans in the future. He must have missed the memo that people in bars smoke, cuss, drink, talk about women, sing songs, etc... Anyway, from that point on all songs were banned forever more and no one with enough rank had the sack to revive the tradition. I was actually looking forward to learning nasty, vulgur, funny, and ridiculous songs as part of the LPA. Instead I had to wait until the next assignment. Hey at least I can sing them at my current squadron, so f*ck the yellow belly who was offended. Someone in leadership please help! We are drowning in the kool-aid vomit of O-6s and above! Rant switch off while I sleep. It will auto activate when I wake up.

I'd like to see them try to enforce this at a T-38 UPT or IFF squadron. Good luck. Making silly attempts to rid the world if isms will only help create new and more creative isms.

I called the VFA assignments guy at the Navy Personnel Center about 6-9 weeks ago asking about interservice transfers (since my year group is getting RIFed). He told me the Navy is not accepting interservice transfer applications for any pilots in FY 11 or FY 12. They are also trying to force shape pilots out of active duty. He told me the best bet would be to apply at the beginning of FY 12 for an IST so that the transfer could occur at the beginning of FY 13. This included all their flying communities. If you do proceed with an IST and are approved, you apparently meet a "board" that determines what aircraft you will go to based on your previous experience.

Effin' D-bags! These O-6s you speak of should choke themselves, then go DNIF. UFB! Rank must be left at the door, otherwise guys will not speak up when needed. I know everyone says, "Hell yeah, I'd speak up!" Maybe so, but the truth is when an O-6 needs all those shenanigans to go fly, the focus of the mission is lost. The new focus becomes making sure the O-6 queep list is complete and he's happy. It's crap like this being brought to light that makes dudes want to ...(insert adjectives, verbs, adverbs as required). I shake my cranium in disgust... Sorry Charleston bros, really sorry. I will second previous comments of the Bone community. I flew with our Wing King and OG, both IPs. They made sure a few of my flying currencies were back up to speed once or twice. With their experience level, they don't require the amount of flights or beans a rookie does, so it's much easier for them to stay current. They were smart on most facets of the mission and had no problems being called out when they screwed up. In fact, most of the time they would call themselves out and admit their mistakes before we called them out. I think that's pretty standard for most mission/flight leads in the CAF. If someone gets their feelings hurt, they need to work elsewhere.

I stayed at Vantage at Schertz for the 4 months. No complaints really, other than the railroad tracks are very close. It took me 2 months to get used to the trains blasting their horn. Other than that, it's close to base (6-9 minute max even with traffic), food, malls, etc... PM me if you want their furnished apt rep. She loved working with military families. Are you going to VN?

The problem is SQ/CCs are not telling the OG, and the OG is not telling the Wing King. It goes back to the whole, "do your time, deal with the pain of things that don't make sense, and go home" attitude. Commanders talk about an open door policy all the time, but how often is it actually exercised? I agree outright defiance is not right, but adding bling to reflective belts and such is a way to stick it to the man (sts) without disobeying orders. Reflective belts really are the smallest of issues compared to other things that matter like flight ops, but I agree with you. I gues just thinking about the Deid made me super pissed! All great points BQ!

