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Yeah. It's not fair. It sucks. Things seem to not make sense. The rules seem dumb. Welcome to military life and the rest of your career. Are you sure you want to join?

You need to ask this in an Air Force forum.

Perhaps. Given the current requirements and political climate for any type of strike that will make the news, I'd wager it was more based on what was practiced the most that would give the most consistency in the sim in the days and even hours prior to those guys "stepping" to their airplane...

That's my big thing- a lot of EV reviews say that the 150-175 mile battery is a negative, but when I do the math, I drive 32 miles to work each way. The furthest commute I have is 55 miles each way that I may do on the weekend. My furthest commute still follows the 2/3 to 1/3 reserve "fuel"...

EVs seem to be really popular in Scandinavia. This article says that 80% of new cars are EVs, and 20% of the total vehicles on the road are electric. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/electric-vehicle-europe-norway-tesla-sales/ I also see a lot of Teslas and Volts and other EVs up here in...

I hear Mount Prospect is practically giving them away- but does the cigarette lighter still work?

Perhaps I came off wrong. Meeting the basic needs of your force is expected and doesn't deserve a PR campaign of self applause. What is AMC doing to fix broken airplanes and shrinking pilot hour budgets (our sister squadron across the state went from 2400 hours a year to 1400 hours a year for...

What should one expect from a service that thinks that what makes a good commander is the creation of a lactation room in every office building; that what makes a good NCO is buying and cooking lunch for their Airmen? Spending money to buy votes... ?. The majority of the Air Force is...

What if someone needs short term meds? For instance, postpartum depression?

Yeah. I've known people who have had multiple shoulder, knee, or ankle issues that keep getting "fixed" only for them to continue to fail. After a couple of surgeries it's apparent that their body can't do the job. Where I think the major failures are within our system is that people can't get...

I get you man. It can be frustrating. The change will come. But I wouldn't expect the VFA or VMFA or VMA or HMLA communities to get on board with that article- and I'm not sure you guys wrote it for them anyway. Maybe you did? Who were you guys writing it for? Since you guys published that...

Yep, ad hominem away. That's the Brett we know. :rolleyes: One doesn't have to be an MD or clinical psychologist to compare the latest edition of the DSM with the practices of Navy (or Air Force) medicine, much less the NAMI waiver guide. Given the attitude towards mental health, you're not...

Yeah that's tricky, right? I don't think all mental health disorders should be disqualifying and I think our medical standards are stuck in the mid 80s at best wrt to mental health. There are some big ones that military service and flying just aren't compatible with. Schizophrenia, Bipolar...

That's the trouble with mental health in military aviation- we treat all of it as a career ender. Sometimes the best in the life for an aviator is what happens in the cockpit, in the air. Yet with any chink in the mental health armor we take that away, most likely permanently. So rather than...

If you're heavily anchoring on one thing in your life to build your entire personality around you're the weird guy to anyone who doesn't do that thing. Whether that's flying, or the Navy/Marine Corps, or doing drugs, or craft beer, or playing music, or baseball, or politics, or religion, or...

Go find an Army or Air Guard officer slot somewhere, and keep flying to get your #s to apply to the airlines.

There is a realm in which both statements could be true- 120 hours a year could be considered good, especially when compared to what that community has been through in the past.

They do have to get overgrade waivers, but they're like candy on Halloween. I've only seen one person not get promoted to O-5 as a DSG. AGR's might have to wait a bit longer for a control grade on top of their over grade to get promoted, but DSGs put on pretty much right away. If someone is on...

Many are transitioning to the newer airplane. Some are going elsewhere, some are retiring, many are getting out and going to the airlines. You can't fill a squadron with O-4s and O-5s, there will always be slots for new guys. Same at is has been since the beginning of time when an airplane is...

VTJ SERGRADs used to take us around on our BI flights. Those were the first ones we had in the airplane. And my onwing in jets was a SERGRAD. He was also the class leader and in charge of the gedunk. Dude was busy. He was also a cheerleader and gymnast at the naval academy. But there's a...

Cool! I figured that's where that animal would live. Probably not a highly available asset though.

I don't think the USAF has any KC-130s. I'm 99.999% sure it's all -135s and KC-10s. So, good luck to the Army getting support from the VMGRs. They're already tapped out. And I'm not sure if the KC-10 or KC-135 can get slow enough to refuel helos.

