nsplayr

Seriously...I think Pres. Bush did this on several occasions. All the people questioning Obama's motives, what would you have said if he had turned down the opportunity?? The story's only interesting in that it's great for those two individuals to be commissioned by the current POTUS.

Sweet dude, that would be an awesome deal to get sworn in by any President. Not gonna lie, my Det got a 4-star for us and it was pretty awesome, but the Pres. would even 1-up that. Good for them.

Let's see, for my "outdated link" I went to hurlburt.af.mil, clicked on "Units," and went to 720 STG under the "Partner Units" section. If the information is outdated take that up with the Air Force (POC for that particular page can be reached at 850-884-4246). My other suggestion was to come to HRT and ask someone in person; that should provide the current, up-to-the-second info you so badly desire. As for China, CNN or Al-Jazeera, I don't even know what the hell you're talking about so I'm gonna leave it at that.

Arg! What do you want then? Come down to HRT and ask someone in person. I don't even know what the question here is...

Special tactics and SOF direct from af.mil 720 STG

Holy crap, that's exactly what I thought too. Man...this could be transitioned to the WTF thread...seriously, WTF

2001 Mitsubishi Mirage. With custom paint job (i.e. the body color is fading fast but the hood and roof are still normal looking). Had it since I was 16 so it's def a POS at this point. Still runnin'...upgrade postponed until double-platinum (Capt)

Ahh...I wish that was the case 100% of the time. I def got hosed by an evaluator nickle and diming me on everything that added up to the big "fail." We took off, performed all the maneuvers within tolerances, and landed at home field. Take offs = landings and nobody got scared or died. Anways...still bitter (even though it was 2 years ago) and I guess I'm a nav for a reason... Good luck man...that situation doesn't happen very much at all so do your best and you should be good to go.

I think XL's question wasn't necessarily about saluting back so much but about who makes the decision whether or not civ gate guards pop the salute. I've been to 3 bases recently and none of the civs have saluted so I honestly don't know...

Actually had something like this yesterday. Was walking down the sidewalk approaching a gaggle of 2 Es and an O-5. As we approach, I salute the O-5, he salutes back, but the Es pop salutes at the same time as they pass me. It ended up as a giant saluting gaggle. I thought just the col. and I should have exchanged salutes with the Es he was with being part of his "group" or "formation" or "work detail" or whatever... Luckily all involved were flyers and the Es weren't top 3 so I don't anticipate any retribution for possibly violating sacred regs

Looks nice...is there a link on where to buy one?

Damn...being a nav, a Catholic, and a firm believer that robots kick ass this story is deeply troubling...

No...you aren't serving as a pilot so no time counted as a pilot. You log flight hours obviously but not towards a PPL or instrument rating.

Speaking of Blues on Monday, new article about the proposed service coat change: Heritage Coat My favorite quotes: This participant 100% ensured we'll now have that belt with his/her remarks. Holy crap! Are they letting non-shoes on these boards now? This guy sounds like a flyer...couldn't agree more.

The dorms have a bed, dresser, desk, side table, chair, small kitchen with fridge and microwave, and a bathroom. Like a decent hotel room. I didn't live there though since I'm married but I thought they were ok. All the OPS phases are EWO stuff...on the syllabus I went through there was Ops A, B, and C all in a row over the course of a month or so and then Integration later on that had some more EWO stuff in the academics. I thought it blew chunks but some people loved it. Hard to know ahead of time...I went in wanting to be an EWO slightly and ended up choosing Nav with gusto at the scarf drop (when you track either nav or EWO).

Sweet man, enjoy it when you get down there. Single or married? If you're single expect dorms if married then find a townhouse or apartment somewhere nearby (Schertz, Universal City, etc.). The syllabus is still relatively the same, but it's been slowly evolving for a few years (my understanding from the student perspective). As of now you should be getting a lot more time in the Ops phases (read: EWO stuff) than people that went through even a year or so ago, so even if it sucks look at it as a good thing since we'll all have to know EWO stuff eventually (or so the AF thinks...) No T-6 time, same flight regime of T-43s and T-1s right at the end. The tone rides were a lot of fun. If you have more questions, PM me and I can hook up up with a stud who's currently about 1/2 way done at RND and she can give you the most up-to-date info.

