filthy_liar

Agree. Its frustrating, but I agree.

Not to put you on the spot, but can you tell me what an E8 or E9 did in the CAF?

Good post lloyd. And spot on the dates. Enlisted was 89-93.

lloyd, fair question. For your first question, I found value in E-1s through MSgt. For the most part. After that, whenever I was trying to get new equipment or justify a larger budget, or expand a mission set, hand out discipline or maintain morale - it was always a zebra that ed things up. Never my group or wing commander (except for discipline...the WG was always breathing down my neck for those). The last few years of my career I started asking the question...why are these senior E's bothering me about my mission. What do these folks actually do? For your second question, not a recent experience. I retired in 2015.

Have you guys in the CAF experienced positive results from the 8's and 9's in your organization? My experience was that if they never showed up to work at all a better decision would've been made that day. That's from the squadron all the way up to the MAJCOM. I spent a 3rd of my career on Army bases and while there were some worthless E-9s, some of them were pretty damn helpful at accomplishing the mission. I personally never met one E-8 or E-9 in the AF whose pay fairly equated to what they contributed. Not questioning the MAF or support folks because an immediate flaming about how valuable senior NCOs are would ensue. I saw it at SOS. And at ACSC. A long time ago. The question is for CAF pilots/aircrew.

Chida you might not know it now but when you hang it all up, SS has a fair point. There are 2 medals to gaf about in the outside world: prisoner of war and purple heart.

Rat - you type a whole lot of what we should do. A ten year old could do that. What you are not doing is describing how we go about it. How do I have a discussion with a liberal about why immigration control is important when they are more outraged that some parents don't want dicks in the girls locker room than the fact that they are paying a shitload more at the pump and the cash register? Are you not talking to liberals? That's the kind of stuff they will come at you with claws over nowadays. The stuff you typed about NPR...good grief you are out of touch. Yes, the fringe mess is all over the View, all over MSNBC, and all over social media.

Can't agree with you there. The transgender horror show is on the news every day. Unchecked illegal immigration is on the news every day. Drug infested tent cities, BLM, unfund the police, very late term abortions, and on and on. All over the news/entertainment feeds every single day. The only thing I can think of that would cause you to make that statement is that you no longer consider those to be fringe ideals.

what in the ?

Unfortunately my friend, you have been had. While I do not agree with right wing/evangelical ideology - republicans are not actively trying to destroy America. Their fringes have been contained. Democrats have not only failed to contain their fringes, the fringe population grows stronger every day. The president and everyone on down in that party actively advocates for fringe policies. Actively advocates for them every day. Having a conversation with anyone who voted this garbage into office is no longer an option. That party either splices out the haters of America and sends them packing to make a third party, or they remain haters of America.

I've heard this before. Can't remember if it was you...but, you've got a fair point.

This might belong in one of the retirement threads, but after you've exited the AF you will remember all of the shenanigans that you endured at the deid and all of the other Middle Eastern locations with a different slant than when you were actually experiencing the buffoonery. I would not want to go through all of that crap ever again but I sure do have some memories that most humans will never have. Its the little things when you reflect back. The tiniest most insignificant things stay with you forever. One of those happened when I was at Masirah in late 01. I was attached to an Army unit and we were on reverse cycle, so we slept during the day and did whatever we were doing at night. So one early afternoon we get woken up by the brit harriers doing pattern work on the island. It was a pisser, we usually slept much later than that. But when you're up you're up, so we got out of our cots and started a spades game until the dfac opened. This was me and 3 JTACs in an Army tent with about 25 cots. The only other dude in the tent was an Army specialist, I think he was the old man's radio operator. He was asleep, as he should have been for at least five more hours. The rest of our tent's occupants were probably still in a hot wash or whatever meeting the Army made up to make sure everyone was awake for at least 30 hours. We tried to notch that crap as much as we could. About an hour into our spades game we hear the specialist let loose a rip roarer. It was so loud it woke him up. He immediately sits up in his cot, looks over at us with saucer eyes, and apparently the Army specialist neurons in his brain start to fire and he thinks oh shit - I'm late for a meeting. He then proceeds to get dressed as fast as he can, dons all of his kit, mumbles some profanity about not getting to eat dinner, and races out of the tent to who knows where. We laughed about that the rest of that deployment. I still chuckle when I think about it to this day. It wasn't an earth moving humorous event. But in the context of the time, we were tired, worn out, stressed out and it was a pretty damn funny moment. That's the kind of stuff you'll take away I think. I remember the belts, the speed limits, the right starts and all of the other crap that at the time was eating me up whenever I found myself at one of the DoD "cities" in the Middle East. But at the end of the day its the little things. This thread brings me back. It will bring a lot of you back to some fond memories too after you hang it up and go commercial or corporate.

