Danger41

10000% shack. You’re completely right about the long term phased planning. And then add at least 20% to every quantifiable metric (especially time). The other thing that absolutely drives me bananas with air power experts is that when the ground force commander says something, they just go “okay”. NO! Offer the realistic answer and tell the truth. The GFC is just some guy the same way we all are and they aren’t infallible. It’s almost like we’ve got people that are afraid to tell ground folks they can’t do something. There’s a difference between a Ranger digging deep to keep moving through physical exhaustion to reach an objective and an airplane running out of gas. Flip side of that is find a way to “yes” and don’t hide behind interpretive rules to say no to everything. If there’s a T-3 waiver needed for mission accomplishment and you can do it, get that guy on the phone and get it waived. Sorry for the rant. This topic gets under my skin.

It’s both. You get C-17’s and whatever else stacked up waiting to land and a bunch of dudes showing up with a “Kabul traffic, Reach 69…” it’s going to be a massive disaster. Any of you MLAT types pitch in. I’m all for CTAF and uncontrolled ops (I was a CFII before I joined and flew that type of flying 90%). My community still does it quite a bit and it’s funny how quickly it can fall apart with a few airplanes and nobody talking charge.

Big difference going into Bumfuck Municipal and HKIA as it’s swarming with thousands of refugees. Even if you can land, where are you going to park your airplane without direction in that environment?

What I would love to see from the Government is using this pandemic as a catalyst to address the obesity and general health in this country. Show how the comorbidities make this so much worse and push healthy lifestyle. Vaccines are fine but that shouldn’t be the only thing. I will get nuked by the libertarians here but I would gladly pay more in taxes for healthier school lunches/all food in schools, subsidized organic food production and distribution to drive down cost, and some kind of fitness voucher or something like that. To me, this has shown that much of this country would literally rather die than being told to lose weight.

Cool story! When I used to teach at WIC, I wouldn’t let students coordinate LFE’s via text or anything to simulate geographic splits and not having that option down range. Looks like it may be time to update the white force TTP!

I think the Sq/CC thing was just that the guy was a PITA and this was finally the last straw. Ironically he’s now going down as a hero when the week prior he wasn’t liked lol. This is all second hand so who knows but I can peddle in rumors at a truly elite level.

I’m confident we’re done with the “M” portion of DIME over there for awhile. I’m sure there are some guarantees to the Taliban about how they protected the airport and we won’t bomb them back the Stone Age. And since our State Department did such a bang up job last time, it’s good to know they’re in the lead.

We were told that you would be subject to Article 92 of the UCMJ (Failure to obey order or regulation). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/892

Got the email from my boss a scant 24 hours after that pesky Afghanistan thing closed up that it’s now time to get the vaccine or get paperwork. Ah, morale. Good stuff.

I’m not a Commander or anybody worth much of a crap in the military, but I’d be willing to be a part of that movement. I don’t think those actions are disloyal or anything like that. Hell, I’d say Lt Col Scheller’s actions epitomize the USAF’s core values in asking for integrity, putting the service before the individual, and a demand for excellence.

T-38

I was going to let Guardian get to it but he’s not so I’ll just add the Paul Harvey rest of the story. The T-38 Sq/CC was fired for not wanting to give the Q-3’s, as well. I’ve got info from some folks there and there’s always more to the story but this is also an interesting detail that I’m sure will take this thread into a productive direction lol.

I’d argue that “tooling around” by unknown aircraft without proper modes and codes and in a no fly zone and not on appropriate frequencies pushes into hostile act/hostile intent territory at a minimum. Hell, the VID pass (which they admittedly messed up) was against the ROE they should have been working under anyway to even further complicate it. Reference the comment earlier about not getting the intel on helicopter configurations and paint schemes is a major foul. This honestly reminds me of one time I had a Gunship guy just shitting all over the B-1 crew that dropped on a friendly CCT and fratted several Army SF in Afghanistan when they didn’t know their pod couldn’t see IR strobes. He derisively laughed and scoffed the B-1 guys and said “we would never do that”. I then asked him how Konduz happened. He had no response. In the interest of focusing this thread on the here and now of Afghanistan, I’m dropping my arguments on the 1994 Blackhawk shoot down. If the mods want to create a new thread, I’ll gladly go 15 rounds in there.

