viper154

I think the key there is hospitalized patients. Most patients that are hospitalized are elderly and/or other have health conditions, so they probably weren’t exactly fit to begin with. Small sample size, but I have several friends/co workers that have had the COVID, all either didn’t know they had it (except for a mandatory test coming back positive) or had mild symptoms and were back exercising within a week. To me, it just again emphasizes that people and businesses need to make the right choices for their situation. I’m in the camp of living as normally as possible. No one in my immediate family is anywhere near high risk, and we are not near elderly family. Our family engages in plenty of other “high risk” activities that are more likely to cause harm than COVID. Life is to short for us to hide in the house for something that most likely a non factor. I am all for the government “advising” what they think is best, but telling people (making laws/orders) how many guests they can have in their house is a step way to far. I have been to the hospital/doctor many times in my youth for injuries, every time the sky is falling and they want you to sit in bed until you are all better. From a medical stand point, sure, but from a practical/life stand point that isn’t always realistic. Unfortunately the medical field has been making policies for the law makers, with out to much of that common sense being intertwined, and a heavy dose of fear being thrown in. if the doctors had their way, no one would ride motorcycles, drink, play contact sports, etc. Do what’s best for you and live your life as you see fit.

If we run into each other walking out of the bx, ya, you salute, it’s the rules and you are in public for everyone to see. Dude runs to grab something out of his car after we brief up and we meet him in the squadron parking lot to step, no I don’t expect a salute. The rules say one thing, on the other hand our job is to be a crew to accomplish the mission and all come home alive, I am not going to bust someone’s balls over a salute, especially after working/living/eating/ etc together for weeks or months on end.

Wow, that was amazing. I really wish the History channel/Discovery channel did stuff like that and not the reality show bs they have evolved into the last 10-15 years.

I would recommend Garmin for smart watches. GPS capability is nice and they are more durable than Apple if you are a active person. Depending where you go they are issued in some operational squadrons. Most the things you need for OTS and UPT are going to be issued to you or aren’t really the best gifts. Booze is always a good go to. Once your graduate UPT there are a lot of cool things out there for gifts. Custom airplane models, custom watches, squadron/airplane posters and gear etc.

There are a lot of levels to this, but it’s overall culture problem in the Air Force and in society in general. As the article said, military service isn’t as appealing as it once was, and a lot of American youth aren’t even eligible for service. A lot of the motivated type A, willing to learn inner city youth dedicate a lot of their time to sports, as culturally that is viewed as one of the only ways out. These kids are smart, motivated, athletic, we need to find a way to reach these populations. (Not just the athletes, but I think they provide a larger pool). You hit the nail on the head with the chess club bs. We need to change our recruiting and our officer training programs. Trying to convince any youth to spend 4 years at the academy or in ROTC marching in circles wearing blues and folding shirts into perfect squares to (maybe) get a opportunity to fly is a tough sell(and that’s assuming we give them scholarships). Ya, there is OTS, but in the context of low income youth they probably aren’t going to have a 4 year degree. I don’t have all answers, but trying to only get 4.0 GPA “smart” cadets isn’t the best strategy to me. I get we aren’t the Army, but their ROTC program seemed to be a lot better structured than ours. While they were out in the field doing land nav, building shelters, learning weapons/tactics, we were in Blues marching in the gym and doing retarded GLPs bouncing balloons around and formatting Memos. I don’t give a shit how your memo is formatted, I’m probably not going to read it anyway. 99% of our force isn’t going to be on the ground running and gunning, but I think there is a lot more to take away from that training than marching and memos. When I’m flying around bum fuck no where, and everyone on the ground wants to kill me, I want a diverse crew/team (not talking skin color, I don’t give shit how much pigment is in your skin or what set of genitals you have). Having the 4.0GPA person brings something to the table, but so does the country boy who can live off the land and fix anything, the inner city kid that fought tooth and nail and has “street smarts”, the athlete, the immigrant, etc. Filling the rated ranks with people that checked the “chess club” box is a major contributing factor to the cultural/bureaucratic nightmare of a organization we have become.

As a tax payer I would be way more concerned with plenty of the other shit we waste money on before I got to flyovers. I’ve never done a flyover, but I’m willing to bet a paycheck I would learn 10x more from planning and executing one than I learn from the 69 million mandatory down days we take to talk about our feelings.

Both George Bush’s. You can debate “well regarded” but they both were President of the United States. John Glenn

Never had any bad experiences, I think I said this in here before, but I cut my rates in half going to Geico. USAA was charging me $150 a month for full coverage on two vehicles for myself and wife, both with clean driving records. Geico charges me $70 for the same coverage. USAA wouldn’t even attempt to match them so I left. I do have boat insurance through USAA who uses Progressive, they beat all the other competitors by far.

