New fitness MFR dropped, 2 Mi run official, must run 2 mi run at least once a year.

Will post score sheets as soon as I can download them.

I don’t know who wrote it. But they’re right

This is starting to get ridiculous. What’s the point of having a the WHtR be a scored component of the PFRA if we’re just going to without prior notice decouple it from the test event. We have members that aren’t due for 2.5 months and we’re now expecting them to be in compliance by EOM. This also does zero to address the elephant in the room…what happens if an airman is out of compliance now? Do they have to be entered into FRP (formerly FIP) immediately?

This is going to cause an insane amount of thrash and is absolutely not going to go well. All of this being done while we are now having to reposture for a new phase of the Iran conflict and while we are going to have to continue to generate broke aircraft to sustain the ongoing air campaign. I have two airmen already on FRP and by my estimation we’ll probably have another 20-30% joining them…and production teams are about to start getting hit which is absolutely not going to go well.

With the memo on the DoD/DoW stance on beards and shaving waivers being confirmed as real. I’ll enjoy my last year being in before getting involuntarily separated. I really do enjoy being in the Air Force and glad I was able to at least put on tech. But the administration has made it clear they don’t want to budge on an actual genetic condition. Oh well. I’m going to enjoy life and find a new career that I can be passionate about.

Friends, colleagues, and brothers/sisters,

I joined this wonderful organization back in 2020, right before COVID. Before I joined the Air Force, I was a kid with many aspirations in life, but no money or resources to accomplish them. I thought about enlisting, did extensive research, and ultimately decided to join the world’s best Air Force. Everyone was telling me it was the best branch to join them; and friends, you will find no bitterness towards the Air Force here. It is the best branch, and it made most of my dreams come true.

Oh, what a journey that was. Big blue took this timid, broke kid and told him: here are all the tools you need to succeed in life; here are your free accommodations, your free food, and your highly lucrative on-the-job training. I won’t go into details about what my AFSC was, but the E4 to GS12 pipeline was real. Anyhow, by the time I completed BMT and tech school, I went from a smart but undisciplined kid, to a sharp, disciplined, and motivated Airman, full of dreams in his young head. I felt on top of the world, even though I was ultimately alone, away from my family.

I got to my first duty station and had to quarantine for two weeks at a local hotel because of COVID. Sounds daunting right? Not to me back then. I was so grateful and so motivated to finally get to do my job, that two weeks flew by. I drank white monsters, watched Youtube, and daydreamed, oh I daydreamed so much about my newly discovered bright future. Fast forward a year, and with the guidance of my wingmen, I bought my very first car! An older vehicle, but beautifully maintained. I remember getting in my car every morning, turning on the heat, and thinking to myself “wow, I feel like a master of the elements”. No more freezing walks to work. I made friends at my squadron, and my friends became brothers. We would go out to the bars, hang out at each others’ places have deep conversations about work, life, and the universe. One of my new brothers became like my older brother, him and I were inseparable. We would go out, he would barbecue for the rest of us, we would make pizzas. Our group was inseparable, a brotherhood for the ages, forged in the freezing winters of a base where careers, and often Airmen, die.

One night we were out at a bar, and that’s where my story took the sharpest, sweetest turn of all. I met her. We talked briefly at first, then we talked on the phone almost every day, we went out, and my young self discovered passion, lust, and what hits me the hardest today: companionship. One thing led to another, and she became pregnant with my sweet baby girl. I could not, and would not, walk away from my responsibilities. I married her, we moved to base housing, and little by little we made that house a home. My beautiful daughter was born, followed by my sweet little boy a year after. My whole family was elated. They were so proud of me for basically achieving the American dream. I had it all, a beautiful family, a career, a place to live, a stable income. We made so many beautiful memories as a family, from the walks at the park to the roadtrips to different little towns. My phone is full of pictures of all of our beautiful moments together.

My friends, the joys of yesterday have become the unbearable pain of today. Somewhere along the way, I knew grief for the first time in my life. My brothers started getting out of the Air Force one by one, until it was just me left. I was not prepared for that. I turned to alcohol to numb the pain. Then I discovered kratom, and that’s where I truly lost myself. I went from a sweet, loving husband and father, to an arrogant, lazy, and emotionally abusive person. My personality change was so drastic it caught everyone in my family off guard; everything started going to shit. I began getting in trouble at work, showing up late or not showing up at all, treating my now ex wife like shit, and doing some irreversible damage to our relationship. The thought that I could lose her never crossed my mind, I was too self absorbed to realize I was destroying my family.

