Gazmo

Hey, don't knock one of the only tactical counter-measures we have... Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

I'll never wear OCP's. The bag has too much history. Hopefully this doesn't happen before I retire. WTF are the Space and Missiles folks gonna do without a bag?!?

This all sounds great and you could bet your ass if we were allowed to run the show in the AOR like you portray, we'd be all over it, but in the grand scheme of things, we've been Kingpin/CAOC's puppet for the last almost two decades because some dude sitting in a building with 3 foot thick concrete walls and no windows thinks he knows how to run shit better than we do. The last time I did WTF I wanted was when I heard a pair of Vipers 10 min from bingo over the Med during OUP waiting for a French controller in a NATO AWACS to approve our transit to their area. By the time the controller got back to us with an approval, we had already .85'd it over there, got them on the boom and they were off to their targets shortly there after. Of course then there's the issue with what freq is everyone on? This is not the info that we need to be searching for in the jet. That info isn't going to be handed to us by the planners who are dealing with 40 sorties a day so it all goes back up to the top. Why do we need to be on the "right freq"? We're not allowed to run the show and do whatever we want when the AOR is run like an ARTCC. So we sit there and orbit and wait for our ARCT like we are expected to because ultimately, as mundane as that seems, that's the responsibility we've been given. Hey, we get paid the same either way. Maybe in a real conflict, things would be different, but this crackpipe fantasy that tanker dudes are going to cowboy it around the AOR because they thought they heard some shit go down on some JTAC freq and decided to "insert" themselves is bullshit. Getting fuel to the fight has been much more bureaucratic than you think it is.

Word.

RAP for MAF is coming. They talked about it a few weeks ago via AMC/A3T teleconference. We'll see how it works. I am up for any creative change at this point. On the KC-135 side, the Vol 1 needs to be burned and rewritten from scratch. They eventually want to change all the Vol 1's to AFMAN's to humor CSAF's direction to reduce AFI's. So basically it'll be an AFI with a different name. Whatever. They want to make one AFMAN for MAF with addendums for each MDS, which makes sense. The only chapters that should differ from one another are 3, 4 and 5. They could standardize chapters 1, 2, 6, 7 and attachments. In any event, the -135 Vol 1 is ambiguous in many places and contradicts itself in many others. It is also not ARC friendly, which brings me to my next subject. Finally, AMC "appears" to realize that the ARC is not AD; at least when it comes to training and recognizes that the ARC has their own unique challenges/hardships when it comes to training accomplishments. If they could realize that when it comes to deployments, we'll really get somewhere. A3T is letting ANG/AFRC accept all, some or none of the new training requirements and actually allowing ARC develop their own training tables. It's about time. If you want the ARC doing your bitch work at 1/3 the cost of the AD, you need to allow them to do what they need to do, within reason, to make shit happen and remain MR. RAP should eventually help this. M052 and Large Force Integration are bullshit beans for the tanker. The old M050 was 95% of what M052 is anyway. We've had a "tactics sortie" requiring an intel scenario, SPINS, ATO, etc., spelled out in our v1 for years and because some T-tails got shwacked during MG17, they generalized and wanted to inflict the pain on everyone. As far as I know, no tankers got taken out during the exercise, which I guess means the tanker planners did their jobs with their HVAA's - what a concept! We are not a community who lives their life in the vault like the CAF does. Does this need to change? Maybe. Maybe a little. Maybe a lot. We haven't been in the mindset of skurmishing with a nation that could hand us our ass on a silver platter if we don't get our shit together. I think recent tensions with NK got some higher ups nervous and all of a sudden new training events pop up and the acronyms du jour are "CBRNE" and "AERPS". I agree our G060 is weak and maybe we need to hit basic combat flying harder, but for those that played on the tanker side during the opening hours of OUP, circa Mar 2011, you know that we made shit happen with a kneeboard, a 200 and an intel brief walking out the door. For tankers, it's be on time and stay the fvck away from the bad shit. Tell me what time we need to be there and we will be there. Tell us where the bad shit will be and we will stay away from it. The hard part is learning the SPINS.

Here's how you do it. You get the reserves to increase their AGR billets at all the UPT bases so you can take a former CAF pilot gone airlines and bring them back on a 6 mo, 1 yr, 2yr AGR tours while on mil leave from their company. You may have quite a few reservists willing to do the full-time thing for more AD points towards a reserve retirement. Even better, if there are ANG units close enough, you may find some ANG pilots to do it also.

Oops... didn't scroll down that far. Still doesn't address the concerns of whether it has been tested using pressurized O2 and yes, as other people have mentioned, what about comms? What about the exposed kneck? This mask was designed for the conventional chem suit with hood that zips and buttons up around your kneck. Anyway, probably all things they've thought of already not mentioned in the article.

