zmoney

If they're inflated, then the AF gave the wrong numbers. The author of the article actually attached the Excel spreadsheet... https://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/afcap-data-for-2008-2012.xlsx

That might be true. This thread might be headed in that direction. However, the fact remains that the new medal ranks above a Bronze Star with V device; a medal awarded for ground combat against an armed enemy. Should RPA drivers receive recognition for their work? Sure. I have no issues with issuing them a medal. Should RPA drivers receive a medal ranked higher than a medal issued for ground combat? No, I don't think so. I personally have never been in ground combat. I hope I never have to engage the enemy in that manner. However, I think that the service members who have the courage to fight an armed enemy on the ground deserve recognition above those who fight such an enemy with less personal risk. Edit: You sound like an ass.

3

Easy bud. No one will troll you for saying that. Big Blue has always wanted its best to play with the nicest equipment.

I don't know how true this is... National Guard troops have patrolled Penn Station since 9/11. I saw a few about a month ago.

Agreed. Summed up perfectly. I do see potential exceptions being made for folks with negative information (Article 15, DUI, etc). That said, even those folks cost the government lots of money. Passing them over for O-3 could potentially cost the government more money than simply keeping them in and passing them over for O-4... Note 1: I didn't sensor the quote... ######ing autosensor.

https://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123252966 Looks like you'll need 300 days in an 18 mo period or 548 in 3 years. Lots of folks will already hit those numbers. Others, not so much.

Troll.

1. President Obama and Secretary Gates have increased troop levels in Afghanistan from 26,500 (in May 2006) to 68,000 (current) (over double). 2. They both have also increased the number of predator drone attacks both in country (Iraq & Afghanistan) and out (Pakistan). -- Indeed, lately these strikes have stirred up quite a bit of controversy: Does the president have the power to execute a targeted killing on a U.S. Citizen abroad without due process? Can he authorize the military (or CIA) to terminate a person without knowing their name? The former is still being debated. The latter has occurred and will continue to occur. EDIT: I should say: Can the president authorize those killings OUTSIDE a warzone (ie: Pakistan). Obviously war is war, but we're not at war with Pakistan... 3. President Obama (like his predecessor) has not vetoed a defense spending bill that contained a raise greater than the ECI (Employment Cost Index) when congress presented it to him. In other words, the military has enjoyed a raise 0.5% greater than inflation in the years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009. Bottom Line: I haven't seen much information about President Obama reducing the military in any significant manner. In fact, this is the FIRST article I've seen that includes any major cuts. In many aspects he has EXPANDED the use of the military. To the few that knocked the health care bill (not you Raptor08): As far as health care, when you have a family member that requires significant long term care and witness first hand how much that care costs, you'll better understand why we needed SOME sort of health care reform... Is the legislation perfect? ###### no... Hardly any piece of legislation is (at least the 500+ page shits that congress tends too poop out nowadays). But, at least it is a start! Some interesting links: Death and Taxes (a poster describing the federal budget): https://www.deathandtaxesposter.com/ Immigration Cartoon (a cartoon describing the immigration process): https://img693.imageshack.us/i/immigration764383.jpg/ Just some food for thought. I know Death and Taxes is fairly accurate. As far as that immigration cartoon, I haven't fact checked it.

See DODI 1310.01 for information regarding Date of Rank for officers: 6.5. Date of Rank for Second Lieutenants or Ensigns Appointed in May or June. The date of rank of second lieutenants or ensigns appointed under Section 2106 or 2107 of Reference (d) in May or June of any year who enter active duty during either of those months is the date that the class of cadets or midshipmen graduated from one of the Service Academies. Such appointees who enter active duty before the graduation date of the appropriate Service Academy may take precedence over academy graduates. Within such groups of Section 2106 and 2107 of Reference (d) appointees, distinguished military graduates may take precedence. In these cases, tiebreakers described in subsection 6.6. apply. Example: I graduated & commissioned on 24 May 06. The '06 academy grades commissioned on 31 May 06. My DOR was 31 May 06. As a result, I get to pin on captain on 31 May 10 (about a week, yay). As far as major line numbers are concerned... I always thought that was merit based, but I actually have no idea how those are worked out.

I call BS on that 75 MB limit being ok. If google can provide e-mail to a larger audience than the AF (probably somewhere around 10 times the audience) with mailbox sizes that exceed 5 GB, then the AF ought to be able to provide something similar. I change workstations often (part of the job, I use one main one and I have finally created an offline PST for it) and would like to access my e-mail from any one of those workstations. As far as loading 75 MBs of e-mails everytime... I don't know why it does that. Just load the headers! That 75 MB becomes less that 1 MB, even when you're looking at 1000 emails. You got right to the heart of my point. My mother in has a FTTH (Fiber to the home) (Fios) from verizon. If she can get a fiber connection into her house in 2008, the air force should AT LEAST have fiber interconnects between buildings in 2010. Now you're right, I don't know much about AF network topology, but they should also have a separate internet backbone, similar to Internet2 used by universities. Lots of my griping I think would be solved by such a solution. It's not that I cannot do it. I do it. I enjoy doing it. But here's where its frustrating, COMM is so thin they don't have the folks to help us. So I go and install my buddy's machine and there's something wrong with it. Despite my ability to troubleshoot what it is, it will still take at least 24 hrs for someone to fix it. In this day and age of COMM stretched thin (and the AF trying to stretch it even thinner with force shaping), we should have something like CSAs. My whole point is that its tough to tell your buddy, "Hey I know I'm the one who installed this machine, but I'm not the one who can support it." If someone brings you something, they should probably be able to fix it... I agree on the potential impact of losing secret information. However, by making sure our networks are state of the art, we will also be making sure our networks are secure. Also, "cyber offense" (I hate that term cyber, replace it with Network Security or something) shouldn't be our job. (this I suppose gets into a bigger argument, way way way above my paygrade). Cyber should be the domain of folks like the NSA or another organization DESIGNED to do it. Again, I could care less about the wings. It's not that. I just don't think COMM is doing a very good job. Is 1Lt or SSgt so and so doing a good job (comm bubbas), sure they are. But COMM / Computer Procurement as an organization has some learning to do, especially from providers like Google and Yahoo who service more folks than the AF does and they do it faster than anyone. The AF can certainly learn from Google and Yahoo in that regard.

