BQZip01

CC has always provided valuable stock footage, training materials, historical perspective, etc, some of it at the classified level. These pictures and video are invaluable and to blame them for someone else's shoddy (not to mention copyright-infringing) journalism does them a disservice. If they've done something worthy of condemnation, I'm all ears, but I'm just not seeing it.

details?

Pilot probably got lost without a Nav... They are posted in my flight room now

Can't it be both?

Of course! I also forgot significant quantities of sarcasm!

Me: Did you give him a downgrade on that checkride? OL Patch: I don't have to explain... Me: DID YOU GIVE HIM A DOWNGRADE?!?! OL Patch: YOU'RE *** DAMN RIGHT I DID!!!

Highly recommend The Reflections of Island Park Condos http://www.aptshopper.com/Apartment.aspx?AID=89 You are about 7 minutes from the front gate and 12 from the schoolhouse (traffic dependent...I also don't speed, so you can probably make it faster if you really want to) I lived there for about a year and the place is quite spacious. You'd technically live in Shreveport, but it's so isolated from the rest of the city (swamp between you and the rest of it) that you get the best of both worlds. 5 minutes from the major shopping areas & dining. Again, highly recommend at least considering it.

HA! You're killing me! No boys, there's two O's in goose

Considering they were originally developed for bomber crews (hence the term "Bomber Jacket")...

Bullsh**! A plethora of worthless opinions abound!

In my time in the AF, even us "shoeclerks" proudly took our coin around. The rule when I was in AFSOC was "keep your coin on you at ALL times". The rule was, "one step + one arm's reach". I have kept mine on me at all times (or within reach) my entire career. Funny story: some shoeclerk thought he'd be funny and challenged some of our guys after PT WHILE THEY WERE IN THE SHOWER... ...said shoeclerk LOST his challenge (everyone had their coins), though he manned up and bought 20+ drinks at the club that night. Might have been a dick move, but he got a bit of respect from me when he actually paid up. A certain Colonel dropped his coin in front of about 500 people and, instead of just offering a keg at the party that was set to kick off in an hour, he said "I don't play those games". Then don't carry a meaningless coin, sir!

Not an Evaluator, but I've been given about 12 checkrides, so here's my two cents: Not exactly good form, but if it was just a downgrade and still a Q1, don't worry. If you are still worried, I think you may have misunderstood the purpose of the checkride. Downgrades happen. You can do just about everything right and suddenly the wind shifts and make a minor heading variation. It sucks, but it REALLY is no big deal in the grand scheme of things. If you are doing fine academically and this was a minor blip, I doubt anyone will remember it beyond the end of pilot training and it shouldn't affect your class standing in any meaningful way. Yes, we ALL want to have that PERFECT checkride, but things happen. I don't know ANYONE who's ever had a "perfect" ride where EVERYTHING went right. I think you are making FAR more of a big deal about this than is necessary. And honestly, if you are worried about a single downgrade, you are doing better than a lot of people. DON'T WORRY!!! FIDO = Forget it! Drive on!

Haven't seen one reflective belt in any photo or any comments about his powerpoint skills...

I am COMPLETELY and 100% against "protective measures" that don't protect. Sometimes a visible deterrent is all you need (like one of my wife's friends who lives on base said, "Nothing says 'GO AWAY!' like a teenager with a loaded M-16). But a deterrent must be CREDIBLE in order to be effective. IMNSHO, it is complete idiocy to mandate weapons carry at a forward location with the explicit provision that no one is allowed to carry ammo. This is the EXACT kind of "thinking" that led to the deaths of 241 Marines in Beirut: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing#Lessons_learned Either the weapons are necessary or they are not. If they are not necessary, then they need to be properly secured until such a time as they are needed; they will only slow people down in getting to the armory in the case that they actually need it. If they are actually necessary, then give the people f**king ammo!

Well played, sir. Didn't fool me, but well played anyway.