More of a debate than 3 people yelling at each other like last time. I think they both made some strong points and also had some short comings. I’m biased as well, but Biden has trouble speaking. I’ve never paid attention to any unscripted public talking he has done, (exception being the last few months) so I can’t say if it’s his age or he just always has struggled on the spot. He saved himself from saying anything to crazy but there were a lot of mumbles, pauses, and stutters. Trump did his standard 3rd grade level vocabulary stuff, “very great, very good, best ever” type stuff, talked about himself a bunch, and toned down his aggressiveness a bit. He did call Biden out about changing the topic to dodge a question and looking to the camera to do his “it’s about you Americans” bit, as well as being a career politician and never getting much done. I really wish Trump would take a public speaking class/expand his vocabulary and reference supporting documentation/sources/evidence more. It would make for stronger points and take his debating/speaking to the next level. Nothing really ground breaking on the topics discussed, pretty much “as filed”. Trump took a softer approach on climate change and backed Biden into admitting he wanted to eventually shut down the oil/gas industry. I thought it was a good move with some of the potential swing states oil/fracking industries, but at this point I don’t know if it was enough to change a vast majority of voters minds My best at a unbiased opinion, most people have decided who their voting for awhile ago, this debate didn’t come out with one clearly crushing the other. No major blunders, blows, or ground breaking policy announcements on either side, at least not enough to sway decided voters into the opposite camp. For the undecided folks, they are probably left picking a couple issues that matter most to them and going with the candidate that aligns with that. Edit to add, I don’t know how the timing was working out, but it seemed the moderator was giving Biden more opportunities and time to rebut Trump. Trump had to fight to get time to counter Biden, seemed like Biden was always just handed the opportunity.

I think it’s a safe bet he will do his best to implement more anti gun regulation. How successful he is will depend on several factors. Team blue will have to take both the Senate and Congress. If they succeed at taking the Senate they are going to need all of team Blue to vote the party line. In some swing states and highly contested areas this might not be a smart play for a future reelection. I would predict at least few members might not vote the party line depending on the bill. Next factor would be the Supreme Court. With a pending confirmation in the next week leaning the court to the right, I would predict the court would strike down any extreme anti 2A legislation. Caveat being, if team blue can pack the court. Biden/Harris ticket has refused/dodged to answer if they will pack the court, but that combined with this confirmation being “shoved down their throats” I would assume it’s a safe bet that’s their plan. There is also the standing law (1930s? I forget the name of the top of my head) that heavily restricted automatic weapons, suppressors and explosives requiring the tax stamp and all the other BS. That combined with the 1994 expired AR ban sets somewhat of a precedent. Ya, that statement is pretty misleading. No law requires shotguns to only hold 3 rounds. The act of bird hunting with a shotgun requires it to be plugged to only hold 3 rounds. (sts) There is no federal law prohibiting the amount of rounds a shotgun can hold for non hunting purposes. (At least that I’m aware of) Last I checked, shooting any person (not trying to cause life threatening harm to you or others) is illegal regardless of how many rounds your firearm has.

To your point of low income and food quality, it’s an excuse. It’s easy to eat unhealthy and cheap, no argument there, but it’s also not that expensive, or really that time consuming if you plan. The cleanest diet I ever had was in college getting into competitive body building and living with whatever my ROTC stipend was ($400-$500? I don’t remember) for food, gas, beer and whatever else I was buying. Buying food in bulk, looking for sales, coupons, finding different seasonings, etc, it’s very doable. I was eating a very healthy (2500 ish daily calories) high protein diet for a $200, maybe $300 a month (it was while ago) and only cooking once a week, for about a hour to meal prep. Cut the proteins down for average Joes nutrition requirements and substitute in healthy carbs and there is some more savings. With different seasoning and flavors a lot of what I made was pretty tasty too, not greasy pizza or Chik Fil A good, but we still try to cook healthy ish using some of my old recipes and my young kids eat it without protest. As to the rest of the health care topic, I think it’s one of our most complex and totally messed up issues we face. A lot has been addressed here, but the American diet and our activity levels are a major player. Our insurance scam of system is totally f’d up. You ever look at those statements of what Tricare is billed and what they actually pay? (It’s not just Tricare, it’s all the insurances) How medical practices bill seems criminal to me. Price gouging and over inflated costs in the medical field absolutely blow my mind. The sociology/psychology/economics is absolutely fascinating to observe as modern medicine has evolved. The human nature in us wants to keep our loved ones and ourselves alive as long as possible. But at what point is fiscally irresponsible? It’s not a easy topic to talk about, it’s easy to jump right to “money doesn’t matter, do whatever it takes” and that’s not necessarily wrong to think that way. It’s pretty understandable to think that way. On the flip side, does it make sense to keep yourself or grandma alive a extra couple years if it means it will take several generations for the family to fiscally recover? If you go down the socialized/mass subsidized route, how much can the tax payer coffers cover before it cripples the economy/government? Which leads to the discussion above about when Uncle Sam writes you off and wishes you luck. Regardless of who pays the bill, healthcare isn’t cheap. Even if we fix the “glitch” and get overall costs lower, they still are going to be expensive. Much like aviation, the operators are expensive, the equipment is complex/expensive in both initial cost, operating cost, and maintenance cost. Society as a whole is going to have to come to general consensus on this. In a lot of countries it seems government funded has been decided upon, and that works for them (there seems to be some regret depending on who you ask, example being the wait times in places like Canada and the EU) unfortunately the US system seems more jacked up than some of our first world friends. Disclaimer, I’m not here to start a internet fight, tell you my ideas are right and yours wrong, I have all the answers, or change your mind about your views (except the healthy eating one, totally doable on a budget). Just points/thoughts for everyone to ponder as we discuss the issue and move forward. 🍻 Cheers

Fair enough. I forgot people owned those 😎🍺🍺

How do you take a selfie in space suit gloves? Kinda sarcastic but I’m actually curious. Assuming they got some touch screen gloves as we have been transitioning to IPads for pubs?

