busdriver

I thought occurred to me (usually this is a bad sign) that for this to be of any real use, their source has to be willing to go on the record, right? An anonymous source claiming Metzger had an abortion while deployed to Manas is only barely above conjecture right?

The rumor I've heard about that combat only ABU, is that it's nomex, has shoulder pockets like the ACU, the pockets on the chest are slanted and the neck actually has a closure system. It basically sounds like the ACU pattern, made of nomex and in the AF color scheme. One of my E's said he talked with a big wig Chief (I don't remember who it was, ACC chief, AF chief, beats me) who was wearing it around to ask people's opinions. Sounds like an actual good product versus the piece of crap ABU. Hopefully we can get it approved for flight.

the helos on the helmet had me thinking, oh well.

This seemed like the best place to post my question. If I have say an air medal with 4 oak leaf clusters, do I wear 5 air medals with mess dress? I looked in 36-29chow my hog, but didn't get a good answer. I'm only asking since I have to re-build my blues due to SOS, and saw my mess dress sitting there, naked and lonely on its hanger.

I very little about the Navy, however the WSOs in the backseat of the hornets tended to be the mission commanders when I was at fallon for desert rescue. In other words the pilots flew and defended the aircraft, the WSO worried about the bigger picture. As to what CSOs will do in the U-28 world: they originally had it set up that two pilots could do everything. My guess is that due to very short manning, they realized they can increase their pool of bodies by opening the non-pilot duties to other capable bodies, ie navs. If you know what the U-28 actually does, I think you know what I'm talking about.

The whole rank thing is mostly a tradition game to me. For whatever reason I played the salute side of the game as I mentioned. As to the Sir thing, well I first met one guy as a captain, me an LT. I called him by his first name for a couple years till he made major, suddenly he railed me for not calling him Major XXXX. Another guy I met as a major, but everyone called him by his first name, the same as mine. Obviously two guys named Bob had a running joke that went something like: Him in a manner of greeting: "Bob" Me: "Bob" I got chewed out by a different officer about calling a major Bob, while I was an LT. After the ass chewing, he talked to me and said something to the effect of, don't worry about it, I'm cool with everyone calling me Bob, you guys do what I tell you, jump when I say jump, so what you call me doesn't matter. I learned some important things from all that. Respect someone's leadership position above rank. Know your audience. When you're the higher ranking SOB, don't take shit so damn seriously, Sir/Ma'am doesn't equal respect and if you're a good leader you'll recognize when your people are following versus appeasing you. I also learned through some other interactions that it's a slippery slope. If you get lax with some people who are good shit, it makes the shit heads think they can take the same liberties. Use your relaxation with caution, it may come back to bite you in the ass.

Disregard everything I said before, this is gay.

My personal take is that if leadership wants people to go back to wearing blues as the default, then if you're a line dog assigned to a flying squadron, you wear a flight suit, from the commander on down. If you're staff, be it wing, group or majcom you wear a flight suit when you know you're going to fly. Then again I don't think blues are all that bad. Sure they look stupid with the powder blue up get we currently have, but ultimately we should be acting as a professional force. I don't really have a problem with our representatives dressing like professional students of warfare.

Come on people, it's obvious this is something that Gen Schwartz had in mind before ever taking this job. I imagine the "discussion" about this topic lasted all of 30 seconds and went something like: Gen Schwartz: BDUs being the normal uniform is crap, if you're not flying or getting dirty you should be in blues. Someone else: But sir we're supporting blah blah blah Gen Schwartz: Fine one day a week then, it's done. Someone else: Yes sir

I had a problem with sirs and ma'ams for a long time, maybe still do. But never saluting. In my mind a salute is just the way military members recognize and respect each other, we just have some goofy rules as so who initiates the process. So while the airman may have to salute me first, I have to salute back, it's a two way street.

You think that's bad, try listening to a Colombian talk to anyone on the radio, great for a laugh.

So what we're saying is that AF officers fucked up, fessed up and it was dealt with? Yawn.

Whatever you do, make sure everyone who's coming knows what to wear. I went to a buddies wedding and didn't know I was going to be in the pictures and a saber bearer. So yeah, I looked like an ass as the only non mess dress or tuxedo wearing person in their pictures. They thought it was funny.

Well a year into my second attempt at SOS via mail, and I get an in residence slot. Thankfully I lucked out. Stupid SOS. Christ, if I could voluntarily submit to no higher than Major and stick to OPs only assignments......

Eagle products are first rate. If you're looking to carry any sort of weight over any sort of distance, get a bag with a good hip belt. Pick a bag of appropriate size from any of the major backpack manufacturers and you should be OK. I'm talking companies like Kelty that make backpacking packs.

Great rant CH. Those self fellating OPR bullets are the hardest thing for me to do. I suck at providing OPR bullets for my raters. I'm finally a shop chief, and I'm finding that I'm surprisingly OK with stiff arming leadership to give my guys room to work. I end up taking heat and looking bad in the short term, but screw it I'm not going to be a micro managing ass. I'll pass the importance of whatever the boss is pinging about, but I refuse to take over.

Well, I just had a run in with my debit card number getting out, and based on where the random charges were made I can only assume it got out while I was in Iraq. With that said, I fully support the Eagle Cash card. It was stupid easy to set up, and you pick how much cash you put into it. It's not a credit card that can hurt your rating, and I honestly don't see any downside.

I would go so far as to say, owning that little gizmo and any pistol it's compatible with could get you into trouble. Even if you never attach it, the ATF would get you for intent to manufacture.

We're flying between the runways at a desert location practicing. We're flying our patterns at ~50ft agl. On downwind we're passing a 130 on approach, I don't remember how close we were, but it was apparently closer than comfy for the 130 landing. I hear "Dude, not cool! Tower, we almost just hit a helo." Tower responds "that helo wasn't anywhere near you." 130: "we'll talk about it later." Good on the 130 AC for not yammering on tower freq. On the other hand, well I guess the 130 types aren't used to the separation we helo types are used to. In all honesty, he probably didn't see us at all until he said that, and it startled him. Still, my whole crew had a good laugh.

The pred community is already short manned, there is no way they could support two aircraft.

Despite the super secret squirrel nature of the PC-12, they do in fact have routine training flights, keep in mind they've got lots of new guys showing up these days.

I don't understand why new AF badges have to "me too" wings. Spwings, now these. If anything, making other badges look like wings degrades their significance. If you're a space and missile guy, having the pocket rocket sets you apart, Spwings makes it seem like you're a wannabe which is hardly true. I'll also add that if I was going to sit around in an office (essentially) all day the last "utility" uniform I'd want is a flight suit. I'd want a two piece uniform that was light weight and soft. I'm thinking a BDU type uniform made of something like a dacron/cotton blend, no boot blousing though so you could wear a low cut boot.

So it's more a logistics/MX supply issue than a concern for the operator?

What's the deal with different engines on the same airframe?

Buddha, great points.