Bigred

When I was there they only took actual FAA medicals instead of the "mil comp" class 3 from our flight physicals. Probably a function of being on Okinawa, but I was bummed when I spent ~6 months on the island and couldn't get a FAA medical to putt around in the Cessna.

Is there a way to look up the current manning of a squadron? I.e., if I wanna see how many open billets are in a squadron at a certain location?

Only on the weekends.

Not entirely true. Any VA rating that reduces retirement is not considered in a divorce. Also, if you are in the military and get divorced in a state that isn’t your legal residence (ie a Servicemember who is a Florida resident getting divorced in California), you can object to said state having jurisdiction over your military retirement. If you don’t object, there’s a law that allows the state to divide it as a marital asset. The 10 year rule is merely a function of DFAS. If you are married for 10 years (and a few other timing things) and your ex gets a part of your retirement, this rule just means your ex gets paid directly from DFAS instead of you writing a check. DFAS also only pays out what percentage is ruled in the divorce. It’s possible to be married for 15 years and pay less than 50%, and its also possible if you get divorced at 9 years and 364 days a judge can legally give your spouse 50% of your retirement, you just have to write her the check. Also, DFAS cannot pay out more than 50% of your retirement pay, even if you have multiple exes. If you f-ed up real good and had two exes and owed them say, 60% of your retirement, DFAS would pay 50% of it and you’d have to write the check for the other 10%.

Bernie Sanders is total shit when it comes to money, and I’ll explain why. When I heard his net worth was over $2 million I started looking at his history because he’s a pretty dang wealthy socialist. Turns out others did the research for me. He has been in public office since around 1990, and has made at least $100,000 since around 1990. Fast forward to the 2016 elections and he started writing books, which is reported to have made him at least $1.7 million. So, if had been investing like you said, he should have a helluva lot more than $2.5 million. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2019/04/12/how-bernie-sanders-the-socialist-senator-amassed-a-25-million-fortune/amp/ https://www.politico.com/magazine/amp/story/2019/05/24/bernie-sanders-millionaires-226982

How do we sustain such an operation? I agree on principle but continual war is running our aircraft into the dirt and emptying our coffers.

When is block 50 supposed to come online?

Yeah, and it’s probably a discussion for a SCIF but I too would like to know the true defensive capes of the 46.

One point I thought interesting, the author said the KC-46 is ‘less capable in its primary mission’ than the KC-10. What’s the metric? Current systems problems with the 47 notwithstanding, I’d argue a tanker that has defensive systems would be more capable in a near peer conflict than a tanker with no defensive systems at all. There is obvious trade off in sheer quantity of gas available, but it gets the gas closer to the fight. That said, I don’t think tankers are going downtown Baghdad on opening night of shock and awe, but some defensive capability sorta balances out the less gas available. Just my $0.02.

Most likely this.

Well, if you set the bar low it’s pretty easy to step over it when you lower it even further, so...

Did Trump just troll the entire world with a tweet? I guess time will tell. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/world/2019/10/9/20906227/trump-turkey-invades-syria-middle-east-tweet

Even the KC-135 has AOA gauges for both pilots. They aren't the most precise instruments in the world, but can be used in the event of a dual ADC failure (chances of that = slim to none). There is an arc at approach speed (.6 AOA). 1.0 units is stall. You really don't need airspeed or AOA to get the thing on the ground anyway. Known pitch and power settings along with an infamous full-flap burble will get you within 5 knots of approach speed every time. I guess I wasn’t too clear. I’m tracking most every military plane has some sort of AOA gage. My point is that, using the 135 as an example, I may fly an approach at 165kts and reference the AOA gage, but I’m not slaved to what it says precisely, I’m more concerned with airspeed. In comparison, Navy guys fly a specific AOA all the way to the deck. Airspeed is important but AOA even more so since they don’t flare. I’m sure the MD-11 has a flare at the bottom but from reading, it sounds a lot more pitch sensitive than other similar aircraft, hence why Navy guys may have been preferred. At least, that’s totally my assumption and I’ve been AFU before and might be here as well.

Do you mean have an AOA gage in the cockpit for reference, or fly an actual AOA approach? There's a difference.

I have no idea about C-17s, but I wonder if the fact that Navy dudes flying an AOA approach vice just a specific airspeed have anything to do with it? That’s a random guess considering you said there’s such a pitch issue with the MD-11

I dunno if this belong here, but hearing rumors from all the 2 and 1Lts fresh out of UPT that the Air Force actually overshot their numbers on pilot accessions and are taking pilot slots away from those who have yet to report to training. I don’t think it does much in the way of ‘degradation of SUPT’ but has anyone heard similar?

Go train. Find a way to train, even if it’s once a week or less. Look at branching out and finding a judo school, etc, if you can’t find an actual BJJ gym. I’ve been training for years and I would always find a place to roll, even if it meant going out of my way to do so. It’s cool because I’ve now trained jiu jitsu on 5 of the 7 continents. You may not get consistent training in but it’s better than nothing. And, if you’re like me, I’d rather train than party, it’s a better release from the intensities of studying/working.

Anyone ever used Tipsy Gypsy? https://www.tgpatch.com/ I have their patches on my Navy G1 and the quality is awesome. I’m debating getting one for an A2 but what’s the deal with the A2 name tag being brown overlaid on black? Im reading the uniform regs and it says brown or black, not both.

Florida Man strikes again.

Mongo but pawn in game of life. Mongo smash!

Yup, that’s me. My transfer commitment takes me to right at 21 years so I’d be throwing money away if I didn’t take the bonus.

That was my thought. There will always be outliers at either extreme but when there’s a lot of bunching in one spot, that’s a pretty good indication of a trend.

Sorry fellas, as part of my switch over from the Navy to 11M, I’m eligible for the bonus, so I took it. I’m sure I skewed the numbers 😂 In all seriousness, and I admittedly haven’t talked to a lot of tanker dudes yet, but I’ve yet to meet one who took the bonus.

Beauty is in the eye of the behold...nah, f-that.

With the current PT test, as long as you aren’t a lazy fatbody, you can pass this test without ever working out, and I mean literally never working out. I know quite a few dudes in the Navy that are proud of the “3 mile a year club”, and the standards are fairly similar between the two services. It’s not an issue of being fit, it’s an issue of just simply giving a shit.