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FWIW they did shutter a Sierra squadron that had been built up in the late 2000s to support the LCS SUW mission (HSC-22). Unfortunately two of my on wings got caught in that mess.

I met with my doc this week as a prerequisite for some paperwork before I meet with my AME for my Class 1. Asked about the shingles vaccines and they were adamant that at 39 with no complicating factors, I wasn't eligible. I mentioned someone I knew (AW is knowing, right?) got shingles in...

Can you expound on this? I left the fleet in 2016 for a VT IP tour and haven't been back, now firmly in the 121 world. I just see from afar as we decomm Exped squadrons and trim CVN squadrons to make deck space for F-35s and UAVs. Oh and whatever idiocy happened with Firescout.

Doesn't matter, although C130s is a small community so chances are small anyway.

We had our turn as a long distance military landlord and ended up selling it. Too much headache and we wanted the equity to buy our primary home. Paying a property manager 8-10% off the top would've killed any profit, so it was out of the question and we self managed. The time to buy real...

Does the USAF have a "Virtual Desktop" option? We got it in the Navy Reserves and it's an absolute game changer.

Ukrainian Air Force, Navy, and Special Forces have proven time and time again their adaptability and cunning. Good for them.

@millalex I couldn't tell. Were you in your shore tour or the end of your sea tour?

I think it was MANsomething sim but we did the ANC air return with a cargo fire in ITU and it was crazy busy. Very thankful for the fancy cargo suppression system Fred sprang for during those TRANSPACs.

Second the recommendation you reach out directly to OCM or community folks for that program in Millington and speak to them directly. Likely you'll get someone "in the know" pretty quickly through the PERS contacts. I've found 95% of PERS is good people trying to help you, doubly so outside...

I thought so as well, but I'm kind of surprised at their renewed focus. I was slated to go to Pilot Assistance training at ALPA national in Feb, but had to delay. I hope they get the details right, but even if they do, convincing the pilots to trust it will be an up hill battle. It also needs...

UAS and cUAS is going to be an interesting game of chicken for the next decade, for sure. On the plus side, there's a hot war going on to test stuff in. On the V-247, considering how much the Navy has punted the FireScout into the fucking stands as a red headed stepchild, I'm skeptical. Same...

The "gouge" in the mid-2010s was FAA and VA couldn't talk, so a lot of people were very honest with the VA on discharge about stuff like PTSD and TBI to get 100%. Legit claims that were verified by civilian docs as part of the VA Claims process. But then they never reported it on their...

Sounds like you're done with Navy flying. I get that. If you're clear eyed about not making O4 and 20 with that desire, it's all good. I'd ignore everyone here suggesting you apply for random programs like FAO/Olmstead/TPS(??)/PEP/whatever or take VT orders to stay competitive. You might...

There’s a lingering stigma about the VA from the WWII/Korea/Vietnam/Desert Storm generation I’ve picked up on from my few stops at the VFW. I think the VA of the 80s/90s/2000s had a lot of issues, but also a “that’s for people who have nothing else” mentality. I’ve seen it go the other...

Well now I really want to see the tapes 😂

I too have heard of folks using VA for primary care. Only caveat is if you have dependents, you still need an option for that.

It was a weird time with the budget issues and I was too new to understand what was happening. I have a lot less respect for the MO at the time.

Cmon CENTCOM PAOs, lets get some damn video released.

I fly with a lot of the near-retirement crowd in the Airlines. Seems like location is #1 and everything revolves around that. Either moving near adult children (or getting away from them and going to someplace warm and cheap like FL, NC, SC, GA, AZ). Seems like you likely rode the NOVA real...

We had a leash of 1000nm in TW5. Boston-ish was the farthest we had a breakdown.

She effectively staged a coup of the PR1 (who admittedly wasn't awesome) to make herself LPO. Our incompetent MO, who let the MMCPO run the department, allowed it and rewarded her with a recommendation to CAP to 1st. JOPA found out at awards quarters and only then aired the laundry to the CO...

I did some custom "Red Five" appliqués in the front of my helmet over a weekend during my HSC fleet tour. Took me a few hours, but turned out nice. Put it back in my locker. Go to fly a few days later and it was gone. 🤨 Our salty PR2 who was running the shop said matter of factly, "The only...

Smells like capitalism to me. Normally I'm a WN hater but this will be an interesting experiment

Tron’s a good bro. Glad he called his shot for his change of command. Fuck all the haters.

We're largely in agreement. These are unprecedented times for pilots. As much as the transition was a gigantic ass pain for me with noncurrency, COVID, penalty lap at a regional, now commuting to ANC, things really have settled down and I don't have any regrets leaving big Navy. I still get...

