Prozac

Some of these kids can hardly believe the internet existed before them. Totally unawares of absolute classics like Grape Fall Lady: Which even had a Family Guy bit: And one final bit of advice for the young in’s here…..THIS is how you properly derail a thread.

To be fair, he seemed to do a pretty good job of correctly assessing and clearing the potential blast radius of the nearby armored targets before dealing with the trivial fact of being on fire.

Ancient Chinese Proverb: Where are your tanks, and may I count them?

A sobering reminder of what humans are capable of doing to one another. Never been to Verdun but I’ll be putting it on my list of places to visit.

Exactly……like deploying hard boiled eggs out of the sextant port.

You need a sense of humor & some perspective. While I certainly feel for the OP, & understand where he is coming from (we’ve all been there), a big part of assimilating one’s self into military aviation is understanding that when you serve up softballs, the bros are gonna swing hard. I have faith cooterscout will eventually figure this out & have a perfectly good career even if some guys ribbed him on the internets once. Cooter: here’s the best advice most of us can honestly give you: Wherever you end up, don’t suck. The end. Do that & you’ll do alright just about anywhere.

Yeah man. You do you.

Kinda like how she was refuted when she claimed the vax was made from antifreeze? https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/574770-army-brigade-surgeon-claims-in-lawsuit-vaccines/amp/

Well, Johns Hopkins says it’s safe, as does CDC, as does Mayo Clinic, as does the UK NIH, as do the Aussies, the Japanese, and so on. So yes, while I respect the fact that this may be one particular doctor’s informed medical opinion, it seems most in her profession don’t share her views.

So here’s my honest question: If there is indeed an issue here, why aren’t the rest of the flight surgeons across the services raising the flag? Are we really to believe that everyone but LtCol Long is either part of the conspiracy or has otherwise been silenced? I’m sorry, but if one LtCol is making noises while the rest of the medical institution says vaccinations are safe, I tend to throw out the outlier. Four out of five dentists & all that jazz.

Ameriflight has a UPS flow-ish thing going on: https://w3.ameriflight.com/ups-flightpath/ Not sure what our (brown) future hiring looks like. Things are kinda on pause for the moment, but you’d at least be checking the multi turbine PIC boxes. I’ve heard it’s a lot of work tho. Those guys help load the freight & can be doing single pilot IFR at night in some pretty gnarly weather and terrain. Not for the faint of heart. Maybe not for those mature enough to understand risk management either but might be worth a look.

We stand nothing to gain? From taking most of Russia’s pieces off the chessboard? From showing the Chinese how high invasion costs can be? From gaining valuable intelligence on how Russian supplied war machines work? From coalescing Western allies in ways we haven’t seen in decades? From taking the Russians out of the European energy game? Etcetera. Etcetera. Curious as to what you think are more worthwhile foreign policy goals?

So, the poors need to get back to work ‘cause you’re, what? Upset there aren’t enough checkers at Target?

Uhhh, no dude. You’ve made it clear that your position is that our support for the Ukes must not be genuine because we’re not giving them Vipers. As others have alluded, that’s a pretty weak argument considering the level of support given so far. It’s like saying you don’t love your wife unless you buy her that $3K Hermes bag that she really, really wants.

If you don’t value European security, you’re a fool. Reference two world wars starting there. Also reference some of our best allies & trading partners being there. You’re also a fool if you don’t believe Europe is very much under the US banner already. Just because Hans told you he doesn’t like American imperialism, it doesn’t mean Herr Scholz isn’t down with a US led Western world. It makes his job easier in many, many ways.

After spending some time in the country & seeing how they operate, I’d bet money you’re wrong. I can almost guarantee they’re spending enough time in ‘how to be a good communist’ class for it to be a detriment to their warfighting skills. That said, the rest of your post is spot on.

For the skiers & boarders out there…

Great post & I really liked the TR quote. I agree with just about everything you said with a couple caveats: 1. As far as being amazing at the basics goes; It’s been a few years since I left, but at the time, there was an immense amount of focus on ancillary functions that came at the expense of focusing on the core mission. Speaking with friends who have more recent experience than I do, I’m inclined to believe that hasn’t changed for the better. There’s certainly a time for thinking outside the box, but you’d better be sure your core competence is pretty rock solid. Walk before you run and all that. 2. Modifying/repurposing the KC-135 airframe to be a drone carrier: While your take certainly has some merit and potential, the necessary mods & training are far beyond the scope and timeframe of what Minihan is apparently proposing. Adding an all new mission set and cutting holes in airplanes are not something you can just delegate to Wing CCs and say “make it happen”. There certainly may be a case to be made for this added capability, but there is a process for doing things like this & a command wide memo probably ain’t it. (Admittedly, I have no idea what other actions the AMC/CC has taken to explore adding this cape - he may be well along in the process, but from the tone of the memo I kinda doubt that’s the case). Additionally, based on my own experience with the ROBE program (which turned airborne tankers into a datalink node), adding capes on the fly without a whole lot of budget or training usually results in lackluster results & places needless stresses on a crew that should be focused on their core mission. And believe it or not, the AR mission can be challenging at times. All that said, I appreciate your response & it was a good reminder to an old salty guy that checking one’s cynical outlook occasionally is probably a good idea. I’ll raise my Tsingtao (sitting in a hotel in Asia at the moment) to your Basil (I salute your good taste btw). Cheers! 🍻

I’m all for more focus on the mission, esprit de corps, and treating military members like warfighters. Doesn’t mean the pendulum has to swing to absurdity. Single pilot tankers launching a hundred UAVs into the fight is a bit much. How about AMC just shifts focus back to flying/mission basics for a while & see how that works before crafting grand “outside the box” schemes to utilize platforms in ways they were never designed to operate?

