Finals

I’m going to get squarely back in my lane in regards to the U-28/NSA programs. As for over/under on my scotch intake…the entire rant was done stone cold sober (Yeah I know, hard to believe). I don’t think the AF is irrevocably broken. Nor do I believe it is heading in the right direction or has been heading in the right direction for quite some time now. Too me, that is an institutional problem that has been allowed to foster. Aircraft needs of this service are extremely great but they seem to outweigh the possibility of fixing them. THAT is an ISSUE. Yes, BRAC is out of the AF’s control somewhat but that doesn’t mean you can’t look into the future and attempt to play the best hand you have. While 20/20 hindsight is always perfect, I guarantee that if you talked to AF folks back in the early 90s and showed them what bases would be operating in 2014, some real fast footed shifting would have taken place to move heaven and earth. George AFB, Castle AFB, Myrtle AFB could still be “open for business” in my opinion, doing something, if the right cards had been played. They weren’t and that’s sad. Heck the people around Myrtle were screaming for it to stay open and it still got canned. Myrtle or Cannon anyone? It just makes one think… or at least me. The only thing we can take from it is to look into the future and set the AF on its best footing for the next go around. Aircraft acquisition needs to change in my opinion and the AF needs to look at how other services. The Navy had an outstanding aircraft in the F-14 Tomcat but in the late 90s it was getting old. They retrofitted it and updated it and it continued to serve as a great fighter/bomber until late the next decade. It was replaced ENTIRELY buy a completely new airframe. The USAF can’t say the same about the F-15C and its attempts to purchase a large number of F-22s went down the drain. How then did the Navy completely replace their F-15C equivalent on a greater than 1:1 margin? That’s 500+ airframes in the fleet, doing God’s work compared a program that never really went anywhere and produced a smallish 179 frames. Continuing to use the Navy, let’s talk about the EF-111 I brought up. The USAF canned that aircraft, losing the metal, the funding and the majority of pilot slots that go along with it. Since the AF canned the Raven, the Navy’s EA-6B Prowler fleet actually GREW! That’s right, the Navy pulled EA-6Bs out of the desert to make NEW squadrons to fill the need. Some AF guys get to contribute to the program but what a loss!!!!!! With the advent of the EA-18G “Growler”, the Navy will continue to control the assets, control the money and control the manpower that performs the mission. The AF is a back seat player and did it to itself. So please, take a moment to look back in time before AF moves forward with aircraft ideas. What assets can be kept, what assets can be based at XYZ base instead of ABC base and what assets can be shifted to the ANG? Is it that far from reality to say: A-10: Every last operational airframe goes to the ANG. AD funding issues go away, the ANG runs with a program they love and CAS continues to be trained for in a proper manner. MC-12: Every last operational airframe to the ANG. AD funding issues go away, ANG gets a great program that will truly help the states and country. U-2: Fight like HELL to keep an operational asset that can’t be duplicated and KILL the RQ-4. KC-10: Off to the boneyard my friend and we will fight the good “tanker” fight down the road with possible additional KC-46s purchases due to your early retirement. (Sorry to the KC-135 boys that will have to take an additional hit/deployment). 3 assets come completely off AD’s books, they quit purchasing an asset that can’t produce and maintain a greater ability in the U2.

