BQZip01

It all depends on how you respond. In the cigarette incident mentioned above, IMHO, the best thing would have been to walk off to the side (out of the way of foot traffic) with the cigarette still lit and talk to the little piss ant in a low voice (and if he interrupts tell him to shut up and just listen). "Listen. I'm walking to the smoke pit right now. My butts aren't going anywhere other than in a proper disposal. The ash is going to fly where ever the wind takes it. The smoke will do the same. There is no risk of fire or explosion with me lighting up a few paces away..." At this point calmly extinguish the cigarette with no fanfare or "cool" moves. "...you are indeed correct that I'm not yet in the pit and I will extinguish this as a sign of respect for the base rules..." (never say you have respect for a shoeclerk such as this. it only emboldens them) "...but I challenge you to find a better use for your time than wasting the time/efforts of others. Try using it to improve your squadron's morale instead of tearing it down millimeter by millimeter." Then walk away to the smoke pit. They will usually stand there dumbstruck. Those that are out there because they were ordered to be there and enforce a rule without mercy will sometimes thank you (can't fault those guys; they've been ordered to act like a shoeclerk). Be polite and they will have absolutely NOTHING to give to a commander for disciplinary means... ...then make sure you stop and light up about 6 paces outside the smoke pit just to emphasize your point and walk into the pit.

2 and congrats on 100 pages!

To "celebrate" this thread finally reaching 100 pages (this should be an indication as to how bad it really is), here's an image of the place BEFORE shoeclerkishness overran the gate and took hold...like that ever happened... P.S. Next entry=100 pages. I don't care who it is, but SOMEONE needs to do it (sts)

Maybe the 23d BS guys, but the 69th BS guys would probably turned down by the dozen... :-) ?? Not really sure how BQ got thrown in there, but Herbs?

How about a nice game of chess?

So they are being treated better abroad than at home?

rm by consensus by poster "fine...I don't hear any stories from you guys..."

If you want to throw an additional monkey wrench into the whole fiasco, you could also work into it: 1. The differences between "Mike" and "Five"; I've heard them get confused 2. The level of strictness when it comes to messages over HF (try listening to 11175 for about an hour and you'll hear streams of nothing more than gibberish letters)

At least it's an improvement. There used to be three airmen AND an NCO watching TV...

Guess what? The Portal is better than it was last year (CAC access finally gets you just about anywhere, and even the search function is starting to show some real promise in usefulness) That sounds like a local problem. Most of the stuff we get generally works better than the stuff it replaced. Bullshit. When you preorder 2000+ computers for a single base and you send a "ghost" image you want on the hard-drives, it actually lowers the cost since there are no optional programs for the company to add/customize. I should know: I was in charge of it for a year. We got machines that were approximately $1900 on the street for $438 a piece. Again, the problem with manning is something I addressed and resides at the Pentagon/SAF-level to get fixed. Blaming anyone in your installation is pretty much "ignut" I'm a fan of Linux, but the Air Force doesn't use it much (that's not to say it doesn't use it, Apple computers, CRAY supercomputers, etc, but that it isn't the office norm). Neither does most of corporate America. This makes integrating it that much harder (sts). We would spend the better part of a decade reintegrating all the programs that worked on our Microsoft machines (if you aren't a flyer, you simply won't understand the necessity of PEX and its near-absolute reliance on Windows XP). Again, ignorance. New threats emerge on a daily basis (check SIPR or higher for details) and are voluminous. Nothing new "defeats" a threat for long (the iPad has already been hacked...). Seriously, you are driving the equivalent of a 6-pack 2x4 while the guys at other computer-centric installations are operating with a fleet of SR-71s. To make the comparison you have there is merely ignorance. I concur that we do not help our networks out as well as we should, but we are leaps and bounds ahead of most of the rest of the governments of the world. We continue to use stable software platforms versus the latest-and-greatest because they work and they have the least number of problems.

QUIBBLING!!!

Checks, but proficiency needs only to be measured to a "1" for familiarization only...GTAR is at the front desk for those who didn't sign off their last currency when the rebel scum blew up the death star

I like how that photo shows a fleet with some producing contrails and others not (It's a conspiracy!!! Can't you tell!?!? Some planes have chemtrails while others don't!!!)...or it just could be that some are at lower/slightly warmer altitudes...

Just a little tidbit, he was NOT a gunner if he was a 1st Lt. Gunners were/are an enlisted-only profession, but stations on B-17s for some officers DID have guns.

Checks, but if you clean out your mailbox, this isn't a major factor (hint: sort by size and drag the biggest offenders to your .pst file...if you need help setting one up, I'd be happy to help). Why? External HDs are not illegal. Only USB thumb drives and flash media are.

Barksdale has lines (Gooch lines) painted on all taxiways that denote where the aircraft's wingtips reach if you are on centerline. They're named after the guy who came up with the idea after an unfortunate taxiing incident.

Tower and Cessna 172 Tower: Aero Club zero seven, winds 320 at 12 cleared for takeoff, runway 33 right AC 07: Aero Club zero seven heavy cleared for takeoff 33-right AC 07 IP (not realizing he's got a hot mic): I didn't eat that much at lunch you little f***er. Tower: Aero Club zero seven heavy, you may have a hot mic.