Yes, go SWO to live in San Diego. But what's that old saying? Sailors belong on ships and ships belong at sea? Monday I was headed across the HRBT to grab a beer with an old friend while I'm visiting my folks on leave and I saw an LCS headed out. The Monday after Christmas. That's one way to...

Your assumption is correct. You have to earn your wings first in the AF system before you go FAIP.

The visitor counter on the side bar says XXX "Visitors since April 10, 1999. That's back in the day of Geocities and and Angelfire.

Does the Navy cover travel costs for inactive duty training? The ANG does not.

630 bucks for a cold weather uniform jacket. As noted earlier, the AF was smart with boots- buy whatever you want just make sure they're coyote brown. I wish they would with cold weather gear. I am sure I could find a Columbia jacket for 150 bucks that works better than this, with a zip out...

OCC. I had a cup of coffee in the Hornet then moved over to the RPA community. Left the USMC 3 years ago for the ANG.

That's a pretty good annecdote to explain a lot of what I've also experienced. I'll say that attitude applies across the entire force. Airman Timmy isn't getting paid? CO (or CC in Air Force parlance) says, "finance put a ticket in the system, we just have to wait for it to play out." SPINS...

The Navy says to get a degree and don't suck too bad at it. Don't overthink it. Get a degree in something you'd want to use if you don't get into the military, if you don't get to fly for the military, or you decide you don't want to stay in the military. FWIW, I have a degree in theater.

And yet they don't supply you with either do they?

You live the life of a flight school student- it's kind of like being in college again, except you're getting paid to be there. Some people get jobs while they're not in a class, but once you start a phase of flight school you're sole focus is to learn to be a good aviator. And no, there are...

All of it. They do pretty much the entire primary pipeline, except for forms and aerobatics, in the sim. How many hours that is? I don't know, 80 or 100 or so. Previous to this they get about 45 hours in a DA-20 in Pueblo, Co at IFT (IFS for us Yut/Navy types). I still think everyone should...

The URT pipeline is all sim after IFT. There aren't nearly as many contractors as what we saw in primary/advanced.

It's an 18X job, so an 11X doesn't have to worry about it.

AD RPA folks who went through URT as opposed to UPT who want to leave the 24/7 grind for a couple of years and for some reason or another didn't have an opportunity to be an FTU instructor. The URT pipeline is all sims after IFT, and the AF wants some uniformed folks in the evaluation and...

FIFY.

The word I've heard is that it's a great course, especially if you can keep the big picture in mind. As a bummer note- I too was going to be in the 6Dec AIS class, but a couple of our pilots got sick so I have to stay home to fill out the flight schedule. Would have been cool to meet an AW in...

It's never too early to start looking into Guard/Reserve units! ;) Keep an eye on it, but make sure it stays at an arms distance. It's a capable flatform, but there are a few other RPAs I'd rather fly/operate/program the robot to do it's thing than an MQ-4 variant.

There's a great soaring club in Pensacola- Coastal Soaring. If you're interested in flying check them out.

Not in the Marine Corps. ANG and AFR are what you want to look into.

Also an elder millennial who turns 40 this week. Yep, millennials are old enough to have kids old enough to enlist in the military and/or go to college. General and sport aviation are having a hard time finding younger pilots. I've been a member of soaring clubs since I was 16. It's not...

Damn. I'm sorry to hear that.

But like... they could, yah know... Fly back to Japan while the CSG steams west. E-3 coverage is pretty damn easy and available across the Atlantic, and WAY cheaper than the cost of a CSG at sea for a day. But hey, my latest travel claim was kicked back yet again because I didn't submit a tax...

Even more amusing is when the SecFo mall cops tell you that they're basically the grunts of the Air Force. :rolleyes: (Edit: they really hate it when you call them SecFo)

I don't know anyone who failed out of SWO/intel/maintenance school being sent to flight school... You have one opportunity to fly for the military. It's over to you if you want to give that up.

The FRS's have a fairly robust CQ syllabus as is.

You mean the whole point of a Navy/Marine intermediate/advanced training jet? That's like saying, "Aside from the ice skating, why don't the Pistons play for the Red Wings from now on? They both look like athletes." If you take that requirement away, it may happen.

Oh dear. My first time seeing an NJP- "But sir, I had to do it, the other LCPL 'no balls'ed me'"