What’s wrong with the Air Force? There are plenty of areas where one can point an elbow and the necessary changes aren’t going to happen overnight. Also, who says that there is anything wrong with the Air Force? There are always those that are looking to get ahead, not rock the ship and be yes men in order to advance etc. To them, there is NOTHING wrong with the Air Force. Who is the Air Force hiring to be pilots anyway? Most people that want to fly are extremely motivated, talented individuals with a beyond normal desire to compete, win and think ahead. That type of individual has PLENTY of options in 2014. Service before Self may cut it for a few individuals but for how long? The entire process of being a PILOT in the AF is broken. People: Come join an organization that will pay you less than a civilian job, move you every 2-3 years, tell you where to live and for some part, how to live. Deploy to shit holes for months on end and put the chance of divorce/family issues way beyond that of a 6-9, Monday-Friday, banker type. What’s the payoff for that awesomeness? Getting to fly military…wait, not getting fly military jets because during your 10 year commitment, you may only get 2-3 years in a fighter or spend 250-300 days away from home each year in a heavy. Then, after years of commitment and struggle head off to do something that is NOT piloting. So, score higher than other individuals trying to join the same organization, go through a gauntlet of mental/physical challenges and spend 30% of your commitment doing what you signed up for???????? WTF is right. What Doctor joins the Air Force and then gets told to be a nurse? What lawyer joins the Air Force and is then told to clerk? What Infantry officer joins the USMC and after three years gets told to be in charge of the chow hall? If you join to fly, then you should FLY. The pain in the ass to get a pilot slot is not worth NOT piloting. The same individual graduating college that can fly in the Air Force can more than likely become a DEA Special Agent. Those guys get sent to 1 office and stay there. That’s home unless you WANT to move. They get to fight the drug war almost every day and serve their country. Nobody tells them at year 3 of their career that “fun” time is over, it is time to sit at a desk and look at TPS reports. So, they serve their country, stay in one place for a career if they want to and make over $100,000 a year in journeymen status. They get specialized training in pretty neat fields, get to carry/shoot firearms and be a part of something bigger than themselves. MOST guys after hearing those options are going to choose DEA over the USAF pilot route unless Top Gun is a never ending movie in their own head. Places: Where is the great AFB that one would like to be stationed at? Ever pull out an old book showing what the USAF looked like in 1986/87 and see plenty of tiny little dots all over the globe denoting bases? Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, England. You name it and the POTENTIAL was there. Not now and the future doesn’t look any brighter. If you are an F-15E Driver, you may get based in England. Other than that, there are no “foreign” options. There may be some “nice” places to live but some real back road, no thank you stations are the majority. The choices for a B-1/B-52 driver are just exhilarating. Or, one could be a six figure, service before self, badass DEA Agent in Miami/San Francisco/Chicago/New York/Los Angeles/Phoenix etc, etc, etc. So, join the Air Force and get to see the worl…ah we mean Iraq/Afghanistan/Kuwait/Dubai/Bahrain/Diego Garcia as a change of pace when you are not boring holes in the sky over Mountain Home and 5 feet of snow. There USED to be a Myrtle Beach AFB way back when awesomeness was the norm. Imagine flying A-10s out of Myrtle Beach as a 20 something year old? Sorry kid, that’s not an option because well, that would be too much fun, or too cool or would actually be a desirable place to reside. Does BRAC even consider the fact that locations they choose SUCK big time and people actually have to live there??? How about we shut down Cannon AFB and reopen Castle as the “West Coast” AFSOC facility. Anybody rather live in California, a few hours outside of San Fran or LA as compared to the middle of New Mexico? Yeah, me neither, f#ck CA, beaches, beautiful women and something resembling a normal standard of living. Again, don’t you know you are in the military and a “Spartan” existence in the dustville areas of society is what makes this career great? Things: Ahh, the reason one joins the AF. The wonderful things it has. Awesome shiny things that go fast, upside down, blow things up, carry more weight than any civilian thing, do in flight refueling etc, etc, etc. Wait, we don’t really want to promote those things anymore. That’s not who or what we are. We need to run around on the ground with the Army shooting M4s and pretending to be Special Forces. Where are the great flying machines and the opportunity to pursue a career, blasting around God’s creation in them? What happened to all the DIFFERENT kind of jets, located all around the