frog

I bought my David Clark H10-30s 19 years ago, and they are still going strong. Don't get sucked into the gadgets. They are nice if you fly 500 hours a year, but a quality set of passive DCs will work great for your PPL and occasional GA flights down the road.

CE guy here...good discussion. Here is my perspective: - The arguments that flyers deal with too much queep and flyers should lead mission support squadrons are mutually exclusive. The majority of the queep in a CE squadron is personnel, finance, environmental, or contracting related. Much of the queep is driven at the HAF, DoD, or federal government level. Putting a flyer in charge of a CE squadron isn't going to eliminate queep. The queep problem originates with the fact that our government has become the most useless, grid-locked bureaucracy in modern history. So, you have to choose one argument or the other. Putting a flyer in a support squadron is going to increase the queep they deal with exponentially. - Many times the queep starts with a pilot. I've pulled teams off of apron repair to fix potholes in the wing headquarters parking lot. I've also had heavy equipment operators turn snow over with a shovel before a DV visit so you can only see "clean snow." No shit. That stuff wasn't an engineer's idea, and it is embarrassing and humbling to go ask trained people to do those things while making it "your own" (i.e. Not diming out wing leadership) - The Air Force chose long ago to invest in cool jets and not facilities. Probably a wise decision given our budget. But, I only get about 50% of the funds I need to maintain the base in a fair condition. One third of our squadrons are often deployed, and there isn't the manpower to execute 100% of those funds even if we got them. - Flyers don't understand what their support squadrons provide in terms of readiness because squadrons don't deploy with the wings they support. For CE Airmen, readiness means that our Airmen need to be able to repair a cratered runway, setup emergency airfield lighting, setup aircraft arresting systems, and provide drinking water among a host of other tasks. When most people think of CE, they think of Bubba plunging their toilet. Bubba is very important, but he is a very small piece of the pie. When we deploy, we need flyers dropping bombs, not figuring how to get water from A to B. - Where engineers often fail is telling the operational community where we can't support. Sometimes we let work slip into the black hole, which is unsat. So, this diatribe probably fits better in what's wrong with the AF, but the takeaway is that I don't think moving flyers into support squadrons is a cure all in terms of fixing support functions and rated promotion rates, and it certainly isn't as easy as some would think. If people are leaving because of all the non-flying stuff they have to do, moving someone into a support squadron seems like the worst thing you could do. I don't know what the right answer is to the pilot crisis, but I hope you guys figure it out. The nation needs you guys, and I'm proud to support you.

Sorry guys, but as a GA dude, I'm not leaving advisory until I'm damn sure I'm clear of everyone, and nobody on this forum knows what else was going on at MKS that day. The odds of me hitting another spam can trying to enter the pattern is much greater than getting drilled by a viper miles out at 1500 being vectored for an approach. Sometimes there is no fault or explanation; Fate is the Hunter. Hug your loved ones tonight, and drink a beer for two people who were likely very competent and passionate aviation dudes.

Ha, okay, you win.

So what do you propose we cut? Something has to go. I am not against the A-10, but if you want to keep it you have to get rid of $4B somewhere else.

That is not a good area to have a problem - very rough terrain (for Texas at least).

Geez, there are some sensitive folks. How about this: people tend to make the best decisions for themselves and their families based on the available information. It really is that simple. You really don't need to justify your decision by ridiculing someone else.

Karma, but getting canned for getting a room at the per diem rate sucks. At busy times of the year in DC, you can stay in the Ritz or the Motel 8 at the gov rate and per diem rate of $220/night plus tax, which is around 280.

Many times jurisdiction depends on who owns the land. There are many places where there is a lease or easement in place so that even though it is outside the perimeter fence, it is still AF owned (or vice versa)

That escalated....

This is much bigger than joint basing. This would gut your support staffs at the MAJCOM, so the MAJCOM/CC will lose authority and influence to in mission support issues.

“It’s really 19th century behavior in the 21st century," Kerry said. "You just don’t invade another country on phony pretexts in order to assert your interests." - John Kerry Hey kettle, you are black!

The dirty secret is that we really did "win" in 2003. The Taliban and al Qaeda were brought to their knees, and some very ruthless tribes who hated our true enemies were ready to take over regionally. These guys will fight anybody who impinges on their tribal way of life. However, that answer wasn't clean and humane enough, so we had to take their power, centralize it, and attempt to create a federal government that could never work. In doing so, we ended up fighting all of the above, weakened our enemy's enemy, and allowed the Taliban and al Qaeda the chance to claw their way back into the picture. All while sacrificing the blood of thousands of Americans.

Paraphrased from AFPC: RIF board postponed to 1 Oct 14, new accounting date is in May. VSP applications still being accepted until May. You can withdraw your VSP app based on this new info as long as you do it before the batch is processed (I think?). Edit: And the kicker: PSDM 13-130, FY14 Officer Reduction in Force (RIF) Board, will be rescinded and a new PSDM will be published in the near future

It has been said before, but despite how it is advertised, the "bonus" is a way for the Air Force to see your cards. I don't think there are many folks at AFPC or at HAF who expect many people to change their life plan over $25K.

One thing is for sure...rated or not, some quality folks are going to be shown the door.

No hollow force here...move along.

Still being waged. Support functions are going to no longer be owned by the MAJCOM functionals if this goes through. This could get interesting. If you think support is bad now, I think it could get much worse. But, based on what I have heard, they have to do something to cut dollars.

Figure out what unit you are going to before you worry before you worry about QOL. If you stay at Bagram, it's a pretty easy life. There are several CE jobs that hub out of there that will have you shitting in a hole with the Army. Not going to list units on the website, so check with your UDM and ask around the squadron.

Well done. I agree that the band is of much higher value to the military than TIB.

I didn't really read that as offensive to Olds...more of a lamentation. You fellas sure are sensitive.

Nothing unexpected, but at least it is finally official...Hill is Ops 1. https://www.afmc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123372814 https://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57213916-90/hill-amp-force-jets.html.csp

Well played!

Laws and politicians.

They fixed the glitch.