Answers in order: 1. Yes 2. Our leadership at the Deid is not leading and focused too much on the "company" rather than the mission. Discipline is there, most of us are just passively resisting rules that make NO sense. 3. Yes 4. Yes No one respects our leadership because our leadership doesn't respect us enough to let common sense prevail (from queep all the way to flight ops). It is like being at a Shoe Flag/Shoe Camp on steroids! Reflective belts, spotters for backing up, lame immigration rules for flyers, emboldening enlisted troops to correct officers in public, etc... The list is long and distinguished (sts), but believe me it is not just admin queep. It goes straight to the heart of flying operations as well. The CAOC cronies think of themselves as an MWS (most, not all). People are too afraid to make changes because of the following attitude: "Fu*& it! I'm leaving in a month. It's not worth swimming upstream and fighting this battle even though it's the right thing to do." I have seen and heard too many O-5 and O-6s with this attitude! You are correct in that they don't have command and most people on base do have too much free time on their hands. It is not a joke! Reflective belts nazis (O-5 and above) are at the front doors of chowhalls. Commanders do have more important things to do and yes, they are being forced to turn away tired and hungry people from the chow hall for not wearing reflective belts. This is something an O-5 could easily tell the Wing King, "Sir, I'm too busy with combat ops to worry about Mickey Mouse bulshit! If you want to give me paperwork for not complying with your order, so be it. I just have far more important things to worry about than Amn or Capt Snuffy wearing a reflective belt to the chowhall." Our squadron commanders should not be blindly following orders that don't make sense! Stand up and tell the Wing King this is bullshit! I'm a CGO and I certainly tell my leadership (O-5 level) when something is bullshit. Why are so many people afraid?! Your leaders will respect your opinions as long as you have a real and achievable solution. I know some commanders are way past using common sense, but keep fighting for what is right! This is exactly why there is such an uprising (in the form of passive resistance). Leadership is focused on all the wrong things while our guys in the fight have it all right. Common sense and focus on the fight has completely been thrown out the window. Maybe the Wing leadership realizes this, but they are too afraid to make the changes necessary to correct the wrongs of past Wing Kings. In other words, they don't want to be leaders. They just want to follow and say, "I'll do my time and get my next rank." That's the easy way out, but it's not leading. This all stems from the systematic de-balling of our officer corps with the way we operate at so many levels. To all you officers out there, I say don't give up hope and lets take our Air Force back! It will take years to make the changes we need, but there is hope if we are willing to see the change through. For those of you that care, please, please, please have the courage to do the right thing!

Pod: We love it. It's like crack candy. It's like somebody took the blinders off. I'd say we're using it quite effectively in the AOR. Manning: WSO = Not letting anyone go ALFA due to the forecast of few to no studs arriving to B-1 IQC for a while during the upcoming transition for "WSO/CSO/NAV/EWO" from Randolph to P-Cola. WSOs can pretty much expect to stay 3+ years and upgrade to IWSO before a PCS. Pilots = Slightly overmanned, but nothing gross. Lot's of ALFAs to always fill. Like it normally happens after every deployment, we're expecting a complete raping of pilots to ALFA billets. I'd say dudes can expect an AC upgrade around the 2 year mark (+/- a few months) and an ALFA assignment at the 2.5 to 3 year mark. Building time: It's a bitch. If we don't deploy the full 6 months, we're hardly getting any hours. Some guys get hosed (sts) and end up doing SOS while were deployed. That cuts into their time building severely! For both WSOs and Pilots, the hours we fly in one sortie in the AOR is what we're flying in a whole month back at home station. This upcoming fiscal year is not looking better for us either. Some of the talk concerning this coming fiscal year's hour program would make your cranium spin! Deployments: Still doing a year at home in between doing six months at the hell hole. Most guys can expect two deployments before PCSing. Current leadership at our AEW has 0% focus on the mission and 100% focus on all that is related to REMFs. Hopefully things change with new leadership at the OG and WG levels, but I'll leave this point for the "Lack of Leadership at the Deid" thread. This is all DYS stuff. I'll let the RCA folks speak to what's happening in their neck of the woods. Hope this helps.

We'd meet in the afternoons around 3 pm (7 or 8 AM if it was too hot in the afternoon). Our commander let us dress for PT however we wanted. No mandatory PT uniforms, just normal personal workout clothes. We'd do a group workout with variations of push ups (lots of reps), situps (or an equivelant exercise), and a 1.5 mile run. After that, we were free to workout however we wanted. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stayed and participated in some sort of a work out. We'd play football, soccer, lift weights, run, bike ride, etc.. It was a culture of fitness our commander decided to instill in our squadron and it stuck. 99% of our squadron personnel passed their PT tests. Maybe a few commanders out there can inspire their subordinates to be heathier by bringing a culture of fitness into their squadron. God only knows there are more than enough overweight people in the USAF and something needs to be done to get these lard asses off the couch and back to a gym. I think this is a step in the right direction. Let's see what happens...

