nsplayr

Biggest-ever series of cyber attacks uncovered, UN hit. Check out our valiant Air Force cyber warrior pictured in the article...in a hoodie.

Government Losses to Top $1 Billion After Congress Fails to Reach Deal on FAA. I heard the government had tons of money so losing out on a billion bucks shouldn't be a big deal; not even worth a continuing resolution. Plus unemployment is almost non-existent, so I'm sure all the construction workers who can't work on airport projects will find a bunch of other stuff to build. Dysfunctional government, exhibit B.

Doesn't seem legit; why was this not news? Why does this unnamed "white house insider" contradict every other person who's spoken about the process? Gates: Why did you even bring this up here again? To the SEAL who put two in bin Laden

You mean I could wear blues everyday if I wanted! Booya, time to work that assignment to HAF!!! Fat f*cking chance sir, with all due respect of course. Anyone want an over-under on when this is implemented AF-wide?

Wait, what? You're saying your father wore a 4 inch by 6 inch flag patch on his uniform? Like it was hanging off the velco area? 4x6, like a common photograph? I challenge anyone out there to hold up a photograph to their shoulder in uniform to understand how ludicrous that would look. Great story...

BO.net, I noticed the eLearners distance learning ad is really slowing down load times when I try to access the forums homepage. Wondering if anyone else had this issue? Firefox tells me "looking up nexus.elearners.local" ~nsplayr

Bitter much hacker? I think spaw gets it as evidenced by his post that spells out that we all signed the contract and the AF owes us essentially nothing; you're preaching to the choir it seems. WRT his "watching TCAS over BAF" it was a saying man, not a comment on proper airmanship. Recommend more

Yup...realtor they found was great but I financed locally since it was cheaper.

Your example of local law trumping federal law is not the same at all. Local regs can be more restrictive and while sometimes they seem to violate the spirit of the AFI, that's the way it works. I'm not sure why you think MAJCOMs may not have the authority to order their members to all wear the same patch. You have no "right" to wear the flag patch whatsoever just like you have no right to wear black boots, a flight suit (unless flying) or anything else that the AF deems not proper to wear. Do I like wearing the flag patch, sure; that doesn't change the fact that my CC can tell me to take it off tomorrow and wear something else. That is f*cking brilliant! PM me if there's a way I can order a couple as well.

Oh really? Wanna cite something on that?

Exactly...tread carefully those who want to burn down the house cutting spending; to the average civilian voter, military pensions look like a really great deal (they are, although we sacrifice a lot to get them) and the are a potential target for cutbacks as made obvious by this debate. This is at least an intellectually honest position to take; it's' valid to be all for cutting spending and the size of government to the max (i.e. Ron Paul-style economic libertarian) but it's somewhat hypocritical to do so while you pick up the pitchforks so they don't cut your government benefits. I agree they're "earned" versus some other programs out there, but still, you have to admit that if you want the government to do almost nothing it makes sense that you are as independent of any government program as possible.

If you don't think it's in the contract that the AF can pretty much change anything at any time for any reason, maybe you should re-read the contract. Force shaping, short-notice deployments/PCS, 6-9 thousand random TDYs, changes to rules/regs, changes to benefits, etc. are all part of the game we play. Just ask some of your buds in the civilian sector if their companies change things on them like this. My father-in-law worked for a steel mill for 30 years, they were guaranteed a full pension with medical benefits after working for at least 25 years, and per their contracts they were forbidden from having a separate IRA or 401(k) if they wanted to get the pension. Steel mill goes bankrupt and they're left with nothing; guess he should have retired at 25 but he wanted to keep working... Does it make it right? No, I'm 100% for a grandfather clause for any member already in service and I highly doubt any changes would pass without such a clause. If you let current people be grandfathered in you do right by them while, IMHO, improving the system for the future. I just hope that any grandfather clause is optional because as someone highly unlikely to make it to 20 I'd love to try out any new system that will put money in my pocket. I don't even know what this means...the board that proposed this was non-partisan.

Agreed...let current troops choose either, all new guys get new system. Anyone seen any more written details other than the tabloid AF Times story?

Sure it's valid, but if you're worried about the government raiding the 401K fund you probably should also be worried about them raiding the pot of money where your retirement check comes from if/when you put in your 20 years. All of those payments relies on the "full faith and credit" of Uncle Sugar so if you're really worried about the government not making good on it's commitments then having the current retirement versus a 401K type-system doesn't really make any difference. And honestly depending on the rules in the 401K system for withdrawing money from the account, at a certain age you could just pull out all the money (including gov matches) and roll it into a private account that the government can't touch, you can't do that with the current system where you rely on them to cut you that check each and every month until the day you die. There is no lump sum you can ever access because you're benefits are not finite if you happen to live for a really long time. Anyways, all this is to say I think while it's a valid concern maybe (especially considering the recent debt ceiling shenanigans) it's not any more valid than under the current system because at the end of the say the Man guarantees the money either way and he's only as good at his word in either system.

