GKinnear

Same here...but it begs the question: if military service is allowed, why can Kinzinger (and others) in the Reserve serve in Congress and Airmen on Active duty not? I'm sure there's a valid reason, I'm just too tired to look it up.

Add the II MEF Information Group to my informal list of official DoD PA Twitter accounts overreacting. https://meaww.com/us-marine-corps-under-fire-for-saying-they-messed-up-after-pregnant-remark-to-tucker-carlso If I had seen the DoD IO enterprise act in a similarly coordinated effort against Iran shenanigans when they were planting mines and boarding vessels in the AG, or firing drones/cruise missiles against allies in the the area, I might not have such a large soapbox right now. This was a constant source of agitation with CENTCOM leadership at the highest levels. I try to keep a principle that the DoD (and all Federal Gov agencies) shouldn't single out a private US citizen on purely political stances. We have Congress to do that and they ultimately have to answer to the voters. Again, on the topic of saying "we've got our female Airmen/Soldiers/Sailors/Marines back" is fine and admirable...but this ain't it Chief. Exit thought: give credit to the II MEF IO Group for acknowledging that they act in a manner that fell short of the standard professionalism...although I may keep "get right before you get left Boomer" in my arsenal with some contractors.

I just noticed that I've apparently broken through the "Fuck" barrier! WINNING!

Let me say this first: I support diversity & inclusion. Some of the best officers and commanders I know aren't white males. Pick a race & sex combination and I've served with them. Personally, I'm also an advocate for girls in Boy Scouts of America and had all three of my daughters in BSA programs for the last decade...nothing against Girl Scouts, I just like the BSA programs (Boy Scouts, Venture Crews, Explorers) better. Now...I think both sides have missed the point. POTUS was at the ceremony for the 2x women 4-Star Combatant Commander. Of course his speechwriter, like all speechwriters, was going to throw in something with wide-spectrum relevancy, so highlighting the pregnancy flightsuit and other uniform changes was on there. Based on the speed of government efficiency, I'm assuming that development started under the Trump administration. If you watch the entire segment, not just the Twitter clip, Tucker was making a comparison to China, which is going through the same issues the US is...and in a potential response, built up their navy to over 350 ships. So Tucker, an opinion show, missed the point and tried to connect two data points that aren't directly obvious to fit his particular narrative. Who at MSNBC, CNN, print media hasn't done that? But...so did SecDef and the rest of the Senior Military Leaders who commented. Or at least over-reacted IMO. It seemed like thy were punching down to me, and I'm not sure they would have been better off keeping their powder dry...but the reaction above "Fuck this elite, pandering piece of trash" seems to be the GO#1 for both sides of the aisle. Everyone has their Ego involved and no one is willing to realize they aren't 100% correct. Critical thinking has been abandoned. Again, this is just my opinion, but by responding so aggressively to this Tucker story, it's made it emotional on both sides of the argument. Every advancement for diversity in the ranks will be met with comparisons to China's growing military power. Every question will in-turn be viewed through the lens of regressive, "Neanderthal" thinking and disregarded and attacked. A question for the SecDef, @17D_guy, and every one who agrees with him...did you have as much vitriol over RPA crews being called "baby killers" when they were listed as killing 1,700 civilians/400 kids? https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/us-has-killed-thousands-people-lethal-drones#:~:text=According to the Bureau of,400 of whom were children.

Whoa...holy shit dude...a NSFL warning. Death on a battlefield is one thing...that was something else entirely.

And from what I've heard, as soon as they announced they were looking into NAFs, everyone knew the game was rigged.

Well, the PACER CRAG article for KC-135s in the late 90's said almost the same thing. We'll see if they mean actually re-trained through UPT as pilots or more of a long-term billet shuffle. I'm betting there will be less re-training than you think.

Congrats!

This and what @MCO said about getting little out of it...I'd actually take it one step further and completely revamp PME and form a partnership with a 3rd party university (brick-and-morter school or online). Have some core classes to learn AF history/strategy planning applications, but the rest would be a list of elective classes under several umbrella topics...leadership, counseling, strategic writing, etc. The idea is to make the experience beneficial to the USAF and the Airman, vs the forced hazing and stat padding for the chosen few. Oh, and if forced to keep in-residence PME...you should only go once in your career. We currently lose 2+ years for HPO Patches for glorified admin. Not the best use of our talent.