Finance Guy, For all official travel, here's what I think would be the perfect solution. I would like to walk into Finance, fill out a travel voucher form by hand, have my name called after waiting in line a few minutes, have the finance specialist look over my voucher/orders/receipts, correct any mistakes on the spot, have him make copies of all my paperwork, tell me "it looks good sir, you'll get your money in 7-10 days," and then drive back to my squadron. It worked 10 years ago and I guarantee you it would work today. It seems like this virtual kool-aid stuff is getting forced down Finance's throat (sts), but I would argue it is not what the customer wants. My suggestion is give guys the option to file vouchers the old school way or just go back to the old school way of doing things altogether. I do appreciate you going on a website like this and getting opinions from "customers." This is probably one of the best ways to get honest feedback. My 2 cents. Thanks

Speaking of MWS briefs... Said OG took a bunch of high ranking guests out to one of our jets not too long ago. Said OG starts talking about how great the jet is (though said OG has never flown it). Then said OG attempts to speak about weapons intelligently (though said OG has never dropped any). Then said OG tells the guests how this Ops Group is so great because of all the weapons we deliver in combat, etc... Then one of the guests asked said OG, "So what kind of weapon is this?" as he pointed to a GBU-31. Apparently, said OG had no clue and just stared at the guy like he had a d!ck growing out of his forehead! A few seconds later said OG replied, "It's a GBU-38, I think?" The crew chief was there listening to all of it and, like any crew chief worth his money, corrected her on the spot. Good on you chief!

GUYS, GUYS, guess what? I just came up with a great idea! Lets have an airshow at the Deid (base personnel only) so we can introduce all the aircraft to the shoeclerks who have no idea about our mission (just kidding guys, insert sarcasm now). I am willing to bet 100% the Wing king would do it. This is a great idea because it could possibly mean keeping some guys from having a day off after working 3-4 weeks straight. It would even rock more if it meant one of our spare lines couldn't hack the mish because it was busy pulling static duty. I hope the Wing King doesn't read this because I'm seriously afraid he would make it happen . I bet your ass I'd be the one out there on the static bird too. Any volunteers? Here's to you Wing King Do I sound bitter, pissed, angry, ready to feel like an adult again? YES

Yoda, 1. There are too many flyers on this forum that will keep you honest and call you out on your lame cheap shots. 2. I'm calling you out on your lame cheapshot remark about "clueless B-1 crews." I'm a B-1 pilot and prior Herk Load. I know exactly what the hell those 463L pallets are. I hauled trash to this crap hole long before those lines of pallets ever got here. 3. Even if I didn't know what was in those pallets, who gives a flying flip?! STFU and do your job just like I'm doing mine. It's not my job to know what's in those pallets. That's your job. Clueless? Really? So does that make you clueless because you didn't know where B-1s were on this base until you left back for the States? 4. The Grab n Go is actually a flight kitchen. At least it used to be. In case you forgot, a flight kitchen is where aircrew go to get food and drinks for their missions. More times than not, I have to wait for BDU wearing dudes and dudettes who are too lazy to go to the chowhall. I understand if the dudes working out on the flightline get food from there, but guess what? They should all back the F up if they see aircrew trying to get food. Aricrews are (or at least should be) priority # 1 through that line. 5. Just because shoe clerks outnumber flyers on this base, it doesn't make their view point count worth one sh!t. The only opinions that should matter on this base (with a few exceptions) are the guys flying the missions. "Hello Mr. Support guy. I need you to do X, Y, and Z right now so I can do my mission better and faster." That's the way it's supposed to be.

Skitzo, Your 341, or should I say AUAB Form 6841, has been distributed to all Bats.

Getting moved to a later line so that sandbag duty doesn't interfere with crewrest... You can call it something other than getting pulled from a flight or whatever. It is still wrong. The reasons given for why we're doing that duty is wrong. The whole "we need to be equal contributors to the base" is the wrong premise from which to approach this. I need to stop. BTW, sandbag duty was fun. NOT!!!!

The whole point is it wasn't out of regs. It was in regs and well groomed. By the way, a bunch of LTs and Capts (to include myself) just got tagged for sand bag duty tomorrow. Apparerently we're not contributing to the base enough. I guess all the CAS we're doing isn't enough. Sheesh!!!! This is why the Deid sucks. Since when do E-6/7s supervise O-2/3's on sandbag duty?!?!? WTFO?!?!? Mission is not first here. Appearance, perceptions, and a feeling of equality among everyone is a culture that has permeated the Air Force. It is wrong! Leadership should remind people that supporting the dudes in the jets is priority one! People don't like hearing that anymore, but that's the truth. At least it used to be. Sandbag duty...stat! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I was pulled off a sortie to fill sandbags. Out....

He was a SMSgt, AMXS, herbivore type. Not sure what aircraft.