nsplayr

Seriously agree. I would love to see an OPR or award package read, "Took over highly successful, operationally excellent shop/Squadron/Group/Wing. Maintained excellence, made no unnecessary changes." THAT guy gets a high five in my book.

Figured this was as good a place as any. BL: U.S. helos fly into Pakistan, end up killing 25 government troops. They are pissed. Now kicking us out of an airbase on their side of the boarder. Story here.

We've seriously contemplated having a "lower patches" Friday in place of heritage patch Friday, which is now verboten. Take all four patches on your flight suit and place them as low on the velcro as possible. It looks ridiculous, and from my preliminary research, is totally legal.

With a OBOGS-related ceiling and a Top Gun-related hard-deck of 10K, I guess the Raptors will be flying, fighting, and winning at exactly 10,000'...

Romney said this specifically during the GOP National Security Debate...I believe he said there should be a "no-drive zone" or something along those lines.

Thanks for the love, asshole

How could they possibly screw this up?

YGBFSM. When did that snowflake come down the pipe? If shoe clerks are so good at writing "guidance" tell them to write some. How god damn hard is it to wear a hat??

Freaking right, well done all around. Glad to see articles like this one.

Exactly...let's end the madness and go back to the way things were, what, 3 years ago? Less than that even... If people are cheating (the so-called reason we went to the FAC concept in the first place) kick them square in the balls and RIF them or whatever. Let the rest of us who follow the rules go on with our days.

Did it last week...among the best decisions of my career. I challenge a shoe to try to chief me on my...shoes.

Good point...isolationism + moral problem with war = leftist, isolationism + freedom of action for other = libertarian within the bounds of this argument. What a douche BTW.

Yea, this. Look, Dave Ramsey has some good advice for the vast majority of idiot Americans, but for those who are smart, there's absolutely no need to follow him like some kind of freaking cult. If you can borrow money at 2% interest, invest it at 3% interest, and pay everything back on time, guess what, you just made a profit! Why this makes people feel uncomfortable (oooo, the bank OWNS me) is beyond me. Just as pancake says here, this process is exactly what companies do when offering bonds...they are incuring debt commitments in order to receive cash up front, which they invest in something that will, by the end of the bond term, be more valuable to them than the money they lost in paying interest to bondholders. Finance 101. Caveat that as everyone said, if you're gonna buy dumb shit that decreases in value with your money, don't take on a penny of debt. However, if you can smartly invest money, debt, credit cards, etc. can be used as tools toward building greater wealth. To the direct question, take the loan, invest it somewhere where you will pull more interest than the rate on the loan, be done with it. Don't be irrationally scared that $500 is coming out of your paycheck because you know that money is going to work for you elsewhere as a lump sum.

Well great, that's a good model. My squadron has probably 10 non-ops folks (AFE, ARMS, 1x Comm) and IVO 140 pilots/CSOs...that will work out well...

I worked for the Department of the Interior several summers in college and I remember the transit benefits were loaded on your smartrip and you could use that for either metro or bus (as long as the bus you wanted to ride took smartrip). Is it not the same for mil in particular or was I just lucky that DOI let us do that? Either way it is expensive as balls after a while...I ended up riding my bike back and forth to work on the Capital Crescent Trail because no only was it faster but it was a hell of a lot more fun. Obviously that option isn't available to 69% of DC area workers though...

Looks like Nigeria is he next sunny destination for deployment. Boko Haram, watch yourselves. Unconfirmed as of yet but apparently the Nigerians are telling people we're coming down there.

Correct. The confusion may have been that Eid al-Adha was recently. November 6-9, no joke. I suspect the dumbness is due to nothing special, just Qataris being Qataris and some bureaucrat wanting to dick with the Americans.

I'll be curious to see if ours still exists on Monday...they were there on Thursday. I actually like the people at our FAC, especially the two hottie civilians who work there, but I'll be glad to be able to test my own folks again if that's gonna be the way it's done. I could talk to the DO, PEX out everyone due at the end of November, and test all 12 people at once on a day with nice weather and be done with it in one hour. What I fear is that they still won't let PTLs test their own squadrons but instead will make PTLs work at the FAC offices as a rotating week-long additional duty to test the rest of the base. That would be an absolute nightmare that no one has time to support...which is why my money is on that being the plan.

I have always wanted a tab patch that says "ILUA" for I Love Unnecessary Acronyms. Maybe we could staff the ASS Agency with FUDGE PACKERS...Federal United Degenerate Guys...ahh hell, I quit...

Seriously...there's a 5% COLA for Detroit, you gonna tell me Detroit is more expensive to live in than the DC area? Although how many mil members are stationed in Detroit versus the thousands in DC they'd have to start paying? It's all about the Benjamins, baby.

Dude...good find. It's heritage, and would drive shoes crazy...I say we do it.

Nice...speaking for myself, we'd be glad to have some of you guys. Those are all great options IMHO. FWIW, beware the PC-12 if you don't like change/uncertainty...that may or may not exist in the near future per RUMINT on the thinking of the AFSOC/CC; if you go that route you may need to transition to something else soonish after arriving at Cannon.

Man, that sounds like a real f*cking hardship right there All in good fun...running out of booze is a troubling development no matter what the circumstances.

That seems impossible the way the rules are written now. For now at least, you have to be a PTL to test someone, which involves being current on CPR as well as a half-day training course. The currencies are yearly. GL getting a whole squadron "trained" to that level and maintaining that long-term. Just let the PTLs/UFPMs test their own squadrons again and RIF anyone caught cheating; kills 2 birds with one stone.