Dupe

ACSC 6.0 (non-masters) seems easy enough. At the end of every lesson is 6-question quiz that you can take as many times as needed to get above an 80%.

My view is that people in the AF who operate weapons systems should have wings. The systems that we can use as weapons is rapidly changing. I think I'm open to the idea that a computer nerd, a space geek, or a guy in a container at Creech may have more of an ability to remove the enemy's will to fight than me in the F-15E.

I agree. As with any successful threat reaction, knowing how the threat works will greatly improve your chances of survival. Young guys should know the basics of how our promotion system works (or doesn't work).

True statement. The Air Force promotes from the entire pool of officers, vice setting a percentage rate for each career field. Strats and achievements that put you above officers from all careers are highly-valued by the promotion board (i.e...DG from your commissioning source or PME), as its difficult to compare certain achievements across different careers. How easy is it to compare a fighter IP to a Sierra-Hotel Big Safari program manager? That said, commissioning-source DG is looked at less than PME DG for O-4.

I agree...to solve the debt problem, balancing tax hikes with spending cuts is the only real option. The problem is that each side only wants to cut the other's side of the discretionary budget. No side seriously wants to restructure the nondiscretionary side like Medicare and Social Security. I don't think Congress has the balls to raise the Social Security retirement age to 67 or 70, nor do I think they'll figure out a fair way limit end-of-life Medicare spending in this session. I hope I'm wrong, but I have yet to see any politician stand up with graphs and charts to show the American public where spending is today, and what it will look like in 2030 if no changes are made, somewhat akin to Ross Perot's presidency run in 1992.

I see it as Americans wanting more from the Government than we are willing to pay for and inefficiencies in the government we have. We can't be a nation who ensures global harmony, provides a social safety net for those over 65, funds a healthcare system for the old and poor, puts men on Mars, makes post-secondary school more accessible to all, takes care of our veterans, and has low taxes when compared to the other G-8 countries. We can choose a high tax full-service government or we can choose a low tax minimal service government. I believe the full-service low tax government that we have had through the 2000s is no longer a valid option.

Here's my day-old glass of champagne assessment: Fixing AMT permanently is a huge relief for upper-middle income families. Progressive capital gains rates is a new idea for the country. Limits to deductions for the upper class will change the way the rich (er.. the smart rich) buy homes. The Medicare payment updates to docs is needed and should not be an annual issue like AMT once was if we ever want healthcare to stabilize....of course proper Medicare rates for each service/procedure could be a lifetime's work for many smart folks. Extending unemployment is probably necessary with national unemployment still high. I personally believe Americans are under taxed for the government we have...this is a small step towards righting the ship. Stand by for the spending fight in two months.

Parallel technique is to take a boat load of leave in conjunction with a PCS. Not always possible due to formal courses and such, but it sure is nice to final out then grow a beard for a month or two.

Once upon a time, there was this contraption called AFMSS... For all the ass-pain of JMPS, its better and easier to take on the road. I remember the 4-man team of pall-bearers it would take to move an AFMSS for a deployment/exercise. Throwing the mission planning system into a bag is nice. Now if those damn printers were smaller....

The solution isn't as obvious as the A-word for pilots, but there are opportunities out there. I know a few guys who have used their post 9/11 GI Bill to go to med school or to get a MBA. There's always civilian SPO and ACC/HAF requirements jobs. The UAV world is exploding quickly. I was offered jobs as a systems engineer and in a flight test department of a defense contractor when I was briefly considering getting out. There's a few of us with the FAA ratings to go into the civilian flying world as well. It turns out that smart people who communicate well and can work as part of a team will usually land on their feet. Edit: speeling

The F-15E is a great airplane. However, Boeing is set to close the Super Hornet line in 2016 unless they find a new buyer. The F-15 line will remain open substaintially longer due to the recent Saudi buy. Couple that with the fact that Canada is already flying Hornets and has the air refueling assets for only drogue-types. To me, Boeing selling F/A-18E/Fs to Canada is a natural proposition from both parties.

Table 2.9 line 8 looks like it covers this. If there's an ADSC, separation date NLT ADSC. If no ADSC, then NLT 7 months. Of course, the AF can give you the boot earlier if they want.

I predict that Boeing will very aggressively attempt to sell the Super Hornet to the Cannucks.

