brabus

What’s interesting, and makes sense imo, is about a week ago I read on the CDC website a recommendation that while cloth masks will do little to help individuals, it would be good to tell people to wear them so they choose that over hoarding N95, etc. masks. The intent was clear that general mask wear was not a high Pk virus stopper, but rather the masses were going to do it anyways, so let’s at least get them to not waste the masks that healthcare workers desperately need. That’s paraphrasing, but that was the message of the recommendation. Fairly smart tactic on their part.

Don’t cough or sneeze on people, stay home if you’re sick. It’s pretty simple, don’t need to walk around with a mask on for the next year...unless you just can’t handle those easy steps, then by all means slap that maxipad on your face and have fun at the grocery store!

Why is the 4-place market largely untapped by exp? I would go that route in a heart beat, but my primary family mission keeps me out of the exp world. Now if someone would make an exp similar to a 180/185, I imagine there’d be a lot of folks all over that.

9/10 times I’d say follow the directions explicitly (attention to detail and all that), but this is a case where you don’t really have anything to lose, other than your time, to send your apps to those “no thanks” units. Our last board we didn’t have a limitation set, but we all had our minds set on 30-31ish being the limit. We ended up interviewing several who were older (I think 34 was the oldest). The first thing that grabbed our attention was the cover letter, which then piqued our curiosity to turn the pages to grades/scores (which were stellar), then to LORs, etc. Bottom line, a strong cover letter will pull someone in to at least taking an additional 6-9 min to look at the rest of your app. You will have to have a very strong resume, grades, etc. behind that cover letter to have a real chance at an interview. Visiting (when all this BS is over) is likely required to push it over the line to an interview invite.

Already planned to buy around next fall/winter, so hopefully this’ll work out in our favor. Also interested in anyone’s thoughts on leading purchase pitfalls/don’t-buy aircraft.

Concur, just putting it out there for anyone else who finds themselves in a USERRA situation. Even if you think you won’t need it, doesn’t hurt to have it done right. You know, for the next panic session that fucks up airline plans.

To be clear, only authority to quarantine those who have been exposed. Prove I’ve been exposed and then you can legally quarantine me in my house. Until then, go fuck yourself, I’ll leave my house when I damn well please. Doesn’t mean I won’t be smart about it (6’ distancing, won’t go throw a block party, etc.) There are people saying we shouldn’t be allowed to go for a run or ride a bike; that’s the line they’ve fully crossed.

From some minor amount of research yesterday, law allows feds and states to legally isolate sick people to prevent/minimize spread, and it allows them to quarantine those who have been exposed. For those of the populace who are not sick or there’s no probable cause to say they been exposed, it is not legal to prevent interstate travel or force quarantine. Ethicists generally don’t have a legal problem with social distancing, but they do have a problem with forced business closures that could operate semi-normally, while taking social distancing measures. So, while I hate CA and NY politics as much as I hate China, it’s anti-liberty (and illegal is most cases) to say those people can’t travel elsewhere or have to imprison themselves in a house for any amount of time (unless the two exceptions stated above). I realize there are no interstate travel bans yet, but there already are illegal quarantine measures telling people they can’t leave the house except for a couple destinations. We are absolutely starting to unravel liberty in the name of “safety,” something that has happened many times throughout history and is something that must be fought. “History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.” Nailed it.

Make sure your training orders have the USERRA exempt statement on it, IAW the SAF USERRA memo. It matters in case down the road your employer says you’re out of 5 years (as in the above example of doing 5.5 yrs total). Even if you think you’ll never hit 5 years gone, you really don’t know for sure (reference Corona), so get it right while the orders are fresh. Of note, MEST (post-training course orders, commonly referred to as seasoning) are also exempt.

When this eventually blows over and the politicians boast how “only X amount died/we saved Y amount,” keep an eye on the 2020-2022 suicide rates. I bet the increase dwarfs any “saves” by the draconian steps we’re taking right now.

And what does the rate of transmission mean without context? This is a serious problem, but look at data with context and it’s not nearly the Black Death the media is pedaling...we are crushing ourselves for many years to come because we’ve bought into the hysteria and are overreacting in some ways (but certainly reacting appropriately in other ways). Aggressive action needs to be taken in some ways, but to peg our total response to one side of the spectrum is asinine. I think this is part of Brick’s point.

That’s a innovative way to minimize risk while continuing the mission, good on ‘em. What would be short-sighted is completely ceasing the mission for x weeks/months.

