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The B-1R was a Boeing proposal a few years ago that came out when the AF was considering a regional bomber. We were considering the F/B-22 at the same along with a C-130 JASSM truck IIRC but that all went away when the AF pressed ahead with the 2018 bomber. The B-1 F-119 re-engining was over $4 billion IIRC and the AF doesn't have that kind of cash laying around. I don't think it would be feasible to equip bombers with AMRAAMs simply due to the amount of training it would take, much to the detriment of our other training requirements and it would only ever be a secondary mission. Plus there would be the problem of every bomber crew ignoring their primary mission for the chance to score the first bomber AMRAAM kill... PBAR

A master's might not be required for making major officially and it might be masked but it's used for a lot of things that go into the major's promotion process. I've seen it used as a discriminator for picking who goes to SOS in residence, who gets a DP vice P for major, going to WS, CGO of the quarter/year, etc. If I were a young LT, I'd get a real master's while I was still a LT as a Plan B (I doubt an ACSC Master's is gonna help with the post-AF job search) and then if you get another along the way from the AF , than so be it. Just my two cents. PBAR

I was told that in order to be competitive to go to the Army/Navy/MC or foreign service ACSC-equivalent you are expected to have completed AF ACSC via correspondence before the IDE selection board. I did so and got picked up for a foreign ACSC. For what it's worth... PBAR

Well said...that is why we are the best AF in the world. We go into debrief and call a spade a spade and tell an O-6 he screwed during the flight without the sugar coating. I was having a conversation with a Korean AF Weapon Schools grad (their WS, not ours) and our USAF exchange professor here (I'm an exchange student at the ROKAF ACSC) and we were comparing instructional techniques. The way they teach is strictly one-way lecturing with the stud just sitting and listening and absorbing. The instructors don't ask questions two-way interplay style to provoke the students to think. He told us that he would feed the students a little bit of info/his techniques at a time so that they could fully memorize it/absorb it. He said his goal was to have his students be as good as him. We in turn told him we want our students to be better than us as we might have to fly in combat with them someday (my first combat sortie was with my FTU instructor). That's why we challenge them with questions during instruction so everyone can learn (including the instructor). Also, I can find out how much he knows/doesn't know and adjust my instruction accordingly. He was dumbfounded and came back a few minutes later and told us he realized he'd been doing it all wrong for the last three years and wish someone had told him this sooner. My Korean classmates are incredulous when I tell them that even the Wing CC can get beat down in a debrief. Never happens like that in their AF (nor according, to my fellow foreign exchange students, in the Japanese, Taiwanese, Brazilian, or Turkish AF...) PBAR

Some more from a recent email chain...

I diverted into Cannon one time and when I got a look at the city, I was thankful to be living in Abilene (Dyess). And Drabilene sucks too. I think all of us joined the AF with the expectation that we might have to sacrifice our lives in the line of duty but I, for one, never considered giving up having a life off duty because we had to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Even more, having my family put up with the same thing... There are some good points to small towns like Abilene and Clovis, i.e. no traffic, little air pollution, buying a good house for a reasonable price, low crime, etc. but I don't want to rot there for ten years because my jet only has two bases. Anyone know if AFSOC's move to Cannon is going to adversely impact Dyess's and Barksdale's access to the ranges? PBAR

I wouldn't bring a nice car. We brought my wife's Lincoln LS and in six months it's been in a hit-and-run fender bender once and was vandalized last week while parked at the PX on a Korean Army base (I'm an exchange officer at the Korean AF Staff College which is on a Korean Army base) to the tune of $2000 (top of the bumper got smashed by a rock). Thankfully USAA covered all but the deductible. You can find a nice used Korean car for under $2000 and I would recommend having a car so it's easier to travel about. Despite the vandalism incident, we've had a very positive experience here and staying on base the whole time will make for a miserable experience. PBAR

My three favorites

We've changed the service dress 3 times since I've been in the AF but we still have the same short-sleeve and long-sleeve blue shirts. Those need to be changed far more than the service coat. How about permanent press/wash-and-wear like the squids have? How about changing the color to something a little less lame? Dark blue or grey would look nice but a wash-and-wear option is a must. PBAR

That's because about 18 months ago the wait at the B-1 FTU was almost a year and F-15E was short of WSOs, so B-1 WSO production got cut back. Standard afterburner to idle back to afterburner system of personnel management.... PBAR

The coolest part I've found so far is that you also attend with other foreign officers and you get to learn a lot about their country/AF too. I have a Mongol, Brazilian, Turk, Japanese, and Taiwanese guy in my class here at the Korean AF ACSC. It's pretty interesting getting their perspectives on the world. PBAR

For the cost of a B-1 or B-52 flight into Afghanistan, I wonder if we'd get better results by going village to village with that cash and buying them off. Also, since Western (Afghan) and Eastern (Iraq) Watch will go on for a long time into the future, maybe we should buy some of the Navy's P-8, strip out the ASW gear, and then fly them around with JDAMs. Probably a helluva of a lot cheaper than a B-1 or a B-52. PBAR

