nsplayr

"We don't need to spike the football. And I think that, given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk." Think that sums it up.

Well at some point you had to overfly Pakistan considering, ya know, Abbottabad is in Pakistan...not sure what you mean by this. Whether they actually launched the vipers to intercept or perhaps passively participated in the operation by letting us in is probably not to be known by us or discussed here. to the BAMFs who put a bullet in his face, dragged his body off, and dumped in in the ocean. AMF, I hope some of the SEALs tea-bagged you before throwing you overboard.

AFLt, PM me if you want a good contact. My best friend from high school is a -135 pilot down there and should have the latest gouge on where to live, the life of a -135 Co, etc. I visited him down there for a long weekend and we had a blast; give yourself a high-five for getting an awesome assignment.

In almost any degree program, in my opinion, you get out what you put in. Granted reputation matters, but if you put in the work to be able to speak intelligently and credibly about what you learned and can connect that with the job you're trying to get then you're doing it right. The stigma of "online" versus "brick and mortar/real" is slowing going away and honestly there aren't a lot of other options for frequent deployers/TDYers. Like some people have said on here, if the AF were truly committed to having its officers getting good educations, there would be many more slots for full-time study from high-quality institutions. The system now gives the illusion of the AF caring about human capital and education, but instead just gives them one more data point to rack-and-stack people and puts money in the pockets of "military-friendly" online schools.

Nice, let's hope so. I never went (many navs didn't b/c there wasn't a huge break in the pipeline anywhere) and was sweating out having to go. They were non-vol'ing dudes from my squadron a few months ago to fill empty seats at that joke of a course. Not that I have a pregnant wife, pin on captain in a few months and a 1/1.2 dwell ratio...that's what I wanna spend my time at home doing, AF second-lieutenant bullshit! I think the idea behind the whole "close the War Colleges" movement is that, for the cost, they do not provide a better education than civilian institutions and to the determent of those who attend, they breed a closed-minded, military-centric way of thinking. I have no idea if those claims are true and it's probably YMMV, but it's hard to argue that it would at least be cheaper to go the civilian route rather than running a whole institution internally. Same goes for the academies I guess...the burden is kind of on them to justify why the greater cost is worth it in terms of better products, a unique education, etc. Either way, I don't expect either the academies or War Colleges to go away b/c why would the military want to give up prestigious institutions and funding just to save a buck for Uncle Sam? They wouldn't.

You're channeling Tom Ricks circa April 2009. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4 He even talks about closing the war colleges in the third link. I'm pretty sure we had a thread on this once too...

The AF is trying to get better ways to PID men/women/children when viewed by ISR/CAS platforms so you don't end up fragging women and kids. Reference this story. As a side note, sucks for those pred guys that everything they say is on tape for critical review by the media after the fact...and they didn't even take the bad shot!

Where do I sign up? On a side note, I totally forgot this thread existed; as my profile pic indicates I'm 100% being the armed crop duster idea, what a sweet machine.

That is not correct. If you come to where I work you will be called a CSO. As far as I know we're one of 2 platforms that calls their 12XX folks CSOs, so in the grand scheme of things it's weird but in my little bubble it's normal. As far as new vs. experienced, as far as I know we'll gladly take both and our training pipeline has turned out good products from both green 2Lts and silverback Lt Cols. Just don't suck or be fat.

There's another asset that is still pretty undermanned that I'm surprised didn't get any of the new studs. Their loss, greatest job out there for a CSO if ya ask me... Great drop though, congrats to all.

No. Many. 3 per year unless you're popping our kids or working at Group/Wing. That's what they tell us and follow-options are mostly AFSOC. Depends what your expectations are and which track you go. Most NSAV = Cannon. U-28 = Hurlburt. Correct and MC-12 stuff is unrelated (ACC asset) so not much worth looking there. As a generalization, I like my job a lot and am glad I went this rout. YMMV depending on attitude and expectations. Generally great dudes to work with and the squadrons here at HRT are mostly well run and morale is high.

Wonder if good ole' Prince William will make the cut /sarcasm

Just saw that on SWJ, very nice.

Man, surprised by the responses. I've never used the Eagle Cash card and don't think almost any of our guys use them either. I've never been required to even have a card at BAF and have paid cash in the past with no issues. You guys make it sound like a good deal but I guess I've never really bought more than like $40 worth of stuff out there so having a couple of Jackson's in my wallet before arriving in theater was the easiest possible system.

The first rule of being a ninja is don't talk about being a ninja. Since you've outted me though, I figured I'd post my educational video on how to become a ninja yourself. And remember kids, "Don't go ninjing nobody don't need no ninjing!" Edit to add: This has got to be the weirdest shit I have ever seen...another classic from the South African hip-hop scene. Truly, W...T...F...

That makes sense since none of the instructors there have ever been called CSOs in their airframes. And that's great, but realize that in some platforms that will be CSO. To me, CSO ties all the 12xxers together, but obviously within individual communities there's gonna be some variance because of the problem of having more than one nav/ewo/etc. on board. I really don't think anyone at all is butthurt. I for one think it's just an interesting change. Anyone who cares what you call them doesn't have their priorities straight. Because there have been EWOs and WSOs and FCOs for some time so it was never universal. Before that there were bombadiers and etc. The Navy has it right IMHO just calling everyone NFOs but it's kind of hard to go back and change history. It'll probably take a while but my money is on that by time I retire every 12xxer will be a CSO in reality versus in name only the way it is now. It's just easier to group people into one large group rather than numerous smaller ones. Your comment about nav school @ p-cola is true, but it has more to do with lack of resources, leadership, and putting the cart before the horse WRT the new syllabus than anything about the concept of combining all 12xx training in one location. The problems being experienced there now would exist no matter what you call the school, it's growing pains and it will get figured out just like any new program eventually stabilizes a little bit.

Goddamn it...TIB performing with a "star" from the show Glee. At least they just stood there and sang and didn't make too big of fools out of themselves. Props to the Air Force MSgt who played the snare drum for the color guard...that's some military tradition I can get behind.

Yea, that's a good point; works easier when there's only one 12xx on board. That's kinda covers -15Es, slicks, U-28s, tankers, & AWACS though. Not sure about bigger crews but first names/call signs work well too on small crews, usually clears up confusion. It'll be interesting to see how the products of P-cola see all this since they will have been calling themselves CSOs from the start. I'm sure that can be corrected in the various communities as necessary.

Quick google search...try it sometime. I'm also positive this has been discussed elsewhere on these boards. From this article. BL = IFS @ Pueblo -> RND -> FTU

I agree both with CSO being a good umbrella term and keeping WSO because it ain't broke so why are we trying to fix it. I'm actually surprised they didn't just changed the term for any 12XXer to WSO since we all fly in "weapons systems." Hell, the portal is now a "weapons system" so maybe the comm monkeys should be called WSOs too... There's also this:

I bet one day it will. Heritage be damned, this is the Air Force after all...

Damn...that guy has multicam beat.

See above. Really liked it, hope it wins best picture.

So you're saying the Air Force was bullsh*t-free for 6 years. Highly dubious claim...

Agreed...they're great for some communities and/or crew positions. Otherwise let's leave well enough along. The ones we just got issued were ABU colored, but ACU pattered on top, kind of 1-piece flight suit pattered on bottom. Not my fav pocket layout and it goes without saying that the ABU color is less than desirable. I borrowed a tan-colored two-piece from a buddy of mine and liked it a lot...better pocket layout, and it was really thin & comfortable, so it kinda felt like I was a ninja. A really tan ninja...