If I were king for a day, I'd cancel all in-res PME and move to a purely online/correspondence system. The cost-benefit analysis supports that decision from a pure financial one (no more PCS, TDY, travel costs) and a manpower one (uh, Pilot Shortage anyone?), as well as break the strangle hold of the self-licking ice cream cone that are the "selects" and "DGs". I think COVID lockdowns are exposing the paradigms society at large have been stuck in and we need to re-evaluate what fits in a new "internet of things" reality. Unfortunately, I think it's self-licking that gets all the attention from Big Blue. That's an intentional word choice, btw...

To be fair...the MQ-9 won't see it either

Maybe my own bias got me. When I see "deployment" and "CT" in the same sentence, I immediately assume the sandbox. I'll add a caveat that the AF fights the JS on CENTCOM deployments...sometime successfully, sometime not. Why are they fighting going to the desert, so they can go to Europe and Asia. I guess the things change, the more they stay the same.

You'd be surprised about how much HAF/ACC actually pushes back against the Joint Staff...but we all have a boss, even at that level. JOINT is spelled ARMY so we're fighting a cultural battle in some regards.

Do nurses also take the Hippocratic oath? "Do no harm" is an overly simple summary of the oath, but the post in question seems at odds with the professional standards. What may have been at first well intentioned is giving people delusions of grandeur.

It's the watered-down JP-8 they're selling...surprised the engines can achieve ignition

Here's the Stripes article on it: https://www.stripes.com/news/us/stop-movement-orders-for-troops-civilians-to-extend-past-may-11-esper-says-1.626069 Money quotes: "However, the defense secretary said travel restrictions and other measures implemented to mitigate the virus’ impacts would be reviewed every 15 days. That will allow him “to see if we can curtail it sooner or if we need to extend it further,” he said." “June seems to be about where we’re going to level, and then July and August look to be — potentially — recovery months,” Goldfein said April 6. “I could be totally off, but that’s what we’re planning for right now.” We're all trying to pace ourselves at my location...I've got an Airmen who's single luckily caught up in his PCS to a NATO assignment. All his goods were shipped the day before the STOP MOVEMNT order dropped. At least we're in a small housing market so his house hasn't sold yet and he's banking per diem.

We skipped the O-4 board for an entire year in 2014 or 15. Command selections may have to be rethought, but we've already set the precedent to delay a pole-year milestone. Also...I think it's now at 28 years

So, what's the over-under on when all Summer PCS moves are canceled? Slight disagreement with Bashi...shit's already retarded

Tank, check the date...April Fools was 2 days ago

Hopefully the out-and-backs for lunch at Freebirds aren't stopped

The Human Performance Team (HPT) in the MQ-9 enterprise is a great support mechanism for the Pilots, SOs, and Intel. It's modeled similar to Medics and Psychs in the SOF world. The mental and spiritual pros are have the same clearances as the operators and make regular walk-thrus during ops for site visits. You can see the visible change in someone when they realize that it's ok to talk to someone, that they can find a room in the SCIF and just really open up about the stress to someone.

What's the status of the $5 beer word for the Hon. Senator from Arizona...still a thing or nah?

Needs more cowbell

Point of order: RPAs aren't disposable aircraft. However, I acknowledge that a downed RPA has a different set of secondary/tertiary effects. If policy makers slap the table, I'll salute and march out smartly.

Performance ranking reduces meritocracy... "Many of us have given in to “adopt and adapt” at some point in our careers, and not always comfortably. You’re sitting in front of a manager for an annual review, thinking: well, how’s this going to work? The manager in question is universally regarded as average, but he’s the one that gets to rate you, and the shortest path to a better ranking is probably to follow his advice." Link: https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/maybe-you-shouldn-t-follow-the-leader Study: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.191255 Common gripe in the OPR / EPR threads is the strat methodology and favor given to the junior O's who conform earlier to the game. I'm not sure the authors fix, serendipity (fancy word for luck), is any better due its unpredictable nature...but it's refreshing to see a study confirming my preconceived notions. Post could have gone in the Promotion thread just as easily