Newbie progressing and the Summer Sale

NMITC - Took command on 30 SEP 11; Relieved 20 SEP 13 -Retired (terminal leave) the same day. Not having had my photo on the Front of any times, I actually had a band and hors devours.

When I got there I published CAPT K’s 10 Rules of Briefing. One of them was "Its called “brief” for a reason It’s not called a “Long” I also told them to keep it to the important / permanent issues and facts, even if you had more mildly interesting extraneous information. 2 reasons: 1- it helped keep the brief, brief. 2 - If somebody did ask more about it, you could answer and seem to be smarter than you really were.

I wish we had had an aviator on staff when I was there. I definitely would have had him/her attend the briefs, sit right next to me with free reign to ask questions at any time–there is no “hold your questions until the end” in a Navy brief; intel officers need to know how to handle that in stride.

Briefing intel to an intel officer can be a self licking ice-cream cone. Even after briefing operators it for 29 years I know I didn’t know all the operational issues and questions they might ask…that’s the true crucible.

BTW, they changed the acronym - something silly. Everybody still calls it NMITC.

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Reminds me…
In 1997, I was in a brief for the Deputy Commander of USEUCOM, 4 star USAF. The briefer (not me) shows a slide that has so much writing on it you really couldn’t’ make heads or tails of it. The briefer finishes. The general takes a long look at the slide and then says, in his Texas drawl, “That’s about the smallest font I ever want to see.” The briefer turned pale. I decided that faking a cough was better than LOL.

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Instant death! Credibility gone! Absolutely no use to anyone after that.

I actually had an Ensign make up an answer to one of my questions. immediately call him on it. It was their practice, non-graded brief, but I had my eye on him and let his instructor know that I expected written counseling about the incident.

We later kicked him out of NMITC for cheating on a test. Idiot. He went to mast and I believe was unceremoniously booted from the Navy.

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Holy crap, how did he think that kind of thing was going to go??

That was the single biggest thing I drilled into all my kids over and over again aboard the ship, and on recruiting. Yes, be confident in your answers, but don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know an answer, but always get back to the person asking with the right answer.

As a nuke, demonstrating a lack of integrity or trustworthiness was the single fastest way to lose your NEC, with good reason.

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Yes it is and Yes it does. I’m still in week 1. It is the only plane that assigns homework. Since @smokinhole seems to have mastered the A-10C, I’d like to as a question re the CDU. Is it me or are many of the pages described for the CDU, the same page but just reached via a different path?

Got it. Love it. Cannot figure out just about everything. Manual says “BETA” and is missing many cockpit control pics. Is that the latest?

Fortunately my wife is Norwegian and can read Swedish well enough to tell me what some of the switch labels say. Yes, I’ve tried setting avionics language to English in options…doesn’t seem to be working. Is there a cockpit or scenery level I need to set before it changes languages?

Well…we gave him points for planning and ingenuity. He faked a family emergency on test day, then snuck into the instructors office, took a copy of the test, copied it himself, and returned the purloined copy. The idea evidently was to look up all the answers.

He lost points for stupidity. 1. He pulled the staple out of the stolen test before he coped it and then put the new staple back in a different place…the old staple holes were pretty obvious. 2. He never thought that SOP at NMITC was to give a different test for a make up exam…it is. (there are at least 3 different tests for each exam) Needless to say, he used the old answers on the new test…and failed miserably.

From there it didn’t take a Rocket Surgeon (or intel officer) to figure he would have gotten a 100 on the original test…and from there the staple holes suddenly made sense….

I testified at his Mast (students are under the area student command) “Naval Intelligence has no place for this individual” - note, I didn’t call him an officer…but at least I didn’t call him an oxygen thief like I wanted to.

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That’s awesome! I’ll have to remember it. I’d love to see the other 9 rules!

Another one I took with me into civvie world was to 1) always start a meeting on time (even if only one person was there), and 2) never have a meeting without an agenda. If you have a meeting scheduled and no agenda, cancel the meeting. It’s amazing how often those rules aren’t followed, and how much waste is added to the day when ignored.

What did they change it to, and was there any reason other than somebody trying to get a NAM on the cheap?

