nsplayr

He was my squadron mate of mine at the time and a bunch of us were watching the final table online. We were cheering like a bunch of drunk college kids when he won. You absolutely love to see it. He did stay in at least for a while, I’ve kinda lost touch with him so now I have no idea long-term. To the OP, I would talk to your CC, the wing retention manager and the JAG as required. Don’t do anything stupid to get soft “kicked out.” If you’ve had a good career and enjoyed it and are just trying to move on despite a bonus-driven ADSC, work the process and don’t burn any bridges. It’s always a good time to do things the right way. If you’re crushing it in terms of outside talent and have a fantastic opportunity, I’m sure you’ll have similar opportunities when Uncle Sam does let you move on to greener pastures, hopefully sooner rather than later if the only hooks they have in you is money that you’re willing to pay back.

Previous admin set the deadline of 1 May I believe, so even being there today is an extension of several months on top of that. I’m theory we wanted to keep the embassy open and etc. but if the entire Ghani government and all allied militias just give up the fight well then that obviously changes the plan. I’m sure the evac planning for all western nations didn’t include the entire ANA/ANP/Ghani government collapsing in 96 hours and the Taliban conquering territory at the speed of a Hilux. Enemy gets a vote unfortunately. It’s still a god damned mess and I can only imagine the heroism of the airlift crews making runs to Kabul right now as well as the army folks & SOF going in to help secure the exfil. Hopefully we can continue to hold the airport, get military ATC up and running and start a reverse Berlin airlift out for anyone who wants to go. Plenty of blame to go around, starting in about 2003, and I’m very hesitant to cast the first stone after spending significant time there myself and buying in to what we were trying to accomplish. I said it before and I’ll say it again: the best time to leave was 15 years ago and the second best time is right now.

They can have a good ole time ruling over the rubble pile. Sunk cost fallacy: the best time to leave was 15 years ago and the second best time is right now. It ain’t called the graveyard of empires for nothing, but the real joke is that all the powerful armies stack the rocks on top of their own heads! Despite spending >$2T and countless lives, Afg sucks nearly as much as the day we arrived and I for one say good riddance. Time to spend our blood and treasure more wisely elsewhere. It’s not somehow more patriotic to want to continue losing every single day, year after year, decade after decade. "Retreat, hell! We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction." - General Oliver Smith, battle of Chosin Reservoir

TIPS or just good ole fashion stonks…S&P 500 up almost 21% YTD should cover up any inflation concerns with a large pile of dollar bills.

That was outstanding. Hasn’t seen it yet, thanks for sharing.

Just wanted to pause for a second and add in before it’s too late that this thread has officially reached an exalted status. Page 69…nice.

I was 33 about to turn 34 when I graduated URT in 2019 as a pinned-on Major. I am a Guard guy, so that may be a factor, but I was not nearly alone…there was a Lt Col who was probably 38-40 in the class behind me. Good luck!

Massive thread bump. Is there any place that still rents mess dress uniforms? I have managed to go an entire 14+ year career without purchasing mess dress and I'm trying to finish strong. Google turns up nothing credible. Last time I wore the uniform was 2013 for a wedding and at that time I rented from some place that I cannot remember nor can I find any evidence of it in my email. 🍺 on me if anyone knows of a place that exists / is good.

It’s 2/3 vote to expel so it wouldn’t be party line if successful. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_from_the_United_States_Congress

Blasphemy against Enlisted Jesus! You, sir, are hereby excommunicated. p.s. - I have no dog in this fight, I didn't know Wright nor do I know Bass or anyone else who's ever been CMSAF.

Ah ha, got it. So in the OP's situation he'd have 30 months at the top of the O5 chart and 6 months at the top of the O4 chart, right? Doesn't seem that different than if you were retiring on active duty unless I'm not understanding still. I guess the pay difference between O4 and O5 get magnified even further at the top of the YOS chart?

Is reserve retirement not based on high-36 as well? I thought it was... https://militarypay.defense.gov/Pay/Retirement/Reserve.aspx

I meant that the number of people responding "True" to the Q conspiracies was the operative thing, not the number of "Don't know" when comparing respondents & their political parties. Here's the full results of the poll Ipsos (attached), see page 7 for the operative question I'm talking about. Ok so it's very, very bad that 17% of people believe this! Holy shit, just full stop, holy shit. 23% of Republicans vs 13% of Democrats vs 12% of Independents...that's a more Republican problem than a Democratic problem. Bad all around but still. Same goes for the % that correctly find this statement to be false, only 38% for Republicans vs 57% for Democrats. The Dems & Independents did better here too, but still no excuse for it not being 100%. This stuff is bat-shit crazy. My other point was that the 37% overall that said they "Don't know" (38% Rep, 30% Dem, 39% Ind) doesn't necessarily tell you much on the question specifically. Notice that the "Don't know" is pretty stable regardless of political affiliation. A large percentage of people of all stripes are going to say they don't know (if that is an option given) when asked about any specific/obscure/complex question. Tons of people just have better stuff to do than know things apparently 🙄. I 100% guarantee you some % of people would say they don't know if the sky is blue. Anyways, it's an inside-baseball discussion of polls. I enjoy analyzing polls and have some training on what to look for. I'm genuinely happy to discuss! But i you don't like a poll, feel free to give a specific reason (bad sampling, bad weighting, asking leading questions, tabulation errors, etc.). Just blanket saying "this poll doesn't represent 69 million Americans!" is not a valid debrief point. BL: Q Anon is bad, their conspiracy theories are false and poisoning people's minds, and if you know someone who believes this stuff or "doesn't know" that it's false, help the country out by gently steering them back toward reality. Ipsos Poll.pdf

