Slander

Same. Shipped a car from Denver to the NY VPC for $700 with all the U-ship fees included. Totally painless.

Nearly every analysis from credible agencies talks about how the "best case scenario" for the US is for this civil war to continue for a while. There are lots of reasons, but primarily it's because Arabs are killing other Arabs in an Arab country that doesn't have any big trade agreements with us. In the mean time, AQ, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and a list of other shitheads around the world are getting the jollies off shooting at each other, and they aren't shooting at us. Plus, Israel is happy that they're busy fighting each other instead of lobbing rockets as frequently towards them. If we attack, it galvanizes the alliance between Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas against us (and Israel again, by proxy) which could set Lebanon on fire.... So what do I think is Obama doing? Stalling, punting this to congress knowing it's probably going to fail (reference Britain) while still reserving the right to strike anyway (illegal? who knows for sure, congress didn't sue him yet), and reserving that right is keeping Assad's bunghole maybe just a little bit clenched. That doesn't take into consideration the fact that 100,000 Syrians are dead. That sucks, but...then there's the whole thing of "America, stop making yourselves into the world police!!!1!11!!!" "Hey, America, WTF how come you're not stopping this asshole from gassing his own people?!!1!1!!??/11!///??" Right? So it's easier for us to just talk tough and do nothing for a while until he goes all Chemical Assad again (which he will). Then maybe the Arab league will have had enough, and Russia / China will get backed into a corner. Then the UN will take care of it, right?! Wait a sec... MAGNUM!

Extremely unlikely. There are already plenty of examples of this not happening.

Doesn't matter. Having a good GPA is part of the fee for the ticket to the game, along with the rest of the stuff that's written all over this board. Gotta pay the price to get into the game. Once you're in the game, the cost of the ticket doesn't matter because it's awesome.

I think we should put RSUs at every airport to monitor aircraft configuration and approaches on final. Pilots who are waiting on reserve can sit in them and the young guys flying RJs will have great networking opportunities with senior captains from other airlines. ...(/sarcasm)

No. I'm saying that if what 17D says is true, that the guy who controls deployments and hands out Q2/3s to HER is doing so because she feels its retribution for her saying "hey, how about we not name this new guy 'Facial' because it offends me" then she should absolutely talk to her commander, then if her commander says "boys will be boys" then she should talk to the IG.

Ok, where to begin...1st, Offut is not a fighter base, it's an ISR base. It sounds like some guys there may have the wrong idea of a fighter squadron roll call...I've been in a few fighter squadrons and all but two (out of hundreds) of the bros call signs had nothing to do with sex stories. One that did was changed shortly after we shook off our hangovers, and the other the guy liked (and was about himself, no one else) so it stuck. Nearly all of them had to do with flying-related buffoonery or a clever pun on someone's last name. The Nellis test always applied. (i.e. "Good morning, I'm Capt XXXXXXX and I am the mission commander." If XXXXXX didn't immediately make him lose all credibility or wasn't obviously racist/sexist/offensive, pass. If not, new name. Alternatively, CNN test applied: "Capt John XXXXX Doe's aircraft was destroyed today after his successful ejection.") If your wife is feeling like the culture in her squadron is unacceptable, she has a right and a duty to say so to the commander. If he tells her to pound sand, thats exactly what the IG is for, especially if there are career implications from her voicing her discomfort (deployments, Q2/3, etc). That is the culture that, to me, is patently unacceptable in the USAF. Also, her commander would be an idiot not to immediately and aggressively address it, especially given the current climate. I am lucky that I haven't been in a scenario like the shitty one you describe. I recognize that it would be socially difficult and require a lot of moral courage to do that. However, there are mechanisms in place to fix this if she wants. Not using these mechanisms is part of the frustration for some people with the TSgt Smith story, she never told anyone at the time she was offended, she waited 16 years and sold her story to huffpo. (Not the assualts part of her story, the Korea / Shaw parts, obviously the assault parts are horrible and should've been addressed regardless of time delay) My point is, there is a slim possibility that people are too oblivious to read into her social signs and recognize they've crossed a line. That being said, from your end, the line to avoid crossing is to force her or your lifestyle choices onto others the way she feels theirs are forced onto her. So, maybe a mandatory binge drinking fest every Friday isn't the big one but neither is removing all booze from the squadrons and shutting down call signs and roll calls, in my opinion. A roll call / naming / first friday is supposed to build esprit de corps in a squadron by providing a closed venue to sport-bitch about support agencies, complain about how no one understands, and tell funny stories about each other. It is supposed to be a good time, and let everyone blow off some steam. About half the time I don't drink, and I still love hearing my friends' stories. We work hard, we spend a lot of time together, there needs to be a controlled environment to air grievances. If that's not what those social events are in her squadron then the mayor (and by default) sq cc are fucking it up wholesale.