I too have been confused at some of the charges leveled by some Army guys that we didn't support them during Anaconda. Every sortie I flew there, I took home weapons (JDAMs) as did my squadron (B-1s) on the majority of our sorties. It was normal for us to leave the fight with gas and weapons when the next bomber (B-1 or B-52) showed up. Thus, it would seem to me that it wasn't a lack of effort on the AF's part. We even dropped dumb Mk-84s just to crater a possible enemy exfiltration route and that seemed very Vietnam-suspected-truck-park-in-the-jungle to me... PBAR

It looks the new OPR form is taking effect 15 Aug it's quite a bit different. You download it here; https://www.e-publishing.af.mil/formfiles/a...7_20070625.xfdl. The remarks sections are a lot shorter, so I guess a lot of fluff will be out the window in the future. PBAR

The B-1 community also still does some manual calculations as a backup though I'm not sure how in-depth the Bone WS gets. As an aside, in a previous life as an intel puke I had two weeks of learning to do it manually (sts) and it was a major pain. I don't think you could even do manual weaponeering for a bomber full of JDAMs or SDBs; it would simply take too damned long. Also, here's an article from Air Force magazine saying the Japanese can't even do it with a computer ( https://aimpoints.hq.af.mil/display.cfm?id=19057). PBAR

Two. I'm taking Korean at DLI now and the Rosetta Stone Korean I did helped not much at all... Declan's Korean stuff was a lot more helpful. PBAR

They do give out waivers for depth perception. I was given one when I was accepted for UNT. My poor depth perception (from suppresion) wasn't an issue for me doing low-levels or landing a T-34 in Primary at Pensacola. I ended up with a B-1 and since we don't really have a window in the back, it hasn't been a problem operationally either. If you get one, make sure you know you have it. I didn't even know I had one and spent two months at P-cola waiting for one after I failed a depth perception test there. It had been in my records the whole time but the clowns there didn't notice it. PBAR

I remember seeing a message about a AMC-ACC exchange program for pilots/navs a few years ago. Might be something to look into. PBAR

I'd carry a large carabiner. An Apache pilot told me that they carry them so that if they get shot down, they can lash themselves to the side of another Apache while sitting on the side avionics cheeks. See this article to see how it was done for real. https://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2004/n1...2004110501.html Might be the quickest way to get rescued if they happen to be in the neighborhood. PBAR

Speaking of how different the services are and their perception of the Air Force... I saw an article on Strategypage.com a few months ago talking about the opening of a new gym at a Marine base in Okinawa. The funny thing is the new gym was described as "Air Force quality". https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/a...s/20060125.aspx

Actually the Bone got 15 more WSOs in the pipeline this year than they have sorties for. That's two whole FTU classes worth of studs. This extra load was never programmed for and the priority was on reducing the wait to start for the F-15E FTU. Finally our AFPC guy was able to get Air Staff notice the 9 month wait at Dyess. Ergo the other airframes at P-cola... On top of that, Dyess MX has had more challenges than Ellsworth. First off, the Weapons School and 337 TES get priority for jets and the 28th jets also spend a lot more time doing low level and pattern work. That extra wear and tear is reflected in lower MC rates. Incidentally the first two F-15E WSOs from P-cola just showed up to EWO school- the first ones we've seen in almost 18 months. This summer we get a couple who already have an ops tour under their belts. Apparently they are getting another ops tour out of the deal, which is rare in the Strike Eagle from what I hear. We've heard we're going to get 3-4 a quarter for the foreseeable future and there are more applicants than slots. PBAR 563 FTS EWO School instructor, ex B-1B FTU instructor

Boobies, yea, the 9th BS at Dyess. Hoser, not sure about whether it's SOP but it sounds like it was a plan by your assignment bubba to get guys to actually want to come to EWO school by dangling the ops-to-ops carrot in front of them. From what I understand, nobody in F-15Es wants to come to EWO straight out of Pensacola, or at least that's what the F-15E bubbas on staff here say. I'd say your assignment guy is clever... Nope, nobody goes from the 562 to the 563 thence to Prowlers. Like I said, I've only seen one guy in a year go to Prowlers from here and he graduated from P-cola. However, the new EC-130H patch that we just got says he's seen some Compass Call EWOs go to Prowlers. I hear Buff EWOs go sometimes too. Probably your only way to get to a Prowler if you didn't go to P-cola. PBAR

Actually there is a student finishing up right now at Randolph who is going to Prowlers. He already has a follow-on to F-15Es. Obviously he came to us from Pensacola. Incidentally we're supposed to get a bunch of F-15E WSOs this summer too. Guess it's the only way to get an ops-to-ops tour. PBAR 563 FTS instructor

oops, that should be International Affairs office...

Go to Air Force Portal, then to SAFIA i.e. Secretary of the AF International Air Force office. They have a whole list of exchange jobs there. PBAR