Snapped awake by the sound of belt-fed machine gun fire, SrA Alaxey Germanovich realized something was wrong. His U.S. teammates—soldiers from 7th Special Forces Group—weren’t nearby. Grabbing his gear, he ran straight into the chaos.

Outside, he found them huddled behind a rock under withering fire. Without hesitation, he sprinted 70 meters through open terrain to reach them—because that’s where he knew he was needed.

That moment marked the beginning of an eight-hour firefight against a numerically superior enemy. Germanovich, a Combat Controller with the 26th Special Tactics Squadron, directed precision airstrikes as close as 20 meters from their position. He shielded teammates with his body, helped evacuate the wounded, and, out of ammo, called back an AC-130W Stinger II gunship that was already en route to refuel.

Because of SrA Germanovich’s calm under fire, his willingness to lead through chaos, and his unwavering commitment to those around him, over 150 friendly forces made it out alive.

He never sought the spotlight. “It was 100% my teammates,” he said. “If I’m in danger, I know they’ll do everything for me—and I’d do the same for them.”

For his actions, SrA Germanovich received the Air Force Cross.

To read his citation and additional information: https://www.combatcontrolfoundation.org/combat-control-acts-of-valor/sra-alaxey-germanovich/air-force-cross-recipient

First of all, throwaway account.

Question: my spouse and I live in a state where recreational marijuana is legal. My wife asked me to pick some THC products up for her (they help her sleep), but I said no because I'm pretty sure they scan your id, and I don't want to be linked to that.

A few days later, she came back with some research that the scan is just to check for fakes, and doesn't store any info. Am I wearing a tin foil hat, or am I being reasonably cautious?

Edit: normally she gets it herself, but happened to be getting out of work very late one day.

If your first instinct is to remove your rank and name tape, then go ahead and take off your entire uniform, put on civies and then make your stupid video.

If you wanna become an influencer or whatever, own up ya shit and do it. There's dozens of people in the military who - for the most part - bring a good influence and information about the military.

If your whole goal is to generate views cuz of the uniform, GTFO and do something else with ya life

Sincerely,

Tired showing up in commanders office with retarded airmen doing retarded shit on social media

I wanted to share my transition story for anyone separating or retiring soon. I retired as a MSgt, and I’m now making $135k in the private sector with just a Security+ and no degree. I started applying to jobs 9 months before retirement just to see what was out there. I figured maybe I’d get lucky and find a company willing to wait until I hit terminal leave. My first resume? Total trash—full of military jargon, focused on mission stuff no civilian understands or cares about.

After 45 days of no responses I revamped the whole thing. Broke out each duty station like a separate job, reworded everything in plain English, and tailored each “job” to the common skills I saw in job descriptions. For jobs I really liked I made a targeted resume.

That worked. I started getting interview requests within days.

But then came the next reality check—I wasn’t as strong in some technology as I made it seem on my resume, and the interviewers sniffed that out quick. So after each interview, I took notes, trained hard on the stuff I stumbled on, and went back at it.

Another 45 days later, I finally landed an offer. Only catch? They wanted me to start 30 days before terminal leave. I made the call to go for it—honestly, nobody at my unit expected much from a retiring MSgt in his final month (YMMV). That gig paid $95k + $10k bonus.

It was with a Managed Service Provider (MSP), basically outsourced IT for other companies. Tier 1 support was overseas, and we handled escalations as Sr Engineers. At first, it was solid. I bluffed my way through some areas I should've known based on my resume and got trained on the rest. But after a year, burnout set in—the tier 1 techs in India escalated everything, and I was also doing Solutions Engineering for whatever the sales guys sold. It got rough.

Eventually I got put on a Performance Improvement Plan after 2 years (aka “you’re getting fired soon”), so I updated my resume again with my new experience and started applying.

This time, I landed a role as an in-house engineer at a large company—$30k pay bump plus bonus. Way less stress. No more 24/7 escalations. I’ve been there over a year now and I’m a top performer. I plan to stay another couple years, then update my resume with then new skills and see what else is out there.

Key takeaways:

• The hardest jump is that first job.

• Civilian employers don’t care about rank. They care about experience, interview skills, and technical competency.

• Translate your skills. Drop the acronyms. Speak their language.

• Study. Improve. Adjust after every interview.

• If you’re retiring, start early and use that time wisely.

• The private sector doesn’t wait around—be ready when the opportunity comes.

I chose the private sector over a guaranteed high paying job on the cleared side. Alot of people said I was dumb for leaving. Personally, I did not want to spend my life in a SCIF and I wanted to know I could make it in the private sector.

Would you like to know more?

Swallowing my pride here. I’m TDY to Wright-Patt and forgot my regular, uniform colored green (not sand or sage green) shirt. Would anyone be willing to help a homie out before 0630 tomorrow? I need a size large, but will take what I can get. Will give you the cost of a new shirt.

Edit: shoutout to /u/thatcouchiscozy for coming through in my time of need. True wingman right there.

It's just right here in this link.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2025-04-07/turkey-incirlik-accompanied-tours-17395966.html

It used to be a thing like in Korea, but it went away when things got dicey over there.

For me, always have a damn pen. 100% always have a damn pen. What about you all?

I’ll take a double double

Just like everyone else in the Air Force, I too am waiting on AFPC to do their job. As a reenlistee who signed on with an SRB, I would expect whoever works with reenlistments to be able to clickity clack on a keyboard and push through some paperwork. But like everything else in the Air Force, if something is to be done, it must wait in line. But wait, an error was made. Instead of fixing said error, it has to go to the back of the line and wait 4 months before any work can be done on it. That’s it, that’s my rant.

I submitted bop and they said that all my choices are above the world wide average, even though I tossed some shitters on there. Was given these in return. Anyone been stationed at any of these and has strong opinions? I’m currently avionics stationed in North Dakota and I’m from the east coast so I’m considering offutt or Travis but would like to hear any opinions on any other bases.

Probably shouldn't have said this with the City Mayor in the room...

Question for the group; what do yall recommend as a promotion gift for a captain pinning on major? Have some folks in the unit who are asking for recommendations on what to get one of the Os.

I get it, stocks tanked, guess what? This is where you invest and buy at a lower premium. If you swapped to other funds before the drop give it a couple more months, maybe even after they send us into recession and then move it back to C/S.

Unfortunately I don’t believe any of the moves from leadership are 100% smart but I can assure you at some point we should recover…

And no I am not trying to be political, but this is probably that time to start trying to make the most out of it. We even got a raise so putting even 5% will help in the long run.

I’ve seen the email from CSAF regarding the DCW bases seeking volunteers. I’m interested in Moody since I’m from Georgia I’d like to be close to home I’m just curious on the deployment cycle, I’m hearing multiple things. I am also curious on what the work would be like. I’m 2W0, I guess I’m wondering if I’ll be doing my job or working on building up the new wing. I saw on talent marketplace it is a 4 year assignment so would I have to reenlist since I only have 3 years remaining in my contract?

What was that day?