Major Airlines are no longer requiring 4yr degrees in becoming a Commercial pilot

[Majestik Møøse]

5 hours ago, Prosuper said:

Right before I started my terminal leave after 23 years, my boss a E-8 perfumed prince who always went class C when it was his turn to deploy to the desert came into my office. He told me I will not be receiving any retirement medal. The reasoning is because I just deployed all the time and did my job. You never were involved with all the politics it took to receive a Senior Rater Endorsement. Bake sales, Sq Picnic, Xmas Party, Top 3.  Anytime we needed you, you were gone in the desert doing the mission. Two days into my terminal leave he called the house asking why I wasn't at work. Sharp tool this guy.

Fuck that guy! I saw some of the same shit happen with dudes that were never around in front of the boss because they were deployed and TDY constantly. You did the right thing and you should be proud of that work.

3 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

Maybe in your experience, but that isn't true in mine. I had a Sq/CC get furious with me because he, unbeknownst to me, had appointed me a tax rep for our base. He was irate that I had missed the training for it on a Friday. I was getting a checkride and deploying the following Monday. A lot of times the Sq/CC and/or OG/CC were the idiots pushing for that garbage and the senior enlisted leadership tried to talk them out of it. 

Fuck those guys, too! But I’m guessing that was a MAF unit, and yeah that’s different because the whole culture is eaten through with queep cancer.

[Prosuper]

9 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:

Please please tell me you had a great reply to his question that nearly gave him an aneurism. 

He asked why I didn't tell him, I responded you didn't ask and the CC signed off on my house hunting. Also told him you can forgo my retirement ceremony. 

[Sua Sponte]

8 hours ago, Majestik Møøse said:

Fuck that guy! I saw some of the same shit happen with dudes that were never around in front of the boss because they were deployed and TDY constantly. You did the right thing and you should be proud of that work.

Fuck those guys, too! But I’m guessing that was a MAF unit, and yeah that’s different because the whole culture is eaten through with queep cancer.

Of course it was the MAF, home of the worst leadership in the USAF.

[WheelsOff]

7 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

Of course it was the MAF, home of the worst leadership in the USAF.

Can confirm. 

[dream big]

22 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

Of course it was the MAF, home of the worst leadership in the USAF.

Things are changing, the new AMC CC and Vice are two of the most respected leaders in the herc community.  See!? You all just needed some herc seeds for things to improve 😉. 

[Majestik Møøse]

The old saying goes that you build credibility in teaspoons and lose it in buckets. I’ve run across Minihan a few times, seems like a good dude. But he has a lot of work to do to reverse the enduring culture built by the likes of Johns and Allardice.

[Sua Sponte]

7 hours ago, dream big said:

Things are changing, the new AMC CC and Vice are two of the most respected leaders in the herc community.  See!? You all just needed some herc seeds for things to improve 😉. 

The Fun Burglar was a Herk guy. Enough said 😂  

[Scooter14]

The Fun Burglar was a Herk guy. Enough said  

So was the Rhat, or are we talking about the same guy?

[EnriquePallazo]

4 minutes ago, Scooter14 said:

 

So was the Rhat, or are we talking about the same guy?

 

No, Rhat was not a herc guy.

[FourFans]

9 minutes ago, Scooter14 said:

So was the Rhat, or are we talking about the same guy?

 

Bite your tongue and punch yourself repeatedly in the balls.  That...[expletive deleted]...was not, nor will he ever be, a herc guy.  Never. 

He might have been a tanker guy, but I don't want to put that on any of the tanker bros either.

[Sua Sponte]

53 minutes ago, Scooter14 said:

 

So was the Rhat, or are we talking about the same guy?

 

Rat was not a Herk guy. He was a -141/-17 guy (just ask him).

[dream big]

9 hours ago, Scooter14 said:

 

So was the Rhat, or are we talking about the same guy?

 

He was NOT a herc guy, tanker dude…not that it matters, every community has their chodes. My last comment was tongue in cheek, but the MAF has historically been run by strat air. 
 

edit: guess he started off as a 141/C-17 dude, first time he “flew” tankers was as their Sq commander, first time he “flew” hercs was his infamous stint as the Little Rock Wing King where he ended the careers of 3 Sq/CCs. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by dream big

[HuggyU2]

Where is this Rhat guy now?

