RescueRandy

All CV-22 squadrons will likely sacrifice some personnel to take over the 7th SOS at Mildenhall. Additionally, pipeline studs are heading that way. As far as the PACAF squadron, plans to standup are for 2014. Beyond that, I haven't heard anything.

"Powered Lift"

In addition to "shoe clerk," the terms "Non-er" (as in Non-Flyer) and "bean counter" are near and dear to the hearts of some in our community. On a related note, one of my new favorite terms... "Sky Pig" for security forces non-ers.

I'm now working with Dave Devine on a refi for an investment/rental property we have in Tucson, AZ. Looks like we're going to be able to lower our rate a full percentage-point to 3.25%. It would have been lower if it were our primary residence. The bank is also giving us $1000 in lender credit to cover costs. Looks like we're going to be able to lower our monthly payment nearly $200. The best part is, our renters' rent will now cover PITI and our property management fees! All-in-all, our situation looks like it's going to be similar to what ThreeHoler described above. We're due to PCS again this summer and, as long as the rest of process goes this smoothly, we may go with NBOKC for our next home buy.

CMR is certainly not an all encompassing requirement. After all, there were plenty of FAIPs at Vance with A2s when I was there. The guys are right that it's generally unit specific.

Man! I didn't realize checking IDs was such an honor. All that work in UPT/IQT for nothing!

Nearly three years after getting CMR, finally bought my own A2 from Pop's. For those of you out there thinking about buying your own, do so immediately! We need combat aviators to dress the part again!

"The Air Force plans include leveraging in-production air vehicles and training systems while integrating existing technologies to deliver this new combat capability." Just sayin'...

Having worn the MultiCam A2CU downrange, I can say it's vastly superior to both the bag and the ABU (GTFO, right?). Granted the shirt is not sewn to the pants (sorry pointy-nose guys), but the cut, the material, the design and the camo pattern are all more effective for both flight (without a G-suit) and daily ground ops. And, OBTW, there's plenty of space for patches. The single-source solution for all branches should be MultiCam ACUs for shoeclerks and A2CUs for aviators. All that remains is to make a 1-piece pajama for the ejection seat dudes.

HH-60: 6-ish months. TDY to Kirtland enroute to your ops unit. CV-22: Two TDYs enroute to your ops unit. 4-ish months at MCAS New River flying the MV. Then, 6-ish months at Kirtland flying the CV. Edit: Formatting

You could always go CSAR. As a -60 bubba, I got to land on USN, Royal Navy (with beer ration), and French Navy ships. Fun times!

Outside terminal area? Highest: FL310 (T-6). Lowest: 75-ish AGL (H-60). Fun! BTW, VFR or IFR is a choice that every USAF pilot should be able to make for the needs of the mission at any time. He or she certainly should not be limited by his/her competence in flying in either regime. Period. Edit: Formatting

Unless there are some epic tits waiting for you in Chicago, I'd say skip Chicago.

As a proud former Pedro, all I have to say is "Git 'er done!" Way to hack the mish.

Thread Revival... in case people were still wondering. AFI 36-2903, 18 July 2011: "2.13.6. When in uniform or civilian clothes (in an official capacity), Airmen must not engage in public displays of affection including, but not limited to, holding hands (except when holding a young child‘s hand), walking arm-in-arm, embracing, caressing, and kissing. Public displays of affection are inappropriate as they violate a long-standing custom of theservice and may be service discrediting since indiscriminate displays of affection detract from the professional image the Air Force intends to project to the public. 2.13.6.1. Brief displays of affection, such as a modest kiss or embrace, may be permitted in situations where physical contact is commonly accepted etiquette such as weddings, graduation, promotion, or retirement ceremonies; and upon departure for or return from deployments." That said, my wife was wondering about this too... are we still going to greet each other with a short kiss? Yes.

