afnav

I will wear my blues on 15 September as ordered by my four-star boss at STRAT. I will wear them along with members of all four services, who will also be in their own service uniforms. We will all wear them once a week. I will wear my service hat because I have always thought it was far more professional-looking, and far more military-looking than a flight cap, especially one that has spent a lot of time in a flight suit pocket. The first time I wore my blues outside of formation, I wore it. That was in 1987 at BMT. I will have plenty of company, particularly from my Navy coworkers, who will wear their service hats. That picture I saw years ago of Skeletor wearing a flight cap when the other chiefs were wearing wheel caps was burned in my mind forever. It screamed, "I'm not one of you guys". I will wear my low quarters until the cold weather and snow hits Nebraska, and then I will wear my flight boots. I refuse to go through a foot of snow that was not plowed in the parking lot a quarter mile from my building just too "conform" in my Corfams. I will not wear my ribbons with my badges, since the thought of the pins on my wings digging into my clavicle does not sound comfortable. It certainly isn't because I'm not proud of them. I grew up in a world where ATC (not AETC) instructors were required to wear their ribbons in blues. I thought it looked sharp then, and I think it looks sharp now. There are limits to practicality. I will wear my blues because my service chief tells me to do so. I'll be a military professional until the day my service tells me to get out (31 Jan 12). Then I'll be a civilian professional creating TPS reports. This board serves a very important purpose. It allows unofficial conversation on topics important to all of us. Sometimes it contains bullshit, but that's okay. For those of us who are not around aviation anymore, and miss the life, it keeps us in touch with those who do. Cherish it while you have it. It will always be okay to bitch on the flight deck or in the flight room with the doors closed. Then, come out and do your jobs. I think most of you do. Those of you who can't stand some crewdogs sounding off on what in the past has been a misguided policy in the comfort of our own forum, you sir, are not a crewdog.

Latest word from STRAT is that ALL services will have to wear a service uniform on Mondays starting on 15 Sep. If an Air Force general can do that here, I guess the other COCOMs will have to do it, too, especially if they are at an Air Force installation. I wonder if this is any indication that all the services are going to jump on the Air Force bandwagon.

The Navy aviators in my building wear flight suits and only flight suits. Not one of them in my office has a flying job, and almost all will never fly again. I plan to wear all ribbons and full-size badges (3) with wheel cap and flight boots on Monday. FIGHT THE POWER!

The last time they pulled this shit (it only lasted around two months or so in 2004, I think) I wore my flight boots and my wheel hat with the short sleeve shirt/tie combo. It pissed off the leadership, but I think I got my point across. I got a ton of grief from our Navy aviators the one time I had to wear BDUs to the office. One even sent for more flight suits for me from his closing S-3 unit. This will be the ultimate in humiliation. The Army, Navy, and Marines in our building will be laughing their asses off at the Air Farce trying to be 'different' again. Above All...

As a rated guy at the joint staff, I can give you some perspective on this subject. I was a late-rate, and really late escaping the cockpit for a staff tour. I was going to an ALO command tour, but nepotism prevented it, and instead I ended up at STRATCOM. It ended up being worse than if I had gone anywhere else, or had stayed in the cockpit. When I got to Offutt, airplanes were "out of vogue" with the leadership. Obviously, computers can do as much damage, if not more, than a fleet of aircraft. Therefore, non-rated types ran the creation of LeMay. I was thrown into a poorly-managed shop that did not call for any rated expertise whatsoever, and I was promptly passed over, while two overweight non-rated females were given DPs. I was then sent to an area that needed bomber experience and knowledge, but was never given any work to do. Individuals in leadership positions made crucial staffing decisions whose only flying experience was on Midwest Airlines flying to Reagan. After the Minot nuke screw-up, anyone that had ever even seen a nuke became a hot commodity. With bomber and ICBM experience, I was in demand by organizations inside and outside the building, except for the directorate I was residing in. I made up for the lack of nuke experience everywhere else. An internal shakeup has sent me to deal in nuke ops full time. Being the first AF rated officer assigned in over a year, I am constantly bombarded with questions and staffing requests. A navy S-3 NFO and navy E-6 pilot are writing critical nuke documents governing a huge chunk of our forces, and admit they don't know anything about bombers and tankers. Back in my old shop, they hired a civilian comm guy and a retired weather guy to handle BOMBER requirements. One of them called me up and asked me, "what do bombers use their radios/BLOS systems for, and are they really important?" These are the guys that will be staffing the global strike requirements for STRATCOM. No, really. I couldn't make that shit up. From my experience, the other COCOMs are not much better. The FORCE APPLICATION (blow shit up) guy at EUCOM had no idea what a JASSM was. Seriously. He said he only dealt with the "non-kinetic" area, and they didn't have any rated guys in their shop. There are non-rated guys making decisions about airplanes that have no knowledge on the subject, and are either too arrogant or too stupid to seek out the truth. I could go on and on, but you probably get the picture. If you are assigned to the staff, unless you know someone at the HQ, you very well may be thrown in a broom closet and forgotten. If you come early enough, you might be able to leave prior to your O4 or O5 board. If you are coming up for promotion, you could very easily get screwed by people (civilian and military) that do not care about you, and don't care that they ruin someone's life. For the guys still in the cockpit, be careful about wanting a staff job too much. I no longer have the retainability to fly, and may have to stay here for a six-year tour instead of three. People die in this building. I'm not kidding. There are defibrillators everywhere. You might get passed over at the wing, but at least you will be able to go into the guard or reserve after you're done. I wanted to go be an ALO after I retire at 20, but if I never leave STRAT, they have already told me they will not hire me. If you like flying, stay away from the staff. Plenty of people have made O5 without it. Just my two cents...