What you typed makes sense. I hope you are correct. But it appears that both parties are actively creating or at least creating the perception of crises and emergencies.

"I pledge to advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every sailor in the Navy. I pledge to engage in ongoing self-reflection, education and knowledge sharing to better myself and my communities. I pledge to be an example in establishing healthy, inclusive and team-oriented environments. I pledge to constructively share all experiences and information gained from activities above to inform the development of Navy-wide reforms." Latest wokeness infiltrating the DoD. I sure hope we don't go to war with China. That would be racist.

Slackline feels guilty for being white. He has bought the "white man bad" rhetoric hook line and sinker. That is an unbelievably weak state of mind. I think there are probably more and more like him in the military today, and unfortunately the military seems to be encouraging that line of thinking. The Army regulations are knee-jerking hard left on this notion of white privilege, systemic racism, and wokeness...some of it is hard to read. I'm not sure if the AF regs are going in the same direction but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if they are headed that way.

Well, no. I have no questions about what a cyber red team is. I was just curious if you knew what one was.

Did you use bentonite? I think a liner is a bit much for an acre pond, although I've heard of people using it for a pond that size. My soil is clay loam. I've read that clay loam is pretty easy to seal, but everything I've dug around here (duck ponds) leaks like a sieve unless I use a pond liner.

Ok. Thank you for your replies. I like living out here. It's interesting every day. And for Flea, sorry, I traded in the Maserati for...a '21 Maserati. It's a big'in. Lots of hp. On a second note, I'm digging a pond. Anyone have any experience in that? It's probably going to be about an acre.

Do you know what a cyber red team is?

I've heard (read) a few folks on here say that they live in a rural setting or are thinking about living "out here." With all of the woke craziness going on, and more and more males in the world not really capable of accomplishing much in the way of taking care of themselves without relying on everyone else to do everything for them, I was wondering...how many of you live "out here." I wanted to live in a rural setting pretty much the entire time I was in the military, but didn't manage to pull it off. As soon as I retired, I fled the city. Life is a billion times better. Still have to go into the city everyday, but coming home to a rural setting is about as good as it gets. The reason I started this thread, is that most people that I talk to when I describe where I live and what I do day to day, and everyone that comes out here - says wow, I wish I had that. Maybe they are just being nice, dunno. But I actually love living like this. A lot of they guys I ran around with in the military live like this since they retired. Maybe some more of you who live out of the city, are somewhat self reliant, and can do things for yourselves can add to this.

He said more choice words than that. I'm not making that up.

Nickel. Him him

Biden got it brother. Good on him. Shananigans? Maybe. There's always voter shananigans. Biden got it. And you know what, don't take me out back and beat the shit out of me, but I didn't want to hear anymore Trump. Shut the up and be glad the Republicans kept the Senate. That's huge. We're ok with Biden. Look forward. I understand your enthusiasm, but politics take time. A long time. We're good.

Sorry M2.

Flea, Slackline, Prozac, Drewpey and Breckey. I'm sure I've left out some of you tards. Have you ever. Ever in your life, had any one of your troops look up to you? You whine on an internet forum about what all is wrong with America. From the looks of it, on the weekends too. Have you ever done anything in your military career that caused people to look up to you and say hey, I'll follow this one into combat. What do you do? What is your life like? You sound like you are fighting for the latest organic blast double milkshake of bat turds at trader joes. Jesus Christ. What do you tards do?