BigE

Friday night decisions... I've narrowed it to Augustiner Helles or Paulaner Dunkelweiss! Sometimes its a tough life - Prost!

Disagree. And I'm sorry you've never experienced leadership that could dope thru the BS to know who excels and doesn't at the actual mission - and then awards strats, recommendations, etc based upon same. Everybody's experiences are going to be different - every community has a slightly different culture - and god knows we seem to go thru waves of having good guys leading the pack to jackasses. I don't know if you dudes lived thru the snapshot of time when AADs were masked and met promotion boards with the policy in effect. AADs were not a factor in any step of the promotion process - Squadron, Group, Wing, etc were prohibited specifically for using the lack/accomplishment of a Masters in determining jack and shit. Maybe it was just my experience - but that's how it worked. In fact I think you might still be prohibited from mentioning work or accomplishment of a AAD in OPRs - same for correspondence PME (not 100% on that). Fück - back in the late 90s/early 2000s a policy came down talking about how we needed tactical level experts sticking around to 20 - and not every swinging dick needed to be on the command track to make LtCol. You could 'track' into staying at the ops squadron and remain flying for 20 and still get promoted. Guess how many dudes wanted that? That is also gone the way of Friday T-shirts and moral patches. Now - I'm not saying the leadership was behind the whole "AADs have no factor in promotion" policy - hence the reason it changed. And I think education is a good thing - at the proper time. My very humble and uninformed opinion of why they took it out of the promotion process was to put an emphasis on force shaping - we'll send you to get a degree if you need it, increase in school opportunities, etc. This was around the same time the DT boards/ODPs were starting to take off and we had 'stop practice bleeding' guidance reminding commanders to not be stupid requiring guys to do correspondence PME prior to going in-residence. It was also acknowledging how a AAD was becoming the sole go/no-go factor in promotion - to the detriment of other factors that should have more weight. The memo from the current AF/A1 is echoing some of those same sentiments. Comments on these boards shows how much of a factor AADs are having on promotions and if you read between the lines this is senior level AF leadership telling Wing Commanders to KIO (kind of - it should be worded stronger if you ask me). I've posted on this subject before in another thread - I thought masking AADs was a policy we got right - till we didn't - and the current trend is worse - I wouldn't be surprised to see it go masked again. More interesting (at least to me) is that I thought this was something Welsh was taking up - and it sounds like some of his feedback might be actually gaining some traction. This is just an indicator - specifically on the AAD factor and more generally on 'what's wrong with the AF' problems we all bitch about - that the every swinging pendulum may be at an extreme and starting to move back to center. Back to my beer! e

and the pendulum starts to swing the other way (just a little)... Is Gen Welsh's efforts being heard? _____________ From: Jones, Darrell D Lt Gen MIL AF/A1 Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2011 4:17 PM Leaders, Based on recent questions and feedback from the field, we request your assistance to reiterate Air Force guidance on advanced academic degrees (AADs) and promotion recommendations to all Senior Raters. The Air Force has no policy guidance (nor would it support any) leading Senior Raters to determine award of Definitely Promote (DP) recommendations based "solely" on completion of masters degrees for Majors or Lt Cols. Although an advanced academic degree (AAD) is an important factor in an officer's promotion potential, it is only one factor of many within the "whole-person" promotion philosophy. Other factors include: professional qualities, leadership, depth and breadth of experience, job responsibility, developmental education, specific achievements, and job performance. Of these factors, job performance is the most important. Because of the needs of the Air Force, not all officers have had the same opportunity to enroll in or complete advanced degree programs. The Air Force considers it essential that our officers have the knowledge and competency to accomplish the mission. Officer undergraduate and advanced academic degrees are displayed on Officer Selection Briefs at promotion boards for all competitive category records. However, completion of advanced academic education, like other whole person factors, must be assessed in terms of how it enhances performance and potential; and contributes to the mission and effectiveness of the Air Force. Senior Raters and commanders should encourage officers to pursue their AAD -- however, Senior Raters must not make DP recommendations for Majors or Lt Cols based solely on whether an officer completed his/her AAD. Please share the above with your Senior Raters. V/R, DJ END PART TWO Posted 12 Sep 11

