pawnman

Jesse James...country singer.

Yep. We've got some guys scheduled for sandbag duty. I guess CE ran out of people?

For over a dozen years, I've managed to drive in areas with 45-50 MPH speed limits, where no one wears a reflective belt...and I've never run over a pedestrian. For almost 3 decades, I've never worn anything resembling a refective belt in my own neighborhoods or my place of employment...and I've never been hit by a car. It must be something the USAF does during those annual physicals that scrambles the brains of the men and women serving, and somehow makes them incapable of driving or looking both ways before crossing the street. It can't only be about safety, or else I'd have to wear my RB at home station too (dear God, I hope I'm not giving anyone ideas). Hell, if it were REALLY about safety, wouldn't the USAF mandate that I wear it EVERYWHERE? Isn't a civilian downtown just as likely to run me down (perhaps moreso, given the somewhat less...zealous...enforcement of speed limits in town vs on base) as someone outside the squadron? Maybe it's just the desert that drives people crazy and makes them incapable of functioning as adults the way they do at home station, although I'm gathering that there are several USAFE bases that operate under similar assumptions. Curtis Lemay is spinning in his grave.

There must be, because they have posted on every door "Please remove all headgear and sungless in accordance with blah blah blah". Never paused long enough to actually read what they cite, but I imagine it's one more addition to the AUAB uniform reg. I'm probably repeating myself, but I completely fail to see how having a supplemental regulation for a deployed location that is thicker than the damned parent reg is in any way, shape, or form helping to generate sorties, improve morale, or have any kind of positive effect whatsoever on the mission. New one I got today was that a new style of shoe has been banned..."finger" shoes? I'd never even heard of them. They did take the time to point out that "athletic shoes" are the "primary shoes to be worn with PT gear" and reiterate the ban on flip-flops, sandals, Crocs, and whatever else the double-D's have put on their hit list this week. Copy, while I'm deployed, I can never relax and be off-duty. I almost wish we did those climate assessment surveys out here...I have a pretty good idea what they would say about the relationship between these kinds of rules and morale. Ah, almost forgot, and completely unrelated...so, during the Carlos Mencia/whoever else is performing show...no alcohol within the confines of Memorial Plaza. You can have your beer, or you can watch the show, but you can't do both. Apparently, having beer in the gravel is still OK...just not under the Bra itself. The AFCENT Sup also says that your PT gear is reflective enough without a belt, and we can all see how that worked out.

Bingo. You're in a deployed location. Flyers are working 24/7 planning, executing, and analyzing sorties. There's NO reason why Finance, MPF, or the Education Center should EVER be closed. WTF else are you doing on your deployment? Get to work...you're not at home, there's nothing to do on weekends of evenings. Unless they physically don't have the personnel to man the support agencies 24/7 using the same 12-hour shifts the Ops and MX groups are using, there's no excuse. And yet, they're "supporting" us.

He didn't get sent home...he was part of a terminally-delayed jet-swap. Although the O-5 did originally file charges when the major pointed out that while, yes, he was breaking regs for having sunglasses on his head, the O-5 was also in violation for not wearing his hat outside. Charges were dropped, but said major was still fired from his job back home.

Actually, saw (what I assume was) a squadron-leadership type checking reflective belts at the BPC chow hall today. And we're still signing up our own SQ/CC, DO, and senior ADO for similar duties on a rotating basis. I guess the NCOs felt they didn't have enough pull and we needed some O-5's to REMF people. At roll call, our mayor actually compared it to a certain SERE scenario...but the first rule of SERE is don't talk about SERE to the unitiated, so I'll let you guys piece it together.

Which is still less jarring to me than having new PFT standards where they estimate 40% of USAF members will fail...and hosting a hot dog eating contest at the Deid. Way to promote fitness, EFSS!

I think it's because we haven't had any new policies or exercises in a while. We're still wearing reflective belts with every uniform (although not indoors, and not in daylight...yet). We're still tucking in the PT gear, even while working out. We're still saluting in PT gear (although I haven't seen too many cases of people being REMFed for not saluting). We're still supposed to use spotters to back the cars out of their parking spots (but no one ever does). The Qatari ISP still blocks porn websites. I guess there just isn't much new going on that hasn't been covered already.

Judging from the picture (and a little googling) tells me it's a GW-2500.

Airplane models are always a good choice. I'm personally a fan of the Citizen Skyhawk as a watch...but if you've got the $$$ for a Breitling, more power to you. Otherwise, there's all kinds of aviation themed gear, from wall clocks designed to look like altimeters to framed aviation art. Because honestly, I don't see BQ giving anyone a BJ for Christmas.