“Crew servicing/forklift training”: You pilots have gotta learn how to load those 100 UAVs on the tanker. We’ll be developing a technique whereby we depressurize and open the cargo bay in flight so we can deploy the things over the battlefield. You will then enter an orbit pattern over enemy forces, open the cockpit window, and “empty the clip” of your M9 into the heads of our enemies. We are calling this concept “gunship lite”. Oh and one more thing men; you will be doing all of this single pilot. Any questions? No? Good. Now, move out, we’re going to war boys!

I thought I was fairly clear in my last response but I’ll remind you that the breakup of the Soviet Union happened over three decades ago. Ukraine did not secede from Russia. They became a sovereign nation thirty years ago. The better analogy would be the United States granting Puerto Rico independence in 1991, and then ruthlessly invading it in the spring of 2022, deliberately targeting the civilian populace, and unleashing our hardest criminals to rape, pillage, and do god knows whatever else to the people there. Ask yourself if you could see that scenario unfolding for the United States anytime soon? There is no comparison. Get outta here with your secession assclownery.

Not sure how you can use this analogy with a straight face. Ukraine is not a part of Russia. It was part of the Soviet Union, an empire that imploded three decades ago. It didn’t secede & invite the West in. It’s been a sovereign nation with control of its own destiny since the fall of Soviet rule, just like the Czechs, Poles, Latvians, and all the other former Warsaw Pact nations that are now free of the shackles of a totalitarian communist oppressor. The Russians seemed to be fine with this when the Ukrainians had a corrupt government that tended to align more with Moscow than the west. It was when that government started to reform that Putin started annexing territory (again-from an internationally recognized sovereign nation). There is most definitely a moral argument to be made here: do we abandon a country that, the moment it starts moving in the positive direction we’ve been actively encouraging, is invaded by its neighbor? Or do we show some backbone and support them? Easy decision made even easier by the fact we get to wreck the Russian war machine in the process. To your point, no, this is nothing like Texas seceding with help from our adversaries.

What we did in Afghanistan had a direct impact on the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union which absolutely affected all of our lives. Yeah, sometimes we get the global power game wrong. Vietnam and Afghanistan come to mind. But guess what? Sometimes we get it right. You can’t just say “well we fucked up Afghanistan so that means we will fuck up every foreign policy decision going forward from now to eternity”. That’s just not the case & while I agree that our fuckups sometimes do seem pretty spectacular, if you look at the course of modern history, we’ve probably gotten more things right than wrong. We’ve avoided nuclear Armageddon, vanquished our ideological enemy & the only other superpower on the planet, turned our former enemies into staunch allies & reliable trading partners, have ensured the security of global trade, and will hold the world’s reserve currency for the foreseeable future, amongst other successes. Your life & the lives of much of the planet’s population are undoubtedly better because of decisions the United States has made to stay engaged abroad.

Ok. Does being pro-evolution make you not a Christian? I mean, it’s all right there in the Bible. Who are you to pick and choose what you get to believe? BTW, this is one of the biggest problems I have with religion in general: For some people, it’s about a personal relationship with God and morality, and a vehicle for growing as a human being. Cool. For too many others though, it’s a bludgeon to hammer others with for not abiding their own personal beliefs. I also wonder how many of the fervent naysayers are Catholic. I grew up in the Catholic Church and, in my experience, beliefs of church officials vary widely by geography and demographics. It’s a rather large organization if you weren’t aware and a Catholic parishioner in Guatemala probably has some very different views and beliefs than one in Colorado, who, in turn will seem very strange indeed to one in Papua New Guinea. Additionally, I find it ironic that many who are currently criticizing Biden’s religious beliefs…also cheerfully voted for Donald Trump, probably the least religious, most unethical president this country has ever had. I chalk it up as yet another attempt to make the argument that “yeah, we elected an absolute slimeball, but look! Joe Biden is just as slimy, if not slimier!” Sorry, but conservatives are only fooling conservatives on that one. Ever wonder why, before he was elected president, Joe Biden was considered one of the most likable, least polarizing politicians in Washington, but now all of a sudden, he’s the devil incarnate? Hmmmmm. 🤔 Back to your echo chambers.

Wait, wait….You believe that the United States is violating somebody’s sovereignty? For the record, your statement is absolutely correct. You just (somehow) seem to be confused about who the aggressors are here.