BQZip01

Wow, lucky you didn't get strung up for that one...but well-played anyway...

yeah...200 degrees Celsius will do that...

Herk advice compiled from another thread: Step1: Heat up the cargo compartment! Situation: you are over the middle of the pond with a planeload of grunts. Everything's quiet (save 4 T56A-16s). The fligt mech (crew chief) hurries up front from his perch on the paratroop door, starts unstrapping the chutes and tossing them up to the cockpit. One of the troops asks if everyting's alright, he says "Oh, yeah, everything's great..." We had a Herk crew play a funny on a crew member when they were flying w/ no pax... He'd fallen asleep on the paratroop door seat, so they saftey wired his boots to the floor, slowly descended to 10,000 ft., depressurized and everyone put on a parachute. They threw open the other paratroop door and of course he woke up with wind blowing all through the cargo compartment, everyone w/ chutes on, screaming that they were bailing out! When he jumped up to go grab a chute, he fell flat on his face! Good times, had by all! Another one: With a plane load of grunts, get the pilot to go into a dive, have engineer runs to the back and grab the manual hydraulic pump handle (with it set so the fluid doesn't do anything) and start pumping furiously while the pilot starts climbing again. When he starts to slow down the pumping, the pilot starts to dive again. In no time you'll have a grunt that asks what the problem is. You tell him, "We need to keep pumping this handle to keep us in the air!!" They'll start rotating through each of them pumping on it for 10-15 minutes desperatly trying to keep the plane in the air!! Another one: Once the grunts are loaded, the engineer starts up the GTC (or APU, depending on how new your Herk is) but shuts it off at 20-30%. Do it a couple times, then put a worried look on your face and go back to the cargo compt. and tell them, "Well guys, we need some help. We can't get the GTC started, so we're going to have to get out and push the plane until we can pop the clutch on it." You'd be suprised how fast 40 grunts can get a Herk moving just by pushing on the back end!!

the model looks quite nice... ...and the airplanes aren't bad either Is there any chance you could get a close-up of the B-52H? I'm interested in purchasing one, but I'd like to see how much detail you have on them.

Promotion Recommendation Form: basically an OPR on illegal steroids (plus an unidentifiable substance we believe to be an industrial strength fish tranquilizer). It is about 20 times the work for half the lines of usable text.

<pokes Toro in the left eye> Glad we got this thread back on track...

FIFY

If I throw an acronym out there that isn't common knowledge, I almost always provide a translation. I also take the time to learn what acronyms are before using them: How many of you know what these acronyms stand for (not just what they are) without looking them up: Medical:MRI Military:CALCM Biology:DNA Football:PAT Military:AWACS Military:ALICE Military:LNO Military:HMMWV Military:MOLLE Military:MOPP Military:SCIF Military:JDAM You'll probably get a few. Short version, we're all guilty of it. Just spell them out if they aren't 100% clear.

According to the infamous "Timmy" all the pilots do is watch "Top Gun" since the plane pretty much flies itself. I assume you operate the DVD player?

ZING! Ha ha! That was hilarious...wait... To answer your question, yes. The rest of the GenY class wanted "Excel to graduate" and in the end we compromised on "cooperate to graduate", even though "cooperate" isn't a microsoft product

BULLSHIT! I call a MINIMUM of 15 minutes prior to landing. Given that I am on a B-52, we'll have another 5-10 minutes of taxiing plus another 10 of postflight at minimum. When we have time to download all our bags, pubs, FLIP, lunches, coolers, etc. and the bus still hasn't arrived while it is well below zero (our sq bros call; we don't leave it up to the CP...truly, they have better stuff to do than call a bus), it's your squadron's fault and we are rightly pissed. I don't care if the driver was on a smoke break, or the dispatcher forgot, or you just don't like your job, it is your squadron's fault collectively. We have a good relationship with our Trans folks. We treat them well and they help us out. I ALWAYS thank the driver (I repeat, always). So do most of my bros. Most of us are also understanding when people don't arrive because a simple miscommunication. It would be literally impossible for me to walk to my jet (especially in the winter: 3+ miles, 20 below, windchill putting it near 35 below, and icy with no sidewalks), so don't throw that crap out here. We do not have the personnel to take crews to their jet just because you have decided your job isn't worth doing. Suck it up and (collectively) do your f***ing jobs! Quit bitching about it. Too many acronyms to make any sense to a non-AMC guy.

