Grabby

Thanks for the visual! As a heads up, United now has LAS and MCO as well.

Dude, the reason the few of you "moved on with" your lives instead of talking about that absolute fiasco after the fact, is because you were dead ing wrong after screaming at the top of your lungs of how righteous you were. Instead of admitting that your side was full of arrogant charlatans and trying to figure out how to ensure such a up doesn't occur in the near future, you high-tailed as fast as possible to save face. You deserve to be "dunked" on. A lot. It was a massive stain on modern society with long-lasting detrimental 1st and 2nd order effects. Also, are these dubious press outfits (who latch onto reports that further excoriate the people who demanded others get the vaccine) somehow worse than the ones who went off 24/7 for nearly 2 years about how the world was basically ending and everyone needed to trust the science? GTFOH

I didn’t mean for any of this to be an indicator of how I felt during my time in. I wasn’t upset while I was in. I’m not upset now. I was honestly pretty thrilled during my 12 years on AD. And no one ever heard me say a single bad thing about our jet, ever. Maybe I longed internally for a very different mission, but who ing cares. I had a chance and it didn’t happen. Boo hoo. Not loving your MWS can be kept close to your heart, or realized slowly after years pass. I don’t love the airlines, but damned if I’m not the first to tell my fellow pilots how fortunate we are with a smile on my face, and I’m the first to suggest drinks and day trips while on the road. Anything but a slam-clicker. I merely wanted to be transparent, on an anonymous forum, about my hindsight on if flying in the AF was worth it. It took an enormous toll on my family and marriage. I saw my son for, at best, 1/3 of his life while often flying empty jets across the ponds and in the AOR. The 30 yo me didn’t care nearly as much as the gray haired me. In retrospect I still feel fortunate and am grateful for the friendships, memories and ratings, but I have come to the conclusion that the AF definitely took a lot, and I probably would have gone a different route if I had to do it over. If that makes me toxic, I guess I’m toxic. Judging oneself is never easy and rarely accurate. I definitely felt like I was a solid bro who was always willing to push and smile while doing it. I just felt like deep down it was not as fulfilling as I initially thought it was going to be. I’ll bow out to not clog the thread anymore, just felt like engaging when reading from strangers who don’t know me that I was not an asset but rather a detriment

Possibly, but I think that’s arrogantly presumptuous of you to say. I would be willing to bet there’s not a single person I served with who would think I had any pessimism or a poor attitude. Quite the contrary. Additionally, I am grateful for my time in but age has brought a certain perspective, for me, that does not exist within your sounding booth. I don’t think that warrants your need to make such a shitty personal jab.

Everyone will have their own take, but the only reason the flying was worth it for me was getting paid to build my time. I loved UPT but rather despised flying the C-17. So many bros loved it, so I’m sure many would disagree with my sentiment. Maybe I would have really enjoyed the CAF, but the absolutely ridiculous ops tempo and high % of flying in shitty places wasn’t, for me, the ideal way to spend my 20’s/30’s. I make a great living flying as a civilian, but there are so many other routes out there. Did I fly with some great people? Of course. Did I fly missions that civilians will never get to experience? Yep. But my GF has travelled a metric shit ton with friends and co-workers, building meaningful memories, to consistently amazing locales while making WAY more than any mil pilot. She’s as close with her friends as I was with my SQ mates. It’s definitely opened my eyes to what’s available to smart, hard working people, and over the long run I feel like I would have had a significantly better work-life balance while becoming financially secure much earlier had I gone a different direction.

nsplayr, The reason there is not an equal gender split is because men and women are different. We think different, we want different things and are attracted to different things. I don't understand how this isn't clear to absolutely everyone, especially any adult regardless of political leanings. Why is it only certain professions that people decry an unequal ratio in?

$30.8 Trillion of national debt?

I have the same Christopher Ward watch. It’s fantastic, and a steal for the money.

The amount of assumptions and false equivalencies you made in one post is startling. Ignoring your condescending first paragraph, I have to ask if you’ve ever been to Japan or Korea? Historically they didn’t wear masks en masse the way you implied. At all. Do you really think the reason they are healthier than us is because of a fabric mask? Do you think it’s possible that not being a nation of fat asses is why they have lower fatality rates? And perhaps that we test at ridiculous rates, even when we feel fine, is a contributing cause to case loads?

That you're either an ass clown, or you listen to ass clowns.

Ditto.

It was developed and then released from a Chinese laboratory. In China. Who would you pin it on? Are you getting your news from Chinese state-run media?

