SSgt Waller

Thank you Gunny for this opportunity! I haven't really been active with the 3d MRB yet - due to real life commitments-, although my understanding is that things haven't really changed much from how we did things back at the 506th or 13th - when it comes to aviation at least. Still take everything I say with a grain of salt. Also please note I'm trying to help improve things and not trying to demonize everything that has been accomplished so far. This post might sound very negative in the end, but it's not all black and white. There are a lot of things that work just fine. Unfortunately the nature of posts like these only show the things that don't work and not necessarily those that do. Aviation is and has stayed throughout the "iterations" of the unit as a supporting asset. Which is something all aviators understand and accept when they join. This role as supporting asset leads to a whole bunch of challenges for aviation however. The way things worked at the 506th made things very repetitive, although they did some things right, which balanced that out a bit. Most operations there would look like this: Insert with helicopters, do some recon for ground elements along with some CAS with a final exfill back to base. Aswell as a pilot on resupply/reinsert duty - which, while I enjoy doing, I've never found to be an elegant solution as most of the time you just sit on an empty airfield. There have been times, where I've sat on an airfield for 40 minutes at a time. Now admittedly this is a rarer occasion and doesn't happen every time you're on reinsert duty and isn't really something S-2 can fix as this has more to do with mission plaanning and how we handle reinserts in aviation. But this is really something that should not happen - ever. The thing that S-2 can fix is the repetitive nature of the missions and tasks aviation has to handle. Repetitivness is in my opinion really the thing, that is killing aviation (and the unit). It leads to routine and that again leads to complacency, which again lead to mistakes. Which spoils the fun for aviation and ground elements alike. Which in turn lead to a dwindling number of pilots (which is one of the major problems aviation is facing), which in turn directly affects how well we can support ground elements. It's a vicious circle really. What's really needed is something, that breaks that routine once in a while. Not every mission needs to be a "moldbreaker", but some variety is desperatly needed. Again this sounds really negative, but some progress has been made in thaat regard in the last few months. Here are a couple of points of what I'm specifically talking about: Transport: With the switch to a marine unit the air assault portion and reliance of helicopters for transport of troops has dramatically diminished. This makes sense in the milsim aspect of things, but you can and should use aircraft to your advantage and surprise the enemy by dropping friendlies unexpectedly behind enemy lines. SF use helicopters a lot for that very reason. Again this doesn't mean you have to use helicopters everytime you need to move to the AO, but you can and should also use them while the mission is underway: Dropping off a sniper team with an AH-6 on an elevated position for instance. Also fast ropping would be a cool thing. This was very underutilized in the 506th due to different reasons (I understand there are limitations with mods and servers), but I think we do have the size to try this sort of thing more often nowadays. We are in this regard still very much in a line infantry unit on infantry unit mode instead of "raider/sf" mode. CAS: I can't count how many times I've spotted enemies and was told not to engage, as those targets were destined for ground elements to destroy. I understand the rationale behind it - we are a supporting element, but nothing hinders you to drop down a QRF trying to reinforce, which aviation then is able to take out, while ground elements are busy with their fights. This is something that once worked well, but somehow got lost. Once again not every mission - but once in a while would be nice. Also the tactical destruction of roads/bridges and railways to cut off enemy supply lines would be something cool to do. We do have a wide arsenal of airframes at our disposal - so let's use them. Air-to-Air Combat: This is something we rarely (never) do and it is a shame. I understand the last couple deployments would have been difficult to introduce something like this as we were fighting non-conventional enemies (with the exception of China), that don't have access to airframes or qualified pilots. But during the last deployment this could have taken the form of an air combat patrol forcing a smuggler plane to land back on a cartel airfield, which scrambled to take off after the initial assault by ground troops. I understand S-2s ressources are limited, but with the right immersion specialist this scenario could have been a prime example on how to switch things up and make things interesting - even for ground elements. Resupply/Reinsert: I've mentioned this above. Not much to say on it. It needs to be planned better. Again all of this might come across as very negative. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, because mostly things are going alright. Once again thanks Gunny for the opportunity to finally write all of this down, as you can see I've been thinking about it for a while. Also sorry for the lenghty essay.

Looking at EAs E3 sales pitch: Shamelessly stolen from @Sgt Purcell

What aviation hopes for

506th theme song. Good old times.

When you just bought the SG-1 complete collection so you can bingewatch it for the third time.

Me after getting my 4 wisdom teeth removed this morning at the now foolish age of 25. Also every Arma OP ever with ACE medical.

He recently just moved out of his parents home: https://abcnews.go.com/US/30-year-ordered-court-move-parents-home-job/story?id=55436268

When everyone is just sithposting:

That guy is swiss and he is a national treasure!

Mass Effect for sure. Although Borderlands would be a close second.

This video may or may not contain spoilers!

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Businesses can be easily rebuild. Rebuilding a country after it has been taken hostage by bandits tends to be more challenging and comes at a cost. You can't have it both ways. As always excellent article!

When the tracking number tells you your new GTX 1080 has been delivered, but your P.O. Box is empty:

Found the unit's anthem.

And now for something completely different: @1stLt (Ret) Owens

@GySgt Specter Also found a picture of you:

Been perusing the forums more lately. Wished I had never found this thread.

blyat!