Gotta disagree. I thought Nav school was the epitome of "cooperate to graduate" (exception noted below) I have to admit our class was doing quite well until one person decided to "go rogue" and not share information. He used good relationships with fellow students to set a few up for failure just so he could get a better assignment. It didn't work, but he took a few others down with him. He is persona non grata in many of my fellow navs homes. So as a whole, I think "cooperate to graduate" was our slogan. We didn't leave anyone behind in academics and went out of our way to help those who "didn't get it". My class's average was higher than the previous 22 classes, so perhaps we were an anomaly, but I didn't see those problems in other classes either.

Woah there sparky. A lot of our Friday traditions are actually in the uniform regs: "Commanders may authorize crewmembers to wear a designated unit standardized color undershirt at home station on Fridays." "3.2.5.7. MAJCOM commanders must approve all emblems/patches not specifically addressed in this instruction." I'll admit I'm reading between the lines here, but it doesn't say they must approve in writing, only that they "must approve". I believe it is reasonable to assume that since there is no explicit direction NOT to wear such patches, it isn't prohibited and, therefore, they approve. If ANYONE says anything about them, I would simply remove them. Our commander doesn't let them get crass or inappropriate. Most are just humorous or benign (like a school patch). ACC Sup explicitly approves of friday nametags: 3.2.5.2. (ACC) Nametags...first name, initial(s), or common nicknames are optional provided they are in good taste (e.g., member may use "SAMUEL P. JONES," "SAM JONES," "S. JONES," "ACE JONES," or "JONES"). For enlisted personnel; last name and abbreviated rank (e.g., SSgt, TSgt, MSgt, etc.), initial(s), or common nicknames are optional provided they are in good taste (e.g., member may use "TSGT SAMUEL P. JONES," "TSGT SAM JONES," "TSGT S. JONES," "TSGT ACE JONES," or "TSGT JONES"). The pocket containing your hat is optional to be closed I only point this out to let you realize that there is a lot of stuff you seem to be thinking you are "getting away with" that is either explicitly or implicitly codified. I know a Special Operations helicopter pilot who is missing part of his leg due to a landmine blast. Last I saw of him about 5 years ago, he was a squadron commander...

Sounds kinky. Details? Seriously though, The best thing for everyone to do is call JPPSO directly when you're ready and bypass the ****ing website. Comm needs to get their act together at your base. At our base, when you get a new ID card, while it DOES take a little while to get a new ID card, you have the option to wait around while the database updates (24 hours is complete bullsh**; it should be more like 10-15 minutes MAX) and make sure it updates in the system so problems can be immediately addressed. Back to the problem with buses. Not every base is like a training base and constantly picking up flyers. We may generate 4-6 sorties in a day or perhaps just a couple. Walking is NOT an option when you are literally 5-7 MILES from your aircraft and you have more gear than you can possibly carry without making 2 trips...throw on top of that subzero temperatures and transpo isn't optional, it's required. Now, how to get them to do their job (just like anyone else)? Demand they perform the job they are supposed to do. When they do a good job, let them know. When they are substandard, let them know. If they are repeatedly substandard, let their supervisor/commander/group commander know. If it really becomes a problem, upchannel to the Wing King. To minimize problems, just have the SOF/Duty Desk call transpo when the a/c is about 10 min out from landing. Usually works out fine for us. I've only minor problems with Transpo a handful of times. Twice it was simply a miscommunication and the rest were guys simply being lazy; problem solved by contacting a supervisor. If you let them get away with halfassing it, they will continue to do so. BTW, we don't rely on command post to do this. We handle this amonsgt the bros; CP has enough to deal with.

Jango, I used to be Comm and worked a bunch with shoeclerks. That said, I don't view all support personnel as shoeclerks (like some people). In fact, there are quite a few bag-wearers that are shoeclerks. It's a mentality of, "sir, I can't give you those boots because then I will only have 3 pairs of that size remaining. My regulations state that I must have 4 pairs available at all times" (true story BTW). It's when people don't know the regulations of their own jobs and are going out of the way to make life difficult for the rest of us by going OUTSIDE of regulations that flyers get pissed off into the 3rd circle of hell. The Air Force doesn't fly without maintenance and support.

