DirkDiggler

The Iron Maiden actually went away before that; a female airman at the 100th ARW got "offended" and complained. The rest hung around until like you said they all rotated back to the states.

We'll be lucky if the plane(s) is just dented. I've seen firsthand the results of guys trying to tactically employ the aircraft with absolutely no proficiency or experience. It ends with crashed aircraft and dead friends. Hopefully Congress unf*cks this before things get to that point.

Thanks for the responses, I really appreciate the info. I've done mutiple TDY enroutes to overseas locations but not from so this is kinda a learning experience in progress right now.

I do have a wife but since this is part of a PCS she'll be with me at my training location.

Thread revival. I'm getting ready to attend a 2-3 month training school TDY enroute during a PCS from an overseas base. I know my OHA and COLA go away, but I've read that there's a generic BAH rate (BAH RC or non-locality BAH?) that I would get until I show up at my new base. Any true to this, anyone have any experience with this?

We were briefed yesterday that one more incident will bring GO1, total lockdown where you're only allowed to travel between home and work. One of the other sqs in our group is on this total lockdown now cause they had a curfew violation this weekend. The locals were already fired up about the MV-22s arriving on island, these incidents are just added fuel to the fire.

https://www.wtvm.com/story/19785743/2012/10/10/retired-csm-basil-plumley-dies-fort-benning-mourns-loss Rest easy brother, 32 years of uniformed service then another 15 working at the Post Hospital, he served our country longer than I've been alive.

If you're in a deployed location why are they doing a ceremony? The new dude should show up and start working.

Read it today, was a pretty good read. Author seemed pretty humble and there were some pretty funny parts throughout.

I know there was an SIB, we got briefed on it at home station.

Butters thanks for the additional info. Hope the pilot gets cleared of this bullshit, seems like this sort of thing is becoming more prevalent across the AF lately.

So one guy was killed on the DZ and another went off DZ? Or was it the same dude? Either way I don't think the DZSO/DZCO has the authority to clear him back in; any sort of off DZ/injury to personnel means the airdrop is done for the day.

The short answer is yes; at a minimum you don't do another airdrop. AFI 13-217 covers AF DZ operations, directly out of the reg: 2.21.1 When an off DZ airdrop has been confirmed or suspected, the aircrew invovled will not attempt another drop for the remainder of the mission. In the case of an off DZ drop involving injury or death to personnel, the mission will be terminated and the aircraft will land as soon as possible. The pilot isn't being blamed/charged for this guy's death. Most DZ surveys include a blurb in the comments section that the user assumes responsibility for damage/injury to equipment and personnel. It seems like he's being charged for his actions/decision making process after the bad drop occured. I would say that this varies greatly by the unit involved. Army/AF units that jump all the time generally are much more realistic about the inherent dangers involved in kicking guys out the back of airplanes and will set realistic no shit limits with regards to the risk they're willing to accept with training drops. Units that jump once a semi to get their jump pay or guys that just don't jump that often, thats a whole different story (the casualty from this was a Guard SF dude, I'd be curious to know if he was an A company guy or a B company guy, either way he probably didn't jump very often). FWIW, I think the pilot is getting a raw deal, I agree with the above post that a Q-3/loss of cert and living with the knowledge would be punishment enough. Bad situation for everybody involved.

BBC just said the rescue operation has turned into a recovery operation; thoughts with our British brothers on this 4th.

Rest easy bros....

https://www.153aw.ang.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123308277 Do the Mods wanna change the thread title to C-130 crash? Really hoping to hear that the crew made it out ok.

Real glad to hear everyone got out alright and is doing ok.

I have no idea what community you're from or what your prior experience is but you and the guy that wrote this article are dead wrong. 99% of the missions flown in Afghanistan are pretty benign, you got that right. However, that other 1% is far different than "flying the flagpole back home". As stated above ask any guy thats doing CAS, rescue, or airdrop over there and many will have had a mission where the wx was shit, the jawas were squirting fire everywhere, and the guys on the ground were screaming for help. I believe there is a complete difference in your ass being physically present in this scenario vs being 10,000 miles away. Most communities in the AF have lost A/C and friends over there hacking the mish, I don't think the UAV community can claim the same. That being said, I wouldn't give it up for the world. I don't like being away from my wife in a dirty shithole for months at a time, but thats part for deal I signed up for. I want that guy I'm supporting on the ground to know I'll be there with whatever he needs no matter what. Most guys I know couldn't care less about air medals or any other medal for that matter. This post isn't meant as a slam on UAV drivers, I've got friends that went that route and they're good dudes. The pred guys are doing good things over there and deserve to be recognized, they work shit hours in some of the less desirable CONUS bases. Just because they do so doesn't mean they should get the same things as guys who are physically present in the AOR.

You know I'm about the most non-religious person out there, don't practice, no interest in hearing people talk about religion etc., but things like this are ridiculous. Freedom of religion means everyone should be able to pray, be it to god, satan, Budda, fsm, whatever. Taking away someone's bible in a room to make a statement is just f(&cking retarded.

LOL awesome

LOL, 2. Half the Loggie/A4 guys I know can't make that program work, let alone us flyers who use it as part of our additional duties.

Part of the problem is that the Raptor routinely operates above the normal 50,000 ft operational ceiling of conventional fighters like the F-15 or F-16, Lyon says. How life-support systems behave at those altitudes is not understood very well, he says Haven't the U-2's been operating well above that altitude since the 1950's? Seems a litle suspect.

Rest easy bro...

Deployments in the community as a whole (MC-130H and P) aren't too bad, somewhat depends on your location. I can't be more specific than that. The thing that starts to add up is the TDYs to various locales for training. At the overeseas locations you can expect to be gone anywhere from 180-240 days a year, maybe a little less at the stateside locations. The Shadow community right now is undergoing the challenge of standing up the MC-130J while continuing to man the current MC-P fleet. As stated above, you're gonna be busy.

Shortbus, on 11 March 2012 - 03:56 AM, said: A war? Best post of the week. I honestly think its a tribute to professionalism and training of our military that shit like this isn't happening on a weekly basis. We have a force thats been deployed to that shithole for over 10 years now. You can't constantly send young guys/gals out to a country for 13+ months where they get shot at, watch their brothers in arms get killed/wounded while fighting a shadowy enemy that looks just like every other jawa in the village, live in godawful conditions, potentially deal with a neverending stream of qweep, are told no porn, no sex, no alcohol, no stress relief etc, and not expect that things like this won't happen sometimes. I have no idea what the background of this paticular situation is, I'm sure we'll find out in the coming days as the media blows it up around the world. I could be totally off base. But the fact remains that Afghanistan is war, always has been a war regardless of the whatever the popular title of the month may be, and in war really ugly things happen and people die in f##ked up ways. I'm sure that the individual/individuals responsible will be prosecuted under the UCMJ while everybody else soldiers on. Its unfortuanate that some innocents may have died and that our troops will most likely bear the brunt of the fallout. The bigger question is how much longer we're going to continue to try to "divide by zero" in a place where, at least to me, it seems like we're continuing to loose our direction and our people for what I consider to be questionable returns at best.