[Sua Sponte]

8 minutes ago, HuggyU2 said:

Where is this Rhat guy now?

“Director, Boeing Commercial Airplanes” 

[Sua Sponte]

1 hour ago, dream big said:

He was NOT a herc guy, tanker dude…not that it matters, every community has their chodes. My last comment was tongue in cheek, but the MAF has historically been run by strat air. 
 

edit: guess he started off as a 141/C-17 dude, first time he “flew” tankers was as their Sq commander, first time he “flew” hercs was his infamous stint as the Little Rock Wing King where he ended the careers of 3 Sq/CCs. 

He was also the Deid EOG/CC dropping bombs being seat meat in B-1s (just ask him).

[Scooter14]

Bite your tongue and punch yourself repeatedly in the balls.  That...[expletive deleted]...was not, nor will he ever be, a herc guy.  Never. 
He might have been a tanker guy, but I don't want to put that on any of the tanker bros either.

Ok, ok…holy shit I hit a nerve! My bad!

I thought he finished as the Little Rock WG/CC…

I know he started as a tanker guy, that’s why I tried to push him over to you guys….All in jest.

Also, based on my interactions with him out here as the 379 OG/CC, I would say he fancied himself a “tip of the spear” (his words) B-1 guy. That’s all he talked about to my tanker crew after flying with my squadron mates on the bus ride to customs.

Jackass.

Also Huggy, I don’t know but hopefully as far away from any of us as humanly possible.

[pawnman]

4 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

He was also the Deid EOG/CC dropping bombs being seat meat in B-1s (just ask him).

We hated him too.

[FourFans]

5 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

“Director, Boeing Commercial Airplanes” 

Well shit.  Now I have to burn my new commercial airplane driving career to the the ground...ok maybe not entirely...but I'm very glad my current Boeing ride outdates him.

Either way, I'd never trust my life to ANYTHING that asshat is involved in.  I wouldn't trust him with a wet paper bag.

If it's not clear, presented face to face, I'd punch that guy until teeth fell out...then I'd keep punching.

Edited January 24, 2022 by FourFans130

[slc]

Alright story time folks.  Hate to dredge up bad memories, but could you guys provide a synopsis of his exploits?  I've definitely heard of the douchebag but never any interactions.  Much like ol' "777" Foglesong and his exploits!!

[pawnman]

1 hour ago, FourFans130 said:

Well shit.  Now I have to burn my new commercial airplane driving career to the the ground...ok maybe not entirely...but I'm very glad my current Boeing ride outdates him.

Either way, I'd never trust my life to ANYTHING that asshat is involved in.  I wouldn't trust him with a wet paper bag.

If it's not clear, presented face to face, I'd punch that guy until teeth fell out...then I'd keep punching.

I would not piss on him if he were on fire. 

[Sua Sponte]

15 hours ago, slc said:

Alright story time folks.  Hate to dredge up bad memories, but could you guys provide a synopsis of his exploits?  I've definitely heard of the douchebag but never any interactions.  Much like ol' "777" Foglesong and his exploits!!

I first met Rat when he PCS'd to Fairchild 2007-2008ish. Within his first day of checking in for MCT, he cussed out the civilian that ran MCT scheduling, refused to fly with an IP that wasn't a Lt Col (he was a Lt Col at the time), and was just a massive asshole. I was the only boom available, so I was scheduled to fly with him. For what he is as a terrible person, he's a great pilot (old -141 dude at McChord). We ended up refueling Reserve C-17s out of McChord and right before AR he tells the IP he's just going to check off and watch AR (we had another 1Lt Co with us to fill in). He goes back with me to do AR and starts talking to me about what I thought about refueling C-17s. I told them they usually were terrible, it's difficult to refuel them with a -135 because we have to fly it in contact unlike pussy -10 booms who have a computer do it (ALAS), and the reserve guys were usually the worst at doing AR since they're usually just traditionalists. He responds that he was a reserve -17 guy at McChord and starts ranting about how great the jet and community is and how much he hates the -135.

