filthy_liar

Hey lab partner, thought you could read between the lines. Its the internet, no worries. Its not just the candidate, it's the entire party. America is ed up. That's the liberal message.

That checks. I'd say a couple of exceptions are 1) highly technical fields, like cyber defense and some engineering gigs, and 2) civil service employees who are aspiring to one day be an SES.

What I took from the debate, beyond the antics, was that Trump was generally optimistic about the country and Biden was pessimistic. Biden's tone to me was: America is jacked up and therefore needs more big government to intervene into everything." At least that's my impression. I'm sure Harris will echo the exact sentiment that Biden did: America is racist, America's economy is in the toilet, America's health care system is the worst on the planet, etc. And she'll need to reign back in the green new deal people that Biden stepped on. I was on the fence about whether or not I would even vote this time around. I'm definitely showing up to the polls after watching that. And I will certainly admit that Trump behaved like a child. For some reason that doesn't bother me anymore - a lot of politicians behave horribly and say horrible things and encourage horrible behavior.

On the bright side...posters in here from both sides of the arguments are typing some well thought out points. I wish the public in general could engage in rational discourse instead of (to use Griswald's phrase) slinging monkeyshit at each other.

KJoe if you wanted to be an Air Force pilot, then you have a certain amount of drive and are not scared of adventure. There are other careers out there that have similar qualities of a pilot in terms of required dedication, drive, etc. A GS or contractor in an AF squadron is not one of those careers. Disclaimer: I'm a retired AF pilot and am currently a contractor in an Army unit, but my first gig after retirement was a contractor in an AF squadron (training squadron).

Interesting replies. Torqued - I tend to agree with your POV. I think the spirited conversation about this topic illustrates my point of "kinda glad I didn't have to deal with this." I don't know if allowing beards and turbans to be worn by some folks while prohibiting others from doing the same is right or wrong. I just know that when you have to spend your time wading through the problems associated with perceptions of haves and have nots, it does detract from mission focus. And to help some folks on here who seem to be tunnel visioned on beards and turbans - the concept of the perception of haves and have nots is much larger than beards and turbans, and it's much larger than religion or gender. And its a challenging concept to work through once it gets a foothold in your organization.

Has anyone seen folks wearing beards and turbans? If so, how are folks in the squadrons reacting? I've been out for 4 years...kinda glad I didn't have to deal with this. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/02/11/air-force-officially-oks-beards-turbans-hijabs-for-religious-reasons/?utm_expid=.jFR93cgdTFyMrWXdYEtvgA.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Mildly related to this, when the AF was on the hook to take over a 3 star level JTF (I think around 2015), we had some tomato heads show up who were part of Welsh's CAG. Their mission was to figure out what capabilities the AF could provide with their own ground force. I'm talking infantry type stuff, so the AF JTF/CC would be his own JFLCC or JTF Land, depending on the size of the campaign. I don't think it went beyond a white paper but that was some weird shit. I could kind of get my head around the attempted cyber grab, but to even consider building infantry capes when we were already short on manning and iron for the air campaign was beyond my comprehension.

Ahhh that's right. I think my selective memory kicked in as a defense mechanism. Yes, Schwartz was pretty terrible. I heard him give a speech one time and we were cringing in the audience. Everyone is equal nonsense like you said, but to make it worse he sounded and carried himself like he was 105 years old. Mosely was the one who was shitcanned by Gates.

I think I got out right before Fingers took over as CSAF. He was the CJSC director of staff, so he ran the OPSDEPS and had a ton of influence. I deployed a couple of times when he was the CFACC, he seemed engaged but the only compelling thing I remember was he was at the helm during one of the worst, if not the worst, mishap years in the AOR. From reading these posts, sounds like he was a disappointment as the Chief - much like Welsh in my opinion. I can't even remember who was before Welsh. It will be interesting to see how the pilot shortage issue plays out. I've been out of the jet far too long to be considered for anything but a turd desk gig. The thought would never enter my mind for the reasons already discussed on here. But I can see how it might be attractive to recent retirees, especially if they ended up at a white jet base.