I used it for my helo ratings. Never paid a dime for comm/inst/CFI/CFI-I

Everything you are posting regarding cops is anecdotal. Do you realize that?

I literally laughed at the fact you don't see your glaring hypocrisy.

I suggest going back through this thread from the beginning. We've been laughing at people based off how they look and act for years. That's the most maddening part of the progressive push. It's been okay from the start to have a private laugh at people wearing the craziest shit imaginable in a Walmart shopping aisle, but now it's taboo to chuckle at a dude who literally looks like a clown while simultaneously piggybacking on a movement with questionable motives and throwing in a nod to people who feel mutilating sexual organs should be celebrated. That's not being mean, that's looking at a picture and honestly thinking "What the fu%k?", which also happens to be the title of this thread. This is a private forum where a bunch of bros shoot the shit. No one here would go try to make the pictured dude's life hell, and you know it. So thanks for trying to chastise us like we're children for laughing at the wrong thing, but I'm going to just keep on finding humor wherever it presents itself and tell you to fu%k off instead. Edit: Why can't I say "fu%k"?

I don't think 7/11 gives a damn about unhygienic behavior. Nor do most businesses. Have you ever seen the clientele at the average Wal-Mart? It's about what a business feels will drive customers away, such as a hobo's dick hanging out, and it's currently en vogue to slam others for downplaying the years most massive news event.

Exactly! It's been several weeks now and this is getting ridiculous. Could you imagine if a large percentage of the news pushed by media outlets was based on election hearsay rather than hard evidence for, say, the next 3 years?

"Take you seriously" was definitely overly dramatic, and in retrospect I would have altered what I wrote. It doesn't accurately portray what I feel and I'm glad you called me on it. That said, the reason I used a micro scale was to put it into a perspective that people can relate to. Hundreds of thousands is a big number, no question. But at some point we have to understand that the world population is fairly unfathomable to the human brain, as is the U.S. population, and in my eyes trying to ensure no one dies for any remotely avoidable reason is no reason to base policy when it comes at the expense of what makes life worth living. I cry at movies, get teared up when others suffer, and generally love people, especially old people. But the most rational, objective part of my brain that I can access tells me that what we are doing is borderline insane. I, by a large margin, prefer quality over quantity in nearly every aspect of life, to include life itself. I don't demand that others feel the same way, but I find it frustrating when our quality of life is diminished to the extent is has been to marginally extend the lives of a very small amount of people, relatively speaking. My biggest question for those saying we don't have a plan is: based off the incredibly marginal loss of total years of life, what is a good plan? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But is a pound of prevention worth an ounce of cure?

Warning: Long Rant What has anyone said that closely resembles the highlighted? While I may or may not agree with Brabus on some of his thoughts, his main point is that the response is overkill considering that the average age of death from COVID is essentially the average life span. You disagree, which is fine. I think the issue is that some people want to loudly force draconian measures on the entire population, whereas many want to be left alone while quietly letting you do what you feel is best. I suggest people rework the numbers to a more manageable scale, and understand that with the size of the global population there will always be anecdotal and wildly improbable events that tug at our hearts more than our heads. I like to consider the following scenario to put things into a better perspective: A town of 3,300 people (i.e. Unadilla, GA) has an identical population spread as the U.S.. A new virus is going around and over the course of nearly a year had claimed the lives of 3 elderly, 2 of which had co-morbidities. The three died at an average age of 75, 3 years before their expected age of death. In an effort to counter the virus the city council mandated that life as we know it come to a halt. Social distancing, closure of many businesses and most schools, no sports, etc. Additionally, the same council opened the coffers and spent $22,000,000 they didn't have towards stimulating the local economy of 3,300 residents. Each adult received up to $1200, and children $500. Every single person owed an average of $6,700 towards the loan, though, and over 200 working adults lost their jobs in the meantime. That means 1 out of every 10 working age adults became unemployed. The final oddity is that many emotionally charged residents spend a large portion of their days chiding the other residents for not doing enough, or for doing too much, to stop this virus. In fact some are openly hostile to anyone who couldn't understand the unprecedented aspects the city council (who incidentally averaged over 60 years of age, while the highest ranking were in their 70's and 80's and extremely wealthy) demanded. The final objective outcome: 9 years of total life are lost. The town of 3,300 could have reasonably expected to live a combined 259,050 years, but instead only lived 259,041 years. In other words the town is only going to collectively live 99.997% as long as they expected to. On the other hand, 10% of working adults became unemployed and every resident took on $6,700 of city council debt. Kids school years were cancelled. Almost all QOL was negatively impacted. Even Thanksgiving dinners amongst family and friends are vilified. Maybe the saddest part is that half the population thinks it's ing absurd that so much was spent in money and alterations to daily activities for such a meaningless loss of life, while the other half openly rebukes the city council and their fellow citizens at how little was done to handle the situation, and that nobody is doing nearly enough to stop the spread of the virus. TL;DR - If you don't think your fellow Americans have done enough to combat COVID, or that they are being flippant and selfish by wanting life to continue, I don't see how others like me can ever take you seriously. It makes one wonder if objectivity is dead in the age of social media and shock news.

