outbreak

We avoided the hell out of them at Salem a couple weeks ago. Apparently they were pissed that they had to set up their own shit because we didn't have spare bodies lying around to do it for them.

I know where there are some seriously filthy Herks. Are these chicks for hire?

I didn't know karaoke was possible without large quantities of beer...

Nothing notable that isn't already posted.

Does this count as number three of the everything-happens-in-threes theory? Ted Kennedy, Jack Murtha, and Charlie Wilson? I don't know much about Wilson, but even so, since he was not a sitting congressman when he died, does it count, or are we waiting for another dirtbag from the Capitol to kick the bucket?

That is awesome...except for the S&W Sigma. Asses that hot need to be posed with better guns than the Academy Gun Counter Special there.

So, brave actions in the past outweigh your corruption, classless and dishonest actions in the future? I'll have to remember that. AMF.

I gotta go with no. Aside from having to figure out who is who, you run into other problems. How about Prior-E's who have been around the block, aren't SNAPish, but are in OTS or ROTC working toward a commission? Are we going to prohibit them from posting just because they decided to become O's and are in the training system?

Haven't decided if I'm doing Mustache March yet. I've had this animal on my upper lip for a couple months now, and planning on shaving it as soon as I get home. Haven't shaven it since I left home, and it's not going away till I'm back in my own bathroom. I haven't decided if I'm going to quit shaving again so soon after. The combat stache is, of course, horribly out of regs. I'm chewing on it now, as a matter of fact. I actually might be the only guy in the squadron to keep it for the whole rote, other than the one or two dudes who wear a stache year round.

I wasn't thinking about civie flying, but this is one of those didn't-realize-it-till-afterwards stories. I have a fresh commercial ticket, a complex endorsement, and a rental checkout at the local FBO. $100 hamburger time. So I take a good friend, who at the time was a student pilot, and we fly about an hour north for lunch, and fly back by the same route. All GPS direct, VFR, about 2,000ft to see the sights. I was too lazy to check NOTAMs for anywhere but departure and destination back then. We had a great flight, the airplane flew well, and we get back and start shooting the shit with some of the guys at the airport. One of them says, "oh, you went up to Lancaster. Did you see the balloon?" What balloon? "You didn't see the NOTAM for the tethered balloon 20 miles out of that field? Let's go take a look at it." So we go into the flight planning room at the FBO, find the NOTAM (Tethered balloon at RAD/DME from VOR at 2,000ft from this day to that day), and plot it on my sectional. I have no idea how I didn't hit it, muchless see it. TWICE! Went and bought a lottery ticket after that.

Too many consonants in that word.

When we call ground for clearance, we don't give a destination, just "tactical to the north." I wasn't on the crew, but I heard about it later, when a copilot gave their destination ICAO to the tower chief. Ground: Ooohhhh Crome XX, you tell me destination is Baghdad. I call Al Quaida. Five thousand dollars and I won't call them!

It's been a while since there's been one from that hilarious tower chief in SW Asia. Us: Tower Crome XX, parking Charlie row, mx requests we keep all four engines running (normally we gotta shut down outboards to taxi on charlie row) Tower: oh no no no. This is against rules. But I tell you, if you go very quiet, and sneak, maybe no one see you. -------- We're handed off from approach to tower. Tower: Crome XX, make downwind, runway 12 rrrriight Us: Downwind 12R Crome XX At this point, it's the copilots approach. It's VFR and he hits his normal downwind landmark, but we're coming from the opposite direction so he's unfamiliar. He angles the downwind toward the field and ends up overshooting his turn to final by about a mile. Tower: Crome XX, do you have the runway in sight? Us: Uhhh...Roger, Crome XX Tower: Ok, if you have runway in sight, clear to land with the gears down, runway 12 rrrright

According to the IP, and other pilots/FE's in my squadron, there's a possibility of cartwheeling the airplane into a flaming pile of aircraft grade aluminum.

Me, a 1st rotation C-130 nav in the desert. Co, a first rotation copilot, in the desert. Co's landing, outside the box. "50, 40, 30, 20, 10" mains touched, I'm still looking at the radar altimeter, and hear the IP on hot mic start yelling "fvck shit, MY FLIGHT CONTROLS!" Then I felt the nosewheel touch, then I heard the eng say "NOW you're clear back, all four." I didn't get scared until the pilot explained what happens when you go into reverse on a C-130 that isn't firmly planted on the ground. The co made it into ground idle before the IP started yelling.