Which is what happens when you blow through the first deadline on the debt ceiling and ask the Tressury Department to use "creative accounting." We would have defaulted already if they hadnt used some of the money in those accounts. As soon as that silliness is over the system will pay it back. On topic - hobbit, that's some smart stuff. My changes to what is being proposed are to both grandfather in any active member including guard/reserve if they so choose and to give new recruits the choice of the current system or then new one. That way haven't changed the rules mid-game on anyone more than you have to and you can ops test the new system on a smaller group of folks who choose rather than diving in head first and hoping for the best. If the goal is to make a better system that's the way to do it; if all you want to do is save money than by all means leap before you look Cutting budgets has consequences and messing with the mil retirement system in the wrong ways is potentially one of the big risks when you slash and burn just to save a billion here or there.

Although I have some doubts of rather or not this would pass in Congress, I really don't know how far the House will go these days to cut spending. The Senate will be more of a struggle to get anything like this changed. I'm also skeptical if President Obama will touch anything like this with a 10 foot pole, but maybe a second term would allow a President to consider something like this. No first termer would be wise to do so. As one of the 83% of troops who will likely not stay 20 years, this sounds phenomenal. Obviously we shouldn't trust the AFCrimes article for the details, but if there were a detailed proposal I'd be very interested to read it. Right now I'm looking at punching at about 8 years with exactly $0 in my pocket other than my own un-matched TSP contributions that I made before switching to a Roth IRA. Any system that turns out better than that for me would be great. I don't really care about the cost savings which are being touted, but if we can come up with a system that is more fair and rewards member contributions and gives further bonuses for undermanned or high-demand career fields versus just staying alive and breathing until 20 years I say we're moving in the right direction. Those planning to stay to the 20 years and get the very generous current retirement system will obviously not be as excited...

This guy sounds like the kind of douche who patrols the Dragon DFAC and hands out business cards so we can "feel free to contact him later." That E-9 is something else... Agreed with rainman, if you're doing enough flying and fighting and keep the operation lean there won't be time to worry about this kind of BS. Might happen if this whole thing in Afghanistan starts to wind down in earnest. The folks who will be there till the end can focus on actually working instead of conducting a social experiment on how many ridiculous rules you can create and enforce...

Do the regs state the color of boot laces? On my phone so can't look up. Might be a nice protest that starting nov 1 you lace up the puke greenies with black laces and pour one out for my nice black boots now lost to the clerks. If it's legal led the regs I may press to test one day... If you have a creative LPA they could get some squadron morale shirts that are desert tan just on the small area that shows up top in a bag and the rest of the shirt is your old morale shirt color. Or you could institute shirtless Fridays in protest, that's been done before too.

Bring a lot of lube and porn. The best activity at BAF other than killing the enemy is beating off mercissily or maybe trying to sleep as long as possible. Also a nice spot to go vintage furniture shopping; the very b-huts you may live in is at least 10 years old and if you know where to look some poor asshole from days gone by has already fabricated a desk or shelves or something that is better than what you could make. The most expensive marginal pizza hut in the world on the east side of the flight line is also legend, back from the grave after the mccrystal ban. Enjoy your time there and check out ilovebagram.com which is funny and somewhat true as long as you ignore people complaining about too much war noise.

...not sure a big airplane or a remotely-piloted one is the right fit for this mission with today's technology. Big is definitely not required and remote is probably the future of many things but it'll take a while to overcome the limitations of the systems for effective use in CAS beyond popping off a hellfire or dropping a LGB. There are plenty of advantages of having a low cost and small MX footprint, especially if you parlay that into more platforms for the money vs the all your eggs in one basket approach.

GL but unless things have changed OSI is very difficult to get right from the commissioning source. If you can pull off an OSI slot and then turn it down for pilot there will be a bunch of people who wanna slap you in the face. Hope you get whatcha want man.

Hummm...didn't know that. I've seen dudes wear that combo for 2 years in a high-risk-of-getting-chiefed environment downrange with no repercussions.

Yea dude, that is one sexy cow. I'd motorboat the sh*t out of those tits. Oh wait...you probably meant the girl...right...she's hot too...

Copy all and agree. I certainly have no experience in actually flying light attack so your opinions are very valuable even if there's room for argument one way or the other.

Lava Desert of Skeiðarársandur. Found Here. Viva the black shirt!