Wow...I wonder if they're looking to hire pilots. "You'll have the opportunity to fly the most unnecessary and ridiculous looking flying machine ever built!"

Your points make sense but you offer no alternative. We tried the sanctions-isolation-big stick method with North Korea and what happened...they got nukes. If you say diplomacy doesn't work than what does work? I say try direct diplomacy, maintain the big stick (so to speak) of military power, work regional alliances and organizations (NATO, AU, OPEC, etc.), harass them at the UN, use targeted sanctions, all of it. Diplomacy and military power are not an either/or choice...it's possible to use all the foreign policy tools in our bag at the same time in order to try to meet our objectives.

I'm pretty sure that goes without saying. The problem with that policy is that if Iran is crazy enough to actually use a nuke then it's too late. The other problem is if they just get a bomb but don't actually use it. Then what...your statement doesn't do any good at actually stopping Iran from getting a bomb. P.S. - I'm not saying I have the answer or that there is an easy answer...I think I'm with Vertigo though since isolation & sanction aren't working, an invasion isn't really viable, and an honest stab at real diplomacy won't hurt...

Exactly...I'm not advocating lifting sanctions or parting ways with Israel or anything like that...my point was exactly this. What we're doing ain't working b/c they're closer to having the bomb than ever and that's not gonna turn out well for anyone

Khamenei says "screw you America" just like we say "We don't negotiate with terrorists." For political reasons, it appears clear-cut, Iran doesn't want to be friends with the US. On the other hand, Khamenei knows America isn't ever going to lift sanctions or unfreeze assets without dialogue of some kind, so I guaran-freakn'-tee back channels are being worked. One Option "Visit Raises Speculation Over Turkish-mediated U.S.-Iran Talks"

I saw that today and was actually kinda pissed about it. Went to a newcommers brief at my new base and it was a cluster-esque mix of BDUs, ABUs, and blues. Now bear in mind these people are all new to the base, so no one in the room should have known if it was "cool" to wear BDUs/ABUs locally despite the well known, AF-wide directive to wear blues. WTF man? I don't like blues anymore than anyone else but Jesus, if the CSAF says blues on Monday and you're not working outside or flying a plane (or some other valid excuse), grab your blues and get with the F-ing program. If we get rid of "Blues Monday," outstanding, I'd be among the first to sign on to that, but until that's the case I don't understand how approx. like 40% of the room could so blatantly and obviously be outside the regs... //rant off//

Wow...that E9 must have really wanted to fly really bad or something to go from E9 respect level to O1...holy cow! And that whole sentence in itself validates how f-ed up it is that CGOs get less respect than NCOs but whateva...

No and I don't imagine that happening since be primary sponsor (Jim Webb) is a prominent member of the President's own party. Where'd ya read/hear that from? I know congress is considering some bills that modify how parts of the post 9/11 GI would work, but I'm not sure about the details and those have been in the pipeline since last Fall.

Don't sweat it too much man, either way you'll be fine and probably love your plane. BUT...if it were me, I'd take the slick because of the greater mission variety, the FAR better location, and the greater importance of the nav to the C-130 mission than to the JSTARS mission. Plus just from the instructors I knew the C-130 guys were cool as hell and I only knew 1 JSTARS guy who was just more removed and didn't interact with the students as much. I was sweating my drop night decision as well (b/c our flight commander let us choose in rank order...is that what yours is doing?), and everything turned out great so far. Similar situation in that my wife wanted me to pick the "safer," burning orbits in the sky option and I kinda was leaning towards the more tactical option. I thought about both honestly b/c family should be an important consideration, but in the end I chose the later option b/c I figured you're only young once and I would regret it later if I had picked something "safer" when I could have been kicking ass a little more directly. Not a knock on the JSTARS mission or anyone else for that matter Good luck & feel free to post your class' drop either in this thread or the track-select assignment night thread.