FUSEPLUG

Upon return, I go to the post office where they hand me a large plastic container full of crap, 5% of which is of any importance.

1) Stop the mail if you'll be gone for more than a week or two. Bring a set of orders to the post office if it's over 30 days. 2) If you don't have a security system, get one! I learned that the hard way. 3) Set a timer on a lamp somewhere in the house. 4) Unplug everything else. 5) Close all the blinds 6) Set the thermostat appropriately. 6) Hire a lawncare guy to come every couple weeks if it's summertime. 7) Have someone swing by every week or so to start the car (if it's there) and check or busted pipes, and pull the religious flyers off of your front porch. 8) Get a safe, or hide your valuable stuff someplace your common thief wouldn't think to look. 9) Get as many of your bills as possible set up for online payments. Bring checks and mailing addresses for the rest of them. This has all worked pretty well for me during 2 deployments and many many TDY's.

Are you American tanker crews annoyed? Yeah, sounds like some propaganda.

It was vital to let everyone know there was going to be beef gravy and they ran out of room at the end so it made perfect sense to align it with the ice cream bar. Why do I get the sense this poster was outsourced to another country where English is not the primary language. China maybe?

Old Spice...

I believe those are used in training - just an extra warm fuzzy that they aren't going to shoot one of their buddies/instructors.

This is reminiscent of when guys started wearing the brightly colored crocs to "stick it to the man." We saw where that went. They'll have a reg defining what color reflective belts we're allowed to wear in no time.

No reason to bring them down any further than they already are...

Sorry, I was being completely sarcastic.

But remember, they are doing on one engine what the Blue Angels do with two...

Can of worms, bro. To each his own, but as an (AC) airdropper, I can honestly say I prefer the airland mission. Don't get me wrong, airdrop is fun, but the premission planning involved in the 17 community is way overkill. Throw formation into the equation and it becomes mind-numbing. I blame the WIC guys. (That's a joke.) There is a lot on the line when throwing 40 bundles over a DZ on the side of a mountain, which warrants the hours spent over Falconview and a MDC. But there is something to be said for being alerted having no idea where you're off to, being handed a package, a tactics binder, an intel brief and being airborne 3 hours later. I do agree that being able to fully utilize the aircraft in all aspects for which it was designed is pretty sweet, but kudos to the boys and girls who choose to stick airland.

Like most everything else in life, it's cyclical. One month co's are fighting for trips, then the next they're getting quickturned back to the stage right as post-mission crewrest ends. Guys and gals (copilots) are still getting picked off for UAV's and NSA's with as little as a year TOS. Most of the white jet assignments are going to AC's and above. AC upgrade is coming for most people at the 2.5 year timeframe. Still a great jet to fly with an awesome mission. Rest assured the selection process for who stays and who goes is NOT random. There is a certain level of "natural selection" in the squadrons, but very rarely a good dude gets the hose. I'm sure that's true with any airframe though. Don't let any of what you read here sway your decision. It changes so frequently that what is status quo today won't be so in 6 months. Cyclical. Disclaimer: I speak strictly from a CHS point-of-view. And on that note, if you want to come to Charleston, be sure you are Master's complete and you should be working on SOS in residence if you are a within 6 months of pinning on 1Lt. Ph.D highly encouraged.

And that's probably how it should stay...

If that's the visible spectrum then just imagine what we AREN'T seeing!

Another heads up - be careful as you navigate through. Apparently TurboTax now has ways to upgrade your service with little or no notice. I've used the program for free for 4 years now and as I get to the end of my return this year, they want $34 to e-file my returns. I read through some of the online community forums and apparently a lot of people are getting snared into an upgraded service without even knowing it. The only way to fix the problem - create a new account and start over. Needless to say a lot of TurboTax users (including me) are pretty pissed off. So, on principle, I went over to TaxSlayer.com and tried their free service for military members. The interface isn't as pretty or intuitive as TurboTax's, but with my previous year's returns and some pilot math I was able to get my 1040's just right and got my refund to within $14 of what TurboTax calculated before stabbing me in the back. And TaxSlayer truly is free to military members!

Holy sh!t - so many questions. Let's start with, "So how is one supposed to pay the bills while here at the 'Deid?"

And by "near me" you mean Dover/Hickam... because a 5 stop OIF in a Charleston/McChord jet from the early 90's would never benefit from such fancy technology! All these CPDLC/moving map/FFS upgrades are B.S. when we have jets over there with APU's that work 50% of the time. Maybe that money should be put into hardware that actually works in the 120+ degree temps over the summer. It's hard to support all of those software upgrades and the avionics that run them, when you have no cooling airflow whatsoever. (For the steam-gauge guys - the 17's avionics shut down automatically after so long in temps much above 90 F) No fun when you're trying to run a preflight or crunch a flight plan. I love the jet, I just wish the upgrades were going to things more appropriate for the mission she is truly seeing.

After a couple years on the 17, I got a chance to ride along on an airdrop on a J-model.... holy crap. The whole "puppy crossing a busy street" is a great analogy when comparing the 17's SA-providing "avionics" to those of the 130J. The 130 guys were bringing JOG charts up on the MFD! I'm thrilled if the plate for the approach I need to shoot hasn't been ripped out of the FLIP one week after it was issued. I'll be damned if there weren't times where I couldn't find the ILS 15 for CHS in the 60+ lbs of FLIP we carry on every overseas mission. Advantage: J-model

This was one of the classic replies to her myspace blog: "Just know that there have been over 1 million views, and all 1 million people have the come to the same conclusion- You look like chewbacca."

Nothing good can come of this....

But you get to wear your reflective belt to the pisser every day!

I can't speak on the BPC, but around the perimeter of the Bra it looks like there are a bunch of receptacles. There is usually a group of people with laptops sitting up on the stage too so I assume that's for plugging in. The times I was in there, the south side of the DEL is opened up and usually full of computer users taking advantage of the air conditioned environment. Don't worry, you'll still sweat your ass off while eating at the CC Chow Hall, but at least the WiFi hotspots are working.

HA! I was right behind that dude when he got the drive-by uniform correction today. Pretty much the height of my 120 day experience.

If I had a thread for every time I've oversped something in the jet we'd have to start a new forum. I declare this topic ...

Are you kidding me? I love what I do, but those chocks are just a small part of the reason it's 8 more years and I am out!