tac airlifter

Reflective belts-- ruining attempted tough guy pictures since 2001.

As long as I see 0-6 and above types getting their cars washed with the same grey water I shower with, I'm not going to worry if my shower exceeds 5 minutes.

The 'stealth helo' is a bunch of horse shit.

shot in the face.

WTF with all the butt hurt posts? Practice whatever traditions you want, and don't be offended when other people think it's stupid.

I don't even know what that statement is supposed to mean.

I knew a dude with 3 Q-3s in a row who was FEB'd and subsequently RIF'd.

Yes he was, but I chose to have a good attitude; isn't that always the key to having a good assignment? If you're waiting for the AF to give you a perfect boss to start enjoying your job you'll be waiting a long time. I had fun, enjoyed the mission, and moved on to something else that I enjoy even more.

Sorry to hear that, I had a great 5 years there.

LRAFB is only 12 miles north of the city, so there are tons of good spots. I lived in apartments in N little rock for a while before moving on base, although I don't recommend the second option unless you've got some family issues like I had. It's a good place and a good assignment, hopefully you lucked out and got the 50th; I left about 2.5 years ago, great group of dudes & tons of good TDYs. If you want any better info PM me and I can put you in touch with bro's at the squadron.

Flipping the safety on after each shot is a poor technique that would get most people killed. The carbine courses have so many different techniques, and some sound totally crazy but happen to work for one guy one time. Great training all, but I think that particular technique would get the majority of people killed. Sky cops fall squarely in the average majority. Bottom line is this guys is a total idiot, whether or not this particular technique is valid and used by someone at Magpul. The conceptual idea that one absolutely must get the uniform standard right all the time or you simply aren't qualified to fight the war is fundamentally flawed. The true professional puts everything on a hierarchy of importance, a hierarchy that changes depending on many variables. As operators we're very comfortable living like this, and we usually call it SA. Sometimes your gas state is the most important thing, sometimes it's the weather, sometimes it's the mission then the icing on your wings, and when the critical part of the mission is over you RTB the area because now the icing is most important. The hierarchy is always changing, and a good flyer stays aware of what's at the top and the handful of items under it. This idea of juggling a group of variables which all slide up and down the priority list used to confuse the shit out of me in pilot training, resulting in my average performance. But with a few thousand hours it's natural to all of us. And I think this is why we all know his argument is bullshit, but an articulate response is hard because the concept is so simple. We think "of course my mission planning is more important than having my sleeves rolled down." Or "of course I put my sunglasses on my head, I'm doing shit with my hands." And that's the issue with this guy, and this entire school of thought with non-operators that if you can't get the uniform right how can you fly an airplane? They think "how can you possibly do the important things when you can't get this thing right?" And we think "how can you possibly worry about the unimportant things when there are so many others that matter?" Of course our perspective is right and theirs is wrong. We prove that by flying successful missions everyday wearing baseball hats with a dip in our mouth; and if they understood priorities they wouldn't correct an officer about a minor uniform violation by yelling at him in public-- a customs and courtesies breach that manifests their inability to differentiate importance levels between issues. The only possible fix to our plight (two incompatible schools of thought) is leadership. Leadership must set the standard and leadership must judge what is most important when. And of course, leadership is what we are mostly lacking. Approaching the end of my commitment, this is a pretty strong argument for me to stay and try to fix it.

Another technological marvel that fails to work as advertised. Suprise, suprise.

Bingo.

Good job seeing a single tree in the forest bro. FWIW in my age group, we only need a 35" waist to max the new test. You must have some fatty's at the NCO academy if you think that's an issue.

FYI, this is a great thread to read with my Kindle sitting next to me. I literally started at the beginning and bought my way through to this page. This thread cost me 200$!

Noted. However, the fact that fitness standards in training are different with respect to gender is an institutional recognition that capabilities (and consequently, physical expectations) are different. And the PFT measures your physical fitness, not your medical fitness; you know what the "P" stands for. Furthermore, males are expected to far exceed the simple PFT standards as a prerequisite to even beginning training for most of the front line door kicker types. I just took my PFT with some TACPs and the one dude who didn't get a 100 was mercilessly mocked by the others and given remedial physical training and made to retake the test in a month! And the guy got a 97! My point is, equality means one standard and that standard should be tested CONUS before it's implemented in Logar. Before we begin talking about which girls can play with the big boys in combat, we need to at least have a common standard in training. The teams are not a misogynistic boys club, they are a meritocracy and if chicks can truly hack a 20 mile ruck march in full combat load followed by a compound assault and carrying a 220 lbs. wounded dude to safety on zero sleep at high altitude in the snow..... Ok. But it might be smarter to see if she can compete using our PFT scores before she gets to that point.

Thanks for the explanation of ASG, it's good info which I was totally unaware of. Related question: some people who are selected for IDE go to a course at Monterey, CA. What exactly is that school and how does it compare to the other options? Am I more likely to attend IDE somewhere other than Maxwell (assuming I'm selected for that) if I've completed ACSC by correspondence? Thanks.

Yea, neither do I; I was just using the PFT to make a broader point that "equality" should start in training before we discuss implementation in combat.

Until the male and female PT test is the same, I can't take seriously any discussions of equal jobs for men and women.

Noted.

Again you've failed to say what exactly your experiences are, do you actually have any with UAVs? I do, I work with them all the time. I deal directly with them and their customers in a different role. I've never seen any digs by pilots in my community or any other against the guys flying UAVs. Everyone knows the AF randomly selected dudes for a job no one wanted and it could just as easily have been me sitting in that box dealing with lost link at TOT instead of them. There are alot of things they can't do or things they don't do well (UAVs), guys get pretty livid about that part because it impacts support to the user. But you're on here essentially saying pilots have an ego problem and based on their own personal stigma won't let UAVs or UAV pilots realize their full potential. I'm telling you that opinion is way off base (and I noticed you ignored the UAV guys who also corrected you). Additionally, you're not qualifiying your opinions with experience. I think you're totally full of shit. Feel free to prove me wrong with a valid point. Or you could keeping calling me a tool; everyone knows you must be awesome and articulate for throwing down that kind of heavy weight on an internet forum!

Are you? You've failed to qualify any of your opinions with credentials.

I see you can't handle feedback or correction. Good luck with your future career choices, but the rated community isn't for you.

He's completely wrong and so are you. And you also sound like an idiot. Most pilots don't want to fly them anymore than a sailor wants to be stuck on land; they still get the job done. And I think the guys actually doing the mission realize it's a "large part of the future." By the way, what experience do you have to back up your statements? I've got 8 years of active duty flying, the last 2 in a role that works frequently with RPA's downrange. I know exactly how operators and users feel, and exactly what they are and are not capable of. And I'm telling you that both you and superbus sounds like ignorant little kids.

I'd recommend not voicing your opinions until you've got some experience. Right now you sound like an idiot.