Bigred

The math checks out

The 6 year commitment changed to 8 years about 20 years ago.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/navy-declares-2-missing-crew-members-crashed-jet-deceased/281-a83540a2-7f8b-44d9-bdbc-762b43076679 Sadly it's now turned into a recovery versus a rescue operation.

Just because you got gay, doesn’t mean you have to disparage God’s chariots by calling them ass helos. But yes, I miss helos. They were fucking awesome

I am surprised land as soon as practical was/is even an option. I would’ve expected it to have been either land immediately for imminent failure or otherwise land asap.

My understanding isn't that the jets are running out of landings, it's that the airframes are timing out. So while I agree with you to a certain extent, the trap rate is built into the design and it's not been a limiting factor (that I'm aware of).

With the U-2 going away, a lot of dudes are trying to find flying jobs. The words passed to us are that a lot of ACU and B-courses have significant backlog. Aka, a lot of the guys are staring at an AETC future.

I’d argue a GED is more about commitment than intelligence. I was in boot camp with a bunch of really dumb kids and at that time it was tough to get a waiver to join with a GED. I’m not naive to the fact that recruiting is hurting, but you might be surprised at how many high school/GED kids don’t get a 50.

I’m a weird one, but the more distracting the environment, the better I study. TV on, radio playing, etc, and I can focus and retain. When it’s dead quiet I find my mind wanders and I get bored. Its probably also why I wasn’t ever really good at group studying because most folks didn’t like Metallics blasting at max while reciting EPs

I think it was the 2018 NDAA that forced those sorts of activities to become self-funded/sustainable versus being subsidized by NAF. Shortly thereafter, several smaller bases closed their lodging because they couldn’t afford to keep them open. I don’t know what all activities were covered by that NDAA but I believe golf courses was one of them. Now, underutilized activities on base are closing. It’s also why some Wg/CCs have tried to mandate TDY travelers stay in base lodging. I understand the reasoning but that’s in violation of the JTR and the mandate usually goes away quietly. It’s the ultimate catch-22. Lodging jacked up prices to offset expenses but now the normal traveler that would go on base to save money (retiree, PCS folks, etc) go off base for the same cost and better facilities. The on base activities can’t fund themselves and usually can’t get funding to upgrade to match off base activities. Not sure why Congress felt it was a good idea but it really screwed a lot of smaller bases and their ability to have services and infrastructure available all the time.

Well, if that’s what happened your unicorn dildo must’ve worked.

According to the BBC, the entire US and Japanese fleet is grounded. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67645072

I’m actually wearing my Wardroom tshirt as I type this! That place was great, when I was there the drink ‘limits’ were supposed to be two marks on your hand. Most nights I’d go back to the connex with most of my hand covered in marks. Those bartenders were awesome.

My onwing at Whiting made me make ‘radio calls’ (internal ICS) at every corner of the hover box from my first flight in the helo. He also had me calling every bit of traffic in the pattern at Pace/Spencer as I maneuvered along the hover box. Maybe that wasn’t normal but it freaking sucked, and to do that brand new would’ve been damn near impossible.

I never said it was good or bad, I just said I couldn’t imagine trying to learn to hover while also learning to talk on the radios. Guess you’re a better pilot than me.

I couldn’t imagine trying to talk for the first time while also learning to hover. Talk about the monkey fucking the football bat.

Found on Reddit, gotta love it when The Drive gets the scoop on PA. Good article, I think Big AF is about to get some tough questions from Congress. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u-2-retirement-moves-forward-with-defense-secretary-decision

Source? I’m only seeing protests outside these embassies.

Depends on the program, but some do allow for continual service. The Navy’s ECP (enlisted commissioning program) is one example.

I agree, to an extent. It wasn’t the entire squadron, it was two dudes. And they were really damn good. So it wasn’t like the entirety of the 6th was running around down there. I can’t speak to the bigger picture wrt Air Force employment since I was an outsider looking in back then. The irony is that what they were teaching and working towards aligns almost perfectly with what big Air Force is trying to do in that AOR these days, but at that time it wasn’t CENTCOM so people were like WTF are they doing?

Circa 2013-2016, I personally saw them doing a lot of good things in SE Asia. It was impactful on partner nation real world operations. In my opinion, they were such a small part of AFSOC, and they operated so far outside of the normal scope of what AFSOC does, that it was easy to downplay and overlook what they did. Having worked with both Army ODA and these guys, the CCA dudes were more like ODA in employment (FID) than what one would typically think of with AFSOC.

"DoD Lodging Adequacy Standards" It's the key to getting a non-A at (almost) every military base.

A normal set of orders is usually 36 months, and extending a year can be common. My between-the-lines interpretation is that this rule ensures a pilot doesn’t go career enhancing and decide to never go back to flying, or an aviation related billet, while being able to collect flight pay forever.

In the helos I flew, the left seat pilot ran the mission while the right seat was the flying pilot. We’d typically switch seats every few flights to keep current on both sides. There was no designated ‘AC’ seat.

Can't speak to the rest of her bio, but whenever I read/hear someone say "classified missions", my BS meter pegs. This is particularly true if it's a pilot that says that. Guys that ran classified missions don't put that in their bio. Well, except for SEALs. Those guys get issued a literary agent when they graduate BUDs.