When its time to input 3849s (generally April timeframe) a message will go out and you'll be opted to complete same in AFPC Secure. Your Wing will probably have its own timelines for completion as well so pay attention. Along with the message indicating the 3849 process is open will be a CONOPS with school descriptions and requirements (will include both IDE and SDE info). The message has much of the same dope and explains the process along with numbers for each school. You'll probably only have a couple weeks to shift thru the info and electronically input your 3849. The schools, numbers, requirements, etc change year to year but if you do find last years copy it will be pretty similar to give you a vector. I also seem to remember an AFPC powerpoint explaining how to fill out the 3849 and the timeline of DT and School Boards. Your Wing CC has three groups to rank you in - selects (from your promotion board), candidates (non-school selects), and eligibles (selects + candidates). He doesn't necessarily have to recommend you for school to AFPC - ie your 3849 may or may not leave base and they may even tell you don't bother to fill one out. If you are a select and he doesn't recommend you for school by your third look he has to answer to AFPC as to why. Once all 3849s are at AFPC sometime over the summer DTs meet and rack and stack their dudes (CAF, MAF, SOF, etc) with their recommendations for specific schools. After that all the DT lists are put together to form one complete rack and stack - I have no idea how they kluge the separate DT stacks but they do. The Small Schools Board and Academy AOC gets to cherry pick their guys first and then a cut line is made based upon numbers of available school slots. The School Board then tries to mach your desires with your DT school vector starting at the top of the combined rack and stack. If dudes get out, ops defer, decline school, etc after results are out they go to the alternate list. For small schools they make their own alternate list (I think). For everything else the alternate list is based upon your DT. So is a CAF dude drops out a CAF dude fills the slot (sts) from the CAF alternate list. I've seem a number of dudes get picked up on the alternate lists. You will know if you are an alternate but not where you sit on the list unless your CC is a good dude and finds out for you from AFPC. If you are applying for in-residence credit based upon whatever program you have done (TPS, RAS training, Fletcher Scholarship, under-water basket weaving, etc) and were above the cut line for getting a school slot - congrats - you get in-residence credit and your record will indicate same once correspondence PME is complete. For every one dude getting in-residence credit the cut line is adjusted by one dude. I think that about covers the 3849 process. The above if off the top of my nugget and I haven't payed attention for a couple years so things may have changed but I'd give it a +69% CEP. I will drink heavily for being able to explain the above. But - the more you know the better prepared you can be to make decisions. Back to my Pils! e

