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Yes, Senator...I did hold his Johnson while we were out in the desert.

Or, alternately, it is corporate virtue signaling. If it were really a financial decision, then they would have done it quietly and at a different time.

There are no emotional support animals on my airline. Just actual animals. And they smell bad.

Big up to this.

I just love the whole, "since there was a chance I might not be a fighter pilot, I just decided to be a SWO instead". You had an opportunity to do what you'd always dreamed of, and given that you feared failure (and were apparently so afraid of the price of failure driving you into a helo...

The lengths to which the Air Force will go to not face the actual reasons they're short on pilot manning.

Reminds me of the USAF training squadron I used to be in. We had one of those aircraft side-view lithographs of the T-38 that we gave to squadron members who left, and when the T-38A changed to the T-38C, I was tasked with updating the litho. In addition to modifying the jet artwork, I decided...

So, if Beretta made a handgun that shot PGU-28....or if there was a 9x19mm gatling gun...you guys would be fine?

Yep, that's the refrain I heard all throughout my 20 years, and I had 100% confidence that they would make good on their promise.

Affirmative. The "dead" week is to account for Christmas, otherwise it is 52 training weeks. The way "the timeline" is adhered to in a religious-like manner in UPT squadrons is the source of lots of angry instructors.

Nothing makes me more excited to go to Hawaii than the middle seat on a 737 halfway across the Pacific.

I prefer to be on the other side of the fun. Every airshow I go to, I try and mosey up to the poor schmuck standing in front of <insert military static display here>, and earnestly ask, "Is the the airplane from Top Gun"? "Are these the guns?" "Is that a bomb?" "This thing needs a wash!" "Is...

Anyone evac'ing to NQA? There are some CBP P-3s and Guard Herks on the ramp as of yesterday, but that's about it.

What Would Lemay Do?

The AF has some flexibility, but is also institutionally indoctrinated in some of the positions. For example, I was up for a non-flying job in my last tour prior to retirement, and there were a number of positions for O-5 fighter pilots at Command HQ for both ACC and AETC. When my Commanders...

Retired rated recall worked like a champ for the USAF back in the 2009-10 time frame...but it was a very different program (guys could go to flying billets rather than just to desks) and a very different time in the airline business. Perhaps it'll fail so spectacularly that the AF will stop...

I seriously doubt that any of those three measures are going to make any measurable impact on AF pilot retention. Typical AF crap -- of all the problems that the pilots going out the door have quite explicitly defined as the reasons they're leaving, the AF chooses to fix the low-hanging...

Additionally, the CMP hasn't always been in the business of re-barreling and putting together Garands out of their parts stock. Back in the 2011 timeframe, they acquired a metric-ton of drill rifles, which were basically functional Garand parts kits less the welded-up barrels and receivers...

So, he was procrastinating on taking the ATP written (the deadline was well after the rule change had been announced and approved, so he either knew about it or was very ignorant), and got caught with his pants down with a deployment...and he wants an exemption? Not much sympathy here. Hit the...

I think they'd weep at the lack of porn in the safes, lack of off-color callsigns, and wussified leadership, but not at the prowess of the guys burning the JP to make tight circles in the sky and deliver ordnance precisely.

That's the back side of a removable sun shade. Also, all cockpit mission materials in the Deuce are made so they can be manipulated with the space suit gloves on, as well as seen through that face shield.

Takeaway from the video: "We should be clear that what we're talking about is not that commercial ammo is somehow unsafe, it is that it isn't ideal for this rifle..." They do indulge in conjecture about theoretical damage to the receiver heel and op rod with the higher pressure, but there is...

RE: commercial ammo vs "M2 spec" ammo. Back in 2004-ish, the CMP offered a batch of Greek-return Rack Grade rifles for $295. They're a story in and of themselves, but because they were cheap I bought one to experiment with ammo. For a year, all I shot through it was commercial ammo (and then...