Fortunately, as long as your bros are appropriately hooking you up, the current SOS-C course takes a total of about 1.05 hours of effort. As a guy that did USAFA, did the 6-week ASBC course, did the AAD, did SOS-C, will do the retarded 8-week SOS-R course, and will (probably) do ACSC, both (at least) in correspondence... I've learned one thing: It's all about checking the right boxes. Of course the redundant programs are ridiculous, but at the end of the day we can only do two things about it: Commiserate with our bros, and respectfully give our chain feedback. But take comfort in the fact that you have a choice! You can decline to do any of these programs at any time. We all know the state of play with regard to PME; and if you don't, here it is... every time you have an opportunity to do PME -- do it -- or risk having your choice to not do it used as a discriminator between you and me. Easy, right? When you take away all the ridiculousness that we deal with, it all boils down to one simple truth for me. Most of the time, I do what I have to do (including PME) to ensure that I'll be able to pay the bills and feed my family for the foreseeable future. The rest of the time, I do what I want to do. When I look at it this way, 8 weeks in Alabama collecting per diem doesn't sound so bad.

So... I'm a Captain with 5 years. I've finally (after 5 years) figured out how to use DTS just barely well enough to get an authorization/voucher through without f'ing it up. That's foul #1. If an iPhone took 5 years to learn, it would have never existed. I used PIPS for the first time the other day to create the voucher for my PCS. While it wasn't perfect, it was a hell of a lot more user-friendly than DTS. eFinance and Virtual Finance need to disappear or be more like PIPS. They suck. One of the previous posts mentioned that the systems need to use a logical, chronological flow of zero-finance-jargon questions so that somebody who hasn't been to finance tech school can understand the first time around. (i.e. Where are you going? From where are you leaving? When will you leave? How do you plan to get there? etc.) Another vote for... bring back group authorizations!!! When the entire squadron is picking up to go TDY somewhere, it makes no sense for every single person in the squadron to spend their day creating 60-90 different authorizations, that the RA now has to go un-###### one at a time. Another vote for... get rid of the pop-ups & re-directs. Don't spend time/money on creating ridiculous graphics that just take the already limited computing power on our five-year-old desktop PCs. The Google home-page works so well because it's simple and loads quickly. I know saying "bring back paper vouchers" makes you take this input less seriously, because it'll probably never happen... but seriously, $500M could go a long way to training bean-counters how to count beans better. The secure-VTC statement is seriously ridiculous. Why don't we trust out folks to know when they can or cannot accomplish something via SVTC? Do the bean-counters really think that when I'm already TDY 200+ days per year for training and deployment that I REALLY want to go TDY to yet another meeting? When I say I need to go TDY (by turning in a travel auth) then that means I need to go TDY!!! I shouldn't have to copy/paste in a ridiculous statement saying "No kidding, I really do need to go TDY..." Um... I know there's more but I'm out of time to tell finance how to do their job better.

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This applies in the HH-60 community too. However, for #2, I'd say "for now." Unfortunately, in terms of the amount of time you spend, the lame parts out-number the good parts about 5-to-1 in a good month (e.g. a month when I actually make RAP). But like anywhere else, generally you have to endure some suck to get to the good stuff. You better believe I'll be looking for a guard/reserve spot as soon as I'm eligible unless things change.

"A new bomber. Anyone think the AF procurment people can get this right?" Short answer. -Nope. In the last decade... the Air Force has already screwed up a procurement program for at least two fighters, a tanker (twice), a helicopter (three times) and a tiltrotor. What makes them think they'll do this any differently?

Pavehawks in Obs taken from the King Hawks with the French King and Hawk over the middle of the Med Hawks cruising with the Brits Hawks and the GAWS Hawks and a Brit Apache

I just hope they get the block 2.5 birds out sooner rather than later so that we can start putting the G models out to pasture. I'd like to start flying again sometime this decade.

He's right. ACC is issuing them. Active HH-60 guys started wearing them this fall for OUP. Unfortunately, I'm not in the know on who you can go through to make it happen for AFSOC. Sorry.

Is there any info out there for people who's unit refuses to buy the damn jacket in the first place? I've been mission qual'd for going on two years now (along with nearly the rest of our squadron) and I still don't have a jacket. It's getting ridiculous and I'm probably just going to get the nicer one from Pop's anyway.... But jeeze, it's pretty ridiculous when they don't mind sending you out to bring 7.62mm and 12.7mm sized holes back in the bottom/sides of your helicopter, but they can't buy you a damn leather jacket to uphold Air Force tradition (whatever that is these days). Rant off.

Or fly Rescue! P.S. We rarely pass tail #s... dunno why / why not.