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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

I was once told the jet (a B-1) was "crew-ready" and when we went out to the jet, it was missing an engine! It was the same tail number they had on the schedule for us to fly. There was another time I was moving my ejection seat forward during the preflight and about half-way up, it started to shake and make grinding sounds. It hung up doing that for a second or two and then continued forward. I was told that was normal (which it's not). But then again, I was dumb enough to take it as it was... On the other hand, I've seen some dumb things operators do (or don't do) to MX. For example, I use to take the defensive systems and offensive systems maintainers into the sim so that they could see the equipment they worked on actually on and in use. Some of them had worked on the equipment for ten plus years and had never seen it work except in ground tests. That's unsat! I couldn't believe it never occured to any operators to get them into the sim for at least a little bit of a look at how the stuff looks and works in flight. I made a DVD of the radar screen during a low level and most of the radar MX troops had never seen it working like that and loved the DVD. PBAR ex-Bone WSO

We heard today that the AF is seriously considering moving 20 or so C-21s to Randolph to replace the T-43 for navigation training.

We've been hearing for a while that the MC-130H T2 community really wants to take all of their navs/EWOs from Pensacola. We've also been hearing that B-1 slots were gonna be cut back to plus the F-15E WSO community. We're also getting our first F-15E WSOs to come through EWO school in a year or so this summer. Apparently they are going to be taking them from guys with an ops tour under their belt already (i.e. no guys out straight out of P-cola). The F-15E WSOs in my squad say it's a good deal because it means back-to-back ops tours. PBAR EW School instructor

I feel sorry for his son, a LtCol intel type. Imagine try live down your dad's reputation. His son is the polar opposite of the father and is a great dude/officer. PBAR

We had some young WSOs put a BDU-33 25lb practice bomb in our squadron Weapons Officer's luggage while we were waiting for the charter bus to take us to the airport for a deployment to Nellis. He commented about how his bag felt heavier but boarded the bus anyways without checking. When he got to the check-in counter, he was told his bag was too heavy and so he opened it up and moved some of his stuff to another bag. He nor the airline rep noticed the bomb. It wasn't until he got to the VOQ at Nellis and started unpacking that he discovered it. This was before 9/11 of course... The TSA definately wouldn't be able to take a joke like that now. PBAR Bone WSO

We're hearing (right now anyways) that the schools will move in FY10.

Actually Gonads, the Strike Eagle community is supposed to send 8-10 F-15E WSOs through EWO school a year. However, since they are producing just enough to keep their FTU filled up, they haven't had any they could spare to send here for over a year. I talked to some F-15E instructors who were out from Pensacola last week and they said they are trying to plus up the F-15E slots so they can start sending guys here again. Also, the wait time for the Bone FTU has gotten really long and that would help that as well... Also, the MC-130H community is pushing to start taking their nav/EWOs from Pensacola as well but I'm not sure as to the status of that. PBAR