I'll blame anyone who thinks its a good idea to wake anyone up at 2am in a non-emergency situation. That's freakin retarded no matter how you look at it or who you are. Car parked in the wrong direction is hardly an emergency. This is the kind of bullshit I avoid by living off base. I've lived on base, and I'll never make that mistake again.

The E's on my crew submitted a suicide prevention commercial. The FE is watching AFN, says "I... can't...take...anymore...crappy...commercials...", turns on an electric hair clipper, and goes for his own throat, at which point the Load reaches in, heroically saving the day, and, in perfect cue-card-reading monotone, rambles on about all the agencies Big Blue has to offer help, and that suicide is never the answer. It's probably a lot funnier if you know the crew and saw the video. We'll see if it airs during the Superbowl.

As a noob, I never knew what the acronym SNAP meant, but I figured if I hung around here long enough, I'd figure it out. Thanks for bringing this thread back and letting me learn some things. Based on the descriptions above, I don't think I'm a SNAP, but I know a few, from butterbars to full-birds. Now I have a label for them. One symptom I've noticed from these guys is that they talk about getting trashed, pushing it up, and how much they can drink all the time. When the beer light comes on, or everyone goes out on friday night, and the wives are there to drive all our drunk asses home, they never have more than two drinks, if any.

I'm a freakin Nav and I caught that. Fail.

Talk about throwing up! Around the 5:30 mark where they show all the excited audiences, I saw a couple guys from my squadron! I'm gonna have to have a talk with them.

If you kept your loadmasters happy, you would. They always send the hot chicks up to sit next to me. I've heard rumors from credible sources that in the 11-2C-5V3, there's something prohibiting loadmasters from securing obese pax with 5,000lb tie down straps.

I'm done beating my head against the wall with you AFSOC dudes. The guys I know in AFSOC are a lot more fun than you guys. I'm glad I'm a trash hauler. Looks like I'm not missing much in the Florida panhandle. And you have the beer DURING debrief.

nsplayr, you are obviously not familiar with the Beer Light/ Roll Call/ Hang at the Bar on Friday/ whatever it's called locally. As most have said already, it is not your duty to stay at work all night and get tanked. That's not what it's about, though it has been done. It's not about mandatory fun. The way ours is structured is that around 1530 on a friday (well within normal duty hours) everyone goes to the bar, roll is taken by each FLT/CC or someone, and those who choose to imbibe crack a beer (usually we bring a half a beer in with us and crack number 2 by the time roll call is complete. ymmv). The commander starts it off, rarely with serious business, people tell flying stories from the week, for the rest of us to learn from, maybe someone tells a funny story, or an old war story. Those who bring serious work-related announcements are fined. This all lasts about 30 minutes. Then...DEUCES! Go home! You're out of work by, the latest, 1600 on friday. So after all this mandatory fun, taking extra time out of your awful, tiresome work day, and fortunes from your coffers, you still get to punch out early.

Saw this article a week or so ago. I'm glad to hear about the French in a positive light. I agree with Slacker on the jokes. Here's my issue with this article: Great OPSEC, Frenchy. "I won't tell you who these people are, but they're the same guys who were in this really really famous TV series, about WWII, and they used to be called Easy Company. But I can't tell you who they are because of military secrecy."

My squadron doesn't have a bar...but we're building one! Somewhere in the midst of a shitstorm in my Sq, the temp leadership decided to turn the room with some tables and a long counter-top back into a squadron bar, instead of the study/computer/daycare/wive's club room it has been since I arrived on station. Funds were raised before we stepped out the door, real plans had been drawn up (the DO had them hanging in his office, for discussion/recommendation from all of us) and we were having frosty fridays with mandatory attendance ($1 to the bar if you were absent without a reasonable excuse, like flying or leave). A recent email from my FLT/CC said they were actually building stuff in there. The plan is to welcome us home from the desert with kegs in the new Squadron Bar. Before this, every flight room was a bar after about 1500. The fridges were always stocked by the newbies in the shop, and as long as we weren't walking around the squadron with a beer, the leadership promised that we wouldn't get any flak for it. After a flight, drop the bags, grab a beer to take to debrief. All this in an airlift squadron. Take THAT fighter guys!