RTB

In the Army, a 22 year old 1 or 2Lt is a platoon leader in command of 30-50 people. As a 26 year old Capt he/she is a Company Commander leading 100-200 people. Then later, after lots of experience already leading, they get Battalion Command as an O-5. So when an Air Force officer gets their first true command experience as an O-4/5, an Army or Marine counterpart has had multiple command tours by that time. They get experience as commanders at a very early age dealing with all the associated issues but in gradually increasing levels of responsibility.

Perhaps this is my juvenile mind at work, but can you imagine how many people would be out intentionally screwing with those driverless trucks just for entertainment purposes? "Hey Bubba, watch this..."

No idea, will tap out here and let someone with more specific experience chime in...

I will refer you back to my "bird in the hand" comment. No idea how easy age waivers are these days. But taking a sure thing and turning it into a "maybe, waiver required" situation is probably not a wise move. Yes, so true.

Well that does change things a bit and presents an interesting situation. Will your current unit let you defer OTS and UPT? It sounds like the other unit doesn't even know who you are so would you just be throwing your name in the hat as an off the street hire? Are they both Guard? Both Reserve? Same state? There's a good chance that having been hired already by one unit would give you a big leg up with the other unit since you've already been vetted to some degree. If you can apply to the fighter unit without jeopardizing your C-130 slot, I'd definitely do it. Go to the unit and talk to their hiring guy and lay out your situation and see what they say. But again, it would suck to lose your current slot chasing a fighter slot and be left with nothing.

Take the bird in the hand now! You can always transfer units after you get your wings. Starting over and re-applying could be a very tough road.

Becoming a military pilot is a serious commitment of time and energy for sure but it can be incredibly rewarding. It's not a job to go into casually though. If you're getting cold feet, you really need to assess if this is something you're driven to do. And your family needs to be on board too or you'll have a very tough time. I wouldn't trade my time flying in the Air Force for anything, it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, but that's not to say everything was sunshine and rainbows. It will undoubtedly be better as a Guard or Reserve part timer than an Active Duty guy, but there will still be things that suck at times. Can't speak to the ops tempo of your chosen unit, but as a part timer, you should have a fair amount of control of that eventually. As to the flying requirements, someone with part time C-130 experience will need to chime in. As for the balancing of your current career and part time AF flying, literally thousands of guys before you have been able to manage both their traditional civilian job and their part time flying commitment. Not everyone goes into the airlines and they make it work just fine. That said, as I'm sure you're aware, you will be on full time orders for a while as you get through OTS, UPT, FTU and then some seasoning so you'll be away from your current job for a couple years potentially. Your civilian company is required to keep you on, but that doesn't mean they'll be happy about it so only you can know what those tea leaves are telling you. Some companies have been fantastic to their military employees, others have been horrible and many are somewhere in between. Bottom line is, you've been given an incredible opportunity to become a military pilot in a part time capacity. That's about as good as it gets in my opinion, but only if you're motivated to do it. Good luck with the decision! (Full disclosure: I was full time AD my whole career, but spent many years working alongside part timers with varying civilian careers so while i didn't live the part time life, I worked with and knew many who did.)

Pretty sure I know that guy but there could be quite a few. Guy I know is an F-22 dude whose apps were in the system and updated regularly pre-1500 hours. Got the interview invite right after updating to 1500. Hired shortly thereafter. Still a reservist and living the dream by all accounts...

I'm very confused...what is happening here?

Damn, he got screwed.

This is so spot on

One of the return to active duty pilots? Was he a volunteer? I knew a voluntary return pilot, a passed over major that came back as soon as the program was offered several years ago. He flew in our squadron and worked an ACC flying staff billet. This was during the height of the random deployment frenzy to Iraq and AFG but his contract did not allow involuntary deployments so he never deployed. Oh, and he got promoted to Lt Col and got his 20 year AD retirement. Worked out well for him.

If I read the article right, the modified mask doesn't tie into OBOGS? How does that work? And is the T-45 cockpit unpressurized?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Strange choice.

I'll second that. Gotta be a pilot since he knows exactly how to push everyone's buttons. To whoever is giving voice to Chang, well played sir, well played.

Fellas, this dude is clearly just fucking with everyone. Not worth even a second of your time - it's all bullshit.

2!

They've also got a .45 shield w/o thumb safety for $274.99 after mail in rebate.

That is awesome

Huh? Suck my thumb? Don't post an article? Never contradict anything you post? OK Hot Shot! Never claimed to be an expert. And it's pretty presumptuous of you to say something like "I don't think you realize" when you have no fucking idea what I do or don't have background in. NYT was one of several open sources I could have cited that simply showed that WMD were found in unexpected places, although NOT part of the claimed ongoing weapons program that actually didn't exist. As I stated in my first post, "I'll probably take some grief for this..." because to state there were "no WMDs" is technically false. There were. Just not the ones we thought would be there.

You don't think I realize? What a jackass statement to make. Well aware of what was going on between 1993-2003...since I was flying over it all the time, we tended to keep up with current events over there. Many of the areas 'discovered' post 2003 were apparently not documented from previous inspection programs. They had been lost by Saddam's regime or hidden from inspectors years before.

I realize that. But to say there were no WMDs is wholly inaccurate. Not arguing that the premise for the invasion, an active weapons program, was inaccurate (despite the collective opinions of most of the world's intel communities). Just pointing out that anyone claiming there were NO WMDs is wrong.

I'll probably take some grief for this, but technically, there were thousands of WMD shells found in Iraq after the 2003 Gulf War, at least according to the NY Times. Now, these weren't part of an active program to produce new weapons, but they were there...

It's crazy that this isn't a HUGE story.

Basically it is a bullshit position created solely for the purpose of managing the extraordinary mountains of queep that are now required to be generated on a daily basis.