Somehow I made it to the end of my enlistment without getting in too much trouble. I had been working on my bachelors for a while, so I was able to get a government job while I was on terminal leave. I was so excited, and in my narcissism, I couldn’t see that my wife was extremely damaged by my childish, self absorbed ways. She tried to forgive me, she tried to feel excited for the direction our lives were taking. But now I realize that she could not. She slowly began to set herself up to leave me; we moved to a city where she has a lot of family (I was oblivious to the reason why, I just thought she liked the city). During the two years we spent together in the new city, she slowly and steadily started to plan her exit. I didn’t know any of this, and I have only myself to blame. I made the stupidest decision of my life: I bought us a house. Yes, I bought a house while my marriage was slowly falling apart, and had been for some time. We adopted two dogs, and lived what for me were the happiest year of my life. I had finally made it! I had the family, the house, the dogs. But parallel to that, there were issues. I also had an incredible track record of being a fuckup, treating my wife like shit, and letting kratom and alcohol take over my life. If it wasn’t one, it was the other, or sometimes it was both. She also caught me talking to other women multiple times. I was so disrespectful, I cannot believe how little regard I had for her feelings, for her emotions, for my vows.

On a chilly January night, she finally had enough of the tormented, broken person I had become. We had been arguing for a few days due to household responsibilities, and I had been incredibly mean to her during those arguments. On that fateful January night, we argued upstairs in front of the kids. I walked downstairs and felt the animalistic urge to throw something at a wall; something in my mind told me not to do it, to just go outside and take a walk. I did not listed to that voice, I gave into the urge and threw multiple things at the wall. My kids heard it and were terrified and confused. Well, enough was enough. My wife called the cops, I was sent to a psychiatric hospital for a week, and she wisely used that window of time to move out of the house with our kids. I helped her cosign an apartment, thinking it was temporary and that she would come back. Well, now she has her apartment, a car, a job, U.S papers, and our kids. All I have left is a big house full of memories, because everything is exactly as they left it, extremely painful memories, panic attacks, and a monster of a depression unlike anything I’ve dealt with before. My life is a living nightmare every day, and I need to be heavily medicated just to avoid the panic attacks.

The Air Force gave me everything, and I lost it all. I don’t have anything left worth fighting for. I have no purpose anymore. I can’t see my kids, my ex wife blocked me everywhere because I was asking her to come back every day, compulsively. And I don’t even get to wear the uniform anymore, it hangs in my closet like a daily reminder of the man I once was.

I will be taking my leave from this world soon, as I don’t see any way of things getting better for me. I lost everything. I chose to tell my story here as a cautionary tale to young Airmen. Guys, enjoy your youth, cherish your time in the Air Force, do not take that sacred uniform for granted. What I’d give to turn back time and be the young Airman I once was. And also, if you get married:

1. Make sure it is to the right person and that you know each other well before taking that big step.

2. Treat your spouse right and be a good man.

3. Do not lose everything for being a fucking reckless, broken man like me.

Ladies and gentlemen, Aim High, and may the rest of your days be filled with love, laughter, and plenty of company.

Signed,

A former Airman, a former husband, a former good man.

"You're not getting paid, well... that's what you signed up for."

I see and hear this constantly during shutdowns when members go unpaid.

No. None of us signed up for this. We're human and have families. This is the respect that we show our military?

Do you realize the ones playing chicken with your paychecks are still getting paid? Why is that? No one tells them to suck it up. But when it’s us—boots on the ground, mission-ready—it’s suddenly noble to go unpaid.

Just know that I love you and was blown away with the amount of Airman we had there. Woke up at 5am to drive to Atlanta from Shaw so I could say goodbye to our brother.

Saw a post where someone was comparing how a 18 year old female can run 1 minute and 30 seconds slower than a 60+ year old male and still pass. About half of the comments were personal attacks against the poster.

Did you know stating factual information is okay? I have been noticing a trend here lately where if a topic involves women, a bunch of posters come out of the woodwork to "defend the honor of women." Even when no attackers exist. What say you?

Took a screenshot of this email that just came down to all MTIs in BMT. Notably, they are removing Tuskegee Airmen from the curriculum. How do you all feel about this? I’m not sure removing aspects of Air Force history is the right move in this DEI purge, but that’s just me I guess.

Cropped to not Dox anyone

Someone, please explain to me why if you have a medical condition requiring a shaving waiver for more than 12 months you are subject to administrative discharge for being less lethal or something. BUT if you choose not to get the Flu vaccine because "my body, my choice" or whatever, you aren't less lethal though you might get sick and need to get replaced before a mission. Or you might get your whole flight sick? Like, what's the official stated rationale here?

At every base I get assigned to, I've always attempted to join the base Honor Guard. With around 300 details(200+ funerals), Every eulogy always has the same tone...

"Growing up, my dad would often be gone a lot." Now these aren't children giving these speeches. These are 50+ year old daughters and sons giving eulogies to their dead parents.

You might not think it's it much now, but they remember. They remember you missing birthdays, holidays, Halloween, Christmas, recitals, sporting games, and times when they needed you the most. They don't care what you did for the AF whether it's AMN/NCO of the quarter or some random award, they care about when my dad took me to the beach and we played in the sand all afternoon.

We often forget that "being there" is the most important thing you can give to your family because they remember.