Google makes money while the AF is given it only after begging. There is no reason that they cannot increase our total space for a small quantity of money. The problem is basically Microsoft Outlook. While it is the standard and is pretty powerful, it also can take up a lot of space and bandwidth. What makes you think they don't? They are EXTREMELY thin on manning, but that is because manning documents are based on manning needs of the 1990s. If you think computers have become less complex since then, the REDUCTION in Comm manning should make perfect sense to you. For the rest of us living in the real world, it's insane. Perhaps this ops-centered focus will fix some of those problems. Bullshit. Newer systems have not been tested over time and have more holes than older systems. Do you think it is coincidence that we still run some programs on Windows XP when Vista and Windows 7 are out? We aren't behind technologically; we are secure. I'll take a secure network that runs slower than one that has fancy graphics and runs faster, but is a security risk any day. That is not the NSA's mission. Again, Check SIPR or higher for more info. The Air Force IS designed for it and Cyber-warfare should be waged by the military, not a civilian organization. While the AF may not be the only military entity out there, we are the most computer-centric and have the most to gain from controlling computers and networks. It is also part of our core missions: information warfare. Computer warfare and Electronic Warfare (of which the Air Force is DEFINITELY the lead military entity in the field) are VERY closely related and compliment each other to the point that it would be stupid NOT to do it. Comm is doing fine and when they are properly manned/funded you will likely see significantly better results, though I can certainly appreciate your frustration. There have been significant improvements in the past couple of years. :salut: 2+

Take into account that C-130s do not fly like F-16s because they aren't designed to do so. Likewise, I imagine an offensive/defensive capability would be the SR-71 while the rest of us are stuck in Cessna 172s to do office work... As for the rest of your rant, it shows both some common sense and a lack of knowledge on your part: 0. I too don't give a **** about whether they have wings or not. I think it is a misplaced idea, but could really care less. Everyone knows who the flyers are. However, you should care quite a bit about some info that is on SIPR. It would help to alleviate some of your ignorance. 1. Air Force e-mail does not suck and is quite secure. If you have issues with slow e-mail, it is likely a localized problem. A 75MB limit?!? Must be nice! I'm only allotted a mere 30 MB. The solution is for people to clean out their mailboxes. These are not a place for you to store everything indefinitely. Every time you log into a different computer, it has to load 75MB of e-mails into your machine. What do you think that does to network performance? While we could each chip in 50 cents and they could double your storage capacity, the basic problem would remain. The solution is to archive your e-mails in a .pst file and regularly back those up to an external drive somewhere. 2. The Air Force portal indeed sucks, but the search function is rapidly getting better (certainly not past a 60% solution, but it is significantly better than even last year) 3. Wow, an amazing lack of knowledge there. Do you have any idea why they've changed all of the desktop side of the house first? It's because of idiots like you who have no CLUE about the network architecture. Yeah, your desk units and the last 20 feet of the network are all up to that capacity, but I'll wager serious money that you will not see better service until the links to your servers, the base servers/between buildings is upgraded. If they upgraded that first, you would see no improvement until they upgraded your local systems, but as soon as they upgraded it, they would get requests from all over, "Amn Snuffy has high speed. Fix mine!!!" Instead, as money comes in for upgrades, you will see a marked improvement suddenly, but will not have any recent upgrades that you have seen=less whining from the "customer". 4. Air Force computer support sucks, no question, but they are also stretched quite thin. At my last assignment, we had 7 people for the entire 1500-member Group. That isn't even close to enough. As for your ADPE issues, AETC should have ordered the computers preconfigured with the proper software. As long as that was done properly, all you should need to do is literally plug them in and turn on the power. If you can't handle that, perhaps you should step away from the keyboard... I couldn't agree more that the bureaucracy indeed sucks mightily, but we do not behave like a corporate entity because our secrets are vital to national interests. If AT&T screws up and lets some information go, there might be a lawsuit. If the AF lets some information go, we could be in serious trouble as a nation. We face more attacks in a day than all corporations worldwide do in a year. If we wait until our office networks are "where [they] should be (as good as Google's, Apple's, or Microsoft's), [and only] then...start working on our offensive 'cyber' capabilities," we will only be further behind the power curve than we already are. Imagine a nest of Stingers at end of RWY 12 at Balad...one that we cannot get rid of and that we lose planes every time we use it. Guess what, we WON'T use RWY 12 at Balad and (don't BS me) you wouldn't fly it either until we could mitigate/defeat the threat! A minor inconvenience isn't worth the risk to our entire network.

What's the funniest thing you've heard over the radio, not the most annoying

1. That doesn't make any sense. Blues should be fine on the flightline. 2. Don't fight it! Tell them that blues can't be worn on the flightline and you, therefore, HAVE to wear a flightsuit/BDUs!

You must be Captain Unger... The complete scene:

Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

1800 Local...duh... (it's up to you to figure out the location Nice "Hot Shots" reference

Could take a while...