raimius

Glad to see there is already one commentator saying we should write off people who would rather be experts in their field or have a family than have a degree from Phoenix as whiners and self-identifying as not ready to promote.

Short and funny is good for a graduation speech, in my mind. Maybe a good war story about keeping priorities straight, seeing the big picture, or enjoying life would be good.

Inside the Beltway at Van Dorn has a lot of apartments, but I wouldn't say that most of it is particularly walking friendly. Old Town Alexandria would be the place to be if you want a social scene, everything in walking distances, and not too far from Andrews. There are a bunch of larger town homes right near National Harbor on the MD side, as well, if you want something like that. Kingstowne isn't too bad for the commute. Waldorf has cheaper prices, but you'll pay for it with commute times!

Yeah, it'd be nice if we could fit the administrators and managers into those positions, and find leaders for leadership. Not an easy thing though. The AF has a real desire to groom everyone for CSAF until they don't make the cut or check the right boxes, for some reason.

Some place near a metro stop, if you are going to the Pentagon. The Blue Line at Springfield or Van Dorn would work nicely. Huntington might also be a good option. I'm close to the Van Dorn station, and with the exception of a few townhouses, it's mostly apartments. Kingstowne has some nicer townhouses and houses, but I never looked at the prices.

As long as it doesn't just up and vanish!

Might not be a bad idea, if only to get senior FGOs and GOs to remember what seems important to LTs (heck, bring in some A1Cs and SrA, too.) So then, "morale" is defined by the Sq CC and freestyle expression shouldn't be included? I get that we REALLY value our image, but isn't a little personality and personal display of pride the main point of a morale patch?

Chang, I love my primary duties. Sadly, additional duties and random queep take up more time than my "primary duties." Worse is that my squadron is downright lucky compared to the pain that some are feeling. I love the majority of the people I work with. I like the fact that I get paid really well for the experience level I have. I don't like that people have to constantly argue with "the man" to use tools and capabilities they already have access to. I don't like that my training as a military member has focused more on fire extinguishers and freedom of religion via cheesy CBTs (to put it kindly) than how to use a pistol, rifle, or any other weapon system. I don't like that expertise at my job is equally likely to win accolades and promotion consideration as volunteering at a local library. I don't like that AF leadership thought it was a good idea to tell people "you might get laid off soon" just before Christmas, let that stew over the holidays, then pseudo-release information in barely understandable ways, while breaking their own deadlines. I don't like that I heard someone tell a new co-pilot that they were flying too much! The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing, but I don't think our AF knows how to do that anymore.

Yep, there's an AFI for that. ( https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/71_fss_qae/publication/afi11-202v3_aetcsup/afi11-202v3_aetcsup.pdf ) Your chances of getting the proper approval for a Gopro as a T-6 stud are essentially zero. Work hard, have fun, and don't give yourself any title before you've officially earned it.

DC area?

Enjoy it? Sometimes. Good days were really cool, and bad days really sucked (sts). I do not regret my decision to attend. I got the job I wanted, a ton of unique/extremely rare opportunities, great friends, and no real debt to speak of. Is it worth it to the taxpayer? Hard to tell. Personally, I think having a mix of commissioning sources gives the service people who can think in different ways. Diversity of ideas can help sanity check things and bring out innovative solutions.

I do like electronic pubs. Being able to do a search in a 300+ page document can be quite handy. Getting rid of ASBC. The CSAF at least makes some effort to keep mission focused and take care of people. I understand that that job probably has 100+ things competing for attention on any given day. So, he gets points there.

Heck, if you have a security checkpoint, you need some sort of armed security to actually enforce it. Otherwise it's just administrative. It's not that hard to figure out...although all across the nation we do this every day. "No weapons" is the policy, but they'll have to call 911 for someone to actually enforce it. The only good I see that doing is forcing bad guys to start attacking people earlier in the trip. Give security types guns AND make sure they are trained. Seems we, as a nation, aren't that great at the second half.

Liquid, I think the difference is that one side of this debate can see dirty jokes as funny rather than sexual harassment (yes, situation dependent), while you seem to be advocating a black-and-white position designed to prevent incidents or bad PR. Saying things like "Go ahead and argue that sexual harassment is acceptable and worth defending," makes you sound tone deaf (besides being a bit of a straw man). Quoting federal definitions also makes your argument sound more like a CBT than the sage advice of a combat tested leader.

Heck, with proper planning and coordination with ATC an Arlington flyby could be done while expediting some local missions near DC. The DC guard probably has some training to do west of DC. Any of the local helo units (Army, AF, or CG) could probably use Arlington as a shortcut to some training area. Yeah, we sure like to shoot ourselves in the foot and claim it was the smart thing to do.

IFS is a DOSS aviation deal in Pueblo, last I heard (minimal AF slots). Do they have motor gliders at USAFA now?

I quite enjoyed it, but then I'm a big fan of British humor. I will say that the plot line wasn't very funny, but the multitude of relatively cheap laughs kept it fun.

Potentially another radio, as well. No more mini-chems would be very welcome!

Who do you replace them with? A good portion of the DoD is pretty risk averse, and those who suddenly wind up wearing stars probably won't be able to navigate the system as well as someone who has done so already. Even then, our whole nation is more risk averse, it seems. So, basically, we need competent but risk averse to select highly competent people who are not risk averse from a pool that is average and generally risk averse.

When he came to speak to a bunch of cadets in a history class I was in, someone asked him how he kept going and doing all that he did as a POW. He said he knew what was right and did it.