DirkDiggler

Going to Haiti = Bad Idea Jeans

https://www.dvidshub.net/news/484658/honoring-trailblazer-legacy-msgt-mona-lynn-howard-lives-howard-drop-zone?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0QRnWYmJ-EbvU23L5J1RVzIUxu6HDmIK0TupBzPK9aVqiyVovo_VPNWng_aem_5FeGBA5wS4w4bZPOGmH-jg Lynn was a phenomenal loadmaster and person, glad to see this DZ named after her.

Random question since you've worked over there much more recently than I have. Poland seems to be buying every piece of ground military kit they can get their hands on. Is their Army making parallel efforts to improve the abilities of their soldiers, NCOs, and officer corps?

Nice. I don’t have any Marlins, will have to check them out. I did buy a Henry .357 lever action last year and really like it. I might go hog hunting in two weeks out in west Texas. Thinking about taking my Springfield Saint Victor AR-10 for it.

https://mwi.westpoint.edu/my-war-our-war-the-unfinished-business-of-afghanistan/ Worth a read.

Sad to hear.

Awesome. I have several Ruger Americans and enjoy each one; my favorite is my .308. About 9 months ago I also bought a Ruger Mini 30, love that gun. Would highly recommend picking one up if you get the chance.

https://apple.news/AcYPllCaNSP-3N_tyTSkP5g Another worthless sack of shit turned into fertilizer; Israel is on a role.

Tough place to go down, weather up there is rough a good chunk of the year.

I knew a guy in a situation very similar to yours; unfortunately he did not get picked up the year he wrote his letter. To echo Herkdrv's comments above, letters should be short, concise, and explain a gap that otherwise wouldn't be obvious to the board (boards are pretty good at seeing everything/seeing through fluff). The individual I referenced above did end up getting picked up on his next look where his last deployed LOE was visible/in the system (was in a DO role downrange). I know/knew far more people at the tail end of my career getting picked up APZ so I'd say the moral is keep working hard towards what you want. Best of luck to you.

Israel just blasted the Houthis this morning; they are not fucking around.

Not confirmed yet but a good day if Israel actually turned Nasarallah into fertilizer.

What’s your definition and or threshold for someone in the USAF to do things that matter or make a difference?

In my last assignment alone my sq was directly tasked with/involved in 3 ops to either rescue or recover Americans in harms way. If you don't believe things like that "matter" we'll have to respectfully agree to disagree. I understand and partially agree with what you're saying writ large about whether OEF/OIF/OFS/OIR brought us a better peace/world. I personally don't believe it was all for nothing but I definitely understand the viewpoint of those that do.

I'd venture a guess that this varies widely by location, command and MDS. I definitely didn't feel that way in MCs, either in the operational or FTU world. I probably felt that way through quite a bit of my time on staff. I think there's a lot of leaders (more so at the Wg/CC level and up) that don't do a great job of articulating to their formations why what the base/wing/command is doing is important, or how it ties into higher level operational or strategic goals. Especially for a lot of the support functions it's just another broken airplane, or another patient, or another customer at finance to deal with. If you're at a place where the ops tempo is crazy high it gets harder to keep people motivated/morale up. And if I'm being completely honest, some of the things the AF does probably doesn't matter.