world? Where are the dark and mysterious F-117s and its older track star brethren the SR-71? (Still waiting for both jets replacements)… Who is flying the EF-111s and creating electronic wizardry? (Hang out with the Navy and fly EA-18Gs in far less numbers) Where are the RF-4 pilot slots and the ability to see just how low and fast one can go? (See Predator suckage) Heck, where are the replacement up to 750 F-15Cs? Where did ALL THOSE PILOT slots go? What replacement aircraft and opportunities opened up when mother Air Force canned those birds? Wait, you mean there was no real direct replacement numerically????? You mean that today I can sit in an air conditioned container rather than blast by a shacked target taking photos from my SR-71 or RF-4? Yeah, that sounds awesome. Maybe I can fly around in a U-28 or take the MC-12 career path….that is now being given to the ANG. Air Force management has decided that they don’t need or want airplanes in the Air Force. How this works out long term will be looked into by RAND. Rant almost done but just real quick for the fighter scene: F-15C: Irrelevant since 2001 and doing circles in the sky over the great USA. Anybody think about the massive waste of resources and crew this program has drained? The Tomcat boys woke up and smelt the coffee after Desert Storm. They threw away the “Fighter” only mantra, hung BOMBS on their jets and contributed like nobody’s business. In fact, they put the Hornet fellas to shame. It sure would have been nice to see the Albino contributing in the fight for the past 10 years. Think of all the great things the community and jet could have done. F-22: Awesome aircraft, awesome capability but less than 200 built. How on earth did we fumble this program? Far more capable than the F-15C and in reality it will never see the light of day because we have just enough assets to do nothing with. Shame on those that allowed this program to be whittled away, they sound like John Boehner telling me that he is going to finally “fight” Obama over the debt ceiling and producing nothing. F-16: Squeezed for all the juice in its bones. No more revamps, remakes or add on equipment is going to help this bad boy carry on in a legitimate manner over the next 10-15 years. It’s been a stellar workhorse but it needs a great replacement. The same boys that brought us the F-22 program tell me about this wonder kid F-35 in massive numbers….. F-15E: About the only asset that is in mid stride and in good order. Anyone know what the heck we are going to replace it with? Maybe we should get out in front of that now???? A-10: Great asset that everyone but its owner loves. An aircraft of opportunity to demonstrate how great the AF can be at assisting the Army/Marines and every time we turn around, the AF is trying to destroy them. The ANG would love to take the entire program. Think AD will let that happen? Not when such pearls like the MC-12 can be fought over to hand down. U-28/Predator: Are these really military assets that anyone joins to fly? Really, you wanted to be an Air Force pilot so that you can shuttle rubber dog sh*t around in a Pilatus PC-12. Is it a great mission set that is vital? Hell yes. Does it qualify in the same breath as driving an A-10 or F-15E…..NO IT DOES NOT. Somehow though, you can be first out of JSUPT and get yourself a PC-12….just like a doctor, who went to med school and makes 69 times more $$$ than you do and is home every night to bang his trophy wife. How is your family doing after spending the vast majority of your time training/deploying? The point is, since the early 90s the USAF hasn’t bought anything in large numbers other than C-17s and some C-130Js (and I could have made the same equipment comments for the AMC side of the house). Management has shut down bases and squadrons with a smile on their face and not cared one iota about the long term side effects. Well they’ve arrived. There aren’t enough pilots left, to fly the worn down relics on hand, to all the place Dr. Seuss told us about. The whole AEF idea is up the creek with no paddle and nobody at the yoke to straighten it out. In the latest round of how to fix the AF, the people in charge have decided that the A-10 needs to go bye bye along with the KC-10, MC-12 and U-2. They tell me that the Global Turd is here to stay though because “Politics” has put too much pressure on them and they can’t get rid of it. Somehow, someway though, they continue to fight the good fight against “Politics” and have the A-10 marching right off into the sunset by hook or by crook. Ahh, the great MC-12 will be saved (Army has a similar program that does the same thing) but the A-10 (no replacement), KC-10 (no replacement) and U-2 (no replacement) are off to AMARG and the scrapper. No way to hand down the A-10, KC-10 or U-2 to the ANG boys? Bueller, Bueller.......... So, Beale AFB used to be home to the SR-71, U-2 and MC-12. Great aircraft, great mission set and great piloting. Now, it will be home to the RQ-4 Global Hawk and nobody leaves the ground. Ready to pull chalks and go be a real pilot elsewhere because it is not going to happen here brother.