Policy attached (Masking of Degrees - Practice Bleeding was a different message reminding Commanders to follow the attached). I actually thought the AF got this one right - until they changed their mind. And now we find ourselves in the situation we have today. Funny how both the Navy and Army have different views on PME and Masters. I understand Army sends 100% to in-residence IDE. And when at Leavenworth and want a Masters you have to take a ###### load of extra classes through an off site school - ie its not part of their JPME Level 1 program like our ACSC. The Navy doesn't really care if you go in-residence to Navy War College or not (IDE or SDE) - in fleet experience is more important for progression and command (imagine that). I heard a rumor Army was 100% promotion to O-5, no masters - doesn't matter - their retention sucks. Unfortunately the attached policy never really took hold, probably because senior leaders (as low as OG and Wing CC) never got behind the idea - despite being told to do so and reminded thru the follow on 'stop Practice Bleeding' by LGen Brady. Hell, when I went to Shoe Flag their wasn't a DG program and talk was they were going to do the same for ACSC. Mindset being a DG at PME was over inflating careers and you should promote and progress based upon performance outside of a ######ing DG at a PME course. Don't know it its still true but there was a point when 100% went to SOS - if you didn't go in your 3 years of eligibility it was because the Wing screwed you - not because there wasn't slots. Policy resending the attached had something to the effect of 'we didn't realize how many people were going to stop pursuing advanced education" as a reason to bring it back. Which should have told you how many people were square filling. Verse what Jumper said for how we promote: "Promotion is, and will continue to be, determined by your performance and demonstrated leadership potential to serve in the next higher grade." I like that. Too bad it doesn't seem to be the case. The practice bleeding policy was eventually overturned as well - essentially admitting that the AF can't develop officers properly so you may get ######ed even if a select and Commander's should encourage all officers to get correspondence PME done ASAP. I know a guy who got Ops Deferred to IDE because of instructor manning at the WIC - not because of a deployment to war - because they couldn't manage IP manning properly so they Ops Defer a guy to stick around and teach a syllabus - what a joke. We seem to have gone off the deep end - Lts signing up for SOS (WTF!!!), Captains thinking they won't get promoted if they don't have a Masters, etc. Talk about having your tactical level experts (or those who should be devoting all their efforts to same) wasting brain bites on the wrong things. Give it a bit - 5 bucks this policy will come back cause the current situation and trend is worse than it was before. Meanwhile you might get screwed at a promotion. But life if about choices - and you have to decide what is important - the classic Boyd - do you want to do something or be somebody? I had a CC who used to say - its not a difficult game - but its still a game. And the absolute best argument I ever heard about doing correspondence PME when told you're going in residence -- or getting a Masters when you'll get it at same in-residance PME -- is you might actually learn something. Which is great - till you're missing time with your family or the rest of us are picking up your slack in the squadron because 'ever Tues after 1500' you're at class. For what its worth - here's my example and where it got me with this game. I didn't do SOS by correspondence but did sign up and put the books on my desk - went in residence. Don't have a Master's or ACSC by correspondence - currently sitting at German General Staff in Hamburg, Germany after spending a year at DLI in Monterey, CA attempting to learn German. 3 years as a student (German IDE is 2 years) means I won't be complete by my IPZ look at O-5 and have the same Narrative Only PRF meeting 3 promotion boards from summer 2009. I'll let you know how the O-5 promotion works out - but it really doesn't matter - if I don't get promoted I might actually be able to get back to flying quicker and stay flying longer. Do a kick ass job in your current squadron/mission - work to be on the short list when the Boss puts together the line up for night one. The rest will take care of its self. If it doesn't your leadership sucks - which is unfortunate for all of us - but the bros know who does it right (sts) and who doesn't - if you have your priorities right you won't care. And remember being a bro doesn't mean you're a slug that only drinks beer and plays 4,5,6 - it means you know what is important and what is bullshit and are an asset not a liability in the air and in the squadron. As others have said on these boards, you should know how the process works and then you can make informed decisions about what is important to you in life. E Force Development - Changing the Education Mindset.pdf

2 Maker's Ambassador #275603, Barrel #790590. In a pinch I find Evan Williams Single Barrel to be extremely good. I also think Basil Hayden's is top notch. And if you're going to drink Tennessee Whisky I like George Dickel. Anyone try Maker's 46 yet? Looks promising! But - my go to favorite is plain ol' nectar of the Gods Maker's Mark - I am an ambassador after all! e

Don't worry - I already know how many troops we have and where they are. Gorgon Stare - found it.

Looking for some help. Been searching/reading forever but can't find the post a while back linking to some new ISR capes our UAVs are getting/fielding. For the life of me I can't remember the callsign of said program to search for as well. Post had something along the lines of 'this is a freaking cool callsign' and someone else posting a link to an overview slide - 1 UAV with multiple cameras with significant more coverage and multi tasking to allow multiple simultaneous sensor looks. Something like that. Anyone see that post/link recently or was it lost in the transition to the new UAV forum? Any help is much appreciated!

