Fighter/Bomber vs Tanker/Cargo Track

[Christcorp]

My wife got turned onto Jeremiah Weed at the falcon football games. Our tailgate party has a toast just prior to closing the tailgate and going to see the game. In honor of those..... My wife actually likes the taste. I can do shots but it's not a real good sipper. Of course; we always have a bottle in the house.

[Pima]

I can't sip that, it has to be done like a shot for me, and then I always do the dog shaking their head maneuvre afterwards.

CC will disagree with me, but weed to me taste just like NYQUIL! ECK! Even thinking about it I can feel my tongue wanting to stick out, my eyes cringing and shoulders raising up!

Weed is hard to find except near any military base. For us when DS gets commissioned I already know what I am going to give him. It is our traditional gift. BULLEIT Bourbon. Yes, there is actually a bourbon named Bulleit and it is good. Easy to find in the OH/Kentucky area, but not nationally. Most of the time we have to order it.

Another great gift is Scotch...if you go onto the Johnny Walker website, you can order specialty labels for the bottle. We have done that for special occassions and it is cool. You can buy whichever level yoou want, red, black, green, blue or gold. So when he gets his track or plane you can have it read Lt XXX and something about the plane.

As far as Betty, in both of our cars we have built in Navs and my clients know I call her Betty. Inevitably it comes out why, and the history behind it. Typically when I overshoot my direction that she gave me, my clients will tell me I owe them a bottle of WEED, b/c she beaached at me(please make a U-turn if possible). I of course tell them what it tastes like and they ask for a different liquor. I tell them no only Weed for tradition. I have had to only buy 1 client Weed...3 yrs later they tell me that is still in their freezer!
I know this diverted somewhat from the main thread, but it is still about commonalities in the flying community.

[packermatt7]

I love how the discussion went from airplanes to hard liquor

[Just_A_Mom]

I am pretty sure this thread had gotten waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy off topic.

[Pima]

I agree it has veered away from the OP, however, I think that everything that needs to said has been already stated. Thus, like most threads it starts to divert from the reason it was started. SUch is life for forums.

Trying to put it back on topic.

What airframe is your sons top picks for heavy or fighters, this might be another thing he needs to add into the equation. Will he be happy flying a KC for refueling fighetrs or does he only want to fly a C-5 regarding heavies. Is he willing to take any fighter? WIll he be happy flying a Strike? One problem with some pilots is the fact they don't like having a WSO telling them what to do. There are many single seat mentality pilots in the Strike. I maybe biased, but to me there is nothing worse. I will never forget Gen McPeak visiting Upper Heyford (he was a former 111 pilot) and at a dining in he stated to those in attendance "he would rather have a pint of ale in his right seat over a WSO anytime. Talk about bad SA, when 50% were the right seater at this function. Then again, he's the jerk that re-did the flight suit to have seams put down the front! (I hate him for that, b/c it took me hours with a seam ripper to remove them)

So if he doesn't want to listen to the GIB or Nav, he should also re-think which airframe he is suitable for as a pilot and strive for that.

[AFAMOM08]

Lots of great information and advice !!! I have learned a lot. Spoke to son on Sunday evening, he read all of the comments on the thread and found many of them informative and thought provoking. He is hoping to get online and on the thread but as you all know they don't have a lot of time at this point in their training. He starts formation flying this week.

Pima, thanks for the ideas for gifts. Thank you all for your responses. [/B]

[Pima]

I love watching formation flying, especially when they break. I can remember watching the jets come in and counting to 10, Bullet and I would always look at each other if they were off the count

Only thing bad about him reading the thread is you won't be cool anymore and surprise him with any of the ideas that we suggested!

[btown13]

just got done reading all of this, and like ryan, i have been thinking lots about the jet i will hopefully get to fly after UPT. Thanks a lot to everyone for posting about all of this and letting us have a bit of a glimpse into our lives later down the road. Quick question of my own, even though we only have 183 F-22s right now, and the number, if increased, will only go up to about 200, will there still be raptor cockpits for us 13ers to fly after UPT?

[Christcorp]

There are so many things that can happen in 5 years. Including a freeze on pilots. I don't mean to make light of your question, but you've been here too long to know what my response is probably going to be. "Serenity Prayer". Why even worry about something that you have absolutely 0% of affecting? By the time my son graduates and gets through UPT (God Willing) and you later on; we could have a whole new economic situation in the country/world. A whole new president and congress. New threats and new allies. Life is too short my friend. Have fun my friend. Enjoy what is in front of you today. Get through school, the academy, figure out your job, and then worry about what your options are. best of luck. mike.....

[Pima]

CC is right on the mark as usual.

A couple of life experiences to support his position.

1. In 92/93 the AF brought the pipeline to a screeching halt. One day it was fine the next day they sent out an AF wide memo stating that classes would be smaller and spaced out further to slow the amount of pilots graduating. Also there would be less fighters given, and that almost everybody would get heavies. Only 1 or 2 may get fighters. Prior to this every yr there would be sev. WSO's trying to xtrain into UPT. This action made WSO's rethink submitting their papers..do I want to be a WSO in a fighter or fly heavies...I can't recall any WSO putting in papers after that. 2 were already accepted to UPT with class start dates, 1 graduated top of his class and got the 16, the other grad #2 and got a C-21

2. Due to the closure of the pipeline, boneyarding of the 4 and 111, the AF xtrained from this pool for the Strike. When we arrived at Elmendorf Dec 95, they were so top heavy in O-4s they actually made E Flight, which was commonly referred to as the Majors flight (had to be a Major). The 1st time a Lt. showed up was August 96. The next time another Lt. showed up was Mar of 97. No more Lts. showed up until Aug 98 (a whole bunch ---3). Everybody else were flyers that took a bad juju assignment (remote to Korea). The AFMPC made a deal with them you do the bad juju, we'll give you your top pick! Strike Elmendorf here we come! Thus, MPC didn't need to hand out any Strikes to the younguns, b/c they had more volunteers than they could handle. AT one point everybody it seemed like everybody had ALO experience under their belt, and most knew Camp Red Cloud, SKORE real well.

3. Currently, this is occurring for the 22. Bullet's AF counterpart O-5 sel., has taken the bad juju (Pentagon) in hopes that he will get the 22. What does this mean to you...it means that the 22 for a while will most likely be filled with exp pilots and not fresh grads. There will be new grads, but they will be a raririty compared to common place. However, in a few yrs. as these higher ranked officers step out for PME and a desk, they will need to fill with recent UPT grads at a higher rate.

4. Just realize that if you don't get the 22 right out of the gate, that doesn't mean you will never fly the jet. I highly doubt that the AF will ever stop the scratch my back system. You might have to bite the bullet and spend a yr being an ALO(AIR LIASION OFFICER...not to be confused with the AFA ALO type), but as long as you always see the light at the end it will be well worth the sacrifice.

For now, you need to hit the books and keep your eye on being commissioned. Without being commissioned this discussion is for naught. You can't fly unless you are selected for UPT. You can't be selected for UPT without those butter bars!