GearMonkey

I think I just threw up a little in my mouth. I'm not sure what is worse, the fact that the instructor isn't even pretending to do his/her job or that you had to cheat to pass a TUI class. The Air Force really should put a blank space for institution next to the yes/no AAD box on the promotion forms.

It means, evil, murdering, all like you said! And it will save you money!

True. I failed the circles while at Laughlin and got to do about six other tests and passed them all just fine. The minute you failed the circles they should have sent you to the eye doc to do the more detailed and accurate tests. At a minimum they should have checked your eyes and had you redo the circles with any prescription that they found you needed. Check AFI11-248 and the associated AFPAMs which describe how to administer a flight physical. These should detail the follow-on tests that they are required to give you.

That is more in line with what I expected. The single squadron bases typically started off with 12 or 13 but may have gained some along the way. Not sure why Hickam is an outlier on the low side.

That seems really high unless they're counting the WIC jets which actually belong to McChord.

AMC hands out a fatigue pamphlet that mentions this (It's something like one day off for every three or four time zones crossed) but it isn't an official instruction or regulation. The best part is that every factor it mentions that negatively impacts sleep patterns is essential to AMC operations. Bottom line, if you want proper time off to adjust to time zone changes in AMC you'd better find yourself a fighter drag.

WG/CC at KTCM told us today that 28 of 40 (70%) were selected. He didn't know if that was common across the MAJCOM or USAF and hadn't had a chance to look for similarities among the 12 non-selects. Anyone else hearing numbers in anticipation of the board results? There are a lot of nervous people out here after that bomb was dropped.

Passed the test or "passed" the test? I don't want to pry but it could be important for future readers and, more importantly, could provide some valuable perspective on the pissing match that occurred above. Knowing if you passed because you had a better understanding of what they were asking you or because you guessed correctly about what they expected you to say would help others judge the caliber of the disparate advice provided above. Either way congratulations. You've made it over the major hurdle (the higher weed-out standards) and it will be infinitely easier to maintain your medical clearance from now on.

I'm far more impressed with the 80 million pounds than the 5 acre DZ. I guess the actual iCDS and JPADS number weren't sexy enough to mention and regular airdrop is too boring for its own article. Hopefully the next technological leap will be a DZO who can properly call winds and give a complete strike report. That'll be the day.

How'd the surge go last month? I can't imagine a 200-300 percent increase in daily sorties sustained for 2-3 weeks was particularly easy.

Based on my experience (6-7 years ago now) those are the only references out there. The only mention of ETPs I ever saw was the age waiver reference in the 48-123. This tells you (sort of) how to submit the ETP but doesn't offer much further detail. I suspect this is done on purpose to weed people out and decrease the workload for USAF/HQ and USAF/SG. Basically the ETP consists of a SSS (look in the T&Q) with a variety of attachments. I wrote a memo explaining my case, included letters of support (from my chain of command, former PASs, my Congressman), and provided extensive medical documentation (exam results, letters from civilian doctors/specialists, and copies of the less stringent standards used by the Navy/Army/FAA). It took about six months for the ETP package to work up the chain and get approved. Hope this info helps. I think that already being at UPT will be helpful since it is cheaper to keep you there than PCS you again.

I agree with sixpack. . . it's a $10 million computerized version of our previous checklist insert which, in turn, was a graphical version of the 2,000-4,000' below max altitude rule of thumb for peak efficiency (in the C-17 anyway). The problem is that the more advanced features require a lot of data we don't have access to without becoming pests on the radio (i.e. hey guys, whats the wind and temperature down there?). With better flight management and weather service (Ha!) it could be a helpful tool but for now it is another hassle for my already busy crew.

I wonder what they would do if the next uniform board got 13,000 suggestions allowing rated folks to wear "morale shirts" and MEO/SARC compliant morale patches. As for the sleeve roll we could go on the offensive and try to make it illegal in ABUs outside the AOR. We may be shooting ourselves in the foot but at least we'd get to mess with the shoes a bit.

