busdriver

Does anyone smell that?

No doubt

Him Him

"The U.S. and its allies could not have conducted recent operations in Libya and other areas without the Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey" ughhh

Nearest I can tell what the Marine's mean when they say organic CAS, is really Marines doing the flying rather than landing in the field. The STOVL thing has more to do with flying them from Amphibs than landing in the field. They argue that we might want the ability to move a MAGTF into a region without commiting a CSG, what conflict would require an LO fighter but allow successful RW employment without SEAD is beyond me however. I guess if you follow their logic, they want a STOVL aircraft and an LO aircraft but their requirements don't neccesarily drive them being merged into one airframe. I still don't buy the amphib requirement, but whatever.

Not a limit, just a factor to consider.

My guess is someone pulled it out of their ass.

Are there any Raptor guys in the current WIC class?

I'm assuming you're a warrent then. My squadron has two guys that just finished OTS, both prior Army Blackhawk drivers, they'll be heading to Kirtland early next year as 2Lts. That being said, that's the helo transition. If you're looking for a FWQ slot, well I can't help there.

Crown, is there still a large experience gap in the King world? I know the VSP from 5ish years ago hit the 71st really hard.

I started doing that last summer at Bagram, laundry service took close to a week turn around.

I understand and agree with your sentiment, but you're really going to bring ORIs into this?

I really wish I could go to this event. Getting to hear the story of Streetcar 304 from those that were there is epic. The last time I got to sit in on this was BGen(ret) Dale Stovall talk about his pickup of Roger Locher just outside of a North Vietnamese Mig base, just outside of Hanoi. Fuck every stupid award ceremony, getting to hang with the old guys and swap war stories over a couple beers is everything shop talk in the bar should be.

"The Rescue of Streetcar 304" by Kenny Fields. An awesome story of a multi service effort to get a bro out of harms way, not to mention one of the largest combat search and rescue efforts in history.

Roger. Sounds a bit fishy to me. "In the effort to avoid saying northwest, we've actually found a more accurate way to concisely rely the location of a threat."

Slow helo guy is confused, I always thought the original bullseye was Hanoi. Assuming you mean actually giving a no shit bearing and range versus northwest of the bullseye?

Re-cap (goal to replace all airframes 1 for 1) has become a bid process, which means acquisitions will probably fuck it up. Just buying new and lightly modded 60M's to replace lost iron is a different program, it's goal it to replace aircraft lost to combat operations and get us back to our original numbers. Keep in mind we're talking mid double digits for active duty airframes. EDIT to add: These things we do that others may live

Rainman, there is definitely a problem with mission focus/capability. However I would argue the capability piece is largely driven by the ops tempo, the focus is probably a result of queep that was always there but becomes an unbearable thorn due to the ops tempo. I guess for some, it's become a death by a thousand cuts sort of thing.

It depends.... Supporting, supported, gold jacket, green jacket, who gives a shit? We fight as a joint force to kill people and break their shit.

The little Weber Q type grills are actually really good for what they are, easy to clean and make some damn good burgers. That said, I'm really interested in what guys with the infrared type setups have to say. I need to get a real grill, and the interwebs seem to be all abuzz.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Read about Robin Olds, but also read about guys like Heinie Aderholt. There are plenty of others as well, but I seriously doubt Aderholt and Olds would have seen eye to eye, but both where great leaders.

Dude, Clark is still crazy.

I got a new toy, range trip this weekend....

I don't know what your impression is WRT a "record" but I know folks who came damn close to a class A in combat, they're still flying. Granted the AF helo world is small, so it's not like everyone won't know about it if you ball it up.

The Rescue world will miss Dan and John. A toast for all lost