Funny, I read your entire post and agreed with almost everything about it, until the last paragraph. Then I realized you were indicating minorities and women are not given a fair shake in today's military. I can't think of a single example of a minority or woman being squashed by a superior due to their race/sex in the 21st century. I have seen them given preferential treatment though. If you don't desire quotas, but support quotas in the interim to fix a perceived problem, can you very simply state what that perceived problem is?

There is no way you can be taken seriously. You post a single picture from a complex situation (there are several videos of it which would completely debunk the spin you're putting on it), and attribute a narrative to it while intentionally leaving out numerous facts. Perhaps you missed your calling as a modern day journalist. Let's dissect your post. First, these guys weren't "victims". They were chasing an armed dude down who just defended his life, and Anthony Huber attacked him with his skateboard (on video), which 100% is a deadly object. He was shot in the chest and died. Gaige Grosskreutz did not have his hands up for more than a very brief moment, the he charged . He was joining in on attacking Rittenhouse, was armed, and was shot in the arm. The events immediately leading to the first shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum are very clear from several available videos. He was pursuing a retreating Rittenhouse with what any objective person would agree was an aggressive disposition, while shots were fired from a third party. He got to within touching distance of Rittenhouse and was shot and died. I agree with your second paragraph if Kyle took a gun across state lines. Looking at the second part of your post, though, I'll make a few changes to reflect the feelings of a growing number of Americans: Many RIOTERS crossed states lines to a city in which they didn't reside, ostensibly to destroy local businesses. They were young and old, immature, untrained in crowd control or use of force, and seemingly not scared. They had no business injecting themselves into the situation they created, and since armed Americans trying to protect others were present, the results were predictably tragic. Prozac, I find your post to be in poor taste and antithetical to American values. I don’t know you. The fact that you’re active on this board means that in all likelihood you are in fact a veteran who loves his country. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you’re a decent human being who will take my comments as considered criticism and not a personal attack. That’s not what this is. But to equate American citizens rioting in the streets and attacking a scared young kid just trying to naively help protect innocent people to “victims” is abhorrent. We're talking about people trying to burn down Kenosha Wisconsin, USA, not Mogadishu. EVEN if some of these armed civilian business protectors were participating in illegal activities, they are US citizens entitled to due process, not foreign enemies to be attacked in the streets by a rioting mob of felons (all three shot had impressive records). With more calling for de-funding the police, crazy assholes rioting and wanting to take it to the suburbs, and local governments stepping back to let shit play out, this is the only logical outcome. The vast majority of people want to preserve America rather than destroy it while turning us into a lawless entity, and we will start to see more and more of these scenes develop. I also find it strange that you would call out another vet because they called a bunch of rioters "skinnies". I think you're offense to the pejorative is manufactured. The truth is the threat these rioters pose to Americans, on American soil no less, is far greater than any Somalian in Mogadishu, and they weren't shot down in the streets in the manner you implied. They were killed while acting as parts of a mob burning a city, by a dude defending his own life as they attacked him. A military member called them a name which, on this forum, universally ID's them as pieces of shit. While you may not agree, it's batshit crazy for you to not understand where Brick was coming from.

Hey Eli, Sent you a PM.

I have a dual-rated gig on a small (tiny) island in Micronesia as a contractor. Take home is less than $100k, but it's tax free, my house is included, and there's no car payments or associated insurance as there are no POV's on Island. I work 3 days a week with a minimum 4 hour lunch break, which I often spend spearfishing in warm, clear water. Home every day by 5pm, play golf and go scuba diving at least 3x a week. Polo shirt and board shorts to work, and was told on day one to never come in unless I'm flying that day. I'll never make Delta money, but my QOL (for me) is untouchable and I have well into 6 figures of play money year after year with retirement. While the remote island life is not for everyone, the point is there are plenty of amazing opportunities out there that are off the beaten path if you go searching. The industry needs us, which is pretty exciting.

If you really want to be a pilot, finish school. Go guard/reserve. Their pilot slots are separate from the active duty pool.