FourFans

You mind sharing the bank where you've got that high-yield saving account? USAA has lost me.

Haven't seen these rates since the 80's Edit, I stand corrected

That's one hell of a broad brush. Would you care to elaborate how some recent and admittedly horrible events in Chicago overshadow the entirely of the JROTC program? I'm not a JROTC guru, but in making such a large claim, you clearly must be. So, by your standard, if a program fails in one location we should change the rules everywhere? That doesn't check. You're willing to trash a whole program based on the outcomes of one section of society. But let's walk the dog a little: What's your take on service academies? Ban those too? What about CAP? They've had scandals. Executive staffs? Political interns? Oh yeah, and Colonels. LOTS of sex scandals with Colonels. Get rid of all those too. Where do you draw the line. Restructure and reorganization? Definitely. Rip away the foundational bits? Ummmm no. You might as well get rid of uniforms, saluting, flags, marching, PT, and all forms of decorum. Heck, just say whoever's the biggest and strongest gets to make the rules. That works out well, right? Hyperbole aside, consider what the military will look like when these kids who started their military experience with no rank then become leaders. Consider an active duty general in AFPC someday recommending we get rid of ranks, because he saw it work once when he was young... Seriously. That kind of shit has happened. Moreover, casting aside rank is the first step towards casting aside responsibility and accountability. I'm a history guy, and yes, there are 1000's (plural) of years of written history with ranks involved. There were periods when social status fed into that, but rank has ALWAYS been associated with responsibility. It's one of the first tiers that separates the professional military from a militia or a band of civilians. According to you. If it was so dumb, did you burn your rank in effigy about how you were being oppressed? I doubt it. It wasn't dumb, you simply didn't understand it. Just because you think a tradition or structure are 'dumb' because you don't see with a long vision, don't mean jack in reality. I have no doubt many people have thought you are dumb, that doesn't make you dumb. The facts of history don't give a shit about our emotions. Ranks structures have for 1000's of years created order, unity, cohesion, and a clear line of authority in military structure with members down to the age of 12...and younger if you're Greek. Step back and look at the nearly 300 year tradition of the military in this country alone and you might grow some respect for rank, structure, and responsibility. You don't have to like it. You DO have to understand it, especially as an officer. Some failures in that system don't make the system bad. They mean that the system is populated by imperfect people. The system can be improved, but not by wiping away it's foundations. If we based our military authority structure solely on the moral success or failure of the individuals, we'd have cast it aside right about the time Benedict Arnold decide he didn't like how things were being run here.

From TreasuryDirect

Pundits only have the power you give them through your attention. Our media has been a shit throwing fest since the 1800's. Stop blaming them for, well, anything. In any case, you've done a horrible job of supporting your point with facts, and you've not even attempted to explain how and why you support this administration....just like EVERY SINGLE LIBERAL I ASK. Without fail whenever I ask for facts and logic the response is "you don't understand" or "I don't want to talk about it" UNSAT. I misunderstood nothing. Exact words you said: Please go find some rational and factual support for your statement. Claiming that what Biden is doing with relation to Ukraine is potentially disastrous on a thermonuclear scale is not understating the facts. He is currently acting like a little kid with his daddy's shotgun, flexing his muscles, only he's doing so with a nuclear armed country who is increasingly backed into a corner. Meanwhile our OTHER major rival is hinting at helping Russia out of that corner. All the while there is very real mounting evidence that our sitting president's immediate family members may well have been working with both the Chinese and Ukrainians as a useful idiots (I severely doubt they're some kind of knowing spies...they are dupes at best). How is following those facts to it's logical conclusion a "hyperbolic narrative"?

Thoroughly agree. Unfortunately do you see a realistic outcome, under this administration's policies, where we don't fail to keep our word to Ukraine? I am of the belief that "keeping our word to Ukraine" entails restoring the entirety of Ukraine's sovereign borders. That's definitely how they see it. I don't see any outcome where that happens with our current leadership.

