tac airlifter

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.

I know there are some good guys in the missle field because I had the pleasure of meeting some of them at SOS. I'm not being sarcastic, the guys in my flight were great. So why is the career field dominated by people who think this madness you describe is normal? Are they attracted to the job or is that just the culture that thrives in your career and they turn that way to succeed? Also, do you missle guys think things would be better if the opportunity to crossflow was easier?

Q3 for a 1-2 knot overspeed? That is the most absurd thing I've heard in a long time. The second most absurd thing is writing it up at all. I oversped the ramp and door by about 3 knots a few years ago. I landed and told MX what happened, wrote it up, watched them conduct the inspecdtion and bought them a case of penalty beer. When all was said and done the FE who I respected said "Sir, do what you want but I'd call 3 knots gauge error." Additionally most MX dudes won't even conduct an inspection for a gust that momentarily pushed the airspeed needle around.

Yep, that confirms my stereotype of missile dudes.

Thats a gateway into a long conversation. I agree with you that it gets deep in the weeds, but at the same time thats not a bad thing for a yearly refresher. When I flew 130s I got pretty nit-noid about knowing all I could, partly because I did in fact find myself at several unique locations where that knowledge helped; but also because the more you know the more confidence you have, and that confidence helps me fly better. Maybe its just me, but when I step to the aircraft with the feeling that I know my shit cold, I just end up performing better. Having said that I totally understand why a Viper guy doesn't care about NDB intercepts or low close in obstacle TERPs criteria. I'm suprised they don't let you guys take the test with the non -16 info filtered out. I'm still getting used to the single engine mindset, but it definitely makes calculating climb gradiets easier; you can either make what is published or you can't, end of story. no SDPs no subtracting from OCS, etc. And in your case you can probably always make the climb, so who cares about the stuff that doesn't apply to you? It's just more brain bites you can save for mission memory items that matter.

Individual testing here so each person has to look up everything. It's really not that hard once you're familiar with what type of information is located where, which I'm sure you are. Truthfully it's a decent refresher since e-pubs was allowing me to be lazy.

Welcome to the forum. Signs are not considered equipment which is probably why your web search failed. I googled "ground support equipment signs" and the fouth link down was this that includes several companies who make the product you requested.

Top speed is irrelevant if you've already been loitering on station following the action. The idea here is they stay on station and follow the mission for several hours instead of leaving after 60 minutes to hit a tanker. And when it's time to rearm and refuel you can position support assets anywhere with a dirt road and this thing will land and be serviced, then immediatly be back in the fray; no need to return to a MOB. If I were the dude on the ground I would much rather be covered by a platform that is flexible to my needs, regardless of what it looks like. The Iraqis will be well served by this aircraft.

Taking my yearly test and unfortunatly AFSOC does not allow the use of e-pubs for testing. Not a huge deal and I've looked up all but one question. I'm looking for the online question bank accessible from a non .mil computer. Anyone know where I can locate this info?

What base? I've lived on three so far and they all allowed me to keep guns in my house provided they were registered with SFS. And if you are looking at AR's I highly recommend the LMT piston. It's pricey but a great weapon and LMT does have military contracts and a great reputation.

Good on you for at least helping the guy look. It's a bummer to lose something like that anytime but especially starting the rotation, and if nothing else at least he remembered you guys cared enough to help. I was at the end of a long day a few years back carrying pax into Balad. Last offload of the night and we were exhausted. After shutdown while I was cleaning up the forms my load found a very expensive digital camera in the back. We decided to check the pax terminal just in case someone from our last offload forgot it. Well, after some looking and asking it turns out that we did find the chick who lost it; she was actually getting onto a C-17 for Germany going home on emergency leave for a child who had just been killed, and the camera had her most recent photos of her late son. I was very proud that my load had the integrity and the energy to do the right thing with no reward and its one of many experiences I've had that makes me proud to be around the guys I work with. I put him in for ML of the quater or something of that nature but unfortunatly he didn't get it.

My wife was riding her bike on a bike trail here tonight and got pulled over by SF troops. Apparently you must wear a reflective belt at night while riding a bike on Hurlburt. Nevermind that the bike itself has reflective surfaces screwed on, or that she was on the sidewalk/bike trail and therefore not in danger of coming into contact with a car. And nevermind that forcing her to walk the bike home in the dark made her feel unsafe and uncomfortable walking through the pitch black alone. Stupid SF and stupid faggoty base rules.

You assumed correctly. Sarcasm doesn't come off well on the interent, and I don't know anyone who would actually do that. It's an expression. Everyone chill.

One less worthless leader! I also worked for him at OKAS in 2005. My favorite was when he made us all room up so the C-17 guys who were doing 2 week TDYs could have hard billets instead of tents. At the time chicks flying 130s still got their own room if there was not another girl on their crew to bunk with. (a policy I agree with) Since this fact resulted in an extra guy without a roomate, usually the AC got a room to himself. But after the policy shift to get 17 guys out of the tents the AC had to room with an AC from a different crew creating crewr est nightmares. His answer? Anyone who complains can take their entire crew to a tent for 120 days. So we put herc dudes in a tent for their whole deployment to make room in the hard billets for C17 guys doing 14 days. Not to down the 17 guys, since I think this was forced on them so he could have an OPR bullet; but their life support gear was tea-bagged as a result. The whole thing was later resolved but for a period of time his lunacy prevailed.

Please elaborate, I fail to understand the significance of this.