Actually, the Army used blue uniforms from 1776 to 1962, according to that website. They are really going back to their roots. Since the Air Force always has to be different, maybe they will change to gray. I can color-coordinate with my ancestors.

Those are the same pictures I saw. I can't believe they recovered that aircraft.

Great thread idea. I'm used to being the only AF flier in my office, and constantly being asked questions that I can't answer by my colleagues. I hope you guys don't mind more than one at a time. - The A-10 performing at the Offutt airshow last Saturday was performing fake gun runs on the infield. Every time he simulated his burst, he quickly raised his nose, lowered it again just as quickly, and then commenced his turn. Does this have anything to do with avoiding the smoke cloud coming out of the barrel? - Do the -135 derivative aircraft equipped with the CFM-56 engines have an automatic system that pulls power back on the opposite engine if thrust is lost on one side? - Will ALL KC-135E models be permanently grounded in October, or will there still be some flying until they transition to the R-models? Thanks in advance.

Has anyone heard anything about a P-3 almost crashing at Whidbey this summer? I saw pictures of its wing, complete with 45 popped rivets and the wing spar torn like paper. I don't know too many details, but they said that plane was done.

The level of 'suck' is unprecedented since the fall of SAC. The problem is that they are still trashing the people with the knowledge. The only thing that will bring me back as a civilian is a crap-ton of money.

As a former missile crewdog, this is nothing new. It was one of the topics that was understood and never discussed. Kind of like saying the 'F' word during a flight. Pulling missile crew was not fun 14 years ago, and I doubt it's any more fun now. I'm not unnecessarily defending them, but most people don't ask for missiles in training. I sure as hell didn't. Back in the day, the phone could wake you up. The printer was quiet enough that you could miss something, which could be dangerous. Alarm 1 would definitely get your attention. Alarm 2 could make you shit your pants. What is new is opening my usual (unclassified) news websites and reading about it. My theory is the current 'nuke fad' running rampant since the Minot ACM incident has every piece of dirty laundry coming out of the bin into the public spotlight. It's amazing what interpreting "Payload - checked." as "random casual glance" can do to the Defense Department. If you screw one thing up, the evaluator will start looking and probably find shit. The Air Force has been on a role for almost a year now, with more than a handful of career Q3s.

The only crewman I knew was Chris, and he kept me on my toes in CCP class. I can't tell how many times I got that stare (like the one in the photograph they released) when he didn't understand something I was trying to emphasize. He really did have everything in one sock, and had a lot of confidence. I remember a couple of them from my visit down there a few months ago, but I had to see their pictures to remember a couple of them. I'm certainly not implying anything, but my worst fear is a late ejection decision. The 'you are your own seat commander' step was put in the checklist for a reason - the seats are old and the envelopes are small. I remember I had at least one hand on the trigger ring and my head back in the headrest on a few occasions, but I can honestly say I'm not sure what would have driven me past my 'comfort zone' to go through with it. It's probably not discussed enough. I'm sure it will be now. I'll never forget the video the copilot who was on the 1991 crash off Diego Garcia made years ago that was shown to us in navigator training. That generation is retired or at the O-5/O-6 level now, so they can rarely pass on the important safety nuggets to the younger crewdogs on the urgency of what may be the most important decision of you life. That group dealt with a fair number of accidents, whereas there hasn't been a mishap since 1994, long before I started flying the BUFF. I don't know if another checklist change will be enough.

God, that ######-nugget is still there? How many times do you have to be busted for hookers/drugs/corruption before you're incarcerated and can't run for office anymore?

Can someone with some "cyberwings" please turn this guy's power off? ######sticks like this need to be deported to Iran or Venezuela to join their own kind.

I wondered what those honeycomb-shaped things looked like close-up. When you're looking at them from 30k through the EVS, you don't get the full effect of their appearance.

I have a Ruger bull barrel that's 20 years old. It shoots very well, and with the weight up front, it's a tackdriver.

Many years ago, back in the OEF/OIF days, my crew was preparing to deploy on one of many trips to PSAB. I was bringing a brand new nav for his overwater qualification on the E-3. He was normally very calm and professional, but at the tail end of mission planning day I asked him if he was concerned about anything. He said he was Jewish, and was worried that the Saudis might somehow find out. In all my years in the Air Force, Keith was the first Jew I had ever met in the Air Force, at least the only one who had told me. I agree with the above post about commonality. Not many out there.

Flight deck guys didn't have callsigns in the mid to late 90s. That was strictly goat shit. We also proudly wore non-graduate FWS patches. They also played crud at the O'Club, with their scarves wrapped around their heads so we never went. We never wore scarves, either. My flight commander bailed me out for my callsign in BUFFs. I could have ended up with one a lot worse.

Anyone have any gouge on Red Cloud? Osan and Red Cloud are on my list of potential assignment screwjobs in a couple of weeks.

There went someone's mail... My father, who works in the aviation risk management business, told me a long time ago to walk away if I ever have to get on a rotator run by Kalitta Air. He said they have one of the worst safety records in the industry, not necessarily by the number of crashes, but by unsafe maintenance practices.

I had a friend who did an ALO tour at Wheeler. Hawaii is rife with crime. Living on base would probably be the best bet, but if you don't have options, research would be essential. From what I've heard, that place is as gun-friendly as Illinois.

It's changed at least four or five times since I came in. I still remember the DCM as God. Considering the non-rated, support types have almost a ten percentage point advantage to O-5 over ops, they will just have to live without my sympathy.

The "regional" bomber is alive and well. Stay tuned...

God, not again. When someone gets it, please post (or PM) memorial information and ways to help the families. I really appreciated that information for Blair and his student (Columbus crash last week).

Happy Birthday, Blair. I miss you, brother.