They bring us the most mismanaged, cumbersome, and uninnovative network in the entire world? I don't give a shit about wings... I don't give a shit about any info that might be on SIPR. I just know the following: 1. Air Force e-mail sucks. It is slow. A 75MB size limit is absolutely ######ing absurd. Solution: GMAIL (or contract google to design one for us). If you want a better, DOD-ified solution, see AKOs new e-mail. 2. Air Force portal sucks. It is slow and contains NO ######ING INFORMATION. Wait? It does contain information you say? Then why does the search suck?! How could it possibly take anyone more than FIVE MINUTES to find a telephone directory. What about a base map? PFPS? I can go on. It ######ing sucks. Solution: Connect a google search appliance to that bitch. 3. DOD to DOD traffic is slow. ######, intranet traffic that remains on my base is ######ing slow. They just rewired the entire building for CAT-6 and gave us machines with gigabit ethernet cards. Network traffic that stays in the confines of my base SHOULD NOT BE SLOW! Not when its 1000-Base-T. Solution: I don't know what the ###### is wrong with it... 4. Air Force computer support sucks. Try this shit on for size. AETC buys computers and they get sent to my base. Then, the COMM dudes open the computers and install the AF common desktop on them. Then the COMM dudes tell our ADPEs to pick those computers up and install them in the squadron. Here's the problem with that: The dudes SUPPORTING the systems SHOULD be on the ones installing the systems. A 11K3 (Instructor Pilot) who HAPPENS to know about computers should NOT be the one installing that computer! They haven't received ANY formal training about how to install or support that computer. Furthermore, they aren't even given any admin rights to help support it if they wanted to. JCollins, I know you probably work hard and the bureaucracy sucks, but there is no excuse for the air force to be running a network like this. NONE! We may not be a corporate entity, but there is no reason our network cannot behave like one (fast, well-organized, and secure). The Air Force's focus should be on correcting deficiencies in our network, not offensive "cyber" capabilities or opening up social networking sites. Once our network is where it should be (as good as Google's, Apple's, or Microsoft's), then we can start working on our offensive "cyber" capabilities.

I've seen two UPT studs (off the top of my head) survive DUIs in my time at END. By survive I mean they were put through the CR process and ultimately reinstated. The DUI program is a joke.

One of the most intelligent posts I've read on baseops.

CH, I'm really glad you posted this. It is actually frightening how closely this reflects the current state of ops, at least at my base. I'll be reading Sierra Hotel on my flight as well. Thanks again!

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/ What's going on down there?

[satire] If Poland and the Czech Republic want missile defense, they should get jobs and pay for it themselves. We don't need more big gov't spending on FOREIGN citizens. [/satire]

https://www.baseops.net/jeppesen/ Just noticed that link on the main page... What's the deal with this, how is baseops involved? (the link on the main page points to a baseops site, not a jep site). Also noticed that milplanner link... Jep getting more friendly with the DoD?

E-6 is to Tinker (Looking Glass) E-8 is to Robins AFB (JSTARS) -- No E-3s but they'd be to Tinker as well. (just trying to up my post count)

More F-22s? More F-35s? Where's the money coming from? We're ****ing broke. We can't even afford to keep Finance offices and MPFs staffed at tolerable levels. Those two functions, and lots of our COMM is now outsourced to San Antonio. The actual manning levels at the bases are *extremely* low. Plus, our economy is in the crapper. In these times its going to be guns or butter...

wow... the original memo didn't say anything about this... hey sir... guess what I did at my base since we had off on monday... that's right, we put everyone on blues on tuesday! just like the old days! people need to quit making shit up... we have enough rules to deal with already. [rant] it seems like because we do our jobs well, people have to find ways to make our jobs harder... instead of making people's lives better, it is easier to twist the information in the CSAF's memo to fit somebody's "OPR-agenda" to have the appearance of "accomplishing something." [/rant] unbelievable.

I was a senior in High School sitting in History class. Over the PA the school's President (the SRO of the school if you will) informed us that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center and asked all the students with family members who worked in the area to go to school's library. Being from Long Island meant that lots of my friends had family members who worked in the Towers or nearby. Two things I'll never forget. 1. My school posted a half sheet of paper on the bulletin board displaying the names of the missing (at the time). A few days later it was a full sheet. A week later it was a legal sheet. For the longest time I thought the list would never stop growing... 2. My mom worked at the American Red Cross so I volunteered there quite a bit. I remember the large parking lot absolutely filled with water and care packages. It was surreal. They would truck half the stuff out in the morning. By the time the truck got back, the parking lot was full again. Remember what happened. Honor their memories.

Read the post wrong... Students never get saluted by IPs in the flight room. Outside the flight room, that's a different story. As for students saluting IPs, depends on the squadron whether or not a higher ranking student salutes a lower ranking IP.

Not in T-1s at Vance. If I remember correctly, they did in T-6s. I might be wrong about that.

I don't know what air force some of these folks are in, but I'm not sure I'm in the same one... As far as flyers go, I have never once seen an O-1 salute an O-2 unless its a formal (ie UPT brief time) situation. This O-1 saluting an O-2 crap sounds alot like some ASBC kool-aid to me. LPA all the way.