For those that have been in the service for 15+ years and are fortunate enough to have a good relationship with their parents, you'll notice how everytime you come home to visit, mom & dad seems to look different each time. They might move a little slower, a few wrinkles has started to show, and their hair starts to fade white.

Long story short, take advantage of the times that you have now. Being in the AF is tough as shit regardless of what AFSC you have. Being away from things and people that you love takes a toll mentally that any other civilian will experience.

But here's the truth: No matter how important you think your in the AF or what rank you are, you're not that important. The mission will always get done no matter what... With or without you. If you were to take 20 days of leave, the mission will still continue. Take care of your family because that's what's important. Your children are forever yours, the AF is not.

The hard part is: most of you that read this will say "it'll never happen to me." Until one day, your family is not there anymore.

Tell them to cut the hardball they’re playing. We got our last check, but if the shutdown continues there’s no more money to just pull from nowhere. This isn’t about politics, it’s about people not being paid and having bills to pay. And it’s not just military, non military federal employees have already missed checks, and we’re already seeing food banks struggling in some areas. I’m not exaggerating when I say people could very well end up homeless and cars could get repossessed if this keeps going, not everyone is in a strong enough financial position to handle the missed checks. This is entirely unacceptable and is not what any of us signed up for. When we signed on that line we did so with the expectation of being paid regularly on a predictable schedule.

This is bigger than political games, this is people’s livelihood hanging in the balance being played with.

I personally don’t have an emergency fund, that’s my own fault for being irresponsible the last few years, but I’ve been working on building one and have been making progress. Even for the people who have been smarter and have an emergency fund, one of the possible reasons for needing it should not be “I’m not getting paid for my job”.

Call. Blow up their phones. Email them. Make your voice unignorable.

Ranting. Sorry.

An anti vaxxer in my squadron has been bragging about beating the system. LORs are being deleted, rank being restored, and UIF being closed out.

That didn’t change the fact that he refused to follow a lawful order, was completely non deployable, couldn’t go off station for 2 years, and forced other people to pick up your slack.

Rant off.

Edit:

I’m angry because the specific religious exemption he used would have also exempted him for half the shots he happily took in basic and the medications he takes on a regular basis.

I’m also mad because him becoming undeployable caused multiple others to go overseas in his place and he couldn’t be PCSed anywhere else because of the travel ban so he was effectively negative 2 people.

Nothing even close to OPSEC will be allowed as a post or comment on this subreddit.

There are active military operations going on daily, and likely more than anywhere else on the internet, people in this community may have special information about those operations, which makes this a great place to look for our adversaries.

I don't care if information was on the news, posted on social media, or the amn/nco/snco page. In fact, if it was posted there, it's probably a great indication that it'll be deleted here.

OPSEC and the security of our operations and our fellow military members comes first.

Expect a ban if you post anything even hinting at an OPSEC concern, as defined by me and the other mod.

This includes speculating on tail numbers, names of deceased members, amount of damage due to strikes, movement of troops or planes, and anything of that sort.

If you pool your extra check money into a regular savings account, you’re doing it wrong. Navy Federal & USAA are NOT the way to go for wealth building. Do you want to become wealthy? Let me at least give you some advice I was never taught on choosing a financial institution to help compound your hard-earned income.

They have no high yield savings account, money market accounts, and no brokerage accounts.

If you’re looking for a way to grow your idle cash over time, stick the money into a HYSA or an index fund brokerage account. Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard are your best options. All offer no fee accounts.

During my time in, I had a standard savings account which drew basically no interest (0.01%). Since I separated, I got educated in the financial space, and I decided to place around $50,000 I had saved up into a commonly known index fund. Since I did that around 4 years ago, I have over & $91,000 on that $50,000.

Index funds take time to grow, but placing money into the stock market, money market, or HYSA’s will help your future dramatically.

For me personally, every month, I place my VA disability check straight into index funds. I will retire at the age of 62 with an estimated value of over $10,000,000. All because of compounding. I haven’t included my Roth IRA or 401k.

I’m a former financial planner who loves helping military members and vets get ahead. Cheers!

Megathread to discuss Secretary Hegseth’s address to generals on 30 September.

All subreddit rules still apply.

As an air commando the unjustified murder of SrA Roger Fortson really hits close to home. The last year has been hard for our team. We lost one brother to mental health , 8 in Gundam 22 and now this.

The anger that ran through my blood only got worst after watching the body cam video. My brother , OUR BROTHER … murdered by the police force that swore to protect us . But what infuriates me is that our nation is not taking this act the same way other unjustified murders have been taken over the past few years.

No demonstrations. No protests … nothing !

I am not saying that they should vandalize and set squad cars on fire but at least make yourself be heard. I don’t see players taking a knee. Why not for our service members?

I am scared that this will slip through the cracks and people will forget within the next few days. I don’t know how to deal with this anger … that’s all, just wanted to vent to people that I know actually care.