This is a actually a brilliant idea. We can walk around the concentration camp with our shirts untucked, glasses on top of our heads, no socks, and no reflective belts. In no time we'll get Chiefed or Desert-Douched. When we are we congratulate the dumbass and give him/her a merit. Lather, rinse, repeat. The shoes will get extremely excited about this and run off to show their precious 341s to the other desk jockeys and/or "leader"ship. In a perfect world the merits would get lots of attention (chain of command atta-boys, Desert Eagle articles, etc.) until someone finally figures out it is a joke and the whole herd is humiliated. This should buy us at least a week or two of flagrant D&A violations and plenty of entertainment along the way.

AIB report makes me wonder if there were any close calls at previous airshows.

Aeromedical Consultation Service. They're the folks who deal with the more exotic waivers.

Any idea if the ACS is on a similar timeline?

If they build stadiums like they build cadillacs they should be ready for the 2022 tourney in about 2096.

Memo is attached. Upon further review the briefing is two days prior rather than three. That is sill a pretty tough standard to meet. Now that I re-read the details it seems any WG/CC or CV mission must first be briefed to the OG/CC or CV to ensure everything is up to snuff. Basically this means two full mission briefs prior to the actual mission brief on fly day. I agree that Smokey is legit. I doubt he had anything to do with this policy and I'm pretty sure the OG didn't either. The worst part of all this is that there are some pretty awesome O-6s out there. I flew with the UAFM OG/CC a couple times this summer and he was a total crewdog. He helped drag bags, served as a wing walker during a push-back, and was spread-eagled on the cargo floor at one point trying to fix a broken ADS rail with the MX folks and the Loadmasters. Memo.pdf

A couple weeks ago Charleston came out with a new policy that requires the following when flying with WG & OG leadership: - Crew BIOs submitted in advance. - AC and SQ/CC brief flight (local or mission) profile to the WG/CC or OG/CC three days prior. - AC meets/salutes WG/CC or OG/CC at the aircraft door. - No "excessive" FLIP or PRO gear allowed in the cockpit or crew rest area. Today I stopped by AFE and discovered that several new VIP shelves have been added to the front lobby so the brass can get their gear 6.9 seconds faster than the rest of us. I wish I'd seen the pitch meeting where it was suggested that the most easily accessible shelves be devoted to the guys that fly the least. Brilliant! I've seen a lot of craziness over the years but this really takes the cake. I guess being a crewdog and getting excited to be out of the office for a day is too much to ask from the beautiful people. I don't mind when they skip planning day or roll up to the jet 30 minutes prior to takeoff but adding this extra bullshit to my already busy schedule is not cool. Please tell me this stupidity is confined to KCHS.

I have several of your belts and enjoy the hell out of wearing them. Can you do one in tan to match the desert flightsuit?

It's been a while but I remember it being a fairly normal FCII. Eye check, hearing check, etc. The only exciting part was the footprints. I think the idea here is to reset your flight physical clock since it will be good until you finish FTU and arrive at your first MWS base. Ideally since folks have made it through the FCI and MFS there won't be any surprises. It happens but not often.

Just re-hacking some currency before going to jail for a while. Shows his brilliance just like grabbing the beer did. Cue prison rape jokes in 3. . . 2. . . 1.

Maybe the WG/CC was the only DD option because the Club sucked (like they all do) and nobody else was there. I too was troubled by this case. On one hand there are some actions which are clearly not textbook. On the other hand, we have an O6 protecting his people and handling stuff in his way and at his level. They didn't really give much detail about the investigation into the Lt Col (the one the Col didn't tell the General about). This could have been serious, as was implied, or it could have been something stupid that he didn't think the General needed or wanted to hear about. Unfortunately we'll probably never know the full story here so we will never know how good or how bad a leader he really was. In the non-WWROD Air Force this doesn't surprise me at all.

I always enjoy reporting "traffic in sight, blow me" when presented with the opprotunity.