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Just so you don't think I'm making this crap up.... The article is a good read about some of the hard choices ahead. Pentagon board says cuts essential Tells Obama to slash large weapons programs "The Pentagon, one document states, "cannot reset the current force, modernize and transform...

We had a pair of these in Iraq, handed down from a previous squadron: http://www.fujinonbinocular.com/cgi-bin/prod/list?p=71 I personally brought a pair of these: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=128&modelid=7375, which one of our pilots promptly...

We made/make it a point to get a guy from FASOTRAGRULANT or 9thAF PR to come and give a SERE update brief in person prior to deployment. Makes a lot bigger impression than having one of your guys read someone else's slides. (As a sidenote, they are funded to do exactly that, so there are no...

I'm also a fan of the Orange route in southern Japan - in this vid of a section, all you need is some flak to make it seem like something out of The Bridges at Toko Ri...

VR840 in Maine is very nice, especially if you time it to see the leaves turning colors in the early Fall. Land at Brunswick, have a nice lobster roll for lunch at Fat Boys, buy some lobsters to go at the place just outside the gate, and be home in time for dinner!

OK, here's an interesting little factoid I hadn't seen before: Check out this chart, which shows which type of conduct waivers have been issued for different Service recruits over the last 5 years. Why do Marine recruits have 10x (!) the numbers of waivers for drugs as any other service? Are...

You're spot-on about his use of the phrase "unfettered growth" in the lead-in to the story - that's a loaded term. He could have easily have said "significant growth", but that doesn't sound as dramatic; "unfettered" makes it sound like DoD was backing the truck up to the loading dock and...

Dude, which part are you disagreeing with? There has been tremendous growth in the defense budget in the last 8 years - on the order of 74%. Real growth (the only kind that matters) has been almost 44%. The SecDef is completely on board with this assessment; the title of the summary of his...

Cool video of U2 carrier ops (which I had never seen before) here: http://www.creativefission.com/Frame_MOV_Carrier320x240.html The reference book about the U2 history cited in the Navy Historical Center page can be found here...

Crazy, or Italian... ;-) http://www.pathfindergroupuk.com/wings.htm (2/3rd of the way down on the left)

Norm Davis is apparently living the dream in New Zealand, studying snails.... http://www.naval-aviator.net/network/whoweare.htm#davis-ne0

I think the big takeway is that nations don't have friends, they have interests. The Brits aren't in Afghanistan because they want to be friends with the Karzai govt - they have interests they want to protect. (They're also there because they are our friends, in a little bit of exception to...

Amen to that, brother! Although I enjoyed being a LT, especially a 40+ year old LT (since it's not a hard job if you have ~20 years experience), I did cause eyebrows to raise now and again. Now I'll just look like any other passed over O-4 biding his time.... :)

Catmando - great find; if our paths cross, the beer's on me! A4s - likewise on the find. If our paths cross, you'll likely already be pickled anyway, and I will convince you to buy the fine Anejo... :)

Mumbles - nice gene pool to climb out of! HJ or any other Old School big brains out there - in the past I've tried to find a copy of the actual Ault report, and failed. I've tried open source as well as the classified side. Anyone have a pointer to the location of the real deal, hard copy...

If you really want one, you can have one for $225.... http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=112513398

I believe the Israelis were the first to come up with it as a counter to IR MANPADs.

Yep - "name the oldest ensign you know / were in class with / heard about at 31 Flavors from my best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend". I was 34 at comissioning. I was in DIRCOM school with a guy who was 50.... (!)

The specific proposals for a modification of the current retirement system (known in the business as "cliff vesting") can be found in the "Final Report to Congress of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves" (http://www.cngr.gov/resource-center.CNGR-reports.asp). The report makes for...

I think you should play more with Claymore!

Interesting inclusion of the candidates' middle names in the poll choices. Is that so we don't become confused with the other Obamas or McCains running for President? The world wonders....

Based on AW feedback, I got a Galco Miami and loved it. Fit like a glove. Much better than the cheap nylon crap they issue. Deals can be had in-theater on leather goods, but they seemed few and far between - most of the locally produced stuff I saw was of questionable quality. Downside is...

I'm stumped - what is the egg-shaped bulge adjacent to the throttles, above the radios and below the CDNU-like keypad?

Threadjack - From the Annals of Product Placement At time t=10, you'll notice the sailor who was carrying the tray will deliberately flip it on it's side to show the Pepsi logo. Pepsi was a major marketing partner for the film, and this was well before manufacturers were as blatant about...

Good try - it's the scene in the gym on the first day of school, where Brad and his friends are standing around and Jennifer Jason Leigh swings by. When she leaves, Rich (Nicholas Cage, credited in the movie as Nicholas Coppola - and yes, he's the nephew of Francis Ford...) says "Brad, your...