You make it sound as if the good outweighs the bad. So, let's get specific. What are you criticisms and what are you praises of the Biden administration? Make it simple, like a pros vs cons bullet list. I'm curious to hear how Biden supporters validate that he's been a good president with specific unemotional examples and a wholistic view. I'll kick off your list with a pro: Micro chip production brought back to the US. Please make your case.

You mean this guy @pawnman? How dare you go calling people out for words they said!

Not today AFPC

Sunday?

I’ll be interested to hear how the training for the sky warden will address that problem. The PC-12 is relatively clean by comparison. Hopefully they reach out to the cropdusting community for some lessons learned so we don’t have to re-experience some avoidable crashes.

I find the full timeline graph even more interesting. Not a single administration in the past 40 years has done this. That includes the Gulf War, OIF, and OEF, just to name a few massive possible drains on our reserves...

What does that have to do with the violently liberal shut-up-and-comply agenda that's clearly being implemented by our elected officials...predominately democrats? Trump is a raging twit. Fact. Stop saying his name like it's some kind of defense or excuse for the horrific policies of the current administration. Our current administration has exacerbated or outright caused complete failures in America's economy, foreign policy, military readiness, immigration policy, border security, energy and transportation management, trust in our healthcare system, and faith in our baseline governing civics. The former president had nothing to do with ANY of that.

...sarcasm but not really...good point...

C-130J-30 has a 1 second reaction written in books, at least in the last -1-1 I read. Then again I'm retiring. In reality it's a 3 second reaction from recognition to throttle and brake actuation. The book numbers are all way off anyway because they never updated the performance numbers for the carbon brakes, which makes all the numbers "conservative" and the actual performance during a reject is WAY better than the book number, both in the sim and the airplane. I've heard they fixed that in block 8.1 though. Any 8.1 dudes here that can set me straight?

Do you understand the phrase 'imaging seeker"?

Good thing he slapped that thing down before it released it's payload.

Santa Rosa?

@Internationalmesa I've got some thoughts to share...but give it a second...

Meh. If every missile our country created and fired in the last 50 years had performed exactly as advertised, warfare wouldn't exist anymore.

I'm sure they appreciate you quoting that image so it shows up twice on this thread. You Ass.

1970's - 2020's Reagan - Desantis Russians - Chinese/Russians Severe 'self induced' Inflation - Severe 'self induced' inflation ('self induced' reads: "democrat controlled legislation induced" seriously...read history) Negative Media Bias - Negative Media Bias...with a heavy Left tilt High waisted pants on my wife for no reason - High waisted pants on my wife for no reason Entitled generation of toddlers hanging in the balance - Entitled generation of toddlers hanging in the balance Just exited unpopular war that left a bunch of vets really unhappy - Just exited unpopular war that left a bunch of vets really unhappy. So, this is what the 70's were like? Cool

So which side ARE you on?

Good to know. Thanks! EDIT: Reading @hindsight2020 above, and applying general common sense... WHY THE F IS GETTING A MILITARY BENEFIT SO F'ING HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. We gave you our prime years for skill learning. We gave you our prime years for child rearing. We gave you our prime years for career development. We gave you our prime years for physical output. We gave you our prime years for finding a co-level partner for marriage. Yet some 67 year old impotent congressman/senator-who-has-never-seen-so-much-as-a-parking-ticket (his driver took care of that) gets to decide what your benefits should be. I'll admit that I am one of the few lucky individuals who came out of this meat grinder with my sanity, my marriage, my self-esteem, and my perspective in tact. That's not normal. We need more veterans in congress. I argue we should have a MAJORITY of veterans in congress, most decidedly from both sides of the aisle. Dirty confession: I sincerely want many progressive veterans fighting for veterans rights. I've heard the most convincing and most accurate arguments from that side! OK OK OK yea....wrong thread... got it

Original commission was May. Transfer with no break in service was Aug, but my anniversary in PCARS and on my record is May. Most importantly, the retirement order says 28 May 2023 in the grade of O-5. I printed that in triplicate, framed one, put one in the safe, put one in my wallet, and left the digital copy up on my desktop for 69 hours so the text is burned into the pixels.