I can't specifically talk to Ramstein as I'm up north in Hamburg but I'll second a lot of the other replies. 1) Furniture is a crap shoot. You can get whatever you want over here - but you might pay for it - or not. IKEA (like already mentioned) is great. We dropped something like 1500 Euro on furniture when getting here updating a bunch of stuff. Prices for what we got were very equal if not better than what we could have gotten back home. Then recently my 20 year old leather Lazy Boy recliner finally fell apart (my Frau almost jumped for joy). Great I say - time for a new one - and then I start looking at american style recliners on the German economy. Lets just say I'll be waiting to get a new one... But for sofas, especially in the K-town area - I think you'll be fine. Don't forget you'll save on tax over here too. So I might suggest saving on one less move with your furniture and buying once in country. 2) Bikes - big 2 on bringing them. German's view bikes as transportation vehicles and for many they are their only mode of personal transportation. Bike paths are everywhere. Kids ride all over the place as well. Its really different then back home with transportation - not just bikes but buses, trains, etc. Rode the bike this morning to the local bakery to pick up fresh croissants, brötchen, etc for breakfast. We have one car here - it rocks. I spend the money we save on gas on beer. I find it to be a good trade. 3) You'll have to decide for yourself. We downsized a lot before coming over, sold washer/dyer, etc and brought everything - didn't put a think in storage. I would NOT put a washer and dryer in storage but it sounds like around Ramstein you might find some very US friendly rentals. That was not the case for us in Hamburg so it was good to not have some of that big stuff and we have the loaner stuff from Shinnen, to include washer/dryer, fridge and freezer. We do use the transformers for a lot - but some stuff still won't work - and I just have a corner in the basement of stuff we aren't going to use. Remember it not just the 220 v 110 volt but also the 50 v 60 herz that might bite ya. Overall I think you'll find that Ramstein (Germany for that matter) is very accommodating to Americans. Toro posted some gauge around here somewhere for showing up in Germany - its spot on. Ship your car early - (like really early). Rentals are cheaper in the US than in Germany - big time. Germany rocks - we have been here since July and are having an absolute blast - congrats on the assignment! e

340 FTG Yes - all the flying bases have Reserve Associate Units with IPs flying with all the UPT squadrons... also PIT and IFF.

Noted. I understand it is Friday evening - and you, like me - have probably had a couple beverages - so maybe you retyped your initial response like I have - but thanks for the laugh! Oh yea - you're proving you know jack and shit - and I can't even begin to explain why...

If your jet drops iron - then you should be ready AND trained to execute CAS. May not be in your DOC - you certainly may not be tasked as such on the ATO - but if/when the time comes that someone needs your iron NOW and you're not able to do so efficiently, effectively, and professionally - then you have failed. Different jets have different limitations - a B-52, B-1, or B-2 is never going to be the preferred platform for most scenarios requiring a CAS asset - but if its what you have now - then the bros in the jet need to be ready to execute - with what they can do. And for you BONE dudes out there - I know, CAS has become a primary mission for you as of late - and you spend a lot of time training to same - but Bomber CAS is called that for a reason - its just well - executed differently. I would be surprised to learn there is a bomb dropping platform out there that doesn't at least have a Chapter in their TTPs talking about CAS - which means you should read it, understand it, and train to it. Obviously may not be something you spend the majority of your time on - but never-the-less visited as part of your training plan. If your leadership is not ensuring the above is happening - they are sadly failing you. And if the AF decides they want more shit on different platforms - then I'm sure the bros are going to be just that - professionals that get the J.O.B done, despite whatever stupid handcuffs are given them. Great thing about not being an ass and someone that can learn - other bros with experience will help you to figure it out - and in this case it sounds like Cleared Hot and his guys have long ago been doing such. Now if we could just get a FAC(A) like HiFlyer buzzing around - who is inherently close to the fight, with SA, the brainpower to FAC in the strikers, ability to pull CAT 1 coords for the JDAMs, we might have something... but alas I have rambled too long - and its St-Patis Day - and my not so Irish Scotch is empty... e

I'll go with JDAM. Not that 5000lbs of steel won't ruin your day. Now the GBU57? Now your talking some serious HDBT stuff!