Ok, here's a varsity level Fast Times at Ridgemont High Quote Challenge: Nicholas Cage is in the movie and has one line - what is it?

Amen, brother. This thing has so much untapped potential it's scary. Given the bagful of SA the backseat (and the front seat, for that matter...) can give you, I can see the G being the quarterback of the whole strike package. I thnk the CAGs of the near future will want to fly nothing else...

Coming out of Bagram, it is not unusual to catch a C-130 or C-17 to Al Udeid, and then catch a comair flight out of Qatar back to CONUS. I flew direct from Doha to Dulles, which was a sweet way to come home on a 3 month old 777 that had *maybe* 15 people not in business or first class - I had...

Phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.

McMaster's book is a mandatory read - a bit dry, but then again it was his doctoral thesis while he was at UNC. The parallels between then and now are striking - it makes me wonder how many of the current Service Chiefs have actually read it. It's one of those books that many know about, some...

Chiming in for Hacker, who is obviously busy folding/pressing his scarf, looking for his reflective belt, or practicing gay unit-level singing :icon_tong: Code 3: A Code 3 break indicates that an aircraft has a major discrepancy in mission-essential equipment that may require repair or...

I like mixing and matching with one of these: It's a Weber Performer, and uses gas to ignite your <real wood, not lump> charcoal with the touch of a button. No lighter fluid, no screwing around with newspaper, etc. Coals get going fast, yet you can still use mesquite or hickory to your...

One of the coolest sounds I've ever heard was at the start of the Unlimited races there at Reno, when eight P-51s, Sea Furies, and Tigercats all gunned it and made a dive for the starting pylon. As a kid who always loved to read about the exploits of WWII fighter guys and who's room was full of...

Because the Army has said, very specifically, "we don't want them." I worked on the Army Staff (DAMO-ZM) back in 1994-95 during the Commission on Roles and Missions debate, and the AF was looking to dump the A-10s and the CAS mission entirely. An informal proposal was made "we'll give the...

Google is, as always, your friend - from the 2nd hit in the search "USUHS age limits": Applicants (civilian and enlisted personnel) must be between the ages of 18 and 30 by 30 June 2009. However, an applicant who has commissioned active duty time in the Armed Services may exceed the age...

He hates these cans! Or in this case, the CLP5 Model seems to hate Pensacola...

Villanelle nailed it. From having spent 20 years so far in the private sector (Ghostbusters quote: "They expect results."), I've learned that there are two kinds of MBAs - ones from the very top tier (Kellogg, Stanford, Wharton, Sloan, etc)...and everybody else. There are so many MBA's around...

x2. Whenever I give the Veteran's Day talk at my kid's elementary school, I make sure the Coast Guard patch is on my slides. I tell the kids "You want real heroes, these are the guys. They tell them "You have to go out, you don't have to come back." It doesn't happen often, but it's a true...

Absolutely true, but it's also fun to find the exceptions to the rule occasionally. One that was true (at least when I was there in 2003) was Curacao - at the time, per diem was $300, of which M&IE was $105. Whoever set the per diem rate certainly had high-end tastes, since I never spent close...

I once got a tour of the Disciplinary Barracks at Leavenworth (scared me straight forever....), and they do indeed have officer prisoners. IIRC, they are not reduced in rank, but as HAL said have no privledges of rank. Once their sentences are completed, they are usually dismissed from the...

It's been 2 years since I was there, and to say the landscape has changed is a bit of an uderstatement, so my advice is probably of limited value. Like Trunkmokney offered, specific advice would really depend on exactly where you are going (e.g., Balad, Al Asad, Camp Victory, etc.) and what...

Relief tubes are like guns. You may not need them often, but when you do, you're glad you have'em....

Regardless of what you think of Pat Conroy's moral fiber, the man can string words together. I hope someone someday can give a eulogy for me comparable of this one.... (Given by Conroy at his dad's funeral) The children of fighter pilots tell different stories than other kids do. None of...

Nope, the Label Maker episode...

Ukraine? Ukraine is weak!

My intel-honed google-fu is strong today: more than you ever wanted to know about a comparison by the Navy between fire-retardant treated cotton uniforms and nomex: http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA201011&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf Summary? Laundering a nomex uniform 15...

You're right about the "it depends" part. Most intel mobilizations are for IA billets, which usually translate into something like 270-365 days BOG (boots on ground), although they may be starting to shorten. Preliminary training will tack on some time, as well as mob/demob time. Calling it...

We'll have the Reserve that the senior leadership in the Navy wants us to have. Whether that's a good, bad, or indifferent thing remains to be seen, but it will plainly be different than the Reserve Force we've known for a long time.

Having just returned from NAF Andrews 15 minutes ago, I am reminded that if you don't have a POV you're in the hurt locker. If you can get one covered on your orders, you're set. Might even be worth getting a cheap one on your own nickle though, since cab fares can add up fast. The Navy side...