08Dawg

Not an ABM, but I think this still applies. Being in UFT, the FTU, whatever, one of the best places to really learn about your job, your MDS and your community is going to the bar on Friday night and listening to the guys who have been there and done that. Don't pass up that opportunity.

DO NOT drink the koolaid the 563rd is trying to peddle down there. There will be a need for none-EWO types to fill instructor slots once P-Cola is up and running. Also keep in mind the terms EWO, Nav, and WSO are basically going away with the CSO thing. Otherwise, UTFSF. https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2820-combat-systems-officer-cso-info%3B-nav-ewo-wso/

Dude, I don't see Minot on your list. What's wrong with you?

Not even there yet. Still a Jiggs Mafia disciple. As to your excretory story and the dude deucing in the bag...an RN I know got tagged with Lamerde after a similar incident. But your bro's story is definitely worthy of something.

Yeah, there's a quote/unquote toilet, but it's not even really worthy of being called that. No plumbing, really just a bowl where you put a bag of some sort, drop your deuce, and then seal the bag up. You have to carry your own shit off the jet, literally. And since the so-called "honey bucket" is halfway between the pilot and the E-dub, crapping on the jet is highly frowned upon. A buddy of mine actually got hooked by his instructor for doing so, among other things that ride. Callsigns are made of such things.

I learned my lesson. Next flight I had a double bagged garbage bag. BQ, I'm stayin' in Barkatraz. Feet of snow and subzero temperatures aren't too high on my "must experience" list.

I think I saw one, at the very, very most two FCO drops while I was at nav school. If that's what you really want to do, work your butt off, get an AC as a nav, and then after a few years, make the lateral move. As to your odds of dropping something spec ops, it's hit or miss, really. The class in front of mine on the nav side dropped an AC, an MC, and a U-28 or two, along with Hercs, Buffs, and AWACS. My class got four Buffs, two tankers, two RJs and a Joint Stars. Class behind us got a drop similar to the one in front of us. As with many things in life, it's all about timing. You might be the top guy in your class, but then you get a drop like we had. Lucky for me, Buffs were my first choice.

So if these Pred operators are rated...do they have to go to SERE? Cause that chance of getting captured in Las Vegas is huge.

This thread just keeps slipping lower and lower like a stripper's underwear.

Well, since it's alive... I was told by a Buff EW that for a three year period mid-2000s, call it 2003-2006 give or take a few months, none of the crewdogs at Minot had sons.

As for the offensive side of the Buff...there are two navs, the radar nav and the nav. The nav does just that, time, speed, course control, typical nav-type duties. He's also the junior of the two (although with the dual seat initial qual thing we have now, the waters are starting to muddy on that point, but that's a different story). The radar is what you might think of as a bombardier in the old WW2 movies. Pretty much responsible for all the weapons on the jet, and ensuring their accurate delivery to the enemy. The radar is also in charge of, you guessed it, the radar, using it to take system updates on position, speed, heading, and such, as well as using it to pinpoint targets. The radar is typically the more senior of the two, second only to the aircraft commander in terms of authority on the crew. Without beating my own drum too much, offense on the Buff drives the mission. Pilots get us where we need to be, EWs get us there and back in one piece, and offense puts the bombs on target, on time.

Thread revival- I'm going to call myself out. First sortie in the Buff FTU as a nav. I've never gotten sick between IFS, T-43s, and T-1 low levels in the Texas summer, so I figure, heck, I'll be ok. I take one dinky standard issue puke bag, you know, just in case. Now we usually do an hour-ish of AR and maybe an hour and a half to two in the pattern on these first few sorties. Not this time. Brand new student crewdogs, and they're really going to break us in good (sts). They decide to throw some instructor candidates on our jet for a little extra work, which leads to another half an hour of AR. Up to that point, I'm loving it. It's loud, shaky, old, smelly, but still, I'm livin the dream. We do the AR, and I'm doin' ok. I get a little queasy, but manage to hang on. This entire time, I've been munching on goldfish crackers and drinking gingerale, thinking that stale crackers and decaff soda can't really be that much of a threat. Wrong...we get back to the pattern and do every damn thing imaginable in this jet. No flaps touch and goes, six engine tough and goes, two engine go arounds, you name it, we flew it for three fnckin hours. Finally, blessedly, mercifully, a full stop. Ok, good to go. We're rolling down the taxiway, and that same sensation that everybody else has talked about starts. Sweating, watering mouth...shit. Luckily, I had quick access to my one little sicksack. I manage to regurgitate two cans of gingerale and a ziplock bag full of goldfish into this thing. Of course, I feel better immediately, and think the worst has passed. I set the bag on my chart table and am attempting to tie it off when the crusty IP sitting in the co's seat honks on the brakes. I don't know if that was deliberate or not, but it doesn't really matter. It's slow motion...the bag, still pretty much open and unsecured, rotates and dumps its entire contents square in my lap. My buddy sitting in the radar seat gets a good look and his eyes get about as big around as Kennedy half-dollars. He turns away and throws his mask on, trying to avoid going sympathetic. To add insult to injury, my instructor is laughing uncontrollably. Perhaps the only upshot to this whole affair is that I took the brunt of the blast and there was only a couple of spots I had to clean up in the jet, but sticky goldfish puke is fairly hard to wipe up. It was a Friday, and all my bros knew the story by the time I had changed into a fresh bag and made it to the OClub. And by Monday my tale of woe had made it around the entire squadron. Lesson learned...next flight I took two garbage bags. Oh well, such is life, but that was one hell of an introduction to the Buff.

Last rumint I had was that it was still being revised. They've pushed back the start of the first class because of that, or so I've been told.

Any information about who the two pilots are? I'm guessing they're still notifying next of kin, though.

Hasn't been that long since I've been there, and yes, they do. My team lost a game once because this one freaking girl kept calling out the fact that my shoe laces weren't tucked in. Tucked 'em in, they fell out, "Point of order, his shoe laces are untucked!" FML...

Granted, I'm only a dumb FTU stud, but here goes... I love the Buff. I love that we can reach out and bring a world of hurt to the bad guys across the globe, and that we have a wide assortment of hurt we can dump on their asses, that we are the choice to kick down the door and take the names. I love our history. Fifty plus years, and we're still viable, adaptable, and going strong with very little end in sight. We've kicked ass around the globe. Vietnam, Iraq, Kosovo, Iraq again, Afghanistan...Our enemies around the world have quaked in fear of the massive amounts of death and destruction we've rained down on them, their morale utterly shattered under the never-ending onslaught of falling bombs. Anyway, while we might have our shortfalls, the B-52 is an awesome damn plane, and if you don't like it...that's your damn problem.

ENOUGH TALKING! More boobs.

Yep. There really are no more "strike nav" or "JSUNT" slots in the old sense. Everybody's a CSO now, for better or worse.

Not bashing the dark greys, but the dudes about to start P-Cola need to realize there are other nav jobs out there (Hercs, AWACS, RJs, etc), and many of them will be filling those jobs. Speaking of Kool Aid, let's not try to drink the "We're all going to be WSOs flying Bones and -Es coming out of PCola" flavor.

Did anybody else think for a split second the title of this thread was "Hooters in Flight Suits"? Damn, that was a long flight! Now you can see what's on my mind.

We need pics of the boomer to determine hotness.

Your email wouldn't be toroisgay@yahoo.com, would it?

Get a -4 instead of an -8. All the fun, half the price!

Why does this keep slipping so far down??

Because we all know the three basic tenants of Air Force leadership are fear, sarcasm, and ridicule! ######in' co's...I keed, I keed.