He then became my Sq/CC a few months later. I worked in training flight and came back from lunch one day and a copilot I worked with told me that no one in the squadron can send squadron wide emails without removing Rat from the dristo list. I asked him why and he told me he sent out a 93 ARS/All email and Rat called him in the office, stood him at attention, and yelled at him for "spamming his inbox." He then pulled out a red pen, prints out said copilot's email, and proceeds to correct the grammar like a second grade teacher since he was an English major at USAFA and the speechwriter for the SECAF. 

I was on ONE Alpha Alert at Fairchild and we went out to the alert ramp to do the daily preflight. What was normally a 10-15 minutes daily alert preflight turned into hours because maintenance wanted to do tire rollover checks, service the APUs, etc. Finally, one of the crew chiefs said that all three of us didn't have to be out there and the AC looks at the copilot and I and said we can just go back to the alert facility. I was chilling in my room when the alert shack controller knocks on the door and has the following conversation with me:

"Do you know where your AC is?"

"Uh, he was with maintenance doing the daily preflight. Probably buttoned up the jet and went to lunch at the BX."

"No, dude...he's being thrown in the back of a SF patrol car."

I walk out from the alert shack with the controller and see my AC in handcuffs being pushed into the back of a patrol car. I look at the controller and ask him what I should do? He looks at me and says, "I dunno man, I've been in 25 years and have seen some shit, but nothing like this." I go to the copilot's room and tell her to stay in her room and that our AC got arrested. I went to the squadron and found the Chief Boom and was telling him what happened when all of a sudden Rat walks around the corner, stands in front of me and says, "Get the fuck back to that fucking jet and preflight it now!" I scurry off back to the alert shack and see my AC and ask him what happened as we're frantically preflighting the jet. He tells me that he called Rat from the brig, which then made Rat come over to the SFS, find the SFS Sq/CC, who was a Major, and proceed to stand him at attention in front of his own squadron and scream at him that his dipshit low ASVAB Airmen degraded ONE Alert. My AC was arrested because they were confused on how "pre-announcing" worked at alert aircraft and had erroneously arrested him. 

Rat was in his car with his wife (wife was driving) and she got pulled over for speeding on the base. The SF troop was doing the traffic stop and Rat apparently became unglued and threaten the dude's career, got out of the car, and only got back in the car when the SF troop was about to escalate the use of force with him. So, of course Rat makes up a big lie that the troop was being belligerent with his wife and "unprofessional," pressuring his Sq/CC to Art. 15 him. 

Rat hates facial hair and would used to get on the returning deployer aircraft and occasionally give out LOCs to pilots and booms who had deployed mustaches. The rule became to shave once you hit your RON from redeploying at Mildenhall/Ramstein and be clean shaven the next day when you landed back and saw Rat.

Rat used to have schedulers and SARM print out currencies and schedules for people and hand it to them right after they landed from deploying to remind them that they had to log a P280 event right when they got back from post-deployment time off.

I went to instructor upgrade with a pilot and before we both left for Altus we had to go meet with him. He started talking about flying in instructor upgrade in the -141 at Altus, how fun it was to teach, etc. to the pilot. He looked at me and said, "Oh yeah, good luck in whatever booms do in instructor upgrade." I responded, "Sir, you mean teach people how to refuel airplanes in the air?" He sorta picked up I wasn't amused and said, "Yeah, or you could've been a pilot, but I guess that would've required you to do better in high school."

He made a copilot, who just had testicular cancer, talk about it in front of the squadron. He ordered a copilot in from his two weeks time off after a deployment with his family to have a formal promotion ceremony to Captain. It pissed Rat off that the guy was super pissed at him for coming in to have a promotion ceremony. Later on the guy was supposed to assume alpha alert early in the morning. The night prior he felt sorta ill, but thought he’d feel better in the morning. He woke up and felt worse, went to the flight doc and went DNIF. Rhatigan was so mad at him, he gave him an LOC/LOR for dereliction of duty since he thought the guy was trying to get out of alert duty (which was a god send to do, since you were away from the squadron and Rat). The guy is in the Guard now last I heard.

I personally flew with Rat on a deployment sortie when he was my deployed Sq/CC. Since we had three pilots on board, I took my copilot back to the boom pod and let him refuel A-10’s and F-16’s all day. I felt bad for him since the cruise out to the AOR meant Rat was GKing him on all of the various Soviet era airfields between Manas and Bagram. 

