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Huh. My comments were based off of briefs and experience working with them during a U.S.-UK-Aus Red Flag. I was pretty impressed, especially compared to the other AEW platforms.

Nothing says Red Flag in summer more than heavy survival gear and third degree burns from the canopy rail! Gotta be prepared, especially if you punch out over Texas lake. I will say on most cross-countries, folks go helmet-less.

A.) That's a pretty sweet gig. My wife spent a few years down under for medical school, and we are both set on ending up there some day. B.) I've never understood why the E-7 has been actively flying for so long and we just got around to purchasing it. I also read that they are setting...

FBI also owns the underwater evidence recovery team, which may play a role in this.

Learned something new! Still seems like a misallocation of funds.

I had a guy make a very persuasive argument that air power is a reallly just indirect fires which fits well with the army’s mission. Probably a stretch, but an interesting argument.

I have yet to hear a good rationale for the Space Force. Better idea would have been (maybe) a Space Corps within the AF. Even that seems pointless. And holy shit the uniforms look dumb.

Wyoming is a good example of this. On the one hand, its government is pursuing dumb, plainly political legislation targeting EVs. On the other hand, its government is pushing back on a one-sized fits all approach to EVs. The focus on Yellowstone/Teton area is smart. That area probably holds 90%...

And those are the parts of the country which will lag the more urban/suburban parts of the country in EV adoption, which makes sense to me (at least based on the current tech available).

Not rebutting your specific circumstances, but I’d say that if one has a “normal commute” (say <50mi per day) and a home garage with electricity, that problem is solved. Even in a cold climate Removing money and interest from the decision, a significant portion of Americans would be easily...

Very cool. Do they have real world info on operating performance? I’ve only seen the glossy brochure.

Wife drives a Tesla Y. We decided to lease it to try out EVs and we’re hooked. She was hesitant to give up her ICE VW Beetle but is now all but demanding we do so. I personally dislike driving and hate being reliant upon a car for commuting, but the Y is a genuine pleasure to drive. Super...

“Mobility Warriors.” The cringe scale is broken.

That memo sounds like warrior cosplay. A near-satire of a call to arms. Hard and fast predictions about if/when we go to war with China, particularly with actual years, is a risky gambit that can make you look pretty silly in the future.

Dibs on the waterfront property in Hobart!

God, what an awful way to go through life. Glad he got weeded out.

Can't speak to the second part, but it's difficult. Unpredictable schedule, gone a lot, stereotypes about the military, plus some choice locales (unless you have a thing for meth heads). There's reason lots of folks seem to lock down their high school/college sweetheart. The military is...

Aren’t the FRSes undermanned too? This seems like a remarkably shortsighted decision that just moves around the bottleneck, but desperate times and all of that.

I was flying missions with the 422nd in Nellis and we would land at Nellis for debriefs and to drop off tracking pods after the week's events. PPR got messed up and one of our landings wasn't recorded in the system. We were met at the transient line by rent-a-cops, I mean security forces, in...

The ship and home port have to be available, no? What if it’s not? And what if you end up underway for 10 months of your first tour? Regardless, being a SWO looks highly unpleasant. I cannot emphasize this enough, aviation is so much better than SWO. As a general rule, the military guarantees...

? agree. Trying to do the career pivot alone is hard enough, as I’ve discovered. To say nothing of balancing the reserves. The reality is this works best for airline pilots or DOD contractors. Nevertheless, my idea opens up avenues for flexibility, educational opportunities, time at home etc...

Guarantee you getting orders to SD? That mentality (unless there is a rule I'm unaware of) sounds like a guarantee to get assigned to some shithole ship in the yards in Norfolk. Murphy's law and all of that. For what it's worth, I'd rather be a pilot or NFO stationed in Lemoore (a truly god...

DH = middle management XO = second in command who will fleet up to CO. That rule applies to fleet USN squadrons. As for the education, it's been talked about a lot. Opportunities are out there, timing is everything, some are more career beneficial than others. Also a gripe for lots of people...

I think one of the most interesting - and arguably difficult - ideas is greater utilization of the reserves. My experience is vanishingly small, and I'm at a hardware unit, but I really enjoy the reserves and see tons of promise with it (i.e. something I could do as second career). I'd love to...

Definitely not knocking multi engine, but the stats around single engine turboprops are pretty wild. Millions of flights hours and a literal handful of engine failures. Plus a lot of "failures" in ME land are precautionary shut downs as opposed to genuine seizures. Still wouldn't want to be...