We’re mixing things up. Xs to get SNAs spun up, reservists and salty CDRs are great. Front office of TRARONs should be good managers. Agreed. Front line tactical squadrons? Flying LDOs and super senior pit pilots undermine the leadership. When it’s time to go downtown, the CO, XO, and DHs...

If big NAVAIR wanted to write 4 year orders for everyone’s JO Sea Tours, they could do that. It would be a one time change and the front offices could adapt. But onesey-twosey extensions at sea (more than the 90 days allowed now) could quickly turn into favoritism. Front offices should be...

This effectively creates two problems. One, it stops the up and out fitrep progression. I hate it too but until we fix it, holding senior people on station their first tour just fucks the people behind them. Two, it puts the JO back in the drivers seat with respect to getting out current and...

A couple different dynamics at play here. 1. T-45 replacement and the future of TCQ. The writing is on the wall with this one. No way the engineering needed to Carrier-ize a training jet to replace the T-45 is worth the cost. PLM seems "good enough", the Hawkeye piece needs to be fleshed...

Challenging the status quo and being out of touch with reality are two different things. You joined the least tactical nerd force of the least tactical branch (small arms wise). Having helped setup range dasy for a squadron actually going on deployment with a realistic chance of being over bad...

HFS

SPECTRE already beat us to it.

At some point there's going to have to be a massive collection effort for this stuff. Seems like a great use of robots though, given the problem set and risk.

I was thinking as a counter cruise missile thing. I'm sure the launch parameters/locations for ALCMs are somewhat known, so maybe this helps screen them earlier? ??‍♂️ Just idle speculation regardless, I'm sure actual 20lb brains like @Flash are helping create a coherent strategy and...

@sevenhelmet I do wonder what our stocks of "old" AIM-9s are to the point we'd be willing to part with them, much like a lot of what we've given them. Just because it's not an AIM-9X to take to the merge with a Flanker doesn't mean it isn't useful to them. For example, we worked with them to...

I'd argue you don't want the same bag you take to the plane be the one that you take in and out of the squadron? I wanted pens, loose change, pubs, sometimes a laptop, extra clothes, and all matter of junk in my black backpack I'd bring from home. My flight bag (tan camelbak) was much more...

I’m just going to caution you against Geobaching for flight school (assuming you’re an SNA/SNFO candidate). I certainly can understand if your family is settled and you want to move them minimally, but it’s going to be hard and leave isn’t easy to come by as an SNA.

I was referring to the “colonizer” framework that's popular in academia circles. That overly simplistic IMO intellectual framework is used by younger folks without context as a crutch to critique the very existence of the Israeli state. I very much agree with Biden’s statement on this (can’t...

I’m as sympathetic to pilot mental health concerns as probably anyone here. The FAA has a 1950s view of mental health that pushes people to get treatment off the books and creates more risk. But this dude just set momentum on fixing that back a decade. Just bang out sick for gods sake.

One consideration is this is likely Gen Z's first time having to recon with Middle East politics that isn't related to Iraq/Afghanistan/ISIS. I'd argue that simplistic views on Israel and it being led by Bibi during most of their adult lives hasn't helped either. Hopefully some learning can...

You're talking about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_attack_on_Karbala BT BT I just worry about a screen shitting itself and that being a single failure mode. I'm sure Bell's engineers are thinking about it though.

Hopefully they won't do that. Not the first time unfortunately. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Express_Flight_705

From what I’ve seen, we gave them the earliest variants that were potentially expired stocks. Cluster variant though, which is great for soft targets like airfields or troop concentration points, but not armored targets. I’m sure the UKR targeteers have some ideas. Wish we would’ve done it earlier.

Total is looking like 24 airframes destroyed or heavily damaged, for the cost of 8 decommissioned, expired missiles. Helluva bargain.

I second what @zippy said. USCG wasn't taking direct accession aviators when I was applying in 2008/2009 (fuck I feel old), but in retrospect it would've been a better fit for me than the Navy. Unless you have a serious desire to fly jets and drop bombs (and knowing there's a >50% chance you...

I got the USS Flagg aircraft carrier as a hand me down from my cousin. Coolest shit in the world. Had a greater than zero percent impact on my desire to Fly Navy.

Like....okay? We could keep SNAs in primary/advanced for 4-5 years and create great aviators that go to the fleet super well prepared. At some point you have to reach a minimum viable product, push them out to the fleet, and let them learn a more advanced platform and tactics. We are...

Again, this is a nice idea, but dollars and time are the most important thing in CNATRA. Is there a real need for an MPRA Cat 1 to have demonstrated proficiency in this when they'll be with a PPC/IP all the time for first two years of their winged time? (FRS + Fleet through PPC)

I think you overestimate the Mark 1 Mod 0 SNA. They know patterns and breakdown quickly when things get "weird". We keep them in a relatively small box for their Solo (2 possible fields, one set of course rules, one type of pattern entry, one EP entry). When I tought transition to land off an...