I know a few CCTs and CROs and all of them wear bloused combat boots, BUT that isn't conclusive evidence. Wearing the badge upside down? Even that could have been an honest mistake (not one I'd expect, but I've seen higher ranked personnel make worse public mistakes, like the major who wore his blues' shoulderboards upside down for an interview on FoxNews). The name LaTorre also rings a bell for the time I spent in AFSOC. The "refueling" picture doesn't make any sense because he's nowhere near the fuel port, isn't wearing PPE, and there seem to be 2 civilians in close proximity to the aircraft...no self-respecting SNCO would allow that to happen. I'm interested to hear the story in the AF Tabloid...er...Times

First, do not negotiate with the dealer. Once you tell them you are going with USAA's "negotiating", they will contact USAA to talk about a price (which WILL end up being 3% over invoice, which is a pretty fair deal). If you know the invoice cost, you can probably negotiate below that...but not much. USAA will pretty much do it (sts) on the spot. Coordinate with USAA to make sure they will be open, but you can walk into a dealership any business day and walk out a few hours later with a new car.

It's the gift that keeps on giving. FWIW, I had to stop by the visitor center because I forgot my ID. I parked in a lot COMPLETELY covered by snow and my car is the ONLY one in the lot. As I get out of my car a civilian Target-security-guard-washout at the front gate steps out from his "cozy" shack in Minot's glorious -47 windchill (no joke), hastily walks across a lane of inbound traffic, and yells in front of everyone waiting, "Hey you idiot! Why don't you park like you're supposed to!" Please understand there are NO visible lines indicating traffic flow or paking spaces. I walked over and just asked to see his badge and quietly walked away. "Why? What are you gonna do?" I walked away and said over my shoulder, "Wouldn't you like to know". I just reported him to his supervisor, but he seemed awfully panicked as I walked away. I took quite a bit of solace in that shoeclerk's panicky voice.

"2" ...and what exactly does that mean when a General is 1 hour late?... People need to be at events and ready to start at the "start time", but there are times when honest mistakes happen or things can't be avoided (car won't start for no apparent reason, emergency call from the wife who's in the hospital, got bad information and went to the wrong location, etc). If you are 5 minutes into a 2 hour briefing and some guy quietly wanders in, be a good speaker/lecturer and ignore it. Speak to the individual afterwards. Find out why he's late and THEN consider whether it is worth repeating 5 minutes of "instruction" (most of which is your AF friggin' standard "Why we are here" BS intro). Don't be that D-bag who stops the lecture, stands up and yells, "No! You're late. Get out! Learn to be on time!"). However, perhaps he was just lazy, in which case, isn't it more satisfying to tell him that he just wasted 2 hours at the end of your presentation?

3

...and people wonder why they make fun of the AF...and the next time someone in the AF says "I don't have time to do that" just think about how many man-hours are completely flushed on this idiotic waste of time.

Related story?

Toro, you could checks with your SARMS troops and see if they can look back & see who his wingman/wingmen were during that period.

There are 3 big dates that big blue tracks: your time TDY overseas, your last short tour, your last long tour. Any time you get a short tour, it resets both your TDY time overseas and last short tour to the day you got back. If you don't do a short tour, you get credit for your TDY time (like ALL the B-52 guys going to Guam). If you do a long tour, all 3 reset to the day you got back. The reason you don't just add together days is that the more senior you get, the FAR more likely you are to deploy for ANY time home. Imagine a guy who crosses over to the LRO side of the house and only has a single tour under his belt. He could easily be eligible for back-to-back-to-back-to-back tours in his field just because LROs have deployed more and it's "his turn". The problems in the LRO career field are similar to the CE field: Helping the Army out because they don't have the personnel because they didn't plan for the long term. Many of our folks in the support fields are tired of being a crutch because the Army can't get its act together.

Perhaps they should get away from scheduling people right up to 179 days (there is a reason they want 179. Make it 150 and be done with it! Perhaps leadership should have thought of that BEFORE going to 6 month rotations. The problem lies with leadership wanting to push the envelope and planning poorly. The guy who does a 365 gets short tour credit, but so does the guy who does 182 days. It doesn't matter in between. I have a word for you: jealousy. These folks ARE doing a short tour, as defined by the regulations. It doesn't screw ANYONE else at all. As for the ULN switcheroo to invalidate your short tour, BS! It has nothing to do with what ULN you are assigned to. It has everything to do with "consecutive days deployed". You should be gold for getting short tour credit.