tac airlifter

Just bought a Lewis Machine and Tool piston driven AR from gunbroker today, will try to post a review when it arrives.

It's legal to be topless, hot and armed in NH!

I can tell you the 50th is a great squadron, but expect only about half your rides in the H3, all else is E's. INDOC takes anywhere between 1 and 5 months depending on IP availablity. I got a dude done in one TDY once, but thats not the norm. Also, expect some good TDYs, things have changed and they're back to the old days of good deal TDYs 4-5 times a month. Great DO!

Just finished Jawbreaker by Gary Bernsten, lead CIA guy directing SOF and Northern Alliance against the Taliban for the frist 6 weeks of OEF. Great read, and if anyone wants to know exactly when we had the chance to kill OBL and didn't at Tora Bora, this guy has the details. Sad ending since we decided on our own to stop persuing the enemies, but great read by a real hero.

Dude, spot on. 64 pages of griping about shoes making it difficult for us to do our job or unpleasant when we aren't actively doing our job. Not a single complaint about heat, bugs, shitty showers, bugs, rats...etc. My favorite deployment memories are all places out in the weeds where I could focus on my job and no one cared if my sleeves were rolled up!

Three questions: First, what evidence of "anti-technology" in legacy herk drivers have you seen? I'd appreciate first hand experience not third hand anecdotal evidence. No one I know prefered the E to the H3. Second, what does your statement have to do with this thread about the cancellation of AMP'd legacy birds? More specifically, do you think this program died because legacy guys didn't want the plane or because AF contracting couldn't get it's shit together to make it happen?

They never talked to my parents for my TS, so don't sweat it. These things take awhile, don't worry.

Of all the truely jacked up and retarded things we experience in the Air Force, you choose what uniforms PJs wear as the appropriate place to take a stand and pitch your bitch? Foul. They can dress like friggen clowns for all I care, those dudes are operators hacking the mission and their cosmetic appearence doesn't take away from their professionalism and the awesome job they've done everytime I've been around them. Seriously bro, can't we just stick to complaining about finance (who stole 400$ from me this month) or SFS and let the dudes fighting the war get on with it unmolested?

You must be a hardcore IPA fan because that stuff is a little much for me.

I'm enjoying a bottle of Sierra Nevada Torpedo extra IPA at the moment, and as a beer snob I have to say it's pretty damn good. Also, to whoever recommended Sol, I respectfully disagree.

You're golden bro. Help people who want to be helped when you can offer that help without detriment to yourself. Don't hide anything or be fake with anyone. You have the right to want whatever you want and the duty to try your best to get it; but your classmates will feel betrayed if you say one thing and act another. Thats not just whats expected in UPT, but for your whole career.

Apparently I need reading remediation because I totally glazed over the date. Face slap accepted.

How soon does this take effect? Can we sart the process immediatly?

These comments were made referencing the memo in the Al Udeid thread. If you don't think it's a double standard to direct a US military member to avoid eating during a certain time so as not to offend another US military member, I don't know what else to say. I don't have a problem being nice guests in another country and not blatently disrespecitng them while they're watching. I don't have a problem with a memo advising me on how to be sensitive stateside should I so choose (although not having one for every religion is another double standard) to other religions holy days. I do have a problem with the Deid policy stating I should alter my behavior to accomodate the religion of other military members. The conversation moved threads halfway and so may appear a little disjointed.

I think you're a sharp dude in other posts but you are wrong about this. I don't care whther or not their faith is "understood by the vast majority of Americans." That is irrelevant, and certainly not the job of the military to fix. Do you think there will be a GO letter advising Muslims to bring small gifts to the squadron in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ during Christmas? Think I'm even allowed to say Merry Christmas on base? Last year my base said we should only say "happy holidays" when in uniform to avaoid the impression that the AF endorses any one particular faith. Now these guys get a month off PT and a special letter explaining the importance of this time of year? I work on Christian holidays but Commanders are "encouraged" to give these guys time off for their evening meal? A deployed aircrew should avoid eating in the daytime if a muslim on their crew can see? Dude, if you don't see the double standard I can't help you. Religion should not be an official discussion item period. Why the hell should the military be "promoting communication" about religion? Our job is to win wars, not social engineering. If someone unknowingly or knowingly steps on my faith I STFU and focus on the mission; how can I be offended when someone doesn't honor something they don't believe? This is a double standard and it's bullshit.

No one here knows the answer because that world is too fluid to know what will be available to FAIPs 4 years from now. The floodgates briefly opened but the mass push towards those airframes is over and I don't see it coming back since they have enough for now. The best that I can tell you is that if you do well at whatever assignment you are given you will have a very good chance to go where you want on your second tour; and I'm speaking from experience. No one really knows if you have a better chance as a FAIP or MWS dude to get your top pick, it all depends on timing, your boss and your performance. Good luck, these jobs need guys like you who really want them. Edited to add-- if you can go anything AFSOC do it over anything else. It's easier to move you around inside the MAJCOM and you'll like anything you get.