This may be unpopular, but take emotion away for a second: we have an obligation as the military to not cease everything and cower in the darkest corner of our home. Leadership must keep the longterm/“big pic” at the forefront of their decision calculus to prevent a short term problem from causing catastrophic longterm effects (readiness, an even worse pilot shortage, opening up room for unchecked adversary advancement, geopolitical fallout at our country’s expense due to a weakened US military, etc.) I think most people and orgs (AF included) are taking reasonable mitigation measures, as they should. But to take draconian measures and shut down important activities for weeks or months (because 2 weeks isn’t going to accomplish much) is incredibly short-sighted, and will have significant effects.

That’s Army 101, sorry “joint 101.” Inability to comprehend the idea of desired effect vs. emotional attachment to a specific platform/MDS/weapon.

Not to say shiny pennies who spend too much time out of a combat sq don’t exist, but this has not even remotely been my experience in the fighter world, at least post TAMI.

Sounds like the key is inflexibility/lack of room to be free-thinking and problem solve. A few years ago when I had some direct interaction with AMD, they had zero interest in helping solve some real problems, the excuses abounded. The primary one that pissed me off was talking about how the crews wouldn’t be able to hack it...bullshit, i’d sat up front with several and had plenty of time to BS; the crews would have risen to the occasion and won...but AMD wasn’t in it to win it, they were there to make donuts and nothing else. As I think back to all my experiences with the MAF, it is very frustrating to think about all the good dudes who are held back by AMD, TACC, etc.

I like the sentiment, but there is not an 11F need for more new guys as stated previously. Secondly, the fighter community is not a social change mechanism - putting people here for that reason is right out. Why is it that the MAF is so incapable of getting out from under queep and refocusing on the mission? I’ve heard this from many heavy friends - I feel for you guys, and I’ve felt some pain as a “customer.” There are tons of good dudes in the MAF who have the right mindset, yet they appear unable to cause a shift...what’s stopping them? I assume it’s a cultural problem that could change with mission-focused DO, SQ/CC, OG/CC, etc. who aren’t pussies. Why is no one who fits that bill making it to these positions? a cross flow doesn’t solve that...maybe the MAF needs a coup; anyone there have any favors they could call in with the Clintons? 1st step in the shoe clerk playbook - deny common sense until a person can prove to you directly from one of YOUR regs that they’re right. Definitely one of the top things wrong with the military.

It’d be crazy not to take this deal, unless you’re on wife #2+ and/or have been financially retarded in the past.

What problem are we trying to solve? We don’t have a fighter pilot shortage in general, we have a shortage of experienced IPs/guys on staff. The last thing we need is more inexperienced fighter pilots. Retainment is the only way to actually solve the issue; everything else are just half-assed attempts to bandaid the sinking ship because the AF accepts the fact it’s not willing to do things that will actually retain those with 10+ years of fighter experience.

We don’t call it A/B, but yes, it’s faster than A. Title 32, non-exempt...Just another fuck job, courtesy of NGB.

It is high demand, but Hill (for example) is no worse now than it was in the Viper days. Shaw is still playing the constant rotation game. Point is in general, nobody has it better/worse than the rest when it comes to time away, work load, etc.

Pick the mission you want to do and put no more thought into it. Hopefully you’ve gleaned from above that EVERYONE is on the road, has long days, works weekends, and does it all with varying levels of outside-work issues. I have friends who thought heavies would be the jam for reasons you stated, they hated it. Other friends same story, but with fighters. LL for those guys: pick the mission you’ll enjoy, not the one you think will have “better” QOL, time at home, least workload, etc. If you can’t stomach that idea for the next 10 years, then in all seriousness stop now. I hope you don’t though, because I think you’re young and think your problems are more difficult to manage than reality; you’ll be fine and continue to figure life management out as you mature. That’s not meant to shit on you, we’ve all been through it in our young-mid 20s (I took e-leave in UPT also).

AI will get “there” some day, but the world has a long time until we’re fighting air wars with mostly RPAs. Currently the F-35 is sundowning somewhere in the 2070s, if that helps give you any clue to how long it’s going to be.

As long as we take a “total destruction” mindset like WW2, it could work. Aside from OGA/HVI targeting missions, it needs to be all out death and destruction for decisive action, to the end that it’s so bad for our enemies they choose not to step out of line against the western world again. Anything less and we end up in the same cycle of constant deployed ops.

The problem is ISIS, AQ, etc. will always be a transnational problem. It’s never going to work to simply leave somewhere and trust the locals to keep a lid on Islamic terrorist group’s unquenchable thirst for total world domination. So, we’ll be killing these fucks for the rest of our existence, with varying levels of manning and materiel commitments. Don’t worry boys, that RipIt stock will never tank.