Bergman

2. I know plenty of really good aircrew who have gotten a Q-2/3 on ONE checkride for buffoonery, one-time mistake, SEFE judgement (or lack thereof), or whatever. IMHO if someone has gotten more than one Q-2/3, they are either really unlucky or not very good at their job. Either way, in my experience, trying to get into an ANG unit would be difficult if not impossible. The airlines also look fairly closely at failed checkrides, so I would imagine it would not be beneficial for that career path either.

Incidents like this are such a shame. I wonder how many of these things could be prevented, or at least fatalities minimized, by a few well-armed citizens? Think VA Tech, Ft. Hood, etc. Speak softly and carry a concealed .45 has been my new motto ever since THIS happened to two kids. If they raffled off tickets to get to flip the switch on the fuckers that did it, I'd be first in line. Same thing goes for the douchebag in Germany.

2.

So in the span of 8 hours you went from, "...hope I don't get Laughlin" to "Couldn't be happier". I'm calling bullshit. Laughlin was my last choice, too, but it turned out to be great. The weather was terrific for flying, Lake Amistad was awesome, and at the time at least, it was the UPT base with minimal bullshit (i.e. no blues, best club, etc). XL, like everything in life, will be what you make of it. Good luck. Don't fuck it up.

Here's hoping they never start carrying Punkin Chunkin on Telemundo!

Good Lord. I honestly can't even begin to keep up with all the changes. Is it sad that I really have no clue what ABU/DCU/BDU/STFU uniform is authorized? Chances are good that I don't have the proper headgear or boots for it no matter what they are calling it. I do, however, own a wheel cap. Top that one. I have officially reached the "Dinosaur" stage of my career. I will continue wearing my green bag, with black shirt and boots, until I retire.

Honestly, based on my experience with the Wg/CC over there, the best thing to do would have been to say, "Sounds great. I will wait here until the Wing Commander is finished, explain my situation to him directly, and let him make the decision whether I will be allowed to outprocess." He is a good dude, and if you were legitimately early and using your crew rest period to complete the requirement, I think he would have your back. Beyond that, it would have been a lot of fun to see the shoe clerk's reaction. Champ Kind is absolutely right on this one. Be professional, but stand up for what you know is right. Having to do out-processing on your day off is not right to begin with. Not being allowed to attend because you were "only 5 minutes EARLY" doesn't make any sense. Throw the BS flag.

You are correct, sir! Wasn't trying to fuck with him, just clearing up the conflicting information...not that it is all that important anyway. Next step...figure out how I can fly Gunfighter. lol BACK ON TRACK, Per M2s request...

I'm not necessarily doubting your info...but I did UTFSF before posting my (admittedly) 10 year old info... Gunfighter Info

FWIW, the P-51 "Gunfighter" is flown/maintained by a former Offutt AFB wing commander, BG Reg Urschler. Quite a character. He would fly that thing over to the base every few weeks back in the late 90s. Beautiful plane! ...and now back to the regularly scheduled boobies...

Lighten up, Francis. There is a big f-ing difference between flying low during a football flyby and over-flying your destination by 150 miles. Fly low, fly loud...and just maybe inspire some pride and awe in what we do. A 1500' flyby doesn't achieve that. In fact, likely the opposite: "What are those clowns doing so high up there?" as opposed to "That was BAD ASS!"

Congrats dude! Nice to see one of the bros make it 'big time'. I've been following the elections with interest, and I'm pretty stoked that you made it happen! Don't fuck it up. Despite what others have said, PLEASE find out WTF really happened and PLEASE do something about it. While I agree with Rainman's sentiment that there are many more pressing issues, the fact remains that some times you have to do the right thing just because it's the right thing to do. Make the time. The taxpayers have been screwed by this whole charade. US/Kyrgz relations were strained significantly by the indicent. The USAF has been dragged through the mud. It's been a complete clown show from Day 1 and the truth needs to be found and dealt with appropriately. Thanks for looking into it!

Meh... He should have gone out on top...with Green Bay...

If they played football outside, like real men, the way God and Vince Lombardi intended, this wouldn't have happened.

Fair enough!

Yes, it is possible. You just need to talk to someone in your avionics shop and they can: A) give you the necessary plugs (bring beer; it helps, as Rainman said) and then B) tell you what the pin-outs are on said plug (mic, L/R earpiece, ground). After that, it is a relatively easy soldering job to connect the wires from your mp3 cord to the headset and ground pins. I will have a look at my adapter over the holidays and perhaps try to put together a schematic for everyone's enjoyment. Or maybe make 6-9 of them to sell on eBay so my EE degree will finally pay off.

Good story, IEWO. There seemed to be an awful lot of worrying about mayday calls and not enough worrying about recovering from a stall. Just sayin'. Also, life is so much simpler when you have the option to "step out of the jet" and send it back to the taxpayers, isn't it? :)

Change of command article...best part, IMHO, I put in bold. Hope he is true to his word.

Dreaming!! You never know until you ask - the Air Force has done some pretty weird/dumb/different things over the years - but IMHO trying to get out of 50% or more of your initial commitment won't happen. Are you a pilot? If so, as previously stated, even with an ANG/AFRES job lined up...those aren't happening. If you're hoping to go to pilot training, you don't even have a year in your current position (guessing nav/ABM in that case). AFI 36-2205 says you must have served at least 2.5 years before going to pilot training (i.e. you would only have 3.5 years left on your original ADSC). Give us a little more info and maybe someone has a better starting point. Good luck!

It never is. Another empty kitchen. WTF.

Nice to see that PILOTS finally get some credit for a job well-done. This is a good argument for not having unmanned airliners... Human ingenuity saved the day for plane in crisis

ZING!

That would be good news. The AOR is where the important work is anyway. Sign me up.

Until last month, crewdogs from ANY guard unit could volunteer to pick up an AD deployment line. That is correct, up until 1 Oct 10...when AMC stopped paying the bill. Thus, no more ANG/AFRC help to the AD because the funding stream was cut off. The ANG will still pick up its normal AEF tasking (we can argue about whether that is "their fair share" in another topic) but beyond that, in my experience, roughly 20% of the deployed KC-135 crews were additional volunteers from the reserve components. The AD used to have a gigantic pile of MPA days that they were using to bring us on board to keep their folks home. Now that the volunteerism is done, the AD will be back to doing all of the deployment lines.

Shit happens. I will still look up that tail number data when I get home if for no other reason than I am a tanker nerd and would like to know.