KC-135s are over 50 as are almost all of the BUFFs (at least one has a 62-XXXX tail number)

I don't think so. Individual platforms may get better (F-22 is a major improvement on the F-15), but the overall capabilities are rapidly dropping: the F-22 can carry roughly the same armament as an F-15C, but there are far fewer of them. Let's take the analogy one step further: for the sake of round numbers, let's say the 400 F-15s could carry 4 AMRAAMs each and roughly half of their missiles would be hits. With the same payload, the F-22 increased the percentage of hits to 100%...but there are only 100 of them. By not increasing the buy of F-22s the overall capability of the AF drops as F-15s are retired/fall apart in midflight (couldn't resist that one) 2

This is amazingly short-sighted and Marine-oriented. 1a. The AF jets are OLDER than the USMC jets (on average). No one on the AF side is using that as an excuse for accident rates. 1b. Older jets DO break more often no matter how good maintenance is because the parts are older and more prone to breakage. 2. We've lost more personnel in the Air Force jet than Marine Corps jets 3. The F-22 (the "A" was dropped about a year ago, genius) indeed has a mission. Just because it doesn't directly support the troops on the ground in one country doesn't mean it doesn't have a role. I suppose the NAOC plane is useless as is AF1, Cobra Ball, and a slew of others that aren't in Iraq right now. 4. I challenge this "reporter" to reveal who said "The Air Force and Navy can dominate their battle space. Why can't the Army and Marines?" because I don't know a single person in the AF who doesn't understand the basic problems with ground combat. Sure, the AF and Navy are kings of their domain and it is reasonable to ask what can be done to help the Army/Marines attain a better combat readiness/effectiveness, but politics are largely the problem, not what the Marines/Army has done. 5. Air Dominance is merely a term, but the F-22 was the first a/c designed with this in mind. Other fighters were designed to be superior. This one was designed to fly with impunity. 6. We do NOT fill "imaginary combat roles", but real ones. B-52s were on-call CAS during Tora Bora and were the only ones with the legs to maintain on-station for their full duration (Marine a/c dropped all their weapons on one or two passes and went home!...to be fair, so did most AF aircraft). RC-135s provide critical intel. B-2s can get into/out of HIGHLY contested airspaces. Just because we've beaten the insurgents back in Iraq to the point where we can fly and sail with impunity doesn't mean the next war will be the same. 7. "Still, I wanted to be fair." BS 8. "...Air Force and Navy combat challenges are engineering problems, matters of physics and geometry. Our Army and Marines, by contrast, face brutally human, knife-fight conflicts that require human solutions." Guess what, AF problems ALSO require human solutions just as Army/USMC problems require engineering and geometry. Indeed, the AF does do not have knife fights, but that isn't a problem of "institutional greed". 9. "But the Air Force doesn't have any solutions. Just institutional greed." The Air Force has plenty of problems and plenty of solutions to ITS problems. It isn't our responsibility to fix the problems on the ground (though we fill enough Army posts in Iraq to make you think otherwise...my brother is AF Civil Engineering and is deployed with the Army because they fill their own CE ranks. They've had this problem for 15+ years and are happy to rely on the AF to fix their problems. I contend that this is THEIR problem and they are content to not fix it. 10. "Their strategy? Lie about capabilities and costs. Belittle the genuine dangers facing our country, while creating imaginary threats." I see no evidence of lies, only accusations. No one is belittling ANYTHING that you've shown at ALL! In short, it is a poorly "researched", biased, half-assed political piece for the ground pounders. It doesn't reflect reality.

EQ Promote to training assignment ASAP to mold our young aviators!

^^^ 3 It would be nice if there were a SecDef/SecAF who sought the opinions of "the little people" like SecDef Gates did in his previous job: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/texasam/stories/120906dnspogates.2afb538.html

interesting tidbit on FRED:

3.5 hours late on this conversation...

Ok, so I learned something today (USAF ONLY flies the PAVE HAWK and not the Blackhawk...but the Pave Hawk is merely a variant of the Blackhawk airframe), but I stand by the essence of my comment: you should know the basic airframes of your service. Perhaps they were told they were getting a ride on a different airframe?

Thanks! Later in the broadcast: Looks like some sort of cargo aircraft. The A-6 is a Vietnam-era attack aircraft with a single pilot...

AF Leadership EPIC fail! If I ever get to a level of leadership where it could make any difference, I will make sure that everyone knows basic a/c ID (to include helicopters!): To the helicopter dude, I'm not sure I could pick out an H-60 vs. an HH-60 or an MH-60 or an MH-60 DAP (ok, that last one's kinda distinctive and I'd probably get that one). But AF personnel should recognize a BASIC airframe, i.e. yours is a blackhawk and the E-3 is a -135 variant. Shack