GCAS is Ground Collision Avoidance System. Its a system where the aircraft recovers itself if the computer thinks its going to pack it into the dirt. The systems I've seen are based on DTED (computer-stored terrain data). A few variations have been tested at Edwards over the years in the Viper. I'm not sure if its in the plan for the F-35. There's obvious discussion on when you do/don't want it and what margin(s) between dirt and auto recovery you want. Edit: damn you, autocorrect

I see it the opposite. I think we could fill the mission of the F-35 by a mix of more F-22s, increased 4th gen capabilities, and a sprinkle of some UCAVs and advanced munitions here or there....and we would have that capability sooner and cheaper than when the F-35 gets fully capable. At the same time, if the USMC believes they still need STOVL, then the F-35 is really the only option on the table for them at this point. Throw in some foreign partners that absolutely need the STOVL capability as well, and you have a program that will not be able to divorce itself from STOVL. Sure, the Air Force has invested alot at this point. However, its not too late to escape. The most significant costs of any aircraft operation are the operations costs and not the development or acquisitions costs. We could quit this circus now and still save money.

I worry that the Marine Corps is about to learn a hard lesson on the dramatic costs of LO maintanence that we've learned over nearly 30 years now. Either that, or they simply will not accomplish LO maintanence thereby throwing away so much of what the costs of the F-35B are to begin with.

This article describes Jill Kelley as an "unpaid social liaison at MacDill." Is that anything other that a groupie for generals? Hell, I didn't even know general officer groupies existed.

The bonus is a law where this scholarship is a policy. I'm a F-15E WSO seriously considering punching. Had the WSO bonus applied to me, I would be a lock for staying in. The AF has given me a pretty good masters degree, a door into a second career, and no further incentive to stay in...they'd be silly to think I'm not shopping around at this point. Just looking at manning numbers, I think it would make sense to create a bonus for some of the CSO careers while dropping some of the 11M payouts. Of course, that'd go over like a fart in church.

Engineers in their first assignment out of TPS are required to be in a flying billet. On the fighter side, these guys tend to fly on any tub available vice specific programs. Garrett was a good guy, and he'll be missed.

Except that its not simple at all. Hence Rainman's (valid) spear. Just figuring out USAFA's total O & M costs (your "cost to operate" number) divided by the number of grads is one way. However, that ignores all the funding that went into the facilities and all of the personnel costs. Do you roll in retirement costs into your personnel number, or just use current-year cost? Quite a bit of the military faculty had AF-funded PhD programs exclusively due to accepting a USAFA teaching position...do you include that cost as well? ROTC and OTS have similar issues, just not as pronounced. The thing is that getting each year's crop of 2Lts is cheap compared to the rest of running the Air Force. It's equivalent to just the operations costs of one fighter squadron for the year. I hope the personnel and money guys in AF/A1 are having the cost vs value debate for the academies...I just don't think it's on the scope of anyone with any kind of tactical knowledge. We're all too busy trying to get the most out of our aging Air Force amid growing threats and funding challenges.

A service academy accession costs somewhere between three and ten times as much as a ROTC/OTS grad. Unless somebody is seriously arguing that service academy grads are three to ten times more effective out of the gates, we owe it to the tax payers to really look at why these places cost so much and what could make them more cost effective.

I don't think the guys calling the shots at AA care much about long-term MX practices. The executive team is merely trying to cut costs and get out of bankruptcy without being bought out by another carrier. The article below describes where management's incentives (and hence priorities) are. https://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/10/american_airlines_delays_the_airline_that_can_t_get_its_passengers_to_their_destinations_on_time_manage_its_workers_or_even_keep_its_seats_bolted_down_.html Bottom line: don't fly AA until they're unfucked.

I'm using TurboScan as well. Great minds or something.

I'd like to see an iPad/iPhone app that lets me at least upload receipts to a current set of orders. I'm now iPhone scanning my travel docs while on the road rather than waiting until I get home to feed them into the scanner. I think most corporate travel departments even have software that matches a scanned receipt that you've sent in to an expense card item and pays it automatically while you're on the road. Doing it this way causes lower balances on the card, which lowers costs for your company.

Roth TSP starts in Oct for the Air Force. $17K max contribution per year (compared to the $5K max for normal Roth). Seems like a hell of a deal to me.