I've spent several years trying to find the best glasses to fly with. Honestly, for night flights and especially with NVGs I actually like the issue glasses best. They are big and ugly and my wife won't let me wear them around her, but the truth is they fit comfortably under a helmet and I find the large dorky surface area of the glasses more functional when continuously looking through & under NVGs than a stylish pair of raybans. For day flights it really depends. You don't want to wear a polarized lens, and you want a frame that sits thin and close to your head and ears but doesn't distract you by putting weight on your nose. The issue glasses are ok for this purpose, but their great fail (other than a style fail) is the light allowed to come in from the sides. Theres a huge gap between the side of your head and the lens; light coming at you perpendicularly will simultaneously create a bright spot for your eyes and reflect off the inside of the lens, projecting an image of whatever is 120 degrees behind you on your lens. Great for ninjas but bad for pilots. I know some guys who mitigate this by wearing clear issue galsses and putting a visor down on a helmet, but this isn't always practical. It may work at UPT or if you fly fighters, but it won't work if you fly with a headset, obviously. Also, my helmet won't fit a visor so I can't tell you how good this technique is. If you want to spend your own money on a pair of prescription sunglasses that don't look embarassing and also functionally keep light from the sides I recommend finding a pair of plastic frame raybans. I've tried several brands and found what fits me best. You can't have too much of a wrap for prescription lenses and you don't want the frame to bend; so with that criteria in mind I'd just go to lenscrafters and try several pairs till you find what you like. So you know 202v3 says this about your question: 6.3.1. Spectacles. While performing aircrew duties, crewmembers must use only Air Force provided spectacles and sunglasses. The Improved Aircrew Spectacle (IAS), including sunglasses, is ordered as the Air Force Flight Frame. The HGU-4/P is authorized only if the IAS is unavailable. which means that technically you are only allowed to wear AF issue frames. No one cares in the real Air Force, but if someone is going to say some shit about you wearing a pair you bought it will be at UPT. So be aware and do it anyway. Hope this helps.

This might be the best post in this thread, and I didn't want it lost in the pages of shittin on TIB. TIB deserves to be shit on, but your post actually has a solution to the absurd argument that troops (or anyone) wants to see TIB as R&R. There are tons of great groups with good music who would make full use of the opportunity to tour overseas to a captive audience, and conversly there are tons of dudes overseas who would love to see a group of real musicians who don't humiliate the Air Force by prancing around like faggots at burning man. Like a lot of problems in the AF, rated CGOs would fix this quick!

This is good news for the fight.

+1 on the HK 45 or HKUSP 9. Both have been flawless for me. As for Glocks, I decided on the 34 which is like the 17 (9mm) but has a longer slide and barrel, and the accuracy after 1500 rounds is still equivolent to my HKs. I don't care for the grip angle as much, but their products have been reliable and accurate for me. I wouldn't compare them to the AK rifles, you can easu=ily put better iron sights on the Glock, but the AK leaves something to be desired from its irons. Overall the Glock 34 is a great weapon, cheap high cap mags, well built and never jams. I invested in a recoil buffer and Trijicon sights. I liek to shoot 9mm because its so much cheaper than .40 or .45 and I recommend every serious shooter does the same. hell I wish I had a .22 just so I could buy more ammo and shoot more.

That is the single most awesome CGOC story I have ever heard. Well played sir, well palyed.

People cry foul over the cost of the Raptor because there are cheaper things that would be more useful now that are not funded, and its easy to blame the funding void on the Raptor. Of course that is a foolsih postion to take. The real funding issue is our national leadership who want to attain certain military/political goals but are unwilling to pay for those goals. All this arguing between services and intra-service ultimalty is because we all want to do our part in protecting the nation but there isn't enough cash available to us. So this is the unfortunate political and fiscal reality we live in, where we argue amongst ourselves for the inadequet amount of money. Blame congress. I'm not against the Raptor at all, I don't know anything about air-to-air threats; but the guys who do say we need it. I trust their judgement. But I also feel a burning desire to help the 19 year old kid on a mountainside, and I think we should fund platforms that can accomplish this task now. And as previously stated, there is a finite amount of money available to us; consequently I think the priority should be supporting the Army now. I believe the fighter dudes who say we need more Raptors, but we also need to help the Army win our current war. I'm sorry we can't do both, but don't fault those who take my position as being short sided. I know we need to maintain air superiority 20 years from now, but I'm prioritizing the present over the future. Don't worry, my opinion doesn't mean shit anyway. I have't seen any "AFSOC is better than ACC" crap at all. The line guys don't give 2 shits about the who's balls hang lower argument, they just want to fly and fight. My backround is AMC so I have an aversion to beauracracy and maybe that same aversion is what you're picking up as an anti-ACC feeling. I don't know. I do know that AFSOC is the only place I've been where guys who want to hack the mish aren't actively discouraged by leadership. I don't care what MAJCOM buys a light fixed wing ground attack platform, I just think the Air Force should be ashamed that another service has found a way to provide a need for the warfighter from the air. Thats our sphere of responsibility, and the fact that someone else is coming into our house because we couldn't get our shit together and do it ourselves is shameful. If we start by agreeing on that point, then I'll concede the aircraft to any MAJCOM that will operate them effectively. But as a service we have to get in the game man, and it just looks like AFSOC has been more willing to do that than other MAJCOMs.

It's embarassing that the Navy is buying these before the AF. The perception is that we just can't seem to get our shit together and buy stuff the warfighters need. It's true that we're looking to the future as service, but we might be looking to far into the future at the expense of the present.

Maneuverability doesn't have a whole lot to do with evading manpads, and I personally don't consider an RPG a major threat against fixed wing. You'd have be very close to a shooter with an excellent eye for leading the shot. Besides, couldn't one manpad or RPG take down just about anything anyone on here flies given the right placement? It's a risk we accept.