Oh yeah, one more story. Guy that was a copilot/AC at Fairchild was in Rat’s squadron. He ended up going to Kadena and getting into some “TDY Shenanigans” while on a typhoon evac that got him an Art 15. He ended up deploying soon after when Rat was the new OG at the Deid. Rat sends out an email about his “vision” and about himself as the new OG. Guy in question responds with “Hey, maybe we should lunch sometime dude.” Why? Who the knows? He tells me the next day his crew shows up and the ADO tells him that his crew is off the schedule and that he has a personal meeting with Rat. So, he goes and see Rat in his office during meeting time and Rat says “Hey, ###, come on in. Haven’t seen you in a long time.” He walks in, not thinking defensively, and sits down and Rat immediately stands him at attention yelling at him about how he’s a Colonel and how dare he use lack of email professionalism, how he had the audacity to ask Rat to write him a character reference to the Wing King at Kadena when he got his Art 15, etc. The switches tones and says “yeah, we should do lunch with me and your crew sometime, just let me know!”

When I was PCSing to Altus in 2010, I was leaving right before Fairchild had a Aircrew Standardization & Evaluation Visit (ASEV). Right after I left, so did Rat, and the other shitty Sq/CC from the other squadron (Sush R.). Our DO became the new Sq/CC and is a great dude. The AMC/A3V ASEV team comes in, finds out that a pilot in AC upgrade hooked a sim check on a Thursday, got corrective training on Friday and rechecked, then deployed Monday. However, his Form 8 didn't have the corrective training signed off, so they considered him unqualified. They then did a SARM review and found he had flown for six months technically unqualified. That then led them to dig a lot deeper and they found some other bad things. In the end the the entire base aircrew was decertified and couldn't fly unsupervised. Pilot and booms from the Washington Guard had to fly and get all pilot and booms in the OG requalified. The Wing King ended up firing the old DO, the guy who replaced Rat. Their reasoning is that he was in the seat longer than the other Sq DO and they wanted a head for the failure. I always blamed Rat for that because he had the wrong people in the wrong jobs solely for promotion potential, not because of their skillset and work ethic. Rat was never punished for that because he's an old General Selva boy, he's protected. Even when he fired off a majority of Sq/CC's at Little Rock, it took a long time for anyone to do anything to him and in the end he was just sorta told "you're not going anywhere, here's your Legion of Merit, you're retiring."

I know to this day it burns Rat that he didn't get a star. Oh well.

Oh yeah, he's a Mets fan.

https://www.dvidshub.net/video/152055/col-patrick-rhatigan-mets-shout-out

Edited January 25, 2022 by Sua Sponte

[Scooter14]

^SuaSponte about sums it up.

I only had one personal interaction with him when he was the OG at the Died. My crew shared a bus with another tanker crew that had the “pleasure” of flying with him.

He was basically an asshole to my entire crew from the time we picked his crew up on the bus until we got back to tanker Ops.

He basically berated the crews, talked about how awesome the B-1 was, how much the tanker sucked…to two tanker crews under his command. When he started giving us shit I thought he was joking, but nope…he’s just a prick.

Like, I just met this dude when we got on his bus. O-6 OG/CC. There was no “how was the flight?” Or “what base are you guys from?” Nope.

Actual quote as we rolled past 3 row:

“You guys think you’re the top of the spear? That’s the tip of the spear right there (points to B-1 out the window).”

He helped us carry a total of zero bags through customs and helped us carry zero bags back to the bus and helped us unload zero bags once we got back to ops.

Thanks asshole.

He flew with another crew from my base on that trip, smoked and joked with them the whole time since they were both patches, And then after the flight he marched right into the squadron commanders office and jacked him up for allowing his crews to have mustaches out of regulations and morale patches.

I knew two of the SQ/CCs at the time and he made their deployed lives hell.

I also would not piss on him if he was on fire.

[the g-man]

First time I’ve heard of this Rhat guy but got damn does he sound like a douche.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HuggyU2]

Y'all should drop him a note. 
 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-rhatigan-1814b622

[SurelySerious]

While we’re talking about amazing people from the herc community, who was the clown in charge of SOS like 6-9 years ago?