It’s more about the back and forth. I have a decade worth of tan t-shirts, that are now essentially garage rags. (I’ll save some of the good squadron/morale shirts for the gym). No good reason for the change, besides some desk jockey needed a EPR/OPR bullet, and some general needed a job hook up at a supply company after his retirement.

I’ve just continued to wear the sand ones. Not a word has been said.

If Goose had det cord he would still be alive 🤔

I would not quit a well paying job without something else lined up. It’s going to take some time to get hired, and the pay at O-1 isn’t exactly cosmic, especially if you are accustomed to a QOL associated with a cushy engineering paycheck. Keep adding $$ to the bank, or make some smart investments, or fuck it, buy your own plane. Don’t over hype the pilot thing, don’t get me wrong, I love my job as a pilot, but on average I spend about 4-6 hours a week flying and 30-60 a week doing office work or someone else’s job that’s to incompetent or lazy to do it themselves. Granted, that’s on AD, I hear the grass is greener on the other side. My last piece of advice- “Money can't buy happiness But it could buy me a boat, it could buy me a truck to pull it, It could buy me a Yeti 110 iced down with some silver bullets“

Having a prior positive Covid test was disqualifying on one of the memos, I can’t remember which one it was, there were several from organizations, so depending on where you are going it may or may not matter. Only justification the peanut gallery sitting around the office could think of was that for some people COVID does some long term damage. I would assume if you were asymptotic or have no other issues you would be fine, but you know what happens with assumptions, especially in a government organization. Couple caveats, I got about 10 million things going on and most of this is way above my level, and probably the levels of most the people on here, just relaying what’s getting pushed down and info Im getting off of being CCd on these emails. Also, a lot of our guidance is coming from outside the normal big blue channels, as the people we work for and places we go don’t usually involve places with 12,000ft runways and 69,000 useless “support” bodies.

Probably want to sprinkle in a little something else as well just to be safe, but the fatter the better. I was talking with a non ops CC that had about 50% of his squadrons waivers get denied. There was no feed back on what caused some to get approved and some denied.

And have an MC rate in the single digits. I can’t imagine the wake turbulence would be very fun. In helicopter mode they are absolutely nasty. I avoid them like the plague. Team guys hate roping out of them, told us it was very unpleasant, they much preferred a standard helo. Maybe they aren’t as bad in airplane mode. They also are as reliable as $500 1985 350,000 mile craigslist add car that’s never had a oil change.

I really didn’t like this tax deferral. Only people it’s mandatory for are the people that have had a steady income stream the last 7 months and probably don’t need it. Even if you did need it, it’s going to be a sucker punch when you have to pay it back in 4 months. For us Os, I guess it’s not that big of deal, a couple hundred a month missing out of a pay check for a few months won’t leave must of us in a bad spot. It’s going to hurt the young Es that are already living paycheck to paycheck. I don’t foresee most of them tucking that extra money away to pay back in a few months. When those pay checks come up short come Jan, they are going to be pinched for money. Even if there is a red wave I don’t foresee any forgiveness legislation being passed in time to make a difference. How long has it been since we had a real budget and not a continuation bill, 10, 15 years?

Because a 5 gallon bucket full of muscle does in fact weigh more that a 5 gallon bucket full of fat. It’s pretty self explaining that a pound of something = a pound of something. You completely missed the entire point of the conversation to contribute absolutely nothing to be a smart ass. Break Break Follow up to the original poster-local policy given was that individuals must self identify their BMI, if they fall over 30 they are to get a in person assessment to get laser scanned or water tanked or whatever the process is to determine their true muscle/fat/bone composition. That report will then be submitted with other medical documents for a waiver. How your Med group handles getting the information and more accurate body composition numbers for the waiver seems to be up to individual med groups. Waivers get sent up to whoever handles those. Reports I’ve gotten are that people are getting denied if they are in fact “high risk”

You don’t say. 1lb=1lb. I would have never guessed.

Oh ya, he’s serious. Pretty much as he said, if you have a BMI over 30 you need a waiver to deploy, as some CDC study or something came out saying people with a BMI over 30 are more likely to have Corona virus complications. For the general population it might make sense, but for fit people BMI is a absolutely horrible indicator of over fitness. Hint hint, muscle weighs more than fat, and plenty of military folks weight lift. And ya, quarantine and airlift are still a total CF. Sorry folks, nothing really secret, If Danger41 needed more info I didn’t want to disclose deployment timelines and processes all over the webs, and a lot of the processes/waivers/tracking are pretty uncertain at this point so I didn’t want to spread bad info.

There was some guidance released last week, well “kinda“ guidance. We are trying to figure it out. PM me a .mil if you want more info.