I believe this is only the case with ART's and AGR's. Not GS's getting recalled to AD. They basically put an end to people working the system in the NG/ANG.

Very interesting, but how does that work with a helmet? I'm sure it hasn't been tested in an unpressurized environment breathing forced oxygen. I'm all for improving the comfort of our AERPS gear and considering it seems to the Air Force's new flavor of the day, maybe they'll throw some money at the problem to get us something better.

Well done.

Yes, I think it's absolutely uncalled for, but death and karnage is what sells news and jacks up the ratings. The media has no morals. I've seen several videos like this over the years and I'm sure everyone in this community will agree that seeing something like this sends chills up your spine. I've sat through several bone-chilling privileged mishap animations that bothered me for a really long time and these weren't even friends or family members. This would definitely not be something I'd want to come across on some news website before (or after) I found out it was a loved one.

Damn. It has not been a good few months for the US military aviation community. :(

Well your supervisor has to approve your leave for 30 days. If your supervisor approves the leave for 30 days and you're upfront and honest and tell them that you're getting an airline job and you're going to resign your position after indoc and your supervisor is good with that then I guess it's legal. However, with as many technician vacancies as there are in some of these units good luck finding a supervisor that is not going to want to get that job on the street as soon as you decide to leave to greener grasses. They can't post a vacancy on USAJobs until you resign. I guess you'd be saving on federal income tax taking the leave rather than selling it back.

Not sure this is legit. Supervisor would at least need to approve this stunt.

ART bonus 18k per year with a contract? ANG is giving 25% bonuses to IP's with no strings attached. Figure out what 25% on GS-13-06 is (almost $30k). Payed out bi-weekly. What does the OPM say about biweekly payed incentive bonuses for GS's? It says if you resign as a GS, you get to keep what you've gotten. They can't hold you to a contract unless it's payed lump sum.

I don't know what you speak of. I've never been able to get my hands on a unicorn in the Guard.

Good luck with that. They change the ANG workday guidance annually to fit their needs. I doubt they will backdate orders if the workday guidance or policies at that time dictated that upt was done in title 32.

Were you ordered to pay via allotment in your decree? I think finance may need a copy of the decree.

Last time I checked, there were almost 200 GS-1X jobs on USAJobs for AFRC and ANG/NG. I remember the days there were about 3...

ARC manning is worse than AD right now and I'm not even talking ART manning. Just manning in general. Why? Mostly the same reasons as our AD counterparts with the added joy of juggling a civilian job that pays more to work less with an ARC job with an AD-esque ops tempo. Lots of AD folks have been using the ANG as a stepping stone to the airlines and once they've gotten comfy on 2 or 3 year FO pay at United or Delta they decide they want to go IRR. Most of our guardsmen who do decide to stay to 20 are pulling the handle right at 20 versus going to 28 years as a Lt Col as many have done in the past. There is no commitment for most of our guardsmen and there is no incentive bonus to stay. Instead, all of the good deals are long gone and we get thrown alternating CENTCOM and PACOM rotations to fill that have a lot of people deploying twice per year in addition to trying to maintain mission ready status at about 1/4 the cost of our AD counterparts.

We just hired a Marine into our ANG unit, but keep in mind, the ANG isn't giving bonuses out to traditionals. They need to start.

What I find disturbing is that the ANG is at 84% manning. The worst of them all. Definitely not the ANG of the early 2000's.

If the case goes to "Discovery" and you are hiding shit, your once-lovey could hire a forensic accountant and unless you've been making random, small cash ATM withdrawls every week for a few decades, they will find where it is going or at the very least, where it came from. It ain't easy to hide a money trail.

First off; I feel for ya. Find a lawyer who knows his/her shit about military divorces. You haven't been married too long so it's not that big of a deal, but it helps to know the in's and out's of a military divorce. Keep it mind, if you don't pay into survivors benefits, if she is entitled to a piece of your AD retirement (if you ever get one), she won't get shit if you die the day you start collecting. Also, feel very lucky she is being cooperative and that you don't have kids to have to drag through this. Women tend to get exponentially crazier with age and number of children. Children are $ makers for them and *some* of them will do anything to make sure they collect as much of it they can. Setting you up for a *domestic* and calling the cops on your ass, for an example. This is just something I've heard.... of course.

I figured it out the other day that I would take home $40,000 more per year as an AGR right now and that doesn't even include the AGR bonus. Add to that the fact I'd never have to do another 16 hour day again to burn a double and wow.... That being said we have plenty of upt grads that foam at the mouth when given the opportunity to grab an ART job. They get near 6 figures or above to build a flight time and go to the airlines. It's perfect for them.