Don't screw it up, please. The sport-bitching from the line pilots (ok, you too, Navs) aside, we're counting on you and your multi-star bros. Morale doesn't have to be low, there are low-hanging fruit options available to make it better (uniform reg idiocy, pretend online masters, sos practice bleeding...I'm looking at you). Btw...where's that "vector" that Gen Welsh said was coming soon 5 months ago? I remember getting an email every month from him with his take on what's going on for a few months after he took over, since then I haven't heard anything from him other than watching him and the other service chiefs get dressed down by congress. Come back, lead us. We need you. Beside the other stuff I mentioned, I think morale will improve when we have senior leadership we can believe in and trust actually care about us (proven by actions, not words). I don't expect that I'll feel like the most important cog in the machine, but I shouldn't feel like an afterthought or just the 480/800 captain on some AFPC metric spreadsheet.

Why can't we just write "My #9/10 FGO, not terribly hard working, mediocre results outside of flying. Great line pilot, keep in CAF/MAF" instead of writing our performance reports in lemon juice for the boards to read by candlelight?

If this jet had landed anywhere else, "pilot error" would've been all over the place. Now there's some sort of "safety device" that made sure it cratered into an open field. I wonder if that "device" is also called "pilot." Fucking media.

Same problem, different SWA location...

Rumor has it at a certain base in the AOR, this mishap was discussed at the daily staff meeting for about 5 minutes. Then the state of the mustaches in the ops group was discussed for an hour. Heard from several sources. The 6 pages from When Thunder Rolled describing the implicit importance of a bullet-proof mustache was posted in the shitter shortly after the "get 'em in regs, boys" email was sent. edit: write, read, then post.

I've seen anywhere from $60B to $4T depending on to what level you want to unfuck the north. What I read, I think from an article or analysis someone else posted in this thread, was that the mostly accepted amount is that you need to double NK's GDP in 4 years to avoid mass emigration to the south but I think once people in the north see Lotte Mart or E-Mart and can go buy all the food they want, that might change. I think China is more interested in maintaining the status quo than anyone...they definitely do not want a close US ally sharing a border with them. I think once the April exercise season dies down, Foul Eagle ends, we'll see this dissolve. NK can't put up LFEs like we and the RoK so they rattle their sabre endlessly. Also, in about 2 weeks is time for the reserves to go back to the fields for the spring planting season, so between that and the end of the exercises, as long as nothing goes boom over there, this'll die down. Dictators care the most about #1, and he has to know that if he starts a war, party's over for him and all his buddies...that's incentive enough to just say a lot of angry sounding shit, then when we don't attack claim a victory that your words prevented the imperialists from starting a war.

Bad year... Him Him.

Then why did I spend so much time in MOPP 4 at Kunsan?

We're not alone, every analyst who is at all familiar with the peninsula is doing the same thing. It's a judgement of how much is Cartman proving how manly he is vice how much is actual real ambition for war. It seems like they're just saying that we are trying to attack them, planning to attack them, so at some point I'm guessing he'll say "See, our tough rhetoric kept the imperialist Americans at bay! Go North Korea! No, you can't have any food. Shut up and get back to slave labor." Or something like that.

No, if I'm WVR with someone, I'm looking at them and I still don't care what my RCS is for follow on threats, I have to kill the guy I'm anchored with first. Plus, if I'm anchored with them fighting a data-link capable threat, odds are his buddies know where I am anyway.

Sounds like the C-130 community is feeling what the F-15 and F-16 community felt a few years ago. Sorry bros...it sucks.

Wrong. If I'm WVR with someone, I don't care what their RCS is, because I'm looking at them with my eyes. OK, suppose they meant BVR and my RCS increased when I push the pickle button to launch a missile. Let's talk about what that actually means: 1) I've already seen him, created a launch quality que, and am shooting at him 2) So my RCS increases when the door opens, a missile pops out, he gets a lock on me. Then the missile goes away, the door closes, and depending on my range and flow, I either leave or ensure merge cleanup and watch his "Mighty Dragon" die. But as soon as my door closes...can his radar maintain the lock? Maybe...maybe not. Suppose I'm not using an AMRAAM but an AIM-9 instead and that's why my missile is hanging out in the windstream. I'm probably not doing that at range, so I revert to my comment about being WVR...it doesn't matter what my RCS is because we're staring at each other across the circle. I hate it when people who don't know about things talk as if they do. I hate it a lot. Maybe I'm doing it right now but don't realize it. Whatever. edit to add paragraph about AIM-9.

Yes. Their threat reactions and notch timing is better than most of the CAF, I'd say.

Politics. The T-Birds and Blue Angels are famous. Cutting them allows the chiefs to give congress the finger in the public perception.

Dude. Please write a book. You're a great storyteller.

Yes. Claim what you're entitled to claim, but don't gouge.

It's not inefficient, the MRAP vendor has done a good job lobbying DHS to buy new ones rather than use the old ones. Jobs "created" in 'Merica.