YoungnDumb

A few weeks ago wasn't it 20, then 12, now 8. At this rate it'll be 2 by the time we actually get them delivered

Duck, one other thing I forgot to mention earlier is I also got out of a significant amount of alimony by offering to pay off some of her debts. It did hurt me a bit financially at the time, but in the long run it paid off as it gave me more bargaining room for other things. Just an idea for ways to get more time with the kids or to pay less alimony.

Went thru this last year, no kids thankfully. Lots of people have mentioned it already but stop drinking, I didn't adhere to this and said/did some pretty stupid things, thankfully none have come back to haunt me (yet). Get yourself around some good bros and as much as you may want to shit talk her with them, I don't recommend it, too many people are intertwined between you and her and you can burn more bridges than build that way. Military One Source was a great resource, they hooked me up with a counselor and 10 free visits, and I'll be honest, talking to the counselor and getting my emotions out there and not elsewhere was probably the best move I made. I've had mixed results with the Family Advocate or whatever they're called on base, but all the people I've talked to off base have been amazing. As far as money and assets, I went to the ex and had her write down a list of everything she wanted as far as furniture, plates, linens, personal stuff, pictures, etc and what she thought was fair. This turned out to be very helpful as what she wanted was actually less than I was willing to give her so I made out decently. Now we did do some minor negotiating over alimony, but again, in the end I walked away paying less than I was prepared to because I let her make the first move (never show your cards if you can help it). Being civil is going to be the hardest part of all of this. You'll want to scream and lose control, but don't do it. Bite your tongue so hard it bleeds if you have to, but do not give her ammo to take more than she already is. It'll hurt now, but in a year you'll be proud of how you acted. As far as kids go, I grew up in a divorced family. Saw my parents fight, got used as a pawn once or twice. In the end that's not what I remember. I remember the good times with my dad (he passed a few years ago) and how he was always there for me at concerts, sporting events, graduations, you name it. Every chance you can make your kids feel loved, don't spoil them, be the parent they need in their lives and they'll turn out okay. You need anything, we're all here to help.

First of all, don't FAIP to Laughlin. Just don't. Second, if she did get FAIP'ed I would be extremely skeptical that she could jump year groups or anything to come and meet you, never heard of it. Most likely is that she would stay in her year group but get an early departure (so 3-9 months prior to her 3 years post PIT). Finally, just because someone wants to FAIP doesn't mean they will. In all my time I only saw 2 people who had FAIP as #1 get it. You have to be a good pilot to get FAIP'ed and the squadron has to not hate you.

Is it also scheduled to go into the hangar for repairs/fixes/upgrades the same day?

Can't even say I'm remotely surprised.

The more things change...

Moved from Vance a few months back (spent 5 years there) and I didn't live on base but quite a few friends did, so I'll be speaking on what I saw. The married UPT houses (with great exception) were nothing special, 2-3 bedrooms with garage and/or carport. Decent sized, but not huge. All houses have their own back yard that is medium sized, lots of parks and a few dog parks on base though to help mitigate this. The base is small so you can walk to pretty much everywhere you want pretty easily (read drunk stumble back from the club). There are 2 blocks or so of newer housing, no idea who those go to (besides the obvious O-6's), had a pair of friends from UPT who lucked into them but besides that pretty much everyone else I knew lived in the standard older house. Maintenance seemed okay, never really heard any complaints about it. @MooseClub, if you're an O-4 I would live off base. Vance is small so there isn't a lot offered on base for the family. Reasonable housing can be found pretty much anywhere North and West of the base (avoid everything east of Van Buren). Anywhere in town is at most a 10-15 minute drive or less.

Interesting article, I'm curious about the early track select and its long term ramifications.

ETCA is also horribly outdated/out of touch so take with a grain of salt

Good luck with your degree but know that even if you briefed this to the CSAF or Congress nothing would change, bureaucracy is to entrenched.

Likely before my time there (12-18), unless it's a recent development

Never seen a SP naming during my time at Vance, think it may be more of a Laughlin thing.

My money is it ain't happening this year, and likely not even until spring time.

If you have to ask, you already know the answer.

While valid, it sounds like another excuse to keep delaying it. They say it'll be released in early 2019, any bets on it not occurring at all in 2019?

Honestly at this point I'm giving up hope on the light attack thing, nobody high up is willing to pull the trigger on it, and at this point it feels like we're just spending money to spend money.

Just reposting so the conversation can move along from the previous debauchery.

Just a young and dumb guy's thoughts but it seems like the AF deals with a lot of paralysis thru analysis and a lack of people willing to pull the trigger and accept the consequences, either good or bad, on solutions, i.e. we know we have a problem but we need to do 69 surveys on it and once we dream up a solution no one is willing to sign off on it as they're afraid of the consequences.

What is the weird nozzle thing on the center console?

The AT-6 wingspan is only a few inches more than a regular T-6 not 33%, you are correct that the prop is a bit fatter/bigger but it already has the majority of the requested capabilities built in, so a retrofit seems pointless. Plus I'd be willing to bet that the retrofit/testing would cost more than an AT-6 straight off the line.

Doesn't the AT-6 meet most of these requirements already?

You're right, posted without thinking, my bad.

When is the last "class" at the UPT bases? By this I mean, which is the last group to have a traditional drop night, and have they figured out how assignment selection will work?

Just posting what he said, didn't say it was a fact.