I do indeed mean a Browning .30. While it's expensive to fire, it wasn't my money! Watching the .303 Enfield fire was also pretty neat. Obviously, the usual assortment of AR-15s were there along with a few AK-47s. All nice firearms but right now I'm just sticking with the 1911. I'll take my money and put it into training, ammunition and a club membership.

Went to the range on Saturday. I had been looking forward to this shoot for months and mother nature gave me a downpour. Oh well, guns still shoot in the rain. Put 100+ .45 rounds downrange from my Kimber 1911 and 60+ from the Remington Rand 1911. Even the CZ 27 got into the action and put 50 downrange. A buddy of mine has a Sig P228 and he put 100+ through it. We even set up different bottles filled with colored water and had competitions etc. All and all, a great day at the range, in the rain. Over on the rifle range a fella had a 1919 and Enfield rifle. Pretty neat to see the Enfield firing away.

Getting ready for a get together at a private range. It's a real nice professional setup, several different ranges and a great way to teach new people and compete with other more trained individuals. Trying to find enough ammo for the 7 people shooting with me has been interesting. My "Reliable" store was completely out of .45ACP and 9MM yesterday. The store up the street from them is charging $36 a box for .45ACP. That's a major rip off and I refuse to buy at that price. Thankfully a store by my father has .45 and is only charging $25. Remember when prices were low? 2 boxes of .32 = $40.00 7 boxes of .45 = $175.00 2 boxes of 9MM= $44.00 While it is difficult, getting ammo can be done. Having a limit on how many boxes I can buy on a given day or week is frustrating. The one good thing though is that it keeps people from stockpiling. Having a supply is fine (I normally have 100 rounds in reserve) but some people are ridiculous. I have a friend that is refusing to buy any ammo now. He is just plinking away with .22 out of his AR-15 and Glock. We were at the range 2-3 weeks ago and he looked ridiculous. 4 guys shooting 1911s, 1 guy shooting a Beretta 9MM and him shooting .22 out of a Glock. I'm hoping that all the ammo I just bought is used up in 1 day. Everyone gets to shoot to their hearts content and I'll worry about finding more when the time comes!

The Remington/Rand was fun to shoot. Knowing that it was carried by my grandfather during WWII as a Scout in the Army was very special. The shoot is actually a large get together at a local club. No IDPA etc but it does look like I might be taking a Shotgun Combat Class in August. Anybody else been shooting lately? There's a saying that goes, "We don't need more owners, we just need more shooters!"

Went to the range last night for little warm up for a larger shoot in 2 weeks. Put 50+ rounds downrange through my Kimber 1911. She performed as advertised and is all set. The real fun for the night was the WWII veteran. After 64 years of being stored in the attic, my grandfather's Remington/Rand 1911 put rounds downrange once again. No real work or anything necessary. Just a box of .45 Lawman! Very humbling to be firing a pistol, that when last fired by my grandfather was putting metal downrange against Nazis. Now it's off to on an ammo run for the larger shoot. It should only cost me an arm and a leg. 5 boxes of .45 2 boxes of .32

Finally got the purchasing permit from the local PD and bought a Kimber 1911 "Series I" from a friend last Saturday. Went to the range last night and put close to 100 rounds through it. It's nice to finally own a firearm! My brother purchased a Beretta 92G at the same time I bought my 1911. Shooting two new guns (new to us) at the range was priceless.

I can see the article as plane as day! I just thought it was extremely interesting. I wouldn't mind it one way or another.

I was wondering if this information was true? I remember a few months ago their being a press release where the AD would be sending new pilots to ANG/RES squadrons for their first 3 years. I have searched high and low for the release and this website. The pilot would be placed in the ANG squad just as easily as an AD squad in Korea. Any and all information would be appreciated.

I have completed both my MEPS and F1-C physical. My MEPS physical though is going to be over 2 years old, therefore it will expire. If I have a current Flight Physical, do I need to redo my MEPS?