Posted on 05/28/2013 8:44:03 AM PDT by Sequoyah101
The “World Famous Rocketeers” were flying high two months ago. The Air Force fighter squadron had returned safely with its F-15E Strike Eagles and aircraft crews from a six-month Middle East deployment, and in March the entire wing passed a readiness evaluation with an unusually high rating.
That was then. In April, the Air Force ordered the Rocketeers — more formally, the 336th Fighter Squadron — to stop flying because of the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.
Now, the squadron’s two dozen F-15s are parked underneath canopies on the flight line, with red covers over their gaping afterburners to keep out birds and critters. Glum pilots find themselves with lots of time for softball and community projects. And the Air Force has one less fighter squadron available to fight.
“I have zero readiness and zero combat capability right now,” said Lt. Col. Jim Howard, the 41-year-old squadron commander. “It’s extremely frustrating, knowing the unit that I had two months ago compared to where we are now.”
(Excerpt) Read more at m.washingtonpost.com ...
These guys careers are just about shot. It is a fast and short career for a fighter pilot. You stumble and you probably fail buy falling so far behind you can't catch up.
We seem to be going to a place worse than 1938 and it does not have to be.
Still plenty of money for illegals, bank bailouts and Section 8 housing...
Ain’t it about time we reverse this quest for national suicide?
“If the squadron does not fly for six months, it will take an additional half-year before it can be deployed.”
Not really. I spent 25 years in the USAF, most of it in fighter squadrons. If someone has a couple of years experience, then getting up to speed would take weeks, not months. That is particularly true if they have simulator time.
No, they will not be 100% the way they were finishing a 6 month deployment...but they will not be bad.
This is a one time event, not an annual policy. We’ll survive it just fine.
Out our back you can see pilots practicing maneuvers over one of their Nevada ranges. Since nobama has “sequestered” money, there are only flights in the first week or so of each month. Oppositely, there is money to continue paying the killer terrorist air force officer hassan, the criminal irs doofus lerner and many other useless things (including the moronic pinheaded kerry promising the palis $4,000,000,000).
....and foreign countries.
Treasonous buffoon John Kerry just announced a $4 billion aid package for the Gaza Strip.
There’s plenty of money for Mohammedan savages who hate us and want to kill us.
Don’t forget all the funding going to other countries. Diversify the portfolio, that is what they’re doing. LOL
Maybe.
That's certainly what the Jews told themselves at the beginning of the Third Reich.
They were wrong.
You're wrong, too.
The 0bamorrhoids have no trouble taking money at gunpoint from YOU and giving it to fourth generation urban takers. The 0bamorrhoids have no trouble hiring full time bureaucrats to implement socialist medical "care".
But they can't find the funds to support military readiness.
That's no accident.
That's deliberate, destructive, demonic malice.
The 0bamorrhoids hate you (yes, you personally), they hate the uniform you wore, they hate the Flag of the United States of America under which you served, and most of all, they HATE the Republic for which it stands.
They seek to destroy that which they hate.
I figure we will survive but it is so unnecessary. It is also awfully hard on the crews. It is all relative isn’t it? A few months to us old guys is of little consequence looking back.
In the Carter years I remember crews being called back from the range at Ft. Sill because their ammo allocation changed and they were out while they were still on the range. We did survive but it was costly to morale and readiness.
And think of the “flight pay” that the USAF won’t have to pay them, additional $$ there. (sarc)
My son spent 9 years active service in the Air Force during Carters administration and the beginning of the Reagan adm. During Carter he said they were lucky if they even could get 1/2 the planes in the air....1/2 sat in the hangers to be used for parts. Reagan adm. and the parts started coming in......Democrats ALWAYS cut defense, Republicans usually have to build it up again....Clinton, Carter, Obama cut big.....Reagan and Bush built defense up again....I don’t know about Kennedy’s adm. He being from the military I don’t think he did the same thing...
And White Hut/Crib parties and vacations, and billions of bullets for agencies who shouldn’t even have access to firearms.
In the article’s pic, what are all those red flags hanging from different areas on the plane?
While the Army was using enlisted drone pilots to sit at the desk and operate the computer controls, the Air Force insisted that each guy at the desk be a full pilot, AND on active flight duty.
Twist an ankle playing softball, and you couldn’t sit at the desk and fly a drone, even though you were still a pilot.
They could also save money by leaving the chocolate off the pillows.
Having spent over 20-yrs in the Air Force, and as a former Rocketeer myself, it is going to take a lot more than a a couple of weeks or months to get proficiency, especially combat (MR) status and skills.
Even for experienced aircrew.
The weapons require constant practice, not the skills to just fly the jet. Flying the jet is the easy part. Weaponeering is the hard part.
The events that are required to maintain MR status are hard and fast, and borne from decades of past experience in determining just what is necessary to achieve minimum skills. Strap a bomb and missile on a jet and good to go after a trip to the range? Not likely and not safe. . .for the aircrew and the guys on the ground, the guys that are in direct contact with the enemy—we owe them our best skills and best judgment, and that means keeping the knife as sharp as you can, and that means practice and practice.
Simulators are great for switchology, not for actual combat skills.
And of course, we can't ignore the skills necessary for the guys on the ramp, too. They need constant practice and actual activity to remain proficient.
And of course, one mis-dropped weapon and all heck will break loose when it comes out that the aircrew did NOT have the minimum events accomplished before flying the mission. The aircrew will fry, leadership in the sqdn will fry, the media will have a field day crucifying the military while blaming everyone BUT the real criminal. . .The One and his minions.
Flight pay is not based upon flying per month. It is based on “gates” and how many years flying.
This is not like the old days where a guy can just jump in an aircraft and fly an hour or two for flight pay. The aircraft are too complex for that.
Well stated.
Those are various plugs and covers to protect various openings and sensors on the jet.
These “remove before flight” covers are removed before flight. ;-)
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