I got a chance to fly a brand new King Air 350C with the more powerful motors and Proline Fusion during my last tour in the Navy. Recently I've been flying a PC-12NG and NGX as a contract 135 pilot. No comparison, the PC-12 blows the King Air out of the water. Only thing the latter has going...

Don't know about FF being an MEL item, but what does paper buy you that Foreflight doesn't? Tons of paper pubs weighs down your helmet bag and makes (for me) an already tight cockpit even more uncomfortable.

Acronym overload. So the uniformed T-6 sim gig for the RPA pipeline...how much time do those guys (studs) spend in T-6 sims?

I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure. Sounds awful; especially when your contract counterparts are making way more than you are.

No doubt. 2508 was awesome flying too, and the Sierras are beautiful to fly over and play in. Having said that, best part about Whidbey is if you choose to stay home as opposed to hop in the car for the weekend, it’s a genuinely nice place to be.

Best part is you don’t even really need to take advantage of on-base facilities because you’re based in a beautiful part of the world with an abundance of activities. Or you can rent a boat from MWR to go crabbing in the Puget sound. I was flying back from the Olympic MOA after a RAG AAR flight...

What Brett said. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out, but this seems more complex than he taught Chinese pilots so he’s obvi doing treason and giving up all the secrets. Bet it’s more focused on some technicality.

If he liked shitty Chinese food, he should have stayed in the US of A. I bet it’ll be easy for him to overturn the charges. Unless he’s accused of passing classified info, it’s not apparent what he - as a non National - can be charged with. Only thing I can think of is something related to the...

I think this point is overstated. A lot of the ramifications of globalization have been erecting of walls - literal and figurative - nationalism, and focus on national identity etc. Visa restrictions and other policies do a lot to thwart the promise of free movement and that global markeplace...

This is already the case with skilled workers. Look at all of the people who want to come to the United States. We have a competitive advantage. Similarly, American finance bros happily decamp to Singapore to avoid the American taxman. I think in the case of developing countries, the equation is...

I’m not one for dank memes, but this one re: woke armies made me chuckle

Yikes. Those rationalizations read like just about every two bit spy's reasoning for turning on their country. NoBoDy ReSpEcTs mY AwEsoMeNeSS *frowny face*

Because it's targeting a completely different generation than yours? Our opinions about current military recruiting aren't worth shit because it's not meant for us. The Navy was running the Global Force for Good ads when I was joining and boooooy did people shit on those. Guess what, I loved...

Perhaps, but most of the photo evidence that I've seen of laowai pilots flying with the PLAAF shows them in or near trainers like this. And what're the Chinese going to learn that they don't already know? Getting a few pasty faced Brits isn't going to give them the keys to the castle (assuming...

On one of the major foreign contract pilot websites (Parc aviation or one of those) they were offering fast jet pilot training contracts in China. And while I find it morally dubious at best to be a hired hand for the PLA and any of its constituent services, I also find it hard to imagine...

Just over two months from actual separation to DD-214, another 5 weeks until I actually affiliated with the reserve. I was assured that this problem was receiving the HIGHEST level of attention and will be resolved by September!

My favorite: the cease rage line. Granted, WS staff were trying to get that squashed as a term, but still made an appearance in LFEs.

After working with the Air Force a bunch, I think this is a little overstated. Head to head the AF wins, but not by that much. Plenty of buffoonery on their side of the house (they too scrub entire waves for crypto issues!).

This. Nobody cares. It's such an odd way to start a conversation and happens a lot.

This seems like the 10th thread on this subject. I've written longer replies elsewhere. Bottom line: I'd rather spend ten years as a Naval Aviator than 40+ as an airline pilot, but that's just me and my personal bias. I also don't think I'd want to do any single professional thing for 40+...

This highlights something I've brought up before. The guard seems uniquely difficult to join because of the application process. I don't have an opinion on that other than to say it's hard. I've seen a lot of comments on this forum to would-be applicants that go something like that, "just apply...

Makes sense. I found the "almost non-existent" to be pretty sweeping, but my only experience was orange and white land.

Is UPT attrition almost non-existent like Chuck said? That's more what I was getting at.

Really? Is that for all USAF UPT or just guard UPT? I always understood that attrition was higher, particularly in the AF equivalent of IFS. I was also under the impression that guard slots are highly competitive, especially when compared to active Navy/Air Force. An ideal first choice, but...

Great story. It's hard, but it's so rewarding when it works out.