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Ugh, I can so relate to the death by powerpoint, although then by teachers, just cause you know aircraft maintenance doesn’t mean you should literally write down the whole story on the powerpoint and then say it word by word… I still get flashbacks to long, hot classrooms at the end of a 8 hour day, nodding off watching the slides that say exactly the same as my book and what the teacher is saying…

Powerpoint, not even once!

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I need to see where I saved them - I’ll post.

Well, they established something called “CID” - Center of Information Dominance" as the ISIC for all the crypto schools (there are a lot of them), and intel schools - NMITC and FITC. They wanted all the school names to start with CID

I think my boss was pretty sure I’d resign in protest is they ever tried to change NMITC while I was there (My license plate is the NAS Oceana plate with NMITC) I woulds have. So they waited until a few months after I was gone…and they picked up responsibility for a couple of crypto schools in the area.

The new name is something like Center of Information Dominance-Hampton Roads CIDHR. Somebody came up with “Cider” for the spoken version…I know…lame.

Grasshopper, you too can learn to be a PowerPoint Master…when you can snatch the pebble from my hand… :wink:

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I really, REALLY. REAAAALLLYYY, don’t want too! Can I be excused from this class?! :wink:

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Just did the math on this gem. N25 was usually staffed with at least 1 aviator in the TLAM Strike specialty, especially after they reassigned the APS billet to the CAG staff instead of the Admiral’s staff. Did that change again, or did they relocate the TLAM guys away from the imagery analysis guys? This was such a logical marriage both in the TLAM/imagery synergy as well as the clearance required to do the job.

Yep…black shoe LTs…they knew their stuff but…you know…black shoes.

At least there’s an obvious name for the CO’s standing orders: the CIDHR House Rules. :roll_eyes:

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Yeah, the manual is Heatblur’s chink in otherwise immaculate armor. This is on the back burner while the Tomcat is being worked, and it’s painful for trying to figure out how the ECM works. Bottom line: I don’t bother.

I didn’t have too much trouble with the Swedish though. It’s close enough to German that it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. The English Cockpit is also in works, and has been for a long time. Understandably, the move to 2.5 with the new graphics engine and resultant retexuring kicked this one to the back burner. I had an English mod for 1.2, but went back to the Swedish when I was instructing my virtual squadron mates on how to do things.

I bought the Mirage and Viggen before the sale ended, but I’m still having the most fun with the Harrier.

As for manuals, I’m surprised at you guys. Christopher Columbus didn’t need directions, and neither do we.

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TBH Chuck’s Guides are all you need!

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Powerpoint? I KNOW POWERPOINT.

This thread derailed into something I have actual experience with, from my Advertising years.

In my case, the art of making dumb ideas sound and look genius. It’s a lot easier making briefings fun when you don’t have to worry about your misinformation having good men killed.

About the modules, I got the harrier and the mirage, thanks to the input I got from you. Did my Razbam contribution, hoping Heatblur will be next. I’m interested in the Viggen, especially now that my country have 36 Grippens on the order, I’m curious to fly it, and I reckon the Russian planes are also a lot of fun, but I admit the language barrier still intimidates me. I know it’s a lot more muscle memory than reading, but still… I can see how, with some practice you get used to where everything is, but it do require some practice time.

That’s what’s hapening right now, I’m starting to get comfortable in the hornet’s Cockpit, all the switches actually meaning something. I can use most systems, and fly the thing around. It’s fun how I still fail some of the BFM Instant Action because knowing how to use the switches in the Hornet is nothing compared to actual skill and tactics. It’s being incredible actually starting to grasp the plane’s functionality and being able to focus on the next level of things. That is hopefully something I will be able to apply in other airframes.

Right now the new modules are waiting on the shelf though, really need to master the hornet (witch seems to me to be the easiest one I have) first. Can’t wait for some tactical missions to come. I think trial and error in those complete (from cold start to tactical to landing) missions from the F15’s campaigns were excruciating but were a great way to get the hang of it…

http://www.mudspike.com/chucks-guides-dcs-ajs-37-viggen/

Feel free to check out the others for the Mirage and Harrier as well in the DCS GUIDES section.

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I’m a happy costumer. Still devouring the F18 one, and with others already downloaded! :smiley:

The work is outstanding! Thank you so much!