The B-1 has those markings too...and yes, the whole horizontal stab moves to function as an elevator. It's also a "rolling tail", meaning that the right and left side can move independently to roll the jet.

This board's probably training him well, actually...screw up, and someone will start ridiculing you. Keep your mouth shut and listen to your instructors, less likely. Although you're right, I don't think anyone gets all the way through flight school without being ridiculed a few times in front of their peers. But your attitude can go a long way in determining how long it lasts.

Because deleting posts and threads just doesn't drive the message home with the same force as the combined ridicule of every other aviator on BaseOps. It's quite possible this douchebag won't get it...but someone else will see this thread and throttle back the rhetoric. And that makes the internet just a tiny bit better.

2. No reflective belt talk...all the chastisement was well-deserved, clean kills.

It'll probably only take 10 dudes now that the morning session was cancelled 20 minutes prior...40 dudes bitching the entire way back to BPC about screwing up their sleep cycles to make the morning one since they had crew rest/ground duties during the evening one. Not to mention, I'm sure pretty much every officer on the base will now try to shoe-horn into the BPC theater. You know, this is my first deployment. I'm enjoying the job. I love flying combat missions. I don't mind the pre-flights, the MPC shifts, the airplane tours...hell, much as I hate to be away from my family, that particular inconvenience is just part of the job. But all this queepy bullshit about reflective belts, PT gear, throwing people out of the chow hall, exercises in a combat location, constant briefings about the right way to do things...these are the biggest drain on morale for me (I suspect I'm not alone). It's almost enough to make me consider pulling the handles when my comittment is up instead of staying the whole 20 years. I'm not to that point yet...but I'm guessing if people were really honest about it, this queepy, rules-oriented mindset it probably one of the biggest barriers to retention we have, even above ops tempo and pay.

Once the schoolhouse starts pumping people through again, there will probably be alot of B-1 slots...we're getting shorted on WSOs currently and in the near future. Personally, I love my job as a B-1 WSO. You've got 36,000 pounds of hate available on call. The Sniper pod is a pretty awesome toy. You've got a toilet. The ops tempo isn't too bad for family life, and it's fairly predictable (at least at a squadron level). You'll be gone six months, home for a year. There are always other circumstances where people swap out half-way, but unless there's a really good reason for it, plan on the full six months for every rotation. I can't speak for how other platforms roll, but the distinction between pilots and WSOs when it comes to everyday squadron duties is miniscule. I've had squadron commanders, DOs, and group commanders that were WSOs. There's plenty of room for leadership opportunities in and out of the jet for both pilots and WSOs. Without the WSOs, the pilots are flying an airliner. Without the pilots, we're sitting in a static display. It's a very teamwork-oriented jet. If you've got any other questions about B-1s, feel free to PM (or post your questions if you think others can benefit from the answers).

How do they keep from shooting each other?

And AF Blues comes through again, on both the Veteran's Day and reflective belt fronts.

He's coming to the Deid...they're required no matter what version of the PT gear you have. Also, can't wait for longer shorts. I'm torn whether I'll buy them here, or just wait until the next deployment (because I'm sure as hell not wearing them to work out at home station).

And a second bottle if you ask why the AEW/CC wasn't wearing his?

Seen this one a few times on Viva at the Deid. Unfortunately, Qatari ISPs block their home page as porn...go figure. Still, could be a good fundraiser for some enterprising snacko...hot chicks washing cars are are cool, but cliche. Lets get them to work on the flightline!

I've never seen a Marine in a reflective belt...Not sure, but I think it may be part of their parent uniform reg. In any case, I'd have been sorely tempted to force them to arrest me. At what point did this level of disobedience begin warranting arrests? (See also, Crocs and the EFSS commander). Somehow, this Marine was safer walking back to his room, in the dark, sans belt, than he was inside a brightly lit chow hall. It's become sheer idiocy.

Yet. I think they save things up so that once we get used to the current gayness level, they can always ratchet up one more notch. Might be time to recycle that prank at AUAB. I submit the following: Junior Enlisted: Silver NCO: Pink CGO: Blue FGO: Red Flag: Yellow

You probably won't be seeing that again. Our DO pretty much outlawed that vest and the belt-buckles in a recent email. Sadly, every time one of these events goes down, our squadron leadership tends to side with the REMFs. The recycling urine thing is pretty funny...I plan to print a few out and hang them in our dorm...and, if I'm feeling brave, at the bulletin board for the BPC chow hall.