DirkDiggler

Great video of a Russian forgetting the childhood lesson of stop, drop, and roll.

Humanitarian volunteer, Marine vet killed in Ukraine while helping civilians | Fox News Regardless of anyone's political views on the conflict, sad news out of Ukraine. If any of you watched the show Hunting ISIS you'll recognize Reed. After his service in the Marines he'd dedicated his life to medically helping people in conflict zones.

Denial May Bring War - Punishment May Keep it at Bay (substack.com)

Agreed. I guess the thing that boggles my mind the most on that is the still climbing the ladder/still looking for a follow on if you’re a 4 star (or any star or O-6 for that matter IMO). Even as an O-4/5, be the guy/gal you want to be, do the right thing. I’ve never understood the style of thinking and action that is constantly, overwhelmingly concerned with climbing the next rung in ladder.

The First Battle of the Next War: Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan (csis.org) This is a long read and doesn't contain any new revelations (at least I didn't think so). Also doesn't benefit from any knowledge of classified capes. Still, was an interesting skim/look into multiple factors that might effect a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Lots of speculation over on Twitter about who was responsible and where things originated. Be interesting to see the real story/data. Israel Strikes Iran Amid International Push to Contain Tehran - WSJ Either way, things blowing up in Iran, no clearly responsible party, and videos on Twitter of Iranian citizens cheering some of the strikes. Not a bad way to start a Sunday morning.

One of the (kinda) cool things about ACSC in-res was the level of briefer/public speaker that would come and talk with us. Ran the gambit, tons of 4 stars, State Department types, couple politicians etc. Some of them stuck with/spoke the party line, some actually had real shit to same and were quite candid in their views/opinions. Unfortunately, the military guys that usually were the most candid/interesting were the ones that were no longer upwardly mobile or those that were close to retirement. Almost all of them, to a T, made sure that the cameras weren't on or that "academic immunity" or whatever they called it was in effect. They were all very concerned about going "on the record" about pretty much anything. I understand that messaging wise you don't want to get in-front of your boss(es) and that having generals openly saying things that are at odds with our civilian leadership is not usually a good thing. At the same time, I've always been a fan of leaders who are blunt in their beliefs/expectations and who are willing to take risks if it means their force(s) are well prepared and ready for unexpected challenges. I'm not sure we have as many 0-6+ leaders ready for an all out, attritional type war with a peer as we need. Interesting anecdote, just finished up another deployment and as I was writing AMs for my crew, it was brought to my attention that the local awards pub did not allow the words "captured" or "killed" to be used in award citations anymore. Was seriously a WTFuck moment; the military exists, on lawful order, to kill people and break their shit, but I can't officially say that anymore or recognize people for performing their primary duty to our country. I'm a firm believer that every young officer should read TE Ferenbach's This Kind of War, specifically the chapter titled "Proud Legions". Would have applicable lessons for any full on fight with China, Russia, NK, or Iran.

What Could Come Next? Assessing the Putin Regime's Stability and Western Policy Options (csis.org) Pretty long but interesting read/analysis about possible outcomes post Ukraine/Russian war on the Russian side. Don't know that I agree with everything the author postulates but hopefully our higher ups are thinking about this type of stuff.

Can't speak to the SWO side of the house (never asked one, they're a pretty strange bunch) but Naval Aviation has a screening process for command. They basically have tiers (anyone directly involved in this feel free to correct any incorrect info). Tier 1 is line/fleet squadron, Teir 2 is RAG/training squadrons, and Tier 3 is all others. Of my 3 Navy Pilot buddies on staff, one screened Teir 1 and commanded an SH-60 squadron in San Diego, one screened Tier 3 and commanded the Naval Brig in San Diego (everyone who knew this guy, was a phenomenal bro, thought this hilarious, the jokes wrote themselves), and the last guy didn't make the cut/didn't command (went back to flying for his last assignment, which is pretty rare in Navy Aviation as I understand it). Guy I went to JPMEII with (submariner) had an interesting take on the Navy canning as many skippers as they do. At least in his world, he felt every firing he'd heard about or seen over the course of his career was justified. Every captain of a Navy submarine is directly in charge of running a nuclear reactor (or dozens of nuclear warheads if it's an SSBN). His opinion was there's just no leeway/wiggle room if a higher level commander thinks a guy is untrustworthy/unsuitable for command based on the above responsibility. One guy's opinion.

Pretty intense video of a Ukrainian unit assaulting a Russian held town.

Yes those count.

What the actual Fuck. This is maybe the dumbest thing the AF could've done retention wise right now. Every careerist sack of shit O-5/6 is gonna rack & stack their guys based on this shit, SECAF guidance mentioned above aside. We're already in a personnel shortage WRT instructors and evaluators (at least in my corner of the AF) cause the majority of the FGOs are gone. The 1st time someone doesn't get promoted (or thinks they didn't? based on a lack of an AAD it's just gonna make things worse. Rant off, anyone know if AMU/Toro/ERAU has stock available to buy?

Quick work by the Igla gunner.

How the Battle for the Donbas Shaped Ukraine’s Success - Foreign Policy Research Institute (fpri.org) Good read/analysis.

Yeah that whole complaint sounded like a lesson in general douchebaggery.

Not sure where to put this given that no one's actually been fired yet that I'm aware of. I do not consider "Just the News" to be a particularly reliable news source but there's a lot of details on the below linked news story, whistleblower complaint is also posted on there. Overall the complaint seems absolutely stupid/absurd to me but in today's climate that doesn't matter. Veterans of Furry Wars: Air Force pledges crackdown on airmen wearing kinky sex toy merch | Just The News Couldn't come at a worse time for the people caught up in this; CAT 5 just took over AFSOC a couple days ago. He's going to crucify/proper FUCK anyone that he even suspects could possibly make him look bad.

Good read, thanks for posting.

Not an Osprey guy so all my info is second hand/comes from a very experienced-22 guy I worked with at Kirtland. His opinion was only rotating the prop and not the entire engine nacelle would be very beneficial. I believe there’s an ongoing mod program to fix the IR center body issues but could be wrong about that. I always viewed the Osprey the in the same vein as the early helicopters or maybe some of the century series fighters, first of their kind, pushing the technical/engineering envelope, still figuring things out. My buddy referenced above said there were a lot of issues with the aircraft that only manifested themselves after the aircraft was in production/already in the fleet and the number of available spares for the parts that ended up commonly failing were low. Honestly hope that the industry takes all the lessons learned from the -22 program and incorporates them into the -280.

Engines are fixed on the -280, one of my Osprey buddies told me that alone would help to alleviate some the MX shenanigans the -22 experiences. Also, it being a second-generation tilt rotor, you'd hope they'd incorporate some lessons learned into it.

Nice pics of a slightly used Tu-22, too bad it's missiles didn't cook off and level the whole area.

Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: February–July 2022 | Royal United Services Institute (rusi.org) Good read.

It’s Jabber now, same guy from what I can tell, super sleepy, and constantly irritated you’re interrupting his Kuwaiti soaps.

I'm glad I stayed in. Almost punched at 14 years when I got a staff gig I really despised (extremely poor leadership at the beginning). Decided punching for one bad assignment was a little reactionary and ended up staying. I truly think I would've regretted it had I punched but since that's a hypothetical no way to truly know. At the end of the day serving my country is still a really big part of my reason for being. I love the flying and camaraderie. Hit 20 next May and will probably stay another 2-3 years beyond that if I'm still positively contributing. Different strokes.

The club manager probably threw in a couple free steak dinner early bird specials since I’d venture the whole event wrapped up before 6pm.