I retired in 2015 so my info may be incorrect nowadays. If you were a flyer, the first priority was to get you back in the jet if you were short on gate months. Usually the plan was to fleet you up to DO as soon as you made O-5. If you were not short on gate months, a staff job at OSD, JCS, HAF, and everything else. If you ended up going to SAASS, SAMS, or SAW after ACSC, just about everyone I know pinned on O-5 or were very close by the time they graduated and ended up going straight to a DO billet. One cat was sent to be a group DO out of SAMS. That did not seem like a good deal to any of us (including him) but he made the command list and got command after 2 years. His was an unusual path.

My first mistake was choosing the builder. I wanted some custom features for the home, like quarter-log siding for the exterior and interior walls, timber ceilings, etc. They wouldn't do any of that. So my choice was to go with a true custom builder who builds one house at a time, or compromise. I compromised because true custom builders are ridiculously expensive and I'd never be able to sell the home. So the builder I chose would not do anything "unique" and they used the cheapest materials and labor they could find. I've never seen such shoddy construction. I'll have to redo a lot of what they did to get the house like I want it. They let me pick our their best materials for flooring, paint, etc. And they let me buy my own sinks and finally agreed to build a tiled walk-in master bath instead of installing a cheap drop-in. All of their materials were garbage, even their "top end" stuff. My closing was a nightmare. The GC "guaranteed" me a date that the house would be complete, so I scheduled a move-out date with the apartment and scheduled movers. The actual closing was almost 5 weeks later. I was about 2 days away from having to move into a hotel and move my furniture into storage. I basically had to threaten the building company with a lawsuit. That was a stressful 5 weeks that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I've lived in the house for about a month, and I have water coming in through the first floor, a hot water heater that constantly trips (probably bad thermostat), and a bathroom that leaks through the floor all the way through to the first level. I've heard that once you close, the builder drags their feet for warranty items. That's definitely true in my case. Oh and they left about a dumpster load of garbage - mostly leftover materials and some actual garbage, on my property. And they left about another dumpster load of stumps that they promised they'd haul away since early on in the build. I owed $18K at closing, they were nice enough to let me know that about a week before closing. To this day I do not understand how they came up with that amount. I work with a guy who claims he owed almost $40K, so maybe that's not that unusual. It sure shocked me though. I'm sure I can think of other bad things. Having said all of that above, I don't really know what advice to give anyone. All of the major builders have plenty of bad reviews, so you can't really go by that. If you can afford it, a true custom build is the way to go, but just realize that most folks living out in a rural area on land can't afford an expensive house so you might have issues of you try to sell. I'm slowly getting over the whole frustrating experience. There's nothing like living out in the woods and having total control over your land and house. I was never able to do that in the military. ...I forgot to mention the part about utilities - you'll want to plan that out very carefully. My house sits 560 off the road. I did a lot of work myself, but here's about what stuff would've or did cost me: Driveway (concrete) $26K; electricity: $14K; water: $5K; internet: $3.7K. All of my utilities are trenched because they want you to clear so many trees out to go above ground. I don't know which is more expensive, but I'm glad I kept the trees.

I bought land separately and then had a house built later. Here was my experience: when I was closing for the land loan, the lending agent popped a letter in front of me for my signature. The letter stated that there would be a lien on the timber on my property. It did not mention the land loan, and did not have an expiration date. Lawyer said it was "typical, and obviously associated with the land loan." It was obvious to me he was bs'ing me, and I wasn't comfortable with the letter, so I walked out of the closing, much to everyone's chagrin. I ended up paying cash for the land, which was not what I wanted to do, but at least there are no liens. For the house, during the building phase I had a construction loan, which was all new to me and at times confusing. I had different interest payments every month, some for $19, and some for over $600 near the end of construction. At closing the bank transferred everything into a mortgage. Good luck on your build. I can give you some of the surprises and less than good experiences that I had if you are interested. At the end of the day, it was a good decision for me because I cannot see any neighbors or even the street from my house and there is no HOA or any of that nonsense.

ACSC was not useful for improving leadership skills. However, ten months of being on the golf course by 11:30 was not a bad gig. SAMS is a completely different story - I thought it was a great program for developing officers who would command squadrons and battalions.