The backseat of the -E ain't too shabby either!
Great bird (all the A-Ds, and their cousin the -E); great capabilities. But what really makes it an outstanding killin' machine (as is ALL the rest of the flying ops community), is the people at the controls of these bad boys.
I know the "popular, Hollywood" image of the flying community portrays them as cocky, arrogant "poster boys" who just show up to fly, then are off to the O'Club to chase the girls (or off to a shirtless volleyball game), perhaps after talking for a couple of minutes about the last flight, but only to defend our reputation in a macho, chest-thumping match of witty catch-phrases against the other arrogant, cocky guy who is our main competitor for all the glory. Well, yeah, we are a little like that (except for the shirtless volleyball matches (thanks "Top Gun"
)). But mostly, when it comes to actually flying and getting ready for the mission, you will NEVER meet a bunch of people more dedicated to LEARNING about their jobs, and more professional in the way they go about it.
Want to join their ranks? Well, get ready for loooong days, where the briefs and debriefs are usually twice as long as the actual sortie, where your ego is left at the door to the debrief, where we respect the rank but will point out the flying mistakes of those above us as part of the flight's debrief, where the word of the instructor pilot (or WSO) in your formation is KING because the knowledge they have and the lessons they pass down are so invaluable, where if you're not on the flying schedule, you better be in the vault learning something new for the next sortie, where we don't brag about how good we are but instead nit-pick each other's mistakes so we KNOW how good we will become.
You may see us on a Friday night raising Cain in the O'Club, but that's because after a week of bustin' your hump, you need to let off the steam. Oh, and it's because we kinda like the Hollywood image a little bit, where we are the arrogant, cocky guys who own the bar...
I hope you all get your chance to join that Fraternity of warriors (no sexism intended, it's just an epxression), and get to also become so proud of the people you will have the privilge to be with everyday. Their dedication, pride, and professionalism is humbling. and you will get to see why we are the best AF in the world. Not because of our jets, but because we work hard at it everyday....
