[RocktimusPryme]

I used to work as a subject matter expert in the field on military aircraft. UAVs in particular. I would constantly have to butt heads with the Green Suiter Captains. Not exactly stupid in this case. Just that they would make blatantly self-serving decisions.

At that time, the conflict in Afghanistan was mostly one of occupancy. So we didnt have much for real missions. Mostly you just fly around and look at stuff. (When I was in Iraq with JSOC, completely different story). But those Captains of the UAV units, the biggest card they can play when it comes to promotion board time, is that they flew more hours than the captain of the unit they replaced.

Now these UAVs are exactly C17s, so they are pretty finicky about wind, crosswinds in particular. They will take off just fine, but they cant land in a 25+ knot crosswind to save their lives. Afghanistan has a phenomenon in the summer commonly called the "100 Days of Wind" Doesnt take a lot of imagination to see what gives it that name. Its essentially just a wind season. So you will have days or weeks where we dont really have flight weather.

But Ol' Cap when he only has 5 hours of flight hours logged for the last he (or she) starts to get really antsy. Starts to make some bad decisions about how safely that bird can go up. Obviously I dont tell anybody what to do, not my role there. But I would always make it a point to say something like, "Look, I dont get paid any more or any less if that plane goes back home, or lawn darts in the desert. So if you want to fly, we fly. I just want to make sure that you understand that the SME is saying to the whole flight brief, that based on what the weather guy is saying, this is a bad idea "

More often than not, when you frame it as, everyone knows this is only so you can write down some spreadsheet numbers, and its all the way on you if something bad happens. They would quietly change their mind.

They used to just put birds up in bad weather and "Fly around the flag pole" No mission, just flying around the base. Which is worse than the normal fly around and look at stuff, because at least that is technically a mission. This is just doing a circle over the base. Even worse, they would take off with a full fuel load. But you cant land heavy like that, so you have to dump fuel to safely land. Its crazy how much JP8 gets just dumped on the ground over there. Stuff that would never fly, in anything resembling civilization. Im not exactly a tree hugger, but I dont see how anyone was ever okay with that. As a tax payer, it all used to drive me nuts.


On the flip side when we were supporting the ground forces in Syria pushing out ISIS, it was much easier to hold you head high. When a bird went up you knew it was for a reason. The units were better trained, less nonsense. Everyone had a job to do, and it got done.

[chuckies76ta]

What a bunch of whining. lol 60 replies, 2383 views. Thank a Veteran, 18 replies, 321 views.. Must be a sign of the times. Everyone seems to be running around stressed out ever since Covid. Just an observation.

[Keith Seymore]

Naw - I've always been running around stressed out.

We didn't even talk about "other drivers"...

[chuckies76ta]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Naw - I've always been running around stressed out.

We didn't even talk about "other drivers"...

Isn't that the truth.. Other drivers.. lol

[sdbob]

Just locally. Person got into altercation at McDonald's over the temp of his coffee. Police presence. A woman behind deli counter at local Giant Eagle told me ,lady wanted some kind of meat. The woman behind counter got it promptly, weight,type,sliced etc. She said she turned around to get something else the woman threw the package at her hitting her! Saying this is wrong. Deli people have told me people want a pound of meat,the customer wants exactly a pound no more,so the deli people have play around while customer watches the scale. This is no BS.

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

I was a paramedic with private ambulance here in Miami for seven years. We had a contract with the county fire department where we would transport their lower acuity patients, and 1969GPSJ pretty much has it on the head. Low socioeconomic demographics are usually the spots that abuse 911 systems due to their poor access to primary care. More affluent folks usually have good primary care, are part of wellness programs, are typically more fit, and if they're rich enough even have on-call doctors that will visit them at home.

Most of the calls are total BS; something they can easily visit an urgent care for, and picture their surprise when they get to the hospital and are immediately sent to the lobby when they expected they'd immediately get a room just because they came in on an ambulance. If an ED has a limited amount of beds available, then patients are given beds based on acuity and triage, even if they come in on rescue or ambulance. Ask me how I know... because now I'm an ER Nurse, and I often do the triaging. Lol I'm still dealing with the same BS and stupidity, only now it's indoors and I'm surrounded by support in the form of other nurses, techs, doctors, etc. And I make a lot more $$$.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by chuckies76ta

What a bunch of whining. lol 60 replies, 2383 views. Thank a Veteran, 18 replies, 321 views.. Must be a sign of the times. Everyone seems to be running around stressed out ever since Covid. Just an observation.

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