Federalism?

To me a system that claims to select for merit that produces a scattershot of amazing people and total douchbags is pretty clearly failing to live up to its claim.

I’m sorry man but there are more efficient ways to just say, “I don’t understand or believe in statistics.” You’re right though that selective dunking doesn’t help move the country forward in a positive way, but in this instance I have to beg forgiveness 🍻

Q conspiracies are not a problem for the Democratic Party even if some number of Dems respond “Don’t Know” rather than “False.” It’s pretty solidly an R problem in terms of people saying that what Q alleges is true. There are just a lot of politically disengaged people in all parties that don’t know much of anything when asked. Now chemtrails, Area 51/aliens, who killed JFK, etc., those conspiracy theories cut much more broadly across political lines and mis- and disinformation is a problem everyone has to deal with and try to tamp down wherever they can. My diagnosis is that for the entirety of human history we went from not having enough access to information and now some rich nations like ours have the opposite problem - you can google your way into having “evidence” for literally anything no matter how crazy.

Another data point for being persistent for waivers. I had a condition that I was told was DQing and unwaiverable at my flight physical senior year of ROTC. I thought it was a dead end but I just kept asking questions and trying to appeal. Eventually I got an indef waiver from the Chief of Flight Medicine at Brooks even though he had never examined me 🤷‍♂️ He overrode the local flight doc and the rest is history; 8 deployments in manned flying and now two sets of wings (CSO and RPA pilot) with zero medical problems. Don’t give up but also be prepared for plans A through at least Z. I am certainly not on my career Plan A but all things considered everything worked out tremendously well. To answer one of your questions, if you are a contracted cadet and you fail part of your flight training (including the medical requirements), you would be reassigned to a non-rated position with a 4 year commitment. Some conditions DQ you from being a manned pilot but not a CSO/ABM/RPA pilot but I’m not an expert on the color vision requirements for each since that was not my issue personally. Good luck!

IMHO Guard RPA is a significantly better gig than active duty RPA. I have only done the former in the unmanned world although I flew manned on active duty. Happy to discuss if people have different opinions or want to know why I think that’s the case.

Don’t worry about it man. If you are offered the vaccine, take it. FWIW I was vaccinated before my wife who is a teacher, my mother who is 70, or my step father who is 66 & is in a wheelchair and a CPAP. Does that make sense? No. But it’s not like if I turned mine down they would get theirs any faster, so just take it if offered. Mil vaccine pipelines also seem completely separate from local public health pipelines but YMMV I guess. The folks who may get some shit are the ones that knowingly lie or bend the truth significantly to try to jump the line, although IMHO I think we just vaccinate everyone ASAP and spend the energy doing whatever it takes to achieve that vs getting butthurt. General life advice: getting butthurt rarely has a positive ROI. I swear to god if we offered everyone a free meal if they would get vaccinated in chick-fil-a drive thrus we’d have every adult in this country vaccinated in 2 months flat.

Just an initial, not recurring. Before they insure you they want to make sure you’re not on death’s door or lying about weight, tobacco use, etc.

The above checks about USAA as well as AAFMAA. I have life insurance from both but if I only had one I would choose AAFMAA; more coverage available at better rates. Mid thirties, not a tobacco user, YMMV.

In fact I can! Especially if the operation you’re looking to receive is rapid, unplanned, extreme body modification.

I hate to ask but why do you so specifically hate Jen Psaki? IMHO being a spokesperson is a hard and thankless job and FFS she’s a 100% improvement on the empty podium we’ve been offered for the last ~6 months or so. 🤷‍♂️ I mean most of us here are cranky old men here (myself included) but this seems like a weird thing to piss you off so specifically.

Let me check, the mortality rate is, “fuck you.” Two people in my family have already died and I live in the same house as someone who is 70+ and who hasn’t gotten the opportunity to get vaccinated yet. This virus is deadly and I am counting down the days until all of my loved ones are protected so we don’t have to go to more funerals. Glad to hear you’re healthy and happy though; I sincerely hope you’re able to stay that way!