Jimmy.The.Engineer

I'm too lazy to look up who said it but he hit it right on with his "evaluator teach something" theory. Back when I was bullseyeing womprats in my T-16, an evaluator on one of my rides had a great outlook and imparted this gem: "Ultimately, aren't we trying to make the unit better?"

Come on, Cannon ain't that bad. I like the smell of cow fece, flys on a biblical plague scale, rolling power outages (three days sometimes), E-coli in the water (oh yeah, we just did three days of that), winds 55 gust 70, nearest Target/Starbucks/anything 118 miles away (my wife LOVES that), inept former ACC support folks (mindnumbingly), a mayor who is the lead realtor, house prices X3 the normal market (one third the quality), no private schools and that one guy. The weather is nice, though. You want to go to Germany or Italy. I have been to nearly all of the places mentioned above. You are single and want to go to Germany or Italy. Accept no substitute.

How the hell are ya? We are starting "it". "It" is fraught with MX nightmares. As class #2, I don't fly much anymore, due to "it".

I did a tour on a penninsula once upon a time. Due to operational security I won't divulge the location; suffice it to say that it was south of Iraq and north of Oman/Yemen and it's capital was Riyadh and rhymed with "Audi Arabia". The shower tents didn't have curtains on them and the French would double up in them. Those of you out there who have had the sheer joy of the shower tent experience understand its spacious nature (might do a little inadvertant fencing every now and then). Otherwise, the French did their jobs well and were actually quite professional. I know, right?

Agreed. Not so say that there aren't Non-AFSOC types doing their part. If you are asking if AFSOC would be satisfying, I think it really depends on your mindset. He said, "travel". Not good for that. Big picture SA? Good for that.

The gunship guys I talk to like what they are doing. Exercise, pro, deploy. Yup. No such thing as a non-AOR TDY. Go to C-5s for that. No cargo movement in the states. There is an occasional (read - almost never) need for some off-the-wall wierd shit but you can mostly count on Iraqistan and Afghanistan (99% of your time). Bottom line: If you want to travel to nice places, don't go AFSOC. I know I made it sound crappy but the reality is you will actually contribute - directly contribute - to the real fighting. You will be able to say you did something - most people will never be able to say that. AFSOC delivers the rounds and trigger pullers in varying capacities. That is all we do. It isn't that we are better, we just allow our people to think, we have waaaaay cooler toys and the level of beauracracy is dramatically reduced. Not sure if this answered your questions but I can assure you that if you join the darkside, you will like it. There is a lot I cannot tell you here.

A word of warning. There is a check valve from plane X to the C-130. There is a blocking diode from C-130 to MC-130, as well as a check valve. I quote Yoda: "If you choose to join the darkside, forever will it consume your destiny". Don't get me wrong. I love what I'm doing. It just isn't for everyone.

More to a point, BMI was invented in the mid 1800s. People were malnourished and weighed half of what we do now. People are simply a larger species, these days. I'm not even talking about the fat asses. I have no time for lazy disgusting bags of shit in jogging pants. For normal people, BMI = bullshit.

Sounded that way to me too, Mambo. When are you coming here? You are missing out.

You know, it seems we need to take stock of what we do have and not the other way. Some people are sleeping in their own feces tonight. Kuma nailed it with the shoes giving body parts to do what we do. Here is your crayon.

I like how everyone knows - in great detail - what is happening at the 73rd. You embarrass yourselves.

Alright, so what is the straight skinny on the CSAR X? It's on. It's off. Yes. No. WTF mate?

No surprise. It isn't like the Navy has the best track record with regard to uniforms. I take comfort in the fact that we'll never be that bad.

Now you know that's right. The H3 was the mature version of a proven concept. I see your H3 and raise you: H3 with 8 blades. Yeah, a little pee came out, when I wrote that.

The gay model happened to the AMP program too.

Do the missle guys get to wear bomber jackets? I don't get too much exposure to those guys. You don't see me runnin around wearing a green beret for a reason. I didn't EARN one.

I agree that it has ZERO functionality. I only got one set for some recent PME and have never worn it since. It is garbage. I feel bad for the dudes who actually have to wear it on a daily basis. How many times have we seen change for the sake of change? Does anyone out there remember when it was THREATCON? One day, we come to work and it now FPCON. The only thing that changed was the name. They then spent how many millions to change all of the signs and what not. Someone got promoted/bronzed starred for that. Fraud waste and what?

I've spent the better part of the last three days reading this post. I have laughed. I have cried. In my former unit, we went through the Died from time to time and, in later rotes, in/out processed the AOR to points north. I was there for the loadmaster building his own amnesty box (You can't beat that, no matter how hard you try.) and I was there when the no-job-havin douchebag called me (oops, I mean someone) out on the PT gear possibly being counterfeit. Reading this made me fully appreciate my station. I am here to tell you that there is an Air Force out there which still focuses on what is important. I once had an outstanding AC who had a great motto: "There is shit that matters and there is shit that doesn't". I encourage all to take heart. There is an Air Force out here where we still know that. Our commanders use the F word at CC calls and still look sharp in their blues as well. "Move this from here to there. See you when you get back. We don't want to know any details about how you did it". I have seen the light and I now live on the Darkside. In the spirit of this post. I believe if I brought up the Died to anyone here, I would get my ass kicked.