A colonel once told me "you may love the Air Force but the Air Force doesn't love you.". It has it's hardships which you don't find on the civilian side, but you will find certain moments in which you can say "wow, not many people get to do what I just did" and even if you do the minimum 4 years, you can walk away with some great life experiences.

 

HogDriver,

Quit your bloody whining. You are not the only one who had it rain on your parade. This past Friday, I was up at my old guard unit. The unit where I had flown A-10's for almost a quarter of a century. The place with so many fantastic memories. In a word, Home. Anyway, the reason I was up there was to get an introduction of the units' new (in approximately 2 years) aircraft. It was a C-27j. What the &%$@ is a C-27j you ask? Well, it's a quarter-sized C-130. Yes, a cargo plane. Of all the embarrassment. Thankfully, all the fighter pilots had left the unit about 3 years ago, when the Hogs were given to another unit, courtesy of Brac, and the C-21's (little Lear jets) arrived.

So quit your complaining. You have it great. You're living experiences that will be with you for the rest of your life, and the lives of your kids, through your story-telling and flying hands.

Keep on keeping us safe, and Thanks for your dedication and service.

JJ

 

Don't you think you were a little hard on the Beaver?

As a Brac survivor myself, I know you have more avoidance maneuvers and good deals in the ANG/Res than the avg AD dude.

The mere fact that you flew in the same unit for a quarter century would make the rest of your comments pretty hard for an AD guy to relate to.

 

Now there is a dream come true! 20+ years in the same guard unit, flying fighters, what more could one ask for?

Haha, can't wait until I'm as old as JJ and can shoot my elbow, telling my grandchildren about how sweet I once was! Problem is it will go something like, but Grandpa, I thought you flew those remote control airplanes. Grumble grumble, damn kids, ya, but I was a FIGHTER PILOT before that, for a few years...

But, that's provided your family is still intact after a 20 years career on AD.

2

 

Echos my point.

 

Yes, of course you're right. Sorry man, I hope I wasn't too hard on him.. However, hopefully he saw both the little "sarcastic" smile and the "wink" smile and knew I was just kidding. If anything, I was complaining about my units' losing the fighter role and being in the air transport role for the past few years. And to think, we were that (thumb and index finger about a 1/4" apart) close to getting F-16's. Just look at us now.

JJ

 

Given the customer your unit will most likely be servicing (sts), I think they'll see a lot more action in the C-27J than the F-16. If nothing else, they'll most likely have a bigger impact on the war formerly known as the GWOT. I wouldn't shed too many tears for them. Besides, A-10's aren't fighters...

 

That's a fact! Those guys are going to need a pair of brass balls.

 

Ouch! LOL! Nice shot!

 

We like to refer to it as the Total War Against Terrorism