Well when your target isn’t where they’re supposed to be in the ATO, they aren’t talking on the appropriate frequencies, the AWACS doesn’t give any help and even negative help, and are flying directly in an area where you’ve been told to kill helos that are killing your allies, it’s not just on the Eagles. Yes, they ultimately pulled the trigger and are therefore responsible, but blaming them solely is completely unfair. Tragic event that produced lessons for a myriad of communities. And if you think something like that couldn’t happen to you and your community, you’re completely out to lunch.

My advice based on the context of what you’re saying is this: If it fucks, flies, or floats it’s cheaper to rent.

Sorry for the double tap but fire this fuck and get the AC’s from those C-17’s out of HKIA in there. At least those folks have fucking balls.

Until the clock runs out or we run out of capability? THIS IS AMERICA GODDAMNIT. Stop being such fucking losers, wtf. Now that we don’t have to pretend with the GIRoA anymore, start acting like a superpower is supposed to act.

Not the infrastructure but the made to order military that was left for them. Anything outside of Kabul airport now that’s not in Panshjir and is a military piece of equipment is now on the targeting list. They don’t want to lose that stuff. Forget HVI crap, plink all the vehicles and ammo dumps if they fuck around. Sure, they can get more from China etc but it appears we don’t have much leverage at this point to prevent the aforementioned scenario you laid out, unfortunately.

I know CENTCOM CC met with Taliban in Doha and I sincerely hope he said that if there’s one hostage or any kind of attack on Americans that we will be launching so many attacks on their gains that Curtis LeMay will be doing back flips from beyond the grave.

So you have a problem with getting an American out of Kabul?

Can't confirm anything, but I suspect there's a quid pro quo with the Taliban now. They haven't attacked us at all (how easy would it be to lob mortars from the city?) that I'm aware of. We must have told them to let us get our people out and then it's yours but if you mess with us, everything you just gained is going to get the Linebacker II treatment.

Get our people out and stop with these stupid ass ROE. These Taliban fucks want to come out and conquer territory and threaten Americans, I hope we kill a few thousand of them via PGM as our parting gift.

The article laid out that he believes that recent statements by officials (Dr Fauci, in this case) reveal that mask wear is not based in science but social pressure. Wearing a mask based on a “lie” is a sin based on his beliefs and his religious beliefs prevent going along with that. If it’s true, I respect him for going with it. If it’s made up and he’s attempting to take advantage of the religious accommodation system to make a political statement, I hope he gets ran out of town on a rail and kicked out.

I actually do (including a 4 time gold medalist who is no longer with us —Al Oerter). Each time he won a gold medal, there was some crazy circumstances making it more difficult, but he stepped up and did it. He won his 3rd gold with torn cartilage in his ribs and a neck brace from a car wreck. The pain was too bad to make his final throw and the doctors said he shouldn’t compete but he said “These are the olympics. You die for them.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Oerter I know that’s all just toxic masculinity and white male privilege, but it’s an incredible story. He also kept the 4 gold medals in an unlocked desk drawer and the Olympic torch from 1996 leaning on the corner of his office (which was mainly family pictures and his own art). I actually dropped one of them as a kid and he just laughed and told me it was okay. He was a great man. We will never agree and I don’t have a leg to stand on because my athletic achievements were nowhere near that level. My issue is with this cultural movement of glorifying quitting and the individual over the team. I’m absolutely not faulting her for her choice and applaud her sincerely for earning the bronze on the beam later. That’s incredibly impressive and a credit to her to do that. I also don’t want to minimize the impact of a family member’s death or physical impairment (whether injury or equilibrium problems or whatever). I’m supremely happy about the focus on mental health and hope this, Naomi Osaka, etc help to remove the stigma about discussing and helping those who need it. I don’t view her as “weak” or “can’t hack it”. I understand it’s a story but Suni Lee, Jade Carey and others on the same team went on to win gold medals in women’s gymnastics but all the discussion was on Simone. It is what it is. The last thing that really irks me about this situation is any kind of racism and/or sexism implication to those that didn’t think her decision was heroic. That’s another cultural thing but who knows if we’re ever going to back off from that.

Happy for him. Sent my line number back several years while simultaneously increasing my AD USAF time 3 years haha.