I've been to both stores several times, and they were all good experiences. I liked being able to browse the rifle racks and pick out exactly what I wanted to take home. The South Store is a slightly smaller room than the North Store, and that used to translate to more stock on hand in the...

PPU

Yep, the best option is the Garand Collectors Association.

Honestly, any of the CMP Garands is going to be a good deal, from the lowest grade up to the highest. The "standard" CMP gun is a Service Grade, so for someone who is only going to own one, I'd try to start with one of those if they were available. However, as @ChuckMK23 said above, even the...

Every American should own a CMP Garand. I've done my part; your turn.

Without being too intrusive, what are you doing now that you're out of Big Blue? Spookies have done great work in our modern CAS wars -- you have every reason to be proud of having been part of it.

Also from Manclark: ""I use the AIM-9P because it is out of the system and I can talk about it. The same thing happened to a lot of things that are still in the system and that I can’t talk about.""

I'm surprised we haven't yet seen a thorough open-source armchair quarterback explanation of "what happened" from Tyler Rogoway yet.

Knowing the AF these days, it is probably some admin troop that they've re-named their career field to make them feel more needed. Several years ago, no shit, the USAF medical community attempted to re-brand itself as "maintainers" of the "human weapons system". That title was so roundly...

Quizmo was one of my instructors in the F-15E schoolhouse. Great dude.

I'm retired, so the only thing I'm doing these days is trying to find the bottom of a lowball glass of scotch.

Yep, I'm sure that's it.

These are the times that being retired sucks. :(

Do those plates get you anything special? Discounted registration maybe?

I love watching you guys purse fight and wang measure over medals.

Notwithstanding that's not what the term "begging the question" actually means (it doesn't mean "raise the question" or "which leads me to wonder..."), there have been much more bizarre kill markings put on Strike Eagles, so I'm sure they'll figure out something appropriate. Here are a couple...

For the USAF fighter community (at least as of the last time I deployed in 2011), an O1 sortie is 1 point. A combat support mission is 0.5. 20 points is an Air Medal submission. 10 points for an Aerial Achievement Medal.

I think based on the way the USAF seems to be handling things, that they entirely believe this will blow over if they just hunker down for the short-term storm.

Getting commissioned and earning the privilege to fly military aircraft for a career was hands down the best decision I've ever made in my life. There are things that I, in retrospect, wish I'd done slightly differently here and there, but overall it was a spectacular adventure and an entirely...

I'll be the first to admit that I'm hung like a friggin' mosquito. Somehow I've made it this far in life with just buying guns, driving Corvettes, and wearing big watches.

What's interesting is that there are ample publicly-admitted examples of the actual reasons that pilots are leaving the Air Force in droves (e.g. the lack of mission focus and the cancerous leadership as I've previously mentioned), and the two you specifically name (apparently the secret real...

@huggyu2 can attest that when I was on active duty, I was a dyed-in-the-wool fighter pilot who, like you, couldn't really wrap my mind around a career that didn't involve fast jets and tactical flying. I'm here to tell ya, I absolutely love my second career in the airlines...because my life is...

Awww man, all the juicy discussion keeps the AF guys out. Bummer.

If that was really your point, you would have made it without the drive-by shooting of the (ridiculous) examples of what is considered falling short of expectations in each service. No, AF pilots aren't upset and leaving because of lack of rides out to the flightline.

Is your point seriously that AF pilots are a huge gang of coddled pussies, and they're leaving in droves because they're not being coddled enough? What is really happening is that there are droves of no-shit warriors in the blue service who want to fly and fight, but are frustrated by the...

Well, everything you need to know is right at the bottom of the article: "Capt. David Geaney is a Logistics Readiness Officer..."

You guys may be talking about different things. For a time in the early-mid '00s, IFS was performed at local FBOs by civilian CFIs, and very much not the same screening program as the Doss Aviation program in Pueblo, which is administered by the AF directly.